Chess, book clubs, group running.
Larping works great for me.
Team sports
War (crimes) you’ll be bonded for live threw trauma
Rock climbing, go to your local climbing gym (if you have one) and take an intro class and then go hang out once you understand the basics. It’s such a welcoming community and people are really friendly and helpful towards beginners. Gyms also have new climber nights depending on the gym and those are great chances to meet people.
Yeah, except that it’s $20 per visit. Ridiculous.
The membership at my local is still $60/mo (and is about to increase) so it’s not much better.
Lots of gyms have need-based discounts, or will hire you to work, like, 2 shifts per month in return for a free membership. If you already have friends at the gym, they can often give you a guest pass. And some gyms give out free days for meetup groups, or classes that happen at the gym.
Unfortunately, more and more we are in the age of the corporate climbing gym, where they jack up prices but brag about “diversity”. The grungy old gyms where a lot of the real community building in climbing happened are slowly fading away.
Luckily I belong to the grungy old type of gym
I second this. Bouldering especially since the climbs are quicker.
Volunteering or similar work, like lending a hand at small local theater or sports events. Depending on the work they might involve some downtime when you can chat with others and get to know them.
Another one I have not read in this thread yet: seek out (or organize) activities in your neighbourhood.
Dancing. There could be many different styles - see what seems interesting for you.
Boardgame events.
Sporty/exercise events (like, walk with others from X to Y).
You could try DND open play events at gobby shops.
Libraries tend to have bulletin boards filled with upcoming community events. Plus then you’re already at the library so you can grab a book or a movie or something too
Great question! I use Meetup and Bumble BFF. I’m old though…
Meetup used to be great, but seems to be enshittifying more with every passing day.
Are there good alternatives or other ways to find groups to join?
Not that I know of
Board Games!
Go to meetup.com, look for subjects you’re interested in, and find a local meetup to join. Can be almost anything - wine tasting, board games, gardening, whatever. Pretty much any hobby or professional interest. I met my D&D game group that way before COVID and we’re still playing weekly. There are even meetups just to hang out in a group.
That depends on what your interests and hobbies are.
At some point though, you’ll learn to like anything if that’s where the friends are.
I’m not sure I agree with that.
Walking around in the early evening and stopping wherever people are gathering.
I was just popping out for salad greens, and ran across a group of young people having a picnic on the sidewalk. They had way too much food and were offering to share it with everyone who passed by. I wasn’t hungry but I sat down and joined the picnic anyway. Great people! I stayed for over half an hour and I’m so glad I did.
And this isn’t a one-off. This is how I met my wife, too, sixteen years ago. You gotta be open to spontaneous experiences.
