Meetup Payment Changes
meetup.com
Meetup Payment Changes
1–10 of 17 posts
Re: Meetup Payment Changes
#2While there is definite truth that paying even $1 to RSVP for an event cuts RSVP no-shows significantly, I don't see this flying when members of meetups are accustomed to paying exactly ZERO to attend events.
If there isn't an open source alternative to meetup.com now would be the time to create one, and if you want to create The Winner then have your meetup replacement able to federate with other (using ActivityPub?) to replace the "members of this group also join these groups" network effect that makes meetup.com so popular.
Re: Meetup Payment Changes
#3I am an organizer of a Web Engineering Meetup in Düsseldorf, Germany, for > 6 years (https://www.meetup.com/Web-Engineering-Duesseldorf/). We run the event every month, with 50 up to 90 people. Indeed, our no-show rate is something between 40% and 50%. This is heavy, but we know it and calculate it in.
We run the complete meetup non-profit. Never put a euro in. Never got a euro out — everything based on sponsors. Our motivation is to learn, share knowledge, and have fun together. And we want to make it accessible for everyone to learn about web engineering.
Switching to the new cost model will reduce the no-show rate, but makes it 1000% times less accessible. In my opinion, Meetup.com is creating a higher barrier to enter a community. If we, the organizers, would pay for the attendees, we would pay 100$ up to 180$ every month. We have no interest to afford this.
Furthermore, what I don't get: Meetup is charging a lot of money for thousands of groups. The web platform is stale for>2 years. The last major feature was a facelift in design. But no feature that helps the organizers or users. The iOS app had some releases, but the app is far from a great UX. Flaky everywhere. I ask myself: What is this company doing? Where does all the money go?
Friends who run similar groups are thinking already to move away. Many people from the US think the same.
I think this tweet sums it up: https://twitter.com/obfuscurity/status/1183831607821656068
Re: Meetup Payment Changes
#4I help run a discussion group that meets twice a month and gets about 30 people each time. We have no problem with no-shows (partly because some people turn up without RSVPing!).
Charging attendees a fee will keep people away in droves, not because they can't afford it, but because who can be bothered to go through a payment flow just to go to a meetup?
If we choose the "cover members’ fees" option, that's an extra $120 a month in fees. Which makes the "you'll be saving at least 80% annually on subscription fees" particularly insulting.
Probably what we'll do is keep the Meetup page, and just tell people not to bother RSVPing. We can always run a Google form for that if numbers are a problem.
Re: Meetup Payment Changes
#5A friend of mine posted https://kommunity.com/
Re: Meetup Payment Changes
#6Making members of groups pay may have an unintended side effect on RSVPs: organizers have payment info attached to their accts. However, as a user, even if I’d be willing to pay, entering my CC data will make me much less likely to go through.
Re: Meetup Payment Changes
#7I am an organizer of a Web Engineering Meetup in Düsseldorf, Germany, for > 6 years ( https://www.meetup.com/Web-Engineering-Duesseldorf/ ). We run the event every month, with 50 up to 90 people. Indeed, our no-show rate is something between 40% and 50%. This is heavy, but we know it and calculate it in. We run the complete meetup non-profit. Never put a euro in. Never got a euro out — everything based on sponsors. O…
We have a hackathon coming up at work. I smell a project idea.
Re: Meetup Payment Changes
#8Exciting, i miss the time when Meetup wasn't so dominant and you had small no show rates there.
The new platforms that come up will bring new people in, always great!
Re: Meetup Payment Changes
#9I am an organizer of a Web Engineering Meetup in Düsseldorf, Germany, for > 6 years ( https://www.meetup.com/Web-Engineering-Duesseldorf/ ). We run the event every month, with 50 up to 90 people. Indeed, our no-show rate is something between 40% and 50%. This is heavy, but we know it and calculate it in. We run the complete meetup non-profit. Never put a euro in. Never got a euro out — everything based on sponsors. O…
We have a hackathon coming up at work. I smell a project idea.
There’s https://github.com/phoet/on_ruby which is the software used by a few ruby meetups in Berlin and other cities. It’s a bit bare-bones but relatively simple to host.
Re: Meetup Payment Changes
#10I run multiple local meetups.
This is a crazy change, and definitely bad.
The overwhelming majority of members I've spoken to say they are going to stop RSVP'ing, which would basically kill the platform.
I know with WeWork circling the drain, Meetup is desperate for additional revenue, but this seems like a bad move.