meetup.com

[Wyrm]

Like a lot of you, I've been trying to find venues in which to socialize with people in person. This site has helped me a lot for that:

www.meetup.com

I've met a lot of cool people in the meetups, plus it has helped me lot with building up my social skills. I just wanted to post this in case maybe some of you might want to try it out and benefit from it like I have.

 

[Brian]

Yeah, my parents formed a political meetup group during the elections to talk about Ron Paul. They had a lot of fun. I attended one...definitely some different people.

I tried to form a caving meetup, at one point, to try and get a professional group together and start exploring caves. There were 6 others wanting one, a couple of whom had experience. But I ran in to the problem of those being the -only- two with experience, and me being the only willing organizer while not actually knowing anything about ropes, techniques, locations or anything. So it sort of fell out.

At any rate, I bought a mountain bike and once I'm a bit more proficient on it (which might be next year...yikes, it's almost winter here again!!), I'll be signing up for a biking meetup group. It's definitely a useful tool. I think I recommended it here as well many moons ago...I'd be interested to know if anyone who posted ever tried it.

The problem that I've heard is that some areas just don't have many groups, or much of a variety. Personally for me I have to drive 20-30ish miles for the close ones...but to me that's not really a big deal as long as I get to go do something. For some people though the distance is farther.

 

[Jesse]

Hmmm I might try this.

 

[samba101]

I've signed up to one meetup so we'll see how it goes, there's another two where I want to join next year, these ones are for dinners and drinks but financially can't afford it until I get a job, so fingers crossed it works out.

 

[Nyktimos]

I was e-mail-penpal with a young lady in the States a while ago (until she found a boyfriend). She had a lot of luck with meetup.com, and wouldn't stop telling me I should try it. So it worked for her (and got her a boyfriend, though in a fairly circuitous way).

 

[Brian]

I signed up for an 'adventurers' meetup nearby that wasn't there the last time I'd visited the site. They're pretty active it looks like...although the next meeting is a day I work, lol.

 

[Wyrm]

Yep, for a while I would go to meetups that were actually in the next city (between 20-30 miles away) because I didn't know of any here. After 6 months or so, I finally found one for my city when I did another search.

It's been the most effective for me when it comes to finding ways to do something with other people. I tried volunteering, but most of the people were there cause they had to be there for one reason or another. Also, my people skills weren't as good back then, so maybe I'll give that a shot again.

I do wish that there were more people around my age in the meetups (I'm 22). Most of the people in the meet ups are between their late 20's and middle-aged. I guess most people my age have their social circle, or just accept being alone. In any case, I still have fun in the meet ups, so it doesn't really matter.

 

[coricopat]

I've used it with great experiences. Seems to only work in big cities though. Probably wouldn't help much if you lived outside of a metropolis.

 

[AndrewM]

Thanks for posting this - it looks great.

 

[SullenGirl]

That site doesn't help me at all, because most 20 year olds apparently are not on meetup.com trying to set up events with other people. :/ Can't find a group in my area that is within my age range.

But I'm glad it helps someone!

 

[Luna]

The meetup groups in my area don't have many people in my age range either. A lot of the groups are mostly for mothers also, so that makes it a bit difficult for me. :/

 

[Orthochromatic]

I signed up and hung out with a group of hikers a couple times last year. It was ok, I met a few fun people but the people that organized the group were far to serious about making certain times and way points. Made me feel like I was in the Army again. I ended up telling them I like to relax a bit more, try to enjoy nature when hiking (stop and smell the roses so to speak) and stopped going.