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Meetup.com Ends Free Meetups
jalefkowit writes "It was nice while it lasted... massively popular social-organizing service Meetup.com has announced that from here on out, they will be charging a $19/month fee to the designated organizer of each Meetup registered with the service. Regular users (those other than meetup organizers) can continue to use it free of charge, though they suggest that some organizers may wish to split the cost with their members. Users who paid for the Meetup+ service get the fees waived for one group of their choice (if they're not organizers, they can pass this benefit on to someone who is). Here's more information about the move and why they made it."
Pimp My Computerized Dating Match!
I expect to see they're out of business by this time next year.
what ever happened to good ol' goin to clubs, getting drunk, findin a girl, who is as drunk as u, having a good night, and never seein that girl again, mutually?
This will just move most of the activities to some other place.
May Peace Prevail On Earth
That's Howard Dean's old organization - an offshoot of his presidential campaign that used meetups early on. They'll be picking up the tab for Meetups of their DFA groups for a while. But I expect someone will come up with a CC version of the 'meetup' structure... you can't patent a gathering of like-minded people can you?
Never pet a burning dog.
Who never heard of this website?
The reason that it can be true that 1+1 > 2 is that very peculiar nonzero value of the + operator
I will acknowledge that I jumped the gun on that FP - since Meetup is for group gatherings.
The two aren't mutually exlcusive, you closed-minded, puritanical clod!
You don't need meetup to have a group - just have regular meetings and post your group info out there, on some random webpage - it'll show up in google for anyone who is looking.
no amount of easy to use software is going to convince random people to congregate together - it's the message that matters. Meetup isn't a service - it's a very limited template system with forums.
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
However, it's only $9 a month for those of us who are already organizers. My group consistently gets 9 people at the meetup and we usually spend in total $100+ on food and drinks. If everyone that showed up just threw in $1 then the dues for that month would be paid off (and even if I didn't get the whole $9, I'd just top it off myself). Not that big a deal as I see it.
Of course it probably does discourage groups that are not already established from forming or growing...
There are much better ways to organize "real people". Meetup.com was fun while it lasted, but I'll be one of the first to remove links to it from my site.
They offered a decent service while it lasted, and _yes_ they should get something for their efforts; but they _shouldn't_ sabotage their users to get compensation.
They'll die unless they re-create or re-evaluate their efforts within the next 3 weeks.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
See, here's the problem: what Meetup did is really not that far beyond a good PHP programmer who knows a thing or two about MySQL. It's cool, but we're not talking about something like Salesforce.com or Turbo Tax Online. This is a simple web app.
And here's the thing, someone is going to recreate Meetup. Their new page will have less brand recognition, and people will probably pay $19 for the Meetup name for a little while. However, this will not last forever. Meetup isn't Microsoft -- they have no extended brand or monopoly power in the face of competition.
Prediction: Meetup.com will be appearing on the Dot-Com Deadpool shortly.
BTW, if I were running Meetup, I would have investigated a completely different approach. These little web apps that become big should think about extending their services for a fee. For example, something like customized invitations for $20 a box or a set of subscriber only options.
After reading the FAQ, I don't quite see the benefit of this service. They don't seem to offer anything that isn't already freely available (communications and email, they say). As far as professionally printed materials for your club.. anyone who's willing to go to the effort of putting together a club, I'd imagine, would be motivated enough to save the 19 bucks and get things printed themselves. Is there really a market for this service?
I just don't get it.. is there some target group of motivated but lethargic people that are willing to put in the effort to organize, run and manage a club, but somehow, find keeping a list of members' emails a significant barrier to achieving their goals?
I'm ranting a bit, but I'm quite surprised. This is one of the oddest services I've seen on the net. It goes against the intuition of online dating sites, for example. Where the clients may be a little more reserved and slightly anti-social (thus the need for online dating). Meetup is actually targeting what appears to be a socially very active group of clients. I wonder how they're doing.
Any slashdotters using this service? Feel free to enlighten me.Signed up for the London /.ers meetup thingy. Thought it would be a laugh.
/. meetup thingy is dead.
Got spam from spammers.
Got spam from meetup, wanting a new coord.
Got spam from meetup telling about new coord.
Got spam from spammers.
Got spam from meetup, wanting a new coord.
Got spam from meetup telling about new coord.
Got spam from spammers.
Got spam from meetup, wanting a new coord.
