Copy someone else's meetup for your group
Many of us in Utah plan, or co-plan meetups for our groups for a centralized meetup. It would be great to not re-invent the wheel each time we do this. We should create a way to copy a meetup from another group and post it into our own without adding all the places, times, dates, etc.
The STAR Forum
shared this idea
48 comments
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Jim Richardson
commented
I think this covers my idea - I am the Organizer of one meetup group and there are a few other similar interest groups (dachshund clubs) in my area. We often want to support one another and attend each others' events. If meetup had a CROSS-POST feature, where I could see a meetup in one of my groups I'm just a member of, and then hit a "cross-post" button that would add the meetup event automatically to the group I'm the organizer of, that would be VERY useful for me and I believe a valuable feature for Meetup.com. Please add a Cross-Post button for organizers when they're logged in and looking at other groups they're members of!
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Meetup Organizer
commented
There is nothing that prevents a cut-and-paste from any source except that it may look ugly (and maybe uglier still now that Meetup is insisting on a new method of doing themes that does not include one with light text on a dark background).
It does trouble me that people feel cutting and pasting is "ok", however. It's called plagiarism or copyright violation if done without permission. With permission, the simple procedure is to ask the owner of the event to edit it, go into "HTML" copy all that you get and then paste it into the HTML field for a new event.
A cleaner way would be to be able to cross-post events in two or more groups and share in a pool of available spots. I do understand why that is wickedly complicated, however, and why Meetup hasn't done it.
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Elaine Vigneault commented
I like this idea so long as the organizer of the group being copied can approve or deny access of other groups to copy.
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Mark Stephenson
commented
I guess if there was an easy way to do this, it would be worthwhile. We're a car club in Arizona and we often add events created by other clubs. However, it's not that hard to cut and paste the information. In most cases they aren't on Meetup and we have to do that anyway.
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Chris Jackson
commented
Sorry I can't back this idea as several groups have just copied and pasted my event, which I spend many hours researching and collecting all the details and prices, etc. Why should another group just get to cut and paste one of my events to their own group?
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Crista
commented
This is yet anther request for the ability to CROSS-POST, but with different language. Please, Meetup HQ, Please combine various requests/ideas on this site that are originally posted as seperate ideas together and you will see some that appeared to be less popular are near the top of the list of requests. I have two groups, and am an assistant in 2 others. With a photo, and live link, and directions, etc... it IS time consuming to cross post. ENABLE ME :-)
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Tiffany
commented
So to all you naysayers - I ask - If I am searching meetup events in my area to see if there something I would like to join and I see an event that is a PUBLIC event posted on someone elses meetup group (like a childrens festival), are you saying I do not have the right to add it as an event for my meetup group to attend as well? The public festival marketing folks would say I should. Meetup could put a simple checkbox asking the event organzer ____ Make this meetup copyable - the default would be not copyable. Whats the harm in spreading the news about fun events going on in town that are announced many other places besides meetup groups?
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tat2duck
commented
Hmm, it seems the most simple of all solutions is the good old 'cut and paste'. It's a tried and true method with COMPLETE control by the organizers. Try it. It may sound novel now, but you'll get used to it!
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JL
commented
create e new member - give it the name of your umbrella group - subscribe to many groups - all groups activities are consolidated under 1 calendar
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mich125jh@aol.com
commented
Meetup tried "Meetup Alliance" already and it was taken down presumably because it didn't prove successful, I would say I'd doubt they'd want to go down that road again after the time & money they wasted on it at the time but after recent events who knows what they will do...
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Reading the comments, I see that some organizers do not want ANY copying, and others don't mind it. Each group has different requirements and preferences on this. If the "copy-button" is implemented, it should only be done between groups that agree to share meetup information with each other, and there should be only one place to RSVP. At no time should personal information (name, address, phone number, e-mail) be shared between groups as a part of any "copy meetup" function. Maybe an "opt-in check-list" of which information to be shared could be a part of the process. A way to "spread the word" about a meetup of general interest might be to allow people from the "outside" group to send a "request for an invitation" to the initiating group's organizer. In any case, the group's organizer should be able to block all copying if they want to keep everything private.
