The Meetup.com Scam
I got an email today from Meetup.com about more people interested in a local Linux Meetup. There are now 30 people listed on the meetup interest site for Linux in Poughkeepsie NY. Only 2 of which (including myself) are MHVLUG members.
Hey, I thought to myself, I should just fill out the rest of the meetup site to let these folks know we’ve got a very active Linux users group already, and they should come join. That seemed to be the most constructive thing to do, as 28 people who are interested in Learning more about Linux, and all within drivable distance from the LUG, would be a nice addition, and some new blood to the group.
Thus I started to fill out the rest of the meetup.com require information to actually start the group, and send an email to everyone to this effect. After I filled out all the details of times and information, it takes me to the “pay for this” screen, where meetup.com requires $20 / month (some bulk discounts for long term contracts) to have the group created. Wtf?
Meetup.com was some unheard of website offering a free service 4 years ago. Then the Howard Dean team used them to help organize their campaign, and gave the site a huge amount of visibility. Now they appear to be in the business of shaking down book clubs for the privilege of letting people in the same neighborhood talk to each other.
Anyway, in the end I just updated my entry on the user list to include: “We’re already doing this, check out http://mhvlug.org”. With any luck people will see that and come to a meeting or two in the future.
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