Male loneliness talk aside, why wouldn’t you start a Facebook group to get a gauge for actual interest? I know you mentioned deliberately not using Facebook and Meetup, but spinning up a whole new site just to connect with people seems like a lot of work for something that is largely a solved problem on those platforms. Facebook groups are very popular because so many people are already connected into it. Getting people onto and engaged with your club, regardless of topic, is one of the hardest parts of something like this, not the actual website part. A Facebook group would allow you to get people connected ASAP.
That would exclude me and others who refuse on principle to use Facebook (or really any social media owned by Meta).
Right.
Excluding, let’s be honest, a couple of weirdos who don’t use FB as ideological stance is a problem.
Excluding huge swaths of “normies”(who are majority of people) by setting up third party website with zero reputation is not.
Well, take me. I joined facebook two years ago after avoiding it for years not (just) because of the reasons you mentioned but also because i was very privacy focused.
The only thing i found out, after connecting with a few people i know around me and scrolling through their history on facebook...the big party is over and i am too late.
Facebook isn't what it was anymore and people don't use it that much to connect with others.