What Happened To Event Policing?

Not to be contrary... but is anyone besides me getting really tired of the condition of the EVENTS listings lately? I looked on the "events" today.. and most of them were nothing but blatant advertising, including:
*Land Rentals
*Come to our Casino
*Shopping mall 1/2 price sale
*Yard sales
etc etc etc

None of the above have to do with "group events" or even have a "host". More and more people are using the events listing as a surrogate classified ad section. Myself, I'm tired of wading through all this trash. But at the same time, I understand folks wanting to attract people to special marketing events, so may I make a recommendation to LL: a separate "instant classifieds" section where such things can be placed (basically a separate "event" catagory accessed by clicking a button on the events screen).

Until such time as that is instituted, how about someone at LL checking the events about 3 times a day and start bonking people who are blatantly abusing the events listing?


I'm not wanting to hassle anyone... but there are limits. A LARGE number of the events I saw today were nothing more than marketing ploys. Time to clean up the events listings.


These are the official event rules:

Event Posting Rules - What is OK to Post on the Calendar
An event is defined as a special group activity that is led by a host. Examples include discussions, group meetings, hosted dances, classes, tours, and competitions. Shopping, viewing parcels for sale, and other non-group activities are not appropriate to post on the events calendar.

see this too ...

/108/8e/71290/1.html

This would just fit right in with the Camping Chairs,

Wait till hard working Event / Club hosts get to share and get beat out of the monthly Dwell cash payouts to Campers.
A few months ago this was the death taboo to get caught with campers and no time out scripts. Now its a fucking Camping Zoo Free4All......... Now mind you, most of the top places are doing it so whats one more in the puddle making mud pies !! But the ones turning out event after event and paying staff doing it the way it was setup to do, better Get-R-Done Cuz the other guy is doing it. Free AV's multi logons camping taking unheard of dwell numbers, 50,000 plus and he was bragging on it, the place was full of Zombie AV's

I think of some little man in a sweatshop type place running a DZ laptops on 2 stacked 8 ports hubs jocking all the free AV's from timing out, NOW if this was all setup by LL and all that monthly dwell moneys you all thought you had a chance at was now going back to LL...... That would be a smooth move, make you think your in compatition with each other and LL was really behind the top places putting the 3,000 to 8,000 dollars a month back in the pockets and nobodys the wiser, Things that make you go Humm...

Waves

The Thoughts of used whips and sweaty leather collars

and it's a 3 day Event .........Event ?

Yeah. It's just that... instead of seeing a nice list of events that might be interesting, I see yet another "Come lose your money at our Casino" or a "Yard Sale" that's nothing but a permanent outdoor market (gimme a break) or my favorite today, "Come rent large pieces of land from us" (I mean, since when has this stuff been allowed?).

I don't go to events to shop, or to buy land, or to find yet another casino. I go to look for something to do. And I hate wading through hundreds of garbage listings trying to find a decent event.

Myself, I'd like to see FOUR major event catagories that are totally separate from one another and that can be chosen at the click of a button on the Events box:

1. STANDARD EVENTS
2. MATURE EVENTS
3. CLUB/GAMBLING events (for all club/nightclub/casino etc related events)
4. INSTANT CLASSIFIEDS

That would suit me just fine. Then if people want a specific type of event, they can just click a button and there they are. And those who aren't interested in such an event don't have to mess with it.

There's also this shit: /108/0e/68396/1.html

Woah dude, you almost like said the "w" word, that's like sooooo not way.

I guess you missed the sign on the way in:

1. does it require effort?
   
2. does it generate revenue?
   
3. is there some way we could get a "volunteer" to do it without giving them authority?
   

and, if I remember correctly, we're supposed to use the answers to those questions for something, but I forget what.

While trying to remind you of the Three Questions above, another question occurred to me, but I don't know what it might mean:Inquiring minds wanna know, but not if it like harshes your buzz or sumptin.

Some people want different things. Seriously. I would MUCH rather see and even go to a shop having a sale. Yard sales are great, you get rid of inventory that you don't ever use and newbies can get things a lot cheaper. These two things for me are much better then the constant barrage of "sexy avie contest" "best dressed contest" "swimsuit contest" ect ect every hour. While these do have hosts, it really just is an annoying ploy to get dwell.

If clubs have been able to spam events like this for so long, why would it now be unheard of for shop owners to use the same tactics? Personally I don't think either one should be doing it but really who is to police what is interesting?

Tho I do highly agree that there should be more catagories. That way maybe I would look at events again.

That's cool, but "Yard Sales" are not "events" and as such should not be in the event list. You could easilly use the find function to search for a yard sale as you would any other store.

I agree with everything you said. That's one reason I recommend clubbing as its own events catagory because... well frankly... clubs ARE a business, not a "group event". And the clubs are just as bad about flooding the events listing with spam as anyone else.

If someone wants to check out club events, then perhaps LL could arrange a CLUBS button and relegate those events to that specific area.

Same could be done for markets and other spam "events"-- and anyone who abuses that, lose event posting privileges.

Malachi... what ARE you smoking?

As a wierd thought... maybe LL could give us a "spamguard" thingy for the events list. i.e. Each event has a "I think this is spam" button, and if you click it, you get a pick for why (person running it, location, something in the title/body, etc) and in future, you don't see matching events any more.

