As of July 2021!
So you’ve made it to the end of the meetups.com signup for making a new group and discovered the following:

even worse, monthly:

What are some alternatives to meetup.com? Is there a free alternative to meetup.com? Well, first on the list is eventbrite

I totally gave up on the idea, really. You can use things as simple as facebook for events, it does look like there is not a great free meetup site in my area right now, facebook events therefore might not be the worst thing ever. Sign up for a lot of local bullshit to get even notices, it’s not like you use your facebook for anything else anymore, right?
Meetin.org, groupspaces: defunct.
OpenSports: appears to be payment based, but also sports specific so not being considered.
Citysocializer: UK based and subscription based?
Foursquare: I am not quite familiar with this , but I assume that other people would be and I would have been advised if it were appropriate for social gatherings of strangers.
alternately: how to just *find* social events, perhaps I’ll work on that next?