Continued Events Calendar Spam

Since spamming the events calendar continues to be an ongoing problem and the community isn't willing to follow the very explicit Events Posting Rules, we have no choice but to consider charging for listings and further enforcing disciplinary action. If you would like to see event postings remain free I would suggest reminding your fellow Residents that the calendar is not meant as a way to avoid paying for Classified ad space.

TY Jesse!!!!!

THE STORY OF TORSE JR. AND THE EVENTS LISTING

Once upon a time, Torse the Horse Jr. was a happy pony. He was content to attend events--even though trivia was a challenge for him to type out the answers.

But then, the skies darkened, and the Events calendar became bogged down NON-events and spam. Redudant postings of the same event in a single day, gratuitious and blatant ads, and fake yard sales--"fake" because there wasn't a host present, there was no start or end time, and there most certainly wasn't even a yard to begin with... so how could it be a yard sale?

The last one saddened Torse Jr. deeply, as he used to enjoy yard sales. Meanwhile, Residents drowned in the Events calendar, the world continued to grow, and pending better ways to find events in the future, what can we do now?



Today, if you see Torse Jr. at an event, it's an omen: this tiny cyborg pony has plenty o' might and randomly visits listings to check them out... to see firsthand if they're really events. And if not, Torse Jr. neighs for help from his Linden companions. And then the NON-events get deleted, and discipline gets doled out. *chomps at the bit*

You can help us help you so that your actual events, which you put a lot of passion into for the enjoyment of all involved, aren't drowned! See a listing which is not an event and thus doesn't meet the Event Posting Rules? From inworld, please use the HELP menu ---> REPORT ABUSE with all the juicy details, including who posted it, the date, time, and description of the NON-event, and also important: if this has been going on awhile and hasn't stopped.

And into the sunset, Torse Jr. galloped on, wishing the Residents happy, healthy, and truely eventful Second Lives!

I think Torse is adorable!

BTW: Thanks for attcking the EVENTS calendar today!

Oh goodie, extortion and threats from people I pay. That was what this game was lacking. Now it's fun.

Its not threats and extortion to charge if people are using events to simply avoid classified ad costs.

Hmmm.... I'vw never seen being required to follow the same rules as everyone else referred to as "extortion and threats."

Oh, and I'm sure all the people who do use the Events section as they are supposed to will really thank you and others who are going to cause them to have to pay, even though they did nothing wrong. It's always a few bad apples who spoil things for everyone else.

I am planning to list an event for the grand opening party for my new business next week. Is this considered "commercial"? Oh, and BTW, I will be paying for classified add too, so not like I am trying to avoid cash outlays. lol

A model example of my theory that no one does wrong in thier own eyes.

As long as the host is there, and there is a start and end time to the event you are allowed to have that in the event calender

Charging for event listings won't stop spamming. Why would anyone think it would? The spammers are still going to list whatever they're listing... residents still have to suffer, and LL rakes in some extra cash.

You know what, LL should charge for event listings AND USE THAT MONEY TO PAY DWELL!!

Charging for event listing is NOT the answer. Fellow residents will not listen to others telling them what to post and what not to post. Charging will NOT stop all the spammers. I cant believe your still considering charging for event listings after all the negative posts about it. Get someone to screen the listings or something, Im sure there is a better alternative.

If filing an Abuse Report is the action you would prefer that we take when we see an event listing on the calendar that clearly belongs in the Classified Ads....

In the Abuse Report dialog, shouldn't there be an "Event Abuse" dropdown choice in the type selection?

Just sayin'

Condo selling is my fav event posting listing But really jesse this time you got the right abusive people this time. OMG never seen a whole police section fill with the same date before..

Charging to post events!! Woot.. finally No more BS and spam in the events listing

A dream come true

Yeah, but you're not paying for your advertising -- that's the problem.

I have been a SL member and resident for quite some time now, and I can remember when both inworld Classifieds and Forum Events postings were provided at no charge - essentially part of the monthly membership fee package of features and services. Heck, management even paid residents to develop and host Events.

Then one day came the announcement with a new client version that SL was implementing a small fee for posting in the inworld Classifieds and, by the way, the Events Hosting payments were being stopped. The not so subtle message was to encourage residents to use the paid Classifieds and not post commerical "Events" on the Events webpage. By then, the Events calendar was full of yard sales, club 'events', reocurring bingo games, and all sort of other commericial advertisements. Meanwhile, management continued to wring their hands and wag their tongues concerning, "What can we do to control the Events calendar?" As with most corporate management by committee initiativesw (aka, Linden Liaison team) months of continued talk and inaction insued. When asked my opinion, my response was something to the effect that it appeared to be a simple matter of applying some management resources to better define what actually is an Event, revise policy regarding postings, and then monitor daily for posting violations and policy enforcement actions. Enforcement would drive the desired posting volumes to the paid Classifieds and everyone would be happy.

We all know what management's actions have been over the past year in regard to the worsening Events spam and abused.... More wringing of hands and tongue wagging, including those garish, inane multi-colored forum posts. Obviously, management either lacks the human resource or talent to develop and enforce an effective policy regarding the posting of Events on the website.

