Why We Don’t Charge Group Organizers

Unlike other sites such as meetup.com, we do not charge group organizers to have a group at Group-O-Matic. We believe this policy makes sense for a number of reasons.

First, some people just won’t become group organizers if they have to pay to create groups, even though they would like to create groups otherwise. Second, for some types of casual groups, most people just won’t pay to organize them, even though these groups would benefit from the structure an online group service provides. Third, many existing online group organizers would create more groups if they didn’t have to pay for each group.

Fourth, many groups take a long time to get started, especially when group organizers don’t know anyone with the particular shared interest, and as a result, group organizers often give up too soon because they feel they are paying for nothing. At Group-O-Matic, groups can just sit out there until they reach critical mass, for free. We even have a setting to notify group organizers after certain numbers of people have joined their groups.

Finally, in a fee-based system, the organizer potentially has too much control as there is some amount control that a paying member is just legitimately entitled to since they are paying for the service. By contrast, we allow multiple equal-authority organizers. We also encourage group scheduling of events, which allows for other group members (besides the organizer) to take more control over the group and help ensure quality events actually happen.