RSVP is wrong

Anyone who has sent out an invitation knows the pain. You are trying to get a headcount for food and need to know how many people are coming.

You sent the RSVPs to dozens of people and two responded in the correct manner, namely letting you know they can or cannot make it. That’s the definition of RVSP.

However, the other 95% don’t use it that way, and never will.

We can keep insisting that people use it correctly, or we can accept that it’s the worst possible name invented for a simple question: Are you able to make it?

Here then is my proposal. Stop using RVSP. Let’s drop it from our vocabulary entirely and let it sleep the long slumber of fax machines and VCRs.

Let’s just ask people if they can make it and move on.