LondonFurs is introducing a Telegram bot to assist with reserving space in the Artist’s Alley at our meets and parties. This guide is an overview of how to use it, and what it does.

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You can find the bot here: https://t.me/LFBookingBot (or @LFBookingBot).

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What’s the point?

Originally, our Artist’s Alley area of the meet was intended to be a quiet space for artists, writers and other creatives to sit down and chill with each other. People would bring their tablets, sketchbooks and laptops and sit around. But, as our Summer and Winter parties got bigger, this space evolved into the same creatives using the Alley as a way to sell their work to others.

This turned out to be a pretty popular aspect of parties, and this quickly grew into becoming a regular feature at the normal gatherings every three weeks. The growth in this area became a problem — there isn’t enough space to house all the creatives who want to use it.

In short, a list of problems that came up:

• Creators would have to show up with all their stuff without a guarantee of being able to get a table.
• Creators travelling long distances — even internationally — to take advantage of the space could be disappointed on the day.
• Creators might want a specific table, due to space requirements, and may not be able to do so.
• A mad dash at the start of the day would be necessary to try and grab a space.
• New creators would not be able to take advantage of the space fairly.

After discussing the Artist Alley’s community woes, it was decided to try and sort all this out. We needed a system that made all the rushing around unnecessary, removes most of the uncertainty, and makes it fair to all creators.

In comes the LondonFurs Booking Telegram bot — an automated system that allows creators to book a space at upcoming events, giving them assurance that they have somewhere to set up. Even if they are unable to book a space, at least they know that to be the case.

Getting Started

To get started, simply open a chat with the bot (@LFBookingBot) and issue the /start command.

There are several commands that you can use, and you see all of these using the /help command, or using the menu next to the text entry box in the Telegram app.

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Lots of prompts by the bot use inline buttons to speed up when it asks you questions. Simply tap or click on a button to submit the response.

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How to Book

To reserve a seat in an event, issue the /book command. Follow the on-screen prompts.