Helsinki Hacker News Meetup

[OP] calpaterson | 20 days ago

We've been organising this for a while (a year? more?). It's quite relaxed - just a coffee morning every month or two.

I'm sure there are other HN local meetups who could post in this thread - please do if you have a local meetup

svlasov | 20 days ago

Too bad this requires using WhatsUp.

olegp | 20 days ago

WhatsApp isn't really required. If you submit the form, we will email about about the date and location of the next event.

rrr_oh_man | 20 days ago

Excellent initiative, Cal! Thanks for organising

weli | 20 days ago

Please! Would love HN meetup in Berlin.

bossyTeacher | 20 days ago

Make it happen, don't wait for someone else to do the work on your behalf :)

earthnail | 20 days ago

+1 for Berlin. Moving there in two weeks. Pls email me; my email is in my profile (your profile doesn’t show an email at the time of writing).

Towaway69 | 20 days ago

Just sent out an email thread to those that have emails in Berlin!

kamyarg | 20 days ago

Interested in Berlin also. Happy to help co-organize also. Email in profile.

Towaway69 | 20 days ago

I've put my email in my profile, if you want to join the email thread, then send me an email :+1:

If anyone else wants to join the email thread for a Berlin HN meetup, ping me an email - no google nor whatsapp required ;)

techsystems | 20 days ago

Anyone Eindhoven?

skrebbel | 20 days ago

I’d be interested! My email is in my HN profile, let’s set something up!

Like, worst case scenario we just start with the two of us.

suslik | 20 days ago

Would love to join something like this in Brussels

enricozb | 20 days ago

Replying in case anyone is in Amsterdam :)

artisinal | 20 days ago

Would love to organise a meet in Ineleț

soderfoo | 20 days ago

Nice. Does anyone know if a Stockholm group exists?

JackDanMeier | 20 days ago

Not as far as I know. We can surely start one tho. I wouldn't mind just setting a spot and time, and then those who can just show or don't.

I can make a post about it promoting it.

walagran | 20 days ago

HN Fika! Lmk if you set it up

mingusrude | 20 days ago

I'd be interested too.

jdw64 | 20 days ago

Ah, if only I were from Helsinki, I would have signed up.

xxs | 20 days ago

Tallinn - then take ferry

rrr_oh_man | 20 days ago

That is amazing. Back in Helsinki soon. <3

Archit3ch | 20 days ago

Same!

slerb | 20 days ago

I'd love to join, sadly I'm mainly lurking around here so I don't have the required karma.

notpushkin | 20 days ago

Tell a bit more about yourself and maybe somebody would invite you as a +1?

block_dagger | 20 days ago

64 karma requirement? Pfft. I’d go to a 1k min karma meetup tho ;)

ifdefdebug | 20 days ago

You mean 1024 right?

Metacelsus | 20 days ago

relevant: https://xkcd.com/1000/

voxelghost | 20 days ago

You mean 1337 right? You are almost there, just need 20 more.

xxs | 20 days ago

sounds about right, people with 64 with just drink the (supposedly) free beer and not talk until much later.

Retr0id | 20 days ago

1k? pfft, I'd go to a 10k karma meetup

valvar | 20 days ago

Personally, I’d only meet with those in the triple digits of karma.

rrr_oh_man | 20 days ago

I refuse to join any meetup where some like me meets the karma requirements.

icy | 20 days ago

Thanks for reminding me to attend this. I'll try to join the next one!

Arshad-Talpur | 20 days ago

Is there any meetup in Paris?

toivo | 20 days ago

Would be interesting to join but have to get bit more karma :)

olegp | 20 days ago

We're not too strict about that, please join!

darkwater | 20 days ago

I think you will have enough after your message ;)

eric_khun | 20 days ago

let me help

patricjansson | 20 days ago

Mission accomplished Toivo karma: 84

ramon156 | 20 days ago

Any Meetups in NL? Im far from the Randstad, would've loved to host one otherwise

tosti | 20 days ago

I'd rather not go there. Too crowded, too busy, too much violence. I wouldn't mind a city, though. Is Zwolle an option?

