[PSF-Community] Looking for alternatives to meetup.com

Alan Vezina alan at jydo.com
Sun Nov 22 03:11:16 EST 2015 

You are woefully underestimating the amount of work it would take to create
a site like meetup. You are also missing the point: Meetup recommends
people who are part of related, but different meetups to join our meetup.
This drives a good deal of people who weren't looking for our meetup to
find it, show up, and be contributing members. There is a HUGE amount of
value in the large user base that Meetup.com has.

On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 11:21 PM, RottinRob . <rottinrob at gmail.com> wrote:

> Please correct me if I'm wrong,  as Python is NOT my expertise, but is it
> not possible to throw up a virtual enironment, add some frills (dev tools,
> added bonus tools/software dependant on personal interest), base Django
> Server, and other support technologies. Mix in command interface via some
> console term or possibly GUI to some extent.
> Mind you, I'm aware that takes work and man hours...but it could be Python
> Based and Python Technology Driven, and can grow and be molded to need,
> desire, and growth of language.
> Should be fairly cheap in resources to implement, or at least reasonable.
> On Nov 22, 2015 1:04 AM, "Alan Vezina" <alan at jydo.com> wrote:
>
>> The problem is people are finding our meetup and other Python meetups
>> because they're being recommended them by meetup.com. For example, a
>> large set of people who find our meetup are recommended our meetup because
>> they're part of the Seattle JS meetup. I also noticed a change in new
>> members when we briefly stopped using meetup for registrations:
>>
>>    - August 2014 to March 2015 we used Meetup.com, consistently got
>>    emails saying 10-15 new members joined
>>    - Stopped using meetup for April to November, consistently received
>>    emails saying 2-5 new members joined
>>    - Went back to using Meetup in November, I am now consistently
>>    getting emails saying 10-15 new members joined
>>
>> Not using meetup, even though it has worse tools for managing events
>> really makes an impact on new members. Having a Python hosted meetup page
>> will cater to only people who really care about Python. The nice thing
>> about meetup is it recommends our meetup to people who maybe wouldn't
>> otherwise be looking for it, and that has brought us many great members.
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 10:13 PM, RottinRob . <rottinrob at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Just a thought but what about a. Django based alternative that would
>>> leverage the power of Python from the core. There should be well enough
>>> creativity, talent, and knowledge collectively to really make something
>>> truly incredible for Python specifically!
>>> On Nov 21, 2015 4:52 PM, "Don Sheu" <don at sheu.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Would be great to have a tool that incorporated the much better
>>>> utilities and mobile apps of Eventbrite with the discovery and social graph
>>>> effectiveness of Meetup.
>>>>
>>>> Revenue could be derived from offering a voluntary contribution
>>>> campaign drive like NPR and the like.
>>>>
>>>> That'd be a great startup to feature at PyCon Startup Row in May when
>>>> we convene in Portland.
>>>> ᐧ
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 11:20 AM, Douglas Napoleone <
>>>> doug.napoleone at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On the 'kids these days' part, my Son's after school robotics program
>>>>> (he is 11) uses snapchat (set up by the kids) for social communication,
>>>>> Slack for team communication/collaboration, Facebook for communicating with
>>>>> parents, and ole meetup.com for managing the team meetups, regional
>>>>> events, and competitions. The regionals are managed via
>>>>> robotevents.com (not under club control.)
>>>>>
>>>>> There has been repeated discussion on getting rid of at least one of
>>>>> these, and meetup.com in particular as that one has real cost behind
>>>>> it, has overlap with robotevents.com, and is the biggest pain to
>>>>> administrate. Even for a semi-private group, this proved to be difficult.
>>>>> Two years ago they removed the group, and signup dropped to almost nothing
>>>>> (12 new signups on avg per year down to 3 for that year). For a middle
>>>>> school club. Google is plugged into meetup.com much better than it is
>>>>> for facebook, and not at all for slack, and the school websites are
>>>>> garbage. Most parents and kids were finding out about the program through
>>>>> google, which was finding out about it from meetup.com.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have signed on to help out with some of the tech stuff to automate
>>>>> things. Going to 5 different interfaces (slack, school website, facebook,
>>>>> meetup.com, mailchimp) just to update a schedule is madness.
>>>>>
>>>>> I really wish there was better competition int his market.
>>>>>
>>>>>     -Doug
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:33 AM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal at python.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Thank you for all your feedback. I've collected the results so far
