DISQUS

Dave Delaney : Dave Made That: Why You Should Not Use Meetup

  • TheJennTafur · 7 months ago
    Insane. You mean you had to delete individually? 200 people!

    I had a meetup account but I had issues not necessarily with the platform but for a policy that a group organizer did not outline as to when they deleted individuals from their group - I was one of those individuals deleted because I was not an active participant in their group. I never really used meetup so that is why I deleted my account but I appreciating you sharing your situation.

    I can't believe they don't even have a bulk option on their platform if that is the case? Sad.

    Thanks, Dave, for sharing!
  • Dave Delaney · 7 months ago
    Yes, I had to manually delete just shy of 200 people. It was a serious
    inconveniance.

    Thanks

    Poor spelling and extreme brevity brought to you by iPhone.

    www.davemadethat.com
  • Kelly Stewart · 7 months ago
    Hey Dave, you know my opinion on this already, but thought I'd share here. I've used Meetup as an organizer for close to two years, and have been very, very happy with them. Granted I've never had to shut down a meetup, and I can't comment on why they made the decision to disallow mass member deletes. I've found their system to be pretty solid, and they don't make upgrades or updates by knee jerk or to keep up with the Facebooks or Nings. My Nashville Hiking Meetup wouldn't exist without them and there's just about nothing that would push me to switch to another platform. Thanks for letting me comment!
  • Frank Abrams · 7 months ago
    I just handed over two meetups and hopefully turned them over to worthy admins.
    They are inconsistent on sponsorship and have terrible business development staff who don't return calls. All you hear is we are going to do this or that. Too bad - they had an amazing success for a few years, but it takes work to make the groups succeed.
  • Melissa Meredith · 7 months ago
    “I’m afraid that’s the only option currently available, but a bulk removal tool is a great suggestion. Thanks! I’ll pass your thoughts on this along to our design and development folks.” Sounds like the exact same message I got when I made the same suggestion.

    I deleted my moms group to move them to a website that hubby made for me. I only had about 80 members but it was definitely a huge time suck. I couldn't leave anyone in the group because of the warning that they would offer the group to the other members. WHAT? I made the group. Paid for it for 8 months. Solicited new members. And someone else is just going to swoop in and take over. Uh, NO!
  • Dave Delaney · 7 months ago
    I'm sorry you went through this too. What a pain, eh?
  • Kevin Eldridge · 7 months ago
    That is very bad. The fact that they allow a bug such as this go on for 4 years? I cannot imagine if you were in Kelly Stewart's shoes and had over 2000 members. Imagine attemtping to remove all of those members. I can imagine a quick user export/script would be written to accomplish this task in a matter of minutes.

    Although, I have only been a member and not an organizer.

    Perhaps they will clean up their act soon. Doubt it though. I believe they took the if it doesn't work how everyone wants it to, don't fix it mantra.
  • Dave Delaney · 7 months ago
    It feels that way to me too. Thanks Kevin.
  • Hatch · 7 months ago
    I had to do something similar a few years back with another group and I ended up using QTP to automate the process which whipped through it in about 10 minutes. It was one of those moments where career skills help make the personal life easier.

    Hmmm. Maybe there's a niche market there for a website that will automatically mass delete? Lol.
  • Dave Delaney · 7 months ago
    Good call.
    If Meetup won't do it, maybe somebody else will. Let me know if that's the
    case please.
  • Darren Crawford · 6 months ago
    Sounds like an opportunity for a Meetup competitor. Somebody who actually listens to their customers. Maybe Microsoft... Just kidding!
  • Ricardo Bueno · 6 months ago
    That's horrible! Nobody should go through something like that...seriously.

    I've never hosted a group meetup through meetup.com but I've participated in several other groups. I've hosted my own events via Facebook Event pages, an email list I built to host a monthly meetup and via tools like EventBrite. I've never really experimented with others but would love to hear what everyone else is uses and your experience(s)...?
  • Marissa Benchea · 6 months ago
    Thanks Dave. This is actually really helpful information as we are toying with different online "group" meeting places for some specialized Shared Interest Groups we are creating at the Chamber. It looks like the use of Facebook for the Geek Breakfast has been successful.
  • Dave Delaney · 6 months ago
    My pleasure. Be sure to read the follow up Meetup post too.

    Cheers
    Dave
  • Terry · 5 months ago
    It's been a problem since 2005 because in 2005 is when meetup first starting charging the montly $19 extortion. It's all about meetup management maintaining a free flow of fees to ensure their do-nothing jobs. I agree with you that a group name is similar to brand name and should be afforded the same protection so that any Tom, Dick, or Johnny-joined-lately scammer/spammer cannot take over a group.
  • Dave Delaney · 5 months ago
    Thanks Terry.
    I had a big issue with Meetup's original registration process. That's
    because you would go through the lengths of setting up the group, only
    to see it costs money after the fact.

    Since they now have pricing up front, I can't fault them at this. I'm
    glad it was fixed.

    I actually don't mind that they charge for their service. Think of all
    of the other free services without business models, Twitter comes to
    mind.

    I only hope they allow Meetup group owners, the one paying the bill,
    more power over his or her group.

    D