Edit: just saw your profile, sorry never mind ^^'

ht_th | 20 days ago

I just moved to Kampen, so if you can get a Zwolle thing going, I'm game

TrueGeek | 20 days ago

If you're near the Maastricht / Aachen area:

https://www.meetup.com/euregiotechmeetup/

techsystems | 20 days ago

Eindhoven?

notpushkin | 20 days ago

This is very cool. I’ve lived in Tallinn for a while so definitely would attend if it was ~5-ish years ago.

king_crimson | 20 days ago

Anyone who’d be interested in a meetup in Cologne?

olegp | 20 days ago

There was one 14 years ago. I even gave a talk there once. Maybe some of the original organizers or attendees who commented on this post would be interested in rebooting it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4754269

DomB | 20 days ago

+1

king_crimson | 20 days ago

Feel free to contact me via the mail in my bio (also in german)

gpugreg | 20 days ago

Sure! But where?

king_crimson | 20 days ago

Wherever, can be also in a Brauhaus :) Updated my bio with an email, feel free to contact me (also in german)

yitchelle | 20 days ago

I am in if it one is running. email in bio if you want to reach out to coordinate.

asimpletune | 20 days ago

Would anyone be interested in meeting up in Rome? My contact's on my profile and I'm happy to organize.

zedr | 20 days ago

Perhaps we could host it jointly in Milan and Rome?

jrflowers | 20 days ago

> To keep the group focused on posters (and not just readers!) anyone can join so long as:

> they have a non-greenname account

> they have 64 karma or more

Is the karma checked at the door or is it at the time of submission? Seems like somebody could be at 12 and then post “actually I believe the general consensus on gravity is wrong” in the right thread the night before and roll in with 89 points

earthnail | 20 days ago

Then they made a proper effort to get there. Fair game IMHO.

knuckleheads | 20 days ago

Long shot, but if there is anybody reading this from Salzburg, lmk if you want to meet up!

BonerWiener | 20 days ago

> We use a WhatsApp group for co-ordination

I would've gladly joined if you hadn't decided on a service owned by Meta...

icy | 20 days ago

It initially begun as an email thread, but we settled on WhatsApp owing to, well, most people having WhatsApp.

mr_mitm | 20 days ago

Surely e-mail is even more widely used?

theshrike79 | 20 days ago

Dunno if it's a generational thing or what, but I check my email like maybe once a day sometimes I can go 2-3 days without looking at it. It's just a place where Stuff gathers and I go through it when I Get around to it. Can't even remember when I used email to actually communicate with a non-business entity outside of work.

WhatsApp messages I get immediately.

e12e | 20 days ago

Surely checking once every three days is frequent enough to see an invite for a meetup that happens once every eight to ten weeks?

RicoElectrico | 20 days ago

I am not from the area but the deliberations about which messaging platform is kosher are an enormous time waste for every bottom-up organization, especially FOSS projects or hacker spaces.

Hamuko | 20 days ago

As a Finn, I've definitely had to say the phrase "No, I don't have WhatsApp" more times than I care to count. That being said, I imagine a FOSS project or hacker space to be more cognisant of WhatsApp's ownership than a car dealership trying to sell me a used car via video call. I got rid of my WhatsApp precisely because Meta started tweaking the terms of service.

[OP] calpaterson | 20 days ago

There is a conscientious objector to every communication system. As was said above: WhatsApp had the fewest.

teddyh | 20 days ago

There are a few people who don’t use e-mail, sure, like Donald Knuth. But conscientious objectors to e-mail? I don’t know of any, and if you find any, they probably don’t use the Internet, either.

Melatonic | 20 days ago

There is also Böbbi Tables from Trollhein

opan | 20 days ago

Interesting you think it's less important for "FOSS projects". I would think the chat should be free software especially in those circles. IRC, XMPP, Matrix, email. Lots of options that have been around for decades now.

izacus | 20 days ago

They'll enjoy their time without you just fine.

tamimio | 20 days ago

My thoughts exactly, but I noticed Europe is heavily dependent on WhatsApp for some reason, everyone I have ever talked to before they ask for WhatsApp and some even look shocked when you say you never use it! Instead of email, simpleX or element would do the job.

trilogic | 20 days ago

It was interesting until I saw:

>To join, fill out the Google Form.

