Slashdot Readers Visit Meatspace

Several readers sent in notes about their Slashdot Meetup experiences; we'll start with tuxedo-steve 's report from Melbourne: "Just a quick wrapup from the Melbourne, Australia /. Meetup. We ran into problems due to the assigned meeting place being closed at the scheduled meetup time, but ended up getting a fair few people (20-30 probably) herded up before moving to a bar that would provide us with service. A good night ensued, fueled by tech-related conversation and a fair amount of beer for those so inclined. For those yet to have their meetup, be sure your meeting place is going to be open!" Below are a few more local reports -- feel free to add yours in the comments.

Nest, jmccay writes: "The New Hampshire meetup was great. We didn't have a host, but somebody reserved a table. I think it was the meetup people. We talked geeky stuff (and complained about the new word based karma system). We had the hardware comparison (and one-up contest for a couple of people). All in all I enjoyed it and I am looking forward to next time. I hope more people show up next time (only 5 out of 24 showed up this time {I just checked}). I think voting begins Saturday for the next meetup place!"

MattyBoy.bigBalls() writes: "So the first Slashdot Meet Up is done in Toronto. Lets see ... I got pretty blasted ... talked about programming/video games/movies/science ... basically everything on slashdot ... someone asked me my user name and I had the pleasure of responding MattyBoy.bigBalls() hahahaha ... I met some girl who's into skateboarding/linux/punk rock and slashdot.. that's just odd And since im in Toronto on the subway ride home I had a conversion with some world youth day kid about god.. yikes ... thats scary when I'm wasted ... Rock OUT!"

InfinityWpi writes: "Just a quick reporting-in on the Slashdot Meetup Day in Fargo, North Dakota. We had 11 names on the Meetup list, four people RSVP... and three show up, one of whom hadn't RSVP'd. Still, the meeting went on until almost ten."

Finally, mmarlett writes: "The Wichita, Kan. Slashdot meetup just wrapped up. It was a tight, eight-person group. There were some interesting facts, though:

• Most of us sustained some sort of heavy electrical shock as children, either by inserting metallic things into outlets or cutting hot wires. Monitor coils were also popular.
• No one brought a digital camera, but everyone said they'd bring one next time.
• None of us could remember anyone's name. Once we paid the tab and removed the nametags, it was a lot of "what was your name, again?"

We had a great time and talked about everything from the Soviet Union's introduction to newsgroups (Dennis, a.k.a. wetcat, was there) to problems with Linux installs to antiquated hardware installs. I took down the sign I made ("Know who CmdrTaco is? [slashdot logo] Who are you?") around 7:30 when it seemed like everyone was there and people at other tables started staring."

Comments

First post for CLIT!

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad I forgot to log in, though.

First post!

[Anonymous Coward]

The new moderation system sucks. Mod points are being wasted, and the crapflooding goes on!

The big question is...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would I want to meet any Slashdot readers?

Re:The big question is...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would I want to meet any Slashdot readers?

Where else can you meet homosexual geeks? All the people in the gay bars are too rough. Don't you want someone to whisper sweet words into your ear and tell you how big your disk is?

I can see it now...

[Anonymous Coward]

A small pitiful group of dateless wonders huddle together in the corner of an urban meeting place. When someone wanders over, noticing that their geekness compliments their own, they say "you guys from Slashdot?" A few of them nod and this person sits down and joins the group, all in silence. Someone people ask trite questions like "So, when did you use Slashdot last?" and other gems like "So, what do you think about that Admiral Taco guy?" A few hours later, one by one people realize meeting other losers is a major mistake and start to leave, making pitiful excuses on their way out.

This meeting is a big mistake, but I guess when you take pride in first posts and trolling, meeting other cultural weenies is all you have.

I'll just stick to the college parties, meeting real outgoing people that enjoy The Real World. Slashdot needs to be reminded it can't be a centerpiece of computing news and discussion because it is so one-sided. Any encouragement to make Slashdot a house-hold name will be a Bad Thing.

report from Mantleshire, England meetup

[tps12]

Well, we just finished up the meetup out here in Mantleshire, and I thought I'd report in.

Fourteen blokes showed up, and we only had to send two home (one was arrested for possession of a firearm, and one had his mum storm and haul him back home). Had several pints and a wee bit of whisky, and discussion of course centered on Free Software and Enterprise.

I was surprised that a number of the lads were finding themselves disillusioned with Linux. The general feeling is that we've been pushed aside as Linux has become more of a mainstream USian commodity, and so a few of them (not myself) are heading back to Windows. But to each his own, as they say.

By the time the pub was closing we were all a might pissed, so I might be mistaken here, but I believe two of the blokes (I won't mention names, but you know who you are) went home together. I guess this was a "meetup" in more ways than one! All in all, a bloody fine evening. It sure beat getting pissed in front of the telly, which is what my weekend's looking like. I look forward to next month's meetup, and encourage anyone near Mantleshire to show up!