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r/twincitiessocial•
mkrfctr

[meta] Discussion on /r/twincitiessocial

Thoughts on r/twincitiessocial ?

It's been a year since moving all not strictly related to a meetup posts over to r/twincities and some things have changed with Reddit, this sub, meetups happening from this sub, and r/twincities, so lets discuss.

  • Reddit now has stickies.
  • r/twincities now has as much non meetup related posts as TCS ever did.
  • Some of the heavy lifters of some of TCS's more frequented events have stepped aside or moved on.

I almost feel like this should be made into a survey, but lets go with this format for now.

To gauge where people are coming from knowing this would be helpful: How much do you interact with the sub (infrequent lurker/visitor, lurk/visit often, content poster), how long have you been around TCS (new, months, long time), and how often do you attend meetups IRL (never, occasionally, often)?

So what would you like to see from this sub?

What's good about this sub that you like?

What's bad that you don't like?

What are you looking for from a 'social'/'meetup' sub?

What do you think would improve the sub or aspects related to the sub?

Posted Nov 17, 2013, 6:46 PM UTC

326
apersonShakopee•

One thing I'd like to see is that 'social' does not equal 'meetup'. You can socialize without physically meeting another person (or you can at least organize a social event without it being a meetup).

Overall, I think you guys are having too tight a grip on the subreddit for the subscriber base (and holy shit you guys have a lot of mods for not a lot of people - take away half the mods and add two zeros on the subscriber count and then you can justify that amount).

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igacekHonduras/Calhoun/NE•

(or you can at least organize a social event without it being a meetup).

Help me out here... isn't that basically the same thing as a meetup?

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mkrfctrOPDuluth•

Last time we went through this with people who had issue with making TCS IRL social gathering related rather than just "I comment on the internet and that's social enough for me" seemed to also object to the term 'meetup' as if it had some other connotation than simply a gathering, I didn't get a really strong sense of why that was, perhaps it was too 'official' sounding, or they think meetup.com which is kind of top down oriented, I don't really know.

Perhaps we could brainstorm a new word, like a Rounding, or a Heap, or a Huddle, or a Tussle...

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asteryskSt. Louis Park•

You can socialize without physically meeting another person

Can you explain exactly how this is accomplished? If you're just going to sit at your computer all day, posting messages on reddit, why does it need to be on a Twin Cities subreddit and not <any other subreddit>?

Edit: Sorry, should have clarified TwinCitiesSocial and not TwinCities.

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totaldrk62•

To interact with people who live in the same area as you do? Honestly I don't understand this. Is it really that hard to comprehend that you might have one conversation with the people who live near you and another conversation with people from afar.

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asteryskSt. Louis Park•

This is what r/TwinCities is for.

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totaldrk62•

It's what twincities became due to mod decisions without input from their community. It's what fragmented the Minnesota community even more and caused some users to leave entirely. Honestly, the Minnesota subs are so fragmented now. I understood the ideal behind what they were trying to accomplish but not how it was done. The subsequent mod meltdown and constant trolling pretty much guaranteed I wouldn't be going to any meetups. I keep subbed just in case I catch one at a bar I frequent and feel like buying someone a beer.

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[deleted]•

I lurk and visit often and have been around for a few months. I never attend the meetups posted unless I'm attempting one.

I like the fact I can post something up for some sort of social interaction in the area. What I don't like is the fact that most people here don't want to go to other cities with not so fantastic bars like how Minneapolis has and what not. Also I don't like the fact that people don't say if they are coming or not. I look for just meeting new people and just having a good time in general. It's all about socializing with different people and seeing who's out there and what not.

I think one vast improvement is having people say "I'm coming, maybe interesting, might not go, not going." I think there's some sort of contest form that would show how many people said one of the above responses. It'd give the organizer a good idea on who is coming and who isn't so they can plan how many stools or how many chairs and tables to get.

Sure I'm a new guy but after having 2 failed meet-ups in my area, this is my opinion. Not everyone has the capability of going down to Minneapolis everynight, finding parking, and getting to the bar that everyone goes to.

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asteryskSt. Louis Park•

I agree, it would be nice if people posted explicitly stating that they plan to come. There's no way to enforce this, but we can certainly encourage it.

Sorry to hear that two of your meetups failed. Unfortunately the success of these really depends on where people live and how far they're willing to drive. Don't give up! I try to make an effort at times to let people know I'm willing to give them a lift.

