Meetup completion: 88% out of 100% September 10, 2013 4:55 PM   Subscribe

We ran a query of all meetups in the US, and found there have been meet-ups in 44 distinct states. The missing states are both Dakotas, Idaho (a previous attempt), Mississippi (another attempt), West Virginia, and Wyoming. Map below!

posted by mathowie (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 4:55 PM (91 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite

Awesome! Do the colors mean something? Frequency?
posted by WidgetAlley at 4:58 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Wait, where are you suggesting I move to?
posted by heyho at 4:59 PM on September 10, 2013


I think it's just an informal example of the Four Color Theorem in action.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:59 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


Yeah, the colors are random from one of those "what state I've been in" things I found.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:04 PM on September 10, 2013


I suppose me and my wife drinking beer together in Arco, ID doesn't really count as a meetup.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:05 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


The dakotas weren't a surprise, but Idaho was. I could swear there's a bunch of people in Boise I've seen post on other parts of the site.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:07 PM on September 10, 2013


Hm, 4 of the 5 no-meetup states are connected in such a way as to insulate Montana from the rest of the US.

Coincidence or conspiracy?
posted by Hairy Lobster at 5:09 PM on September 10, 2013 [6 favorites]


We would also accept

Were there pictures of shoutouts posted?

Did either of you ask the other if they were 'a friend of mathowie' or 'from the internet'?
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:11 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]


We've actually had at least a couple of informal meetups in North Dakota--I've been present at two of them. We just didn't do it through IRL (since there's kind of a small contingent in ND so no real need) so yeah, admittedly, you'd have no way of knowing that these events occurred. Except we used MeMail but y'all aren't creepy/Google and haven't scanned those for data...so yeah. No IRL meetups from North Dakota.
posted by librarylis at 5:24 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I will be home in North Alabama in January. I would love to drive over to Mississippi and meet up with folks.
posted by ocherdraco at 5:25 PM on September 10, 2013


AKA: The 'freak' states.
posted by Atom Eyes at 5:26 PM on September 10, 2013


Someone just posted on the green from Idaho.
posted by Ideefixe at 5:30 PM on September 10, 2013


There is no Idaho Cabal.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:34 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


So only the States, eh?
posted by ODiV at 5:35 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


*adds West Virginia meetup to To-Do list*
posted by zennie at 5:36 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


So only the States, eh?

Yeah let's take this worldwide. I've considered trying a Malaysia meetup, but there are so few mefites here.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:40 PM on September 10, 2013


Did that McMurdo meetup ever happen?
posted by ApathyGirl at 5:42 PM on September 10, 2013 [4 favorites]


Yeah, but one of them was The Thing.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:43 PM on September 10, 2013 [11 favorites]


Hey, that's what I suspected. We should have run a contest to see who could guess the closest. Now we should run a contest to see who can have meetups in those states....
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:45 PM on September 10, 2013


Okay, this doubles my determination to get back to Wyoming. I know there is at least one MeFite in Laramie, so BY GOD, WE'RE GOING FOR BEERS AT THE BUCKHORN.
posted by scody at 6:04 PM on September 10, 2013


Mississippi has craft beer now. There'll be a meetup there in no time, I'm sure.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:15 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


I believe Canada has had meetups in every province west of the QC/NB border, and it appears there was one a long time ago in NS. (The MB meetup was also a long time ago; SK had it's most recent meetup - with Jessamyn! - in 2010; AB, BC, ON and QC have all had meetups this year.) So all that remains are three provinces (NB, NL, PEI) and the territories.

It's too late in the season now; meetup in Iqaluit 2014?
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 6:45 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]


Damnit! I was in Wyoming and Idaho last week. Had I known we were missing those states I've have planned a rolling meet-up.
posted by 26.2 at 6:45 PM on September 10, 2013


it appears there was one a long time ago in NS.

I was at that one! I should try to make one in the remaining three provinces in the next year.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:49 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


We share borders with the 48 contiguous US states, our inhabitants pay US federal taxes but have no voting representation in Congress, and we have had many Metafilter meetups. Don't give me that look: we ARE the District of Columbia.
posted by exogenous at 6:54 PM on September 10, 2013 [4 favorites]


Mississippi has craft beer now. There'll be a meetup there in no time, I'm sure.

