[ale] A little ALE history ...

[Phil Turmel]

Very much appreciated, JD.

And yes, please let me know if you have topic you are willing to present
at a Central meetup (3rd Tuesdays).  Stephen Blevins
<stephen.r.blevins at gmail.com> tends to cover for me when I'm travelling
(like yesterday), so a CC to him would be helpful.

{ Might be time to invite Stephen to be a meetup admin, too, if he's
willing. }

On 08/21/2018 09:31 AM, DJ-Pfulio via Ale wrote:
> A little history about ALE ... lest we forget and make the same mistakes again.
> 
> Nobody likes meetup.com and the $16/month fee (Thank Brian for paying that BTW),
> but ... ALE was dying.  There was an email war a few years ago which turned off
> hundreds of our silent members.  They left or at least they dropped the email
> subscription.
> 
> A few other Linux groups were started because they wanted to help others with
> Linux.  For whatever reason, they choose meetup.com and started growing.
> 
> **People Won't Google for "Atlanta Linux"**
> 
> At first I was a little disappointed that people would show up to these
> "meetups" because they'd been looking for a LUG, but couldn't find one in
> Atlanta.  Like google isn't a thing - but it wasn't working. I started attending
> the GA-400 Linux meetup near I-285 in Smyrna, which only had 2 meetings anywhere
> near GA-400. ;)  That group grew to have more members than ale.org (based on
> email subscriptions) in about 18 months.  Meetup helps people find us that
> otherwise wouldn't.
> 
> I'm a little fuzzy on the ALE email counts, but I think we'd lost over 900
> members before someone had a crazy idea to merge GA-400, ALE-NW, ALE-Central
> into a single meetup group. Any Linux group anywhere near Atlanta that wants to
> share our infrastructure (and meetup costs!) are welcome.  There have been a few
> attempts to start ALE-NE and ALE-North.  ALE-SW has been going at least 3 yrs
> thanks for Phil.
> 
> Thanks to meetup, we have over 1,200 members now - more than ever in the last
> decade (I wasn't around before then).  The growth from 500-1000 was fairly
> quick, though most never actually show up to any meeting.
> 
> Yes, meetup.com sucks, but it saved ALE from being a 55+ group.  At ALE-NW, we
> have 30 and younger people almost every week.  Maybe that generation is better
> with apps and meetup.com has an app?
> 
> To get ALE-NE going, someone simply needs to step up, find a place to meet and
> start showing up there on a consistent basis.  Monthly, weekly, just showing up
> and sitting there is probably enough to get some core members who will share the
> load (i.e. show up). Let me or one of the other "organizers" know and we'll get
> you access to ALE stuff so you can announce on meetup.  There isn't any special
> access on this email listsrv or on IRC #ALE which is mostly dead, BTW.
> 
> There's something about sitting next to someone trying to learn a little Linux
> and getting them started.
> 
> And life gets in the way for everyone.  People burn out and need to step back.
> Some partnerships naturally fail after a few years, like ALE @ KSU has 3 times
> now.  70 students show up, then 20, then 5.  They have great facilities, which
> is why we like to be there, but that isn't as important as having a core group
> who is interested and shows up to meetings.
> 
> We are always looking for volunteers in ALE to help. Complaining is your right,
> and we allow free speech here beyond where it makes sense for the group, IMHO.
> But actions matter more.  Give a presentation at ALE-Centra, show up weekly and
> help out the organizers for a little bit at the other locations.  See if there
> is something you can do that works for you and others?
> 
> An ALE T-shirt design would be cool, right?  These days making custom t-shirts
> can easily be outsourced online, but a design with unlimited rights is necessary.
> 
> This group has tremendous expertise, but many of our members seem to locked
> under non-disclosure agreements. I've never understood how sharing general Linux
> knowledge falls into that camp.  Push back with your employers. Help out ALE
> with some basic knowledge.  Lightning talks, 15-90 minute talks - all are needed
> for ALE-Central.
> 
> Phil has the reigns at ALE-Central, so just send him an email if you'd like to
> present or help.  You can find all the organizers either on this list or on
> meetup (Organizers) to start a conversation.
> 
> If you see Brian, please buy him a beer or a sandwich/pizza or put a $5-er
> (cash!) in his bag for all he does. He never asks, but the meetup costs are
> $130+/yr.
> 
> Jim is hosting the ale.org and email list on a system he owns and maintains.
> Robert does the wordpress and listsrv stuff as needed.
> 
> It is about time for our quarterly ALE "how-we meet" reminder email.  I'll push
> that out in the next week or two.  It would be great to include an ALE-NE
> announcement, if possible!
> 
> Sorry, I didn't mean to go on so much here, but I can't help it (as you all
> know). ;)
> 
> -jd
> 
> 
> On 08/20/2018 07:35 PM, Steve Litt via Ale wrote:
>> On Mon, 20 Aug 2018 15:18:27 -0400
>> Simba via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>>
>>> I hate meetup.com (and most other social media sites), 
>>
>> Me too. Meetup.com has simply inserted itself as a middleman in a
>> function performed by LUGs themselves from the 1990's. Notice their
>> indemnification clauses and other odious legalspeak. Notice that they
>> advertise other meetings to your audience, so they're really using your
>> group as an advertisement, perhaps pulling people away.
>>
>>> is that
>>> actually required to attend meetings? I hope not.
>>
>> I hope not too, and I'm glad ALE has a mailing list independent of
>> meetup.com.