Product Discussion group formed

I have formed a new group for product discussion, the name of the group is "Product Discussion", and here's the charter:



This group is open join, just use the in-world Find Group and enter Product Discussion and join if you have advertised in the classifieds and want a place to discuss your products.

You can also send me in in-world IM, a forum PM, or email to [email]suezanne@gmail.com[/email] requesting to join the Product Discussion group.

It takes 20 members to get a group forum created.

you know, we already have one of those. it's just the forum is more whimsically named. but it's been serving that purpose for a while.

/244/63/75653/1.html#post783791

It's fine that there is already a forum that says it is for this purpose. This isn't the Highlander. There can be more than one.

Perhaps a name more suggestive of discussing products will be used more.

Yes but we need something that is actually named for product discussion, not just using someones fan thread...

Might be a good idea -- Fran's forum while useful, probably isnt likely to attract the casual passer-by.

I did look through the group forums to see if there was such a forum in existence but of course I didn't find it with the name that it has.

Frans's group forum is not only formed but in use so that does show there is a demand for such a thing.

Back to work.

I think this is a good idea, but if there are no rules it will just end up like the Linden one no?

I would like to join, but first I want to know:

- Will endless (inane) "you go girl!" type posts be at least discouraged a bit?
- Why is it only open to the rich suckers that use the Linden "classifieds" feature?

It will be a cold day in hell before I ever pay to use that elitist crap excuse for a classifieds section the Lindens have set up, and I am not interested in yet another round of back-slapping and name dropping.

Hiya

Just to explain - I made my forum to supplement the classifieds forums, not to replace it.

I was thinking it'd be used like this:
Post your ad in classifieds as usual, but link to a thread in my forum. If someone wants to read or leave feedback, they click the link.

The name of the forum isn't important, because you don't need to acknowledge which forum it's in.

My forum isn't meant to be browsed, like the other forums. It's just a place to put threads you link to. This way, we don't have to the whole "excessive bumping" problem.

Instructions here: /invalid_link.html

I am not sure just what powers a group moderator gets.

If I serve as a moderator and have the power I will delete all inappropriate posts of any sort to the best of my ability. I would be loathe to edit posts, I would rather just delete the whole thing. It's easy to use common sense and make appropriate posts.

There is a chronic problem in nomenclature, when one says the Classifieds you can never tell if they mean the free ones in the forums or the ones in-world that cost. I am old fashioned, the ones in-world are just an unused tab, especially since they come up sorted in the stupid ranked by pay order, and have only to most primitive search capabilities, while the free ones in the forums can be searched with much greater flexibility.

In short I didn't even think of the in-world classifieds.

My thinking would be that it might be logical for each seller to create a thread with their name in the title. If they are new or don't have many products that might be sufficient for them.

In addition each item the seller wanted a separate thread for they would start a thread for.

If I had the power to delete functionless posts (such as "I Like Pie" I would. Same for personal attack posts, or posts attacking a different sellers products.

There would be no notion of free speech operating in this forum, this would be intended to be useful discussion place for sellers, customers and potential customers. Sellers and customers will sometimes have problems to discuss, but if they'd need to do it a polite and respectful manner.

If it's possible to block access to chronic troublemakers I'd do that too, it is silly to have to keep deleting posts from people who just want to spoil things for others.

Enough for now.

The name is important if you want to post a thread to link your New Product post to. If they can't find it, they can't link to it.

I formed this group in response to posts by Asri Falcone Where the Hell Do you post Discussions on new products?.
I posted the following:


No one who knew about Francis's existing group posted there that I saw, so, seeing that there did not seem to be one based on the titles of the groups in the group forums, I made this group today on my lunch break. I have never moderated a forum before so if I become a moderator it would be a learning experience and maybe alleviate some boredom .

I don't think you can change the name of an in-world group but I think you my be able to change the name of a group forum, so if people want a group with a logical name but like Francis's group fine then convince Francis to get Jeska to change that forum's name and my group can go bye-bye.

Individual sellers might find it worthwhile to create their own product discussion group, that would let them (or their assistants) moderate in the manner of their choice.

Maybe we're talking past each other here.

