Update: A few hours after I published this article, Meetup quietly added a note to the top of their announcement. They have not tweeted or done anything else to publicize this note, but some people noticed it and shared it with me.

更新：在我發(fā)布本文幾小時后，Meetup悄悄在其公告的頂部添加了注釋。 他們沒有發(fā)布任何推文或做任何其他事情來宣傳此筆記，但有些人注意到了該筆記并與我分享。

Here's what it says:

它說的是：

"UPDATE October 15, 2019 1:30 pm ET: This payment change is currently only a limited test for a small number of groups. Organizers of these select groups have the option to opt-out of this test. We will not be making any significant payment changes in the near term. We are committed to providing advance notice before any changes go into effect."

“ 更新時間：美國東部時間2019年10月15日，下午1:30：此付款更改僅是少數(shù)小組的一項有限測試。這些選定小組的組織者可以選擇退出此測試。我們不會進行任何測試近期內(nèi)將發(fā)生重大付款變化。我們致力于在任何變化生效之前提前發(fā)出通知。”

They have bowed to the backlash. Now that their "flash-fry the frog" approach has failed, they are now going to "boil the frog" and roll out these changes over time. Meetup has not tweeted or otherwise alerted organizers of this pull-back.

他們屈服于反彈。 現(xiàn)在他們的“炸青蛙”方法失敗了，他們現(xiàn)在將“煮青蛙”并隨著時間的推移推出這些更改。 Meetup尚未發(fā)布任何推文，也未以其他方式提醒組織者此撤退。

This is a victory for event organizers and participants. But it's a temporary one. Meetup has already shown their true colors. It's just a matter of time before they start pushing this new RSVP-based pricing on more of their communities.

這是活動組織者和參與者的勝利。 但這是暫時的。 Meetup已經(jīng)展現(xiàn)出了自己的本色。 他們開始在更多社區(qū)中推廣基于RSVP的新價格只是時間問題。

To be 100% clear: the freeCodeCamp.org community is still hard at work on an open source alternative to Meetup, and we are making steady progress.

要100％明確：freeCodeCamp.org社區(qū)仍在努力開發(fā)Meetup的開源替代方案，并且我們正在穩(wěn)步發(fā)展 。

(End update.)

(結(jié)束更新。)

---

---

Last night Meetup.com quietly rolled out a new pricing structure.

昨晚，Meetup.com悄悄推出了新的定價結(jié)構(gòu)。

Effective "October", Meetup is reducing the amount of money event organizers have to pay each month from $20 per month to $2 a month.

自10月起生效后，Meetup將活動組織者每月必須支付的金額從每月20美元減少到了每月2美元。

Wow - that sounds great. Group organizers don't have to pay as much? So why is everyone so mad?

哇-聽起來不錯。 團體組織者不必支付那么多錢嗎？ 那為什么每個人都這么生氣？

Well, Meetup is also adding a new $2 fee every time a person RSVPs for a meetup. Every. Single. Time.

好吧，Meetup還會增加一個新的$ 2費用，每當(dāng)一個人RSVP進行一次聚會時。 每一個 單。 時間。

Let's do some quick math. Before, it cost a group of people $20 per month to use Meetup.com to organize their events.

讓我們做一些快速數(shù)學(xué)運算。 以前，每個人每月花費20美元才能使用Meetup.com來組織活動。

With this new pricing, let's assume you have a medium-sized meetup group that meets once a week and has 30 RSVPs each time.

以此新的定價，我們假設(shè)您有一個中型的聚會小組，該小組每周開會一次，每次有30個RSVP。

The group's total collective Meetup.com fees will now go from $20 per month to:

該組織的Meetup.com集體總費用現(xiàn)在將從每月20美元降至：

($2 * 30 RSVPs * 4 events per month) = $240

Oh, wait - I forgot to add that Meetup.com will still charge group organizers $2 per month on top of this. So $242.

哦，等等-我忘了補充，Meetup.com仍將向組織者每月收取$ 2的費用。 因此$ 242 。

That's a 1,210% increase in cost.

