Trapped in an Ethnic Joke

[akirlu]

Meetup is the Antichrist.

So, I've been unsubscribing or migrating my various e-newsletters and mailing lists and such in preparation for the imminent shut-down of my old Earthlink eddress. (Note to self -- still need to re-set the pointer from the Potlatch page). As I get stuff at the Earthlink address, I chase down the source and unsub the sendings. Except for Meetup.

Meetup e-mails have a link to click to unsubscribe. When you click through the link, the web page asks you for your password. Yeah. Like I remember my Meetup password. Like unsubbing from a notification list is a high security item. But that's okay, because they have the by-now-standard "forgot password" link on that page, too. So, I click the bunny to ask that my password be sent to my Earthlink address.

And Meetup promptly sends me a message that, while it does NOT give me my old password, does a link to a page to change to a new password. Fine. Go to the link for the password change. And what do I find at this newly-created-just-for-me password change page? Three fields. Two for my new password to confirm the spelling. And, before that, a field requiring me to give my old password. THIS WOULD BE THE OLD PASSWORD THEY DID NOT FUCKING SEND ME, IN THE E-MAIL THEY GENERATED FROM THEIR OWN 'FORGOT PASSWORD' LINK.

So I clicked through the whole process again just to be sure I was seeing what I was seeing. It's like the old ethnic joke where you hand a person of [Ethnic Slur] background a card, on which it says "How do you keep a(n) [Ethnic Slur] busy for hours? (over)" and on the other side it says, "How do you keep a(n) [Ethnic Slur] busy for hours? (over)".

I'm sure the guys over at Meetup are yukking it up bigtime. Me, I'm going to be leaving my e-mail address on their mailing lists and let them deal with the damn bounces. Also, I'm never, ever, ever signing up with Meetup for anything again. Ever. And if you are foolish enough to sign up with Meetup, make note of your password or you might just have to shut down your e-mail account to get rid of them.

Comments

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

I had the exact same problem with Yahoo groups when trying to repoint a mailing list that had been on onegroups/egroups before.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Urrrgh. It's evil, I tell you.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I'll tell Maryse, she uses them for her South African group here.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Is Meetup the unethical outfit that invited me to create a group in the name of my local SF society, before announcing that they would charge me over $100 a year to keep it up, or lock me out and allow anyone else who wanted to, to pick up the society's name!?

I think I worked out just before my moderator's privileges ran out, that although I could not delete the group, I could change its details, including its name. So I went in and randomised the name and everything else before it locked me out forever.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Good lord. No idea if it's the same company, but all the more reason to steer clear in future if they are.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I can't remember, but it was that kind of a meeting management site. It's a shame, because such things could be great networking services, but this lot just forgot the "don't be evil" rule.