Something seems to have changed at Meetup.

The once essential service for connecting people together — which went into a steep decline after it began charging fees more than a decade ago — seems to be reawakened.

Recently, I’ve been getting invites to new events hosted by Meetup events I once belonged to. They are unfortunately not the sign of a community coming back together.

By way of example, one Toronto group formed around augmented reality is now hosting online-only (Pacific Timezone coded) sessions offering practice in navigating difficult conversations.A quick check finds the similar thing happening to a Montreal tech group and there are at least a few others like it.

Some are now hosted by the same “person,” so this might be a one-off, but I have my doubts. Regardless it’s a reminder of much of a graveyard the web has become, as well as there are always people will always find a way to exploit the remains.