Exciting changes to Meetup’s communication features
Clear, consistent, and intuitive communications are key to a successful Meetup community. This is why we’re excited to introduce several improvements to Meetup’s suite of communication tools. Historically, Meetup has offered several distinct communication tools: Group Discussions, Event Comments, Event Chat, Message Boards, Direct Messages, Event Announcements, and Contact Members (via mass email). While some of these addressed unique needs, others overlapped significantly. So, as of July 18, 2024, we’ve streamlined our existing offering to simplify the member and organizer experience. We also released highly-requested improvements and fixes to the remaining features. We explore the details of all these changes below! Unified communication tools As mentioned above, some of Meetup’s historical communication tools had similar functions, which created confusion for Meetup organizers and members alike. For example, Event Chat and Event Comments both addressed the same need and were used interchangeably, making event-specific conversations difficult to follow. The same was also true for Discussions and Message Boards. In response to this feedback, we’ve streamlined our suite of communication features: On July 18, 2024, we removed Event Chat and Message Boards . Group Discussions are now the primary communication tool for organizers to engage directly with all members of their group . Event Comments are now the dedicated feature for organizers to communicate with members attending a specific event . Direct Messages, Event Announcements, and ‘Contact Members’ features remain available as before. Not familiar with Group Discussion and Event Comments? Check out these helpful articles to get started: How do I manage Discussions? Managing event communications Why did we keep Group Discussions and Event Comments? We asked organizers for feedback on which features should remain and which should be removed. The results were clear: Group Discussions and Event Comments were favored above the others, with many organizers citing them as more straightforward and easy-to-use. The usage data confirmed these trends and we decided to sunset Message Boards and Event Chat. At the same time, we also set out to introduce some meaningful changes to the remaining communication features… Three important improvements to Group Discussions and Event Comments In addition to asking organizers which communication features they preferred, we also asked them about how we could make their favorite tools even better. Looking at the list, we picked the ones that could immediately improve organizers’ everyday experience. The rest? We’ve saved those for later! Now, you can do the following with Group Discussions and Event Comments: 1. Add formatting, lists, and links to your messages Use the new markdown-supported formatting options—Bold, Italic, Ordered lists, Unordered lists, Links—to make your messages more expressive and clear. Here’s how the formatting looks before and after sending it: 2. Pin your important Comments Organizers and co-organizers can now add the most important notices to the top of an event’s Comments section. Select up to three different messages to be displayed as the first thing your members see. Simply pin and unpin messages by selecting the 📌 icon next to each message. 3. Rely on timely and consistent notifications While the first two items on this list are new features, the last—and possibly most important—improvement to Group Discussions and Event Comments ensures that notifications for new messages, replies, and reactions are being successfully delivered. We recognize that inconsistent notifications have been an ongoing source of frustration for organizers. Over the past several months, we took a comprehensive look at all the possible notifications associated with these two features and systematically checked to make sure they’re all working as intended. In the case that something wasn’t behaving correctly, we quickly prioritized a fix. Here are all the notifications you can expect to be delivered for Group Discussions and Event Comments: Beyond the specific investigation into notifications, we also introduced some more global improvements to the code powering both of these features. These include: Migrating the Discussions feature to a new, more modern, backend platform, which significantly reduces the complexity of the feature’s design and will improve overall reliability going forward. Introducing new logic to how Event Comments are displayed, making it easier to quickly scroll through comments and generally providing everyone with a much smoother user experience. Communication is such an integral part of the Meetup experience for organizers and members—we hope these recent changes make it easier and more enjoyable to connect with your groups. Want to let us know what you think? Share your feedback directly with our team! The post Exciting changes to Meetup’s communication features appeared first on Meetup Blog .