Mildly Infuriating @lemmy.world fmstrat @lemmy.nowsci.com 3d ago

The enshitification of Meetup.com

$345 to tap Attend. A rediculous event on a local hiking group. We think the owners let it expire, and someone else bought up the group.

For those not aware, Meetup's leadership has been pushing the "start a business on Meetup" agenda. It's all downhill from here.

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They already made it so you have to pay for meetup+ to see meeting attendees or message anyone but the organizer.
- Wow, just saw that. You can still the list, and tap on each to see pictures, but wow. And you can pay for waitlist placement. Ugh.
  
  As a participant, if there are over a certain number of participants it tells me I have to pay to see the rest.
  
  TBH it's been going downhill for the last couple years since they made groups pay a yearly (I think) fee. There used to be all kinds of fun free groups but it's slowly becoming only sponsored groups or pay to attend meetups.
- or message anyone but the organizer
  
  This is probably to stop harassment or getting unsolicited messages, but I'd rather participants aren't to message each other at all. Except maybe in a group chat to organise rides or something.
  
  As a user you've always been able to turn off inbound message initiations to protect from harassment. The payment is a new thing for the $$$.
This has nothing to do with the problem at Meetup

I've been running a free Meetup for 8+ years

The actual issue is the costs, the shitty photo upload system and the fact that they send all hosts paid events for their own hosting group which can't be blocked

It's not enshitification. It has been shit for 8 years at least

There have always been expensive events.
- I'm an organizer as well, and while the app hasn't been great, this new level of focus on money is new since the acquisition.
  
  I haven't seen any difference there honestly.
  
  Here in Australia also, pre covid a leader for a hiking group was well known in the community and made racist comments. Reported them, and nothing was done.
  
  I need to get rid of them at this point.
Oh c’mon this person doesn’t sound at all pretentious and trying to get money from people considering how short and humble their page is

https://www.living-upward.com/meet-susan/
- That was a roller-coaster.
It's about $110 per night, with included food and organised events of some kind. While I don't know if this is expensive or not it doesn't seem unreasonable to charge money for food and board of this particular event? Isn't meetup just handling bookings and payments here? Or am I missing something.

Saying that I stopped using meetup probably a decade ago. So not sure where it's at these days but from the other rooster mentioned, meetup+ sounds like crap twitter move
- That's the deposit, not the full price.
  
  The point is that until recently, Meetup was mostly local organizers setting up events for people to... meet up. This one was hiking.
  
  Oh I see, I misread thank you for the correction, I guess it depends if the deposit is basically to stop people reserving the place and backing out last minute, so they organiser gets to keep the money. Its like a non refundable hotel?
- Looking at the post, it's $345 for commuters -- or about $70 per meal.
  
  For people staying in the accommodations, it's about $210 per night.
  
  Overall, that seems expensive for a camping trip on Meetup.
  
  Oh I see, I misread thank you for the correction
Since MySpace, social groups have had a very limited lifespan. Even Facebook looks like it’s on the brink of imploding.
The one group I was in switched to groups.place a while back, it's been good. And I am seeing now that they've rebranded or merged with https://groups.ezumee.com/
- Yea, the space is so crowded now. Tempted to set up a nonprofit to keep social interactions free of corporate grabbing. But too many initiatives on my plate right now.

22 comments