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We like to cross-pollinate meetups too, but there should be only one place to sign-up for a meetup: at the hosting group's site. What we do is post a note in the calendar about the other group's meetup, and ask that our members join the other meetup if they want to RSVP for an event. In any case, personal information (addresses & phone numbers, and e-mail addresses) should be closely guarded, and NEVER cross-posted in the notes. It may be a technical challenge to accomplish this, but it would be nice to be able to quickly post "sanitized" info from meetup group to another.
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mich125jh@aol.com
commented
I wouldn't like other Organisers copying the content of my group for any reason.
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dtallard
commented
I think it would be a great feature for organizers to cross-post into another group they organize. In my case, I am organzer of two single-groups, one is a divorced-single group, the other one simply a singles group, but many events would be fun for either group of people and it would make it much easier if the organzier would have the feature to have a feature where they can choose "this group only" or a list of other groups they are organizing, say "post in single/divorce group" "post in singles group" etc.
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Gina
commented
There is a HUGE need to be able to hit a button to copy an event to all of your meetup groups that you run. It is time consuming to type things in 3 times if you are running 3 groups. This would save a lot of time and effort.
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AlbanyKate
commented
I would enjoy this feature being implemented. I can see circumstances where people have cross-group activities and the copy featuer would save time. I know I've messaged another meetup group organizer to ask her if I could copy her meetup and have my group join hers and she was happy to let us do it; the more the merrier! To those people who think copying is stealing in some form I remind you that all someone has to do is join your group to see the meetups you post and they could then go put the idea on their own meetup group without this feature anyway. It takes more time to take your meetup and copy it but it can still be done with things as they are now.
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Dorothy
commented
Very bad idea. Copy and paste Meetups from your own group to your own group but not from another Meetup Group. That is stealing someone else's time and research to make your own life easier. I may make my group private in part due to this feedback. I pay my dues and work hard to have a thriving group and feel pretty outraged about this idea. Do your own work and research. Ask your members for ideas. Ask your AO's to write up some events.
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Marc
commented
I forgot to add - with my solution, you could still set it up with an RSVP limit, and merge the two waiting lists, for events that need an upper limit on size.
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Marc
commented
Fantastic idea! Here in Richmond a lot of meetups are joint events between multiple groups. The membership overlaps considerably between the various groups.
That being said, the original organizer should always give permission before it's cross-posted to another group. I know one extremely-active meetup person who has occasionally taken the idea for one event and advertised it on one of his own groups without asking permission first. Most of the time that's cool but sometimes you want an event to be for your group alone.
A good solution, I think, would be to provide a link under the "tools" menu for organizers of a particular event, asking them "do you want to share with another meetup group"? Let's say I am organizer for Meetup Group A, and John from Meetup Group B wants to post it on his group as well. I click the link for sharing with a group, type in "Meetup Group B", select "John" from the list of organizers for that group, and it sends an email to him. If John accepts then it's co-listed for both groups. From then on, either he or I could change the event description and it'd update for both groups.
You could even then set it up so me and John can get a "true" tally of the total RSVP list by seeing who's RSVP'd from both groups, and automatically taking into account people who are members of both groups and RSVP'd twice.
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Michelle H
commented
I understand that, in the use case The STAR Forum notes, it may be valid. However, I sure as heck don't want any other meetup to be able to take my meetup and post it as theirs. Often I have more of a "user group" meetup with a scheduled speaker, limited seating, etc. If someone wants to do join forces, perhaps they can copy the Meetup from one meetup group onto the Calendar of theirs as a Note. If a new "co-meetup" feature, I recommend MU development implement this feature in such a way that the given meetup's organizer can approve this copying of information to another meetup before letting it happen. This also should be in the meetup settings to allow a meetup organizer to turn on or off this feature.
