Not only do I host a lot of group videos, but I get invited to a lot of group videos. And I find that a lot of people go about organizing them in very inefficient ways.

I can't blame the host. I have been doing group videos for so long that I have it down to a science. So, I figured I'd share my knowledge, because joining a big video with avoidable issues always hurts.

Don't do the whole vote-on-a-time shenanigans.

Just pick a good time you're available and invite people with that. It's just quicker and simpler than inviting a bunch of people arbitrarily and trying to get them to vote on a day and time.

Don't make me have to fill out a When2meet¹ form or vote on which times work for me. Just give me a time, and if it's good, I'll come.

Use this timestamp converter to convert times into markdown text that displays times in the user's local timezone. This will eliminate all confusion regarding timezones and daylight savings.

Don't invite people to a Discord server.

Make a group chat instead. I've found for some people, it can be hard to get them in a server due to server limits and people just not wanting to join your server. It's just much quicker to invite someone to a group chat.

• When I invite people to a group chat, I remind them to set it to @mentions only via the mobile app. If they forget, they may end up muting the whole chat, as that is the only option on PC. Since you will want to notify participants with @everyone pings, make sure nobody mutes the whole chat.
• Pin important information and remind people to check it when you invite them to the group chat.
• If you have to invite them to a Discord server, due to needing to fit more than 10 people or access multiple voice calls, have a singular recording server that you use so you don't need to invite past participants to a new server every time. That being said, don't force people to stay!

Invite more people than you need or have backups ready.

There will always be no-shows. I typically invite more people than I need per video so that, in the worst case scenario, I still have enough people to film the video.

For videos where I need an exact number of people, I'll invite a few others as backups.

Plan for setup time.

A lot of people think they can just press start recording the instant everyone arrives. But that is not true. You will need time to set things up.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Doing test recordings (and fixing recording settings)
• Enable certain Globed settings
• Testing mics
• Downloading/fixing mods

If you can, try and get people to do this before the meet time. But chances are, not everybody will, so plan ahead and include time to set things up.

I typically dedicate at least half an hour before we even press record to fix mods, set Globed settings, test mics, test record, and explain the rules. For bigger videos, we will sometimes spend more than an hour doing this.

That being said, try and do this as efficiently as possible. Otherwise, people will lose interest. Make a test level for people to test their mics on Globed, plan ahead for issues that might occur with mods so you can fix any issues quickly, etc.

And, most importantly: only start doing any of this once everyone arrives. Otherwise, you will have to do everything TWICE. It may seem like doing all this for people currently there is efficient, but it is not, because you will have to do it all again for anyone else who arrives.

I absolutely hate joining videos where the host did not plan for setup time, so all of these tasks are done horribly inefficiently.

Expect things to go wrong.

Especially when you're doing an idea for the first time, the recording will be "scuffed." This is especially common for original, complicated ideas...but that is okay! Some scuffiness is required to push the limits of Geometry Dash content.

I've found that just because a recording was scuffed does not mean the video will feel scuffed. That's why I'm fine hosting a video that is scuffed. It can be fixed in the edit.

It is probably a good idea to let your participants know this, so they don't become unmotivated when they notice a little bit of scuffiness.

What is important is to do as much planning as you can and try not to change things once you start. But of course, when doing original, never-before-done ideas, this will only help to an extent. Just try your best.

You don't need popular people to do a group video.

Before I was popular, I just invited my friends. You can still make a viral video without famous YouTubers in your video.

¹When2meet is an awesome free tool, and I commend those behind it for releasing this for free. But it should not be used for organizing group videos, as it is very inefficient compared to just choosing a time and using that, as noted earlier.