成本增加了1,210％。

Here's some more math.

這里還有一些數(shù)學(xué)。

Felipe Hoffa created this visualization to show how Meetup's new RSVP-based pricing would affect freeCodeCamp and its dozens of meetup groups around the world:

費利佩·霍法(Felipe Hoffa)創(chuàng)建了此可視化效果，以展示Meetup基于RSVP的新定價如何影響freeCodeCamp及其在世界各地的數(shù)十個metup組：

We've had 8,600 RSVPs for freeCodeCamp events so far in 2019. That would translate to:

截止到2019年，我們已經(jīng)有8,600個針對freeCodeCamp事件的RSVP。這將轉(zhuǎn)換為：

(11,400 RSVPs * $2) = $22,800 in Meetup.com fees

Sorry, Meetup.com. Your software platform is not worth $22,800 per year to our nonprofit and its community of study groups.

抱歉，Meetup.com。 對于我們的非營利組織及其研究團體來說，您的軟件平臺每年價值不超過$ 22,800。

Up until now, most meetups have been completely free. Meetup has the option of charging people to attend, but very few meetups use this feature.

到目前為止，大多數(shù)聚會都是完全免費的。 聚會有向參加者收費的選項，但是很少有聚會使用此功能。

A 2017 estimate put the total number of Meetup groups at 225,000.

根據(jù)2017年的估算 ，Meetup組的總數(shù)為225,000。

This pricing change will destroy thousands of communities on meetup.com - many of which have existed for more than a decade.

這種價格變化將破壞metup.com上的數(shù)千個社區(qū)-其中許多已經(jīng)存在了十多年。

為什么Meetup.com如此大肆搶錢？ 由于WeWork的IPO崩潰。 (Why is Meetup.com making such a flagrant cash grab? Because of the WeWork IPO Debacle.)

WeWork bought Meetup.com in 2017 for an estimated $200 million.

WeWork在2017年以約2億美元的價格收購了Meetup.com。

And if you haven't heard, WeWork is in a lot of trouble. Last month their big IPO imploded.

而且，如果您沒有聽到，WeWork將會遇到很多麻煩。 上個月，他們的大型IPO破裂。

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann resigned after taking $700 million out of the company and doing super sketchy things like buying buildings in his own name, then leasing the buildings to his company.

WeWork首席執(zhí)行官亞當(dāng)·紐曼(Adam Neumann) 從公司撤出7億美元并進行一些超粗略的事情后辭職，例如以自己的名義購買建筑物，然后將建筑物出租給他的公司。

WeWork could run out of cash by November. So they are desperate to get cash any way they can. Which explains Meetup.com's sudden, dramatic price change.

WeWork 到11月可能會用光現(xiàn)金 。 因此，他們迫切希望以任何方式獲取現(xiàn)金。 這就解釋了Meetup.com突然的價格急劇變化。

So how has Meetup.com been handling this PR crisis? Well, they replied to some people using the same exact canned response. Then they just stopped responding. And now they're tweeting motivational quotes.

那么，Meetup.com如何處理這場公關(guān)危機？ 好吧，他們回復(fù)了一些使用完全相同的罐頭回應(yīng)的人。 然后他們只是停止響應(yīng)。 現(xiàn)在，他們在推特上發(fā)布勵志名言。

Meetup doesn't care.

聚會沒關(guān)系。

They have crunched the numbers.

他們計算了數(shù)字。

They know that a certain percentage of hobby groups and fitness groups - and maybe even a few big business or tech groups - will shrug and say "I guess people will just have to pay a fee now."

他們知道，一定比例的業(yè)余愛好和健身團體-甚至可能還有一些大型企業(yè)或科技團體-都會聳聳肩說：“我想人們現(xiàn)在只需要付費即可。”

If even 10% of Meetup.com groups stay on their platform, they will end up making significantly more money than they are now.

