Wikipedia talk:Meetup/LA1

L.A. Meetup #1 Discussion

Added my name to the list! Jokestress 16:43, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Added my name as well. Thanks for the invite! What usually goes on at these things? (I've never been to one). --Polylerus 17:41, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Fantastic idea! Too bad I moved to NY last month. Space Cadet 17:59, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I saw this and I'd like to come too. -Willmcw 20:00, Jun 23, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the invite, but I'm moving to D.C. in just a couple weeks. What timing! --David Iberri | Talk 20:58, Jun 23, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for inviting me, but I'll be swamped with summer school (not remedial, I'm doing it to get ahead). Plus I wouldn't qualify for the Well. -David (fpo) | Talk 6:47 p.m. l.a. time

About 50/50 chance I might be able to come (kinda depends on workload and so forth ...) I'd be driving down from Santa Barbara. Thanks for organizing this and it's high time we got some southern Californians together. Antandrus (talk) 23:05, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

How about hosting a potluck picnic at a park? -- AllyUnion (talk) 03:45, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Cool. Monday July 25 works for me. —BenFrantzDale 03:57, Jun 25, 2005 (UTC)

I'm down, most likely. My vote is for the Well, I think, or any other place that serves "adult" beverages... --csloat 10:03, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Some suggestions and questions:

• For Intent to Attend, you might add a column for where the person is coming from, and another column for over/under 21 to get an idea of how many are of drinking age.
• Also: What criteria are you using for contacting people?
• Have you done any Wikipedia-wide publicity yet (Village Pump, Wikipedia:Announcements, Wikipedia:Goings-on, Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost, etc.)?
• While LA-area Wikipedians are being contacted, would this also be a good time to try to organize a Southern California WikiProject?
• If there are enough people coming from places like Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Bakersfield, the meetup should probably be near the Chinatown/Olvera Street area so they could take Amtrak to Union Station.

BlankVerse ∅ 28 June 2005 04:51 (UTC)

Those are some excellent suggestions, some of which I had already considered (and perhaps others have, as well).

• • Either that or invest in a good therapist ;^) --csloat 28 June 2005 23:05 (UTC)
• Criteria for contacting people: I have been cruising all over L.A.-interest pages' histories and contacting people that appear to have L.A.-specific knowledge (and do not specify a different place of residence on their User page). (I've been surprised just how much excellent writing and editing of these pages has been done by just a small group of the same people).
• Publicity: Nope, haven't gone that route yet (aside from listing us on the Wikimeetup page). (Everyone is welcome to help me out here.)
• Wikiproject: I welcome anyone to help spread the word through relevent WikiProjects, and perhaps L.A. Wikimeetups of the future will help lead to more Wikiprojects.
• Union Station: I DO consider access to public transportation to be an important need (although I'll be driving). I'm curious how many of us might be planning on using public transit?
• I have not been contacting people that listed themseleves as living in Ventura County- perhaps that's a mistake (I hate feeling like a spammer)? I suppose I thought we'd see how well it went with folks that lived within about 45 minutes from "Core L.A." (within the ring of the 101/405/10/110 freeways), before trying to talk people from Bakersfield into coming down. (Although, I suppose people in Bakersfield might be used to LONG commutes to do anything interesting : ) (Sorry, Central Valley folks, I love you, I really do.)
• HEY EVERYONE! HELP SPREAD THE WORD! - I do not consider this to be MY meetup. This is OUR meetup! Post a little friendly link back to the Meetup page on some peoples' user pages (as I did many of you). Be bold! (Preferrably, check first that their User page doesn't say they're born-and-raised in L.A. but now live in Addis Ababa.

