Event Calendar Changes - Discussion

Jeska Linden just posted this announcement regarding the new Event Calendar changes:
/3/05/42647/1.html



Why is a "cluttered" event calendar a bad thing? Seems like having a lot of events is a good thing! If finding events in that mess is a problem, improve the tools for viewing and finding events.

I'd love to see a graphical layout that shows events laid out by start time and duration, much like some of us do in our day planners. A no-brainer for the UI would be to show which events I have flagged to be notified about IN THE EVENT LIST, rather than having to select an event to see if I already flagged it.

I'd also like to be able to have more powerful ways to search the event listings, so I can find events by topic, host or location. And I'd like to be able to set up a persistent filter that will automatically notify me of all events that pass a filter, such as all Primtionary events or all events on FairChang Island. Likewise, I'd like to be able to filter out or hide events by criteria, such as hide all Tringo events, all beginnner classes, etc.

Do these things and you won't need to clean up the mess by making it harder to schedule events. Let a thousand flowers bloom, but smell only the ones that catch your eye.

Bless you Jeska bless you. This is a wonderful change to people who want to hold one or two events a week and actually have people show up. Out of the 70+ events on the event list about 90% of them are at the same places. Being able to hire 20 people to host 10 events a day on your land is great if you are rich but if you want to hold one event, something that isn't Tringo, it gets lost in the fray.

if they are rich and wants to hold 100 events just for one place thats not anyones buisness... if they have the money and they want to do it then why stop them. LL is NOT supporting the events so WHY should anyone care.. ITS their MONEY not yours, mine, or LLs. I tried having other events something thats not tringo and u had like a no show... people come where the $ is, its obvious.. and then thers so many people saying oh thank g-d this is for the better, and i dont see them hosting any better events...

then if people dont want their class events(when there is NONE evere or ONCE in a blue moon) getting mixed up in sexy in red,pink,purple..ect. then we need a BETTER event list.. MORE organized.. split into categories? games..class..contests.. and i dont mean being able to "search" under that category, i mean having actual tabs and events being listed under each...

other then that its no1s buisness ow they run their events (normal events nothing like how to make a bomb or something) its their money.. if they want to spend it on events then let them... if it bothers you to see those events on the list dont look at it

Obviously its others people's business because it is a community issue. Face it, what you do with a public calender that everyone can read does not qualify as personal business.

This new policy benifits folks like Kassandra - or others who only want to put a little bit of time into their venues per week.

I don't have a lot of money myself - but what I had - was a lot of dedication. I put in 30+ hours a week hosting events on my property, and have been doing so for 8 months. Not to mention the Volunteers like Sumar, Claire, Kate, Opal, Serina, Maeve, etc who have donated their time *for nothing* because they believed in what we were doing.

Maybe this is a wakeup call for me. Maybe Kassandra's got a good thing going - and that's what we all need to do instead. Instead of burning myself out trying to hold events - maybe I should follow Kassandra's queue, and just do a couple events a week and leave it at that.

I'd sure get a lot more stuff done around the house...

God damn it this sucks I feel like I've spent the last 8 months trying to nurture an exotic plant -- and LL just dumped anti-freeze on it.

This is totally insane.

We have hosts running events in various locations at various time of day, providing entertainment for a major part of of the timezones. This change mean we cannot no longer financially support events, if hosts cannot post events.

Rental land, this current change makes it near impossible for people renting land to hold an event.

Lets say one own some 20 sims of land, and one can max post 3 events per day, same amount that someone having a 512sqm. It is just not propotional in any way.

I hope Linden change this system back as soon as possible.
If event list is cluttered, how about making the list/features better, doh!

One way round this would be to have a timetable that you post daily - so the shelter could post :

we have blah at 12
whatsit at 2 etc etc

This of course would mean that people couldn't be notified.

My worry as a consumer is that there will be less events in European time zones.

