I re-started using meetup just a couple of weeks ago after feeling the same way. And, honestly, my interactions were great. Meetup was scheduled, people showed up, we had a good time. I live in a smaller city and found two to go to in one night(ping pong and board games)
Meetup was fine 10+ years ago, but it's my go-to example of enshittification today. It feels like they're actively trying to kill it with every new change to the app / web experience. But despite that there are some good groups.
It's also worth noting that sometimes, groups are on Meetup because it is one of the least bad options.
I still host board game events on Meetup, although I'm hoping to switch to my open source alternative soon. I think the other commercial options such as Discord and Facebook are worse, and people have gotten used to Meetup.
Meetup sucks.
The reason for the decline in social activity is not that it was insufficiently commercialized. Meetup should be a nonprofit.
I re-started using meetup just a couple of weeks ago after feeling the same way. And, honestly, my interactions were great. Meetup was scheduled, people showed up, we had a good time. I live in a smaller city and found two to go to in one night(ping pong and board games)
Agreed. I'm working on a non-commercial open source Meetup alternative.
I would be incredibly interested in learning more once you've got something working.
EDIT: Would it happen to be Meetable? I just stumbled across that serendipitously an hour or so after commenting.
Meetup was fine 10+ years ago, but it's my go-to example of enshittification today. It feels like they're actively trying to kill it with every new change to the app / web experience. But despite that there are some good groups.
Yes, but the good groups exist despite meetup, not because of them.
It's also worth noting that sometimes, groups are on Meetup because it is one of the least bad options.
I still host board game events on Meetup, although I'm hoping to switch to my open source alternative soon. I think the other commercial options such as Discord and Facebook are worse, and people have gotten used to Meetup.
Meetups existed before meetup.com just fine. The site was there to provide a place for meetups to coordinate. Meetups aren't an artifact of the site.
I looked recently for my area. Almost all the listed meetups are online now, not in person. Bad juju.
The meetup app costs money for organisers except for the smallest meetings (10 people or less)
aaaaand it's been bought by BendingSpoons