- Carriagetown Car ShowMarket Square Amesbury, Amesbury, MA
Those of you who have ridden with me on the Amesbury Riverwalk and the Salisbury Ghost Trail will remember our talk about the town's rich transportation history and its nickname 'Carriagetown.' That history will be celebrated on Saturday, September 28, with the annual Carriagetown Car Show in downtown Amesbury. The entire square will be filled with antique and classic cars. There will be food and music, too. Lots of great places to grab lunch afterwards, including my favorite, Flatbread Pizza. Come walk around town, reminisce about the old days, and enjoy the visual sights of some beautifully restored cars from yesteryear!
Meetup spot: We'll have a quick meet-and-greet in front of the Market Square Bakehouse in downtown Amesbury. After that, everyone's free to meander around on their own or you can hang out with me for a while as I walk around town -- your choice! We can regroup later on for lunch if folks are interested.
Parking: There is plenty of free parking at the public lot on Water Street, just a short walk from downtown.
Important: Because the downtown will be closed off to vehicular traffic, you will need to enter Amesbury via Elm Street, which is right off Route 110 at the Stop & Shop Plaza. Travel down Elm Street and just past Cumberland Farms take a left turn onto Chestnut Street. At the end of Chestnut Street, take a right onto Water Street.
Feel free to bring a friend or two!
- Learn About the Upcoming Changes to MeetupBending Spoons, Milano, MI
As I mentioned to some of you before our last ride, there are lots of changes coming to Meetup in 2024. Have you've noticed some funky behavior with the Meetup app or on the Meetup website? Some members have reported being unable to sign up for an event, while others have had trouble seeing the attendee and/or wait lists. For many members, a pop-up window urging you to subscribe to Meetup Plus has appeared after clicking on an event's 'Attend' button. The Grand Poobah will explain what's happening and allay all fears that perhaps you, your phone, and your computer are simply going wacky.
Meetup was acquired by an Italian company called Bending Spoons earlier this year. You can read about their general plans for Meetup on the official Meetup Blog website, but I'll give you a quick rundown here. The first priority is to fix the MANY bugs in the platform that have occurred over the years as Meetup was bought and sold several times. Most of the U.S.-based programming operation is gone, and the main programming team will now be based in Europe. The new team is working to streamline the old code base while improving the overall reliability of the platform. New features will be added, too. Sounds great, right? It is for the most part, but just understand that the new Meetup owners also want to make M-O-N-E-Y. There will be a continuing push for everyone to become paying members by subscribing to Meetup+. (Be sure to click the link to read up on this!)
The Grand Poobah's take: The Meetup marketing team is spinning the Meetup+ option as some sort of upgrade, but, in reality, it's simply now charging members for the functionality that was always free in years past. So, is the free ride over for most of us? Well, yes and no. You can continue as a non-paying member, however, you will lose some of the things that you've become accustom to having. Viewing the attendee and wait lists, for example. Meetup+ members will also get priority event notifications. They'll get first dibs on events because they will hear about them before the free members. Other Meetup+ membership benefits include some custom icon nonsense, but I'll let you read about that yourself. And, last but not least, Meetup is moving to an ad-supported model on both the phone app and the website interface. In short, if you're a non-paying member, you can expect to see ads in the future. How intrusive these will be, I cannot say. If you have downloaded any free apps to your phone or used the Weather Channel on your computer, you know how this works.
Organizers will also be facing changes in 2024, starting off with a price increase at our next billing cycle (July 31). Whatever else Bending Spoons has in store for organizers, I do not know, but I can tell you this: Membership in North Shore Bicycling for Fun will continue to be free. We have a flat-rate Meetup plan, meaning that the group organizer (me) is not charged on a fee schedule based on the number or members in the group. I have not heard any rumors that this is going to change under the new ownership. Anyone who has been on Meetup for any length of time undoubtedly knows that a group's member list and the REAL list of active members are two totally different things.
Let's Talk About This
Got questions? Just want to vent? I've turned on the event chat feature, so we can all get these changes straight. Please post your questions or comments in the chat window, as it's more conducive to conversations than the general comment area on the event description page.Click the 'Attend' button for the event so I can get an idea of how many of you are now up to speed on these Meetup changes.
- Meetup Changes: What We Know So Far...Bending Spoons, Milano, MI
The new, European-based programming team continues to forge ahead aggressively with the revamping of the Meetup platform. There has been some curious in-production testing -- and with us as the live guinea pigs! The disappearing attendee and wait lists for non-Meetup+ members appears to be an example of one such test. After a little sleuthing by me, it seems that the programmers were tweaking things for a select group of users and then waiting to receive user feedback. This explains why some folks suddenly couldn't see the attendee and wait lists, while others had no problem. Thankfully, the programming team has now backed off on this change, as it so clearly impacts the dynamics of group events -- and not in a good way.
What's Going Away
- Event Chat. This was one recently introduced feature that I thought was actually good -- certainly better than event comments, in my opinion. Despite my encouragement, however, this feature was slow to be adopted by our group. Meetup is shutting it down after July 18 and has promised more robust event discussions and comments.
- Message Boards. Another legacy feature from years ago that I liked. It fell into disuse when Meetup made the big change years ago to push people toward the smartphone app rather than the Web browser interface. Lots of people don't even know that our message boards exist, since there is no way to get to them from the phone app. We used to use these message boards for buying and selling used gear, posting resources on bike trails, listing local bike shops, etc. These are also going away after July 18.
- Attendee Insights. A Meetup marketing term used to describe member age, gender, interests and joined groups. The attendee and wait lists now show this additional information -- but only if you are a Meetup+ subscriber.
What's Coming Our Way
- Advertisements on the Web. If you have not signed up for Meetup+ you will see ads when accessing Meetup from your computer. I confirmed this using a test Meetup account.
- Advertisements in the App: Confirmed for Android users. A major update is coming for the Meetup app, currently scheduled for December from what I've been able to learn.
- Price Increases for Organizers. I have a 12-month Meetup Organizer subscription that is billed in January and July. The annual cost, which has been $200 plus taxes for the past few years, is now being increased by $100, upping my annual outlay to $300 plus tax. FYI, organizers with an annual subscription are allowed 3 Meetup groups of unlimited size.
Membership in North Shore Bicycling for Fun will remain free!
The Current State of the Meetup Platform
Meetup has needed a major overhaul for some time; however, none of the platform's previous owners were willing to take on this rather formidable job. Consequently, Meetup languished over the years, becoming increasingly buggy while failing to deliver on many long-asked-for features requested by its organizers. Enter Bending Spoons and their aggressive plan to streamline the platform and rebuild Meetup from the ground up. It's a big job -- and an expensive one. With the new prices for organizers and the introduction of Meetup+, we're essentially being asked to help with the Meetup rebuild.Is Meetup+ Right for Me?
It's been a free ride for many years. While you can continue as a free Meetup user, a Meetup+ subscription may make your life easier in the long run, particularly if you're an active member in several different groups and like to participate in many events each month. Check out the blog post to learn the benefits of a Meetup+ subscription. Priority notification of events is the biggie, as is priority on the wait list. And no annoying ads. Maybe you wait and see if Bending Spoons delivers on its promises.See the photos below for a visual rundown on these changes.
Please click the Attend Button to let me know you've read this update.