Disappointed

So Meetup.com has instituted an organizer fee.
I am not happy.
Here’s the email I sent them this morning:

I just heard about the new fee, and I am really
disappointed. The meetup I run barely has any
members. I myself am all but broke courtesy of my
school debts and will not be able to afford to pay the
fee by myself. I will talk it over with my group, but
I more than half expect that your new fees will kill
my group.
I could see asking for $5 or so a month and enabling
donations or something, but $9 for existing groups and
$19 for new (and for everybody after this year, if I
understand it right) is outrageous. I used to be a
pretty big fan of Meetup.com but right now I am
feeling like someone I thought was a friend has
demanded that I pay for the privilege of hanging out
with them.
No doubt this email addy is overflowing with email
right now but I hope you guys hear what I have to say.
Sincerely,
Ealasaid A. Haas
Organizer: South Bay Terry Pratchett Meetup

I can understand where they’re coming from, but I don’t think it’s fair to charge all groups the same. Maybe charge ones with 100+ active members more or something! But my little Terry Pratchett meetup should NOT be charged the same as the frickin’ huge Democrat meetup.
I am tempted to get free business cards from Vistaprint and take my group over to Yahoo!Groups, where it’s still free.
Frankly, I do not have the mental energy for this kind of BS. My grandfather is still really sick and we don’t know how much longer he has. My new job is awesome but I’m still getting oriented and that takes a lot of cycles. I’m trying to get ready to test for nikyu in Aikido. I do not want to deal with meetup, a group I only decided to give another chance a few months back, turning out to be full of dicks after all.
Gah.