Bro gtfoh

opan | 20 days ago

What would you suggest instead for others hosting events like this?

sqbic | 20 days ago

Nice one! As a seasoned industry veteran, I've been wanting to have something like this, and while there are many evening tech meetups going on around here, your schedule is much more suitable for the otherwise busy life! *starts karma mining to qualify*

Filled the form and included my email with the HN user ID just in case you'd be willing to deliver the meeting details that way when they've been decided.

The phone number is not associated with WhatsApp (never had it, and won't), but it works with Signal in case it would be more viable option for meetup info comms than email. Who knows, perhaps even a shadow group already exists there, or has potential to get established?

Thank you for arranging such gatherings, hoping to meet up soon!

stevekemp | 20 days ago

I guess it's the luck of the draw, but unfortunately Sunday's are no good for me. The curse of parenting :)

But it's still a great idea, and I wish you all happy meetups. Would be nice if this inspired other groups to form too.

[OP] calpaterson | 20 days ago

We also meet in the evenings sometimes, so I would join now and figure it out later.

punnerud | 20 days ago

What a great idea! Anyone that want to join up in Oslo / Norway?

I can use the work office, have more then enough coffee, tea etc. with space to around 150 people.

https://forms.gle/2pDEkQTYihQ4txK29

(Copy pasted the form. Why change a winning team)

e12e | 20 days ago

Unfortunately it's a little far to go for coffee from Tromsø.

getpokedagain | 20 days ago

Anyone north east pa USA?

nabeards | 20 days ago

As in North East, PA, the town in Erie County?

getpokedagain | 20 days ago

Nah. Other side of the state :D

nabeards | 20 days ago

Ah, bummer haha

wissio | 20 days ago

Ironically, a karma threshold will rule out most Finns

shrubby | 20 days ago

Damn right:D

ionwake | 20 days ago

theres def atleast one OG guy id love to buy a coffee/beer for there, no idea if he goes to HN meets tho, would love to attend at when Im next over there in any case.

huksley | 20 days ago

Very cool, excited to join as well - lets talk there is opportunity to have a space for this up to 20-30 ppl

dlojudice | 20 days ago

great idea! pls, hnmeetup.com/[place] anyone?

notpushkin | 20 days ago

https://meet.hn/ is tangential but not quite for meetups, just discovering who lives nearby. Could be a good starting point though!

71153750 | 20 days ago

I’m a student at Hive here in Helsinki and would love to attend. Lurking on HN for years but not nearly enough Karma. I’ve bookmarked the form for later however I’ll try my luck anyway with the form now. Very cool to know there is an HN meet up here!

[OP] calpaterson | 20 days ago

You were added :) See you in person

71153750 | 20 days ago

Thank you HN for the karma on the above comment, I've since kindly been added to the group. No more helpful get 71153750 into the meetup karma needed. I will endeavour to comment more and post to earn it!

qifzer | 20 days ago

Hacker News London meets up on a semi-regular basis. They have recently moved from Meetup to Luma:

https://luma.com/calendar/cal-plFkEeW4fsaL5Nx

tommica | 20 days ago

Man, if I still lived in Finland, I'd absolutely want to go! Seems like a fantastic idea!

Hugsbox | 20 days ago

Makes me wonder if there's any meetups in my neck of the woods in good ole Nova Scotia. I kind of doubt it, but it would be wicked. Hope you guys have a great time!

matheusmoreira | 20 days ago

Is there a list of these by country?

[OP] calpaterson | 20 days ago

There is https://meet.hn/, which is a good way to bootstrap (and indeed, how I bootstrapped this meetup)

matheusmoreira | 20 days ago

Hey I'm already on the site! Used to have the link with my city on my profile.

How does one bootstrap a meet from this? Just explore the map around my location and try to get in contact with people somehow?

[OP] calpaterson | 20 days ago

You pray that people either have their contact details in their HN profile or that they attached some social networks to their meet.hn post.

Then you trawl through your set of qualified leads :)

mchinen | 20 days ago

Any interest in a Lisbon meetup?

mchinen | 20 days ago

I'd love tips for maintaining a good meetup.