If it didn't affect anyone elses list, then there's no problem. Of course, they could also run a scoring system, so if 20,000 residends declare the same event as spam for the same reason, they can do something.

Yeah, that's the key. You're the second person on here who has indicated the events listing is such a pain to use it's NOT used.

The key isn't what's "interesting". Like you said, different people find different things interesting. The key is: what is the EVENTS listing for? It's not for some marketeer to exploit. EVENTS are primarily group projects for the enhancement of Second Life and associated groups. So just as they've given us the ability to knock out "mature" events... would also be good to be able to catagorize other event listings.

I kinda like the "SPAM" idea above. What they might do is allow "abuse" reporting on events listings just like other in-world things... a person clicks and "Events Abuse" button, and a quick-note gets sent to LL. If enough legitimate abuse reports are filed on a resident... that resident loses ability to post events for a month or so... or permanently for repeated abuse. That should fix it. (And since there's always some clown out there... anyone using that instant Event abuse button just to grief people would be treated like any other griefer.)

Actually, that would result in a LOT of abuse reports being sent to LL. Perhaps the easiest way would be to allow respectable residents the power to police the events listing and report events abuse. When one of those authorized persons report a listing, LL could step in and handle it. It would be a job at first... but after a week I bet people would start learning and that abuse would stop.

I still think the "Show me this category" buttons option would be helpful. If folks want CLUBS... press the CLUB EVENT buttton. If they want shopping, press the SHOPPING events button. That way everyone is happy and the "need" for events abuse drops to zero.

I think the biggest challenge LL has to face for this is enforcement. It's kinda hard to spare people doing nothing but events monitoring sorting through all that stuff. So who's going to be doing the enforcement, because without it the guidelines for posting events become useless.

I like Wayfinder's idea of allowing other players to police each other. It will be hell for the next weeks but eventually I'm sure after that people would stop.

Of course this won't make the people who use the Events listing other than events very happy. ^_^;; In fact, I expect howling and gnashing of teeth if ever this even considered by the Lindens.

Problem with that is deciding who are the "upstanding members" to police the others.

Whoever is chosen, someone will call favouritism.

I'd like to see some kind of accomodation for longer term events. I'm thinking specifically of my contests at the Photography Studio in Grignano. For those, the backdrops are up for 10 days or more so people can take their photographs. The exhibits that result are up for two weeks or so. Other things available that are long-term include the quest at Numbakulla. It gives the wrong picture if people see a one hour event and think it's only available at that time. People living in any time zone can access these events if they can find them.

It's become clear that event listings really require moderation, and that's something that probably won't happen within the official event listings. And, as Osprey suggested, the listings are a pretty rigid format...if your event isn't easily-described and one hour long, you're at a disadvantage. Ultimately I think the solution is going to have to come from us, an alternative events listing of some kind. Perhaps from a group like The Foundation for Rich Content.

Ummm, polyethylene... is that bad?

While I agree there is abuse on the events, different people like different things. Having a Yard Sale listed is not abuse, unless it is a perminate one. I have seen several of those and that is disappointing (with always the same items, bascially a store without the walls). But one thing I have not seen mentioned is there already the ablity to select which catagory you want to view. Currently you can select from: All, Discussion, Sports, Commerical, Nightlife/Entertainment, Games/Contests, Pagents, Education, Arts and Culture, Charity/Support Group, and Miscellaneous. You simply select which catagory you want then click the search buttion. I have found this to be quite helpfull in removing items I do not wish to look at and display a much smaller list.

Also since there is a "Commercial" catagory it would seem that such event listsings are allowed. But I do agree that some go a bit far when posting a all day event several times on the same day.

-DB

You know Osprey, that's a good point. Putting everything in a nutshell, here's what I'd like to see:

When I call up FIND/EVENTS, instead of getting an immediate listing, I'd like to see a "button" console which reads:

GROUP EVENTS
CLUB/GAMBLING/MATURE EVENTS
SHOPPING/MARKETING EVENTS
LONG EVENTS
ALL EVENTS

There might be other categories, but those seem fitting. Then when someone clicks on that button, events for that specific classification pop up. That way, club owners aren't out, merchants have a place to instantly post a special event for the day, people can find shopping specials if they want it-- and the long-term events like you mentioned have a special place to display and a "from/to" date the event stays listed.

Of course, there should still be guidelines. For example, a merchant posting the same event 10 times a day (like we see with that obnoxious camping-chair/movie campaign that is going on right now) would be prohibited (perhaps limiting merchants to 3 posts per day would be a good idea). Long events might be limited to 30 days maximum, etc. Basically, it's just like all of SL-- it really needs some common-sense structure because a lot of it right now is pretty much total chaos. (A good example is the lack of zoning on sims... which is a common-sense concept in any land-based situation. You don't allow clubs in residential areas and vice versa). I think more than anything right now... LL needs someone in the planning area that isn't blue-sky and that knows how to get things done. Straightening out the EVENTS listing would be a good start.

Might as well make this "valid".

http://secondlife.com/vote/

Please vote proposal 736... for all the good it will do. There's so much that needs done on SL...kinda hard to make a measely 10 votes stretch, isnt' it?