My Wants and Needs Includes Meetup 2.0 Additions - Updated 6/22/08

I'm sorry .. there must have been a post here that I missed. I thought we were talking about what Darrell wanted, not the agenda David has put forth to bring the US into a shiny new future.

I agree with Len.... yawn ... boring .... nothing new to see here ... moving along.

Jeez, I just deleted several Friends that I haven't seen in a few months. These are people I've dined with or played poker with several times and I really enjoy their company. But I now get this message...

Currently, you are limited to 200 friends on Meetup. You've reached the limit.

So I'm now limited to only having friends that I see every month or more frequent. This really sucks. I have to delete my friends that I don't see often enough now to add new friends. In about a month, I'll probably be deleting friends if I don't see them within 2-3 weeks.

C'mon Meetup.com, please let me have more friends so I can keep my old friends too.

Here is yet another example of someone at Meetup.com being asleep at the switch. Here Darrell is, an incredible Meetup success story, and Meetup can't seem to find a way to build on his success. If a company can't exploit it success stories, where is it really headed?

Okay, guys...Darrell is kind enough to give you a wake up call and a month's grace period to do something about it...for a professionally run company that is more than enough time.

Len & John, want to take bets Darrell will have to delete some of his friends from his group within a month?

ex animo
davidfarrar

"delete some of his friends from his group within a month?"

What will that matter?
How does having unlimited number of friends make Darrell a better organizer?
He can't e-mail his friends list. Someone no longer has to be your friend in order to post a message. Why does having 100's of friends listed matter on Meetup? I have met 100's of people through my group, but I don't put everyone down as a friend. Heck, there were 343 people at my one event the other week. There is no point to it. This isn't MySpace or FaceBook. Meetup is about people finding groups, not people finding people.

Good points Dean

My current friend list consists of my most active assistants and a couple of members who I know from other groups who I tend to invite as guests to my own events for ease of emailing them.

Steve

There is some value in the friends list. I was in a group where the organizer kicked every one out. Fortunately, I had friends, my friends had friends, etc., and we were able to get hold of most of the active members and let them know what was going on.

But, I will agree, it's not too terribly important that I'm willing to give up other requests, such as show/no shows or consolidated calendars, for it.

"delete some of his friends from his group within a month?"

What will that matter?
How does having unlimited number of friends make Darrell a better organizer?
He can't e-mail his friends list. Someone no longer has to be your friend in order to post a message. Why does having 100's of friends listed matter on Meetup? I have met 100's of people through my group, but I don't put everyone down as a friend. Heck, there were 343 people at my one event the other week. There is no point to it. This isn't MySpace or FaceBook. Meetup is about people finding groups, not people finding people.

I suppose you got a point, Logan. But the title of this section is "Suggestions on how to make Meetup better." I assume the reason Meetup put this section in its forum is to try and make Meetup more useful to its clients. The more useful Meetup becomes to its own clients, the more people will join their client's groups. The more people joining Meetup's groups, the more exposure Meetup will have to potential clients. The more exposure Meetup has to potential clients, the more sales it will generate. Internet sales depends on exposing your product to an ever increasing number of people. So the point here I would take from your posting if I was a staffer reading your post is, "Why doesn't Meetup have an "unlimited" number of friends, and, why can't organizers e-mail their friends? Heck! Why can't they implement VOIP so they can actually talk to their friends on their computer using Meetup?

The way I see it, and perhaps I am wrong here, but the more people Meetup is exposed to, the more sales it will generate.

ex animo
davidfarrar

The "Friends" feature does not expose Meetup to more people, that is an internal feature. You can't invite someone to become a friend, you invite them to join a group you are in. Again, the purpose of Meetup is for people to find groups not people and to do stuff with those groups in the real world.

If people could e-mail their friends en mass, then we would be subjected to spammers making everyone their friends and sending out spam.

VOIP? It's a Meetup, go meet in the real world. That's the point. To provide an electronic method of getting people together in the real world. All these requests for on-line chat rooms go against the "spirit of Meetup". If you really need to talk to your group more often, then more events need to be planned. If you need to talk to your organizers, then plan an event just for the organizers.


