Event description editor has been "simplified"

[Mike Fulton]

Maybe this isn't the best place for this, but there really aren't a lot of other options.

Today's changes to the formatting functions of the event editor are, and let me make this absolutely clear, a HORRIBLE idea.

First of all, your PAYING CUSTOMERS HAVE NOT ASKED FOR THIS.  By that I mean the group organizers who pay MEETUP.COM for the ability to create, post, and announce events.  If anything, they've been wanting MORE formatting options. Second of all, IT WAS NOT NECESSARY.  If a group organizer was concerned about the formatting across platforms, all they had to do was KEEP IT SIMPLE. Last, from a purely technical view, even if you could justify the basic concept, it's neither necessary nor desirable to strip the formatting ON DATA ENTRY. It could just as easily be done when the data is served.

I imagine quite a lot of group organizers are going to be pissed off about this.  It's only been there less than one day and I've already talked to a couple who say they're ready to give up on MEETUP.

I'm sure you have your justifications for this decision, but your users don't care.  You can't make your life easier by making their lives harder and expect them to be happy about it.

[Joe Lippeatt]

Oh you guys took away the HTML editor?  We really need that for those of us that created event descriptions and emails.  I use color to specify what information is important to specific types of members.  I can't even change the font size now?

If those features needed to be addressed because they were broken, why not fix rather than just remove?  Who's in charge of UX over there at meetup?  Scratch that, where do I send my resume for GUI / Experience Engineering manager?  Please don't kill meetup by homogenizing all the groups.  

Joe Lippeatt Application, UX and 508 Consultant at 24Moves | m: 281-795-8213 | e: ext...@gmail.com | w: http://24moves.com

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[Doug Tangren]

On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 8:37 AM, Joe Lippeatt <ext...@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh you guys took away the HTML editor?  We really need that for those of us that created event descriptions and emails.  I use color to specify what information is important to specific types of members.  I can't even change the font size now?

If those features needed to be addressed because they were broken, why not fix rather than just remove?  Who's in charge of UX over there at meetup?  Scratch that, where do I send my resume for GUI / Experience Engineering manager?  Please don't kill meetup by homogenizing all the groups.  

I want to throw out a friendly reminder that this mailing list is not for product feedback but rather for API discussion. This discussion sounds like it has little to do with the Meetup API.

[Mike Fulton]

Doug, I agree, this isn't the place.

But, where is the place?  There doesn't seem to be one.  Why doesn't Meetup allow comments on their blogs?  Why doesn't Meetup have a public feedback forum?  Sure, there are a few third-party sites where you can post ideas and feedback, but MEETUP.COM doesn't link to them or even mention them. 

It seems that Meetup is afraid of what users have to say.

When the "approved" soap box doesn't exist, you gotta stand on what's available and hope to be heard.  And given that this group is frequented by the engineers responsible for making the changes in question, even if perhaps at someone else's direction, this doesn't seem like a terrible place to raise complaints.

[Joe Lippeatt]

You guys know I'm a major Meetup fan, but Mike has a really good point here.

Look at the difference in these two (identical) events.  One of them looks, well, sad.  With no HTML options, the event description looses all interest, flare and excitement.

http://www.meetup.com/HoustonPhotowalks/events/128428192/

http://www.meetup.com/HoustonPhotowalks/events/131472092/

Can you help us understand the eventual direction all of these visual changes are leading?  By removing the URLs, extra theme options, and now almost every formatting option in event descriptions, is the end goal to make all meetup groups look exactly alike?

Joe

 

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[Nathan @ Meetup]

On Friday, July 26, 2013 1:15:27 AM UTC-4, Joe Lippeatt wrote:

Can you help us understand the eventual direction all of these visual changes are leading?  By removing the URLs, extra theme options, and now almost every formatting option in event descriptions, is the end goal to make all meetup groups look exactly alike?

I'm afraid we can't speak for the company on these points. I can share this FAQ, which you may have seen.

http://help.meetup.com/customer/portal/articles/1218548-how-to-use-the-meetup-event-editor

Nathan

[Mike Fulton]

Yes, I've seen the page you linked.  It's not at all helpful.  It gives a little insight into what Meetup was hoping to accomplish with the changes, and in fact I referenced that in the original post

The worst thing about this situation is how it demonstrates the way Meetup doesn't really pay (ANY?) attention to the needs or desires of its customers.  I talked to one event organizer today who was so annoyed at the formatting changes that he decided to call in and talk to someone about the situation.  Then he discovered that there's no telephone contact information to be found anywhere.

On the USERVOICE site, the "feedback" item asking for the return of the formatting capabilities is easily the most popular item of the last several weeks.  To find topics with more votes, you have to look at ones that have been posted two or three YEARS ago.  In 8 pages of comments, there's not one single user comment speaking out in favor of these changes.

Dan, Nathan, maybe you cannot speak for the company here but you are in a position to knock on someone's door, and say "nobody likes these changes we've made."

[Doug Tangren]

On Sun, Aug 4, 2013 at 8:52 PM, Mike Fulton <mikeful...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, I've seen the page you linked.  It's not at all helpful.  It gives a little insight into what Meetup was hoping to accomplish with the changes, and in fact I referenced that in the original post

The worst thing about this situation is how it demonstrates the way Meetup doesn't really pay (ANY?) attention to the needs or desires of its customers.  I talked to one event organizer today who was so annoyed at the formatting changes that he decided to call in and talk to someone about the situation.  Then he discovered that there's no telephone contact information to be found anywhere.

On the USERVOICE site, the "feedback" item asking for the return of the formatting capabilities is easily the most popular item of the last several weeks.  To find topics with more votes, you have to look at ones that have been posted two or three YEARS ago.  In 8 pages of comments, there's not one single user comment speaking out in favor of these changes.

Dan, Nathan, maybe you cannot speak for the company here but you are in a position to knock on someone's door, and say "nobody likes these changes we've made."

We have many members with many preferences for how they want the site to work. We are currently doing our best to provide a consistent experience across all platforms, including mobile devices. The feature rich editor that used to be used on the site was hard to replicate on mobile devices and was hard to maintain across browser vendors for the full site. We opted to simplify it's features to optimize for maintainability and ease of parity across platforms. We understand that we have groups that use some of the advanced features of the old editor and many that do not. Making a compromise was hard but we believe this will make more a more consistent member experience, no matter where they access our service.

Again, the API list is for API feedback and questions. We appreciate the feedback but it is not a place for debate about site features.

 

On Friday, July 26, 2013 11:13:34 AM UTC-7, Nathan @ Meetup wrote:

I'm afraid we can't speak for the company on these points. I can share this FAQ, which you may have seen.

http://help.meetup.com/customer/portal/articles/1218548-how-to-use-the-meetup-event-editor

Nathan

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