Wikipedia talk:Meetup/DC 2

Location

Sure Union Station is convenient, but I recommend picking some place other than that.

I would recommend RFD Washington (http://www.lovethebeer.com/rfd.html), located in Chinatown, very close to the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro station. This place is run by the same owners of the Brickskeller at Dupont Circle. If the weather is nice, RFD has a courtyard.
Another good option would be Matchbox (http://www.matchboxdc.com/) - awesome pizza place, also located very close to Gallery Place/Chinatown metro.
Afterwords Cafe (at Kramerbooks) http://www.kramers.com/- located at Dupont Circle, very close to the Metro, is a fun place to hang out.
Pizza Paradiso (http://www.eatyourpizza.com/) - in Georgetown, is a super awesome pizza place and place to hang out, though it's more of a walk from the nearest metro or accessible via shuttle bus from metro.

Afterwords might be a bit on the crowded side, depending on the number of attendees. Also IIRC there is a Paradiso near Dupont Circle. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 13:12, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tryst Coffeehouse and Bar (http://www.trystdc.com/) - in Adams Morgan, very fun place to hang out, though not located directly on Metro.

Also, why was I not notified about this? I saw the notice on Wikipedia_talk:Meetup/NYC about the "GeoNotice", which I'm not seeing. I'm in the appropriate category, so it might be easier for someone to find me that way and put a notice on my talk page. --Aude (talk) 14:53, 14 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Greetings. I agree Union Station isn't optimal. Although it's easily found, and should be able to cope with an uncertan turnout, it really stinks when you are expecting nine at a small coffee shop and twenty-five show.

Expirence from wiki meetups in a dozen other places indicates that one of the biggest mistakes they make is failing to set the date/time/location before asking people to come, and the details get deliberated on the wiki until the day before the event, and the result is that few feel like they can commit to coming. Reality is that once you have more than five or so people there is no one location and time which will be best for everyone. I think it's better to just set something acceptable, see who shows, then do it better next time.

Since a bunch of people have already seen this we probably shouldn't move it. Instead, lets start talking about where and when to hold the *next* one now.

As far as the notices go, I only got the geonotice working at about 1am last night. It won't work for everyone, but it will work for many people who haven't thought to list themselves in "Category:Wikipedians in the District of Columbia". I'm planning on talk page messaging the people in that category shortly. --Gmaxwell 16:00, 14 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that Union Station is not the world's greatest place to have a wikimeetup, BUT... we can always meet there and then go somewhere else. After all, Metro's right there. I kind of like the idea of somewhere around Dupont Circle, as Dupont Circle is just so much more fun than Union Station. In fact, if people are into Middle Eastern food, we might want to swing over to Skewers near Dupont. SchuminWeb (Talk) 16:25, 14 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That's why I'm speaking up now. Chinatown is two metro stops from Union Station, and is a MUCH better spot for this sort of thing. This first 2-3 places I suggested would be most accessible to metro. I'm by all of those places on a regular basis, and would be more than willing to make reservations at any of the places and let them know. --Aude (talk) 17:02, 14 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sure but the first isn't good for minors though would be great for people to migrate to after the meetup, and what would we do Matchbox if many more people than expected show up? :) --Gmaxwell 17:06, 14 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I can stop by both places on Monday. They are right around the corner from each other. I would recommend RFD over Matchbox, on handling the people. It's no problem for minors and children to come to RFD, since it's a regular restaurant. Though, Matchbox has better food. --Aude (talk) 17:10, 14 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

One comment: I hate RFD as a group venue... the local CopyNight group meets there, and the music and conversation is so loud that I can never hear anyone sitting more than 2 seats from me. (Unless we go out to the beer garden, are lucky enough to get the whole thing to ourselves, totally rearrange the tables, and, um, "fix" the speakers.) Also, I get the impression that the food is just so you don't have to sample the beer on an empty stomach. It wouldn't stop me from going—I still go to CopyNight :-P—but I'd really rather not go there. Kat Walsh (spill your mind?) 21:04, 18 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'd really rather not go to Union Station, but the people coming help make up for it so I'll probably go anyway -- at least this time (I'm thinking about it). Surely, we can do better next time. There are so many other options in the city. I'm at RFD often and have no problem with the noise, though Saturday nights will be louder there and any place. The staff is always helpful in meeting needs when I make reservations and go with groups there. Most other places, the staff would be helpful so long as you give them enough notice, and preferably pick some time other than Saturday night to meet. --Aude (talk) 21:27, 18 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Dress

