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All,<br>
<br>
<br>
If you want to regain control of the Meetup, the previous
organizer(s) need to contact Nicole and her team on the Trust and
Safety team at Meetup at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:abuse@meetup.com">abuse@meetup.com</a>.<br>
<br>
<br>
//-------<br>
//TL;DR<br>
//-------<br>
<br>
This chain of events was really unfortunate.<br>
<br>
Personally, I am highly dependent on Meetup to learn about different
software development talks going on in the Bay Area. One of the
amazing things about the Bay Area is it is such a rich environment
for learning, exchange of information, and networking...but without
a unified resource like Meetup is is really hard to find them.<br>
<br>
I posted on a thread on the Meetup page discussion board (no longer
accessible to me because I haven't paid the fee:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.meetup.com/BayPIGgies/messages/boards/thread/49464471">http://www.meetup.com/BayPIGgies/messages/boards/thread/49464471</a>)
before everyone got thrown out that I was concerned that the Meetup
was going to charge $20 per person per year...and at that time there
were ~1200 people on the group. It seemed like an enormous amount of
money that needed to be collected. Some reasons on the listed on
Meetup for the group "needing" those funds were to essentially
reimburse the coordinator (?!). I was removed from the group
because I didn't pay the fee.<br>
<br>
I know that many individuals in the community likewise use Meetup to
find opportunities to learn, and while some groups do charge a fee
for teaching events I knew that Baypiggies did not. There was no
explanation for the sudden change from free to not-free, and others
seem to be bothered by it. I knew that other people trying to just
learn about Python could be being duped into what seemed like a
scam...especially after all the talk on the mailing list.... and it
made me mad that people would be abusing good-hearted developers who
wanted to learn and connect...especially newbies in the community.<br>
<br>
I took the initiative to reach out to Meetup to see what next steps
might be (hopefully this didn't step on anyone's toes but I wanted
to alert Meetup about possible fraudulent activity [the group's
display name changed this week but still included the same casing
BayPIGgies as if it were part of the original group])...basically
because I didn't want people's money to be stolen by unscrupulous
people misrepresenting an association when there are so many great
resources around. Although Silicon Valley is seemingly an area of
great wealth, the cost of living is quite high and there are people
in the impossibly expensive Silicon Valley for whom $20 (possibly
misspent) can make the difference whether or not they can eat
(students, early startup coders, etc etc). Honestly. If someone
wanted to start a new Python group that would be fine to me... but
to ask 1200 people to suddenly give $20 without consent from the
group seems unsavory at best.<br>
<br>
<br>
The reply from Meetup:<br>
<br>
"Hello Karen, <br>
<div><br>
My name is Nicole and I work on the Trust and Safety team here at
Meetup. Thank you for taking the time to write in. I would be
happy to look into this further; however, we need to hear directly
from the previous organizer of the Meetup. <br>
<br>
If you can have them reach out to my team directly at
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:abuse@meetup.com">abuse@meetup.com</a> we'll be able to conduct a limited inquiry and
take the appropriate action. <br>
<br>
Thank you again for bringing this to our attention. </div>
<br>
<div style="margin-top:10px;"> Sincerely,
<br>
Nicole
<br>
Trust and Safety Specialist <br>
Meetup HQ"</div>
<br>
<br>
Again, my sincere apologies if obtaining this info regarding next
steps stepped on anyone's toes ...but hopeful the Meetup group once
again can be a resource for sharing Baypiggies events again.<br>
<br>
//-------<br>
// /TL;DR<br>
//-------<br>
<br>
-Karen<br>
<br>
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