In the past six weeks, I’ve asked a couple people to not send the invites out to a public email distribution lists. They are of course welcome to continue to invite their friends, coworkers, acquaintances, etc.

There are two reasons why I’d like to keep the list off mass distribution lists:

1) Seattle Anti-Freeze is about you inviting your friends, acquaintances, people you just met once, etc out. When you walk into a party, you know that nearly everyone is somehow connected through a chain of friends. That connection is pretty powerful in my mind, but is weakened when it starts going out to mass email lists.

2) Balanced Gender Ratio: The couples lists who were receiving the invite were predominately one gender (some mostly male, some mostly female). We’re trying to preserve a balance ratio, and the vast majority of people are very supportive of this. One of the most common complaints I’ve heard from both guys and girls about bars / events in Seattle is that the gender ratio is always tilted too far one way or that other. We don’t want to be another one with too many guys / girls (I’ve seen it both ways). That’s why a balanced ratio is such a priority to us.

There are other people out there who are organizing events with just the opposite in mind – they don’t care about the “friends of friends of friends” connection, nor do they take active steps to ensure a balanced gender ratio. That’s awesome – it really is. There’s a place for that sort of thing, just as there’s a place for this. We’re both trying to fight the “Seattle Freeze”, we’re just attacking it from a different angle.

To answer the second person: events with an even ratio are more fun (as you seem to understand). So it’s a question of choosing between:
1) Events which are more fun, but exclude a few guys.
2) Less fun events, that everyone can go to… but a lot of people don’t want to (because of a bad ratio).

As for guys who don’t know girls here because they’re new: there are lots of was to meet girls. Go to a bar, get a girl to come with you. I have friends who have done just that – works like a charm .

I know less than half a dozen people in the region, only one who would be interested in going to something like this, and that’s a he who is also new to the region.

There’s something ironic about anti-freeze events freezing out guys who don’t know anyone. I understand the motivation, but it’s still busted.