Group inviters, die.

The content of the greeting doesn't matter. The fact that it's being sent WHEN I AM OFFLINE, so it takes up one of the slots available under the IM cap, matters.

So send them a message in chat after they've been in the store for five minutes.

Where did I suggest that the alternative was being hit with two, or even one, notecard the second you arrive at the store?

You keep coming up with obvious straw men, as if you think I'm some kind of fool.

That's not a pleasant characteristic.
I have never to my knowledge visited a store that hits me up with group invites, notecards, or even IMs some hours after I've left it. If I have, then they've probably already been ARed as spam.
I'm not responsible for your choice to avoid the massive amount of powerful automation available in SL.
Why?
It doesn't matter what kind of person you cater to. You're spamming people who may have simply passed through your store on the way from one place to another.
Another straw man. I've already mentioned that I'm in a couple of store groups, one of them that's VERY chatty.

"By the bowels of Christ, consider that you may be mistaken."

Mickey's (lack of) reaction to my post, together with the content of my post, shows the way she discusses. If you are waiting for a "okay I might be wrong", I wish you much patience

I bet that's going to be unpopular. But they should be. Why? We only have 25 group slots available. I'm active in SL. I have all 25 full. Educational opportunities. Groups I need to be a member of to rez things such as my tip jar where I DJ. Personal groups I've created that fill specific purposes. etc. etc. etc. I don't have room to join groups for businesses I've visited and may wish to return to.

Forget about SL groups for your business and go with a managed mailing list opt-in system instead. That won't even stop you from being able to give your customers freebies either. Set up a freebie vendor with your chosen freebie for group members, and have your mailing list tell them the slurl of where to find it.

Only reason why a business needs a group is to set up a vendor where you get a group discount if you're a group member, but still sell it at full price to people who haven't joined.

This is all my opinion, of course. I'm sure others won't agree with me, but there's a big problem with the proliferation of groups you need to join.

I'm not sure what a "straw man" is....but I'll google that today.

Well, it gave me a chance to misquote Oliver Cromwell, which doesn't happen nearly often enough.

*chortles* I'll stick with my Hippogroups board. I don't pester anyone and if they want to join, they are more than free to. I guess I just like my sheep.. er customers willing, is all

If I read most of that correctly...you pretty much clarified a few of my points....particularly an understanding of "unglued"....

but I could be "mistaken."

My group invite bot has been the first and foremost contributor to the success of all my business ventures except for land (for land, it's Picks and classifieds). It has allowed me to build my group from a couple hundred people to nearly 7000 in six months. It has grown my traffic significantly - REAL traffic, not campers/bots.

The Solace Beach Treasure Hunt primarily appeals to newbies, most of whom struggle to find a group in search. Even those boards you click and get a link can be confusing for them. Only the blue pop-up window is easy enough to ensure they join. I give away a lot of free L$ every day - but to get most of it, you have to be in the group. If I didn't have an auto-invite, I'd probably receive 20 or more IMs every day asking for help to join. Considering that I own 16 sims and work 10+ hours a day in SL as it is, I simply do not have the ability to answer those additional queries. I wish there was an alternative to using a bot to send the invites, but until SL improves its scripting capabilities, it's the only option. The purpose of a robot is to perform tasks that are too dull (or in RL, dangerous) for a human, so this is actually an appropriate use for a bot...whether some people like it or not.

I too dislike random group invites for places I've never been to, BUT it's not spam if you've visited the place recently. In my case the group is REQUIRED to use many of the features of the place, so the invite makes sense. When I visit a new place, I never mind getting invites or notecards - it's easy to click Decline if you don't want it, and I know that providing those items REALLY helps new people. I've been in SL for going on 2 years, but I still remember how it felt to be new. I wish more people would remember that before complaining about things that to them seem simple, but to a newbie are extremely complicated. You are an expert now...yay for you, but not everyone is.

Awesome Example Ayesha. High Fives on the 7000 count

Unless "recently" means "while you're there, or possibly within the past minute", so you can effectively only ever have one such message presented to you, no matter how many shops you may have been to today, it's spam. Just visiting a place doesn't establish a relationship.

This is called using a database. (It can't just be an LSL script, because of limited memory.) I would use a simple architecture where an inworld script sends a message to an outworld server with the visitor name. The outworld sever does a lookup and if it's new, adds and also adds it to a notification list. Periodically or whever, you send invites to people on the update list.

But since you're doing this manually anyway, you could just paste the name into a sorted xcel spreadsheet, or any of a number of ways.

