MeetUp crashes and destroys an organizing base for dem grassroots ...???

[bobbieinok]

saw this at daily kos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/29/12729/0896

MeetUp is charging monthly fees ...... most groups can't afford

has this been discussed and I missed it???????

[kliljedahl]

1. We disbanded ours when they made the announcement

Our local group is small & couldn't afford it. We communicate by DU IM & regular E-mail.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Same here

we are still meeting but not using the meetup site.

[Ian David]

3. MeetUp was a good idea, poorly executed

It depends too much on top-down management and not on the base.

Most importantly, MeetUp management decides what groups THEY want to start.

They should have used a model more like Yahoo! groups.

In fact, if Yahoo! had just improved their calendaring options and added venues and voting, they could have put MeetUp out of business in a matter of weeks.

On the other hand, it was fun to become moderator of conservative Republican MeetUp groups and schedule them to meet in gay bars.

There are a whole bunch of very pissed-off Republicans in Upstate New York somewhere who apparently aren't a big fan of lesbians.

[kliljedahl]

4. Someone suggested Yahoo as an alternative

I've never used it so I don't know about it. Nothing came of it anyway.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Ian David]

5. Yahoo is pretty good, with some caveats

1) It is heavily exploited by spammers, and some precautions need to be taken

2) Yahoo has been known to exercise some draconian and apparently silly censorship. For example, someone told me they nuked all the "Flash Mob" groups.

3) Yahoo has a 47% rating from BuyBlue.org

BuyBlue.org's Position:

Yahoo! currently has a 47% BuyBlue rating due to political contributions for the 2003-2004 election cycle. Yahoo! is an interesting case because one would think that a company headquartered in silicon valley would be fairly progressive in terms of politics. However, during the 2003-2004 election cycle their CEO donated heavily to conservative candidates. Furthermore yahoo! does have a PAC and this PAC contributed fairly significant amounts of money during the last election, mostly to conservative candidates.

Technically this gives Yahoo! a "neutral" rating, but when you compare them side by side with their direct competitor Google you can see a huge difference in how they do things.

More:
http://www.buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=25

[Dr.Phool]

6. Now thats good thinking!

I wish I'd have thought of that. Would have even invited the County Republican Chairman to speak.