- Eric 28 June 2005 22:51 (UTC)

• I wish I was near L.A. in July 25, but it's the middle of the summer and I have to travel :) Hopefully I can attend the next one; I will be back at the end of August. --Nerval 29 June 2005 01:22 (UTC)

• Sorry, Can't make it, on accouint of I live 3,000 miles away, in New York. But I hope it's a sucess. Pacific Coast Highway June 29, 2005 02:13 (UTC)

• re: Union Station: Since this is the first Los Angeles WikiMeetup (and only the 3rd West Coast meetup after than the two in Seattle) I imagine that you might get people from as far away as San Francisco and Las Vegas wanting to attend, although holding the meetup on a Monday rather than on a Saturday makes it harder to come from that far away. Having the meetup either near Union Station, or near LAX would help those coming from far away. I would suggest trying to recruit anyone from the Southern California area within a half-day's drive of LA. You also need to add a notice to the Meta:WikiMeetup page. Also: As far as publicity goes, would there be any objections to sending a press release to some of the local newspapers once plans are finalized to try to generate more publicity for the Wikipedia? Final Question: Have you asked User:Jimbo Wales if there was any chance that he'd be able to make an LA meetup? BlankVerse ∅ 29 June 2005 10:20 (UTC)

  One other idea: I don't participate at all in the mailing list, but there probably should be some publicity about the LA meetup on the mailing list as well. BlankVerse ∅ 29 June 2005 12:02 (UTC)

If you look at Jimbo's User page, its clear that his schedule is well spoken for for some time already. I'd love to try to get him to attend a future one, though, if he isn't touring Europe at the time. I'm in favor of getting a diversity of Wiki-experience levels to attend, but an ad in a local newspaper may cause us to get a disproportionate number of attendees that don't know what Wikipedia is. I encourage you to help spread the word through Wiki, though. As for Ventura/Santa Barbara/San Diego/Orange/Riverside counties- there's no harm in inviting, but for a Monday night thing, we might be sending some of these people home rather late (long after public transit shuts down, too). I propose, after having a few Monday night meetups, to poll interest in having a Saturday afternoon thing that could draw a wider crowd. - Eric

MetaWiki said Jimbo will be in San Deigo at October 17-18, 2005, so that gives us another chance to see him. Plus, I probably will need to use the public transportation, unless other SD Wikipedians are showing up. Also, sadly, I cannot go to the second location due to my age (I'm 19). But thanks for inviting us SD Wikipedians to this. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 29 June 2005 21:29 (UTC)

re: Newspaper publicity: I don't think that I was very clear about what I was proposing. I was thinking of trying to get a reporter to show up at the meetup to report on it. BlankVerse ∅ 29 June 2005 21:43 (UTC)

Anyone know how to get reporters to come to these sorts of things? It could be good spread-the-word press for Wiki. - Eric 30 June 2005 10:03 (UTC)

One approach would be a general press release sent to all the major area newspapers, with some possible customization for smaller news publications (local area resident Joe Blow will be attending the SoCal Wikipedia meetup...). The second approach would be to contact specific newspaper columnists who you think might be interested, especially those that specialize in technology issues. BlankVerse ∅ 30 June 2005 10:44 (UTC)

SoCal WikiProject

Since the people participating here are some of the most active editors on Southern California-related topics, I want to bring to their attention the creation of Wikipedia:WikiProject Southern California, and Wikipedia:WikiProject California. Although there are too many WikiProjects that have become moribund after a brief flurry of activity, and even a few WikiProjects that never really got off the ground, there are other WikiProjects that have done a very good job of helping to improve the articles within their purview. Hopefully these two California WikiProjects will be in the latter category. BlankVerse ∅ 1 July 2005 04:14 (UTC)

Timing

Unfortunately this comes between Apachecon and Wikimania, and I'll be in Germany. Next time... --Brion July 5, 2005 04:24 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost

Both the LA-area meetup, and the new California and Southern California WikiProjects were mentioned in the latest issue of the Wikipedia Signpost. BlankVerse ∅ 5 July 2005 05:30 (UTC)

Reminder

Did we settle on a restaurant? Do we have a time? Should we send out reminders? Are there any projects/discussion topics/games that we should organize? Door prizes? -Willmcw 06:51, July 16, 2005 (UTC)

Anyone know anything about Wiki bots? We could really use a bot that could post reminders to attending users' talk pages. - Eric 09:53, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

One problem is that you should have created this page as a page move from the old page since that way everybody who had put the old page on their watchlist would catch any changes to the page. As for 'bots, User:AllyUnion is one of the Wikipedia experts on bots, but I understand that many of them had problems with the last upgrade to the MediaWiki software. BlankVerse ∅ 11:14, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Stuff to do

I will bring some signs, a camera, and an attendance sheet. My suggestions on stuff to do:

