New in January (2008)

Hi Everyone,

We're very happy to announce the January release. Down below you'll find a quick overview of the upgrades and changes we've made. Keep all the great suggestions and feedback coming and we'll keep on working our hardest to incorporate them into our new features and improvements.

Happy 2008!



Meetup Shop Promotion
For months we've been hearing great stories about Meetups creating customized merchandise to promote their Meetup, recruit new members and foster a sense of community. We talked to a whole bunch of other Organizers and members and learned that most of them weren't even aware that they had a Meetup Shop where they could customize t-shirts, button, business cards and more.

So we spent some time making the Meetup Shop more visible! Everyone will now see a link to the Meetup Shop on the meetup's homepage, and if you're an organizer, we'll show you some great ways to promote your meeting after you've created, edited or emailed your group about an event. If you want to learn more about promoting, we've created an article all about it called "Recruit Members," which you can find within the Promote section of the ORC.


Improvements to the "Meetups in the Making" Experience
People who are already on the "Meetups in the Making" list for a certain topic will now see some new information targeted to them on the Local Topic page, with a clearer guide to what you can do on that page. For Organizers, we've replaced some "Start a Meetup" messaging throughout the site with prompts and encouragement to recruit people from the "Meetups in the Making" list. We also added pagination to the "Meetups in the Making" list of people ... previously, you couldn't see everyone on any list longer than 100 people, but now you can.


Improved Support for New Meetups
We've expanded the length of time before the 'New Meetup Announcement' is sent out, from 24 hours after a Meetup starts, to 72 hours. This gives Organizers more time to prepare their Meetup before it we sound out an email announcing the new Meetup to everyone interested in that topic in that area. In addition, we've provided guidance-- tips and successful examples-- to help Organizers use that time effectively so that their Meetup looks great when people see it.

We've also made some changes around the site to call attention to Meetups that are less than thirty days old. We've learned that the more quickly a new Meetup can get its first few members, the more likely it is that they'll be successful over the long term. By calling attention to these Meetup newborns (awwww!), we're hoping we can help them get their first few charter members!

ok ty I think.

the promote your meetup group.... well that really doesn't belong on my main page... perhaps put this on each members' profile page or back where it was before, neatly tucked away.

at the very least give those of us who have our own Zazzle or cafe' press shops the option to turn off the advertisement.

And .... the Email tab at the top of the page... are you posturing to move all the links on the side to be tabs at the top of the page and use that space for future ADS?

I am not happy at all with the Promote Your Meetup shop on the side. As I stated here I have spent a lot of time creating a logo for my group and now what?

I do NOT like this at all and we really should have the option to turn this on and off.

I really wish that Meetup would ask what Organizers want instead of assuming. I gladly would have given you my feedback on this well in advance of your teams working hard to put this onto the site.

These are my groups shirts. I like them MUCH better than the Meetup ones.

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Thank you SO much for moving the Google calendar (and Yahoo & iCal) up nearer the top of the page!!


Thank you for fixing the gobbledygook that was happening in the "Additional Information" field!

hmm.....I'll be looking forward to the next upgrade which will hopefully be mre interesting. Thanks for your hard work though!

Thanks for the upgrades & I do not want to sound ungrateful but I do not like the merchandise change without organizer control over the 1st option they get at least ...

I also do NOT want to see buy meetup gear next to my main windows for my group! We also have our own group shop & the tiny profit margin we have is to help offset meetup costs. We also DO NOT like that HUGE meetup logo on that shirt. There is an option to remove the logo but you have to think to do so & members are not going to end up with matching gear. If we could customize it (and control how big the meetup logo was) AND decide to remove it that would be one thing but STILL DON'T STOMP ON OWN EFFORTS! Bare minimum I will never use meetup merchandise unless I can put my own group's logo on it & set it that way. I see the add a photo option but STILL not really a good option of control for the members & they don't have the logo!

I am sure we have WAY more options with our own shops we have now like cafepress etc. Plus I DO NOT like the meetup merchandise it's ugly (sorry)! I don't want my members accidentally purchasing this crappy looking shirt (sorry meetup just being truthful) when we have beautifully designed clothes that match. This needs to be an organizer controlled option not pushed on us! We should also be able to design it for them & lock it that way so they match! My group is private & this should be asked not forced by meetup.

ALSO IF MEETUP IS GETTING BUSINESS FROM OUR GROUP THEN WE SHOULD GET THE PROFIT!

Thanks for listening,
Tiffany

I completely agree with the above posts. I spent a lot of time and effort working on my logo and my store only to have Meetup DAYS after I roll it out, put a little link promoting THEIR items.




As stated in the other thread, the items in my store are slightly marked up so that I can offset the costs of running this group that Meetup charges, as well as maintenance and upkeep of the group in general. I am not happy that Meetup has apparently made a deal with Zazzle to promote their shop for, I am sure, a profit that Meetup gets to keep. Will Meetup be offsetting our fees with this profit??

In addition to the above mentioned "updates", also notice the increased font size in the Google ads on the left.

Still no fix to text formatting showing in past event descriptions? As I mentioned earlier , and as you all answered you'd try to fix it (because it looks awful). I will NOT use text formatting if this is how it is going to look after the event is past.

ALSO -- maybe this is a temporary thing, but I am getting "Sorry, an unknown error occurred" every time I try to go directly to my Meetup Message Board from my Bookmarks, or from even typing in the URL . (I'm using Firefox).

Does this mean we can't come directly in to the Message Board, but can only get there via the Welcome screen??

Thanks for all your hard work.
- Beth

When will this new feature - for the meetup gear shop - be a feature you can turn off?

My group pays dues, we see adds on the side, we promote meetup on other local boards and beyond......

So, when is enough ?

I have an AO in charge of our group logo, shirts from a local shop - SHOP LOCAL - so they all match and look the same when we all attend events - and many of them are charity events.

We don't like the fabrics or the choices given - so when can we turn this off ?