Hi all!
Just thinking if the Yii community is already big enough to give user groups a try? I would like to call people around munich to meet, have a few beers and a good chat 
Just get to know each other.
But posting it in this forum may not be visible enough to reach all persons in question. It could be nice to give a new forum for "local user groups" a chance.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Hein
This is a good idea from a Yii marketing standpoint because it allows groups of people to gather to discuss Yii tips and tricks and possible local events such as programming contests. For larger User Groups like the Boston Computer Society or Silicon Valley Computer Society, it creates the groundwork for forming Yii Special Interest Groups. From a user standpoint, it’s a chance to meet some friends who might offer helpful advice when trying to solve problems. From an employer standpoint, it might allow them to find local developers to work on site.
Too far to Boston or Munich 
South Africa!
I personally think it’s too soon for those type of things.
Bump!
@Vince… not if a forum category was added for special interest groups, allowing group formation announcements and meeting dates. Groups often start off with a few individuals who take turns meeting at personal residences until they sprout wings and find meeting places. Qiang/Wei/devteam have nothing to lose and can only gain from such third-party support and involvement.
A group does not have to be a stand-alone entity. A group could be a special interest gathering within a larger umbrella organization like the Boston Computer Society, Silicon Valley Computer Society, Los Angeles Computer society, etc. that provide local support for chapters as well as satellite groups in distant metro areas. I would guess that there are already small groups in existence under such umbrella organizations. Umbrella groups can also sometimes provide support for using meeting halls with audio-visual-multimedia assets. Some commercial companies like Hewlett Packard sometimes allow user groups to take advantage of unused auditorium times within their various campuses and business sites.
Special interest groups are very useful if someone is working on or planning a large project and is looking for general programmers or specialists within their local areas.
Personally, I would like to see a similar category opened for those seeking help with development-related commercial and volunteer services such as translations (e.i., from an service announcement only point of view to avoid spammers). Posting rules need to exist of course. I need translators and interpreters all the time and its sometimes hard to find them with the right credentials (individuals or companies with software-related technical expertise as well as translation expertise). Here, those who offer services can provide references to other members of this forum. The same arguments exists for Yii developers.
It would be even better if a Third-Party Support board (major category) was established here where some of the above ideas could be exploited further. I personally don’t have a problem with helping with moderation of those forums.
Is 800km still considered “around” ? . I always wanted to visit Munich.
IMO there would be too much forum categories if we would open them for every possible group…
For this kind of meetups it’s better to use some dedicated sites like this one - http://www.eventbrite.com/
I fully support this initiative. Actually Yii people are already having beer parties in Ukraine and Russia from time to time:
mdomba
What about creating a single category for all groups?
I don’t have anything against using the forum for this… but if you think about it from the organizational standpoint you will see that it has it’s drawbacks… that’s why IMO it’s better to use tools for that…
One category for all groups is OK, but then one thread for one group or one thread for one meetup… anyway there are drawbacks…
One thread for one group: if there is one thread for one group… and that group is currently on the 5th meetup… on which thread page will that be… how would someone organizing the event take count of the many "count me in" posts… or someone new that wants to participate for the first time "know" which posts are for which meetup…
One thread for one meetup: how to sort all meetups of one group only or how to find the posts from the previous meetup (assuming there will be many different groups worldwide)…
For example in my country there is a PHP group that makes regular meetups… they use a facebook page for discussion about the next meetup (and more) - https://www.facebook…09975399119270/ and the eventbrite for users to acknowledge they will come to the meetup - http://zgphp.eventbrite.com/
Tools are good for announcing events but aren’t so good if you don’t have an event put together yet. So using something like eventbrite.com is OK but there should be a place for discussions as well.
‘Miscellaneous’ doesn’t fit?
In my experience, more forum categories really doesn’t help anything.
There seem to be too many already, IMO.
But a user groups portal, as a separate site, would probably be a good idea.
Where people can post announcements, mini-blogs, image galleries and discussions.
The project itself could be an open project, like Yii Playground, but entirely practical.
Yep, that would be even better.