Ask HN: How can I meet other programmers?

Go to rubyjax. Chances are you'll meet people who also code python. Even if you don't, it'll probably be an interesting event anyway.

Um, start a Meetup and Tweet about it? It'll cost $50.

Before I tell you a story, my recommendation is for you to attend the RubyJax meetup.

A few years ago, I moved from a large metro area (5 million) to a smaller city (250k). At the time, I worked primarily with ColdFusion. Where I moved, no one was using it.

Before I moved, I connected to the area through the local Linux Users Group mailing list. Through that list, I found two other telecommuters. The other two were python developers and one of them was also big into Flash mobile at the time. That didn't matter, we were all web developers. Once a month, we'd get together for coffee and to talk shop. It didn't matter that we all had different backgrounds. A year later, we opened the group up to a Geek Dinner style event and invited designers and others into the mix. I found I was able to "talk shop" with others and made a few friends along the way.

I can relate.

While it's good to look for a Python meetup, don't focus primarily on finding and attending a Python meetup. Go ahead and attend the RubyJax meetup. I don't think they are going to try and convert you. When you do attend, don't sit in a corner. Go around and introduce yourself to as many people as you can. Tell them you're a python programmer, that you're new to the area, and you're wanting to meet people who work in a similar field. Ask around if anyone knows any other python programmers or meetups. Build up your network.

Eventually, you'll meet other developers. After a few months, if you still haven't found the Python meetup you're looking for, think about starting one. You'll be surprised at the people who come out of the woodwork.

I was going to suggest a Jacksonville HN Meetup, but I looked on Meetup.com, and you appear to be right -- there's very little in your area. The nearest thing I saw was the Gainesville Web Meetup, but it only had 4 people attending and that's a hike for you.

You could always start a Jacksonville HN meetup, if only to find out how many others are in the area. Or you could start a poll on here and tweet the link to try to get it upvoted -- post the link back here if you do and I'll upvote it.

Another suggestion I was going to give you is to hit up a StartupWeekend - here's[1] one in Jacksonville, but I don't know how frequent they are in your area.

http://jacksonville.startupweekend.org/

I'd go to RubyJax and meet up with the Ruby programmers. You'll have a lot more in common with them than you will with Enterprise .NET or Java programmers. And who knows, you might find that you like Ruby too.

Before I found a python user group in Minneapolis, I had only heard about the Ruby user group. So, I installed ruby, made sure I could run

  >> puts "Hello world"

and then went to the Ruby meetup. It was a good call. At the time I really just needed someone to talk shop with and no one there cared that I was mainly a Python dev. It's not like we talked about block scoping and multi-lined lambdas.

One huge benefit of going to the Ruby meetup was that I learned of a bunch of other meetups in the area. Smaller ones that didn't have a web presence yet. There may be a Python community in Jacksonville that some Ruby users might know about.

Start your own Python meetup group if there isn't one. I've started a couple different meetup groups over the years and sure it starts off slow but gradually it'll grow and people will find you.

Go on LinkedIn and try to add some other developers who seem like they would be the type of person who goes to meetups. I did this before and got some suggestions for places to go (a co-working type of environment) that I hadn't heard of before. It ended up being pretty far from where I actually lived so I never made it out there (busy with work, commute, etc) but it was nice to at least have the option