As an events host it means that I can't post as I don't own land. To allow me to post the land owner would have to join me to a group and share their traffic. (and I have 15 groups anyway and keep having to swap them in and out).

right but you dont have to read their event or anything and if your interested in a class or other then search for one. i mean its their buisness what event they have even if its tringo 100 times a day .. its their money like i said.. and yeah sometimes it does get on ppls nurves to see it tringo 100 postings down the line and your thinking "when wil lsome1 make something else, something cool" i been there too ... but whats SL w/out events for some? the people who want "other" events should start hosting them then

I did. I hosted a Chinese New Year party at the end of January. It was pretty well attended, too, despite the fact that there were no prizes (though I was giving away traditional Chinese clothes, and I had a Hong Bao Money Tree going at the time). We had a lot of great conversations, and terrific fireworks provided by RacerX. People seemed to enjoy themselves. I'd like to be able to go to other events like that. Cherry Blossom Festival, anyone? Tea Ceremony, maybe?

Thing is, it would be awfully hard to find such events the way the calendar was. I believe most of the people who came were people I'd invited personally and their friends. I think the new rules are rather extreme, and don't really help with the problem, but tabs or categories or filters of SOME kind would be nice.

neko

I agree with Olmy, what we need is better tools to do our searching of the events listing with. NOT more restrictions on how events can be posted.

For example, I have been running BINGO events since November of last year. Almost every weekday. ONE event.

I run this event on land owned by someone else. With their permission and encouragment. I do not own the land, and while there is a group I have to belong to for my stuff not to be swept away every 2 hours by autoreturn, the owner remains the individual, not the group.

So, as of this change, as I do not own the land, I can no longer post events there. Period.
Sure, I can post events, but only for one parcel of a piece of land related to one of the other groups I am a member of.

So, as of this change... I am no longer running events, though I will run the ones I posted before this change happened.


Version 1.6.2 sure better deal with some of the lag issues in 1.6.x... because coupled with this change in events posting requirements... I am losing all my reasons for sticking with SL... And I have really loved SL from the day I started...

On the upside, It will leave me more time for World of Warcraft, City of Heroes and Everquest OnLine Adventures... Rather than the 6+ hours a day I have been spending either running events or supporting & attending them on SL.

-KQ

Think you are right Olmy... a better search/filter/day planner style events guide is needed...

If anyone is interested, discussing the event changes at 6pm pst today (wed) at Mauve (50,50)... I'm hoping a Linden or two can attend too!

I've posted in events

Jamie.

PS. I think the lack of communication over the changes was a mistake.

Quite honestly, I agree that there was a problem. At the same time, I believe that this was not the proper solution. Some places like The Shelter as a great example have events that are not "stupid" or "duplicates of everywhere else". Some places run unique and worthwhile events, and are now being effectively slapped in the face because of people who cluttered up the list with "BEST COOTCHIE HAIR! (Not hootchie hair... This is a MATURE event...)" and "BRIGHTEST BLINGS WINS $L!" events.

I halfway wonder if "exceptions" may be a way to recover this. "Most people must follow the rules, however people who have a history of high quality events and such can get a higher quota, and people who have a history of crap will get smacked". As long as people realize that the changes in quota won't happen immediately, since that could be a LOT to go through, that might help.

Maybe cookie-cutter events need to be shuffled off somewhere else. If people are setting up Tringo, there really isn't any extras to Tringo. So maybe there should just be a list of all the Tringo events, where, and when, in a separate list. Maybe we need more division on the classification of events. People who are running one-time weddings or major events SHOULD be able to actually have somebody see their event, even if it is squished in between 30 *ingo games and a cutest AV contest.

"But what about abuse? What if I list my event as a building class, but the decription is "M3GA Tr1ng0! BIGGEST JACKPOT EVER!" just so I get the importance of the building class category?"

Granularity on controls could be a very good thing, both in events quota and other things. With the new changes, a person has to be listed as the owner of the land to run an event. Whether it be personal ownership or group control. That puts things into a bad situation in places where several people coordinate for events. If there is enough granularity for arbitrary decisions to be made about the quality of events, whether they match what LL is trying to accomplish, etc, and allow for less or more event quota based on that. And yes, make it fully subjective. Sometimes you just have to trust that people know the difference between "Best blinging pelvic attachment" and "Yet Another) *ingo" and "Chinese New Year party"

If they had warned us people would have scheduled their events months ahead of time.

My SL experience has already been affected by the change.. and not in a positive way. I have already missed events that I wish I had known existed. This is not a good thing.

