[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.