Messaging members using API

kir...@zipier.com

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Dec 22, 2015, 7:43:14 PM12/22/15

to Meetup API

Hello,

As far as I see member to member messaging was removed from your API. Is there anything for messaging from organizer to members using API or for getting members' emails and sending messages directly using any other service? Didn't find any of this.

Thank you in advance.

Doug Tangren

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Dec 22, 2015, 10:45:59 PM12/22/15

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On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 4:58 AM, <kir...@zipier.com> wrote:

Hello,

As far as I see member to member messaging was removed from your API. Is there anything for messaging from organizer to members using API or for getting members' emails and sending messages directly using any other service? Didn't find any of this.

Not directly through the API. This is mostly to protect member privacy and to protect them from potential spam.

You have a few options directly on the meetup.com. If you need to contact a number of members you can use http://www.meetup.com/:urlname/messages/send/ as a broadcast tool to send batch emails.

Otherwise, you can collect a set of members using http://meetup.com/messages to send one-one one group chat messages.

You can also use our official Android and IOS apps for member to member messaging.

Thank you in advance.

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Jens

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Dec 23, 2015, 12:14:16 AM12/23/15

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Doug,

seriously, I have no doubts that you know what we're asking for: a replacement for the /2/message API to send - in the words CAN-SPAM Act - automated "transactional and relationship" messages. The same thing mandrill.com is doing as their main business.

I understand that you're not making the member's email available. Privacy, fair point. But potential spam? I'm an organizer and can email directly to our xxxxxxxx-gr...@meetup.com alias if that's what I'm after!

Our scenario is that RSVPs often happen more than 6 months before the actual event (usually a sailing trip). At that point, we only ask for a small deposit to avoid the "timewasters". As soon as we have enough crew for the planned trip, we need to reach everyone to finalize payments. We're already

- asking in the event description to message contact details to the event host (oh, squirrel!)

- using RSVP questions (which are ignored by at least 50%);

- leaving comments on the event wall (there are some pro-active users!);

- digging manually through Paypal transactions to find email addresses (which are often not the same as the member's preferred/regular account)

- using Meetup messages for chasing people

All this takes an awful lot of time. And I'm talking about manual labour time, not CPU time. So what I'm asking for is:

an API allowing organizer accounts to send reliable transactional messages to selected members of our group (with a sensible maximum of messages per day).

Another helpful instrument would be a webhook to redirect members to our website once they have RSVPed and/or paid so we can ask them for their contact details or other required data. At that point, we would rather use emails than Meetup messages.

Thanks for listening!

Jens.

Ahmed Ismailjee

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Dec 31, 2015, 1:27:55 AM12/31/15

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Hello,

I am so sorry I did not even know that member to member messaging was removed from my API. If there is anything for messaging from organizer to members using API or for getting members' emails and sending messages directly using any other service please advise?