5 ms·

This has been an issue with Meetup for as long as I remember. The problem is there are two distinct scenarios. One is that the organizer has lost interest or i

This has been an issue with Meetup for as long as I remember. The problem is there are two distinct scenarios. One is that the organizer has lost interest or is stepping down for some reason. Allowing the community to continue on Meetup in that case makes sense, by having someone step up to continue paying Meetup. The other is that the community as a whole has decided to move to a new platform. In this case keeping the now defunct community around and making it seem viable is bad. The current active members will know where to go, but new potential members or former members that want to re-engage are going to get confused. I got burned by this a couple of times, finding a group on meetup only to discover that it’s a ghost group, to the point where I’m now suspicious of any meetup group I find that hasn’t had an active event in the last couple of months. This is where I think Meetup is shooting themselves in the foot by not having a way to dissolve a group if the group as a whole decides to move.

robertlagrant 4y ago
If someone wants to pay for it then at that point they could ask participants if they want to remain part of the group and give the new sponsor access to their PII.
- Joeboy 4y ago
  I think the "new sponsor" has to be a member of the group, and will thus have access to your PII (ie. whatever name / nick you registered with) anyway.
Semaphor 4y ago
> including subscriber's list with full name and email That is the issue here. Someone taking over and creating events that others get notified about, okay. But the first paying person coming along gets all that personal data? That is not acceptable in any way and probably against GDPR and whatever that California thing is called.
- Joeboy 4y ago
  I'm very doubtful that part's true. If you have your full name on your profile then sure, the new organizer will have access to it (as they did when they weren't the organizer). Meetup wants you to message people through their app, so I very much doubt they give away a bunch of email addresses willingly. I think perhaps what's meant is that the new organizer gets the ability to send group messages, which get emailed to people. Edit / possible U-turn: There's a post from Symbiote below that suggests maybe they do let organizers pay to get more data.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    That sounds more reasonable.
  - whimsicalism 4y ago
    > Edit / possible U-turn: There's a post from Symbiote below that suggests maybe they do let organizers pay to get more data. But still not email or full name, just stuff like attendance record.
    - Joeboy 4y ago
      > I do see a box "Get to know your members — With the Pro registration form, you can get key attendee details like email address and job title" Is what I was referring to. Not exactly clear what it means, but it starts to sound potentially sketchier than I initially thought.
protonbob 4y ago
What is the platform where these events have moved? Please tell me it's not just Facebook.
- caust1c 4y ago
  Eventbrite is a common one I've seen.
- Morizero 4y ago
  Discord is a popular one
  - enraged_camel 4y ago
    Does Discord have event management? edit: I checked and it is very limited. It doesn't seem like it supports recurring events for example, which is a major shortcoming for most Meetup groups.
    - sphars 4y ago
      They have a Scheduled Events feature, I think rolled out in the past year. Not very many features compared to MeetUp though: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409494125719-Scheduled-Events https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409494125719-...
- Closi 4y ago
  What’s wrong with Facebook? It probably works better for lots of groups - at least you don’t have to pay Facebook £80, and they won’t sell your group to someone else if you don’t pay.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - forgotmypw17 4y ago
    I have a Facebook account, and I use it for attending events. I often am not notified about new events, because they are not "boosted" with a payment. When there are updates on the event page, I do not see them. When someone sends me a message, I'm not always notified about it in the interface, even if it is not sent to the "Other Messages" alternative inbox. Once the event is done, it's difficult to find its page again to look for photos from the event or have a follow-up discussion. And even if I find it myself, other people aren't notified about my posts. Then there is the general site-wide auto-moderation system that often flags my comments as spam and hides them from everyone. I am not a spammer, nor do I post anything political, critical of anyone, or in any way offensive, in my opinion. Also, the interface for discussion feels like wearing a Harrison Bergeron ringing bell thought disruptor hat, with no threading, tiny textboxes for replies, having to expand each reply, only seeing a handful of comments at a time before having to click "more", not being able to keep track of what I've read and not read, etc. All of this is very sad, because I remember when Facebook was just AMAZING for events and social things, with a great combination of events, event photos, groups, photo tags, and an easy commenting system.
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> the community as a whole has decided to move to a new platform. In this case keeping the now defunct community around and making it seem viable is bad If the community keeps responding on Meetup to the new organiser, the community didn’t move. One organiser tried to get it to move and Meetup fomented a popular rebellion.

