Diana Thompson 
What do you think of WordPress meetups in the post-pandemic era? In the SF Bay Area, the home of Automattic, meetups have all gone quiet. Are your area meetups active? What place, if any, do you think the meetup has in the WordPress community? #WordPress #Meetup
einself@DianaThompson The WordPress meetups around here have completely fizzled out, if not died off entirely. That might also have something to do with the fact that the company behind meetup.com isn't exactly winning any popularity contests. Matt & his Automattics would be well-advised to find a different partner for organizing these kinds of events.
@111 from what I understand Automattic is implementing GatherPress as a replacement for meetup.com. Seems like it’s still process
@DianaThompson Looks like the process got a bit stuck. It‘s been ten months since the last update/blog post.
Carsten Bach@111 @DianaThompson I can confirm #GatherPress is kind of stuck. But it’s far away from being an Automattic project.
I tried to contribute a lot to this project and idea, but for me personally it wasn’t a success story, even that I still try to flip the coin.
I wrote a lot of issues, created ideas, opened PRs, but I was not able (and willing) to join their weekly online meetings and so became ghosted more and more. I would have loved to contribute more.
@carstingaxion Thank you for the inside scoop. Either way, I hope we eventually see some competition for what Bending Spoons is providing right now.
@carstingaxion @111 it’s a shame the attending weekly meetings as a volunteer was essentially a requirement. I think the best volunteer management is meeting people where they are and being grateful for contributions at all levels.
@DianaThompson @111 Thanks for both of your replies!
I want to clarify, that the #GatherPress itself is ongoing; it was just yesterday that the main maintainer opened a PR with 4000+ lines changed. Things are moving, but silently and with no more public involvement, other than Claude code.
I still believe that GatherPress is already a matured alternative to the most of event-calendar functionality in w.org/plugins, but its lack of visibility AND missing people contributing, is its real problem.
I want to clarify, that the #GatherPress itself is ongoing; it was just yesterday that the main maintainer opened a PR with 4000+ lines changed. Things are moving, but silently and with no more public involvement, other than Claude code.
I still believe that GatherPress is already a matured alternative to the most of event-calendar functionality in w.org/plugins, but its lack of visibility AND missing people contributing, is its real problem.
@DianaThompson @111 (Damn, sometimes #depression rules my sayings. I could have also answered in the first place:)
Hey, nice you are interested in one of the coolest event plugins in the #WordPress space! We the people - working on #GatherPress, not as sponsored contributors, but as volunteers next to family and job, do 💯 appreciate that! It‘d be great if you find the time took test the plugin, add your thoughts to open discussions or even contribute some time coding or in the weekly meetings.
Jason Lawton 
@DianaThompson @111 I’m in northern nj and we still have a meetup but it’s definitely smaller post covid