For example, when I announced Dominus Shadow: Eleanor, I posted in the New Products forum as usual, and linked to the feedback thread.

/invalid_link.html

At no point did I acknowledge the forum's name - it wasn't important to. This is more or less how I intended the forum to be used - I figured the name wasn't important.

SuezanneC,

Thanks for the input. I don't *think* it's possible to change the name of a group forum, but I've sent Jeska an email to ask

I'll post something in the other thread.

Cheers,

And how did you create the feedback thread? You went to the forum, most likely selecting it by name, which you could do because you know what the name is and don't need it's purpose to be revealed in the forum name.

There might be a tendency for sellers to not want to post in a group with another seller's name in it.

Right.. but people still have to be able to find the group forum in order to start a thread to link to. People aren't going to see the Francis Chung Fan Club and intuitively know that's where they should post discussion topics to link their new products to, so unless they read the rest of the forums, which many don't, they'd skip right past it. Something called New Product Discussion is more recognizable.

Oh I see what you mean now. Yes, it's probably likely that the person *posting* the ad knows what forum it's in - this isn't very important.

What's important is the person *seeing* the ad doesn't need to understand this

How do people using the classified forum to sell their product know about where to make a discussion thread?

Based on the total lack of further response to the announcement of this group's formation I conclude I can boot out the two people who joined and dissolve the group.

The group described in prior posts can serve the purpose I had in mind in forming this group perfectly well.

Product providers of any sort can, with a little effort, get a forum created if Francis's group does not suit them for some reason.

We need more group slots; having to get rid of this instead of letting it hang around just in case somebody wanted to make use of the name, just to free up a group slot, man, that is just silly.

This sucks.

Francis's vanity group is innapropriate for this purpose.

If Francis was really interested in helping out in this manner he/she/it will change the name, otherwise its just more FIC bull. Time will tell I suppose but I'm not holding my breath based on this thread and the comments made on it.

Francis didn't start the group being used for product discussion, it was created by someone else in a lighthearted manner.

Francis decided to put the group to good use, and appears to have succeeded.

There are groups with forums for product discussion formed by individual sellers, for instance, the D&D Dog Owners group has a forum that has had enough posting to survive so far.

The group I formed is open join.

Most likely it was being associated with me that killed the group's chance of survival.

Anyone who wants to can form such a group.

Someone that people like would be in a better position to get it going than I am.

I don't understand why "you go girl!" type posts should be discouraged. If someone wants to say "Nice work!" how is it hurting anyone?

No one is going to hand you success in SL. No one is going to hand you cash unless you make something they want. If you want to succeed in SL you have to actually make something worthwhile -- and therein lies the rub. Success in SL is not given, it is earned.

I'm not the most successful designer in the world. I do okay though. I don't advertise in the in-world classifieds either because I don't really have the cash at the moment to do so (and also it's just a bad, weird system). I have no idea if it helps sales at all, advertising in them.

I do know that advertising in the forums helps my sales, and that the more people comment and bump my thread, I get more sales because it stays at the top of people's minds (and shows up in New Posts). It was free. Now it just seems like whoever has the cash to pay up front for the advertising gets to the top. I know, I know: money sink.

Anyway, my point is, if folks want to compliment someone, let them. I do see how it could be gamed -- friends complimenting friends -- but I do know the difference between "That's good work" and "It's just not my style." Either way, it's such a small complaint. Sales tell the real story.

Individual sellers or collectionis of sellers can create their own groups for forming forums for product discussion.

There is no need for there to be only one group. Different people with different views about forum moderation can form separate groups and moderate them differently according to their tastes.

Sellers can ask their customers, among others, to join the groups for long enough to get the forum created.

People don't have to stay in the groups in order to keep the forum going.

The forum survives based on activity in the forum not on group membership.

The real problem, in my view, is not in getting the forum created, but if it is one intended for open use by new sellers who aren't familiar with how things work, how do they know about it?

So far I figure they would look at the existing classified forums and see the discussion links and then aak how those work.

Bah!
Still mad.

Shouldn't make any difference if anyone likes a person for this kind of thing.