如果即使有10％的Meetup.com小組留在他們的平臺上，他們最終將比現(xiàn)在賺更多的錢。

At this point, Meetup.com doesn't care about sustainability. Its parent company, WeWork, could go into bankruptcy proceedings any day now.

此時，Meetup.com不在乎可持續(xù)性。 它的母公司W(wǎng)eWork現(xiàn)在可以在任何一天進入破產(chǎn)程序。

This should just be yet another parable of corporate greed ruining a platform.

這應(yīng)該僅僅是公司貪婪破壞平臺的另一個寓言。

But this is more tragic. Much, much more tragic.

但這更加悲慘。 悲慘得多。

Because there are thousands of group leaders who have built up their communities on Meetup.com.

因為有成千上萬的組長在Meetup.com上建立了社區(qū)。

This isn't a slow-motion dying off, like with Tumblr or Geocities. This is all happening suddenly, and out of the blue.

這并不是慢動作的消失，就像Tumblr或Geocities一樣。 這一切都是突然發(fā)生的，是出乎意料的。

Meetup is a huge platform. And its owners - out in the cold - have decided to set Meetup.com on fire so they themselves can stay warm a little bit longer.

聚會是一個巨大的平臺。 而且其所有者-處于寒冷之中-決定將Meetup.com放火燒毀，以便他們自己可以保持溫暖一點。

小組有什么選擇？ (What options do groups have?)

The sad truth is there aren't many good alternatives for Meetup.com refugees.

可悲的事實是，Meetup.com難民沒有很多好的選擇。

If you create a group on Meetup.com, you will automatically get some amount of exposure - both from Google search and from Meetup's own internal recommendation engine.

如果您在Meetup.com上創(chuàng)建群組，那么您會自動從Google搜索和Meetup自己的內(nèi)部推薦引擎中獲得一定的曝光率。

Meetup has "network effects". As it becomes bigger, it becomes more useful. And more entrenched. Not unlike Facebook, Google, Amazon, or any other platform company.

聚會有“網(wǎng)絡(luò)效應(yīng)”。 隨著它變大，它變得越來越有用。 并且更加根深蒂固。 與Facebook，Google，Amazon或任何其他平臺公司一樣。

Meetup.com benefits from network effects. Heck, they trademarked the common English expression "meetup" so nobody else can even use it.

Meetup.com受益于網(wǎng)絡(luò)效應(yīng)。 哎呀，他們將通用英語表達“ meetup”注冊為商標(biāo)，因此沒有人可以使用它。

I've spent the past 2 years looking for a good alternative for the dozens of freeCodeCamp study groups that are hosted on Meetup.com.

在過去的兩年中，我一直在為Meetup.com上的數(shù)十個freeCodeCamp研究組尋找好的替代方案。

There are only two platforms that can give your group and your events comparable exposure: Facebook and Eventbrite.

只有兩個平臺可以使您的團隊和活動具有可比的曝光率：Facebook和Eventbrite。

Facebook has a "Groups" functionality that allows you to create events and allows people in your group to RSVP for them. It's free. And most people already have a Facebook account, even though fewer people use Facebook these days.

Facebook具有“群組”功能，可讓您創(chuàng)建事件，并允許群組中的人為其進行回復(fù)。 免費。 盡管如今使用Facebook的人數(shù)減少了，但大多數(shù)人已經(jīng)擁有一個Facebook帳戶。

The problem with Facebook is it's hard to actually reach people - even inside your own Facebook group. You could have thousands of people in your Facebook group and only a few hundred of them will see your event when you post it.

Facebook的問題在于，即使是在您自己的Facebook小組內(nèi)部，也很難真正接觸到人們。 您的Facebook群組中可能有成千上萬的人，只有數(shù)百人會在發(fā)布活動時看到您的活動。

You can of course pay Facebook to advertise your event. That's probably way cheaper than using Meetup.

您當(dāng)然可以向Facebook付費以宣傳您的活動。 這可能比使用Meetup便宜。

Eventbrite is good, and is free for free events. It is less useful for groups with regular events.

