When I got home last night I typed Houston and Drupal into my browser and this site (Drupal.org) and the Facebook Group came up at the top.
However, at Drupal.org Houston Group, the announcement of last night's meeting was almost incomprehensible. The formatting, the placement, the way the page is organized is very unfriendly to the casual visitor.
The Facebook Group page is what it is. If you don't like Facebook (which many programmers do not), you won't click Join, and you can't see any other way to get notified. The event notice is buried.
Now, that doesn't explain why some many who RSVP'd didn't show up. My experience in that arena is that when a group is gearing up, more than half the interested people will wait until they know that other people are going. So it would be a good idea to let everyone know that...
The meeting HAPPENED. People SHOWED UP. We MISSED YOU.
SUGGESTION: Since we have the MEETUP account, and it also Googles well, and it shows who else is coming, etc., we probably need to start adding that to the mix before we do anything new. It could really help with inertia.
Having to update 3 sites before the meeting and then do post-meeting notices is the BORING part of marketing. But if you don't do that all the enthusiasm and design oomph goes unnoticed.
Comments
Next time
Barring unforeseen circumstances and natural calamities, I will be in attendance for the next meeting. I would have been at this one if I wasn't currently out of town visiting family. What did you guys manage to discuss?
I don't have access to the
I don't have access to the meetup.com group, and I don't think I know the organizer, so unless someone knows something different then it's basically a different group. I was never interested in using meetup.com because they charge $20/month, and g.d.o is where it's at! ;)
I agree that the design and layout leaves a bit to be desired though. There are ways around it though, by just manipulating the text in the post among other things.
I also need to go in and play with the main group page panel to see if that can be improved.
Owner of the Meetup group
Photographer Joe Lippeatt of 24Moves.com is paying for the Meetup membership. Do you know him? He seems nice on the internet. Can I open a conversation with him?
Theresa Quintanilla
www.QViewsOnline.com