I've joined Meetup just recently as I moved to a new area and wanted to peruse the local tech scene. As soon as I joined, I was spammed by an invite to join pitchbox.com,- meetup.com was the only service that knew about my new consultant firm address. First sentence cordially read: "Hey friend, welcome to pitchbox... "
So while I like their service, color me not impressed and please stop spamming us guys.
People can't reach out to you unless you are part of a group or via a direct "friend" relationship. Sounds like you joined a group that has someone spamming the rest of the members. Meetup themselves won't spam you like that unless you ask to be told when new groups are formed around certain topics (at least it used to be this way )
So while I like their service, color me not impressed and please stop spamming us guys.