Eventbrite很好，免費提供免費活動。 對于有定期事??件的團體來說，它的用處不大。

And there are several functional clones of meetup.com as well - some of which are open source.

而且還有metup.com的幾個功能克隆-其中一些是開源的。

But none of these have much critical mass. Most of them are littered with groups created by people who were just tinkering, and events rarely get RSVPs - let alone actually happen.

但是這些都沒有足夠的臨界質(zhì)量。 他們中的大多數(shù)人到處都是由只是在修補的人創(chuàng)建的小組，事件很少獲得RSVP，更不用說實際發(fā)生了。

The fundamental problem with these platforms is they aren't associated with any specific organization. They don't have a specific stakeholder raising awareness of the events.

這些平臺的根本問題是它們與任何特定組織都不相關(guān)。 他們沒有特定的利益相關(guān)者來提高對事件的認(rèn)識。

These are big, general social network-like tools where anyone can create any type of event and make it public to everyone.

這些是類似于大型社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)的大型工具，任何人都可以創(chuàng)建任何類型的事件并將其公開給所有人。

The good news is I've spent the past two years thinking about this problem. And there's a way we can get organizations onboard to bring their own networks.

好消息是，過去兩年來我一直在考慮這個問題。 并且有一種方法可以使組織加入他們自己的網(wǎng)絡(luò)。

更好的前進之路：自托管章節(jié) (A Better Way Forward: Self-Hosted Chapters)

The solution is to let every organization host their own "Meetup.com in a box."

解決方案是讓每個組織在一個盒子中托管自己的“ Meetup.com”。

They can house this on their own servers. They can host this on their own website. And they can steer their own existing community to their own chapters' events.

他們可以將其放置在自己的服務(wù)器上。 他們可以將其托管在自己的網(wǎng)站上。 他們可以引導(dǎo)自己現(xiàn)有的社區(qū)參加自己的分會活動。

This will give each organization full ownership and full control over their data. It will also let them configure the tool however best suits their chapters.

這將使每個組織擁有完全的所有權(quán)并完全控制其數(shù)據(jù)。 它還可以讓他們配置工具，但最適合他們的章節(jié)。

Organizations will no longer need to rely on a Meetup's big centralized directory of disparate groups and events. Instead, they can focus on growing their own audiences, boosting their own local SEO, and building their own event mailing lists.

組織將不再需要依靠Meetup上分散的不同組和事件的大型集中目錄。 相反，他們可以專注于增加自己的受眾群體，提高自己的本地SEO以及建立自己的事件郵件列表。

freeCodeCamp is a donor-supported nonprofit. For the past 5 years, dozens of our local chapters have paid Meetup the $20 per month fee - totaling $10,000s of volunteers' money.

freeCodeCamp是捐助者支持的非營利組織。 在過去5年中，我們數(shù)十個本地分支機構(gòu)已向Meetup支付了每月20美元的費用-總計10,000美元的志愿者資金。

We have a Meetup problem. And we are building a solution for it. It's called Chapter.

我們遇到一個聚會問題。 我們正在為此解決方案。 這就是章 。

Your organization will be able to use this solution, too. For free.

您的組織也將能夠使用此解決方案。 免費。

We started working on this last night in response to Meetup.com's announcement. And we're working as fast as we can to get this tool ready for you.

昨晚我們開始對此進行工作，以響應(yīng)Meetup.com的公告。 而且我們正在竭盡全力為您準(zhǔn)備好該工具。

You can read more about this on the GitHub repository.

您可以在GitHub存儲庫上了解更多有關(guān)此內(nèi)容的信息 。

If you are an event organizer, or a nonprofit with a lot of chapters, know this: help is on the way.

如果您是活動的組織者，或者是擁有很多章節(jié)的非營利組織，請知道這一點： 即將來臨的幫助。

This will be much better suited to your needs than Meetup was previously. And it will be free and fully under your own control.

與Meetup之前相比，這將更適合您的需求。 它是免費的，完全由您自己控制。

翻譯自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-wework-meetup-debacle-and-a-new-chapter/

總結(jié)

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