Well, speaking as someone who grew up in Tennessee and now lives in New Orleans (which is apparently located within Louisiana but I wouldn't know as I never leave the parish) I can assure you that the problem is not the lack of craft beer. They just don't have the internet yet in Mississippi.
posted by komara at 7:07 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


Coincidence that this lines up reasonably well with 4G coverage maps?
posted by phunniemee at 7:11 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


I'm about 30 minutes away from Mississippi and I'd really like to keep it that way.
posted by tafetta, darling! at 7:14 PM on September 10, 2013 [5 favorites]


Ooh, Literaryhero, I wouldn't mind going for that if I'm home from school. At least there will be two people, I guess?
posted by undue influence at 7:24 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Okay so no joking around I have to drive through Mobile this Saturday (the 14th) so if anyone wants to get together around 2PM for a 30-Minute Meetup I can make this happen.
posted by komara at 7:31 PM on September 10, 2013


I've talked to another Mefite about meeting up at Maria's Cantina in Southhaven, Mississippi for lunch tomorrow, and she's down for it. Would that count as a meetup? I can post it as an event on IRL. It will need to be at 2ish.
posted by derossitt at 7:44 PM on September 10, 2013


Whoa, that reminds me I've been to meetups in two Canadian providences, Toronto and Vancouver. Has there ever been a PEI meetup? I seem to recall a bunch of internet businesses and users up there.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:02 PM on September 10, 2013


I know there've been meetups in Chiba, Tokyo, Osaka, and maybe Fukuoka. Those other prefectures are dragging Japan down.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:02 PM on September 10, 2013


So a meetup in Yellowstone next summer maybe?
posted by ambrosia at 8:03 PM on September 10, 2013 [4 favorites]


There is special providence in the fall of Elsinore Brewery.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:10 PM on September 10, 2013


Mississippi meetup, tomorrow 1pm.
posted by derossitt at 8:11 PM on September 10, 2013 [6 favorites]


This is awesome, but I wish the colors meant something. I'd love to know that my imminent move from a blue state to a green one meant more meetups in my future.
posted by donnagirl at 8:23 PM on September 10, 2013


I'm with donnagirl. Would it be possible to have some sort of color gradation, a la the red/purple/blue maps for voting in recent elections. Maybe white as the 'nope, no meetups, not ever' fading to a proper MeFi blue for the area (I'd imagine it to be Chicago) with the largest number of meetups?
posted by Ghidorah at 9:56 PM on September 10, 2013


I think it's just an informal example of the Four Color Theorem in action.

I can't believe I just noticed this, but in that map (I'm sorry)

THERE... ARE... SIX... COLORS!
posted by Ghidorah at 9:57 PM on September 10, 2013 [9 favorites]


What was the meetup in Montana?

It was pre-IRL, in 2008
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:04 PM on September 10, 2013

komara: They just don't have the internet yet in Mississippi.
They bundle MetaFilter with those letters soliciting donations for Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
posted by chinesefood at 10:07 PM on September 10, 2013


I manually went through all the meetups in Australia, and found there have been meet-ups in 4 distinct states and 1 territory. The missing territory is Northern Territory and the missing state is Western Australia (previous attempt). Map here!
posted by unliteral at 10:09 PM on September 10, 2013 [3 favorites]


Looks like I'm in charge of the SoDak meetup, huh? That's fine, but I work weekends, so we'll have to do it on a Wednesday. I'll check my calendar and get back to you. :)
posted by themanwho at 10:49 PM on September 10, 2013


I manually went through all the meetups in Australia, and found there have been meet-ups in 4 distinct states and 1 territory. The missing territory is Northern Territory and the missing state is Western Australia (previous attempt). Map here!

The OTHER missing state is Tasmania, in case you forgot it was a state.
posted by crossoverman at 11:00 PM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


I always forget Tasmania.
posted by unliteral at 11:12 PM on September 10, 2013


Sorry, to a. and Jimbob.
posted by unliteral at 11:22 PM on September 10, 2013


Anybody in the DMV up for a Harper's Ferry meetup on Jefferson's Rock?
posted by empath at 11:32 PM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


What about the rest of the world, how many countries have had one?
posted by Blasdelb at 12:34 AM on September 11, 2013 [2 favorites]


[...] fading to a proper MeFi blue for the area (I'd imagine it to be Chicago) with the largest number of meetups?

Here in Houston, we were having meetups every other week for about 18 months. We just didn't post them on IRL because they were a regular thing that we all knew about.

(Also, it was easier/faster to confirm details via Twitter. Yet another reason all MeFites should use Twitter. But we have vowed to start using IRL again, so as to not miss any newcomers. Frequency has died down though, due to Things.)

Also, I know that San Francisco has fairly frequent meetings that they arrange via Twitter, that I don't believe appear on IRL.
posted by MexicanYenta at 1:05 AM on September 11, 2013


Ghidorah: "I'm with donnagirl. Would it be possible to have some sort of color gradation, a la the red/purple/blue maps for voting in recent elections. Maybe white as the 'nope, no meetups, not ever' fading to a proper MeFi blue for the area (I'd imagine it to be Chicago) with the largest number of meetups?"

