New Event Categories ~!

Just in case you hadn't noticed already, we've changed the event categories into what we hope will be a more useful schema.

The new categories are:

Discussion
Sports
Commercial
Nightlife/Entertainment
Games/Contests
Pageants
Education
Arts and Culture
Charity/Support Groups
Miscellaneous

Please try your best to post events to the appropriate category. I have seen a few events in the Dicsussion category in the last few days that belong in Commercial.

The pageants category is also looking mighty lonely. There are lots of 'New Clothing' and 'Sexy AV' etc events that could go in the pageants category. They are currently buried in Games/Contests.

Finally, to clarify, Charity/Support Groups is meant as a sort of non-profit community service category, not 'Free Stuff for Newbies' or 'Massive Outfit Giveaway!' ...

please let me know if you have any questions or comments about this

I got too busy with RL work to keep attending the events working group meetings, so I guess I missed being involved in the final discussion of categories. I'm pretty disappointed that the Games/Contests category includes both Bingo/Tringo/Slingo style events as well as games like Jeopardy, quizzes, Primtionary, and build contests. A major motivation for changing the categories was to separate things like Primtionary and build contests from the overwhelming noise of the *ingo games.

If you look at what is being posted, the Games/Contests category has the majority of the events now. (UPDATE: I just checked and currently it's 60% of today's events.) The change has had almost no positive benefit at all, and frankly I think it was a big waste of a lot of people's generously dontated time. As I suggested at the start of the discussions, there needs to be a Gambling category for games of chance where you can win a pot.

Face it, most events are games or contests of some sort. Get the *ingo games into their own category so that people can find the other games that they care about.

I endorse this product, feature, and/or service.


That's my biggest gripe right now. I don't really dig the *ingos, and it's next to impossible to find a Primtionary event. If I knew that events that are powered by the creativity of multiple users wouldn't be lost in the ocean of *ingo... Perhaps I'd consider hosting something.

"omg fix pls kthx", as they like to say.

This is great. Hopefully it will help event hosts and attendees find each other.

Hey, you know I'm there, plugging away every Monday.

I'm a bit short on funds to run it all the time, but I'm working on some goodies that I may add as an alternative award to mere $L in future sessions.

Do prayer services/spiritual events go under Arts and Culture, Charity/Support, or Misc still.

Instead of Games/Contests....

What about:
Games of skill (ingos, fishing, card games, etc)
Word games (Captions, Knot another Quiz, Jeopardy)
SL building competitions (building, landscaping, show and tell, texturing, primtionary, etc)

I have never liked the current categories simply because some terms are too general/ambiguous (Education, Charity/Support Groups, Games/Contests, Pageants). You have event definitions (discussion, sports) which are more concise than the categories indicating purpose (Charity/Support Groups, Commercial, Nightlife/Entertainment). The ones indicating purpose could easily contain many of the other categories.

When I joined the workgroups, I was told that the topics were already set in stone and no longer open for discussion.. so, I didn't say much about it. If I had input, having spent considerable time reviewing events lists for 4 months,
I would suggest:

Classes/Workshops
Discussions
Games of Skill (list a few examples)
Word Games
SL Building Competitions (list a few examples)
Nightlife
Entertainment (separately from Nightlife, this could include poetry readings, movies, art galleries)
Commerce

Is there anything that would not fit in one of these categories?

Does it really matter if a discussion/class/game is for the purpose of support or charity or is cultural or having to do with the arts?

There was much discussion in the groups about whether events were for social reasons, to further a cause, to educate, or to sell. If you stick to a descriptor strongly associated with what the event IS and not it's purpose, there should be less ambiguity (???)

(I am speaking from the experience of either having to choose between several categories that could contain a single event and from not knowing what some of the categories even are.)

How about better search features rather than more categories use the web search engine standards like -ingo or prim+contest to get better results.. I guess this should be a proposal as well if it doesnt already exists.

I attended all the Events workgroup meetings, and I personally echo the sentiments listed above.

Unfortunately, there was much disagreement at the meetings, and the more vocal folks in attendance disagreed with this position (more categories). A vote was taken whether to keep the categories as proposed by Linden, or change them and add more.

The vote to change the proposed categories failed.

Two things:

One - possibly someone who holds an opposing view (Likes the categories the way they are) can post to this thread, to put another perspective on it. I can't, because I think they need to be changed. (At the very least, a seperate category for --Ingo)

Two - If you feel strongly enough about this, I can't stress enough how important it is that you attend the events workgroup meetings. They're open to anyone, and all you have to do to get involved is send a message to Robin Linden.

