People speaking at the same time

I just finished reading this thread: Transcript from Inworld Events Discussion - Part I

There's some interesting stuff buried there within the cacophony. But I don't understand why people think it's acceptable behavior to just say whatever comes to mind whenever they want at events like these, particularly when you have a guest speaker. Some events make good use of audience participation (Travis Lambert's Payment Podium events come to mind), but for the most part it's a bloody headache to have speaker and audience all talking at the same time. Beyond how difficult it becomes to follow the chat, it strikes me as being rude and disrespectful.

However, trying to change people's behavior is like trying to stop a moving train, so I'm curious as to how event holders control this sort of thing, if at all. Has anyone found a way to keep events that might otherwise descend into chat chaos remain orderly?

It's hard enough to get people to act with decorum in RL meetings, but SL has its own challenges. Part of the problem is that our communications are bursty rather than continuous. You typetypetype, then hit return and your whole thought gets spat out at once. But while you are typing people's attention wanders, usually to what they want to say next, so they start typing too. I guess the issue is there is no way to be an attentive listener in SL.

Perhaps one use for chat bubbles would be to enable live typing. Chat text in a bubble could appear a letter at a time as the user types, then when s/he hits return the full sentence would be printed in the chat area and history. That would actually make chat bubbles useful for something! If we had that we could read along as people type, instead of becoming distracted and interrupt while they compose their next sentence.

There's chat bubbles updated with the completion of each word typed. That allowed people to follow a speaker's thoughts more attentively. I don't know how well this would work with SL's current chat bubbles, though.

I like the There style of live, realtime, character-by-character chat on a blow-by-blow basis. It seems counterproductive in SL to have "..." between long sentences in a chat bubble, because it slows down the fluidity of a potential conversation, not to mention keyboard convos are already slugged a bit and quite a bit slower than actual speech. Well then!

Hehe - this is one of those times I wish I had a whiteboard to communicate

It is confusing and frustrating at times having multiple conversations going on at once. Often I find myself actively participating in multiple conversations simultaneously - I think somehow my brain organizes the participants in the various conversations, and I can respond to each one individally.

Consider the attached image - 4 simultaneous conversations going on, with me, as the host - in the middle. As the chat whips by the screen - I just seperate in my mind each of the conversations.

One problem, is chat distance. Especially if we're talking about a large room, say 30m x 40m. Chat will only travel a distance of 20m. So what happens, if you consider the drawing...

With me in the middle of the room, I can hear everyone. However, the folks participating in the "red" conversation can't hear the "grey" conversation. Same thing for "Green" and "Blue".

Typically, I intentionally try to stand/dance/whatever as close to the middle of the room as possible, so I don't miss any conversations. I also try to moderate a little bit - to make sure that no one is being ignored

Imagine if we could configure our chat distances... so I could make my voice travel 30m when I wanted to - or only 5m when appropriate. That might help alleviate this problem. Although - I think a lot folks are just used to it at this point - and adjust accordingly

Not exactly sure what I'm trying to say here - other than pointing out my observations

That was one of the many things I hated about THERE. When each word appears one at a time, you have no way to save yourself if you've said something you shouldn't have or if you realize half way through that you should have phrased it better. Also, reading one word per second or so as it comes out instead of reading complete sentences can get quite draining.

I like the SL style much better. Everyone knows you're typing, but they can't see what you're typing until you're done. Then they get the benefit of reading your sentence as a sentence. This not only makes for more fluid reading, but it also cuts down on misunderstandings as no one can try to assume your meaning from just a couple words before you've finished your thought.

In a perfect world, it would be nice if the chat didn't appear as if it were all at once, but SL is not a perfect world. I am a multi-tasker when it comes to conversations. I am not only talking and watching up to 10 different conversations within SL, I am also speaking on the phone or speaking to my parents on AIM, so I don't find SL's method of "talk" an issue.

Now, would you have it that everyone "raises" their hands and wait patiently to be called on? It would never work as the time constraint is too great. The meeting that you read, actually took place in less than 30 minutes. That is not a lot of time for all of the thoughts and even debates required on this issue, so we all crunch it together.

Yes, while I am readin 15 lines of chat dialog, I am also trying to formulate my own thoughts on those 15 lines and type as general response as possible.

Maybe SL should do like President Bush and only allow pre-approved questions to be asked, silencing all of those who might differ in opinion. Would that be a better solution?

