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Meetup.com alternatives

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Re: Meetup.com alternatives

#291

Post by zaiste »

Yet another alternative, focused on technical events is Eventil [1]. It's born out of my experiences as a organizer of PolyConf [2] and RuPy [3] conferences. It's a side-project built to scratch my own itch. There is still plenty to be improved with bugs here and there. Several large conferences use this tool successfully to improve their workflow.

There is group management, ticketing without fees, call for proposals management, mailings, invoicing, sponsorship management et more. We charge 49/199 USD on per-event basis (no monthly fee, no % off ticket sales) depending on the event size. Free events are free and non-profit are 50% off.

[1]: https://eventil.com/ [2]: https://polyconf.com/ [3]: http://13.rupy.eu/

Re: Meetup.com alternatives

#292

Post by mikece »

There are already several alternatives to meetup.com; what we need is a standard like ActivityPub could be leveraged to allow for federation, discovery, and searching for user groups by interest, topic, location, and affinity (people in my user groups are also members of these groups...)?

Re: Meetup.com alternatives

#293

Post by Santoshpanda »

robbiemitchell wrote: post #147

If a meetup is not even worth $2 to attend, is it really worth an hour+ of your personal time?

I believe each group has unique power due to its efforts in building a group, growing, and nurturing members. With this pricing, Meetup is closing the door to free network effect and not letting the host benefit from own efforts. You should check https://info.explara.com/switch-from-meetup-to-explara

Re: Meetup.com alternatives

#294

Post by Santoshpanda »

morningseagulls wrote: post #287
davidjnelson wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. When I hosted meetups, paying $20/mo wasn’t the end of the world. Now, finding cost effective space for large groups was very hard. I think for meetups where the hosting companies are getting value, ie: recruiting at tech meetups, it’s reasonable for hosts to absorb attendee costs. So just give the $2 back to each attendee in that case, solved.

>When I hosted meetups, paying $20/mo wasn’t the end of the world. >So just give the $2 back to each attendee in that case, solved. Under the new model, organizers will be paying $2/mo for every attendee that RSVPs. For meetups attracting a large audience, this easily comes to >$200/mo, which is a 1000% increase. >I think for meetups where the hosting companies are getting value, ie: recruiting at tech meetups, it’s…

One important factor to add here is the free network effect which influenced hosts to use Meetup. With this pricing, Meetup is closing the door to free network effect and not letting the host benefit from own efforts too.

I believe Meetup is heading Ning way => https://www.zdnet.com/article/andreessen-founded-ning-cuts-s... Andreessen-founded Ning cuts staff, free service.

You should check https://info.explara.com/switch-from-meetup-to-explara

Re: Meetup.com alternatives

#295

Post by Santoshpanda »

chrisa wrote: post #57

I co-organize a React meetup, and seeing the price change update last night made me so... upset and confused - that I decided to build an alternative. My plan is to charge organizers (like meetup does today) to cover costs - but never to charge members to attend free events. I've been looking for a solid project to spend time on, and this just became it. I put up a landing page this morning, and I've already started…

Have a look at https://info.explara.com/switch-from-meetup-to-explara You will love it. Map your domain, bring multiple groups under one network and just grow like https://hub.tie.org in 60+ cities powered by Explara Community.

Re: Meetup.com alternatives

#296

Post by Santoshpanda »

merqurio wrote: post #182

I would happily work on implementing a Meetup.com alternative based on ActivityPub and push for a federation of instances, much like Mastodon. Each community has very different needs, but a federated network would help making the multi-community reality we experience much easier.

Have a look at https://hub.tie.org in 60+ cities powered by Explara Community.

You will love it. Map your domain, bring multiple groups under one network. Why switch from Meetup to Explara Community=> https://info.explara.com/switch-from-meetup-to-explara

Re: Meetup.com alternatives

#297

Post by Santoshpanda »

willart4food wrote: post #148

WOW! This is interesting. I belong to 2 large-ish meetups that in the past few months have been migrating to a Facebook page. I have run meetups of all kinds, from tech to social; and I am now running 3 meetups and IMO this is not only a disaster for meetup.com but offers an incredible opportunity to take the cherry for: * Facebook * EventBrite * a new startup taking over this space Unless meetup.com rever its course…

Meetup is heading Ning way => https://www.zdnet.com/article/andreessen-founded-ning-cuts-s...

I run the Explara Community Software, which powers smaller to the largest community like https://hub.tie.org/

Explara Community Software has super advantages to group owners who don't need Meetup network effect as such. More on https://info.explara.com/switch-from-meetup-to-explara

Re: Meetup.com alternatives

#298

Post by psteinweber »

The mentioned $2 fee was just a test. Check out the offical statement from meetup.com (linked in the posted article): https://www.meetup.com/lp/paymentchanges

>We are not, I repeat not, in the process of making a massive payment change for our existing customers. The confusion was triggered by a limited test to a few hundred groups in two U.S. states. The payment options shared on social media will only apply to organizers who are part of this test. We apologize that the language on the page caused alarm and confusion. We would never make such a change without giving our customers advance notice.

Re: Meetup.com alternatives

#300

Post by akvadrako »

paulgb wrote: post #95
jumpingmice wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meetup doesn’t “run” these. You’re just picking boring ones. The only meetup I attend is a bunch of random motorcyclists who go up the coast highway every week. Never felt bored.

They don't run them, but it's sort of intrinsic to their platform that low-budget meetups can't access it, and those can be some of the best because they don't have to answer to sponsors. I run a "meetup" that is not on Meetup, in part because of the cost (I'm fortunate that in a technical niche community in NYC, word of mouth spreads fast).

The cost is like 50 euro a year - which is only really significant if you have less than a few meetups every year.

I would say that fee keeps things a little more professional than otherwise.

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