San Rafael, CA · Member since 2009 · 30 posts · 6 votes
Hi Everybody!
We're happy to announce that we will be hosting a Bay Area Bigger Pockets MeetUp in North Berkeley on Wednesday September 11th from 6-8PM. We'll meet in the community space at the Better Homes & Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate office and the street address is 2095 Rose St. in Berkeley.
This will be a free event where we can get together, connect and share with each other in a relaxed, informal atmosphere. All you need to do is bring yourself and your business cards, we'll provide appetizers & drinks.
At 6:30PM we'll start a short session where we'll give everybody a chance to introduce themselves to the group, give a quick pitch and share their needs and wants. After that we'll discuss possible formats for future events and break early so that we can have plenty of time to hang out and get to know each other.
No upselling. No MLM. Everybody is welcome to attend, but please register so that we can plan accordingly. We're looking forward to seeing you there!
Unfortunately, it was moved by the moderators due to a new policy. I was notified by @Jon Holdman that they decided to put it in the "Marketplace" and restrict all non-paying members (like you) from posting on them, because some other people's meetup posting included sales pitches. So they decided to restrict all non-BP-paying members from posting on them.
I will post that you are coming. I'm not that impressed with the Pro account, to be honest. A lot of the local search for members doesn't work well because you can't tell who's active or posts a lot - and many other suggestions I've provided to the moderators through the recommendation section of the site that might make it worth it have never received an acknowledgement or response. I'll be reconsidering for next year.. But that won't stop up us from getting together locally (will just stop you from posting until you cough up the cash)! See you there Sam!
BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
12y
@J. Martin - Unfortunately we had people abusing BP's prior policy on events; they posted pay events and other pitch-type meetings in our free networking area and it was very time intensive to sort out what was a get together that wasn't done in the name of BP to get people to come and get pitched and what was a legitimate gathering of local folks to connect.
While you may not agree with it, we had to make a policy change that was consistent across the board. We couldn't allow some people to post events and then force others to pay to do so.
What we've done is create a forum for events, which this thread is currently in, where ONLY the initial poster needs a PRO or PLUS account. ANY OTHER MEMBER can reply to the thread and can participate.
The move to the Marketplace that you mentioned was a necessary in-between step while we built up this new forum.
So -- hopefully our members who are interested in local get togethers put on by their peers can easily participate in those threads without problem now.
As to any suggestions that you or others make, we have a MASSIVE backlog of projects that we're working on. While we consider ALL ideas from our members, we can't just make a change anytime a user wants something -- that's not the way to run a business, especially an online one. I appreciate all suggestions and do want you to know that we look at all of them, and when our team feels like there is merit to any of them, we discuss and place them into the queue with the other countless tasks that we're working on.
Finally, as to your feedback on our PRO accounts, I'm sorry you don't see the value. If you elect not to renew, we certainly respect that and hope you continue to enjoy the benefits that come with a free account here. We're ALWAYS improving the site and we constantly add new features for users of all levels and do our best to ensure our PRO accounts are worth what we charge for them. We believe they are well worth the price, as we do with our PLUS accounts as well.
Lots of luck to you with this gathering and we hope anyone in attendance will share their feedback after taking part.
Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2011 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
12y
Thanks @Joshua D. for notifying me of the change with the meetup forums. I think that's a more fair approach than what I understood from the prior email I received. I understand it's a balance, so I'm glad you guys found a solution that doesn't prevent non-paying members from joining the local discussion (saying this as a paying Pro member.) You must have realized why members might not be happy about moving local meetups to a paying-member-only space.. so thanks for addressing that.
"As to any suggestions that you or others make, we have a MASSIVE backlog of projects that we're working on. While we consider ALL ideas from our members, we can't just make a change anytime a user wants something -- that's not the way to run a business, especially an online one."
I of course don't expect you to make a change "anytime a user wants something" - and no need to be sarcastic; please don't be offended - but I really just said that I never received an acknowledgement of the suggestion. It would have been nice to get some sort of acknowledgement or response that a suggestion was submitted - even an auto-reply that it was sent somewhere and said someone was looking at it.. After paying for the Pro account to connect with local members (in addition to being an active member on the community, helping out a lot on the forums, and greeting people to the site..) - then not being able to connect effectively with local members - then not even getting an acknowledgement when I make a suggestion regarding it.. I was a little disspointed.
"Finally, as to your feedback on our PRO accounts, I'm sorry you don't see the value."
The reason I got it was so I could find local, active members on the site. But I cannot seem to do this (or maybe I still just can't figure it out? help..?) When I search locally, I see a bunch of pictures of members, and sort them, but I can't tell how many posts, colleagues, or any other piece of information that tells how active they are. So I click through dozens of profiles, to find they all have 1 or 2 posts, and are never on the forums.. Then buried down there, I see a local I am already colleagues with who posts actively, but I only know that because I personally know they are active..
Any advice Josh on how I can use the Pro features more effectively? I read some of the first postings about it, but didn't seem to be able to figure out how to find active people in my area..
I appreciate the site a lot, am happy to be a member of the community, and appreciate all the moderators' shared knowledge and work on the site. I guess we all get frustrated sometimes though by things that don't work the way we expected them too..
Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2011 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
12y
@Jimmy T , sorry you can't make it this time. To be notified next time, click on the link in the above post for the forum.
Then click "monitor this topic" at the top of the forum.
When I schedule the next meetup in the East Bay (sometime in February), I will post it on that thread. And you will see the forum update in your "monitored" forums.
Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2011 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
12y
Btw, this is the message I received, along with a posting explaining the BP decision, from Jon. Again, I appreciate the solution that was implemented by Josh, but I wanted to clarify the reason I made the statement I made regarding the meetup forums... Hopefully you understand why I wasn't real happy for the non-paying community by this decision, so again, I'm glad you addressed it Josh.. Thank you. And no hard feelings..
BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
12y
@J. Martin - I don't take people's actions or words personally. Jon told you what was policy at the time, and we realized that something still needed to change, which is why we made the change. For a few days, you had to be pro or plus to engage on events and as I already stated, that is no longer true.
As to how to use PRO features more effectively, there's no one answer. It depends on what you want to use. If you have specific questions, perhaps a new thread asking specifically about that would be helpful?
NOTE: I removed your private conversation with Jon from the post above.