Event Categorization

I am having a problem with something and have for some time. I was wondering if the categories in which you put your event could be explained more fully and/or expanded.

Let's say you have a contest with a discussion component (I don't mean a discussion about the contest) and the Contest goes 2 weeks. How do youi categorize it? Is it a discussion or a contest? Can you add a non-applicable choice to the number of hours the activity takes place? Or maybe "long-term" as a choice?

More and more people seem to be registering things as discussion/classes/mentor events which don't seem to really represent the category they are placed in. Either they are promotional or a seeming coffee klatch. Now we have classes where you lay down and listen to music, go to a place where there is no teacher and just a tutorial, and visit a specific site without class or a discussion topic.

I am seeing a trend toward more tutorials and self-instruction tools. I know of at least 4 locations/groups. Do each of these (and whatever ones I dont know about) list them in the Events several times a day? One person is doing just that only changing the title of the event each time it is entered and presenting it as a Mentor Event lasting several hours each time.

The trend toward tutorials may be have a good component. The person who attends can go at his/her own pace and try out things that he/she may not have becasue of self-consciuosness. However, I question the listing in the Events Calendar as an appropriate place to make it known that the tutorial exists. Plus, again, these are on-going activities, not EVENTS as such.

Could the Lindens consider having a list of on-going places to go and see and learn to choose from on the screen, like they do Find, Events, Map, etc.? I know there is a big interest in compiling these types of lists right now. Higbee Protagonist has long had one. Squagmire is developing another. However, accessing those lists is not easily done if you don't know who to contact or which kiosk to 'touch."

The events planning group has been meeting about this issue and the issue of categories for event listings has been mentioned in Town Halls and other threads.

The Lindens indicate they are working on re-doing the events categories to make them more meaningful, and to filter them better.

All kinds of suggestions are being made and reviewed, so put yours in too.

For exampel, people have come up with "Commercial" vs. "Charitable" as one type of category or "Arts" and "Entertainment."

There's been debate about the issue of whether you can then cross-pollinate by clicking off more than one category (I'd argue that it would be a good idea NOT to do that to prevent list spamming).

I agree that some contests have a discussion element. I sometimes have a discussion that also has a contest, i.e. like thinking up a headline or best-dressed or something.

But I think in most cases you can figure out what the center of gravity is with your event and call it one thing.

What you're describing, with the gaming of the lists by putting in mentoring and instructional events that are really just chillaxing or hanging with friends or just brutal dwellnor magnets, well, it's common. I think it's worth documenting some of that and reporting it to the Lindens, since they put great stake by their mentor system and more or less trust mentors to do the right thing.

And actually, if a mentor goes AWOL and puts out a clickable thingie for me to have a self-instructional tutorial on something, and I give him dwell, what of it? I'm happy to do that, and he's happy to do that, so why not? He needs a way to advertise his thingie, and what better way than the events list?

To be sure, when there are better classified ads in general, that will take some of the strain off the events list which serves as a thinly disguised infomercial at times now.

The point is, the Lindens are in the process of changing this. So join the events planning group and come and help change it.

So glad this thread appeared
I might be the person you are talking about, but maybe some facts are in error. I have set up on my land 3 seperate classes that use notecards as a way to allow me the time to assist people who really need it, and.. the class doesn't have to move at the speed of the slowest attendee/student. When I list a class in events I fully intend on being there. I list the class as lasting 3 hours because I try to be there during those hours. Of course there will be times when I step away(human needs occur during the 3 hour classes). People come and go during the entire time, so the notecards work. I can't type 3 classes over and over. I listed these classes together in each of the 3 listings because there might be someone looking for a clothing class at any time during the day, this lets them know all 3 classes are avaliable and an instuctor is on site during the 9 hours. In the case I can't be there I change the listing.

I love your idea of creating a way to advertize these automated classes 24/7. Unfortunatly we have no other way to let people know we provide classes during their online time. Hope we see that change soon

As was mentioned, the issue of event categorization is the main topic of discussion for the events work group right now. Robin Linden has said that we'll be tweaking the event categories to help out in the short term, but in the long term we'll be moving toward a system that works more like a google search based on an event description or keywords.

I think a more flexible system is better. I've had events that were discussions about putting on charitable events. Where would you put a class on tringo strategy? What about a real estate tour? You know how Yahoo! has that category-based browsing thing? Who ever uses that? Everyone just does a keyword or phrase search to find what they want.

The other thing we're looking at is a Classified Ads section in the Find window. This should get rid of a lot of non-events from the events listing, as there will finally be another place to advertise places with an ongoing activity. This should be useful for advertising classes and other educational activities too. And of course, Touchstone and the Educational Senate are good groups to help organize and make available info on classes.