Meetup got enshittified years ago already, and the changes drove away the small communities that once made up so much of the site; the only groups which prosper on it now are mainly large for-profit ventures.

In places where there is a healthy ecosystem of casual, non-rapacious meetups, that is overwhelmingly organized via Facebook, not Meetup.

Thank you, I just learned a new word.

Rapacious

ADJECTIVE

1 given to seizing for plunder or the satisfaction of greed.

2 inordinately greedy; predatory; extortionate.

a rapacious disposition.

grasping, voracious,

Synonyms:

ravenous

Antonyms: generous

3 (of animals) subsisting by the capture of living prey; predacious.

FYI, Meetup got acquired by Bending Spoons and it seems it's being de-enshittified.

>Meetup got enshittified years ago already

Citation needed. Not my experience at all. And it has the major benefit of being independent of the tech giants, who already know too much about your social graph.