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.
@carstingaxion @111 What do you think would help in terms of increasing visibility and people contributing?
@DianaThompson @111 If GatherPress could get on the newly refreshed Plugins-screen curated by Nick Hamze. I guess that would boost visibility!
@DianaThompson @111 In my wildest dreams: A public announcement about the re-opening of the core sustainability team, funded by the money, that was recently given to meetup and can be saved now thanks to the community-powered sustainable alternative #GatherPress .
@carstingaxion @111 I like that direction. From what I have been able to calculate, Automattic spends $1.2-1.8 million on Meetup yearly.
That said, I think funding for anything core is going to be tough in the near term. With the WPEngine meltdown bringing Automattic-paid contributor hours down to 45 per week, it may take some time till economic support of the core is approaches its previous state.
@DianaThompson @111 That are incredible huge numbers. Last time I heard someone roughly calculating that amount, they came up 25% of yours. I don’t believe, but I hope this is not the truth … unbelievable.
@carstingaxion @111 Yes, that is a huge number. It may be at the scale that WP uses Meetup that they get a better rate per meetup.
@carstingaxion @111 Yes, time being featured would help. I would love to see more reviews on your listing. Asking people on the team who run GatherPress themselves to put in a review would help.
I am also thinking of doing outreach to blogs that publish those # best plugins for *. Though I have a list of go-to plugins now, I can remember using these articles as part of my research and validation. If you like I could to some outreach in that direction.
@DianaThompson @111 Appreciate every action for greater visibility and would be very thankful for everything you could do. And don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything. I would be happy to help!
@carstingaxion @111 I also just checked out the new plugin screen and they do feature plugins with fewer installs and reviews. I can see about getting GP featured there too.