It would be a shame if we had to rely on Meetup.com to organize these things. I've heard complaints from attendees and organizers about the platform/fees. Ideas for alternative ways to organize?
In this case, for example, perhaps a meetup can be coordinated by simply posting the meeting info to HN.
If there's a real need for an turnout estimate ahead of time, such as making a group table/room reservation at a venue that requires that, see how low-tech that can be. For example, an optional RSVP to email, and guess at the RSVP ratio.
I would typically try to have some snacks and drinks, and wouldn’t want to be bringing either way too many or far too few. Also, I want everyone to be comfortable and have a positive experience, so if we have a concert hall for a meetup of 5 people, or a meeting room for a turnout of 100, plans need to change to give a quality experience for attendees.
1) Their onboarding sucks __for organizers__. When someone is new to Meetup, Meetup forces them to pick three (or more) groups to join as part of the sign up process. The person may or may not have an legit interest in your group. Maybe they came for another group and your group is just fulfilling the onboarding process.
This matters because if as an organizer you went for their cheaper tier w/ a smaller group size you get to that cap fairly quickly. Which mean you either keep the group closed and "eat" the dead members, or you pay more so you don't have to close the group.
2) You can send a group email / message but they have no analytics. Not even something as basic as an open rate. You can export members but not their emails so something like MailChimp is not an option.
After a year I decided that Meetup was good for Meetup but not for me.
We could spin up a Django or flask site and build a HN style meetup application.
I've heard bad things about the IO TLD. What about openmeet.org? I'm just starting in Webdev but I'd like to be involved!
https://hackernoon.com/stop-using-io-domain-names-for-produc...
Fortuitously, .dev happens to be hitting General Availability tomorrow. And both meetup.dev and openmeet.dev are still available!
Disclaimer: .dev is my baby.
Go for it as well if you like, but rest assured that there are already several talented people already trying to figure this out.
If some federated option were to work, there would have to be ways for various meetups to broadcast their existence, and have these recommendations be available.