COLUMBUS, OH — A group chat of seven friends confirmed Tuesday that plans for a Saturday dinner have been “basically finalized” since October 2019, pending a single reply from the one member who reacted to the original proposal with a thumbs-up emoji and has not been heard from since.

The chat, titled “Dinner??” and later renamed “Dinner (FINAL),” has logged 14,212 messages, of which participants estimate 90 percent are variations of “So are we doing this?”

“We have a time, a place, and a consensus,” said Dana Kowalczyk, 34, who proposed the dinner. “All we need is for Brent to say whether the thumbs-up means ‘yes,’ ‘I saw this,’ or ‘I am a man who responds to things with a thumbs-up.’ Until then, we can’t book anything.”

Brent Halloran, 35, the chat’s eighth member, confirmed through a mutual acquaintance that he is “totally in” and “has been the whole time,” but declined to say so in the chat itself. He added that he has never been sure whether it is his turn.

Experts say the standoff is a textbook case of what they call “Schrödinger’s RSVP.”

“A thumbs-up occupies a quantum state in which the recipient is simultaneously attending and not attending until observed by a follow-up text,” said Dr. Marguerite Opalberry, senior fellow in Asynchronous Commitment Studies at the Midwestern Institute for Vaguely Confirmed Gatherings. “The group is reluctant to collapse that wave function by asking directly. Asking directly would be rude.”

According to Opalberry, roughly 40 percent of the nation’s group chats currently contain at least one plan that is “locked in” but has no date, location, or living attendee who remembers proposing it.

“We have a time, a place, and a consensus. All we need is for Brent to say whether the thumbs-up means ‘yes.’”

Attempts to resolve the matter have repeatedly stalled. In 2021, a member proposed a poll, which received four votes for “Saturday,” three for “Sunday,” and one for “I’ll let you know.” In 2022, a friend typed “Hey, circling back on this!” and then left the chat for eleven months. In 2023, someone suggested “just picking a day,” a message that was met with seven heart reactions and no further action.

The restaurant, a Thai place that has since closed and been replaced by a different Thai place, has not been informed of the plans.

Pressed on whether the group might simply go without Brent, members expressed discomfort with the idea.

“We don’t want him to feel left out,” said Priya Venkataraghavan, 33. “Also, what if he’d been planning to say something? He could still be typing.”

Indeed, the chat’s “Brent is typing…” indicator briefly appeared on March 3, prompting an hour of silence in which all seven members stared at their screens. It disappeared without a message. Participants described the moment as “the closest we’ve come.”

At press time, Kowalczyk had sent a new message reading “Okay so Saturday works for everyone?” which received six thumbs-up emojis and one “lol” from a member who has since been asked to clarify.