Host admin guide

How to run an event application cycle as the host: publish the event, review applications, approve the roster, and stage into Sin the Bottle for the night. Pair with the night-of host guide on sinthebottle.com.

Your job in one paragraph

You create the event, review applications as they come in, approve the people you want to attend, and when the roster is close to final you stage the event into Sin the Bottle. The host (often you) then prints cards and runs the night. You can keep approving late applicants; they auto-sync to the staged game.

Lifecycle

1. Create the event

Admin → New event. Required: name, start date, capacity, description. Optional but useful: host name (goes on the printed cards as the event host), location (city, venue name).

Status: draft while you're drafting, open once you want applications to come in, closed when you've stopped accepting. Change the status at any time.

2. Publish and wait for applications

Applicants see the event on apply.sinthebottle.com once status is open. You get an email when each application lands. Every applicant also gets a confirmation email with a link to edit their details (name, pronouns, bio, intentions) until you review.

3. Review

Open the event admin page. Applications group by status (pending / approved / waitlisted / declined / all).

What to look for in a pending application:

Age. The form requires a date of birth and an 18+ acknowledgement. Spot-check: the applicant's date of birth + the 18+ ack are both visible on the review card. If the DOB is blank, missing, or inconsistent with the rest of the profile, decline.
Fetlife check. Click the fetlife username, it opens their profile. Look for activity consistent with their stated experience level.
Connections. If they list other applicants or past attendees, those are social references. The awareness-ack tickbox means the applicant confirms the listed person knows they're being named.
Consent quiz answer. The question is "if the app pairs you for an activity and you change your mind, does that mean you have to do it?". The correct answer is no / depends. A yes is a red flag.
Bio and intentions. Vibe check. Specific, considerate, clearly adult = good. Vague, aggressive, or escalating quickly = caution.
Reading ack + traffic light ack. Applicants confirm they've read the community standards and understand the traffic light. If either is false, that's a form bug; refresh and check.

Actions per application:

Approve if you want them at the event.
Waitlist if they're a maybe, or if you're at capacity but would take them if someone dropped.
Decline if they're not a fit. The default email is warm (says they're welcome to apply to future events). If you want a stronger outcome, write a note in the reviewer note field - it gets sent with the status email.

Bulk actions: tick the checkboxes at the top of the list or on individual cards, then use the Approve/Waitlist/Decline bulk buttons that appear. Max 100 per batch.

4. Stage

Once your approved list is close to final, click Stage in Sin the Bottle in the Sin the Bottle game section on the event admin page. Choose a bottle count (1-8) - this is how many concurrent pairs the host can run per round. See the host guide for rule-of-thumb counts.

Staging creates a game over on sinthebottle.com with a pending slot for every approved applicant. You can stage at any time; late approvals after staging auto-sync to the game.

5. Email join links (after the host prints cards)

Once the host (often you) has printed cards and each slot has a number, click Email join links in the same Sin the Bottle game section. Each approved applicant gets a personalised email with their /j/<token> URL. They open it on their phone either at home or at the door; it binds their phone to their slot.

Two variants: "unclaimed only" skips anyone who has already opened their link (useful for resending to stragglers after a first round), "everyone approved" re-emails all of them (useful for a night-before reminder that doubles as link redelivery).

The physical name card is a badge for visual identification in the room. The email link is how attendees actually get into the app.

6. Hand off

On the night, whoever is hosting opens sinthebottle.com logged in with the same Lotl Auth account that created the event. They see the staged game under "Staged events", click through, and run it from there.

The event admin page continues to show the staged game code and a live summary (pending / printed / claimed / revoked counts) so you can monitor progress.

After staging

Approving more applicants auto-creates pending slots on the game side. Print when ready.
Declining someone you previously approved auto-revokes their slot. Their number stays parked.
Changing their details via apply admin doesn't currently update their slot - name changes made post-staging need to be done on the host side (via Edit name/pronouns/intentions in the roster).

Editing the event

Edit name, start time, description, host, location at any time from the event edit page. Changing these doesn't re-notify applicants (add your own email if you need to broadcast changes).

Privacy

Applicant data (bio, intentions, connections) is visible only to event hosts/co-hosts and to the applicant themselves (via the edit link).
Declined applications are automatically deleted 90 days after the decline. Approved and waitlisted applications are retained as event records until the applicant requests deletion via their edit link.
The moderator escalation email (for safety incidents) is not exposed to applicants in any response or email.

At the door (host reminder)

Check photo ID for anyone who looks under 25. Australian standard practice. If they don't have ID or their ID does not show they are 18 or older, do not admit them. This protects the applicant, the attendees, and you personally. Record the check in your own notes - the app does not store ID details, only the self-declared date of birth captured at application time.

Red flags to watch for

When in doubt, decline. You're the gatekeeper. Applicants who look iffy are declined with a default warm message; they can apply again. The cost of declining an edge case is low; the cost of a bad-fit attendee is high.

Answered "yes" to the consent quiz question.
Bio escalates directly to sex acts without signalling care about consent or safety.
Empty connections + stated high experience level + vague bio. Someone experienced should be able to name at least one person in the community.
Fetlife profile is less than a week old (fresh accounts).
Applicant contradicts themselves between the form and their Fetlife profile.

Questions applicants ask, and what to say

"What should I bring?" → Phone (charged). They should open the personal link they'll receive by email before arriving, and the host will hand them a physical name card at the door for visual identification.
"Do I need to know anyone there?" → No. The consent flow means you only get paired with people you've both said yes to; you can attend as a complete newcomer.
"What if I don't want to do anything?" → Fine. Don't set any consent flags; you'll only appear in speed rounds (pure conversation). Plenty of people come to observe.
"Can I apply with a partner?" → Each person submits their own application; list each other as connections with awareness ack.
"When do I hear back?" → Usually a few days. If you haven't heard by a week before the event, reply to the confirmation email.