
Very unhappy with Meetup.com Perks - MicahWedemeyer
http://peachshake.com/2011/02/06/very-unhappy-with-meetup-com-perks/
======
PanMan
One of the biggest problems Meetup seems to have is that they have a 'one size
fits all' model, which shows again here. And most of it is geared towards
smaller groups.

I'm one of the organizers of a Meetup with 4300+ members. Many things that
work with 10 members, don't work with 4000. And they don't seem to filter any
of it: After a year or two they send us an email: "Congratulations, you'r 2
years old. Most groups then pass the 50 member mark!". We had about 2000 or
so.

We have events every 2 months (with about 400 attendees). If we don't plan one
for the next month, they email us "It's important to have regular meetings,
plan one now!". We spend months planning our events, they cost a ton of money,
and would like to decide for ourselves, instead of having automatic meetup
suggestions.

Unfortunately I don't know any good competitors (meetup has a lot of features,
especially around waiting lists/RSVP's). And the switchover would be a pain,
as there is no way to export your members :(

</rant>

~~~
minouye
Have you noticed much fallout from the recent redesign? It seems like there
was a huge amount of outrage (mainly from organizers) [1], but I'm guessing
that the lack of competitors means that meetup organizers are left with no
viable alternatives.

[1] [http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/28/meetup-feels-the-wrath-
of-t...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/28/meetup-feels-the-wrath-of-the-crowd-
after-radical-changes/)

------
tmorton
Despite the title, this post is a great thing for meetup. It sounds like they
took the classic advice - they launched early with a minimalist feature. Now
this post tells them exactly how to improve it.

Of course, thousands(?) of potential advertisers are reading a "very unhappy"
review, but I think that's overstated. The review is clearly positive on the
idea, and on meetup in general. With a few tweaks, this sounds like a useful
platform.

~~~
MicahWedemeyer
This is partly me screaming to hopefully get some attention from them. I'd
love to give them feedback, but I couldn't get ahold of anyone. Their customer
service is pretty much nonexistent as far as I can tell.

But yeah, I love the idea. I just hope they improve the execution.

~~~
MicahWedemeyer
Follow up: I just got a tweet from Meetup giving me a link to their contact-us
form. They're listening, it just took me a while to get their attention.

~~~
nowarninglabel
When you have the CTO commenting on your blog, you are definitely attracting
the right kind of attention.

~~~
Hovertruck
A pretty decently-sized chunk of the dev team reads HN, I think it was only a
matter of time. :)

------
iamelgringo
I run Hackers and Founders, SV, and we're getting together with the organizers
of the other HN/Startup meetups in the area (the New Tech's, Founder Dating,
106 miles, H&F SV, etc..), and one of the main topics of conversation is going
to be how much meetup.com sucks for our groups.

H&F as well as SV NewTech are building their own software to try and fix these
problems, but it's going to be a bit of a pain in the ass. Especially, since
they don't let us have access to our email lists.

------
pella
#1 problem: NO UTF-8 Language Support

<http://www.meetup.com/boards/thread/8385095/0/>

If you still haven't voted, please add your voice here:

[http://meetup.uservoice.com/forums/37079-ideas-and-
suggestio...](http://meetup.uservoice.com/forums/37079-ideas-and-suggestions-
for-meetup/suggestions/1082271-support-utf-8-character-encoding-throughout-
the-si)

------
pella
Meetup's Serfs Sling Mud at CEO Scott Heiferman

[http://www.observer.com/2011/tech/more-tribulations-
meetup-d...](http://www.observer.com/2011/tech/more-tribulations-meetup-deals-
feature-causes-frustration)