robertlagrant 4y ago

If someone wants to pay for it then at that point they could ask participants if they want to remain part of the group and give the new sponsor access to their PII.

Joeboy 4y ago
I think the "new sponsor" has to be a member of the group, and will thus have access to your PII (ie. whatever name / nick you registered with) anyway.

Semaphor 4y ago

> including subscriber's list with full name and email That is the issue here. Someone taking over and creating events that others get notified about, okay. But the first paying person coming along gets all that personal data? That is not acceptable in any way and probably against GDPR and whatever that California thing is called.

Joeboy 4y ago
I'm very doubtful that part's true. If you have your full name on your profile then sure, the new organizer will have access to it (as they did when they weren't the organizer). Meetup wants you to message people through their app, so I very much doubt they give away a bunch of email addresses willingly. I think perhaps what's meant is that the new organizer gets the ability to send group messages, which get emailed to people. Edit / possible U-turn: There's a post from Symbiote below that suggests maybe they do let organizers pay to get more data.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  That sounds more reasonable.
- whimsicalism 4y ago
  > Edit / possible U-turn: There's a post from Symbiote below that suggests maybe they do let organizers pay to get more data. But still not email or full name, just stuff like attendance record.
  - Joeboy 4y ago
    > I do see a box "Get to know your members — With the Pro registration form, you can get key attendee details like email address and job title" Is what I was referring to. Not exactly clear what it means, but it starts to sound potentially sketchier than I initially thought.

protonbob 4y ago

What is the platform where these events have moved? Please tell me it's not just Facebook.

caust1c 4y ago
Eventbrite is a common one I've seen.
Morizero 4y ago
Discord is a popular one
- enraged_camel 4y ago
  Does Discord have event management? edit: I checked and it is very limited. It doesn't seem like it supports recurring events for example, which is a major shortcoming for most Meetup groups.
  - sphars 4y ago
    They have a Scheduled Events feature, I think rolled out in the past year. Not very many features compared to MeetUp though: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409494125719-Scheduled-Events https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409494125719-...
Closi 4y ago
What’s wrong with Facebook? It probably works better for lots of groups - at least you don’t have to pay Facebook £80, and they won’t sell your group to someone else if you don’t pay.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- forgotmypw17 4y ago
  I have a Facebook account, and I use it for attending events. I often am not notified about new events, because they are not "boosted" with a payment. When there are updates on the event page, I do not see them. When someone sends me a message, I'm not always notified about it in the interface, even if it is not sent to the "Other Messages" alternative inbox. Once the event is done, it's difficult to find its page again to look for photos from the event or have a follow-up discussion. And even if I find it myself, other people aren't notified about my posts. Then there is the general site-wide auto-moderation system that often flags my comments as spam and hides them from everyone. I am not a spammer, nor do I post anything political, critical of anyone, or in any way offensive, in my opinion. Also, the interface for discussion feels like wearing a Harrison Bergeron ringing bell thought disruptor hat, with no threading, tiny textboxes for replies, having to expand each reply, only seeing a handful of comments at a time before having to click "more", not being able to keep track of what I've read and not read, etc. All of this is very sad, because I remember when Facebook was just AMAZING for events and social things, with a great combination of events, event photos, groups, photo tags, and an easy commenting system.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> the community as a whole has decided to move to a new platform. In this case keeping the now defunct community around and making it seem viable is bad If the community keeps responding on Meetup to the new organiser, the community didn’t move. One organiser tried to get it to move and Meetup fomented a popular rebellion.