New in March (2007)

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Stephanie G.	Posted Mar 21, 2007 at 12:46 AM Link to this reply
AhnaJade Las Vegas, NV 2,381st Post	I have 3 groups.... One has 75 active members & the message board is best for that. One has 40ish members that aren't always so active & the new "mailing list" seems to be best for that since they don't check the board ever on their own. My last group is just for my AOs, soo it only has 5-10 members at a time & I am finding (even in this short amount of time) that both seem to work well. As long as I have the option to decide either or/or both, then I like it. I do think you should MU should give orgs a chance to have their email not shown....for me I don't mind bcz I have a seperate one set up, but I can understand why others would mind. Also, I think (just my opinion,so please don't get too huffy with me) the complaints about having something moved (like the track this discussion link) just because we are used to one way is a little silly. Just because we are in a habit of one way doesn't mean it's the best way. I would guess after a week or two, the new spot will become habit too. My little tidbit: I like it at the bottom away from the start a new discussion link because there were too many all clumped together & I was always hitting the wrong one. I'm just sharing my thoughts so I hope no one thinks that I am being mean, bz I am not intending it to be....Since you can't hear it, my tone of voice is light & unconfrontational MU...I like the overall idea, but think you could make a couple tweaks to make it functional for most of us. I do like the overall look of everything now better...links in bold green (like edit tmeetup gorup description, ect on the welcome page or elsewhere) It makes it obvious all of the different options I have & easy to change. Thanks for always trying to better my service with you guys...even if it's not perfect on the first try....lord knows I hardly do anything perfect the first time & there are lots of changes I am looking forward to seeing (such as control over RSVPs).
Len	Posted Mar 21, 2007 at 4:30 AM Link to this reply
LenDragon Leicester, GB 1,062nd Post	OH MY GOD!! I have over 600 members, I just set a new event, sent the email and I'm getting a bunch of "out of office" replies and "mail undelivered" PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I don't want to know about this -- it doesn't help me one bit, and can't have my inbox flooded with these emails, every time I schedule an event or send an email out. PLEASE. Get used to it. Meetup will never step down and admit this is a failure. My suggestion, for what its worth is to restore the previous UI. Install the new UI on a seperate server and move the test group only to that server, by all means set up other sample test groups that meetup feels represents a cross section of the organiser/member spread. Test the software thouroughly. Fix the bugs. Iron out the errors in logic or illogical thinking behind the idea. Revise the implementation to exclude major indiscressions, like the public release of email addresses previously made private. Once the consensus of beta testers agrees it is ready to install, THEN announce the new feature, then release it after your testers have had a chance to forewarn non-testing users of what they are about to get. Result = progress. You could still turn me back round, you just have to try harder. I will also post the relevent portion of this on the ideas page, rather than have you unceremoniously and rudely take it away from here. If I had the kind of ability to properly moderate my own boards in that manner, I would have the common decency to let the poster know that this was being done and the reasons behind doing it. Len
Massimiliano	Posted Mar 21, 2007 at 8:12 AM Link to this reply
Massimilianoo Roma, IT 729th Post	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 DO QUOTE YOU!!! I AM NOT SENDING ANY MORE EMAILS BECAUSE OF THIS!!! c'mon guys! this sucks! I want my PRIVACY!!! I have a 550+ members group!! It can't be possible that everyone Knows my email!!!!
Emagine	Posted Mar 21, 2007 at 8:21 AM Link to this reply
SAHM_to_two_boys Oshawa, ON 1,884th Post	I have to agree, the email system that meetup changed to is not welcome. I did not like yahoo for this and left. Guess I will need to see if this can be changed or given an option to!
Benito	Posted Mar 21, 2007 at 10:26 AM Link to this reply
BennyC. Toronto, ON 398th Post	As on AO I sent an two emails to the group yesterday and I do not think that my email was displayed to the group despite it saying that it was going to be.
