Why meetup.com is not optimal for the tech community
I really like going to meetups and meeting new people, but meetup.com just feels old and it has not really done anything new in the last couple of years. If you read their blog they talk about adding new languages and such, but I think that is it?
The bad
In Denmark (or anywhere I think) it is not possible to charge money for an event, even though the UI indicates that. You have to dig into the FAQ and find that it is only possible in the United States and have been so since the start. (Source)
There is no way to track who actually showed up to a meetup and meetup.com sends out this weird 90’s email, where you can click a button that says “Good to see you!”.
Every meetup page looks the same, the only thing you can change is the header color and background image. That is weird since we now have awesome web page builders such as SquareSpace, where you can drag-and-drop components into a page. Background images should be prohibited because it makes it look like the old GeoCities.
It uses the outdated TinyMce WSIGWYG editor instead of markdown which often either destroys the html or makes it a drag to set it up pretty.
There is no timetable! This is weird and 99% of people that goes to a meetup wants to know what is going to happen and whether or not they have to listen to a 1-hour sponsor presentation.
My profile page is weird and does not contain the information I want, and because for every meetup group that I have joined adds another profile, it is a complete mess.
The good
The are really good at promoting new meetup groups and as a example whenever a new meetup group is started you see an influx of new members. This is really awesome and a lot of people uses the calendar to discover new meetups that are scheduled. This is contrary to Lanyrd which sends you an email suggesting you meetups/events that are 5000 km away from you.
It is really easy to create a meetup. It only takes you a couple of clicks and you scheduled something. Emails is send for you and even though they are not that pretty, they just works.
How it should work
So now we talked about the good and bad about meetup.com, let's discuss now how the best meetup platform should do better.
It should be easy to charge for a meetup, because even though the spirit of free events, there is still expenses to cover such as food and drinks.
Let me show the awesome people that is making the meetup something worth attending.
Let me create an awesome profile page that make people want and know how to connect with me.
Let me use my smartphone when I am at the meetup to get information, asks questions, find the wifi password, etc. apps FTW.
Let me share the experience online with easy live-stream (twitch, youtube live, livecoding.tv)
Lets build this!
Why just talk about it, why not go and take action and build it! Go here and sign up http://eepurl.com/bLrrwP
