The Space dashboard allows you to manage reservations and moderation settings of that particular Space. Any time you'd like to return to your Space or edit the Space in the Mapmaker, click the Enter space or Edit space buttons at the top of the window.
The Space dashboard.
You can find the Space dashboard in the following ways:
- Gather homepage (gather.town/app)
- Gather icon in the top left of your Space
- Settings in the Left Nav Menu
- User/Space Preferences
- Mapmaker
Gather Homepage
You can access your Gather homepage by either clicking the Launch Gather button from our main website (gather.town) or by going to https://gather.town/app. From your Gather homepage, you must first select your Space (the icon for the Space you select will be blue) then click Manage Space at the bottom of the screen. The Space dashboard opens.
From your personal Gather homepage, select the desired Space, then click Manage Space.
Gather Icon
While you are inside your Space, you can click the Gather icon in the upper left of your screen and select Upgrade Space or Manage Space. (Upgrade Space displays if your Space does not have an active reservation; Manage Space displays if your Space does have an active reservation.) The Space dashboard opens in a new window.
On the Left: For a Space without an active reservation, click the Gather icon and then click Upgrade Space. On the Right: For a Space with an active reservation, click the Gather icon and then click Manage Space.
Settings
While you are inside your Space, click Settings (the cog icon) in the Left Nav Menu. On the Space tab, click Advanced, then click Manage Space. The Space dashboard opens in a new window.
Click Settings in the Left Nav Menu. On the Space tab, click Advanced, then click Manage Space.
User/Space Preferences
While you are inside your Space, click your name in the Bottom Command Bar, then click User/Video Preferences. Click the Space tab, then click Advanced, followed by Manage Space (as seen in the screenshot above). The Space dashboard opens in a new window.
Click your name in the Bottom Command Bar, then click User/Video Preferences. Select the Space tab, click Advanced, then click Manage Space.
Mapmaker
While in the Mapmaker for your Space, click the hamburger menu in the top right corner of the window. Click Manage Space. The Space dashboard opens in a new window.
From the Mapmaker, click the hamburger menu icon. In the expanded menu, select Manage Space.
YouTube Tutorial
For a quick overview of the Space dashboard, check out our Dashboard Overview YouTube tutorial.
You've created a Space in Gather, and now you're ready to make a reservation--fantastic! You can easily set up and manage reservations for your Space using the Space dashboard. Note that you can make a reservation at any time prior to the start of your event and continue to edit your Space before, during, and after your reservation. For a quick overview of the dashboard features, watch our Creating and Editing Reservations YouTube tutorial. For step-by-step instructions, continue reading the article.
Create a Reservation
Head to your Space dashboard. The Reservations tab is usually active by default in the Left Navigation Menu of the dashboard. If it is not already selected, click Create Reservation.
Select a Reservation Type
We offer three different types of reservations to meet your needs. By creating a reservation, your Space moves onto our Premium servers while the reservation is active. You also have access to additional moderating features that are not available for Free Spaces. The only difference between the three types is purely how long you will need the increased capacity and/or premium features.
Note: To simplify pricing, we no longer have Town, City, and Metropolis tiers. Instead, your Space is either Free or Premium. You can review a comparison of the plans on gather.town/pricing!
- 2 hours ($2/user): Great for parties or meetups that are up to 2 hours long. Is your event longer than 2 hours? The Per Day plan is going to give you the best value.
- Per day ($3/user): Perfect for conferences, festivals, and longer running events. You can specific the date and time your reservation will start and end, and we guarantee to give you the best cost.
Note: If your event is >2 hours but ≤24 hours, you will be charged for one day. If your event is longer than 24-48 hours, you will be charged for two days. Events longer than 48 hours automatically receive the monthly subscription discount.
- Monthly ($7/user): Ideal for remote offices, classrooms, gaming communities, and more. Your subscription auto-renews every 30 days (beginning from your selected start date).
