Using eventbrite for meetup signup

Some of you have contacted organizers to ask why the monthly meetup is using eventbrite for signup rather than normal gdo signup.

This was discussed at one of the meetups, and later among the organizers, but in the interest of full disclosure here is the reasoning...

Our current monthly meetup venue requires a sign in list and check ids against it. However, groups.drupal.org does not enforce that people add their name to their profile. We put a message reminding people to do this, but invariably a certain percentage of those who sign up for the meetup don't put their full name on their profile (or do it on d.o. and not g.d.o.). As a result this adds anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes of work to whoever is managing the signup list for the meetup every month, Not a big deal one time, but really trying after a few times.

Solution, Eventbrite. It's free, and allows to be configured to enforce name being entered. And the name can even be hidden to protect privacy. Win/win.

Only downside is signup is not recorded in perpetuity on g.do.

I have filed an issue in the g.d.o. issue queue requesting that signup in g.d.o, have an option to force name to be entered either on profile or better yet independently on the signup (for those who would rather have their profile without name). Till that issue is resolved eventbrite is the best solution for me as the list compiler.

Of course, if someone feels super strongly about this issue, please volunteer to manage the list for the monthly meetup every month. I can show you how and pass the baton, but honestly after a couple of months doing it I suspect you'll agree that eventbrite is better for the moment.

Cheers,

winston