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Okay, the link is now dead. A women called Meredith did a hostile takeover of the hacker news cologne meetup group and renamed it. She removed Vidar, the main o

Okay, the link is now dead. A women called Meredith did a hostile takeover of the hacker news cologne meetup group and renamed it. She removed Vidar, the main organizer from the Admin list and now has full controll of the meetup group. This is outrages that it is even possible to do this.

noeltock 14y ago
Is this an issue with Meetup.com or did someone willingly give her admin? /concerned meetup organizer
- bitboxer 14y ago
  Vidar hat problems with the payment of the group and was in discussion with meetup to fix this. While a group is in an "unpaid" state everyone can step in and pay the fee to get full admin rights to the group. After getting full admin rights, that Women removed Vidar, renamed the group and removed the discussion form and mailing list. This is really bad that this can happen.
  - pg 14y ago
    Is that really true? If you start a meetup.com group and fail to pay a bill, anyone can take it over?
    - w33ble 14y ago
      Yeah, it's happened before too. In fact, I think all the members of the group get an email asking if they'd like to pay and take over. At least they used to. I've also been told that it's tricky to remove a group, which means if you want to disband it, you have to manually remove all your members one by one unless you want to potentially subject them to a spammy takeover like has happened here. Removing members from your groups is also a pretty painfully slow process.
      - mnicole 14y ago
        I got this very email about a month or two ago and was pretty startled that they'd just up and let anyone take over instead of having the admin determine a plan for the group if he leaves or doesn't keep his payments up when he creates the group. It was totally out of the blue and there wasn't even an opportunity for him to send out one final message or let people know what was going on. Given the way the site looks and functions, I'm surprised there isn't a more popular alternative. If anyone knows of any, I'd love to hear about it.
        blacktar 14y ago
        We'll keep you posted what the community decides on using instead in our next meetup.
        c1sc0 14y ago
        So I just got back from talking to the Meetup.com people. Doesn't seem like there will be a policy change.
        mnicole 14y ago
        That's really unfortunate. Thanks for the response, though!
      - c1sc0 14y ago
        Can you point to an example of this happening before? (edit to answer my own question:) I found this & yes that seems scary as hell: "Neglect to pay the Org dues for greater than 14 days, in which case the group becomes available and anyone can take it over" http://www.meetup.com/boards/thread/27771222 http://www.meetup.com/boards/thread/27771222
    - blacktar 14y ago
      Yes, it's true. From the http://www.meetup.com/terms/ http://www.meetup.com/terms/ 3.3 Meetup Group Fees; [...](3) Meetup Groups. Organizers who allow their Basic Group Fee Subscription to lapse are subject to removal as the Organizer of the Meetup Group that they lead, and their Meetup Group may be terminated or transferred to another Organizer. [...]
puja108 14y ago
This is so strange as that woman is not even in or from Cologne, but located in NYC, which makes it kinda hard for her to organize a meeting in Germany. No idea what benefits such a take over could have for her.
- dbaupp 14y ago
  She seems to imply she'll be going back, or something. From her profile (http://www.meetup.com/Cologne-Startup-Pitch-Night/members/68317022/ http://www.meetup.com/Cologne-Startup-Pitch-Night/members/68...): Hello! I am excited to get to know everyone at our events as one of the networking groups in Germany focused on building startups by focusing on improving pitches and finding co-founders. Living in USA, loved living in Germany, looking to travel.
  - steilpass 14y ago
    Well not a good starting point for networking in Cologne.
dbaupp 14y ago
It doesn't look dead for me: it's now called "Startup Pitch Night".
- bitboxer 14y ago
  The link was to a public post on that group that described the situation. That post was removed as was the complete discussion and mailing list
  - dbaupp 14y ago
    Oh, I see!
- veemjeem 14y ago
  It's a very sleazy way of getting meetup members. I bet her other "groups" were also formed this way. Sounds like Meredith Monroe is selling some kind of scammy product to startup companies. In a way, it's also brilliant -- hack your way into acquiring targeted audiences without the audience knowing they signed up for something slightly different. But yeah, I would probably put Meredith Monroe into the same bucket of people who acquired my email from various sources and is now trying to sell me viagra pills.
- blacktar 14y ago
  Yes, the group name was changed from "Hacker News Cologne Meetup" by the new unsolicited "organizer".
  - blacktar 14y ago
    And it has now been renamed again to "Cologne Startups".
Hopka 14y ago
Now the group is called Cologne Startups. And you can report the "Meredith" account for abuse here: http://www.meetup.com/Cologne-Startups/abuse/68317022/ http://www.meetup.com/Cologne-Startups/abuse/68317022/

