Respect the Original Intent: Don't Tamper with Groups or Events
Converting a group or changing or adding events, so they no longer align with the expectations and purpose set by the organizer and leadership team, is prohibited on the grounds that it is misleading.
The intentions of the group should remain generally consistent with member expectations. While groups often evolve and change over time, changes should be agreed upon by group membership and well-communicated, so people can make informed decisions about their continued participation.
Converting
It is prohibited to step up as organizer to a group in order to change the focus of the group, close the group, send or post promotional content, or to send or post content not aligned with the original description of the group. If it is your intention to change the meaning or purpose of a group, we advise that you start a new group instead. If a group gets a new organizer, the mission of that group should stay the same. Events in a group should reflect intentions expressed in the group description.
Tampering
It is prohibited to alter the content or settings of a group without permission from the main organizer, or in a way that is not aligned with the purpose of that group. Any use of Meetup tools or features to disrupt the group or destroy content for the purpose of undermining or undercutting the established community is a violation of our policies.
Respecting privacy
Organizers have the option to ask members questions when they request to join a group or RSVP to an event. To protect the privacy of our members, organizers should not ask for sensitive or private personal information in profile and event questions. Meetup reserves the right to remove such questions.
Inflating RSVPs and Group Joins
Members rely on group join and RSVP information to determine if a group or event is right for them. Falsely inflating the number of members in a group or RSVPs to an event to make your group appear more active or popular, is considered misleading and is prohibited. RSVPs that are manually added must accurately reflect the number of individuals who have committed, or are actually expected, to attend. Creating fake accounts that join a group or RSVP to an event in an effort to inflate the group’s participation numbers is also prohibited.
Message Respectfully: Don't Spam Members
Content sent to a member that is irrelevant, impersonal, unsolicited, promotional, or repetitive is spam, and organizers may be blocked for spamming members.
The following are examples of inappropriate spam messages sent by organizers:
- Sending repetitive or unsolicited messages to members who are not in an organizer's groups.
- Sending messages to an organizer's own group that do not relate to that group.
- Sending promotional messages, including promoting an organizer’s group to members who are not in that group.
- Abusing the announcement or invite features by repeatedly inviting members or non-members for whom a group may not be relevant.
- Creating groups, events, or accounts for the purpose of cross-promoting groups or events.
Use Respectful Language
Using profanity in an attacking, sexual way, or in a way intended to offend people, is prohibited in group and event titles, descriptions, or any other area that is publicly promoted or viewable on the platform.
Be Clear & Professional: Editorial Requirements
In order to provide a quality experience to our members, titles of groups and events are to be relevant, useful, and easy to understand. Excessive or improper use of punctuation, symbols, capitalization, spacing, URLs, or repetition, intended to grab attention for a group or event, will need to be edited.
We consider the following examples to be excessive or gimmicky use of numbers, symbols, punctuation, repetition, or spacing: !!Dance!!!, d*a*n*c*e, DANCE, DaNcE, d a n c e, or d@nce.
Intellectual Property
We respect the intellectual property rights of others. Posting content that violates another party's intellectual property rights is prohibited.
When provided with the requisite information, Meetup will remove or disable access to material that infringes on the intellectual property rights of others or remove accounts of those who may be repeat infringers. Please note that simply holding a group around a similar topic in a shared location, is generally not considered a violation of our policies.
Reporting IP, Trademark, or Copyright Infringement
Organizer Access to a Meetup Group
It is the responsibility of an organizer to pay for a group to operate and continue to be hosted on Meetup. Failure to pay or update payment information to renew an organizer subscription can result in allowing another member to step up and assume the role of main organizer of the group.
Generally, Meetup will not reinstate the former organizer of a group if the organizer loses their position and another member takes over as the main organizer. However, Meetup may reinstate previous organizers if their groups were affiliated with a registered third-party organization, entity, or company.