About WHERE
Six people agree they should do something. Nobody picks a day. Three weeks later nothing has happened. WHERE exists to close that gap.
How it works
One person sets up a plan, it takes about thirty seconds, because everything is already filled in. They get a link. Everyone else opens it, types a first name, taps the times they can make, and claims what they’re bringing.
No app. No sign-up. No password. The only thing anyone is ever asked for is a first name, and it is shown only to the people on that plan. Voting closes at a deadline the organizer sets, and whatever is ahead wins, so nobody has to chase anybody, which is the actual reason plans die.
The money question
Planning is free. Not free-for-now, free-until-we-raise, or free-with-a-limit. A cookout at someone’s house has no bill to take a cut of, and pretending otherwise would be a strange way to run this.
We never take a commission. On anything. Ever. Not on a restaurant booking, not on a venue rental, not on a ticket. The price you see on a venue is that venue’s own price, and every dollar of it goes to them.
Venues can list themselves free and see exactly how many people we sent them. After launch there’s a $15-a-month plan for venues that want to answer group requests. If the number isn’t worth it, they shouldn’t pay us, which is why we show them the number first.
The venue side →Why the prices are the point
Most people underestimate what a get-together costs, and whoever bought the food quietly eats the difference. So every figure on this site carries a source: green means an official government average (the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the month) or a price read off the place’s own page; grey means it’s our estimate and you should correct it if you know better.
The tip and the tax are the lines nobody accounts for. A dinner that “costs $22” is closer to $30 once Indiana’s 7% sales tax and a 20% tip are on it, and a state park day has a gate fee per car, not per person. WHERE puts those in by default.
See it work →What it can’t do yet
- WHERE is new to Indiana. Every county has at least one real place, but outside Indianapolis and the bigger cities that is often one or two, and most small towns show the nearest places rather than their own. Restaurants and bars appear only when they list themselves.
- Nobody gets an unprompted message. Plans settle themselves at the deadline, and whoever made the plan gets a one-tap nudge to send into their own group text, but WHERE never texts anyone. Sending texts ourselves costs money per message, and we’d rather not build a bill we can’t pay.
- Venue sign-in needs email, and WHERE can’t send email yet, so a venue can’t claim its page or answer a group request on the live site until that’s wired in.
- There’s no way to pay yet. Places claimed before November 1, 2026 stay free forever.
- Standing offers for venues’ quiet nights aren’t built.
- Grocery and gas prices are official averages, not what your nearest store or pump charges. Charcoal, ice, soda and paper plates have no official average, so they sit on the bring list unpriced until we’ve checked a real shelf.
- Tickets, courts, tips and restaurant prices are our estimates, not rate cards. Tap any of them to correct it.
- Some admission prices aren’t printed: places that price by date, or only inside a ticketing system, say “check the current price” instead. A wrong number is worse than none.
- Opening hours are shown for about two in three places, copied from each operator’s own page on 29 September 2026. Hours change, so check before a long drive.
- About a quarter of places have no exact map pin yet, because the operator gives no street address or the Census geocoder couldn’t place it. “Near me” lists those last rather than guessing.
- Driving miles on a plan are our estimate: straight-line distance from the middle of your town, plus a quarter for the roads. Not a route.
- Game days cover the Colts, the Pacers, IU, Purdue and Notre Dame, from each team’s own schedule; the Fever are off-season. Events are about 100: 21 local events, 69 concerts from venues’ own calendars and IHSAA state finals, each from the organizer’s own page. Many big ones (Winterlights, Conner Prairie’s holiday nights, Fort Wayne’s Night of Lights, the Murat and Egyptian Room shows) aren’t listed because we couldn’t read this year’s dates on their own pages yet. Photos after the event are built but only tested on a laptop so far; they need hosting with a persistent disk to be kept.
- High school sports are the IHSAA state finals only. Your own school’s games aren’t listed: use “School game” and type in the time. Restaurants appear only when they list themselves, so “Out for dinner” doesn’t name one.
- “With kids” and “High school” picks are ours, by type of place (a zoo, a trampoline park, a movie theater), not something the place told us. Movie times aren’t listed, and the big chains’ own pages (AMC, Regal) couldn’t be read, so they aren’t in the directory yet.
Something wrong, or an idea?
Especially a price that’s out, that’s the thing we most want to hear about. This is a form, not an email address: it goes to the person who runs WHERE, and nowhere else.