*** What's new in June! (2006)

Folks-

Welcome to Summer! With no further ado, here's what's new on the site:

Tabs and "Breadcrumbs"
I may as well start with the most apparent change. There are now tabs at the top of every page as well as breadcrumbs.

These are there for two reasons: First, to make the various "sections" of our site more apparent. We expect that by adding these tabs people new to the site will explore a lot more and be that more likely to find and join a group.

Second, we feel that by selecting a tab and using breadcrumbs we can make your "location" within the site clear and therefore help people understand the breadth and depth of the site (which will then get them to explore more and join more.)

Bottom line, as people explore more they join more. While the connection to your group is a bit hard to see, we expect that this will be one of the larger changes we make all year in terms of helping your groups grow.

What's Meetup?
Speaking of tabs, there's a tab leading to a new page: "What's Meetup". We think this single-page explanation of the site will attract a lot of casual visitors to the site and convert them to members of your group. Take a look and tell us what you think.

Editable Location (Venue) Information
This is the first in a number of steps towards our making location information editable. Make a typo entering a new restaurant? Want to delete a location you never use any more? Want o add 3 or 4 locations all at once?

Easy. Just click the green "Organizer Tools and Help" link on any of your group's pages and then the "Events & Locations" tab. From there you'll have the ability to do everything I listed above.

Secret Feature: insert videos on your About pages
So, you know we've been adding new buttons and controls to what you can add to your About pages. Well, we half-added something. You can now put videos on your About pages.

Why do I say half-added? Well, we recognize the videos, we just don't have a button yet that makes it 1-2-3 easy. The button comes next month but I didn't think some of you would want to wait. ;)

So, how do you insert a video? Easy (I hope):

• Upload your video to any of the three major free video hosting sites we've chosen (YouTube, Google Video, or Vimeo)
  
• Copy their "embedding" code from the page that shows your video on their site
  
• Paste that code onto any of your About pages.
  

That's it! You page now has a video on it. Do note that you'll need to upload your video to one of the three sites above. Make sure you're comfortable with what they do with that video. (Why don't we host the video ourselves? Because we're not in the video hosting business. They are and they do a much better job than we could.)

Other...
There's a bit more too:

• You asked, we listened. City Pages now have lists of the 100 largest groups in the area as well the 100 newest groups in the area. Enjoy.
  
• We no longer offer "Gift Subscriptions". We had to make some changes to our payment code and keeping them would have entailed a lot of additional work. Considering how few were sold, they had to go.
  
• Those member quotes we show on your group's home page to non-members? We now randomize them and change them frequently.
  
• We've cleaned up our Jobs page. Take a look and if you know anyone who's looking, send them our way!
  

Problems? Bugs
As always, we probably made mistakes. If you have a problem let us know in our Help
Forum.

Feedback
And also as always, we're human and crave validation. If you love something, let us know by replying to this message. (And if you hate something you can say that too.)

Walter
Director of Product Development
Meetup.com - Whatever your interest. Wherever you are. Meetup.

I am thrilled with the video and editing venue abilities!! Thanks staff!!

Sunnie
Mothers Inc
San Diego ~Savvy Organizers Society~

I like the tabs, but it's going to take me a while to get used to not going to the link at the left of Account for my home page (I've already clicked on my Profile twice out of habit of trying to get back to the home page).

I like the tabs, but it's going to take me a while to get used to not going to the link at the left of Account for my home page (I've already clicked on my Profile twice out of habit of trying to get back to the home page).

Yeah, old habits die hard.

Now there's the tab. And a little secret, like most sites, clicking the logo also takes you there.

Walter

Walter and Staff-
Love, love, love the breadcrumbs!!! Thank you for those.

Also warmly recieved and much anticipated is the ability to edit and delete venues. Thank you!!!

I am absolutely thrilled about the video embedding! ROCK!!!

Excitedly yours,
Molly

You guys do so much!! Thank you! I love the tabs, and I love that video can be added (now I just need to convince my hubby to by me a new camcorder that can do all of that, lol).

The only thing I don't *like* is the list showing the most members. This is why: They are all in New York, lol!! If a newcomer comes to the site and sees that list, which is wonderful don't get me wrong, I think they may not look any further.

What if you created another list showing the largest group in each city? Would that be a real pain to do? Just a thought, and of course I have to ask, because our group is the largest in Canada, haha! We need to promote too! :)

Seriously though, all of you have done a fabulous job as always!

Bonnie & Sushi
Toronto Shiba Inu Meetup Group

Well I just got done playing with the new venue editing, and it works great!! I was able to go through and delete about 20 outdated, repeated, and incorrect venues in about 5 minutes!

Thanks again!

Sunnie

The only thing I don't *like* is the list showing the most members. This is why: They are all in New York, lol!! If a newcomer comes to the site and sees that list, which is wonderful don't get me wrong, I think they may not look any further.

Bonnie-

I'm not sure what list you're referring to. We added lists of the largest groups in each CITY. The example I linked to was just the list for New York.

If you go look at the Toronto page, your group is listed there.

Walter

Everything is so Awesome! I am wondering where the "Waiting to Join" pages went? I used then to get new members for my toy dog group by asking those waiting for breed specific groups if they wanted to join mine while they waited. :)

I do not see them where they used to be.

Thanks

Teresa

The new changes are great!

Mary

*removed misleading and wrong information.