My guess is NY!
posted by Grither at 3:56 AM on September 11, 2013


Meetup battle!

I would shout "Tokyo Mefites, assemble!" but we tend to need at least three months notice, and even then, it's never a sure thing.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:05 AM on September 11, 2013


Calling Perth (Western Australia, not Scotland) mefites!

HELLO? hello? hello? Anyone out there?
posted by pianissimo at 4:28 AM on September 11, 2013


Was there really just the one meetup in Alaska? I went to that!

Bring on Wyoming. I can get there.
posted by mochapickle at 4:44 AM on September 11, 2013


Were there ever any meetups in Upstate New York? (For the Downstaters among you, I'm not talking about Westchester County.)
posted by elmwood at 5:22 AM on September 11, 2013


Ocherdraco - we could have a central Mississippi Metaquilter two year anniversary two people meetup!
posted by artychoke at 7:11 AM on September 11, 2013


There's an Upstate beyond Westchester? Oh you mean Beacon? That's too far.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:12 AM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


If anyone near MS is available later in the month, I will be in Jackson, MS for the afternoon of Thursday, September 26th and part of, maybe all of the next day. I am picking up my dad's Yamaha Virago 750, because he never drives it whereas I will drive it all the time.
posted by solotoro at 7:26 AM on September 11, 2013


Is this going to end up being like Munro bagging? If so, there need to be badges.
posted by arcticseal at 7:55 AM on September 11, 2013


Did that McMurdo meetup ever happen?

Seriously, though, King George Island. Next March. Drinks on me.
posted by psoas at 8:12 AM on September 11, 2013


Was there really just the one meetup in Alaska? I went to that!

I went to one in Anchorage but I don't think I met you. Pre-IRL meetups are a little tricky.

Calling Perth (Western Australia, not Scotland) mefites!

I went to a meetup in Melbourne but was too jet-lagged to call one in Perth when I was there (way back when). I am sorry about that, Perth is so lovely.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:22 AM on September 11, 2013


Was there really just the one meetup in Alaska? I went to that!
>>I went to one in Anchorage but I don't think I met you. Pre-IRL meetups are a little tricky.


Ah, this was the Fairbanks one last year.
posted by mochapickle at 8:27 AM on September 11, 2013


What about the rest of the world, how many countries have had one?

Looks like the current number of countries represented in IRL is 27. I didn't include Proposed events. If you include attempts, the number jumps to 40.

Here's a data dump of the countries and the corresponding IRL threads. If there were more than a handful I included a link to the Past meetups page for that country.

argentina: 458
australia: go here
austria: 1014
belgium: 265, 441, 1541
brazil: 1409
canada: go here
china: 199, 657
france: 494, 643, 1627, 1859
germany: go here
hong kong: 1397, 1437, 1493, 1864, 1912
iceland: 216, 341, 669, 1160, 1221, 1226
ireland: 403, 687, 1426, 1728
italy: 337, 1326, 1448, 1691
japan: go here
kenya: 617
netherlands: go here
new zealand: 371, 964
portugal: 742
singapore: 957, 1544
south korea: 1415
spain: 1110, 1770
sweden: 593, 825, 1553
switzerland: 973, 1558
turkey: 571
united arab emirates: 154
united kingdom: go here
posted by pb (staff) at 8:50 AM on September 11, 2013 [4 favorites]


If someone wants a fun project they could go through the pre-IRL meetup list and find countries that aren't on this IRL list.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:52 AM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


Hungary
posted by Blasdelb at 9:12 AM on September 11, 2013


Wait, is the IMG tag back???

<img src=http://www.slogg.er/images/animated_gifs/butt_elephants/stompee.gif>

*previews*

CURSE YOU MATHOWIE! FOILED AGAIN!!!
posted by slogger at 9:13 AM on September 11, 2013


Hm, 4 of the 5 no-meetup states are connected in such a way as to insulate Montana from the rest of the US.
Coincidence or conspiracy?


Yes.

Also, jcreigh, Tube and I have fairly regular non-scheduled meetups at my workplace (which has the added bonus of being inside a coffeeshop). If you're in Missoula, give a shout and we'll schedule something.
posted by ikahime at 9:18 AM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


Denmark.
Guatamala
Internet.
Poland.
Puerto Rico.
posted by mountmccabe at 9:19 AM on September 11, 2013


What about the ten year anniversary? We got Antarctica in that one!
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:34 AM on September 11, 2013


Yeah, we did. Hmm, does this reflect the Ten data? I suppose that's a distinct table from IRL.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:48 AM on September 11, 2013


No, I didn't check the Ten data.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:58 AM on September 11, 2013


We've had some in Greece, but it's always only a couple of people so never an IRL (subsite) thing.
posted by taz (staff) at 10:06 AM on September 11, 2013


I did my list (four additional countries plus the internet which is sort of a country but) by looking at the map but I missed Chile and then there were three more from the Tenth

Chile
India
Philippines
Tanzania

So the 26 pb listed, United States, Hungary, the 4 I listed previously, Anarctica (not a country) plus these four = 37 countries total.
posted by mountmccabe at 1:09 PM on September 11, 2013


stoneweaver: THERE IS A PICTURE ON METAFILTER. We should appreciate this moment.