>>>>>> below:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  * Meetup has great discovery story, it brings in more people
>>>>>>    to the meetings and supports growth better than other
>>>>>>    services - this is perceived as the main benefit of
>>>>>>    meetup over other services.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    Some groups only use meetup for announcements and other
>>>>>>    services for the organization itself.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    While Meetup does have a big following in at least US,
>>>>>>    UK, Canada, Belgium, it's not that popular in other countries.
>>>>>>    Examples: Czech Republic, Germany (though it's getting
>>>>>>    stronger). This is probably also a reason why Meetup
>>>>>>    is cheaper in those countries than others (e.g. in Germany
>>>>>>    the unlimited plan costs USD 4.99 per month).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    Meetup is not willing to give us special rates or
>>>>>>    simplified setups (other than their standard setups).
>>>>>>    Even though there are plenty Python groups, the total
>>>>>>    number is not large enough to get them interested.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    We could save some money by using "master" accounts,
>>>>>>    since each Meetup account can host up to three meetings.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  * Eventbrite is good for RSVPs and check-ins, it also looks
>>>>>>    more professional than Meetup, but doesn't have such a good
>>>>>>    discovery story as Meetup.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    Since Eventbrite is very much a Python company, we might
>>>>>>    be able to talk them into a special deal.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  * Other services mentioned/found:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    * https://ti.to/ (free for free events, used by PyCon UK)
>>>>>>    * https://nvite.com/ (free for free events)
>>>>>>    * use Google rich snippets (structured meta data) to
>>>>>>      have Google find events
>>>>>>    * use the Python events calendar together with the map
>>>>>>      mashup: https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEventsCalendar
>>>>>>      + http://lmorillas.github.io/python_events/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I also found an interesting thread on a Meetup forum:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-want-to-close-my-group-what-are-good-free-alternative-platforms-to-meetup/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> and especially liked this story from the thread:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> """
>>>>>> I walk into the family room, and my teenager is on the lap top.   I
>>>>>> see the gmail chat window with
>>>>>> 30 ‘friends’ at the left hand margin.  I ask “Have you ever been
>>>>>> invited to a Google+ event?” “No”
>>>>>> “Have you ever been invited to a Facebook event?” “Yes, once the
>>>>>> principal gave out our wardrobe
>>>>>> instructions for our homecoming game.”  “Do you use Facebook much?”
>>>>>> “Hardly, ugly site, isn’t that
>>>>>> for old people?” I prefer SnapChat and Instagram”  “Argggggg.  Just
>>>>>> pics!”   “Have you ever heard of
>>>>>> Meetup” “Not really Dad, is that the stuff you do on Tuesday nights?”
>>>>>> """
>>>>>> (taken from
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-want-to-close-my-group-what-are-good-free-alternative-platforms-to-meetup/msg4171/?PHPSESSID=8a885701384e741ec4dc394e49e3bae7#msg4171
>>>>>> )
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Given such experience, it may well be that we "older" people
>>>>>> only perceive Meetup as being the holy grail when it comes
>>>>>> to organizing user group events, while the younger folks
>>>>>> don't even get to see these events, unless they are also available
>>>>>> on FB, G+, Instagram, etc. Perhaps something to consider.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I guess in the short term, we're better off encouraging sharing
>>>>>> Meetup accounts to lower costs and continue to look for
>>>>>> alternatives.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> For a meeting I'm running with Charlie Clark in Düsseldorf
>>>>>> (Python Meeting Düsseldorf), we've so far tried to stay away
>>>>>> from Meetup and invested a lot of time into all the other
>>>>>> channels you have to serve. For us, the marketing aspect
>>>>>> would be the only reason to try it, since the organization
>>>>>> is working just fine using plain old email.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Marc-Andre Lemburg
>>>>>> Director
>>>>>> Python Software Foundation
>>>>>> http://www.python.org/psf/
>>>>>> http://www.malemburg.com/
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>> PSF-Community at python.org
>>>>>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> PSF-Community mailing list
>>>>> PSF-Community at python.org
>>>>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Don Sheu
>>>> 312.880.9389
>>>> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>>>>
>>>> RSVP for my Python user group, meeting 12/9 at Redfin
>>>> *http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/
>>>> <http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/events/226728440/>*
>>>>
>>>>
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