I feel like this needs to be said, and I’ll say it here. I don’t believe the statement to be entirely true: “In software, there aren’t a lot of tools that are allowed to get old”
What the author might may be claiming is that old tools don’t get the spotlight as much as new tools. That seems to ring a bit more true in my ear.
The HTMX part and discussion of the Islands architecture is funny, because it reminds how Facebook originally positioned React.
People who use React will know that React expects you to tell it what component to mount your root component to; these days, that means the Application component, as most React projects are SPAs. But React was developed at Facebook specifically for this Islands type approach; you didn’t have a whole application built from React. Instead, you would have a largely static page, often with specific elements that already had static/light JS implementations.
You could build specific interactive components in React, mount them to static elements of the DOM you wanted to progressively enhance, and the rest of the page was still static. You can probably figure out why this was desirable; in 2013, the desktop Facebook experience was still largely driven by a server-side rendered PHP application; this progressive enhancement model allowed them to enhance the existing application gradually (or strangle it, if you prefer) without doing a stop-the-world rewrite.
One thing I don’t dig into much in the article is how these big tools like React are the product of larger projects and feel sort of like they make more sense in bigger scale applications. I’m excited to see people explore islands in more detail and I’m hopeful that they’ll fit into a nice middle ground between hardcore SPA and CRUD site with JS sprinkles.
I organise a couple events here in Toronto and this is definitely something I’ll make use of. Nice Job!
On the flip side, I’d also love to see a list of sponsors looking for events.
One suggestion I have here is to maybe make it a tad easier to upload events. If I could just hit a button to load it in from meetup, I’d be much more likely to make a habit out of posting events on the site.
Hey now, everyone loves pizza! It’s versatile, readily available, easily eaten without utensils, and can serve most niches for people with dietary requirements or taste preferences. (Beer, on the other hand…)
I do even agree with your points! Pizza is the easiest food to quickly get on short notice with a wide variety of variants. This is not a “I hate pizza and you should feel bad for ever serving it”.
But everyone loves pizza until all you serve is pizza. You’d be surprised how much positive response you get when you finally run something with other food.
Also, with caterers taking note of meetups as a target, other food gets close to pizza when it comes to convenience and price. Usually, they serve a rolling menu where you can only pick what’s available at that night.
Oh, totally agreed that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. More variety would be nice - at least pizza places offer non-pizza things if that’s your only option.
Hmm what are some other things that you would like to server in place of pizza? Other dishes such as pasta/salads? (I can’t think of a good replacement)
For larger things, curry/rice is a great alternative that can easily cover many food styles. Bagels are also awesome.
For smaller meetups, any buffet can be made affordable or even be prepared yourself with a short trip to the supermarket and 15 minutes of cutting and slicing.
If you have enough money, any city has a lot of small scale caterers, though they tend to cost a little more then pizza. (Not much, but it may be prohibitive) At least in Germany, getting some food from the restaurant around the corner is usually possible, even if they don’t officially cater. If they are close, they might even bring stuff up to your offer and lend you plates. This definitely becomes easier if you are always at the same location.
My rule of thumb: go to a local sports club, see what they do ;).
I’ve gotten some feedback on some of the events I run that having non-pizza options was definitely a thing. I started running one event out of the venue space in a bar, and that’s worked quite well. Lots of food/beverage options there.
Yep. There’s lots of way to solve it. I want meetup organisers to be creative. (also, I want meetup organisers not to spend too much time, it may become exhausting)
In my previous company (which just raised money) we had trouble to find other “sponsors”, so we tried not to put the usual pizza and beer stuff. The result is that less people came because they had to come back late at home without eating and going to the restaurant for a meetup was too expensive.
We finally setup for the pizza and very few beers, but it felt like people preferred the catering than the talks…
BRB, registering the “John Carmack Meetup”, where everyone is John Carmack.
It isn’t as much about health. Eating Pizza once a month is fine and if you visit meetups so often that their choice of meal becomes a health issue, you should probably reconsider your meetup habit before your food habit.
I feel like this needs to be said, and I’ll say it here. I don’t believe the statement to be entirely true: “In software, there aren’t a lot of tools that are allowed to get old”
What the author might may be claiming is that old tools don’t get the spotlight as much as new tools. That seems to ring a bit more true in my ear.
Totally hear you!
The HTMX part and discussion of the Islands architecture is funny, because it reminds how Facebook originally positioned React.
