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I'm really conflicted by this article. On the one hand, it's always a shame to read of cases where a company with a great culture which people clearly enjoyed and valued is changed for 'bad' reasons - takeover, or profit, or similar. ...but... > “I really don’t think they would have been able to attract the talent they did without it because the product wasn’t there. They didn’t innovate. Meetup is not attractive exc…
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While I think most of your points are valid, I want to clear up some issues with the H1B. From: http://www.immi-usa.com/h1b-grace-period-sgm-law-group/ > However, as of January 17, 2017, foreign professionals under the H-1B visa will have a 60-day grace period if their employment is terminated. Note that the time given to leave after the end of the regular employment term is still 10 days, and that is a point of conf…
In most of Europe and other developed countries a 2-3 month period for termination + leaving would be considered normal. 10 days would be considered unreasonable and very harsh by most people I know.
10 days is just at the end of your regular contract — that is, something that is determined very far in advance.
60 days if you are terminated.
In the last few months the organizers of the meetups I go to have been complaining about changes to meetup, and noted that it is obvious that the changes are being made by people with no clue about what organizers need or how they use the platform. I've been using Meetup for at least a decade, and I've never heard this topic raised before. The conversation continued about alternatives and only Facebook was considered…
I have a friend who wrote a lightweight alternative to meetup.com for tech meetups: https://meetingstar.io/ If you're looking for another option, it's worth evaluating.
In the months since, I have found these platforms, which are all built by organizer/techies attempting to solve their own problems, and to tap into the groundswell of discontent with Meetup.com.
https://eventpeg.com (Australian guy, all types of groups)
https://groups.place (American guy, all types of groups)
https://opensports.net (Canadian team I think, sports groups only)
http://getmeetingstar.com/ (This is mine, all types of groups)
I've put a lot of energy into reading complaints about Meetup.com in the last few months, and one of the most common ones is a real frustration among organizers about being heard. There are endless stores of sending messages to Meetup support and hearing nothing, or receiving canned answers. About having no input into the interface updates. About corporate messaging that is all about the experience for meetup group MEMBERS (the ones who don't pay meetup) and not the organizers (the ones who do). And a great deal of pessimism about the WeWork purchase, and how little incentive there could be in that future, to improve things for organizers.
I recognize it's hard for a small company with millions of customers to make everyone feel heard, but right or wrong, this is the narrative in places like http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/index.php and https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/meetup.com
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The weird part about this article/thread is that the product didn't suck. It did a thing, and it was as good as the groups in your area.
Yeah, it hasn't innovated, but it hasn't needed to; it has been a sufficient product since the start and never needed to change much. It's really a shame that I can't immediately bring to mind any stories of companies like Meetup that have a simple product that makes a small amount of money, enough to provide a good living to the small cadre of staff it requires to run it. Maybe Craigslist? Wikipedia, except they're…
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+1 to all of those ideas. > A point system that gives you points when you actually check-in to a meetup you RSVP to. For this to be reliable, the organisers would need to do roll call, which would get tedious for meetups with 10+ people.
It would just be through the app i.e. similar to checking in on foursquare or yelp when you're close enough to the venue
Are you looking for co-hackers?
Here's my project on Project Board: https://goo.gl/VPLsoC laurenmendoza@gmail.com
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Yeah, it hasn't innovated, but it hasn't needed to; it has been a sufficient product since the start and never needed to change much. It's really a shame that I can't immediately bring to mind any stories of companies like Meetup that have a simple product that makes a small amount of money, enough to provide a good living to the small cadre of staff it requires to run it. Maybe Craigslist? Wikipedia, except they're…
Classic example is BaseCamp, née 37signals.
I don’t really understand the criticism of Meetup not innovating enough. People create meetups and other people attend. Yes the UI could be better but, fundamentally, what innovations are needed? What is wrong with Meetup just continuing to offer the same basic service, give or take a few incremental improvements here and there?
This article is vague because something is being papered over. My interpretation: “We focused our culture on creating a corporate safe space and hired a bunch of people more interested in safe spaces than actually growing the organization and competing, then we began to lose ground and had to reverse course and became so scared of our own employees we had to enact measures to prevent them from revolting on us when we…
I think that's near-completely false, and harmful/inhumane/unethical to boot. My comments elsewhere in this thread explain why. As a separate aside/quibble: when you say "blue haired" are you referring to people with dyed hair, or people older than a certain age? Both are derogatory/prejudicial/rude terms in context, but throughout my life I've heard "blue hair" used to refer to the latter (older people), has that ch…
Yes. Dyed hair, along cat eyed glasses, is seen as a symbol for the "far left" SJW tumblr crowd
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I have a friend who wrote a lightweight alternative to meetup.com for tech meetups: https://meetingstar.io/ If you're looking for another option, it's worth evaluating.
I am this friend. I am both a software guy and a meetup organizer. I searched high and low for an alternative to meetup last year, for my own use, and mostly because I didn't think Meetup.com provided me enough value to warrant their $180/year fee. I didn't find any usable alternatives at the time. In the months since, I have found these platforms, which are all built by organizer/techies attempting to solve their ow…
I help at misc non-profit orgs. Event coordination is a constant thorn. I've tried both meetup and fb. Meh.
I basically want is a lightweight whitelabel or OSS optionally self hostable thingie, backed by a repo, some kind of calendar link. I checked out a bunch of wordpress add-ons. The stuff I found it both too little and too much, if that makes sense.
I haven't had the gumption to write my own. I'll check out the links you've provided.