Calculate Cost
After you click Select on your desired reservation plan, the cost calculator opens and dynamically totals your cost based on your Space capacity and Start/End dates and times. It will also automatically reflect discounts and any cost savings we auto-apply.
- Space capacity: The maximum number of concurrent users in your Space at a given time. Calculate by estimating how many people will be visiting the Space at the same time.
- Time zone: Defaults to your computer's time zone. Select a different option if you're planning an event outside your time zone.
- Start: Select the date and time for your event to begin.
Warning: You must click on the day in the calendar to select the date. You cannot choose a start time in the past. If you enter the current time, the Space will not become active for at least 15 minutes.
- End: Select the date and time for your event to end.
Note: If you select the 2-hour or Monthly reservation option, you do not select an End date and time.
- Discount code: Toggle the option on and enter a discount code, if applicable. Click Apply.
- Dynamic calculation: Displays the (reservation type) x (Space capacity) x (reservation length).
- Monthly Price Guarantee: If applicable, this displays the amount you save when we auto-apply the best price for you.
- Discount Code: If applicable, this displays the type of discount code and the amount the discount saves you.
- Total: Total amount owed in U.S. dollars.
- Pay by invoice: Select to receive an invoice. The invoice must be paid prior to the reservation start time.
Enter your reservation details. The dynamic cost calculator provides a total based on the type of reservation, number of attendees, length of the reservation, and any price guarantees or discounts.
When you have entered your information, click Continue. You will be directed to either make a payment either via credit card or an invoice.
Make a Payment
There are two main methods to pay for your reservation: by credit card or by invoice. We use Stripe to manage all payments and refunds. Stripe stores your payment and billing information. Gather only stores information about the reservation details, such as the Space capacity, Start/End time, and whether the reservation has been paid.
Credit Card
After you click Continue in the Calculate Cost window, the Payment Information window displays. Enter all your billing information, including your credit card details and your billing address. You may enter your Tax ID, if desired. Select the purpose for your reservation, which helps us understand how you use Gather.
To pay immediately, provide your credit card information and billing address.
When you have completed all required fields, click Continue.
Review Terms
Read the terms and select the checkboxes to confirm you understand the terms and conditions of Gather and of your reservation. Review your reservation information to confirm that all details are correct. If you need to make any changes, click Back. To proceed with the reservation, click the Pay button.
Review the terms and conditions and the details of your reservation. When you are satisfied, click the Pay button.
A success message will briefly display in the top right corner of the window. Your new reservation now displays in the Active & Upcoming tab of Reservations.
Invoice via Stripe
From the Calculate Cost window, you can select to Pay by Invoice.
When making your reservation, you can select Pay by invoice to make your payment at a later date.
Click Continue. In the Pay by Invoice window, enter event information, the billing address, Purchase Order Number or Tax ID, if applicable, and the email address to receive the invoice. Select the purpose for your reservation, which helps us understand how you use Gather.
Provide the details of your event and the billing and contact information for the invoice.
When all required fields are complete, click Get Invoice.
Review Terms
Read the terms and select the checkboxes to confirm you understand the terms and conditions of Gather and of your reservation. Review your reservation information to confirm that all details are correct. If you need to make any changes, click Back. To proceed with the reservation, click the Pay button to generate your invoice.
A success message will briefly display in the top right corner of the window. Your new reservation now displays in the Pending tab of Reservations. You will receive your invoice at the email address specified in the invoice details. When you are ready to pay, you can do so through your email invoice, or by going to the Pending reservations tab and clicking Pay Now. A Stripe window will open, providing you payment options.
Alert: Invoices must be paid in full and in advance of your Gather reservation; otherwise your event will not become active
Best Practices
- Finalize your reservation at least 30 minutes before the start of your event. (It takes approximately 15 minutes for updates to carry down to our servers.)
- Estimate on the lower side for your Space capacity. You can always increase the capacity during the event.
A Space's capacity is the maximum number of concurrent participates online at any given time. When you make a reservation, you enter your desired Space capacity, which is your estimate of how many people will be in your Space at the same time.