People who use React will know that React expects you to tell it what component to mount your root component to; these days, that means the Application component, as most React projects are SPAs. But React was developed at Facebook specifically for this Islands type approach; you didn’t have a whole application built from React. Instead, you would have a largely static page, often with specific elements that already had static/light JS implementations.
You could build specific interactive components in React, mount them to static elements of the DOM you wanted to progressively enhance, and the rest of the page was still static. You can probably figure out why this was desirable; in 2013, the desktop Facebook experience was still largely driven by a server-side rendered PHP application; this progressive enhancement model allowed them to enhance the existing application gradually (or strangle it, if you prefer) without doing a stop-the-world rewrite.
At $work we’re actually doing exactly that with react. It’s not a common way to use react anymore, but it does still work quite well!
awesome ya that totally makes sense.
One thing I don’t dig into much in the article is how these big tools like React are the product of larger projects and feel sort of like they make more sense in bigger scale applications. I’m excited to see people explore islands in more detail and I’m hopeful that they’ll fit into a nice middle ground between hardcore SPA and CRUD site with JS sprinkles.
I organise a couple events here in Toronto and this is definitely something I’ll make use of. Nice Job! On the flip side, I’d also love to see a list of sponsors looking for events. One suggestion I have here is to maybe make it a tad easier to upload events. If I could just hit a button to load it in from meetup, I’d be much more likely to make a habit out of posting events on the site.
Hm, as an organiser of many meetups: I like this, but I’d prefer it to not encourage more meetups to serve pizza.
(I have no issue with pizza per se, but moving beyond the “pizza & beer” monoculture important)
Hey now, everyone loves pizza! It’s versatile, readily available, easily eaten without utensils, and can serve most niches for people with dietary requirements or taste preferences. (Beer, on the other hand…)
I do even agree with your points! Pizza is the easiest food to quickly get on short notice with a wide variety of variants. This is not a “I hate pizza and you should feel bad for ever serving it”.
But everyone loves pizza until all you serve is pizza. You’d be surprised how much positive response you get when you finally run something with other food.
Also, with caterers taking note of meetups as a target, other food gets close to pizza when it comes to convenience and price. Usually, they serve a rolling menu where you can only pick what’s available at that night.
Oh, totally agreed that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. More variety would be nice - at least pizza places offer non-pizza things if that’s your only option.
Hmm what are some other things that you would like to server in place of pizza? Other dishes such as pasta/salads? (I can’t think of a good replacement)
One meetup in Chicago does empanadas and those work pretty well. I’ve also seen burritos go over well.
Those both sound like good ideas - I guess it really depends on location as well.
For larger things, curry/rice is a great alternative that can easily cover many food styles. Bagels are also awesome.
For smaller meetups, any buffet can be made affordable or even be prepared yourself with a short trip to the supermarket and 15 minutes of cutting and slicing.
If you have enough money, any city has a lot of small scale caterers, though they tend to cost a little more then pizza. (Not much, but it may be prohibitive) At least in Germany, getting some food from the restaurant around the corner is usually possible, even if they don’t officially cater. If they are close, they might even bring stuff up to your offer and lend you plates. This definitely becomes easier if you are always at the same location.
My rule of thumb: go to a local sports club, see what they do ;).
I suspect you’ve never tried to eat vegan, gluten-free pizza.
I’ve gotten some feedback on some of the events I run that having non-pizza options was definitely a thing. I started running one event out of the venue space in a bar, and that’s worked quite well. Lots of food/beverage options there.
Yep. There’s lots of way to solve it. I want meetup organisers to be creative. (also, I want meetup organisers not to spend too much time, it may become exhausting)
In my previous company (which just raised money) we had trouble to find other “sponsors”, so we tried not to put the usual pizza and beer stuff. The result is that less people came because they had to come back late at home without eating and going to the restaurant for a meetup was too expensive.
We finally setup for the pizza and very few beers, but it felt like people preferred the catering than the talks…
Oh, food is important, I just want variety.
Pizza isn’t the most healthy, but hey, John Carmack didn’t develop Doom ordering chinese takeout every night :p
BRB, registering the “John Carmack Meetup”, where everyone is John Carmack.
It isn’t as much about health. Eating Pizza once a month is fine and if you visit meetups so often that their choice of meal becomes a health issue, you should probably reconsider your meetup habit before your food habit.