What we are now seeing is an opportunistic mentality on the part of management to make the residents pay for management's inability to control operations and the abuse of the Events feature. Sounds good to me. Let's convert this problem to a new Revenue Stream. Why pay a Linden to manage operations and enforce policy when it so easy to create yet another surcharge to the Resident Members. Send in the clowns and cheerleaders.... talk it up and tell everyone 'what a great idea'... pat me on the back...and otherwise market the idea to the max.

Once upon a time (circa 2004 - 2005) the Events calendar was a nice feature when the world was 50,000 residents and a big night was 2,000 residents inworld. You could actually browse the postings in less that 2 minutes and find interesting Events you might want to attend. Personally, I stopped even looking at Events several months ago due to the shear number of listings and the hundreds of Slingo, Tringo, Yard Sale, Porn Night at the Club, and all the other non-events.

Memo to Management: If you can't manage and control the use of the feature, eliminate it and drive 100% of the Events posting volume to Classifieds - both website and inworld.

I loved those days ( death 2005 jan ) really hurt the game and forever changes how we played the game. July 2005 really has the killer when they did the PR push for gaming.....After that its been all down hill. 50,000 members was a big thing. But now with over 200,000 and growing the game is getting way out of hand in my areas. The rush to add to the populas of the game really did hurt the game more then it did good. Ok MAYBE continue in some ares did little for the eco of sl. But more then less people took more then they gave. NAd they still are.

And remeber we are growing at 20% month with the Teen game growing larger sn then spilling over in to the MG.

well i was guilty of advertising an event and getting a 3 day suspension. my advert WAS for a new product launch> i was present> yes it is a shop but was for a new book. ( i am still guilty of using the events board for blatant advertising 2 times a week so cant really complain.
but once again. my main complaint was and still is CUSTOMER SERVICES.
reply to the abuse email and ask the EXACT reason as i actually did launch a new product.
no answer from 4 emails.
asked in world help who had a linden surname. (sorry ask jesse linden)
asked jesse linden in im. if you can show me the event listing ( hmm it was deleted so thats not possible) waited 15 minutes then logs off for weekend.
i am now so pissed off. my event was hosted by me. i was showcasing a new book. (product launch) and my shop was re-opening after a new land purchase.
so all i wanted was the reason it was pulled. because they were not in breach. (the last 3 days were admitedly. but this day wasnt... any how... enjoying the break....
bye..

I read the police blotter and saw that our Sim for Purple Haze received a warning about this. However, was not aware that we were doing anything wrong. I generally have events run from 6 to 9 p.m. weekdays and 2 to 4 p.m. Saturdays. I have been listing the event hourly for these times simply because I was told some people are not going to take the time to scroll up to view an events start time if they log in, say, at 7:30 p.m. on a weekday. What should I do about the grand opening event that will be an entire weekend? Any suggestions. This will be a grand opening for club, mall, casino and rental cottages. I certainly do not mean to do something wrong and have tried very hard since being on SL to keep my nose clean and establish a good reputation.

Unless you're going to be there yourself, hosting for the entire weekend, (possible... who needs sleep anyway? ) then it's not really something you can put in the events listing...

However... what you could do is stick a few mini events in the listings, while having the main all-weekend event in the classifieds. Say, special things going on for just a couple of hours to promote the main event itself. (2 hour hosted viewings of the cottages, small dance contest... things like that. Not a problem for the rules and keeps drawing people the the main event)

But what do you hope to achieve in making people pay for event listings? I just see events going further down the drain, becoming primarily advertising, because people feel justified in doing so, they're paying for it after all.

I welcome this, but its too little too late. I wish you had taken stronger, more stringent steps before you decided to eliminate DI and Dwell. But for some reason you didn't.

Event attendance is at an all-time low for those who don't work at it 24-7 or don't continually spam all their friends. The live music group has so much traffic on it that I am remaining on it only until we close the spa and then will leave post-haste. But thats the way you get people to your event now -- you spam them -- sometimes several times during the event. Or you give them $L. Or both.

Sure there are some ventures that are continuing to do well without doing that but there are a fair amount of closures too.

fake yard sales--"fake" because there wasn't a host present, there was no start or end time, and there most certainly wasn't even a yard to begin with... so how could it be a yard sale?

The last one saddened Torse Jr. deeply, as he used to enjoy yard sales.




Poor Torse Jr, for his parent horses deleted the yard sales even if they did have hosts and met the rules.


Actually curious what charging event calendar will do...those holding yard sales will afford the charge to post thier event, same as casino's and other commerical venues where the clubs *oh wait are those real according to other posters on this thread I'm left to believe they are trash because they aren't interested in attending CLUB events! GASP* and the other routes won't post....clubs only get traffic when they host an event and give thier money way, big clubs that scam new people offering them 150L for a JOB that they MIGHT get if they meet plastic formification to thier appearance will certainly still flourish, as they have the newbie dollar influx to support their postings, whereas smaller venues will die out and oh wait..I'm already PAYING real money for my club land now I might have to start paying MORE real money to run events and actually have more than 1K in traffic..hmm...sounds like too much REAL money and not enough FUN to me.