Meetup.con

No, not a typo. I am talking about how Meetup.Com, who owes its very prominance to the wide open 2004 Democratic Primary (and mostly to Howard Dean). They decided that they need to milk every meetup group around the country for $9 a month and $19 if we didn't check the main site regularly (like me). Well screw that. My Clark 2008 meetup now is going to move to Yahoo! Groups or something else that is free.

I don't know if Meetup couldn't generate enough revenue via charging vendors and vendors requiring minimum purchases per person, but it is still crappy to hold people's grassroots groups ransom all of a sudden for a $9-19 a month subsididation of a private company. Grassroots groups like Clark 2008 or even "New in Town" can't afford that kind of money or be organized enough to have the dues paid fairly and regularly. This isn't a Union, this is a monthly meeting in a coffee shop, resturant, or bar [maybe a bowling ally]! Groups like DFA might be able to pick up the tab for the local chapters but Meetup now is in effect stifling the very thing it claimed to promote: upstart grassroots interest groups around the world.

They say the money goes towards their great "customer service." I worked and ran meetups in DC, Montgomery County, Boston, and Cambridge and I would have to contest that bogus claim. I urge the blogosphere to deep six Meetup's plans. They can send us spam, they can have ads all over the website, whatever, but don't charge us to meet through your organization.