Mary P.	Posted Mar 21, 2007 at 11:57 AM Link to this reply
Jacks_Mom Meetup Extraordinaire Fallbrook, CA 1,830th Post	I just wanted to chime in and add my opinion about the newest launch. Not happy with it at all! I feel strongly there should be an option we as Organizers choose to use as a beta program until the kinks are worked out. Yes we were given warning that mailing lists were approaching, but with the assumption it was something we could opt to use or not. I must have clearly misunderstood this, I was under the impression it wouldn't affect the way we already are accustomed to with organizing our groups. There was no mention at all that our email addresses were now being visible to the members. I am an Organizer that keeps my public anyways but for Organizers of large groups and topics that an email address can mean profit to them is a lack of respect to them by Meetup. I liked it better when the Development team was an active part of the message boards here and we as Organizers felt a sense of family, that Meetup was a way of making a difference. It is beginning to feel like we are just accounts now. -Mary
Jason	Posted Mar 21, 2007 at 12:02 PM Link to this reply
AnimeJX Las Vegas, NV 312th Post	What's all the huff about? If you don't like the mailing lists, don't use them. Just use your message board as you always have. Simple as that. You organizers are acting pretty unprofessional by bitching over a new OPTION.
"Old Toad"	Posted Mar 21, 2007 at 12:08 PM Link to this reply
OldToad Dallas, TX 455th Post	Another problem with the e-mail list... How can the Organizers moderate it? Yet another problem is the lack of topic threads. Meetup's e-mail list seems to be purely chronological, making it difficult to follow multiple discussion topics. I am dismayed to see that Meetup seems to be moving away from the strengths of its original system -- control over one's privacy, even as an organizer; organizing in-person meetups, including with a good e-mail announcement system for the Organizers to use; and a simple message board that the Organizers can moderate. For smaller groups like mine organizing only a couple of events each month, the "calendar" view is a pain. We also have to use the painfully slow and cumbersome calendar view to find information about old events. But instead of giving us back the list view of events as an Organizer's option, Meetup spends its programming resources building an e-mail message system and reducing Member's privacy, which was a major selling point for having potential members feel comfortable in signing up for a Meetup group. Instead of enhancing the message board functionality, for example so that an Organizer could move messages or split threads to help organize the board better, Meetup designs an e-mail system like so many other services already offer and recommends we turn off the message boards. I would be glad if Meetup ADDED functionalities, and gave the Organizers some choices. But why is it DELETING functionalities? And moving around layout and links is a problem. It is not so much that any one of us cares about any particular layout, and some layouts are better than others. But my members complain that it takes time to get used to the system, I plead with them to spend the time so that we can get good RSVP responses, etc., and Meetup's moving things around every few months and renaming things is frustrating to me and to them. -- Todd Edited by "Old Toad" on Mar 21, 2007 at 12:24 PM
Janet	Posted Mar 21, 2007 at 12:43 PM Link to this reply
user 2840731 Toronto, ON 118th Post	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. I too do not like the new setup. I had all meetup email going into one folder. Now I am getting a new email address from multiple groups, multiple organizers etc. What was once organized, is now out the window. People do not seem to like to get to many emails. That is why I like message boards. I absolutely hate chain emails of conversations. No, I can't say I hate them. I loathe them. I can't say this more strongly. Message boards also give people a reason to visit, look at calender (I post events in the city that aren't meetups) and see new members. I also now have to click on my account to see my profile and then click to see my groups. An annoying extra step. Quite frankly, I am finding your so called upgrades annoying. The last one was unpopular and it didn't go back the way you said. I may move everything to Facebook and just be done with it.
Jennn	Posted Mar 21, 2007 at 1:15 PM Link to this reply
user 2764711 Saint Louis, MO 399th Post	hmmm, from what I can tell: If you send a regular email out to the group it shows your email address If you send a "special announcement" email to the group it shows info @ meetup email address If you reply to a message, individual or group, it will show your personal email address So if you're concerned about keeping your email private make sure everything you send out to the group goes as a special announcement. Any individual emails where you want to hide your email address you'll have to do it through meetup on that persons profile and click hide my email address. Do it through their profile whether it's an initial email or a response.

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