New event hosting website for MEH SitP

After careful consideration I have decided to migrate the Melbourne Eastern Hills Skeptics in the Pub event website from Meetup.com to GroupSpaces.com.

You can find the new events site at http://mehsitp.codenix.org – or on Facebook if you search for ‘Melbourne Eastern Hills SitP’ under groups.

Although Meetup.com offers a decent service, I was disappointed to find out they offer significantly cheaper fee structures to new event organisers, whilst organisers of established groups are locked into a higher fee structure. I have so far spent around $60 hosting our event via Meetup.com, which I feel is too expensive for three months worth of service. They offer cheaper rates if you prepay 6 or 12 months, but even these rates are higher than those offered to new members I’ve spoken with.

As I delved into looking for alternate event hosting services, I became aware of some fantastic ad-supported options out there, many of which offer additional features such as Facebook integration for free. I also discovered that Meetup.com has some “undocumented features” which concern me, such as allowing any member of the group to take over as the organiser if the current organiser fails to pay their fees (which I feel places my members’ personal information at risk), and they do not allow bulk-deletion of members’ accounts, which is a required step before you can delete a group.

All up, I think Meetup.com is a great service for corporate or ‘funded’ club events, but for small groups such as ours, I struggle to justify the cost.