UKtiP XIIX: finally old enough to drink!

[factotum]

Is the problem at least partially that a lot of the old-timers don't seem to post much anymore? When was the last time Thufir, Castaras and Grlump the Elder posted on the boards, for instance?

[Capt Spanner]

I think there's also the thing that most (though not all) people willing to organise seem to be in London and - understandably - people outside of London don't want it to *always* be in London.

By the time you say "needs good transport links" and "someone already living there who can organise" and "doesn't take forever to get there and back" the list of places you can reasonably go gets quite small.

[KuReshtin]

I don't think I'd have much of a problem with having it in London all the time if we just found a place where we could host it consistently.

I have found that one of the major obstacles for trying to organise it outside of London is the number of people posting that they'll 'maybe' make it as long as it's in London.
The apparent unwillingness to travel anywhere to get to a meetup is something that I've noticed in the past, and that has hindered some meetups to be organised in the past since we seem to not want to step on anyone's toes.

In trying to accommodate as many as possible, we end up getting nothing organised.

[Thufir]

Is the problem at least partially that a lot of the old-timers don't seem to post much anymore? When was the last time Thufir, Castaras and Grlump the Elder posted on the boards, for instance?

If you pick a different list of old-timers then maybe. Me and Cassie post in the meetup threads, we answer questions about availability, we even express potential ability to host. I'll grant you I haven't seen Grlump on here in years, and the fact a lot of the old guard aren't around means we have less potential attendees.

I think there's also the thing that most (though not all) people willing to organise seem to be in London and - understandably - people outside of London don't want it to *always* be in London.

To my recollection, people in London don't want it to always be in London.

You both come close to what I think are the big problems, but miss them by a little. The problem with hosting/organising is not so much that most potential hosts are in London as it is that we seem to have very few potential hosts full stop. Like, the past few threads we've basically had one or other London-based person and me, while everyone else mostly stays quiet or says they can't (I realise I'm passing over another couple of potential offers which haven't panned out, but the general principle applies).

And similarly, while as I said the departure of old guard has reduced our numbers, the problem is not that the old-timers don't post here any more, it's that hardly anyone posts here any more. I make up around a tenth of the posts in this thread on top of which I posted on the GitP facebook group asking if anyone was interested, PMed some past attendees hoping to drum up interest, and PMed people who'd made vague suggestions that they might be able to host to encourage them further; and then Archie makes up about a quarter of the thread, and while I haven't gone back to check through, it certainly felt at the time that a lot of those posts were along the lines of "OK, so any news on anything? Anyone willing to host? Preferences for dates? Does anyone actually want to volunteer any opinions on anything at all? IS ANYONE EVEN READING THIS?"
I'm using hyperbole here obviously, but seriously it's hard to maintain the energy to try and organise something when every request for interest or opinions is met with stony silence, or maybe one or two half-hearted responses, and no-one else seems to be putting in any effort or to particularly care. I realise this is not necessarily accurate, but it feels that way. We used to get long meetup threads with lots of interested discussion, now we've just hit page 3 several weeks after everyone gave up on actually trying to make this happen. I said somewhere back up the thread that this was starting to feel like a repeat of last year (wherein I gave up and declared the meetup in Newcastle because no-one else was getting anything done), to which I got three responses, none of them particularly helpful or heartening, and that was fairly representative of my experience throughout most of the thread - it felt like me and Archie were the only ones putting in effort to arrange a meetup that a single-digits number of people would bother turning up to and no-one else seemed to express any caring about and nothing would get done if we didn't push it forwards every third post or so. It turned into a thankless and sisyphean task and after a while I just didn't have the energy for it any more.

Ku is right that this would probably be helped if someone just made a unilateral decision rather than canvassing for opinions. But in the past that's basically what used to happen - we'd canvas for opinions for a bit, and after a little while one of the potential hosts would say something along the lines of "OK, we're doing it here on this date," and things would move forward. This is the part we've lost, and this comes back to my other two points - we don't have people volunteering to host like that any more so no-one makes the unilateral decision; and those people like me who could step in to do it as much as I don't want to have to do it every time are less inclined to do so because no-one else seems that interested.

/rant

[Aedilred]

While I can see where you're coming from, Thufir, I'm not sure it's worth getting worked up about. If there isn't demand for a meetup then there isn't demand. There's no point getting frustrated with people for not being that interested in a meetup at all. If this thread were full of clamour for people demanding that a meetup be organised but there was nobody willing to take up responsibility for organising it, that might be a legitimate cause for frustration. As it is, there is, as you say, stony silence, and most of the bemoaning seems to be that the people who want to organise it don't have anyone to organise one for.

I get that it's a shame if there are no more meetups, or meetups are at a much lower frequency, because not enough people are going to attend, but these things happen and it's not like anyone's to blame or taking anyone for granted. If people aren't up for a meetup this spring/summer there's no point trying to force one just for the sake of it: maybe take a break and try again in a few months when there might be a bit more interest.

[hamishspence]

I get that it's a shame if there are no more meetups, or meetups are at a much lower frequency, because not enough people are going to attend, but these things happen and it's not like anyone's to blame or taking anyone for granted.

That makes sense.

[Big Mac]

The Piazza is doing another birthday thing in a London pub and as usual anyone from Giant in the Playground is very welcome to come along.

