I don’t know that I’d generalize very much from the selection of events you’ve seen. There are PLENTY of tech events with pretty high fees for attendance, and even technically-free meetups where you’ll feel a little bad and out-of-place if you don’t spend any money at the venue. And plenty of spiritual groups that charge no (or only extremely voluntary) fees.
That said, it’s probably a little more common outside the tech-ey casual/informal world, where most organizers are relatively well-off to start with, and most participants are more observant of and willing to question monetary transactions.
For the second part of your post, I think you’re confusing evangelism (desire to spread your ideas) with teaching/facilitating (willingness to help people improve their ideas or have good experiences, for their benefit more than yours). These are generally bundled to some extent, but some topics and some teachers are likely to fall further to one side or the other.
It’s perfectly reasonable for some to want to be paid for their time, EVEN IF they also believe they’re getting value from the activity. As long as it’s voluntary, I see no problem with it. To the extent that they’re preying on the unaware (like not mentioning the fee until you’d committed time and resources to get there), that’s on the scummy side. I fully agree with you not wanting to return—it sounds like you didn’t get your money’s worth, and I even agree that you should view such things with suspicion if they’re not clear about their purpose and methods.
I don’t know that I’d generalize very much from the selection of events you’ve seen. There are PLENTY of tech events with pretty high fees for attendance, and even technically-free meetups where you’ll feel a little bad and out-of-place if you don’t spend any money at the venue. And plenty of spiritual groups that charge no (or only extremely voluntary) fees.
That said, it’s probably a little more common outside the tech-ey casual/informal world, where most organizers are relatively well-off to start with, and most participants are more observant of and willing to question monetary transactions.
For the second part of your post, I think you’re confusing evangelism (desire to spread your ideas) with teaching/facilitating (willingness to help people improve their ideas or have good experiences, for their benefit more than yours). These are generally bundled to some extent, but some topics and some teachers are likely to fall further to one side or the other.
It’s perfectly reasonable for some to want to be paid for their time, EVEN IF they also believe they’re getting value from the activity. As long as it’s voluntary, I see no problem with it. To the extent that they’re preying on the unaware (like not mentioning the fee until you’d committed time and resources to get there), that’s on the scummy side. I fully agree with you not wanting to return—it sounds like you didn’t get your money’s worth, and I even agree that you should view such things with suspicion if they’re not clear about their purpose and methods.