Meetup.com in Australia

Pisco Sour

Has anybody used this website for meeting new people? What are people's experiences with it?

I have some good friends here in Melbourne now, but my circle of friends is still very small and would love to widen it a lot. I've flicked through this site and it looks decent, but a lot of the groups seem to be "all ages welcome" type thing. Obviously I don't want to sound snobby or anything, but being in my mid 20's I'd rather meet young people (20's to early 30's) who are up for a bit of a laugh, rather than 50 year olds.

What are people's thoughts on this website, or is there a better way to meet new people? I've found the local people hard to get to know properly, and only have 1 or 2 Aussie friends.

Doc

I’ve never used that website but I was in the lucky situation coming over that I had one really close Australian friend who I had previously lived with in England who showed me around and introduced me to their friends. She knew I didn’t know anyone over here so always invited me along to everything and eventually I became good friends with the whole group of her friends and made friends with some of their friends too. Now most of the people I know here are Australian.

You say that you have one or two Australian friends, are they good enough friends that you could say to them that you don’t feel like you know enough people over here and would they mind introducing you to some more of their friends?

I know it’s a difficult thing to do but you have to be proactive with getting to know people over here and once you meet people you think you might like ring them up regularly and invite them to things and soon they will be doing the same for you.

Sports teams are always a great way of meeting people and even if your not that sporty there are always lower level compactions that you can join.

I have made some really good friends who I still hang out with all the time by putting my name down as a single player looking for a team for touch rugby a couple of years ago.

Pisco Sour

Doc wrote: »

You say that you have one or two Australian friends, are they good enough friends that you could say to them that you don’t feel like you know enough people over here and would they mind introducing you to some more of their friends?

Well one of them I met when travelling South America, but sadly he has moved back to Canberra recently for a new job, and is only back in Melbourne the odd time. The other is one of my housemates from before I went travelling the West Coast and my 3 months regional work. He'd just moved down from Newcastle and didnt know many either. But once his girlfriend moved down from Newcastle a couple of months later we didn't drink together at all really, and to be honest I'm not particularly fond of her either, so have lost touch with him a little.

The rest of the Aussies I know over here are just aquaintances.

Doc wrote: »

Sports teams are always a great way of meeting people and even if your not that sporty there are always lower level compactions that you can join.

Yeh I'm involved in athletics and joined a club and compete regularly. Problem is, like meetup seems to be, the club has people from all ages, from 12 up to 70, so there are not that many my age, and those that are you dont tend to see around at the track very often.

I've been a bit disappointed by some of the locals to be honest. When I moved into my 2nd house in Melbourne, I had been in the city over 3 months and at that stage didnt know many people at all. 2 of my housemates were a couple from Melbourne, and I was giving hints that I would like to get to know more people. They simply never bothered to make the effort to bring me out and introduce me to their mates, and just got on with their own lives. Honestly, if somebody from abroad moved into a place I lived I would go to great lengths to introduce him/her to people, as I have done in the past, when My American cousin moved over to Dublin and knew absolutely nobody. Now all my friends back home are her friends.

I guess not everybody is friendly though, and just like to get on with their own lives and not bothered about meeting new people.

We have a good core group of people that we have built up over the last 7-8 months now, but gradually people are dropping like flies, and a fair few have left Melbourne now,, which sucks. It's that sort of thing that has made me realise I have to meet much more people.

jank

Welcome to Australia.... people you get to know and become very good friends with will usually after a while pick up and leave for another city/country. The big cities are fairly transient places.

Pisco Sour

jank wrote: »

Welcome to Australia.... people you get to know and become very good friends with will usually after a while pick up and leave for another city/country. The big cities are fairly transient places.

Yep, you are completely correct there.

joaneire

Myself and my boyfriend are in Sydney and experiencing the same thing...not here in Oz that long, and we're fairly transient ourselves for the first few weeks but now that we've settled, we're wondering how to go about meeting people! I don't want to be out drinking every weekend because I have a fear of the paddy trap...! Initially I thought a house share would be good, as I've made friends through that forum before, but where we have moved into has a live-in landlady (she's subletting) who's Vietnamese and like 7 years older than me, very career-driven, and while she's very friendly, we don't seem to have much in common! I imagine it's going to be a tough slog but it has to be done! Just need to seek out the people who won't up and leave us in the trenches!

Shazforgrub

I'm here a month now and its been very slow meeting people, I got lucky in that I'm in a share house with 2 dead sound ppl, but I still don't have anywhere near the same size network as I was used to at home. I moved over to a small town 2 hrs below sydney and was wondering did I make a mistake in not moving to one of the bigger cities where I would know more people, but people are very friendly here, and I guess its like a previous poster said you have to be proactive. One of my house mates is big into mountain biking and I bought a bike and went out cycling with her a few times, and have met a few cool people through that. If you can get into any activity like that it is always a great way to meet new people, and even if you don't end up meeting anyone worthwhile it still gives you something to do!!

mel123

No experience with that website, used and still use for my travels travbuddy.com I highly recommend it

seanie_k

I played soccer with a crowd off the meetup site a couple of times. Normal enough bunch, fairly young crowd. Sure there is no harm in giving it a crack, there are loads of different types of groups on there.