There is a broad spectrum of viewpoints on how events should be handled. Some folks feel that the event calendar should *only* include "special engagement" type of events - while others feel there should be zero restrictions and use filters. Included in that, are about every opinion in between.

Part of the problem, is there seems to be no universal definition of what an event *is*. That question alone generated quite the heated debate.

Its amazing we accomplished what we have so far.

Yes, I can only echo calls for a category for games and quizzes other than *ingo games. I'm currently forced to run my trivia events under "Nightlife/Entertainment" because I don't wish to be filtered out by people trying to avoid *ingo things.

Well, just a point of note... We have no *exclusive* filters yet. About all you can do is look for events under a specific category. You can't, say, look for all events *except* a particular category.

So, at least today, the filters we have are so limited that they're nearly useless.

IMO - having an --ingo category unto itself would only become really useful once there's a way to do a "Search on everything *but* these categories" kind of search. Supposedly that is on the way, but in the long-term rather than the short.

Also note: A valid concern from Linden on an --ingo category - is.... ok, so they make an --ingo category. What about a year from now, when --ingo is no longer in vogue? What about the next fad? Making the fixed categories fluid to match trends could require more maintenance effort on Linden's part than I think they want.

As a rebuttal to that - either have keywords instead of categories - OR - do an update to the categories once every quarter. It can't be *that* time intensive to add/remove a category on the dropdown

FYI,

An '-ingo' category is in the works and will be added to the calendar soon. Keep in mind that the entire calendar category system will eventually be replaced by a much more scalable and flexible search and/or tag driven system. Right now, we're just trying to make the calendar readable. To this immediate end, we agree that an '-ingo' category would help.

Add another category for Quintzee...

I'm going around these boards finding places to make these awareness posts. It's amazing how many threads there are that gripe about the "*ingos". Anyway, in an effort to take matters into /my/our/ own hands, I'm forming a foundation that will help subsidize rich and diverse events so hopefully we can start seeing less *ingo spam and more of the "good stuff".

To learn more about the foundation and how you can help, click here.

I certainly hope you don't intend to put the Ingos under "gambling."

Bingo, Tringo, et al. are not gambling - if they were, I wouldn't play them.

coco

Sorry hon, but if you chip into the pot, and play for it, it's gambling.
Granted, on this level, it's more like penny poker or whatever you may call it, but it is still the aforementioned word.

However, even a category that binds all games that end with "ingo", and a switch that lets me not search in certain categories (I do want a "Best *" cat, as well) would satisfy me, at least.

Sorry, I was invited to join Events Group and didn't, but now of course, I have a question:

Could there be a need for a category for Social Justice/Political Action/Activism? Should there be? (I think so) I'm proposing a category that goes beyond discussion/ education /charity/ support. I think SL residents are politically savvy and probably active IRL. Maybe some go into SL to escape politics, but there is a forum category for Political issues, why not an event category?

There's playing for money, and a game of skill. Tringo, at least, is arguably a game of skill; no more "gambling" than paying L$20 as an entry fee in an old-fashioned avatar show-and-tell and hoping people like it.

It's a quibble, but I think it's important, as in some jurisdictions that does make a difference.

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

One entry found for gamble.
Main Entry: 1gam·ble
Pronunciation: 'gam-b&l
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): gam·bled; gam·bling /-b(&li[ng]/
Etymology: probably back-formation from gambler, probably alteration of obsolete gamner, from obsolete gamen (to play)
intransitive senses
1 a : to play a game for money or property b : to bet on an uncertain outcome
2 : to stake something on a contingency : take a chance
transitive senses
1 : to risk by gambling : WAGER
2 : VENTURE, HAZARD
- gam·bler /-bl&r/ noun
--------------------------

As no money is required to play Bingo, Tringo, Slingo, et. al - that is, not at any I have ever been at - it doesn't qualify as gambling.

I do not gamble when I play Bingo, et al. I give back some of my winnings if and when I win.

I don't play slots, either, unless they are free slots.

In neither case is any money required to play; thus, no money is risked, and it is not gambling.

coco

I was terribly disappointed, when the new event categories came out, that there is still no category that distinguishes live performance (music, theater, poetry, whatever involves people actually performing live in world) from canned entertainment events (usually clubs with DJs, but others as well). "Nightlife/entertainment" doesn't quite cut it. There still seems to be no explicit recognition at LL of SL as a venue for live performance, and it is still difficult to reach the non-enlightened residents. After playing live music in world for over a year, I still see newbies or even not-so-newbies, at my and other shows, showing complete surprise that such a thing exists in world, and wishing they'd known about it earlier. But the only way to know about it is through word of mouth, or maybe the forums here.