MeetUp now charging a fee!

[Rhianna813]

Hi All,

I am the moderator of a MeetUp group for Attachment Parenting in my town. I also belong to a Pagan group and Tarot group too. I was quite surprised today to see a special email from MeetUp sent to Moderators announcing that their once free service would now have a price.

Thinking about MysticWicks I understand that it costs money to run a website and MeetUp has volentary membership for anyone who wants more features. With this new fee only the Moderators are being required to pay, not the members. MeetUp is suggesting that Moderators hit up their own members for fees! How akward is that?? And the fee is almost $20 a month. Not a year...... a month, per group you Moderate. That is too much so I have emailed my group telling them of the changes and that I will be stepping down. Luckily most of us are on a similar Yahoo list and can arrange to meet anyway.

In case you are not familiar with MeetUp ( http://www.meetup.com/) basically anyone with a shared interest (Pagans, Crafts, Computers, Politics, SAHMs, etc) can join the group online and meet locally once a month at a cafe or something. Many Pagan, Witch, and Wiccan groups use this. MeetUp allows the Moderator to organize the meetings and send out RSVPs about them. It's a nice service.... but for me not worth $20 a month.

Anyway, if you use MeetUP and especially if you Moderate a group or 2 be forewarned. Moderators are providing feedback right now to MeetUp through a special forum if you want to make suggestions.

Rhianna

[Shanti]

That seems quiet unfair..the moderators do the wrok in getting it all together and they pay too?

I would bow out too!

[Rhianna813]

That seems quiet unfair..the moderators do the wrok in getting it all together and they pay too?

I would bow out too!

Yes many Mods at MeetUp are complaining about that. Like me their groups are 10- 20 members, 2-3 actually show up to the events. Moderators work hard to advertise their groups, get feedback, adjust the date and time we meet to accomodate schedules. And we are being asked to pay money to do this.

Also since these groups meet at local venues, not your house since you don't know who is coming; folks are already pitching in to buy food and drinks. Plus do you think asking your members to split the monthly fee with you will encourage them to participate more?

Ugh. _taparoo_

Rhianna

[IvyWitch]

Same thing here. I'm in 3 groups and all the mods are stepping down.

Personally I think it would be a much better idea to charge people like $3 a month for membership. Charging just the moderators is silly, and especially for something like this. IO think it's enough of a hassle to ask people to organize all this stuff locally, but now they have to pau $20?

[ollathair]

Yeah, I'm in three and organize one of them ... I'm going to discuss it at our next meetup which is on Saturday and arrange to remain in contact some other way, then I'm stepping down myself. Maybe I'll suggest using a live journal as the organiser of one of the groups I'm in has started to do. Heck, a free one is limited in functionability but it does let you keep in touch :) Or, maybe, I'll just start a Yahoo Group to keep in touch.

[RowanMegaera]

I hope MeetUp figures this out very quickly. I belong to several groups and the moderators have all just stepped down and I do not blame them, personally I cannot imagine having to pay $19 per month to be allowed to organize a group. I would definitely be willing to pay a small fee as a member to participate in the service, but it should not be up to the moderators.

[Jenne]

It's sad when sites have to do this. They'd do better to use adds or yearly fees or something to boost their funding. Sigh. But, there is no such thing as a free lunch!

[IvyWitch]

I wonder if they realize that by doing this most of thier groups will be without organizers, and it will essentially shut the site down....

[wolf]

So far one meetup group I belong to (and joined only recently) is shutting down because of this policy.

[stephy-sama]

Yeah, I use to be a mod there. I stepped down because of lack of activity, but remained a member. I got that email today and now I am completely unsubscribed. It's stupid.

[Rhianna813]

I wonder if they realize that by doing this most of thier groups will be without organizers, and it will essentially shut the site down....

Well some Mods have commented that groups without Mods will be closed by MeetUp. I am not sure if this is true or not.

Another Mod runs 25 different computer application related groups. Many of his members attend more than one group. At 25 x $19 that equals $475 a month! The best thing is to combine many of these groups but he is saying that MeetUp is now allowing that. Again I am not sure if this is true but I hope not.

Rhianna