Here's the thing about Craiglist, Facebook, and Meetup and how my idea would be different
1. Craiglist is not Social at all, it's filled with spam, and all you see are anonymous names and chat like communication.
-My website would be more socialized like twitter & Facebook feeds
2. Facebook or twitter would be probably the closest to what i'm proposing, but on facebook you can only see your friends feed. But even if you could view peoples news feeds that live in your metro area, they are never shouting out to complete strangers with an update like "Me and a couple ppl are going to the bar tonight to see Miike Snow, comment if you want to tag along with us"
-Unlike facebook, this website would be used only for the purpose of meeting new people, and hanging out w/ people you do not already know
3. Meetup is similar to what i'm talking about, i don't use it so i might be wrong, but i don't think there is a live update feature, also, meet up groups are usually arranged well in advance, and focus mostly meeting up for certain topics, like witchcraft, marketing, or gay webmasters.
-My site would focus on spontaneous plans usually nightlife related events, like going to bars, concerts, coffee shops, etc.
So here is a sample of how it would work, i'm going to use SXSW as an example.
John just moved to Austin, TX to work at Bizness A. He relocated from Maine, and had to leave all his friends and family behind. It's 7 p.m. Friday, and John had a long week at work and wants to get drunk as FUCK. Unfortunately all of his co workers are married, and are 30+ and Mormons. He checks facebook and see's his friend status updates from back home like "Getting ready, then hittin up the club to make it rain tonight!" and "TGIF can't wait to get schwasted at Jim's Dive Bar".
John also knows that this huge convention is going on in Austin called SXSW, so he searches #SXSW on twitter and see's all these tweets like "checking out the Strokes tonight at BLAH BLAH BLAH" .. and "Check out Wiz Khalifa at the Honkey Tonk tonight"
John thinks this shit is awesome and wants to partake but if he wants to go out, he's gotta go by himself, get drunk by himself, then start socializing w/ random groups of ppl. or else hes just gunna sit home
But if this website existed, John would log on, click his metro area, and see all these updates made by people who are looking to have other people join them for the night, john could even make his own update and be like "Strokes concert tonight at 10, who wants to pound some four loko and go?
Pretty soon John has like 4 people that share his similar interest, they meet up, Shoot the Shit, and realize they are all new in Austin and don't know anyone. They then proceed to get totally fucked up and continue going out and grinding on pussy for years to come.
That would be basically the ideal way this site would work, the idea would be to just connect people that are "loners" at the time, but can basically scrounge together a group of friends quickly to capitalize on presently occurring events