Why no meetup photos?

February 18, 2019 6:16 AM

I used to love looking at meetup photos and putting faces with names, but it doesn't seem like anyone posts them anymore. Is this because people are more worried about privacy, or is it because Flickr is completely terrible now, or a combination? Or is it just because pictures are so easy/ubiquitous that no one really takes them anymore? I don't know what the answer is (and I won't be contributing because I am WAY too shy to ever go to a meetup) but I would love it if people got into the habit again. Would allowing photos in IRL posts be a pony too far?
posted by cilantro to MetaFilter-Related at 6:16 AM (28 comments total)

Speaking only for myself, I rarely post MeFiChi pictures to the threads anymore because we're always at the same place, doing the same thing, with the usual suspects. And it's fun! But there's little impetus to document it or share the pictures.

When we do something other than the usual, I'm more likely to share photos to the thread. If I get a really great picture, I'm more likely just to send it to the person it's a picture of. It's not necessarily a privacy concern, just an efficiency one.
posted by crush at 6:58 AM on February 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

A. It's because I forget. Almost every time. I love love love the idea of allowing photos in IRL posts, though, if it is technically feasible.

2. Meetups are good and you should go to one. If you tell folks in advance that you are shy and just want to kind of hang out and "lurk IRL" they will almost certainly be cool with that. If you were going to a meetup near me I would tell you to sit next to me and I would make sure folks gave you your space.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:00 AM on February 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

Speaking only for myself, I think there was a lot of novelty to seeing real humans from the internet 10 years ago, and not so much now that we have so many channels for same. I don't feel the same need to obsessively examine photos of 10 people around a pub table as I once did. A lot of that might be my simply aging out of that particular kind of meetup energy.
posted by Miko at 7:16 AM on February 18, 2019 [13 favorites]

I'm with you, cilantro. I love putting faces to usernames. At the meetups I've attended I ask if everyone's cool with pics, then host them myself on Dropbox.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:58 AM on February 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

There's a link on the IRL pages for photos, so there is a place to post them.

I do like looking at meet-up photos, but I have also been burned when I asked not to have my photo posted, was told that would be respected, and then it wasn't, and I had several hours of panic attacks while trying to get the photos taken down. So please do make sure everyone is really ok with it before you take/post photos!
posted by lazuli at 8:55 AM on February 18, 2019 [8 favorites]

I am personally way more likely to go to meetups if they aren't photographed. It was different before people could basically match photos to real names, I think.
posted by corb at 10:15 AM on February 18, 2019 [14 favorites]

Seconding Rock Steady's, er, second point - Metafilter meetups are some of the most low-pressure (yet enjoyable) socializing I've ever done.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:42 AM on February 18, 2019 [4 favorites]

I'll add my agreement to Rock Steady and Greg_Ace that meetups are really welcoming low-pressure socializing.

MefiChi can get a little weird as the night rolls on, but there's no pressure to stick around for that. Usually, it's just folks in a super low-key diner with beer, talking about nothing in particular.
posted by crush at 12:16 PM on February 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

There's a link on the IRL pages for photos, so there is a place to post them.

That's just linking to external photo sites, though - I think cilantro's talking about having photos appear inline, locally hosted.
posted by zamboni at 12:31 PM on February 18, 2019

I think Miko hit the nail on the head. The novelty of seeing photos of people just isn't what it was now that everyone has Facebook or Instragram or Twitter or any number of places they can see photos of people they know from on-line.

At my first meetup, over ten years or so now, there were at least two guys that didn't even interact with the group much but just hovered around us all night taking photos with SLR cameras with big flashes, as if we were a table full of Kardashians and Clooneys or something. It was the weirdest goddamn thing.

Now at meetups I occasionally see people taking photos with their phones but I feel a bit awkward doing that with people I may have just met. If it's a non-food based meetup, like a hike or something, I find it's a bit less awkward taking photos.

All that said, I do like seeing photos from meetups, especially local ones.
posted by bondcliff at 1:34 PM on February 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

My experience of pictures at meetups I've been around. I get the feeling that the introduction of IRL changed things.
2005 - pics
2006 - pics [ink borked]
2007 - pics [link borked]
2008 - pics
2009 - pics [post-implementation of sidebar links]
2010 - IRL introduced
2011 [1] - mathowie in Sydney so a bit of an occasion, pics but link borked
2011 [2] - pics
2012 - kinda
2013 - no pics
2014 [1] - no pics
2014 [2] - kinda
2015 - no pics
2016 - no pics
2017 - no pics
2018 - no pics
posted by unliteral at 2:29 PM on February 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

I am personally way more likely to go to meetups if they aren't photographed.