Of all of the suggestions Darrel put on his list, this is probably the least important.

The "Friends" feature does not expose Meetup to more people, that is an internal feature. You can't invite someone to become a friend, you invite them to join a group you are in. Again, the purpose of Meetup is for people to find groups not people and to do stuff with those groups in the real world.

If people could e-mail their friends en mass, then we would be subjected to spammers making everyone their friends and sending out spam.

VOIP? It's a Meetup, go meet in the real world. That's the point. To provide an electronic method of getting people together in the real world. All these requests for on-line chat rooms go against the "spirit of Meetup". If you really need to talk to your group more often, then more events need to be planned. If you need to talk to your organizers, then plan an event just for the organizers.


Of all of the suggestions Darrel put on his list, this is probably the least important.

An organizer's friends, it would seem to me, are people. In terms of potential customers for Meetup, they represent an especially attractive market because Meetup's product has been personally endorsed by one of Meetup's clients. All that remains is the sell.

Now I am an 19 post-beginner here, you guys have been around the block a few times with Meetup. So you tell me: does Meetup offer organizers any special incentives when they get their "friends" to order Meetup's product through them?

Secondly, I am not sure you can spam your friends. But just in case that became a problem, adequate safeguards can be put into place.

But it is your last point I find most intriguing. The Internet is a communicative tool. It is used to communicate. The more efficiently you can communicate, the better and more informed your participants will be when they do meet. As I said, there will always be meetings that have to be physically held, there are meetings that can be physically be held, and then there are those that simply cannot be physically held due to restrictions in time and distance. It would seem to me, if Meetup wants to increase its growth, and I am talking here about growth beyond the cyclical swell associated with a campaign season, it cannot afford to simply cut its ties with any of these types of meetings, but develop new and innovate ways for its clients to communicate with the members of their group, their friends and with as many potential customers as possible.

ex animo
davidfarrar

I agree with Dean. Meetup has provided a unique place among the other social networks, it is more about getting people together physically rather than virtually. None of my groups use meetup for anything more than filling in time between our meetups, and to communicate how meetups went or organize how they will be.

I have no need for VOIP via meetup, I have the real phone numbers of all my organizers and active members. I also have their email addresses.

I care nothing about meetup's marketing potential, it is irrelevant to my need to run a group. The fewer advertisements I see, the better. I have no desire to introduce my group to more just so we can earn a few bucks. We don't need the money.

For example, our last outing was held at a local park. It cost $5/person. For $5, each person got their fill of hot dogs and hamburgers, chips, and soda. And a reserved ramada and beer permit. Members brought side dishes and deserts. And we all spent 2 or more hours outside on a windy, cold day that we probably would have spent alone at home or, worse yet, at the mall. Eighty of our members showed up, and to a person the comments were highly complimentary.

THAT is what meetup is about as far as I am concerned. I'm know there are groups out there doing virtual stuff and socially redeeming stuff and some even making money on it, but that isn't what the majority of the organizers I see on these boards are about. It's about people who all enjoy a particular hobby or interest, getting together and enjoying their company.

Off their computer.

But I don't have to explain that to anyone that attends meetup events, they already know that.

An organizer's friends, it would seem to me, are people.

"Friend" is the term for how you assign people linked to your profile. It's not the same as the real world definition.

does Meetup offer organizers any special incentives when they get their "friends" to order Meetup's product through them?

Meetup has one product, group event creation. There is no referral bonus program. Organizers are the only paying members of Meetup.

there will always be meetings that have to be physically held, there are meetings that can be physically be held, and then there are those that simply cannot be physically held due to restrictions in time and distance.

For someone who wants to be the VP of Meetup Alliance, you seem to have little understanding of the spirit of the company. When Meetup wanted to get together with it's members, it had a Mega-Picnic. People RSVP'd and came from out of state to attend the event. It didn't have a virtual event.