I tend to like the smaller meetups that are focused. But they often degrade in quality as they scale. A failure mode I hit several times was group circles with a louder or opinionated person eventually entering and taking the focus of the group. For large meetups that's not an issue I suppose. Break-out groups did work, but it needs some planning.

olegp | 20 days ago

This might be useful: https://www.techtrib.es/guide

hnacobsxph | 20 days ago

This is what I keep telling people

melvinroest | 20 days ago

Anyone want to organize one in Amsterdam with me? I live near the area, would be fun :)

deanc | 20 days ago

Hi. Long-term HN user based in Helsinki. I'd join but don't really want to share my phone number with a large group of people. Can you not find another way to co-ordinate?

Hamuko | 20 days ago

Doesn't WhatsApp have usernames these days?

deanc | 20 days ago

I believe in a group chat you can see everyone's phone number.

Melatonic | 20 days ago

They're rolling out a new feature I believe to allow username only

asimovDev | 20 days ago

There should be an email sent out whenever a meet is organized. WhatsApp group is mostly for choosing the most suitable date and a place , it’s not mandatory for participation

stronglikedan | 20 days ago

You don't have a throwaway Google Voice number? I use one for dating apps. Very convenient and worry free.

deanc | 20 days ago

This is a conversation about a HN meetup in Europe. Google voice is not available on the free tier to Europeans. It requires google workspace.

embedding-shape | 20 days ago

Someone correct me if I'm wrong (I've never used it myself), but Google Voice doesn't seem to be available in Finland at all so probably not?

> Google Voice is a telephone service that provides a U.S. telephone number to Google Account customers in the U.S. and Google Workspace customers in Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the contiguous United States.

Not sure what I'm supposed to do with a US phone number anyway, I'd probably be more embarrassed about using a US phone number then letting people in a HN meetup group see my real phone number.

stevekemp | 20 days ago

Things might change in the future, it seems that WhatsApp is gonna start offering usernames, I saw the notice on my app a few weeks back.

That would allow using it with strangers, without sharing a number, in the future.

mixnix | 20 days ago

Is there one for Warsaw?

VCFundedGenYer | 20 days ago

Not going, but just adding commentary - Having a karma requirement for a physical meetup is a poor choice. People will come out physically if they truly care, gatekeeping it with internet points is a bad idea, especially if you turn people away.

[OP] calpaterson | 20 days ago

Having it be an open invitation meetup would attract a very different cohort and would have a very different character. Feel free to start that meetup - I might give it a try. But I wouldn't be interested in spending my personal time organising it

Maxion | 20 days ago

Specifically only interested in this because of the karma limit.

nxtbl | 20 days ago

> We use a WhatsApp group for co-ordination. The time and location of the meetup is announced there.

That's a hard no. You really, really should use Signal instead.

outime | 20 days ago

I suppose organizers choose the easiest way to contact people rather than relying on one of the least-used messaging apps that people won't install just to attend a meetup.

Edit: It doesn't even seem to be strictly required https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49181030

nxtbl | 20 days ago

They could easily use both, if necessary.

Or link them and more via a Matrix server - but that would require a bit more work to do.

amberjack | 20 days ago

I live in Helsinki so this seems fun. Commenters everywhere are a pretty strongly (self-)selected bunch so seems like a good way to get a strong selection effect without arduous requirements. Does anyone have previous experience with this kind of a setup?

Melatonic | 20 days ago

I see a bunch of people interested in Los Angeles on https://meet.hn/

excalibur | 20 days ago

Imagine hosting a meetup in Chicago and getting raided by ICE

joshdavham | 20 days ago

Any meetups in Vancouver, Canada?

tamimio | 20 days ago

Or Ontario?

workfromspace | 20 days ago

Do we have enough people in Tallinn, Estonia to organize one here as well? :)

ValentineC | 20 days ago

Anyone interested in a meetup in Singapore?

kekqqq | 20 days ago

Anyone from Prague who would like to meet other active HN users?

healthDev | 20 days ago

Idga game dev events are cool, but this could be more coding focused so definetly interested lacking points, but sent the form anyways

xtracto | 20 days ago

Great! I just spent the past 4 days in Helsinki for vacation (writing this from Silja ferry to Copenhage). Really lovely city , Allas pool Sauna is really a "something else" experience for a Mexican, and a friend of mine who lives there mentioned the vibrant startup community you guys have there. I read a bit more about it and visited Oodi library, which apparently has some great perks for startupers.

Im envious of the startup atmosphere you got there, particularly the more "socialized" less cutthroat d*k waving sense of it .