I'm glad you brought that up, because I expanded the Image Links page on the MeFi Wiki, and added an Abuse of Mods' Rights section to Metafilter-related Images with times that mods specifically flaunted their power to post images. I was happy with my work, but not vain enough to create a MetaTalk thread about it. Neither list is complete, as I got tired of searching. If anyone would like to bolster those lists, just search the site for img src, and stop when you get to October 22, 2006.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:46 PM on September 11, 2013


an Abuse of Mods' Rights section to Metafilter-related Images

I would do it again!

So does this count times when we've just included birthday GIFs or something, or do they have to be MeFi-related?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:28 PM on September 11, 2013 [2 favorites]


The Mississippi meetup happened today.
posted by derossitt at 2:48 PM on September 11, 2013 [3 favorites]


The only listed mod abuses seem to be by cortex.
posted by maryr at 2:56 PM on September 11, 2013


And that sure ain't all of 'em, let me tell you.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:58 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


He is a scamp!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:59 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


Here's mine that aren't already in that short list. Warning, many of these are in bigass threads.

- Romney and Big Bird
- Escher
- Cookie Monster birthday
- GAY TATER knuckle tats
- CAPS LOCK DAY
- certificate of longassness
- Stan, Stan, the table-jumpin' man
- Cowboy 700
- marquee, uh, cow? (apparently Jess and I spent several hours editing that comment back and forth)
- father to 1000 children
- my very first transgression
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:07 PM on September 11, 2013


Mine...

- postcards!
- interrobang!
- birthday beach!
- not sure what was up here & ditto
- my favorite
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:52 PM on September 11, 2013


I treated the wiki lists as Image Links to be any image embedded by a mod, and the "mods' abuses" to only be the MetaFilter related embedded images, so the list is shorter. And as I noted above, I started with the most recent img src posts and worked back, but stopped early.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:16 PM on September 11, 2013


Mexico City mini meetup, the ten year anniversary one.
posted by dhruva at 6:09 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


The Ascent (and Descent) of Stan,
Table Jumping Man.
Stan: Table Jumping Man.
Post pix 'cause you can.


Once you couldn't even post one.
Now here's higher resolution.
How's it feel to be The Mod?
Feels pretty good to be The Mod.

posted by maryr at 9:09 PM on September 11, 2013


Yeah, but one of them was The Thing.

Wait, wait. There was a Meetup at The Thing?

Because if there wasn't, that totally needs to happen, with enough advance planning for people to fly in for it. (Not that there is any convenient fly-in point for The Thing.)
posted by hippybear at 9:32 PM on September 11, 2013


They have a car that Hitler may or may not have been in. Who knows?
posted by maryr at 9:34 PM on September 11, 2013


Idaho should be easy. Bring a framed picture of River Phoenix to your favourite bar in Boise and have your own private Idaho meetup.
posted by MuffinMan at 1:12 AM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]


iceland: 216, 341, 669, 1160, 1221, 1226

Yay! We have so many numbers. Got numbers beyond what you can dial. Though if you did dial that from inside the US you'd probably get an answer from someone in Cleveland. I don't know what you'd have to talk about with some random person in Cleveland. Maybe you both dislike Lebron James? And maybe you both like pizza. Everyone likes pizza. But what if you both don't! What a connection that would be. Or maybe you can discuss who your favorite Canadian prime minister is. I don't know. The point is that Iceland has lots of numbers.
posted by Kattullus at 2:58 AM on September 12, 2013


Ok, who has the keys to the meetup-bus? It's got to be on the road in under 2 hours, and I think the gas tank is empty.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:25 AM on September 12, 2013


Re: meetups in upstate NY

Well, if you count a couple of us hanging out at a knit night (with non MeFites) every so often, then yes.
posted by wiskunde at 5:55 PM on September 13, 2013


I manually went through all the meetups in Australia, and found there have been meet-ups in 4 distinct states and 1 territory. The missing territory is Northern Territory and the missing state is Western Australia

For anyone still playing at home, WA has now had its first official meetup. Woo!
posted by pianissimo at 7:16 AM on September 25, 2013 [1 favorite]


Yay!
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:21 AM on September 25, 2013


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