Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com alternative

radius.to

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 155 posts

Re: Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com alternative

#41

Post by CognitiveLens »

I've worked in this product area before, and the big threats that we always had to watch out for were

1. Spam - once the app is large enough, you will be inundated with 'groups' that are just marketing pitches for companies and products. If you don't have a system for approving groups or figuring out how to promote high-quality over low-quality groups, you're going to struggle. Also, the whole idea of 'high-quality' vs 'low-quality' groups is dangerous in various ways.

2. All the other pitfalls of user-made content, e.g. hate speech and inappropriate content

3. People will try to use this as an online dating site - you need to decide early whether that's good or bad, but it's a huge (and potentially overwhelming) aspect of creating an app like this

4. Facebook groups will eat your lunch

5. Really great to see your early caution about building too many features and trying to be everything to everyone. All conceivable features will be requested, and you'll need to have a clear vision in order to decide what is important and what is not.

Re: Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com alternative

#42

Post by CognitiveLens »

DevX101 wrote: post #34
rickcarlino wrote: post #28

I run a meet up group of about 1000 members for a makerspace in the Chicago suburbs. I’m glad to see alternatives coming about, but I’m also somewhat skeptical this can actually solve our dissatisfaction with Meetup. As an event organizer, I don’t really need that many fancy features. I need a product that is moderately priced and will actually get people to walk in the door when I schedule an event. Focus on buildin…

Real life meetup platform doesn't really need network effects. The most engaging "meetups" I go to are small events, friendly attendees with similar interests, and no more than 20 people. In these settings I get to have meaningful face to face dialogue.

Meeting up in real life is all about network effects - people make friends through networks, organize events through networks, and discover new opportunities through networks. If you're talking about small events that you found out about through sites like Meetup, those are typically successful when you have a large-enough network of people who _might_ be interested.

Re: Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com alternative

#43

Post by yowayb »

DevX101 wrote: post #34
rickcarlino wrote: post #28

I run a meet up group of about 1000 members for a makerspace in the Chicago suburbs. I’m glad to see alternatives coming about, but I’m also somewhat skeptical this can actually solve our dissatisfaction with Meetup. As an event organizer, I don’t really need that many fancy features. I need a product that is moderately priced and will actually get people to walk in the door when I schedule an event. Focus on buildin…

Real life meetup platform doesn't really need network effects. The most engaging "meetups" I go to are small events, friendly attendees with similar interests, and no more than 20 people. In these settings I get to have meaningful face to face dialogue.

Yes! I went to a professional meetup with 80 people. Every single person I met was interesting, but they keep moving, so I had to pull aside the person I was talking to at the moment just to continue a conversation.

Re: Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com alternative

#44

Post by rakoo »

uh_uh wrote: post #39
pietervdvn wrote: post #37

To be a bit blunt: I don't feel the need to have yet another centralized meetup tool. I'd rather have federated tools such as Gancio ( https://gancio.org/ ) or Mobilizon ( https://mobilizon.org/en/ ), which both can push scheduled events into Mastodon and can exchange events among them. This way, one is insulated against enshittification and abuse of network effects.

Normies won't use these. UX needs to be simple.

That doesn't mean a brand new project needs to be started from scratch though

Re: Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com alternative

#45

Post by michaelmior »

djbusby wrote: post #13
michaelmior wrote: post #10

I would be happy to see a good meetup alternative. You might want to consider hiding the numbers of groups and events until you have numbers that are likely to impress anyone viewing them. No shame at all in starting small (there's really no other way to start). But you might turn away potential users who think you're likely to disappear.

But small numbers are a signal to the visitors they are early. Some segment likes that. I think when you are new, embrace the newness.

That's a reasonable take as well. I think there are positives and negatives to both.

Re: Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com alternative

#46

Post by jeltz »

CognitiveLens wrote: post #41

I've worked in this product area before, and the big threats that we always had to watch out for were 1. Spam - once the app is large enough, you will be inundated with 'groups' that are just marketing pitches for companies and products. If you don't have a system for approving groups or figuring out how to promote high-quality over low-quality groups, you're going to struggle. Also, the whole idea of 'high-quality'…

I am skeptical about 4. There is a reason Meetup ate Facebook for many things despite it requiring a new account, Facebook groups are terrible and Meetup shows that you can compete.

Re: Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com alternative

#47

Post by rickcarlino »

DevX101 wrote: post #34
rickcarlino wrote: post #28

I run a meet up group of about 1000 members for a makerspace in the Chicago suburbs. I’m glad to see alternatives coming about, but I’m also somewhat skeptical this can actually solve our dissatisfaction with Meetup. As an event organizer, I don’t really need that many fancy features. I need a product that is moderately priced and will actually get people to walk in the door when I schedule an event. Focus on buildin…

Real life meetup platform doesn't really need network effects. The most engaging "meetups" I go to are small events, friendly attendees with similar interests, and no more than 20 people. In these settings I get to have meaningful face to face dialogue.

Our meetups generally have about 20 people. The problem is that without generating network effects, you can't generate awareness that the event is happening at all. We've had a brick-and-mortar location in a Chicago suburb for over 8 years. In the early days, Meetup's network effects were the only way to get people in the door, until much later when word-of-mouth spread.

Re: Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com alternative

#48

Post by stavros »

CognitiveLens wrote: post #41

I've worked in this product area before, and the big threats that we always had to watch out for were 1. Spam - once the app is large enough, you will be inundated with 'groups' that are just marketing pitches for companies and products. If you don't have a system for approving groups or figuring out how to promote high-quality over low-quality groups, you're going to struggle. Also, the whole idea of 'high-quality'…

I run a meet-up group, I hate meetup.com but I pay for it because Facebook groups isn't as good, and meetup.com doesn't even work properly. It's such a terribly low bar.

Re: Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com alternative

#49

Post by mncolinlee »

blakeburch wrote: post #22

I actively run both a professional and personal on Meetup for the past 1.5 years. I love seeing new options show up in the space, because I do believe the tools are ripe for disruption right now and the sites where people post their events are very fragmented. Kudos to you for taking a stab at it. There's two things I'd love to know how you're thinking about: 1. Right now, the benefit of Meetup is natural discoverabi…

> It's my understanding that despite the high cost to run Meetups, the company itself has never been in a good financial position. They've been bought and sold multiple times.

Former Meetup employee here. A company being bought and sold multiple times is not a sign of being in a poor financial position.

2017: Meetup was first bought by WeWork for $156M.

2020: Meetup was then sold for a fire sale price to AlleyCorp as WeWork was trying to avoid bankruptcy from their unsustainable office rent deals. Watch any of the streaming shows like WeCrashed if you want to know what happened to WeWork.

2024: Meetup was then sold for a very nice multiple of their 2020 price to Bending Spoons after being profitable for several years. However, it had been profitable over those years by keeping it all together with only a small team. Bending Spoons moved operations to Italy, where most developers are cheaper.

Post reply on HN