And why come on this thread arguing about it (essentially dissing your idea), swaying opinion with his "fame" (intentionaly or not)? I bet some people decided against joining your group after reading his/her comments. Who does that serve?

Why not just let people form the other group without comment? Why not change the name of his/her group? I never seen anyone use his/her group much except his/her friends and admirers. It's just a stupid vanity group to me. Now your group (shich was a great initiative), wont get formed, and people can use his/her group except ...

... no one knows about it, or how to use it except close friends and admirers of him/her.
An entirely stupid outcome IMO.

Most likely unintentional on Francis's part but still stupid and unnecessary.

I don't know that the group forum's name can be changed as easily as just asking the moderator to change it. The only forum name I know of is the Political Science, which was called Polysci at first because the person who had it formed contacted Pathfinder Linden to find out how to spell it instead of using an online spelling guide and he gave less than the optimal answer to the question.

That might have required creating a new forum and importing the messages from the old forum to the new forum, I don't know.

They may just have a policy to keep forums names the same to keep people from driving them nuts with name change requests, or to make sure no one plays little games like taking over a group and changing the name of the forum from, say "Pro Bush" to "Anti Bush", which I can certainly imagine some of the pranksters we have here doing.

Francis's point, as I understand it, is that the group does not need to be browseable at all.
No one needs to look at through it like a normal forum. It can serve it's purpose simply by being linked to in the ads in the classified forums. The customers and potential customers who look through the classifieds will see the link in the ad that is all that is needed.

The group I made still exists. It is open join, so you don't need an invite. Just use the find dialog, group tab, put in product discussion , and click join. If I get 20 people, including me, I will proceed with forming the group.

We really need more than 15 groups. I was in a group called, of all things, Celebrities, as a result of hosting one silly event at Stage 1V. I had to dump that group for one's that made more sense to me at the time. Being in the Celebrities group as a result of hosting one of the very few events I hosted was a part of my SL history. Giving up membership in a group like that is like being made to give up your high school ring or something like that. It's not a functional thing, it's just a memory.

The group is open join. Thus, if you want to try using the group I started, join it and get sixteen more people to join it. If you want to take it over that would be be fine with me, although I would at least want to see what a group forum moderator gets to do. Two moderators name are required to be submitted with the request for group forum creation, assuming that they enforce the rules they make public.

Hi everyone

I've been thinking about this a little bit - Jeska will let me change the name of my forum, and I might change it - but I don't think I'll be changing it to "Product Feedback".

Let me explain -
Part of what I used to like about the old classifieds forums was they they were (by and large) in a positive place.

What I'd like my forum to become (if anything) is more of an informal place, where you can say anything you like (hopefully something nice). Somewhere where things aren't taken too seriously, maybe post silly ideas or comment about any random new product.

I think there is value in a more official "Product Feedback" forum. I've signed up an alt for SuezanneC's group, not because I think I'd use it, but because I think it would be good for the SL community for all the reasons named in this thread.

I'd rather my forum became a more light-hearted alternative. "ZOMG SO COOL" replies might be zero-content, but I think they have value too. Myself, I've been fortunate to make a few things that people have enjoyed, and hearing nice things is still rewarding

I think both forums have their own place in SL

I don't quite understand why more people haven't joined this group--particularly now that Francis, the person who has been hosting the stop-gap product discussion forum, has put her support behind this one.

There was quite an outcry when the new product forums were made no-reply. I'd say there were at least 15 people who opined that those forums should be "reply & no-bump." (I agree.)

Given that "reply & no-bump" isn't an option with this forum software, what Suezanne is trying to do is, I believe, the only viable solution that allows for feedback within the same forum, without bumps. Well, 15 more people are needed...you see what I'm getting at.

By the way, my personal interest in this is: I'm working on content I'd like to eventually sell, and I find some of the reactions to other people's content to be valuable market research. If I were to start selling content, I, like most other creators, would enjoy some feedback and affirmation beyond just the sales, as well as constructive criticism. And beyond all of that, the new products forum (with replies) was something I enjoyed reading over an afternoon coffee, even if most of the content wasn't my style.

Forming a group and thus a forum dedicated to product discussion would seem to make everybody happy, so let's do it, shall we?