Morgan Tocker ([info]mtocker) wrote,
@ 2009-05-28 15:58:00
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Entry tags:mysql

Meetup.com can burn!
In one week, the MySQL/Sun sponsored Meetup.com subscriptions expire officially. While it's good to see that plenty of offers are available for sponsorship, I am kind of surprised that Meetup.com hasn't received much bad press out of this.

To recap what happened:
- (some years ago) Meetup.com introduced a great service for organizing meetups, and it was free!
- Then they decided that they couldn't make money this way, so they switched to a paid-service-only model.
- Most meetups on other topics started using things like Upcoming and Facebook, but MySQL negotiated a deal to have all MySQL meetups sponsored.
- Meetup.com decided they could make more money out of MySQL by charging for the groups individually, so they canceled the sponsorship deal.

I'm not against Meetup.com charging, but the way they've essentially made a business is by Bait and Switch. I don't think we (as Open Source citizens) should encourage that, since one of the things we strive for is freedom from the vendor lock-in that makes this possible.


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Bait and Switch? nah...
[info]rpbouman.blogspot.com
2009-05-28 09:34 pm UTC (link)
Hi!

"they've essentially made a business is by Bait and Switch."

However inconvenient for the ones involved, I think that neither termination of the free service nor discontinuing the deal with MySQL qualifies as Bait and Switch, at least not according to the wikipedia definition you link to.

At least, the way I understand the definition given by the wikipedia article, Bait and Switch involves deceit by advertising A and not delivering A, but B instead. From what I understand, this is not the case here: while the free service was advertised, people actually got it free of charge.

kind regards,

Roland

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Re: Bait and Switch? nah...
[info]mtocker
2009-05-28 09:59 pm UTC (link)
So I should just be able to export all the email addresses from meetup.com, and continue using another service, right?

It depends on how the expectations were set. You could say that "delivering" was just the period where it was free, and during that time you got what you got. For me, it was an ongoing system that helped build my meetup group, and I don't think it was delivered.

But still, I value your perspective on it. In the end some people will still use meetup.com for mysql groups, but it's not for me.

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[info]jeremycole
2009-05-29 05:19 pm UTC (link)
This is kind of a silly argument. Okay, so some people are upset that they don't get Meetup for free. Boo hoo. You could say (although personally *I* wouldn't) that MySQL/Sun is just as much involved in "bait and switch" as Meetup is. But that's a silly argument. Yes, we've been getting it for free. Yes, it's no longer free. Get over it. If it was a useful service, pay for it. If it wasn't, move elsewhere. Just don't spend your efforts lambasting Meetup because the deal didn't work out. If you want to talk bad about them, it might have been appropriate years ago when they decided to charge for it originally. It is NOT just because the deal between MySQL/Sun and Meetup didn't work out.

And, re. your comment above: When was providing your member's email addresses part of any agreement/expectation you ever had with Meetup? They provide mailing lists and features so that organizers can contact all of their members easily. Use it to tell your members about any upcoming move. If your members want to move elsewhere, they will.

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[info]mtocker
2009-05-29 05:42 pm UTC (link)
You're right - the complaints should have been directed a couple of years ago, and are a little dated.

I'm not upset that it's not free. I'm upset that they built a business by locking people in and then changing to a paid service. It's lock in, because they make it harder to move off the service than it could be. I know they would probably say "we don't give organizers your email addresses to reduce spam", but I don't buy it.

I don't think it's the same argument with MySQL. The GPL gives you the ability to continue as you wish no matter what Sun/Oracle does.

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