noeltock 14y ago

Is this an issue with Meetup.com or did someone willingly give her admin? /concerned meetup organizer

bitboxer 14y ago
Vidar hat problems with the payment of the group and was in discussion with meetup to fix this. While a group is in an "unpaid" state everyone can step in and pay the fee to get full admin rights to the group. After getting full admin rights, that Women removed Vidar, renamed the group and removed the discussion form and mailing list. This is really bad that this can happen.
- pg 14y ago
  Is that really true? If you start a meetup.com group and fail to pay a bill, anyone can take it over?
  - w33ble 14y ago
    Yeah, it's happened before too. In fact, I think all the members of the group get an email asking if they'd like to pay and take over. At least they used to. I've also been told that it's tricky to remove a group, which means if you want to disband it, you have to manually remove all your members one by one unless you want to potentially subject them to a spammy takeover like has happened here. Removing members from your groups is also a pretty painfully slow process.
    - mnicole 14y ago
      I got this very email about a month or two ago and was pretty startled that they'd just up and let anyone take over instead of having the admin determine a plan for the group if he leaves or doesn't keep his payments up when he creates the group. It was totally out of the blue and there wasn't even an opportunity for him to send out one final message or let people know what was going on. Given the way the site looks and functions, I'm surprised there isn't a more popular alternative. If anyone knows of any, I'd love to hear about it.
      - blacktar 14y ago
        We'll keep you posted what the community decides on using instead in our next meetup.
      - c1sc0 14y ago
        So I just got back from talking to the Meetup.com people. Doesn't seem like there will be a policy change.
        mnicole 14y ago
        That's really unfortunate. Thanks for the response, though!
    - c1sc0 14y ago
      Can you point to an example of this happening before? (edit to answer my own question:) I found this & yes that seems scary as hell: "Neglect to pay the Org dues for greater than 14 days, in which case the group becomes available and anyone can take it over" http://www.meetup.com/boards/thread/27771222 http://www.meetup.com/boards/thread/27771222
  - blacktar 14y ago
    Yes, it's true. From the http://www.meetup.com/terms/ http://www.meetup.com/terms/ 3.3 Meetup Group Fees; [...](3) Meetup Groups. Organizers who allow their Basic Group Fee Subscription to lapse are subject to removal as the Organizer of the Meetup Group that they lead, and their Meetup Group may be terminated or transferred to another Organizer. [...]

puja108 14y ago

This is so strange as that woman is not even in or from Cologne, but located in NYC, which makes it kinda hard for her to organize a meeting in Germany. No idea what benefits such a take over could have for her.

dbaupp 14y ago
She seems to imply she'll be going back, or something. From her profile (http://www.meetup.com/Cologne-Startup-Pitch-Night/members/68317022/ http://www.meetup.com/Cologne-Startup-Pitch-Night/members/68...): Hello! I am excited to get to know everyone at our events as one of the networking groups in Germany focused on building startups by focusing on improving pitches and finding co-founders. Living in USA, loved living in Germany, looking to travel.
- steilpass 14y ago
  Well not a good starting point for networking in Cologne.

dbaupp 14y ago

It doesn't look dead for me: it's now called "Startup Pitch Night".

bitboxer 14y ago
The link was to a public post on that group that described the situation. That post was removed as was the complete discussion and mailing list
- dbaupp 14y ago
  Oh, I see!
veemjeem 14y ago
It's a very sleazy way of getting meetup members. I bet her other "groups" were also formed this way. Sounds like Meredith Monroe is selling some kind of scammy product to startup companies. In a way, it's also brilliant -- hack your way into acquiring targeted audiences without the audience knowing they signed up for something slightly different. But yeah, I would probably put Meredith Monroe into the same bucket of people who acquired my email from various sources and is now trying to sell me viagra pills.
blacktar 14y ago
Yes, the group name was changed from "Hacker News Cologne Meetup" by the new unsolicited "organizer".
- blacktar 14y ago
  And it has now been renamed again to "Cologne Startups".

Hopka 14y ago

Now the group is called Cologne Startups. And you can report the "Meredith" account for abuse here: http://www.meetup.com/Cologne-Startups/abuse/68317022/ http://www.meetup.com/Cologne-Startups/abuse/68317022/