I have been involved with event creation and organization online since the mid-80s. Yes, we had computers and were online back then. *grin* There are a few keys to event promotions, as far as calendars go. Those that immediately come to mind include the need for the list of events to be complete, user-friendly, host-friendly and at some point include the ability to customize the calendar for individual use.

I have not ventured into the world of hosting here in SL. I have my reasons.. frankly, I am enjoying just playing instead of working.. and everything I start to break down and decide to host, the lag/etc gets worse and I simply have no desire to deal with that nightmare. So, as of now, I am looking at this situation as what you might label an "event attendee with prior experience."

As someone who attends events on a regular basis, I want a COMPLETE event list. I want to be fully informed of what is going on out there in our world so I can have the best experience that I can. I may have to view 50 listings for events that I have zero interest in. But, I fully accept that trade-off so that I CAN view the events that I am interested in.

Limiting the listings is not the answer to a "cluttered" list. Trust me, the list will ALWAYS be "cluttered" as long as it has events listed. Howso? The world is incredibly diverse. This results in various interests. We also have a growing population.. and frankly, what feels like a degration in performance. This means the world can support multiple events of the same category. In fact, it NEEDS to due to the factor of lag and performance issues we encounter when a sim has a certain number of avatars in it. For example, there may be 3 Tringo events being held at the same time... all of which have a large crowd. Some would see this as "clutter" on the list due to them seeing 3 listings for Tringo at the same time. Yet, with the # of interested players, the world can support all 3 of these events. If we were limited to one and everyone tried to attend that one event.. SIM CRASH. *grin* This isn't just a Tringo issue. We see club type events all going on at the same time. These could be seen as "clutter". But, those that frequent the clubs will tell you.. each club is different.. each event is different. And we, as event attendees, want to know when these events are taking place.

The world is growing. Events are growing. The calendar NEEDS to be able to support this growth. I'm sure LL wants to support the growth of the community and userbase. Limits do not promote growth. To me, this is common sense.

What to do about a "cluttered" list? Improve the calendar! Give it an overhaul! Remove it from the general Find tab system and give it it's very own tab system! When we click EVENTS, we should be given a full events list with various tabs so we can sort and view either the entire list of just certain types of events. Then include a Preferences section just for Events. Let us take control of our own calendar. If we have no interest in something, let us filter it out on our own. Then include a Schedule tab so we can see all of the events we have set to be Notified about.

Ok, I realize I am starting to hit the babble stage. Ooops.. Let's just leave it at this.. Limiting a GROWING community is anti-productive.

The problem with this is that the "crap" is more popular. People run crap events for a reason.

I've run both - and the unimaginative ones get twice the turn out.

Maybe we need a better population?

Well, this bounced, so I'm posting here instead
---
I appreciate the attempt to fix up events listings.
I don't know if this was intended, but this new policy has basically locked out basics from hosting events.

I don't know about other basics, but I hold events from time to time, sometimes at my place (rental), some times at random locations. Granted, they are not many, but overall it is one part of my contribution here (socially).

Now I can't participate like that. Maybe some sort of public land around the world that people can throw events at? Maybe make it open only to basics? It would be easier to police just those listings.

Anyhow, here's hoping you open it back up.

Max.

YES!!! We should fire and ban all the players who are in here right now and hire only good players. (Sorry, I'm feeling silly today.)

Yes, it is everyone's business. And now the 15 or so people who hold events on my property will no longer be able to work and get paid. When the Lindens took away the hosting fees, I offererd the same pay that they did to people who want to host events. Now I will not be able to do that either.

The Linden's are deermined to force Island owners into selling and giving up. I pay $400.00 a month to them, and bust my ASS to make a lousy $70.00 back. Then I give out $3000 - $4000 Lindens a day to those who do not have the skills to make sex balls for a living. I obviously don't do it for profit. I am told by my staff that it allows them to enjoy the game having some income. The new system sucks.

To be honest all i think i needed changing was that of the categories you could select to list by.

Maybe instead of what they have, the following would better suit

All
Gaming/Gambling
Club/Contest
Sports/Battle
General Fun
Teaching/Educational
Mentor Event

And enforce these posting rules better.

Who determines what is crap and what isn't? I would hope that attendance is the deciding factor. I don't know if my events (or those hosted by my staff) are considered crap or not, but they LOVE them and they bust their asses to host them at no small expense. If the system was hard to navigate & search, then the fix is better tools.

