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Comment by Sayrus | Hacker News Reader

They recently acquired Meetup as well [1]. This doesn't bode well for its future.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38953242

Speaking of, is there a good replacement for Meetup if you just want to organize some informal activities, like a user group or going biking?

Sadly most people (at least in my country) use Facebook for this.

Probably. Purely anecdotal and it may just reflect the company I keep, but Meetup seems to have dropped off my radar and that of people I know. I can easily believe that many groups paused during the pandemic and never kicked back off again; I've certainly seen that behavior with a lot of groups generally.

Here it was charging for RSVPs that killed it. Everyone dropped it like a hot potato when they announced it.

It can be tough to get people to pay an ongoing fee for something that's often used for people to do casual recreational activities rather than one of the many free alternatives--even if they're not quite as suited for the purpose.

Meetup had a way to do this: make it opt-in by organizers, then increasing organizer price later on, perhaps even drastically, to incentivize the new structure. Over a year, say, even on organizers who didn't opt in, they could likely double their revenue per subscription with minimal churn.

Instead, their messaging strongly implied that, while it was still being tested, this would be mandatory, destroying community trust. An absolutely flubbed rollout.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/15/20893343/meetup-users-fu...

https://wptavern.com/meetup-com-introduces-rsvp-fees-for-mem...

In Italy Meetup was monopolized by a populistic political movement in the '10s and nobody use it since then.

Aside from supporters of popular political movement?

Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded

Was it guilt by association? Last time I used meetup you only joined the groups you were interested in, none of mine were political

In the Netherlands we use Erbij, (https://erbij.app), which is now going international. full disclosure, I'm one of the founders

So YOU use it.

Not saying it’s not a good app, but your selling your book.

> Not saying it’s not a good app, but your selling your book.

I'm not sure what your point is. Someone requested an alternative, an alternative was proffered and the personal interest disclosed.

> In the Netherlands we use Erbij

This implies that this app is the established norm in the Netherlands, which it isn't (but the OP would like it to be).

> I'm not sure what your point is. Someone requested an alternative, an alternative was proffered and the personal interest disclosed.

It's great that people can post alternatives, but personal interests aren't what I took umbrage with.

>> In the Netherlands we use Erbij, (https://erbij.app), which is now going international.

This implies that there is nationwide traction for the app which there isn't. It has 300 reviews on the app store. That's called astroturfing (or, lying).

That picture of the 3 dudes against a yellow background makes me never even want to try this, what does that even have to do with your product?

Agreed. It feels like a cheap lottery ad or something else extremely obnoxious.

Similar adverts are used by trashy mobile providers and anyone targeting the "yoof" market here. People who still watch TV and surf without adblock.

I guess you'll never know :)

No we don't.

We use datumprikker.nl, Facebook, WhatsApp and sometimes Signal or Meetup.com.

Never heard about this app. Dont like 'download the app' popups in a time where webapps are perfectly fine. Give me one reason why you want to force users to use the app?

The "Data Sharing" section of the app store listing tells you all you need to know.

I've seen https://lu.ma used thought it's built more around one-offs than recurring meetups of the same group. Also, and I think it's closer to meetup, https://app.getriver.io/ -- though I don't think it has too much traction yet.

I use Luma for a recurring meetup and it works very well.

Partiful.com has been pretty good for me

My AGPL, micro-federated platform Jonline has support for events with anonymous (or logged in) RSVPs. Still very early, and there are definitely still bugs, but you can deploy yourself and/or contribute!

https://github.com/JonLatane/jonline https://jonline.io https://bullcity.social https://oakcity.social

I'm building an async community software called Booklet [1], and I use it to organize a couple NY-based IRL communities - including an indie founders group and a tech dinners series. It doesn't send calendar invites (yet!), but I find that the async format keeps members engaged over time. Plus, it's independent of social networks and communicates via email.

When I lived in SF, I used Meetup to start + run OpenLate, a tech meetup with a few thousand members. Not having access to member email addresses was the worst part of Meetup, and it's probably the main reason the site still has users. (Data portability is a big focus of Booklet).

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37585869

There are plenty of tools for organizing activities. Meetup’s real value, which no one has replaced yet for various reasons, is in getting new people to join.

https://partiful.com/

Anyone know of a simple badge printing setup that could work with things like Meetup, etc? Just an iPad app that can take a CSV of names and companies, say, that can connect to a Zebra printer. Everything I'm finding wants to rent you the software and the printer, I just want to scrounge them up once and for all.

I have a friend who is building https://rsvpstreet.com/

He doesn't have the discoverability of Meetup, of course, but handles the RSVPs and organizing. Pricing is on the website.

I still like Meetup for local hiking groups planning hikes and game nights and stuff. Basically “friendly things with strangers” type stuff.

I’m not aware of anything else out that works like that.

Meetup has already been scaled down during the time it was owned by WeWork, and hasn't really changed during that time, so I doubt a lot will change.

It's almost more surprising that Bending Spoons thinks they can squeeze out any money out of Meetup.

Recently, “Filmic's entire staff laid off by parent company Bending Spoons”

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38502586

And Evernote almost 2 years ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33623402

Obsidian, logseq, or even org-roam are evernote replacements?

Joplin is a good open source option too, feels more like the original Evernote in terms of UI/UX https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/

evernote falling apart is a sad day :( I loved it before the monetization changees killed it.

Meetup needs an alternative anyway. They shove ads in your face, and the app is buggy.

Alas all (web) software shoves ads in your face, and all software is buggy. ;(

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