Here are the details from the Facebook page for The Piazza:

Face to face pub meet at a pub in central London, Shakespears Head, Africa House, 64-68 Kingsway, Holborn, London WC2B 6BG, starting from 12pm-ish. At some point will will adjourn for a side trip to My Old Dutch, for food.

More information in this thread at The Piazza:
http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewt...p?f=10&t=15705

The time for the side-trip to My Old Dutch is actually 1pm.

I hope to see one or two of you again.

[Archonic Energy]

WAKEY! WAKEY! PEOPLE.

right.
London.
Summer 2016.
second weekend in August (which I make the 13th)

if you want to be there I would more than appreciate the company, as otherwise it'll be me in a pub by myself with a ton of board games.
I'll post a location when I get it sorted but it'll either be local to me or it'll be central london.

build it and they will come.

[The Succubus]

Yeah, I'll tag along and make sure the day is kept free. Been far too long since I spent time amongst friends in person.

[Thufir]

Sorry I didn't get back to you on facebook, but my response would've been - some of it, but early-mid August does have some busyness for me.
And specifically, yeah the 13th falls into my week of all-day rehearsals so I guess I'll have to lose my perfect meetup record.

[Castaras]

I will if I can, but I may not have the money for travelling. Will have to play it by ear, I'll have moved end of June and be searching for work from then onwards.

[Mercenary Pen]

I'll have to check who else at work has booked holiday, but I think that weekend should be doable. I'll let you know either way in the near future.

Edit: Time has been booked off work, you can mark me down as a definite barring major emergencies.

[Archonic Energy]

Scouting for possible locations this weekend.
Any suggestions from other Londoners?

[FinnLassie]

Bad news: Won't be there this year

Worse news: Will be there next year

[Thufir]

Sorry I didn't get back to you on facebook, but my response would've been - some of it, but early-mid August does have some busyness for me.
And specifically, yeah the 13th falls into my week of all-day rehearsals so I guess I'll have to lose my perfect meetup record.

The above has been cancelled. I can now be free that weekend if this is still going ahead?

[Mercenary Pen]

Any progress on a venue?

[Archonic Energy]

right, been having problems locating a venue as i am uncertain how many people will attend (is it going to be 5 or twenty) so...

i've decided to do it at my place. some of you have been here before at a mini meet but others won't know where it is.

If you are coming please contact me so i can tell you where i live.

[The Succubus]

I'm down for this. I vaguely remember where you live but if you could ping me the details again I'd appreciate it. Is it still the 13th August?

[Thufir]

I had been still thinking of coming but was holding off on sorting travel/accommodation until we had a confirmed venue. Now it's two and a half weeks away and I have nothing booked yet so I'm slightly "Aaaaah rushed why I have to make snap decisions."
But assuming I get my brain sorted out I am still thinking of coming. And I also no longer remember where you live.

[Archonic Energy]

I had been still thinking of coming but was holding off on sorting travel/accommodation until we had a confirmed venue. Now it's two and a half weeks away and I have nothing booked yet so I'm slightly "Aaaaah rushed why I have to make snap decisions."
But assuming I get my brain sorted out I am still thinking of coming. And I also no longer remember where you live.

Thu, if you are planning to come down and need somewhere to crash i've got a spare bed here.

[Archonic Energy]

Right... 5 days to go.

anyone needing my location please PM me.
there is limited space for people needing sleeping space but i'll do my best to accommodate anyone who needs it.

food... should i get some burgers/sausages in for a BBQ? (any veggies please post now!)

[The Succubus]

BBQ sounds good - as someone that prefers the veggie option, usually, I can bring some veggie burgers or mushrooms + bits for a veggie alternative with me.

[Mercenary Pen]

BBQ fine by me, any idea what time people are trying to arrive at the station for? Just thinking that if people's arrival times are similar, it saves having multiple pickup times.

[Aedilred]

Whereabouts in London are you, roughly speaking? Having been caught out by recalcitrant public transport last weekend that may decide whether or not I can make it.

[Archonic Energy]

Whereabouts in London are you, roughly speaking? Having been caught out by recalcitrant public transport last weekend that may decide whether or not I can make it.

far east... i'm "technically" in london but..

[Aedilred]

far east... i'm "technically" in london but..

Are you on, or near, the Central (or Jubilee) line, or the DLR?

[The Succubus]

Looking forward to this. Will be there bright and early. ^^

[Archonic Energy]

Are you on, or near, the Central (or Jubilee) line, or the DLR?

near but not on both the District & Jubilee.

you'll be better off changing onto the C2C line from West ham Station

[Mercenary Pen]

With regards to games, I will be carrying the following:
Braggart
Zombie Dice
Castle Panic (with expansions)
Tsuro of the sea
Fluxx
Sellswords
Portal (the uncooperative cake acquisition game)

I would be packing Munchkin as well, but I assume there's going to be somebody who has that with them already (please let me know if that is not the case)

[Aedilred]

After some investigation, I have determined that once again TFL and Southern have, in their infinite wisdom, shut down all the trains from my part of town to everywhere else, and as such getting out to Archonic's place would be a nightmare. Having undergone something similar last weekend and not wishing to repeat the experience, it is unlikely I'll be coming tomorrow. Hope you all have a good time regardless (inasmuch as that's possible without me there)!