So a few people abused the event posting rules and now suddenly we all have to change? Why not address those few people to solve the problem instead of putting limits on the rest of us?

I whole heartedly agree, this is going to mean people not from the continental US loose out. I am from Australia and there already is a limited selection of events to go to when i am logged into sl.. this limiting it to 3 events per day is crazy.

It means the events will only be hosted in peak times, peak AMERICAN times. Damn the international SL community..you just wont have any events to go to... but we will take your money anyway.. and remove even more of what you intially paid for by near sighted policy changing.

Lindens,

This is a bad decision IMO. Bad, bad, bad.
I only have two events hosted per day at my place, so it won't affect me much, but generally speaking, this is just stupid.

What you will end up with is several 512s split up around the main parcel, deeded to group, just to be able to host more events. This discirimates smaller land owners, who are not able to do that.

AVs that are super-hosts, working at lots of locations, suddenly lost their jobs without warning. How can you do that to your customers?
People will create more alts, (9.95 lifers) to be able to host more events. However, with these new rules, it will be harder for them to build up a good reputation. You just took away a career opportunity.

We don't need fewer events, heck many of the events on the list already packs the sims full!! With fewer 'popular' events listed, more sims will be full, and people are left out from the fun! What are you thinking of? Have you ever considered what the consequenses will be?

What we need is simply more categories to put the events in. The strict censorship on what events we can do in SL is really not making Linden Lab look good. I said it before, when it suddenly wasn't allowed to host commercial events, and I say it again now: Let us define what constitutes a valid event ourselves! After all, the residents will go to those that interest them. Competition will take care of the weeding in time.

The event calendar problems could have been solved easily a long time ago, if Linden Labs would just listen to the residents that called for loads more categories in the event calendar during the last round of event rules balooba. Also, if we could get auto-notification on events happening in categories we are interested in, there wouldn't be a problem at all finding interesting events. Just make enough categories. Merchants will find vacant mall spots, Tringo Junkies will get their fix, shop-o-holics can find good offers, and educational events would probably get a lot more attendance with auto-notifications. Don't you want us to enjoy ourselves and do what WE love about SL?

Putting restrictions on what we can do, where and how often sucks majorly! This is supposed to be 'my world, my imagination', right? It doesn't look like that to me. Maybe it's time to change slogan?

oh and on top of everything ... it will create MORE spam! ...i got about 20 in the past hour from atleast 4-5 people! ....

I have to speak up and put in my words agreeing with what we need are more SECTIONS of events on the calendar. More or better ways to either search through all the events that people choose to post... NOT limiting the number of events being posted.

I have been thinking for some time, it would be great to sift thru the events listing using search terms for the types of events I prefer to hang out at.. or if I'm looking for a tringo game, to be able to just type in "tringo" and wallah, the list of only tringo games is what I have showing. (Much like the search for items and places in the PLACES list.)

It already is slim pickings in the "OFF" hours, the main hours our SL residents from Europe and especially Australia are around. And for people like me who are up all night usually because I run a graveyard shift schedule. We need the events... but we NEED more categories so the calendar doesn't have to be a mishmosh that on some days can seem a bit overwhelming to even the stoutest of SL residents.

Better tools or divisions of events on the calendar would serve the populace much better in several ways. Not only could people find a particular type of event they want, but say, if they like hanging out in mature areas, but don't necessarily want to see the s/M or BDSM events, they could filter those OUT just the same as those that particularly wish to attend those can find them without having to sift through all the other mature events.

> quoting Anjelle Luminere:
>What to do about a "cluttered" list? Improve the calendar! Give it an overhaul! Remove it
>from the general Find tab system and give it it's very own tab system! When we click
>EVENTS, we should be given a full events list with various tabs so we can sort and view
>either the entire list of just certain types of events. Then include a Preferences section
>just for Events. Let us take control of our own calendar. If we have no interest in
>something, let us filter it out on our own. Then include a Schedule tab so we can see all
>of the events we have set to be Notified about.
>
>

I really hope you are listening to us here as you have asked for suggestions on how to improve the Calendar. This will work and keep plenty of events going to keep people wanting to come back and stay in SL.