31 ms·

I just want to caution folks that whoever did this using this "Meredith" account is not necessarily (and most likely is not) Meredith, the person. It's much mor

I just want to caution folks that whoever did this using this "Meredith" account is not necessarily (and most likely is not) Meredith, the person. It's much more likely that a hacked account would be used to do something malicious like this.

c1sc0 14y ago
I'm curious if anyone on here is familiar with an xxx@cyvi.be email address. cyvi.be redirects to bitly. Is this a sign of something more malicious or part of known abuse tactics? Like ghurlman I'm getting a feeling that this is not innocent at all ...
veemjeem 14y ago
This "Meredith" also runs these meetup groups as well: http://www.meetup.com/San-Francisco-Startup-Pitch-Night http://www.meetup.com/San-Francisco-Startup-Pitch-Night http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Startup-Pitch-Night http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Startup-Pitch-Night http://www.meetup.com/New-York-Startup-Pitch-Night http://www.meetup.com/New-York-Startup-Pitch-Night She's also a member of multiple meetup groups in NYC, so my guess is that she's likely a real person who lives in NYC, but just happens to want to be an admin for other meetup groups in random cities. This was found by simply doing a reverse image search of her profile picture on google images. She also the organizer of Startup Pitch Night, which explains her meetup affiliations. Her full LinkedIn profile can be found here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithmonroe http://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithmonroe (the profile used the same profile photo found on meetup.com)
- c1sc0 14y ago
  Yes, I saw that but it does not help me understand why someone would want to do something like this. That being said, the best approach right now is to consider the Meetup.com null & void for the purpose of "Hacker News Cologne Meetup". We'll discuss alternatives IRL during the next meetup. (see post above)
  - veemjeem 14y ago
    I think it's fairly obvious why someone would do this? Suppose you want to create an event that happens to have a similar audience as those who might attend a Hacker News meetup. Now you can create a marketing message to those people without spending any effort in recruiting members. It's easier to do a hostile takeover than trying to create a meetup event from scratch. In a way, it's like buying a very targeted email list. However, I'm sure there will probably be a backlash in this case, and I doubt Meredith would show up at any of these events because she'll probably get stoned to death there.
    - c1sc0 14y ago
      Exactly what I was thinking & what got me worried: why do this if your intentions are honest? I hope this is just a terrible case of bad judgement. We may be pirates, but we gave up stoning a while ago. May I suggest a good discussion over a glass of Koelsch instead? I know who'll be buying!
- blacktar 14y ago
  I hope we can all refrain from personally attacking this person. Let's keep it nice and clean. No need to escalate.

c1sc0 14y ago

I'm curious if anyone on here is familiar with an xxx@cyvi.be email address. cyvi.be redirects to bitly. Is this a sign of something more malicious or part of known abuse tactics? Like ghurlman I'm getting a feeling that this is not innocent at all ...

veemjeem 14y ago

This "Meredith" also runs these meetup groups as well: http://www.meetup.com/San-Francisco-Startup-Pitch-Night http://www.meetup.com/San-Francisco-Startup-Pitch-Night http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Startup-Pitch-Night http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Startup-Pitch-Night http://www.meetup.com/New-York-Startup-Pitch-Night http://www.meetup.com/New-York-Startup-Pitch-Night She's also a member of multiple meetup groups in NYC, so my guess is that she's likely a real person who lives in NYC, but just happens to want to be an admin for other meetup groups in random cities. This was found by simply doing a reverse image search of her profile picture on google images. She also the organizer of Startup Pitch Night, which explains her meetup affiliations. Her full LinkedIn profile can be found here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithmonroe http://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithmonroe (the profile used the same profile photo found on meetup.com)

c1sc0 14y ago
Yes, I saw that but it does not help me understand why someone would want to do something like this. That being said, the best approach right now is to consider the Meetup.com null & void for the purpose of "Hacker News Cologne Meetup". We'll discuss alternatives IRL during the next meetup. (see post above)
- veemjeem 14y ago
  I think it's fairly obvious why someone would do this? Suppose you want to create an event that happens to have a similar audience as those who might attend a Hacker News meetup. Now you can create a marketing message to those people without spending any effort in recruiting members. It's easier to do a hostile takeover than trying to create a meetup event from scratch. In a way, it's like buying a very targeted email list. However, I'm sure there will probably be a backlash in this case, and I doubt Meredith would show up at any of these events because she'll probably get stoned to death there.
  - c1sc0 14y ago
    Exactly what I was thinking & what got me worried: why do this if your intentions are honest? I hope this is just a terrible case of bad judgement. We may be pirates, but we gave up stoning a while ago. May I suggest a good discussion over a glass of Koelsch instead? I know who'll be buying!
blacktar 14y ago
I hope we can all refrain from personally attacking this person. Let's keep it nice and clean. No need to escalate.