The Story of the Unofficial JaxLUG Meetup
The past unofficial Jacksonville Linux Users Group has an unofficial Meetup account, that the group is proud of, yet, ignores and neglects, but is still proud and actively refers people there. This page aims to document the history of the unofficial Meetup account, its neglect, and bleak future.
Meetup is simply not as beneficial as some may feel, and Meetup as an organization is completely inept. In our dealings, Meetup mistook, the JaxLUG, for the JaxJUG, the Java Users Group; how Meetup could even make such a mistake. Meetup clearly has no concept of marketing or branding, as they cannot acknowledge themselves that dueling and outdated links are not beneficial. Nor are ignoring people who post questions only to be responded to years later.
On top of repeat, meeting after meeting, pathetically low numbers, and if you consider it against the groups own Meetup group size, its barely 10% ever, if that. This unofficial Meetup and the past unofficial group have failed in every way when it comes to growing a community. Meetup is ineffective, archaic, does not attract actual Linux people, is not something the youth are drawn to, the whole thing is just outdated and ineffective, yet some continue to double, triple, and quadruple down on their obvious mess and failure they pay for monthly, or one person does...
Again, Meetup as an organization is inept to realize all these negatives, and how it harms the community far more than it helps the community! Meetup LLC. has complete and total disregard for State Trademark Law and understanding locality of groups, which most are local groups that do not span counties, much less states.
2015 Creation
It is not known exactly when or who created the unofficial Meetup account. It is believed, per the first listed Organizer, and communication with Meetup LLC. that the account was created and is owned by Ralph Figueroa. This is something Ralph did entirely on his own, and he has graciously paid for it, entirely on his own ever since, however, Ralph NEVER raised the issue for discussion, Ralph never sought approval, group vote, etc. This was entirely a unilateral action by Ralph, without an announcement even! Without any effort to involve or inform others!
The first public mention of the unofficial Meetup is on Aug 12, 2015 by Dan Bidleman in this mailing list post, when he first became the unofficial group leader, per the Unofficial Community Leadership page. This is the first time anyone in the group mentioned the Meetup publicly, and it did not come from Ralph.
Note, that Dan is overly embellishing, or flat out lying, when he comments "By popular demand, we now have a Meetup site" knowing it was never discussed; find a single public post or anything that predates Dan's Aug 12, 2015 mailing list post.
There is no public record of Ralph ever announcing or declaring the creation of the Meetup, his intentions, with regard to paying indefinitely for the Meetup, having indefinite full control, or anything to give others the chance to even comment, much less participate. Ralph did this on his own, and he has retained sole control, despite adding others, this account belongs to Ralph, not the community!
Ralph nor anyone were publicly authorized or sought public permission to create a Meetup for the unofficial group!
Group Neglect
For some reason, as of 2026, there remains two links to two different websites on the Meetup page, one of two visible links, the sites.google.com link takes you to an outdated website from 2023. Just one example of the neglect on Meetup. Why that link to the Google Sites website remains on Meetup? Why either link is visible instead of properly encoded. It looks like some failed attempt at Markdown, but with different URLs. It just makes no sense, technical or otherwise!
This is just terrible, having two different links to confuse people. Having a link to a horribly outdated website, and again, this is what others consider to be good marketing or think will attract others and encourage them to to join the group. This is a total embarrassment, peplos not even in tech or involved with Linux can manage their initial Meetup page better. This is just them not carrying at all!
Not to mention, blocking others like William Thomson, who could fix the issues, which should be trivial to correct, one URL, with a proper link, not exposed, or just the one URL without any brackets.
If/when the outdated sites.google.com website link is removed, it is due to our raising the issue...
- January 24th, 2026
Discussion Neglect
Another really terrible long term sign is the neglect of Discussions!
This is just terrible, worse than the two links, this shows others that the group does not care, does not pay attention to their Meetup, and if they do pay attention, not sure what that says. Either way, not having a Meetup is better than having one with Discussions that are ignored for years. Or worse, like when Ralph asks a question, with never having helped or contributed to those posting in the discussion. For a Meetup that Ralph owns... Is he trying to help others or them help him?
Only till recently has Ramon Dominguez started to reply to people, YEARS later, which again, is pretty bad, that is great Ramon, or someone, is finally replying, but it is WAY to late. It may show that the group is trying, but again, this is not a way to attract others. This is absolutely terrible marketing! This is how you destroy a brand and reputation. It is simply amazing Meetup LLC. cannot understand this fact alone, much less others presented!
This is what happens when someone creates a presence for a group on a social platform without involving the group, and as a results, the group had no awareness of the discussions being neglected. Just the same, those in the group had years to notice that the Meetup discussions were being neglected and nobody did anything, until Ramon came along. Bottom line, meetup discussions were never integrated into the groups activities, and they are VERY misleading in many ways!
If/when the outdated discussions are addressed, it is due to our raising the issue...
- January 24th, 2026
Pathetic Attendance
While at one point Meetup might have been beneficial, the meeting attendance, especially that shown on Meetup is pathetic! For a group some 30 years old, for a Meetup with over 600 members, to have an average far below 10% is pathetic; not even 20 per meeting! To routinely advertise low numbers is bad marketing and causes a cascading domino effect of low attendance.
It is fine for meetings to be any size, but it is best to have some mystery than to repeatedly advertise low numbers. Furthermore, leaders have failed to get the message that what they are doing is not working. Even if they get to 10%, they are happy, and that is far below what should be the norm. Having everyone on a Meetup show for every event or meeting is impractical, but minimum should be 20% or more or, "Houston, we have a problem".
This is also evident of Meetup once again being the wrong venue and market to attract, grow, and maintain a Linux community. It is also a sign of the times, as younger generations do not use Meetup the same if at all, and even for older generations, Meetup is a niche. It is for people seeking to form connections, usually people new to a city, or things along those lines..
Linux people are not turning to Meetup to find other Linux people, and those who create and pursue the Meetup fail to realize this fact. It maybe different at times, and may work more or less in other areas but for over a decade, Meetup has done very little, and really needs to end. This unofficial Meetup group needs to be taken down/ended. If one is to exist, it should be a new one to attract new members and shed the issues of the past, like the neglected discussions.
Meetup is a failed experiment!
End of the day, Meetup has never really been of benefit to the JaxLUG, nor have any social media platforms, they all do more harm than good! That is not a speculative statement, there is over a decade of history to prove such facts!
Future the End
At some point, once our Federal Trademarks are granted, or sooner with Meetup LLC. compliance, that unofficial Meetup group will be ended or at best renamed. The entire experiment has been a failure, and it is time for it to end. There may be another Meetup group created in its place, but given how uncooperative Meetup LLC. has been, the neglect, and how inept Meetup is when it comes to group names, marketing, trademarks, locality of Meetups that most all are clearly regional and very local. Plus, it is just not believed that Meetup is the right venue to grow the official JaxLUG; insanity is repeating the same and expecting different outcome.
There is no reason for the Jacksonville Linux Users Group Inc. to have a presence on Meetup or do business with Meetup LLC. For what they are seeing as protecting the community, or more their revenue from Ralph, they are doing tremendous harm. This maybe sought for remedy in Duval County Court, small claims or otherwise. But for the time being, there is no foreseeable future on Meetup and the JaxLUG will no longer be on Meetup as soon as possible!
Things could be otherwise, but the lack of cooperation from both the unofficial past group members and, especially, Meetup LLC. caused things to sour and discourages any future business or usage. Therefore, it should not be of surprise when the JaxLUG no longer has a presence on Meetup.com.