You can always ask/tell people to not post photos of you.

I miss the photos, I always like them.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 2:39 PM on February 18, 2019 [4 favorites]

Whatever happened to DaShiv? His meetup photos were great! As were his other contributions.
posted by TedW at 7:04 PM on February 18, 2019 [5 favorites]

Back in the earlier days of MeFi, we had cameras.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:07 PM on February 18, 2019 [20 favorites]

There hasn’t been an Austin meetup in 5 years. :-(
I took pics at a couple, have pics other people took at a couple, some links got borked.

Flickr is still fine. I should call an Austin mettup, I guess. None of the cool kids come to SXSW any more, but some random weekend in the spring would be nice. I do like associating names with faces & will browse through meetup pics when I come across them.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:37 PM on February 18, 2019

I clicked the link to 2005 photos and found amberglow and stavrosthewonderchicken. Neither posts anymore; 2 of the losses to the site along with so many others who were regular posters.
posted by Cranberry at 12:53 AM on February 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

I really wish I could attend the NYC meet ups, but I drove into NYC once for an ESPN awards banquet and it took 3 days to recover, and my lips and finger tips go numb thinking about taking a train in and then trying to find the place by myself.

I'm not a very good adventurer.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 7:03 AM on February 19, 2019

dashiv went to business school and is now at a major company.
posted by brujita at 9:12 AM on February 19, 2019

amberglow has completely disappeared
posted by brujita at 9:18 AM on February 19, 2019

I promise you’d get pics of an Indy/Indiana meetup, if only we could get people to meetup. Seems like any time we try to plan one, everyone’s schedules go pear-shaped at the last minute and no one comes. I think it’s been at least two (three?) years since a meetup was planned, and maybe one person managed to go.

There aren’t a large number of us, and we’re spread-out just enough to where there really isn’t a convenient location to meet and maximize attendance. And the distances for some folk are juuuust enough to make them think twice about the drive.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:04 PM on February 19, 2019

I just held a meetup last night organized via the IRL subsite, and met two neighbors who are MeFites. I thought about asking for permission and then taking photos to share, then forgot because I got so into the conversation!
posted by brainwane at 8:28 AM on February 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I often am the only one posting pics, but as of late I've been forgetting! But I love the pictures too, and will try to remember to resume. Even if it is the usual suspects. I love looking back through old pictures to see how we all have aged.

Seconded on the MetaFilter meetups are real low effort generally (and easy to ghost out on or show up at and then change your mind and never say hi, although it makes me sad when I hear people do this second one).

And also seconded on the I will try to remember to ask if we haven't met before, but please let people know if you don't want any or all parts of you to show up in a photo. I'm totally cool with that and will always avoid, crop out, or take down a photo of you if I misunderstood and posted something. No photo is more important to me than someone's privacy!
posted by Secretariat at 1:40 PM on February 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

"Whatever happened to DaShiv? His meetup photos were great! As were his other contributions."

Now you can find him on instagram taking pictures of shelter dogs.
posted by klangklangston at 9:55 AM on February 21, 2019

No photos means no shoutouts too. I miss those.

February 2015 is the most recent meetup I went to where photos (these are cortex's) were shared.

I had a link to an event in Berkeley that I think was one of daShiv's last but I can't seem to find it. I think it was before the days of IRL.
posted by bendy at 5:55 PM on February 22, 2019

daShiv's photos:
San Francisco 1/14/05
He was HOT FOR MELONS on 05/25/05.
His Flickr albums seem to be all meetups it looks like. And plenty of shoutouts too.

I see scarabic, quasistoic, someone I think is scody and more - so many blasts from the past.
posted by bendy at 6:03 PM on February 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

My 35th birthday. I had forgotten how fantastic his photos are. And the size of the crushes I had on scarabic and quasi.

I'll stop now.
posted by bendy at 6:11 PM on February 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

hey! We did a thing last night!

I didn't get photos of everybody because the Exploratorium is pretty dark, but we played with a bunch of exhibits and art:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Mroav19uZQKGhE4H8
posted by twoplussix at 8:54 AM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]

Anybody in South Florida up for a meetup? Florida is suuuuch a scattered state. But if there’s at least two of us, it’s a meetup, right?
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 4:17 AM on March 5, 2019