Preface: This piece was created as a spoken dictation into a voice‑to‑text app. There’s an obvious indication of that slightly AI‑generated cadence around the text, as I just got AI to tidy up and format the text - but the ideas themselves were verbalised by myself in real time. Something to do when I bring my dogs for walkies - big long range patrols deep into the forests near my house for two or three hours. Truly the new frontiers of how we create. I’m also experimenting with Ghost.io as a new publication platform, so consider this part of that exploration.

For more than a decade, Meetup.com was the default home for local data‑science communities. R User Groups, PyData chapters, R‑Ladies, university clubs, and independent organisers all relied on it to bring people together. It offered discoverability, a simple event‑creation workflow, and a sense of shared infrastructure across cities and countries.

But the landscape has changed. The platform has changed. And the needs of the R and PyData communities have changed even more.

Today, continuing to rely on Meetup is not just inconvenient — it’s strategically unwise. The platform’s pricing, culture, and technical direction no longer align with the values or practical realities of open‑source communities. And the cost of staying is no longer just financial; it’s organisational, cultural, and reputational.

This is the moment to move on.

1. Meetup’s pricing model is fundamentally incompatible with open‑source communities

Meetup Pro — the tier required for multi‑chapter networks — now costs:

• $55 per group per month, or
• $47 per group per month on a 6‑month plan

For a network like PyData, with 137 chapters, that’s:

• $7,535 per month, or
• $90,420 per year

For R‑Ladies, RUGs, or any organisation with dozens of chapters, the cost quickly becomes astronomical. A global network with 200+ groups can easily exceed $150,000 per year.

This is not a sustainable model for volunteer‑driven, donation‑supported, open‑source communities. It diverts money away from:

• speaker travel
• venue subsidies
• accessibility improvements
• scholarships
• livestreaming
• community grants

In other words: away from the things that actually strengthen the community.

Meetup’s pricing punishes scale. The more successful your community becomes, the more you pay. That is the opposite of how open‑source ecosystems work.

2. The platform no longer delivers the value it once did

If Meetup were still delivering strong discoverability, reliable communication, and a vibrant network effect, the cost might be painful but defensible.

But that’s not the reality.

Organisers across R, Python, and broader tech communities report:

• declining attendance
• unreliable notifications
• poor event promotion
• broken messaging
• difficulty reaching members
• a general sense that the platform is quieter and less dynamic

The network effect — the only real justification for paying for Meetup — is shrinking. And once a network begins to contract, it rarely recovers.

Open‑source communities depend on newcomers. Students, career‑switchers, curious locals, people who’ve never touched R or Python before. If those people can’t find your events, your community stops growing.

Meetup is no longer a reliable engine of discovery.

3. The culture of Meetup has drifted away from technical communities

Meetup’s front page tells the story clearly: lifestyle groups, fitness classes, social mixers, commercial events, and paid experiences dominate the platform.

Technical meetups — especially niche ones like R, Shiny, tidyverse, PyData, NumPy, or JAX — are feeling increasingly peripheral. These communities thrive in environments built around curiosity, learning, contribution, mentorship, and open knowledge. Meetup’s current direction doesn’t cultivate that. It’s optimised for monetisation, not community.

4. The R and PyData communities already live elsewhere — especially on LinkedIn

This is the quiet truth: Meetup is no longer where your audience is.

The R and PyData ecosystems have huge, active, and highly engaged communities on LinkedIn. It has become the de facto professional home for data scientists, analysts, statisticians, ML engineers, academics, students, career‑switchers, hiring managers, and conference organisers. And crucially: LinkedIn provides massive, organic discoverability at zero cost.

When an RUG or PyData chapter posts an event on LinkedIn:

• it appears in followers’ feeds
• it can be reshared by speakers, sponsors, and attendees
• it reaches people outside the existing community
• it benefits from LinkedIn’s algorithmic amplification
• it taps into the professional identity of the audience
• it integrates naturally with job‑seeking, networking, and learning

LinkedIn has become the place where people expect to find professional events. It’s where they already spend time. It’s where they already follow R‑Ladies, Posit, PyData, NumFOCUS, and hundreds of local organisers.

Meetup, by contrast, is no longer part of most people’s daily digital habits — and a huge number of members haven’t logged in for months or even years. Continuing to rely on it creates a false sense of reach. You may have 3,000 people in your Meetup group, but if only 20 ever see your event and 10 attend, the number is meaningless.

The community has moved on. The infrastructure should follow.

5. Better tools now exist — and they align with open‑source values

The most important shift in the past few years is the rise of modern, community‑aligned event platforms.

Lu.ma

Clean design, excellent discoverability, great for hybrid events.

Heylo

Built for community groups, with strong communication tools and a generous free tier.

Mobilizon

Federated, open‑source, privacy‑respecting — ideal for communities that value decentralisation.

Gath.io

Simple, fast, ActivityPub‑adjacent, perfect for small meetups.

Guild.host

Designed specifically for tech communities.

Eventbrite

Good for workshops and ticketed events.

Meetable (IndieWeb)

Self‑hosted, decentralised, and fully under community control.

These platforms offer:

• better communication
• better accessibility
• better integration with modern workflows
• better alignment with open‑source values
• better long‑term sustainability

And crucially: they don’t punish organisers for being successful.

6. Staying on Meetup carries reputational and strategic risk

When a platform becomes known for:

• aggressive price hikes
• poor support
• enshittification
• declining engagement
• unreliable communication
• opaque billing practices

…continuing to rely on it sends a message — even unintentionally — that your community is stuck, or worse, that it’s not paying attention to the needs of its organisers and members.

R and PyData communities have always been forward‑looking. They adopt new tools early. They champion open standards. They build infrastructure that lasts.

Staying on Meetup now feels like staying on MySpace in 2012.

7. The future of community infrastructure is open, federated, and community‑owned

The R and PyData ecosystems are built on open‑source software, open governance, and shared stewardship. The tools we use to gather should reflect those values.

The future of community events will be:

• decentralised
• interoperable
• privacy‑respecting
• accessible
• affordable
• community‑controlled

Meetup is none of these things.

Mobilizon, Gath.io, Meetable, and other federated tools point toward a healthier future — one where communities are not dependent on a single commercial platform that can change direction overnight.

Conclusion: It’s time to build the next chapter

Meetup.com played an important role in the early growth of R and PyData communities. It helped thousands of people find their first meetup, their first talk, their first collaborator, their first job.

But the platform that once enabled community now constrains it.

• The cost is too high.
• The value is too low.
• The network effect is fading.
• The alternatives are better.

Most importantly: the R and PyData communities already have a thriving, high‑visibility home on LinkedIn — a platform that offers enormous discoverability at zero cost. Moving away from Meetup isn’t just a practical decision: It’s a strategic one.