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04/22/2005 Archived Entry: "April Seattle Weblog Meetup Report"
We had a good time at the Seattle Weblog Meetup Wednesday night, despite having to actually discuss what we should do in reaction to Meetup.com charging fees. The attendees:
The funniest thing happened when I arrived early to rearrange the furniture for better conversation flow and fung shui. A woman in a suit asked me if I worked at Ralph's (a reasonable question when I started moving stuff) but was quite put out, even offended, when I said that I did not. "I think that's pretty bold, even rude, to just waltz in and start moving furniture!" I told her that the staff knew I was doing this and that I had done the same on previous occasions (continuing with the furniture moving the while). This was confirmed when the guy in the food prep area saw me and shouted out "Hey, it's the blog people!" and waved to me cheerily. I asked her if there was some place specific she wanted to sit so I would leave that area along, but that didn't seem to be the point -- she also didn't like the word "meetup" on our sign. "That's not a real word!" Finally she wandered away, so there's no punchline here.
The group discussion went well, I think. We'll probably end up doing stuff on our own, but in the meantime I will pay and get reimbursed by a tip jar (literal, not an online one). I couldn't dissuade folks from putting money on the table already even though we don't have to start paying until June! I hope everyone got a chance to be heard. Dylan summed it up well. We have three options. One: Stay with Meetup and pay. Two: Switch to someone else like Yahoo. Three: Build it ourselves and they will come.
Meetup Watch (a PR blog on the Meetup.com site) picked up on TDavid's annotated photos and headed a blog post "Belly-Achin' Bloggers in Seattle." Huh?? The text is puzzling:
"Y'all had a good Meetup and you supported your local group! Sounds like everyone should be happy. We work hard to make it easy for you pull this together. So really, folks, what's the belly-achin' all about?"
Replies: 8 comments
Anita --
It is not often that I correct a colleague, but I am going to correct Myles here.
Myles, your apology may have been sincere, but has been written with the wrong tone. Meetup made the mistake with the belly achin' comment. We overreacted to a bit of gentle satire. No, they should not tone the photos down. They were funny. I laughed, and other people did too.
Fees are an earnest point of discussion for every Meetup group, and TDavid's photos caught an important discussion and documented it both beautifully and with humor.
Kudos to TDavid, and kudos to you Anita for bringing the matter forward. You have already received both my apology and that of Matt Meeker, our vice president and co-founder.
Know that your group is beloved, and that I read all your reports with delight. It is so much fun to see a Meetup event from so many different points of view!
Yours Sincerely,
Hmm
Posted by Hilary from Meetup @ 04/23/2005 10:17 PM PST
Hi Anita –
I’m sorry if my “Belly Achin’” post was taken the wrong way. It wasn't a put down. If you re-read the post on Meetup Watch, you'll see it's the *photo* I commented on... "According to a fun image on Make You Go Hmmm..."
It was merely an observation based on annotated photo #3 (http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20050421/1742/)... Where the ‘artist’ implied the following was being said:
"Meetup? Yeah, they suck"
"I could use the power of print to produce fliers that say Meetup Sucks"
"Meetup? Yeah, sounds kinda greedy"
If you ask me, these comments really come across as though there was a whole lot of belly achin' going down.
At the end of the Meetup, people DID end up chipping in right? $2.00 to hang with some of the best bloggers on the planet! Not a bad deal. Not all that sucky. Maybe we ought to request the photo annotations be toned down so it doesn’t make you guys look like you were belly achin’ …
Again. Sorry if this upset you.
Thanks.
-Myles
Posted by myles @ 04/23/2005 05:37 PM PST
Greetings from Canada. I've been following the fun. I've written up an blog entry on this saga. Hope it captures what I think is going on:
http://ricksegal.typepad.com/pmv/2005/04/meetupcom_shut_.html
Posted by Rick Segal @ 04/23/2005 03:31 PM PST
It was nice to meet you, Anita, and a handful of the other bloggers. The event was very warm and friendly, a nice reprieve from some of the other blogger events I’ve attended.
Posted by Jhames @ 04/22/2005 05:28 PM PST
dw dylan, thanks for that post! I had no idea that "Myles" is the VP of Communications, that is, the person who has been putting a foot in his mouth throughout this fees imbroglio!
Posted by Anita @ 04/22/2005 04:29 PM PST
Hey Anita... I've belly-ached about the belly-achin'.
http://clientandserver.com/archives/001031.html
Posted by dw @ 04/22/2005 03:47 PM PST
Hey if the word Meetup is in the Wikipeodia it is a real word to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meetup
It was a lot of fun and the issue with Meetup.com would be interesting to see unfold.
Posted by Jake of 8bitjoystick.com @ 04/22/2005 12:07 PM PST
Sounds like the folks at MeetUp are working spin control. Belly-aching indeed!!
Posted by chas Redmond @ 04/22/2005 10:39 AM PST