What is the usual manner of dress for these events? SchuminWeb (Talk) 02:19, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think dress totally depends on the venue. Whatever you would wear to Uno Chicago Grill or any other such place on a warm July day is fine. --Aude (talk) 02:50, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Matchbox is nicer than Uno Chicago Grill, but casual would be absolutely okay there too. Casual definitely okay for any of my other suggestions. :) I'm still available to go ask Matchbox and/or RFD if they can accommodate us, if others are interested. Otherwise, Union Station is okay. Whatever place we pick, we definitely need to make reservations ahead of time. --Aude (talk) 02:55, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Lead time

For future reference, a little more advance notice would have been helpful. Speaking for myself, if I'd known about this a week earlier I could say for certain that I'd be able to attend. Not a big deal if we are planning to have these in D.C. more often. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 13:18, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, more notice = good. I hope we'll do more of these in a future and of course we'll improve all these things when we do. The date would have been set further out this time, but any further out and both Kat Walsh and Mike Godwin (and possibly others) wouldn't be able to attend because they'll be in Taipei for Wikimania, and and NYC meetup happens right after they get back. I figured that we'd get better attendance if we gave people a chance to meet a them... and that missing some people due to short notice would be just another excuse to have another meetup later. ;)

How much time do people want? ... we have enough people interested that no one time is going to work for everyone, so I don't see any benefit to not setting the date and time a while in advance. However, if we send out notices too far in advance people will forget by the time the event happens.--Gmaxwell 18:58, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I would say a month's lead time would be appropriate. SchuminWeb (Talk) 20:42, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Geonotice

I won't actually arrive in Baltimore until the 22nd, but would be interested in knowing more about these things. By the way, how did the system know to flag my page as someone who might want to attend? --Wspencer11 (talk to me...) 14:55, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
- I'm assuming you saw the notice on Special:Watchlist. The system can guess at your location based on your IP address. It's not super accurate, but it's better than showing the message to folks in china. This is a new thing we're trying out, the DC meetup is actually the first use of it. I've written some about the feature at Wikipedia:Geonotice. --Gmaxwell 15:02, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  - Uh, Gmaxwell, did you notice that you're pointing to a non-existent page? I'd like to read about this, given its apparent potential for circumventing Wikimedia's strict privacy rules about connecting usernames with IP addresses except in severely limited circumstances. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 15:18, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    - Darn muscle memory, I typed the wrong link.. it's fixed now. I seems you misunderstand: nothing is disclosed with the watchlist notice that I'm talking about. Separately, I talk page pinged a bunch of people based on categories they put on their userpages. No connection between usernames and IPs has been made in either case.
    - The watchlist geonotice is just displayed conditionally in exactly the same manner that your IP is displayed by the site after you edit while logged out. No data is collected, stored, or handed out to a third party due to the notice so there isn't any interaction with the privacy policy, and there couldn't be unless the privacy policy were changed to say something strange like "we won't tell you your own IP". The site itself always knows your IP address and must in order to work what the privacy policy limits is how we disclose that information to others. --Gmaxwell 15:27, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Pictures?

Anyone have pictures from the meetup? Mine didn't come out all too well. --Core desat 22:36, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I took a bunch, but I'm hunting down a mini usb cable to transfer them.⇒ SWATJester ^{Denny Crane.} 06:12, 25 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Here's one of the three that I took. As you can see, we were a spirited bunch. SchuminWeb (Talk) 10:07, 25 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've been out of town. I'll get some pictures up tonight. --Gmaxwell 19:07, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

My pictures

Taken from my iPhone so excuse the quality. ⇒ SWATJester ^{Denny Crane.} 21:34, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Still have the pictures I took on my Canon to upload, those will be much better quality. ⇒ SWATJester ^{Denny Crane.} 21:35, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, good pictures. Makes me want an iPhone. :) --Aude (talk) 21:38, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Nice pictures. :D --Core desat 03:35, 28 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]