[secstate]

In fairness, I've been to rather expensive conferences that had talks that didn't start on time, seemed to have whole tracks that were only loosely related to overarching conference topic, and had many presenters who either started too slow, or went too fast.

What I mean, I suppose is that this isn't a Free v. Paid issue. This is a leadership issue, and you're welcome to not go. But if you believe in the free meetup culture and it's ability to create community amongst otherwise reclusive technology nerds, then they could use your opinions in the form of leadership. A public blog post ripping on the people who give their time to meetups is something of an antipattern.

[gibbitz]

How could the organizers put a price on an event that happens in the future? And provided they had a time machine, how could they determine it's value to you? Is it too advanced, too rudimentary? Does the description of the topics covered reflect accurately the conversational direction of the future date of the course/lecture?

I tend to take an opposite stance. Paying for knowledge is a crap shoot at every level. I realize it every time I make a student loan payment on my useless advanced degree. The only reliable way to learn is to teach yourself through study and mixing with people who have different viewpoints or ways of thinking. Paying for something that will motivate you or do that for you is likely to be a con. It might not be, but why take the chance. Save your silver bullet money for retirement and use lead bullets instead.

[aaronchall]

Well sometimes organizers do put a price on the event to minimize no-shows and fund pizza or event space so they aren't beholding to a sponsor.

And I sometimes pay for those meetups. But I'm usually price-sensitive enough and there's enough other meetups doing similar things for free that I don't pay.

I want to say that the meetups that do charge money are consistently higher value, but that's not the case. You just have to test them for yourself.

[striking]

I wonder if it's possible to aggregate a list of good meetups.