I agree with Argent that the fact that the invite comes at a random time is unfortunate, though I wouldn't go so far as to call it intentionally sneaky.

I also agree with Argent that it would be far better to send invites only to those who purchase rather than to all who visit.

I didn't say it was intentionally sneaky, I said that it seems sneaky, and that there are people who DO use this technique to be sneaky and even malicious, so when I get unsolicited invites when I'm offline I'm a bit inclined to AR them... and if I notice more than a couple at login I do.

Hippogroups IS a great invention! And the costs are minimal for what they offer.

The benefits are:
- Opt-in
- Re deliverable notices including attachments of you want
- Free items are only given once per person (group notices with freebies can be picked up over and over again)
- Not counting towards the 25 groups
- Did I mention opt-in?

Be careful though how you use it. When I implemented it, I decided to add all buyers of my items through vendors. After a brief discussion on this forum about that, I decided that it could be seen as spam as well. People get IM's and objects (freebies, notecards, etc) without ever having asked to become a member. So I would not do this again, even though I had only 1 person asking to be removed.

Now I think of it, this is proof that discussions on the forums can change minds

Ahh, just to be silly...



That's what she said.

And let's not forget that staying on-topic is always nice, so...



Hmm, well I personally click on group join boxes. This is usually after I've looked around the store a bit... maybe I bought something... who knows? Regardless... I decide I like the place enough that I'm going to let it take up one of my 25 coveted group spots. Sometimes, I have to take an old group out back and put it out of it's misery to make room for the "new hotness". It can be heart-wrenching, but oh well.

I wish every store had a simple sign at the entrance that said "Click to join group." When clicked, it would (unsurprisingly) send me a group invite via a bot. Clear, concise, easy, and unobtrusive. If I enjoy the store and I can make room, I almost always click these. If I say to myself "well, nice store, but I doubt I'll come back" then I don't want to be in the group.

Personally, I find something wrong with encouraging people to join. It's the same feeling I get when telemarketers call me to "encourage" me to buy product X because they are so helpful and know my needs more than I do myself.

However, don't get me wrong. You are well within your rights to take advantage of a marketing tool, and I agree there is nothing shameful about desiring to build your group. Very true. You just have to realize that depending on how you do that, other's are also well within their own rights to not like it.

As for this crippling your business. Well, I don't have anything but anecdotal facts (wow? on the internet, no way???) but... Argent mentioned earlier about a store group he is in that has 3000 members and they use a "click to join group" sort of box. I guess it didn't hurt them to do things this way.

In the end, does it really bother me? Not really.... I tend to blindly click "ignore, ignore, ignore, ignore..." when I login. I guess the internet has desensitized me to the point where I numbly accept this sort of thing as routine. Maybe if I ran a store and had customers to worry about I'd be more passionate about it as some of the other folks here are.

Thought I would post an update to the discussion from yesterday about group invites. I visited Mickey's store last night. I was very impressed with the store, very beautiful things. I tp'd in, and walked around a bit, had a collision with 'Ralph' according to my Mystitool (I hadn't seen Ralph before I crashed into him, he's very cute). After there about 10 minutes, I got a blue pop up, a gift. I accepted it and declined the LM that attended it. (I was just testing this, and from Mickey's posts yesterday, figured she would be watching also) . Walked around some more and soon received another 'gift'. I accepted it. Then I bought something, a gorgeous purple rug. Then I got requested to attend a meeting and had to leave the store before I was ready to go. Never received a group join request of any kind although did see a place to click, if I wanted to join the group. Mickey sent me an IM thanking me for my purchase, a short time later, maybe 5 or 10 minutes after I left. I will definitely go back, just because I loved the stuff and the experience there was pleasant. If I didn't love the stuff, no amount of gifts or blue pop ups would make me return. The gifts were really cute too, things I will actually use. I give the experience 5 stars even though I wasn't there as long as I intended to be there. I did make my own LM before I left, so that is one point. An LM did pop up for me but I declined it because I was testing her system. When in a place that's new to me I always prefer to make my own LM, IF I decide it's a place I want to return to. As of yet I have not been sent a group join invitation of any kind and plan to return and get some more purple stuff soon. For me it's mostly about loving the merchandise, what I will or won't put up with to get it.

I think that's the bottom line. People aren't going to join groups just because you invite them, they're going to join because they want to be part of what you're doing. I really think Mickey's giving too much credit to this tactic.

Wow! Thanks Treasure!

You didn't receive a group invite, because well, I knew not to from your post. LOL

but.... I have to admit that everyone else who visited yesterday, still did get a group invitation, and picked up 2 new members from it this morning.