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[deleted]•

Thanks for the agreement, like I've only done 2 of these so far and pretty much it bottoms out. I think with encouraging that they should state whether they have interest or not would be fantastic.

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asteryskSt. Louis Park•

Yeah, I have a block of text I stole from u/catiefsm that I paste into most of my posts along the lines of "These events are for meeting people from reddit. We get..." I think I'll add something there in bold stating "Please reply (yes or maybe) if you plan on attending." If they don't plan on coming, no need to reply of course.

What area of the metro do you live in? I'm in the southwest. Any metropolitan area somewhat prescribes the city as the meetup place since that's a centrally located area that is overall the easiest location for people who live in different neighborhoods to meet. If I were going to drive all the way across town, it would have to be a damn awesome meetup.

As far as "getting there" is concerned, I think Uptown and Northeast (near Whitey's, Nye's Polonaise) have readily available parking near good bars, esp. after 10pm. Downtown is fun, but parking there is restrictively difficult.

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[deleted]•

I'm north central. Basically in "shitty bar territory"

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mkrfctrOPDuluth•

There's no way to enforce this, but we can certainly encourage it.

Well, we could put up a if you don't RSVP even a maybe then don't bother showing as you'll be horribly shunned.

I mean it's not that hard to say you're interested, at least then you'd have an idea of how many might show, as in like 50% of the 'yes' and an extra 10% of the maybes.

Could probably get an RSVP bot that posts an 'RSVP' comment in any 'meetup' titled thread and people can comment under it? I'm hesitant to go super technology or try to cross integrate other platforms but it's an option potentially...

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asteryskSt. Louis Park•

don't bother showing as you'll be horribly shunned

Yeah, that would be a great idea if we're trying to scare people away!

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mkrfctrOPDuluth•

Alright, carrot instead of stick; anyone who RSVPs and shows gets diabetes via mini cupcake? Or a sticker, people love stickers. Model it after the "I voted" stickers and have them say "I RSVP'd"? Your turn to brain storm.

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asteryskSt. Louis Park•
  • Content poster, slightly over a year, ~2x/week.
  • More participation/attendance, greater variety of events that people are willing to organize.
  • It's user-driven. There's no top-down structure like meetup.com that only allows designated group-leaders who pay some monthly fee to be able to post meetups.
  • Never really sure if anyone else is going to show up.
  • Meet new people, make new friends. Even if other people that show up that are "weird" and who I normally wouldn't hang out with, it's still interesting to meet them.
  • We just need more active members and more participation. We could possibly leverage more usage of the Facebook page. I know we have one but don't use it too much. Perhaps cross-post everything from r/tcs also onto the Facebook page. That may help people with name/face recognition and to help people keep in touch better. Another possibility is to have some sort of duplicate group on meetup.com but that would require some money and a lot more attention and I don't think it'd offer any benefit over Facebook.

I want to see this sub succeed, I really do. This sub is a great way to meet new people if you're brand new to the city or if many of your other friends have moved off in different directions. I have met a lot of great people here and hope to meet more in the future.

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autobahnalphabet roads•

I just think it is funny how people care so much. And how rigid and unwilling to change people are.

3
simulations•

Yeah, because if there's one thing that TCS and is moderators are, it's flexible and willing to adapt to change.

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mkrfctrOPDuluth•

Well I guess the stickes are kinda sucky, you can only have one? WTF reddit.

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mkrfctrOPDuluth•

Semi-frequent visitor (pull it up a few times a week maybe), around for years, used to attend semi-regularly now very infrequently.

I'd like to see the sub be useful for people to organize and attend meetups and gib gab amongst those who do get out at least occasionally or at a minimum are interested in doing so (why else would you be here?).

Good is that meetup content is front and center and a lot less anger and fighting over trivial bullshit showing up online.

Bad is people not getting that there is no 'official' events, that anyone can jump up to propose something, that people don't get that even tangentially related to meetups content is and always has been allowed such as discussion about interests and so forth.

I'm lazy and I'm looking for someone else to tell me where and when to show up, and to also not have to commit in advance (schedule changes, plans change), and to also know that it won't be a waste of time to show up and have nearly no one else show. That seems to be the biggest issue is that everyone else is equally uninterested in having to 1. decide 2. commit to showing up to their own thing

I think having more intra sub chit chat and 'community/camaraderie' would be beneficial, a better way to get across that the sub is just a platform for discussion and announcements and not some hosted events calendar, and some type of rsvp/attendance system would be helpful. No idea on finding non lazy people.

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