

GroupsFinder Adds Events - coolgeek
http://groupsfinder.net/

======
jqueryin
1\. You need a logo/branding. The header looks like a stock WP template.

2\. The footer is good.

3\. The main content area needs work. I'd remove the social stuff from there,
you already have it in your footer.

4\. Where is your call to action? Those two categories in your main content
area should be large buttons with a bgcolor that makes them pop a bit.

5\. It's a tough sell for me with Meetup.com, I'd start doing some active
promotion on there by signing up for tech groups or emailing the leaders to
see if they would be interested in listing themselves on your site (or you do
it for them).

6\. You already know my general location (guestimate), so show me example
meetups straight from your main page and list my location. Urge me to change.
You already got me on your site, sell me. Don't make me click through another
page, I already lost interest. I want to see value add when I hit your page. I
want to know you have content pertinent to me.

~~~
coolgeek
1\. Understood. Gotta figure something out

3\. Removed from the home page.

But the social links on category and category/city pages are unique to the
category/city being viewed, whereas the ones in the footer are unchanging,
always pointing to the site root.

Does that change your mind on removing them from the sidebar?

4\. Done

5\. Not sure what you mean by "It's a tough sell for me with Meetup.com", but
there are already 7000 groups and 7500 events on my site. I pull daily from
meetup and icals, but the whole point of the site is that it's _all_ of the
groups, not just those on meetup.com

I've also published upcoming events to 72 (and counting) categorized/localized
Twitter accounts

6\. Good idea. On it.

Thanks for the feedback.

~~~
corford
> 1\. Understood. Gotta figure something out

Have a chat with Christian of <http://www.disenolopez.com/>

He's a really nice guy and he just did a logo for me (as part of a work swap
we arranged on weekendhacker.net) and I was very happy with the result. He
might do you a good deal if you mention Charlie recommended him to you.

Just a suggestion. Good luck!

------
modoc
I really like what you've done here, and have actually just found several
groups/meetups I'd like to check out.

I agree with jqueryin on most of his/her points, especially point 6. Opening
up with: "Here's a couple groups right nearby!" would be great!

I'd love the ability to search or filter on keywords. My area pulled up about
200 tech groups (I assume SF/NYC would be worse) and it would be great to be
able to narrow that down using keywords/tags or even a search. Most of the
group names have keywords in them: Java, Ruby, Marketing, Entrepreneur, etc...
so you should be able to build a list of keywords with group counts next to
them with checkboxes or something, so I can uncheck Ruby/Rails and check Java
or whatever my interests are.

I really like this site, but I think promoting it might be tough, since I keep
ending up on Meetup.com, so sharing your site around is odd for me.

~~~
coolgeek
Filtering within categories has been on my todo list. I'll reprioritize.

Right now there are over 500 non-meetup.com groups on the site (and if that
seems low, keep in mind that curation is a key value proposition I'm
providing). That said, I have several hundred more staged that I need to do a
little more cleaning up on before I push to the production site.

Also, if you missed it, check out the RSS and Twitter feeds. Seeing all of the
upcoming events in one place, without having to join all of the groups (and be
subject to inbox deluge) is pretty nifty.

Thanks for the feedback... and the morale boost.

------
coolgeek
Hey HN -

This is my site. I posted a barebones iteration a few months ago. It didn't
garner much inerest (perhaps deservedly so).

Anyway... GroupsFinder helps you find and track all of the groups near you,
and the events that the groups host.

What's cool/unique about this is that you can track entire categories
(currently tech, and design) via email, Twitter and RSS (as well as on the
site) without having to join all of the groups.

Also new in this iteration - global scope, a new UI, a second category (design
groups/events) and lots of other little tweaks.

Let me know what you like, and what I need to change.

Thanks!

------
alain94040
In the spirit of constructive criticism: I can't see the difference with going
to the Meetup home page. Actually, for the meetups, you are worse, because you
have less information. I can imagine that you include events that are not on
meetup, but it's not enough for me.