I think the London
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
I've been signed up to that site for a while. Unless your group is well established, it's very difficult to get it going. The Dallas Chess meetup group collapsed. The cycling group meets never worked. Most of the members were inactive. The administrators are really killing any chance of these fledgling groups growing with this idea. They've done very little to promote as is. The idea of critical mass somehow managed to escape them. Charge well-established groups with N members but leave the little ones so they have time to grow. As it is, members can't directly message each other with their Meetup+ membership. It is very difficult to organize anything if you can't contact other members via email and only via the forums or the organizer. I've tried explaining critical mass to them but they don't seen to value it. Once a group get big enough, the numbers will attract other people and activities can happen and repeat. Below that level, things just fall apart. No one goes to meets so the newcomers become inactive, etc. When the next newcomers arrive, the old members are already inactive so there's not enough people to do anything.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
Try http://meetin.org/ There is most likely a group where you are, (organized by city), all over the world. Instead of being limited to one focus, there are a wide variety of events to choose from and people to meet in each city. If your city is not yet added, you can easily have it added and start planning events!
Here's some of what's new:
Wait...people can send e-mail to each other instead of to a group address? Who'd've thunk it?
Custom, professionally-printed offline materials for your group-- shipped (real mail, not email!) to Organizers for free!
I could make a lot of photocopies for $19 a month.
Optional online tools to make it easy for Organizers to receive money from their members.
If these members are motivated enough to sign up with a Meetup payment system, why wouldn't they just go with PayPal, which they can use for everything else as well?
We expect the number of Meetups will go down at first, but the community will rebound stronger than ever. The Group Fee will weed out less committed groups; the community will be smaller in the near-term, but it will be made up of the best Meetup Groups. ...
Oh, I get it. If you're smart enough to figure out a more productive use for $19 a month, you're just not "committed" enough. Since when was being stupid with money a sign of moral fiber?
What a troll. This was to point out that Meetup is now charging for what was once a free service. It's not an ad. It's just informative. Personally, I'm the organizer of the Current TV group in Milwaukee. We just got off the ground, but now we're going to have to end this unless Current can pay. I heard about the fact that they were charging from this very article (Meetup also sent out an email but I hadn't checked it yet). Meetup was great while it lasted. Now we'll probably just move to a different site.
Take off every sig. For great justice.
This is pure genius!
I already get emails from half the groups I'm signed up for saying "Your group has no organizer, would you like to volunteer?". Up until now, I didn't volunteer because I wasn't sure I'd have the time -- now that I get to volunteer AND PAY $20 FOR THE PRIVILEGE, I'll get right on it!
I'm sure local meetup groups will really take off now! Next month maybe they'll finally add the "pay $5 and get kicked in the nuts" service we've all been clamoring for!
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
I just visited the site, and every group I looked at (in my area) lacked an organizer. Charging the only people WILLING to put in the TIME (remember, time = money) to organize the group just seems like defunct logic to me.
Why can't they just display ads?
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
Is there anyone else on here who sees the need for a Firefox extention that filters out Slashdot cliches? Maybe it's just me.
This story is relevant because there are a lot of people who actually went to various Slashdot MeetUps. If you want to bitch about paid ads on Slashdot, call me when the next Roland Piquepaille story is posted.
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
MEETin.org is a free, much more popular system and has very thriving communities in New York, D.C., and other large metropolitan areas. I was a member of both but meetup.com events never really got big enough to get excited over while MEETin peeps are much more fun to hang out with.
--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com
...but there are some kinds of meetups of people for which it ended up being... inappropriate.
We used Meetup to get folks together and reunite local Delphi developers. The first couple of meet-and-greets at a coffee shop were pretty good.
That said, at least at the time, the venues listed for meeting at were sponsored by local businesses, and precious few of them were even passable for a meeting of geeks, especially when it became clear that folks wanted to come out and learn stuff.
The semi-biker-and-pool-hall that, through lack of folks knowing what it was, got voted in due to its convenient location. A quick survey of the hazy interior, and we realized the oops that we made.
There was, of course, no provision for getting the word out on a secondary venue this late in the game, so a quick trip to the convenience store for stationery (I always wondered who bought tape and pens at a store next to a bar :) and some rescue signage was put up for the stragglers.
Oh, wouldn't you know it - our second choice was closed.
My sympathies to the souls who got lost that day :)
So thanks, Meetup, for getting us together in the first place... I'm sorry we couldn't stay :)
-- Ritchie
Binary geeks can count to 1,023 on their fingers
Never heard of it before, but I figured I'd peek anyways just for fun...
In a city of near a half million people here's the top groups:
Pagan Meetup Group - Meet other local Pagans, Wiccans, Druids, all walks of pagan life - exchange lore, legends and learning. 23 members.
All I can say is WTF?
Darren Hayes Meetup Group; 6 members.
Who the F is that anyways? And why would anyone want to get together to talk about some singner is beyond me.
Next is a vegan meetup group with a whole 3 members. I see no interest in meeting with people based on what I eat. What's next? A steak eaters group?
