Reddit or HN are actually ideal platforms for meetups. All you need is list of links for tech meetups. Either a subreddit like /r/nyc_meetups or just a weekly "What's Going On" post where people can post about events. We're already on the network. I don't see why we need a separate website just for the physical act of coming together.
Meetup.com alternatives
81–90 of 300 posts
Re: Meetup.com alternatives
#82Our meet up has been running for a decade. This has only been possible by making attendees aware that they own the event. Over the years people have moved on and others have stepped in to keep the thing alive.
By effectively charging at the door our meet up becomes a product people buy not a community they take part in.
If we allow that to happen it won't survive another decade.
Re: Meetup.com alternatives
#83Somewhat related note: as someone living in a major city I find it increasingly hard to discover relevant events happening soon/around me. Events I'm looking for span a range of interests, artists, bands, topics, hobbies, and causes - hence no one central location has a list of everything relevant to me. So I'm forced to regularly dig through Meetup, Eventbrite, Facebook, Google Events Search, individual sites, indiv…
I'm actually building something right now. I'm building it because it is a problem I've faced among my friends and well.. the "millennial" generation to begin with. I'm building it first to be used among myself and friends. I don't want to say too much because to me the solution seems so obvious and I'd like to have something out there and tried on a small scale first, but... the key is not to focus on events directl…
I'd love to know more - your profile seems to be missing your email though (the main email in your HN profile is default private; you have to add it to the About section to be visible).
Re: Meetup.com alternatives
#84I was thinking of an alternative that would allow anyone to publish a meeting with a standard data format (similar to recipes) and get picked up by a massive meeting indexer. But then I realized that event coordinators want a lot of control over RSVPs, sending messages to attendees, and the ability to collect money ahead of time to pre-pay for event supplies, etc. It really is annoying that you need a platform to han…
Is there a standard data format for recipes? That sounds interesting.
It's a combination of this Google data format (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/recipe) and these WordPress plugins (https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-recipe-maker/, https://www.wpultimaterecipe.com/). Every recipe blog you have ever seen is probably a combination of these two. I think there's one additional format, but I can't find it, because all the search results are just random shitty recipes.
Re: Meetup.com alternatives
#85Isn’t the network effect the main problem in trying to replace Meet-up?
Perhaps Meet-ups for various niche interests is an option. But it’d be great to have some sites with better usability.
Re: Meetup.com alternatives
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm actually building something right now. I'm building it because it is a problem I've faced among my friends and well.. the "millennial" generation to begin with. I'm building it first to be used among myself and friends. I don't want to say too much because to me the solution seems so obvious and I'd like to have something out there and tried on a small scale first, but... the key is not to focus on events directl…
I'd love to know more - your profile seems to be missing your email though (the main email in your HN profile is default private; you have to add it to the About section to be visible).
Oh, thanks for letting me know! I'll add it there.
Re: Meetup.com alternatives
#87This is a good reminder of why I stopped going to most local tech meetups ran by meetup.com. Not because of the upcoming $2 fee, but because most of the time it's a 2 hour tech meetup where you spend 15 minutes mingling at the start, then 1 hour and 30 minutes listening to advertisements disguised as talks where you sit down and remain silent and then another 15 minutes mingling at the end. It feels so corporate and…
I've started a few meetups and a format that works well is the following:
- have one company as the sponsor, providing venue, food and one technical talk - this ensures that the organizers don't need to deal with money which is a big admin headache - have around 3 talks total, but keep them short, to around 20 minutes + 5 minutes for Q&A - start the event 15-30 mins late to allow for people to show up late and giving those that turned up early the chance to talk to each other - make sure you end quite early, leaving time for people to mingle afterwards
We also built our own Meetup.com alternative called Meetabit (https://meetabit.com, see my other comment to this post) and to promote it wrote a few blog posts which go into more detail, which you can find here: https://blog.toughbyte.com/tagged/meetup
Re: Meetup.com alternatives
#88I was thinking of an alternative that would allow anyone to publish a meeting with a standard data format (similar to recipes) and get picked up by a massive meeting indexer. But then I realized that event coordinators want a lot of control over RSVPs, sending messages to attendees, and the ability to collect money ahead of time to pre-pay for event supplies, etc. It really is annoying that you need a platform to han…
Is there a standard data format for recipes? That sounds interesting.
Yes there is a standard data format for recipes.
Re: Meetup.com alternatives
#89A free software alternative:
https://gettogether.community/
All the ones on the page look like more proprietary junk.
Re: Meetup.com alternatives
#90Somewhat related note: as someone living in a major city I find it increasingly hard to discover relevant events happening soon/around me. Events I'm looking for span a range of interests, artists, bands, topics, hobbies, and causes - hence no one central location has a list of everything relevant to me. So I'm forced to regularly dig through Meetup, Eventbrite, Facebook, Google Events Search, individual sites, indiv…
I'm actually building something right now. I'm building it because it is a problem I've faced among my friends and well.. the "millennial" generation to begin with. I'm building it first to be used among myself and friends. I don't want to say too much because to me the solution seems so obvious and I'd like to have something out there and tried on a small scale first, but... the key is not to focus on events directl…
Am interested in learning more but your contact info is twitter without DMs open (have to be mutually following). Mind opening DMs or posting your email to the about field on HN? Thanks!