Thank you for your feedback. I agree there is a major chicken and egg problem with this site. I am working on reaching out to smaller niches as you suggest. First I'm trying to interest political candidates for the upcoming 2008 election cycle. Their group organizers are generally spending their own money on meetup.com, which could be used for other things, e.g. signs. And I'm sure there are other organizers who would create supporting political groups if they knew there was a free alternative. I just need to reach them now, somehow :) As for news.YC meetups, to all out there, please consider it!
Yes, I need an email option! Working on it.
I'm working on doing message boards because the political people asked for it as their users are using them on meetup.com. I'm keeping it dead simple though (modeled after news.yc).
I will rename that Help link now. At first it was Feedback. I think you are right that Contact is better as it is more inviting for suggestion. I am of course receptive to suggestions!
First off, if you happen to live near a big college, maybe you could plaster up some fliers, like, "Schedule your next party or club get-together at groupomatic.com!" I know when I was at college, I would have appreciated knowing where the parties were at, finding out the the school had an anime club, etc., in some other fashion the stopping to read every flier on every notice board I passed on the off chance something was there I'd be interested in. Maybe you could work something out with whatever department oversees student activities / clubs?
*Edit: Also, what about communities that are known for get togethers of most likely not necessarily wealthy people (the folks you are trying to poach from meetup)? Off the top of my head...LUGs, Demo Sceners, Furries, Flash Mobbers, Movie Fans (how cool would it be to arrange for a bunch of serious movie fans to all hit the same theater early so the place would be full of people who know better than to be obnoxious?), Gamers (LAN Parties, etc.). These types of folks often have forums with get-together sections or 'advertising' sections you could use. The draw is for cases where either a) the community is spread over many forums (they could all centralize on you for get-togethers) or b) members of multiple groups (say, gamers who are also interested in Linux).
Yes, I need an email option! Working on it.
I'm working on doing message boards because the political people asked for it as their users are using them on meetup.com. I'm keeping it dead simple though (modeled after news.yc).
I will rename that Help link now. At first it was Feedback. I think you are right that Contact is better as it is more inviting for suggestion. I am of course receptive to suggestions!