1. Self-introductions
2. A trivia game - I'm currently writing one - anyone with a good trivia question should e-mail it to me at eric at ericshalov.com. (Please put "wiki or wikipedia" somewhere in the body of the message.)
3. Call for speakers - anyone want to give a 5-10 minute talk about an area they find particularly interesting, or that less experienced Wikipedians may benefit from? i.e. Worst Wiki pet peeves and how to avoid them? How to resolve edit conflicts, vandalism, problems with other Wikipedians... Current status of a WikiProject... History of Wiki... etc.. ? - Eric 11:10, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Locations considered

Voting for location has closed. (Option 4, Philippe's won by a landslide.) Please submit your suggestions for future L.A. Meetup locations to the Meetup page for the next meetup after this one.

The location that had the most votes on July 18, 2005 was the site of L.A. Meetup #1.

1. Newsroom (Robertson Blvd. in Beverly Hills, all ages)
   They have hosted the L.A. Slashdot Meetup before, so they might be a good option.
2. The Well (Sunset/Vine in Hollywood, 21+)
   Fairly spacious bar with plenty of seating on weeknights.
3. The Bourgeois Pig (Franklin/Bronson in Hollywood, all ages)
   Cafe with back room that has hosted poetry readings in the past.
4. Philippe's (Chinatown, downtown L.A., all ages)
   1001 N. Alameda St. Los Angeles CA. 90012 (across the street from Union Station)
   They can seat 300 people, and have given us permission to place signage and use as much space as we need. Their upstairs area tends to be quieter. Downsides: They are only open until 10:00pm. (When the 2600 Magazine people use this place for their meetings, they just move the meeting to the nearby Denny's at 10:00).
5. Fred 62 (Silverlake, all ages)
   It's a diner where the price of most things ends in .62. Booths made out of old car seats. Serves beer and wine.
6. Swinger's (West Hollywood)
   Quintessential Hollywood diner. Cow patterned walls. Seating indoors or out. Beer, wine, and "smart" drinks (assuming there is anything "smart" about spending $7 on a tea-flavored smoothie).
7. Pete's Cafe (Downtown - 4th & Main by Skid Row)
   Upscale; good food, full bar, beautiful old bank building
8. How about Caramba Restaurant just for self-referential goodness.

(to add your own suggestions, edit the list of locations page)

Intent to Attend

Please indicate your Intent to attend as a percentage (i.e., 100% would be promising to attend, 0% would be promising NOT to attend, 50% if you have no idea either way) Mark an X under Interested in being a Host if you'd like to help organize the gathering (hosts help everyone find each other at the meetup location, and start the introductions and such)

Username	Intent to attend	Interested in being a Host	Preferred Meetup Location
Eric Shalov	100%	X	1,3,4 (yup, you can vote for more than one!)
Jokestress	93%
Polylerus	88%
jengod	67% >> 0% (got a paying mini-gig tonight. must pay bills to fund wikitime! next one! i promise!)
Space Cadet
Willmcw	0% have to cancel, have a good time everybody	Y	4
David Iberri
David (fpo)	0% (sorry)
Antandrus	0% (too long of a drive; I have to work too late; next time though!)		4
AllyUnion
BenFrantzDale	90%
csloat	90%
Wjbean	90%		4
Spundun	60%
BlankVerse ∅	60%
Catherine	60%		any
Morven	80%		4
Sandover	0%
EDM	40%
DAD	80%		6
J3ff	0% (Thanks for the invitation; I'm not available on the 25th though)
Derktar	0% (Thanks you for the invitation but I will not be in LA on the 25th)
Geographer	50%		4
Elefuntboy	65%		any
Tcotrel	70%		4,5
be3n	84.3%		any
Rye1967	84.2%		any
Ianneub	50% (Kinda long drive on a work night, but I'll see what I can do!)		1,3,4
Yex	70% (Assuming I can get a ride and my parents don't care, which they probably won't)		any
IlyaHaykinson	75%

Getting there

• Driving: Philippe's has a large parking lot on Ord St., just across the street from the restaurant.
• MTA: Union Station (the "end of the line" for the MTA Red Line, is on Alameda, just one block south of the restaurant.