This is a nifty idea, one that I could see myself using if it became popular. Unfortunately, you've got a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: there are currently no groups or events in my zip code (Boston), which means I'm not likely to visit the site regularly. I know that others will have the same reticence towards regular visits, so when I have an event or group, I'm more likely to post it where people are actually watching. I know that group starters will reason that way, and so I have no reason to keep visiting the site. And so on. It's all game theory.
You've gotta break the cycle somehow and make this useful to small groups of people that are already in close contact with each other. Maybe you can convince people to organize the next news.YC meetup on it. Or maybe you can feature in some sort of asynchronous time-shifting: let people indicate their interests now, and then as groups and events appear, give them notification.
A couple specific comments/suggestions:
I like the design of the site. Clean, minimalist, and directs you to things you can do with it.
It's really nifty that you go straight from search results to a "get new results by RSS" link. But add an e-mail option too! It may seem hard to believe, but not everybody uses RSS, particularly outside of tech circles. Keep the UI simple - just have someone enter an e-mail address and it'll email you when a new group appears in your location.
It'd be nice to be able to filter searches/subscriptions by keyword as well. For example, I'm interested in startup & programming groups in Boston. I'd like to be able to say "Show me all the startup organizations in Boston", and if there are none, I want to be able to type in my e-mail address, get notified when new ones appear, and otherwise forget about the site.
If you do this, you might want to show off popular subscriptions (location + keywords) on the front page. Aside from indicating that people are listening for new groups, it also could show people what interests are hottest. This could be a good signal for which groups people may want to start.
I personally would not care all that much about message boards, at least not until the site gets a lot of traffic. Then it'd be nifty, but not essential.
Rename the Help link to Help/Feedback or Help/Contact or just Contact to indicate that you're receptive to suggestions.
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).
You've gotta break the cycle somehow and make this useful to small groups of people that are already in close contact with each other. Maybe you can convince people to organize the next news.YC meetup on it. Or maybe you can feature in some sort of asynchronous time-shifting: let people indicate their interests now, and then as groups and events appear, give them notification.
A couple specific comments/suggestions:
I like the design of the site. Clean, minimalist, and directs you to things you can do with it.
It's really nifty that you go straight from search results to a "get new results by RSS" link. But add an e-mail option too! It may seem hard to believe, but not everybody uses RSS, particularly outside of tech circles. Keep the UI simple - just have someone enter an e-mail address and it'll email you when a new group appears in your location.
It'd be nice to be able to filter searches/subscriptions by keyword as well. For example, I'm interested in startup & programming groups in Boston. I'd like to be able to say "Show me all the startup organizations in Boston", and if there are none, I want to be able to type in my e-mail address, get notified when new ones appear, and otherwise forget about the site.
If you do this, you might want to show off popular subscriptions (location + keywords) on the front page. Aside from indicating that people are listening for new groups, it also could show people what interests are hottest. This could be a good signal for which groups people may want to start.
I personally would not care all that much about message boards, at least not until the site gets a lot of traffic. Then it'd be nifty, but not essential.
Rename the Help link to Help/Feedback or Help/Contact or just Contact to indicate that you're receptive to suggestions.