Well, after my letter, I got a formish-looking reply from Meetup talking about how they understand we are shocked and angry but this is just the way their company needs to go. I fired off another letter (which I worked pretty hard on – crafting a “dammit, I am PISSED!!!” letter is a rather pleasurable passtime), which I reprint below.
Angela, hi,
I’m glad to hear back, and your position is an
understandable one. I will indeed be discussing our
options with my groups.
That said, I’m not entirely sure you guys understand
what is making us so mad here. For me, at least,
these are the heavy hitters:
1) we are not being “asked” to contribute. We are
being told to pay up or get lost, and the FAQ heavily
implies (at least to me) that those of us who are
unwilling or unable to pay are “less committed” groups
while those willing to pay are “best.”
2) All groups, regardless of what feaures they
need/want or how many members they have, are being
charged the same. This puts a real emphasis on
numbers and for folks like me, who are organizers but
on a very tight budget, it makes Meetups all about the
money and not about having a good time with
interesting people.
3) If I charge my friends (and for me, Meetup has
always been about finding friends) to hang out with
me, I’m not much of a friend. It would be one thing
if Meetup offered me things I couldn’t get elsewhere,
but that’s not the case. I really resent that Meetup
is trying to force me to fork over cash for the
privilege of hanging out with friends.
I met the love of my life at a Meetup, and have met a
lot of really great friends through Meetup, but the
current turn of events is probably going to drive me
away. It’s depressing, because I thought the concept
was really great and you guys have a huge member base
(at least, until the fees take effect), which made it
easy to reach lots of people.
I know it’s probably too late to change your minds,
but I did want to vent a little more. I’m glad you
guys understand that being really, really angry is a
normal response.
Ealasaid
I got another formish reply in response with a couple sentences tacked on the front that were clearly put there by a person who had actually read my email (yay!).
It was very “hey, sorry you feel that way. But here are easy ways to get money from your members! Isn’t this cool?”
Now, I sympathize with their need to have an income stream (as I’ve said before) but I am still mad! I suspect that a big part of my anger comes from the fact that I really, really dug Meetup as a concept. I don’t think I would be so upset if I didn’t like the site as much as I do. I really think the new fees are going to kill Meetup, and that makes me really bummed out, man.
Well, and I keep thinking of really, really belittling and icky analogies involving pimps and hos (ho’s? hoes? what’s the spelling there?). Heh.
Anyway: Upcoming.org, here I come! I seriously doubt that my little Terry Pratchett Meetup crew will complain.
