Feature: allow people to indicate availability when responding to hangout invite

[RuubixO]

Feature:

A way for interested viewers and organizers of CodeBuddies Hangouts to communicate and adapt to availabilities and time zones.

What is the current behavior?

Currently, I have to go to announcements after finding out in a subchannel on slack that there is a new hangout that might interest me. When I click the link, I get a lot of good information about the event, but no way to show my interest and what times I can see it, so that the organizer can more effectively plan for coworking, etc. It's frustrating on both ends, because I might already be coordinating with someone, and I have to go back and forth between the website and slack to schedule with someone directly. Doodle is nice, but that's yet another app I have to add to the stack.

What is the expected behavior?

I want something like doodle.com, integrated into CodeBuddies.

Say I found a hangout I want to join next week, but I know it's probably on the West coast, and later in the evening is rough for me with a East code time and a very early day job. It would be nice for me to RSVP myself, add in my timezone (or to auto-grab this from my profile?). And then have a way to select days I would want to join, and a slider for each day that can let me choose a time range for myself. Afterwards, my contact info from my CodeBuddies account auto-populates 'contact me' fields, which I can then select by check boxes so I only send the preferred contact methods to the organizer.

For the organizer, I want them to see a graph that shows suggested times and days that might best fit for everyone. I'd like a way to send personal and/or mass messages to everyone. I'd like to adjust the event time as I go, so I can stay flexible with interested viewers.

Which browser / OS are affected by this issue? (An isolated way to reproduce the bug)

I use both chrome and firefox on linux, with the latest available versions through the normal distro packaging on Fedora 29.

[railsstudent]

Just my 5 cents.

In study group of codebuddies website, there is availability tab for member to input their free time and see the schedule of other group members.
Can hangout owner consult this page and decide the optimal time hold a hangout where max number of people can join?

[RuubixO]

@railsstudent That's a good point, but I don't think someone should HAVE to be a part of a group in order for this functionality to work. From the reverse perspective: organizing hangouts could help to define and encourage more active (group) membership participation.