

| Using
Meetup's pantheism pages: Please read this first |
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Bottom
line: Meetup is still useful if used with caution Be aware that the Meetup site recently introduced a "great new feature" which leads to misleading description of groups and inclusion of many non-pantheist groups in the list of pantheist groups. These are mainly pagan, atheist and humanist groups created under the pagan, atheist and humanist topics, who have added themselves to pantheism. Neither the pantheist groups at Meetup nor
the World Pantheist Movement have any control over this process or any
control over who can add themselves. It's clear that groups with
supernatural beliefs have added themselves in from outside topics.
Because the pagan and atheist groups are better known and larger, they
are elbowing out pantheist groups in the list of largest groups. We have ZERO to do with these groups and they
have ZERO to do with us. But Meetup is still a good option for finding pantheists near you or
getting a local group moving. You can still use Meetup to find a
pantheist group near you, or to register your interest in learning when
a group will form near you. You can still use it to create a local group
- if you have a very strong interest in being a local organizer
please write to
meetup@pantheism.net. Background In July the Meetup site decided to offer a new facility: it would allow groups from outside any particular topic to add themselves to up to three other topics which they thought their group might be of interest to. Properly handled, this could be a worthwhile feature. However, it has not been properly handled. 1. The add-in groups are listed in the list of pantheist groups as if they are pantheist groups. 2. Local searches for pantheist groups in your town may throw up non-pantheist add-in groups as if they are pantheist groups. The programming even lists their members as pantheists. Eg if you search for Orlando FL pantheists you get the Orlando Atheists Freethinkers group described as containing "191 pantheists." 3. The result of this policy has been the swamping of smaller groups by larger groups who are not connected to the primary topic. There is no quality or relevance control over who can add themselves, and in our case the add-ins have caused serious image problems not of our choosing. We have proposed that add-in groups should be listed separately as "groups that may be of interest" or even more honestly "groups whose organizers believe may be of interest." They should never be passed off as groups of the topic they have added-in to, and their members should never be described as fans of the topic they have added-in to. We hope that this approach will commend itself to Meetup, and that we can then take this page down! |
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