Well I’d guess first i’d just say I only ever thought much about this stuff in the context of Chicago, and even then just in my little slice of the world. I’m sure different places have different textures.
Your second paragraph doesn’t make that much sense to me. Do you think if meetup was free there would be way more events in your town? Seems unlikely to me. Don’t get me wrong, network effects are totally in play in these markets and can create natural monopolies which reduce supply (and then market quantity) from social optimum, but i think that if it was 0$ instead of 175 you might have like 10-30% more groups. But it seems to me supply could reasonably 5x if we had a healthy society.
“I also think you’re overemphasizing the need for group culture and leaders to be designed well, since I think this stuff just naturally arises in environments where typical people with shared interests come together.” Hmm yea my mind could be changed pretty easily, I’d just like to see the studies (or maybe there already are similar things done in psyche or soc, i haven’t looked much).
Well I’d guess first i’d just say I only ever thought much about this stuff in the context of Chicago, and even then just in my little slice of the world. I’m sure different places have different textures.
Your second paragraph doesn’t make that much sense to me. Do you think if meetup was free there would be way more events in your town? Seems unlikely to me. Don’t get me wrong, network effects are totally in play in these markets and can create natural monopolies which reduce supply (and then market quantity) from social optimum, but i think that if it was 0$ instead of 175 you might have like 10-30% more groups. But it seems to me supply could reasonably 5x if we had a healthy society.
“I also think you’re overemphasizing the need for group culture and leaders to be designed well, since I think this stuff just naturally arises in environments where typical people with shared interests come together.” Hmm yea my mind could be changed pretty easily, I’d just like to see the studies (or maybe there already are similar things done in psyche or soc, i haven’t looked much).
Yeah, that’s totally fair. I think the dynamics around public events probably vary a lot across the US.
And, yeah, I think I pretty much entirely agree with your second paragraph. Creating free in-person events from online platforms can only do so much.