New in March (2007)

Hi everyone,

We are very excited to announce our March release...despite the fact that it caused a few glitches this morning. We apologize for any trouble caused.

Among other things, the upgrade includes a terrific new feature we've been working very hard to bring you: Meetup Mailing Lists. Here's the full list:

• Video on your About page - It's easier than ever to add video to your About Us page: We've added an "insert video" tool to the editing menu. Just go to your group's About Us page, click "edit," click the video button, and then follow the instructions.
  
• Updated "Promote!" page - We made it easier for you to find ways to promote your Meetup. Click on the "Promote!" link from your group page to see and learn.
  
• Updated Account page - You can now manage all your Meetup memberships and other account preferences from one place. The page also makes it simple for Organizers and members to update their mailing list and other email preferences.
  
• Meetup Mailing Lists - a unique email address and mailing list for your Meetup group. We're rolling mailing lists out slowly, to find any glitches. We'll send out a big announcement in about a week, but in the meantime Organizers can turn on group mailing lists from their group settings page (under Messaging Settings).
  
  
  
  Change the setting to "Allow all members to send messages"
  

As I mentioned when I pre-announced Meetup Mailing Lists last month, mailing lists are a great way for members to stay in touch between Meetups, and they give the Organizer the ability to distribute an HTML newsletter - with styles (bold, italic, text color) and images.

See my next post for more information about how mailing list works...

If you've got questions about mailing lists, you'll (hopefully) find the answers here:


HOW IT WORKS

How does a mailing list work?

• Every Meetup group is assigned a unique email address. For example, pug.meetup.com/45 would get pug-45@meetup.com.
  
• A group member sends a message to the group email address.
  
• The message is emailed to everyone on the mailing list.
  
• The message is archived in the Messages section of your group's site.
  

Why should my group use the mailing list?
Your Meetup Mailing List makes it easy for your members to stay in touch between Meetups.When members are more active, it?s likely more will show up at Meetups! Mailing lists can also make it easier to plan Meetups.


Aren't message boards enough?
Mailing lists are more flexible, easier to use, and encourage more discussion than message boards. With the mailing list, members can write a message right from their email, and they receive messages in email as well.

With message boards, members have to log on to the Meetup site and remember to check the message board. It's harder to use, which means that fewer people participate in discussions.

To make sure that all communication happens in one place, we suggest that Organizers turn off their message boards and use the mailing list (and archive) instead.


What's the difference between the Organizer's "email group" form and mailing lists?
(Answer stolen nearly verbatim from Hilary's great post )

The "email group" facility is only available to Organizer(s). It is a broadcast e-mail that is one-way. When members reply to it, it only goes to the organizer that sent the original message.

The mailing list is more democratic, allowing potentially all members of the group to send out emails to the entire group. If you've ever been part of an e-mail discussion group (like those found on yahoo) you'll know what a mailing list is like.

The other main difference is that the "email group" facility must be launched from the site. You would not have to visit the meetup site to use the mailing list.


Who can send messages to a mailing list?
Organizers control who can send messages to the mailing list. They can set it so:

• OPEN: All members can send messages to the mailing list.
  
• MODERATED: All members can use the mailing list, but Organizer(s) must approve messages first.
  
• ORG-ONLY: Only the Organizer(s) can send messages.
  

Who receives messages sent to a mailing list?
Each member has control over whether they are subscribed to the mailing list. They can set their own mailing list options to:

• ALL: From everyone, immediately
  
• DIGEST: From everyone, daily digest (i.e., all messages from that day in one email)
  
• ORG-ONLY: Only special announcements from Organizer(s)
  

To be clear: only members of the Meetup Group who have subscribed to the mailing list will receive these messages.


Can Organizers still send email to the whole group - even people who are not subscribed to the mailing list?
Of course! They can still use the "Email group" form on the site. And mailing lists offer another feature: Organizers can now send email to the whole group right from their email by adding "-announce" to the end of the mailing list address.

For example, if your group email address was pug-45@meetup.com, your special announcement email would be pug-45-announce@meetup.com.

Only Organizers and Assistant Organizers can send email to this address.


SENDING & RECEIVING

Can I send a message to the mailing list from any email address?
No. You must use the email address you registered with Meetup. This is a security precaution to ensure that only group members can use the mailing list.


Can I send/receive attachments?
Yes, in most cases. You can send attachments that are up to 1MB in size.

If the Organizer set the mailing list to "moderated," attachments will not be sent.
If a member has his or her preferences set to "daily digest," he or she will not receive attachments.

NOTE: Attachments will not be archived on the site.