And it just gets worse... Like a psychic meetup group (or is that a group for people who hear voices?), a vampire group, a witches group... Like WTF is up with that?
Wow! That is one amazingly useless site! I didn't know there were so many mentally retarded people around here, thanks!
I'd rather just hang with normal people, TY.
Meetup.com hosted groups for all sorts of reasons, including enthusiast groups for hobbies (slashdot.meetup.com) and support groups for the people and families dealing with disabilities (autism.meetup.com), so to characterize this just pimping the digital date scene is a bit simplistic.
They had geographical searching. You could input your location and interest, and it would tell you where groups were located, starting at your location and working outward. Yahoo groups can't do that. The yahoo and geocities sites are also full of spam, popups and advertising.
"I'm sure local meetup groups will really take off now! Next month maybe they'll finally add the "pay $5 and get kicked in the nuts" service we've all been clamoring for!"
Wow! That's almost as bad as subscribing to slashdot.
On one hand, they talk about having to pay a small fee, but the only numbers they talk about are $9 or $19/month, which are neither even near the small fee they talk about.
Can someone please clear this up for me?
1) Provide a free service.
2) Get people to depend on that service. Use poorly designed software.
3) Then begin charging an extremely high fee for that service. $19 per month??? What could they be thinking? For an automatic, low-bandwidth service? There are many groups that have only 2 or 3 members, and have not attracted more, but hope to attract more later.
4) Profit? No, go out of business.
This part of the revision concerns me...
... but when they turn MY facility in to a paid venue, that concerns me and I'm sure would concern coffee shops and book stores (the most common place for meetups)
Can Organizers profit from their Groups?
Sure, as long as you comply with community standards (and Meetup's Terms of Service).
As a business owner I don't mind anyone using my facilities for public free use
If a group is meeting in my place and it is not sponsored by me, it must be free and inclusive of anyone that wishes to join. If I am sponsoring it, then I have the right to exclude anyone who doesn't want to pay dues.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Note that most "groups" have a very small number of "members". Also, the number of members is vastly inflated because of a trick. You must become a "member" to get information about where the next meeting will be held. There may be many, many groups with "members" who decided they had no interest in the group, and never visited the group online again, or did anything with the group.
How many people will pay $228 U.S. each year to try an idea of developing a group? The value of the U.S. dollar is dropping fast because the Bush administration is rapidly borrowing money, but the dollar is not worthless.
Would you pay $2,280 over ten years to find other people in your area with an interest in a special breed of cats, for example? Especially when you never attract more than 4 people, and some of them are not very interested?
Also, some groups may have fake members entered by organizers attempting to attract people by making it seem that there is more interest than there really is. I visited one group that showed photos of two very beautiful women who said they were enthusiastic about the group. However, neither of them visited the group again, according to their statistics. A $228 yearly fee makes dishonesty more likely.
A web site for meetings is a good idea, but we need a non-adversarial method of making that happen.
This always happens with closed-source, proprietary solutions. Sooner or later the proprietor becomes abusive.
They get you hooked on the freebies and then get you on the come-back.
Ah well...only a matter of months before someone comes out with another free version of MeetUp.
GET FREE APPLE STUFF!
It's certainly the deathnell for the Las Vegas wifi Meetup! I took over as organizer of it about six months ago, when the previous organizer dropped out. He had it being held at a Starbucks, and I moved it to a nearby Coffee Shop with free wifi.. We're probably like many small meetups, 20-30 people actually registered with the group, but only a tiny subset of that who actually come to the the monthly meets. In fact, the last couple of months, It's been me and one other guy showing up. In fact, tonight's the monthly meeting, and after reading this, if the turnouts like usual I'm gonna pull the plug tommorrow.... I certainly am NOT going to pay $9 or $19/mo to these bloodsuckers.. Now, if we had a thriving meetup, and I could get everybody to chip in, maybe.. Goodbye, Meetup.. Greed got ya in the end..
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Just like everybody else here, I'm wondering what possessed Meetup.com to charge this much money, and to make the volunteer organizer responsible for the bill. Then I took a look at the size of the company.
Anyone else think 26 full-time employees, a full board of directors, and apparent VC funds are overkill for a company like this? Sure, they bring a lot of value added features to organizing local groups, but this isn't an amazingly difficult web app, and with VC funding on board, you just know the target valuation will force aggressive community-killing fees.
Charging a flat high fee for groups of any size makes no sense. This will be another good idea, bad execution dot-com failure. If they have to charge those kinds of rates, it's clear that they didn't bootstrap the company in a judicious manner. It's too bad, because they provide a nice service. Evite.com will probably get some of their refugees.
So are they going to change their name to PayUp.com?