I know I tend to get frustrated at most of the meetings in here due to the out and out chaos. I agree, it does feel rude. I tend to sit quietly waiting for a break before I jump in.. only to find one never does. LOL UGH

In a few of my former online incarnations *grin* I used to have to run the meetings. I can't tell ya how many times I had to literally bring things to a halt and remind my staffs that what we all had to say was important, but if we were talking over each other we would miss a majority of their comments and input.

One of my ideas to help the situation here in SL would need to be scripted.. and I can't script, so... LOL Those from There will recognize this concept..

Imagine a scripted whiteboard/chalkboard resembling the scoreboards we see all over for some of the inworld games. When we have a comment or question, we either touch the board or type /handup to add our name to the list on the board. If we change our minds, we touch the board again or type /handdown. The host running the meeting could them call on attendees according to the next name on the list and /remove ***** ***** after each speaker has their turn.

The events wouldn't have to be so rigid that we couldn't have the follow-up comments after each person has their say, but the host could restrict the chatter and elect to MOVE ON to the next speaker.

GREAT IDEA! That would be perfect and logical. Maybe the Lindens can start to institute something like that.

"Jack": When people think you're dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just...
Marla: - instead of just waiting for their turn to speak?

I sometimes teach classes and then I provide the rationale behind why i need to speak and others listen until we get to a particular place such as question time. I indicate that I ask people to save questions until the end in case their questions are answered in my presentation and I also indicate that we have a lot of ground to cover. This means that they are almost always willing to wait until I clearly indicate a time for feedback before speaking. Giving people the rationale behind why i need to speak unhampered while simultaneously letting participants know that there will be a time for them to ask questions or give input seems to be a successful formula. There generally has been no simultaneous talking during these classes until I am soliciting responses, when it is understandable that there would be some.

Travis: your drawing alone made starting this thread worthwhile. It's interesting though, because after you mentioned your positioning strategy, I do recall you standing on the edge of the dance floor in the middle of The Shelter for extended periods. One thing that I like about Payment Podium is that the host and contestant show up in different colored text in the chat...I assume you're using some kind of scripted repeater? Anyway, the different color makes it easier to pick out the important stuff from the chat soup.

Don't knock it. Hand raising is a tried and true method. The thing about the transcript I was referencing above is that a lot of the people talking were saying the same things as everyone else, all at the same time. Very inefficient, particularly if you only have a 30 minute timeframe.

Dude, you need to chill.

I'm digging this concept. It probably wouldn't work for huge events, like a Linden Town Hall, but for normal-sized events I bet this would be very handy.

So in your experience, behavior can be changed. Do you ever have troublemakers (or those who just don't "get it" who insist on talking while you are teaching? How do you deal with them?

I'd rather see a bit of an IRC-ism applied to event chatter.

Most IRCd have a mode: +m - Moderate channel.
Combine it with +o and +v (Channel Operator, Voiced User), and you could actually have a discussion of some sort, with controlled chatter.

For example, you have an audience of 29 users, plus yourself on your land. You're automatically +o in this case, because it's your place.
The 'channel' is unmoderated, and you have a guest speaker.

Everyone's chattering about things not relevant to what your guest speaker is talking about. Your guest feels overwhelmed by all the drowning conversations, and asks for everyone to hold their chatter while they finish.

No one listens.

You set mode +m on your 'channel', forcing users to use IMs to carry on their chatter, while letting your guest speak. Once guest finishes, they invite questions. You can either set -m (unmoderate), or +v a user who requests permission to talk.

This would probably go well with lecture type events, like classes and such.

But then again, these're just my two cents.

Pol,

I made a valid point about President Bush and his very scripted "public" forums. No voice of dissent is allowed. Now, if you wish to be like President Bush and tell me to chill, that's cool. Just don't try and stifle dissent.

No way. I'm so gonna stifle dissent. Just you wait, I'm gonna script me a dissent stifler, somehow, maybe by creating a George Bush avatar, but with an enormous Mardi Gras head, and then, I dunno, holding an event of some kind, and then I will, like, turn on the stifler, no wait...an army of stiflers! Yes! And I will release them at the event, and they will attach themselves to the attendees, like those flying pepperoni-topping things from that episode of Star Trek (the original series, not the other one with the bald X-man) that attached to people's backs, but wait, they shriveled away in sunlight, so I need a private island first so I can keep it night, and then, they like fly around and attach to everyone, and there'll be these alien squealing sounds (note to self: upload alien squealing audio file...need to hit GOM for some upload "mad money", and *poof* goodbye dissent. Bwahahahah!

I am mighty.