For Organizers, what's the difference between sending a message to the mailing list and sending a "special announcement"?
When Organizers send a message to the mailing list, only group members subscribed to the mailing list will get a copy of the message. Any replies to that message will be sent to the entire mailing list.

When Organizers send a "special announcement," the message will go to all group members. Any replies will be sent to the Organizer.


PRIVACY AND SPAM

If I send a message to the mailing list or reply to a message from the mailing list, will everyone see my email address?
Yes. If you send to or reply to the mailing list, your full email address is displayed. If you want to keep your email address hidden, you can send a message to another member through the Meetup site.


Are mailing list messages archived?
Yes. Messages sent to the mailing list are archived in the Messages section of your group. Note that email addresses of the senders are not displayed in the archive.


Can I edit/delete messages in the archive?
Only the Organizer can delete messages in the archive.


Does Meetup do anything to prevent spam on mailing lists?
Yes.

• Only members of a Meetup group can send messages to a group's mailing list
  
• New group members are restricted to 3 messages per day for their first 3 days of group membership
  
• You can only send 25 messages per day
  
• You can only send to 3 different group mailing lists per day
  

We also do a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff to stop spam and other nefarious behavior.

I DO NOT want members to have direct access to my personal email address unless I give it to them.
There are many members I haven't even met before! I don't feel comfortable giving strangers direct access to my personal email address.
Members who have my email address are my students, or members I've known since before I became the Organizer.

How do I delete this/change this from "email members" page?

I cannot send out info about new events otherwise!
Many of my members do not come to the site unless I send them an email of event(s).
There are members who are too busy, impatient, forget, or just don't want to take the required amount of time to look at every email - browse all over the site,.. etc.
They just respond to the event if they're interested.
I really have to be able to email members WITHOUT my personal email showing!

Most of my members don't look at the message board much either.

HELP! Thank you.

I set up a seperate email for my group...... I have Earthlink, so I can have 8 different emails so my group one is mothersinclv@eathlink.net.....then I went into the settins & have it forward all incoming messages to my "personal" email.....IF I reply to it from my personal email, then they will have it, but if I choose not to, then I just replay from my group email accnt. I then changed my log-in on MeetUp to my group acct email.

I have the convience of getting my emails all in one place (my personal email) but the convinence of not giving it out to anyone I don't want to.

Christina --

I cannot see this image. Have you set the permissions on the file so that everyone can view it?

Hmm

Hi Christina,

I don't want my meetup organizers to send me redundant emails. I am getting daily updates from meetup for all of my groups, and two of my Organizers are also sending me messages about their new events.

I have asked them each twice now to stop with these bulk emails, but they are not listening to me, and I am not too thrilled about this, as I get enough junk in my inbox, but I also need to know what's going on with my groups if something important comes up.

What should I do??

Mailing lists are more flexible, easier to use, and encourage more discussion than message boards. With the mailing list, members can write a message right from their email, and they receive messages in email as well.

With message boards, members have to log on to the Meetup site and remember to check the message board. It's harder to use, which means that fewer people participate in discussions.

To make sure that all communication happens in one place, we suggest that Organizers turn off their message boards and use the mailing list (and archive) instead.

Paragraph 1 is simply made up nonsense. Since meetup never had a junk mail option previously there can be no evidence that this would benefit many groups in any way. No research ever asked me whether I wanted this feature, and many posts by others on various forums expressed exactly the opposite view.

paragraph 2 is designed to justify paragraph 2, and also blatently untrue in many cases. Many computer savvy users have a shortcut which will take them directly to the message boards, where any new topics or replies are right there at the top, with easy to follow threads, showing the entire history of a discussion should the memory of the reader need refreshing at any time.

Paragraph 3 is insulting and irrelevent to those many groups who thrived on message boards.

Sure these mass junk mails will benefit some groups. They should be entirely optional, and should not exist at all if the organiser turns them off. They are an insulting enathema to me.

Len.

So far I am ok with all of the changes. I am looking forward to testing out the new tools in the group's website. I will contact meetup support if I have any problems or questions. Thanks for all the hard work you do and for trying to make our website more user friendly. My entire group appreciate's the effoorts!

I'm not happy about the prospect of getting more email. I belong to several Yahoo groups and have them all set to no email.

I've never 'forgotten' to check the message board of my favorite meetup group!

Paragraph 3 is insulting and irrelevent to those many groups who thrived on message boards.

Sure these mass junk mails will benefit some groups. They should be entirely optional, and should not exist at all if the organiser turns them off. They are an insulting enathema to me.

Len.

Len,

The new group lists are a feature that you can choose to use or not. They have been widely requested by many many users for a long time now. You don't have to use them or even enable them if you don't choose to. And you don't have to disable your message boards if you don't choose to.