Think of it as making a reservation at a restaurant. You need to let them know how many people you expect ahead of time to make sure there is enough room for all of your guests. You can always increase the number of chairs or add tables while you're at the restaurant, but it may take some time. Because the restaurant had to set aside the space in advance, you can't decide to use a smaller space in the middle of your reservation. However, you can absolutely change your reservation to a smaller space before your event starts.
Free to Premium
If you are in a Free Space, your capacity is automatically set to 25. Your Space lives on our Free servers.
When you make a reservation, your Space's capacity will remain at 25 on the Free server until the reservation starts. Then, about 15 minutes prior to your reservation's Start time, your Space moves to our Premium servers, and your Space's capacity changes to match your reservation.
About 15 minutes after your reservation's End time, your Space's capacity returns to 25 when it returns to our Free servers. If users are still in the Space when it is transitioning back to our Free servers, they may be briefly disconnected. Have guests refresh their browsers if necessary. Remember, now that you're back on the Free servers, your Space can't handle more than 25 guests at a time.
Capacity Limit
If you exceed your Space capacity, your guests will experience either or both of the following things:
- The performance in your Space may start to degrade depending on a variety of factors including overall site traffic, individual machine performance, number of active conversations in your Space, etc. Performance degradation may look like lag and connection issues.
- New guests will see a Space Capacity Limit message and will not be able to join the Space.
Returning to the idea of a dinner reservation, if you’ve made a reservation for 50 people and 55 show up, you can still pull up a few chairs and there isn’t much disruption. However, if 75 people show up, there just isn’t room to accommodate them; you’d have to send them to another table or area.
Similarly, Gather provides a small buffer to accommodate a few extra attendees beyond your Space capacity. However, if you have a great deal more guests than you expected, you'll need to increase your Space capacity in your reservation. There is not a specific size for this buffer. Once your reserved server space is overloaded, new guests will see the Space Capacity Limit message and will not be able to join until others leave.
Custom Capacity Limit Text
In your Space dashboard, you can add custom text to the Capacity Limit message. To set the custom text, go to your Space dashboard. Click Space Access in the Left Nav Menu. In the Capacity Limit section, toggle on the Customize Warning Screen Text option. Enter your custom text (limit 250 characters). We suggest providing info like who to contact or a link to an alternate Space to visit.
Open your Space dashboard, click Space Access, and under Capacity Limit, add custom text to display to new guests if your Space Capacity limit is exceeded.
New guests who arrive in your Space after its Space capacity has been reached will see the following message: "This Space is at full capacity. This Space reached maximum number of users allowed to enter. Go back."
In the screenshot below, the left message is the default text. On the right, you see where your custom text message displays if you choose to Customize Warning Screen Text.
Users who attempt to join your Space when it has exceeded its Space capacity will see this this message. You can customize the text, as seen in the message on the right.
Info: You can increase your Space capacity during your event or subscription if you exceed your limit.
There are two ways you can provide access to your Space for a month or more: using the Per day plan or the Monthly plan.
Per Day
If you'd like to set a specific Start and End date and time, select the Per day reservation. The Per day option is also a good option if you don't want to be charged monthly for an automatic renewal.
Note: You will need to pay upfront for multi-month reservations using this method. If you prefer to be billed monthly, see below for the monthly plan and remember to cancel before your renewal date.
Open your Space dashboard. By default, Reservations is selected and Create Reservation displays. Under Per day, click Select. The Calculate Cost window opens. Enter your Space capacity and select the specific Start and End date and times. You will see a Monthly Price Guarantee discount applied to your total. Click Continue to proceed with this reservation option. To return to the reservation options, click Cancel.
Open your Space dashboard. In Reservations, click Create Reservation. Then click Select under the Per Day option.
Monthly
If you'd like to set a no-hassle monthly subscription that auto-renews and bills you monthly, use the Monthly reservation.
