Weekly release: March 11, 2008

Well, guys, I think we're just sh*t out of luck. Apparently, meetup brought the idea of removing the event comments from the survey up to the MAC before implementing. They received a number of responses about not making the change and made it anyway. Sounds to me like they're just going to do whatever they want. I really don't think we should pay for a site that doesn't care about its customers. If they want to do whatever they want, the site should be FREE.

Here's the link to the MAC thread: http://organizer.meet...

Michele

Yes indeedy. As one of those whose opinions were supposedly taken on this issue, I can only hold my hands up and say sorry.

My request was that the members be allowed to optionally not enter a number for those attended, based on comments by members as to why they didn't respond to surveys. Or to have an approximation presented to them. What we got was NO ONE gets to put a figure in any more.

I have since decided that what the MAC gets asked are questions like "We are going to do this ...XXX... comment here, and we can say we asked you about it". What happened there was that the question was asked, and we found out that this was the way it was going to be. No matter how many people saw probable trouble ahead. Naively, I took the phrasing as an error, and that comments were to be posted to the afrer event page.

Meetup may be listening, but it does not appear to me like they are hearing very well. Many comments foresaw the complexity of the new system that has effectively stopped any comments in their tracks. Previously it was a conscientious member who filled in a survey, now, no one does, not even AOs. ... and many members think I have full control over the way the site works. - Oh, how I wish they were right.

Len

Well, guys, I think we're just sh*t out of luck. Apparently, meetup brought the idea of removing the event comments from the survey up to the MAC before implementing. They received a number of responses about not making the change and made it anyway. Sounds to me like they're just going to do whatever they want. I really don't think we should pay for a site that doesn't care about its customers. If they want to do whatever they want, the site should be FREE.

Here's the link to the MAC thread: http://organizer.meet...

Michele

Hmmm... and I suppose that vast knowledge base of *26* people was supposed to represent all of us? I have been a little baffled about the changes myself, and in reading the massive volume of other responses, I see that I am not alone. I do indeed realize that the new method is not rocket science, but let's face it - our members are here to have fun, and not to spend time after an event trying to figure out the right spot to enter feedback about the EVENT rather than the group as a whole. I count myself lucky if they rate the event with written words at all, and need this to be as simple and easy as possible - and the additional steps are confusing to folks who do not attend a lot of events, and even moreso to the new folks in the group.

I do UAT / User Acceptance Training evaluations as part of my daily job, and believe me - the less clicks the better when dealing with a mass audience of users at varying levels of technical know-how.

So what happens from here? Do we get our event comments back or does meetup just scratch this up to an oops? Do we get our money back for a poorly managed site?

Please let us "the paying organizers" know what will happen next! Let us know we are being heard!!!

Please click here and leave a comment on this thread on "suggestions on how to make meetup better" Lets make them listen....
http://www.meetup.com...

Even if you are brought to the page to post a comment in that box, it is again, 3 more silly steps (click submit, have page come up, post, click submit again!)!! I dont even write anything, i have 3 babies running around house and do things as quick as i can, theres no 'dilly dallying' online clicking here there and everywhere.... So how can expect the members of our group to do the same? It was a very simple, practical and fast before.... Now, not so much! :(

This is all just a HUGE waste of time. I think everyone at Meetup are just reading this thread and getting a good laugh at our expense. I hear you Christine, I have a moms group and me along with my moms can't be sitting on the computer all day. We get on and off as fast as possible.

Wow. just looked at this 'MAC' site. It seems Meetup doesn't even listen to them! So I'm afraid I agree. We're out of luck (but honestly, not really, just inconvenienced temporarily). In the long run, it will be meetup that gets hurt the most. They'll lose revenue, we'll just move on. They need us, and some of us may need need them...but it won't last foever. This type of business sense is the axe of death if it doesn't change. I'll adjust and start researching other alternatives. Sooner rather than later...a competition site will start up as well. Example: Facebook. If it gets too bad, I'll find a current alternative to switch too in the meantime.

I'm so thankful I thought ahead. In most all of our marketing. Our cards, our banner, etc..I've been good at leaving the 'meetup group' off the title. The apparel can be fixed easily enough. I knew better. So switching to another site (or creating our own) won't hurt us. The community knows us as Casa Grande's Social & Active (Club) or CGSA. Take the meetup logo off the cards, notify the paper about our new website and we're done. Won't phase us, but meetup will lose a paying customer.

Meetup just may be smiling in the background and be entertained by all this. If so, just shows their ignorance, plainly put. I suspect they are waiting us out until we all give up and shut up. What they apparently haven't learned from history is...when the oppressed masses become silent...it's not because they are conforming..it's because they are planning something.

I can't help but smile. If I was a betting person...I'd put my money on the hunch that the majority of the meetup staff responsible for 'upgrades' and reading these threads don't have MBA's. Hmmm, I'm just about willing to bet they don't even have undergrad's in business. I'd hope the Board of Directors isn't aware of what is going on, if they are and are standing idle...shame, shame.

They'll learn eventually (if they want meetup to survive), but it may not be in time to keep this paying customer.

difficult, Brian? getting some members to show up when they say they will is difficult. getting my AOs to stop being so freaking territorial is difficult. Wading through 30-some Get Out emails a day and trying to find more administrative help is difficult. explaining to members why we can't refund them when they cancel the day after we pay an outfitter is difficult.

posting a comment in a big white box that says "talk about this event?" um, not difficult at all.

Yes, difficult - if you have to click to two or three different places to get there, it most certainly meets my criteria of 'difficult,' not to mention confusing. Is it one, simple, easy, effortless, e-mail, *one* click and it's done? No. It's hopping around like the Easter Bunny trying to get to the right place. I'm sorry to point out the obvious here, but life is busy enough without asking people to do more than the minimum effort necessary. Like I've said before, it's not like people weren't already "Talking About The Event" afterwards - now, they won't leave any comments afterwards, because it seems so cumbersome.

I am coming a little late to this party because I have been way too busy but I want to let Meetup know that the new feature they have is horrible for rating events.

I am the organizer of three groups, two of which are so succesful we have people driving over 100 miles to attend events and I have stopped rating events because of this horrible design.

Meetup seems to be getting away from what the organizers and members want and more into the... prettiness of things.



-Chris

difficult, Brian? getting some members to show up when they say they will is difficult. getting my AOs to stop being so freaking territorial is difficult. Wading through 30-some Get Out emails a day and trying to find more administrative help is difficult. explaining to members why we can't refund them when they cancel the day after we pay an outfitter is difficult.

posting a comment in a big white box that says "talk about this event?" um, not difficult at all.

I consider running a group *MY* difficult job that I took responsibilty for when I started a group. I DONT expect it to be diffcult for the members of the group. Also- this DOES make organizing a meetup group additionally hard if members dont have the time and/or patience to leave feedback for us organizers :/

I have not posted here in a long time, but I concur with everyone who has remarked that: (1) event commentary is extremely helpful and should not have been removed from the participant feedback forms; (2) participant perception of attendance is also helpful. Please revert to the time-tested format of your previous feedback form. And please furnish organizers with a distribution summary of the ratings after each event, e.g., eight 5's, six 4's, one 1. Averages are useful, but a distribution enables insight.