I suspect that you are asking for answers to wrong questions from a wrong crowd.
If you want to find out why people do not show up, you ought to ask those who do not show up, not those who do, otherwise it is just guesswork.
And the question you probably want to ask is “You learned that there is a LW meetup in your area, but you decided not to participate. Do you remember what went through your mind when you made this decision?”
I don’t see how asking lesswrong people about what has and hasn’t worked is the wrong approach. We have very little discussion of that topic here and I think we need more.
We are asking people the question you suggest, but that’s not really what this thread is about. Anyways, I’ll ask you to start. IIRC you are from vancouver, and your reason for not coming to our meetups is something about us being to young. Can you elaborate on that and what we could do to make you feel more welcome?
Since you asked… From what I recall, my issues were, beside the apparent age difference, scheduling conflicts, low-interest announced topics of discussion, loss of (real or perceived) anonymity, and maybe a faint negative vibe from some of the members’ posts/comments on LW.
Are you at least on the list? If you’re interested in coming to the meetups, I’m sure we could work out a schedule and topics of discussion that work for everyone.
“You learned that there is a LW meetup in your area, but you decided not to participate. Do you remember what went through your mind when you made this decision?”
I participated in a couple of Helsinki meetups, but the atmosphere didn’t grab me—it was mostly geeky, slightly awkward discussion about geeky topics. Nothing that I couldn’t find plenty of elsewhere. (Any Helsinki meetup attendees reading this shouldn’t take it personally. I’m not blaming anyone who was present—I’ll be the first to admit that I probably contributed to that atmosphere as much as anyone else.)
Not sure. The reports of the NYC meetup group might have inflated my expectations, but maybe more of a feeling of being at ease and being able to let down my guard. I acknowledge that I was only in a couple of meetups, and that isn’t much time for such a feeling to develop, but I do remember hanging out in groups that put me at ease from pretty much the first time around.
I suspect that you are asking for answers to wrong questions from a wrong crowd.
If you want to find out why people do not show up, you ought to ask those who do not show up, not those who do, otherwise it is just guesswork.
And the question you probably want to ask is “You learned that there is a LW meetup in your area, but you decided not to participate. Do you remember what went through your mind when you made this decision?”
I don’t see how asking lesswrong people about what has and hasn’t worked is the wrong approach. We have very little discussion of that topic here and I think we need more.
We are asking people the question you suggest, but that’s not really what this thread is about. Anyways, I’ll ask you to start. IIRC you are from vancouver, and your reason for not coming to our meetups is something about us being to young. Can you elaborate on that and what we could do to make you feel more welcome?
Since you asked… From what I recall, my issues were, beside the apparent age difference, scheduling conflicts, low-interest announced topics of discussion, loss of (real or perceived) anonymity, and maybe a faint negative vibe from some of the members’ posts/comments on LW.
Are you at least on the list? If you’re interested in coming to the meetups, I’m sure we could work out a schedule and topics of discussion that work for everyone.
I participated in a couple of Helsinki meetups, but the atmosphere didn’t grab me—it was mostly geeky, slightly awkward discussion about geeky topics. Nothing that I couldn’t find plenty of elsewhere. (Any Helsinki meetup attendees reading this shouldn’t take it personally. I’m not blaming anyone who was present—I’ll be the first to admit that I probably contributed to that atmosphere as much as anyone else.)
Was there anything in particular you were hoping to get more of?
Not sure. The reports of the NYC meetup group might have inflated my expectations, but maybe more of a feeling of being at ease and being able to let down my guard. I acknowledge that I was only in a couple of meetups, and that isn’t much time for such a feeling to develop, but I do remember hanging out in groups that put me at ease from pretty much the first time around.