Helsinki Hacker News Meetup • Hacker News Board

deanc wrote: post #83

Hamuko wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't WhatsApp have usernames these days?

I believe in a group chat you can see everyone's phone number.

They're rolling out a new feature I believe to allow username only

Re: Helsinki Hacker News Meetup

#94

Post by stronglikedan » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 1:27 PM UTC

deanc wrote: post #77

Hi. Long-term HN user based in Helsinki. I'd join but don't really want to share my phone number with a large group of people. Can you not find another way to co-ordinate?

You don't have a throwaway Google Voice number? I use one for dating apps. Very convenient and worry free.

Re: Helsinki Hacker News Meetup

#95

Post by matheusmoreira » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 1:27 PM UTC

calpaterson wrote: post #91

matheusmoreira wrote: post #63

Is there a list of these by country?

There is https://meet.hn/ , which is a good way to bootstrap (and indeed, how I bootstrapped this meetup)

Hey I'm already on the site! Used to have the link with my city on my profile.

How does one bootstrap a meet from this? Just explore the map around my location and try to get in contact with people somehow?

Re: Helsinki Hacker News Meetup

#96

Post by Melatonic » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 1:31 PM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #82

calpaterson wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a conscientious objector to every communication system. As was said above: WhatsApp had the fewest.

There are a few people who don’t use e-mail, sure, like Donald Knuth. But conscientious objectors to e-mail? I don’t know of any, and if you find any, they probably don’t use the Internet, either.

There is also Böbbi Tables from Trollhein

Re: Helsinki Hacker News Meetup

#97

Post by nxtbl » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 1:32 PM UTC

> We use a WhatsApp group for co-ordination. The time and location of the meetup is announced there.

That's a hard no. You really, really should use Signal instead.

Re: Helsinki Hacker News Meetup

#98

Post by suslik » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

calpaterson wrote: post #2

We've been organising this for a while (a year? more?). It's quite relaxed - just a coffee morning every month or two. I'm sure there are other HN local meetups who could post in this thread - please do if you have a local meetup

Would love to join something like this in Brussels

Re: Helsinki Hacker News Meetup

#99

Post by Maxion » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 1:39 PM UTC

calpaterson wrote: post #90

VCFundedGenYer wrote: post #89

Not going, but just adding commentary - Having a karma requirement for a physical meetup is a poor choice. People will come out physically if they truly care, gatekeeping it with internet points is a bad idea, especially if you turn people away.

Having it be an open invitation meetup would attract a very different cohort and would have a very different character. Feel free to start that meetup - I might give it a try. But I wouldn't be interested in spending my personal time organising it

Specifically only interested in this because of the karma limit.

Re: Helsinki Hacker News Meetup

#100

Post by amberjack » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 1:39 PM UTC

I live in Helsinki so this seems fun. Commenters everywhere are a pretty strongly (self-)selected bunch so seems like a good way to get a strong selection effect without arduous requirements. Does anyone have previous experience with this kind of a setup?