This is absolutely heinous. I have two new meetups I was looking forward to attending later this month. I will be reaching out to the hosts to let them know I still want to attend but I'm canceling the RSVP for their wallets' sake.
What if we moved the "reservations" off platform since that's what they're squeezing. I see lots of conversations on Meetup alternatives but one of the most valuable functions of Meetup for me is the recommendations for new groups. And that requires network effects to build out. I'm all for ditching a platform that is sinking, but for the transition, maybe something like dropping a Google form link maksed by a url shortener would help organizers get a rough idea without requiring ppl to RSVP directly on the platform. And you can submit any contact info you want to the form, and receive a summery email blast after the Meetup with a sheet that has everyones contact info for networking purposes.
It does say select groups, so I imagine they're targeting groups that are really just companies trying to drive business using Meetup. But I don't think I'll hang around to find out. The group I run mostly switched to Facebook a couple of years ago. We still post events on Meetup, but all of the discussion takes place on FB. In fact the Meetup group has about 3000 members, and the FB group about 4000. So I don't think we'll lose much by ditching Meetup.
I wish I'd never had anything to do with meetup. We had lots of people join our Makerspace meetup page, but very few ever actually showed up in person. Then, they basically blackmail you by threatening to send an "organizer has stepped down" message to everyone if you don't want to keep paying.
9 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 30.2 ms ] threadI'm generally in favour of paid products but $2 per RSVP is just... insane.
Is this effective October and applies to the next months?
Edit: I found https://www.meetup.com/lp/paymentchanges