Open your Space dashboard. By default, Reservations is selected and Create Reservation displays. Under Monthly, click Select. The Calculate Cost window opens. Enter your Space capacity and select the specific Start and End date and times. Click Continue to proceed with this reservation option. To return to the reservation options, click Cancel.
Note: Your Monthly reservation is auto-renewed every 30 days according to the Start date selected. If you cancel, you will still have access to all subscription features until the end of your current subscription period.
Need to change your reservation details before your event? No problem! Have to cancel a reservation? Well, we're bummed, but we can help you with that, too. This article covers how and when you can edit or cancel reservations in your Space dashboard.
Manage Reservations
You can manage your reservations by opening your Space dashboard. In Reservations, click the Active & Upcoming or Pending tab to find the reservation you wish to edit. Click Manage on the reservation to be modified.
In the Space dashboard in the Reservations, click Manage to edit an Active, Upcoming, or Pending reservation.
Note: What you can change and when varies a bit depending on the status of the reservation: Active, Upcoming, or Pending.
At this time, you cannot edit or update subscriptions, only cancel and rebook.
Active Reservations
✔ You can increase the Space capacity on any Active reservation.
If you increase your Space capacity, you will be charged the difference for the new total cost.
When you increase your Space capacity in an Active reservation, you are charged the difference for the new total.
✖ You cannot decrease your Space capacity for an Active reservation.
✖ You cannot change any Active reservation's Start/End date or time.
✖ You cannot cancel an Active reservation.
Upcoming Reservations
✔ You can change the Space capacity on a 2-hr or Per day Upcoming reservation. If you increase your Space capacity, you will be fully refunded for the original reservation, and charged for the new reservation.
You can increase your Space capacity in your Upcoming 2-Hr or Per day reservations. You will be refunded for the original reservation, and charged for the updated reservation.
If you decrease your Space capacity, you will be refunded the difference.
✔ You can change the Start/End date or time on a 2-hr or Per day Upcoming reservation, and we will automatically apply a discount if your new time would be cheaper on a different plan.
✖ You cannot edit a Monthly Upcoming reservation; you can only cancel it, then create a new reservation.
✔ You can cancel any 2-hr, Per day, or Monthly Upcoming reservation. You will be fully refunded for any 2-hr or Per day Upcoming plan, and your Monthly Upcoming plan will be canceled prior to the first charge.
If you cancel an Upcoming 2-hr or Per day reservation, you will be fully refunded.
Pending Reservations
When you create an invoice for an event, it will appear under your pending reservations until the invoice is paid. Once you pay the invoice, it will appear under your "Active and Upcoming" reservations tab.
✖ You cannot edit a 2-hr, Per day, or Monthly Pending reservation. You must cancel it and create a new reservation for any changes.
Learn about what features you can turn on and off to help moderate your Spaces in the Moderator Settings page in our Privacy, Security, and Terms of Use documentation.
By default, anyone with the URL to your Space can access your Space. We automatically generate Spaces using a random string significant enough to prevent access through random guessing; however, the more widely distributed your link is, the higher the possibility you may encounter unwelcome guests.
To find out more about how to protect your Space, check out our full article on Space Access Permissions.
If you have created a Space you no longer want, you can temporarily disable it or permanently delete it. First, open the Space dashboard. In the Left Nav Menu, select Shut Down or Delete.
Open your Space dashboard and click Shut Down or Delete in the Left Nav Menu. Select whether to Shut Down or Delete Space.
Shut Down
If you'd like to temporarily prevent anyone from accessing your Space, click Shut Down. If a person visits that Space, they can still select an avatar, but cannot enter the Space. To re-enable the Space, return to the Space dashboard and select Re-Open.
Delete Space
If you'd like to permanently remove your Space, click Delete Space. A warning pop-up displays. Select Delete this space to proceed.
After clicking Delete Space, confirm your decision by clicking Delete this space.
Warning: If you have made a Space without creating an account or logging in, your Space will remain unclaimed / anonymous. Without an account, you may lose your Space if you clear your browser cache.