Do you pay attention to group notices?

This question has been rolling around in my head for a while now. I have a DJ fan group and send notices for events that I'm playing, but people receive so many notices at any given time that I'm sure most people just hit OK and delete the things without reading them.

Do you actually pay attention to group notices? Do they draw you to events?

I, for one, am in 25 groups and cannot stand the spam when I log in, and will sometimes miss important notices (like staff notecards and such) because I either automatically delete, or the deliveries are capped.

Is there a better way to draw people in to events? Using the mass teleport can be irritating, as well (and yes, I've used it) because often, people are busy doing other things. Spamming group IM seems to be frowned upon.

So given all of this (and assuming you don't pay attention to notices), what would be a better, more effective way to advertise and get people to a club, apart from the website search?

I also thought about suggesting to Linden to set a time limit on group notices. When I get home from work, I've already missed the ninety or so club events that are spamming the upper right of my screen. But that discussion is probably better for another forum.

I do look at them and sometimes go to things they annouce.

Yes, I read notices. No, I don't attend everything. It depends on the event and what I'm doing at the time for a notice to change my plans.

Depends on how often the group does notices. On the ones that seem to need a notice-of-the-day, I don't pay a lot of attention. On the ones that aren't spammy, I'm more likely to pay a bit more attention.

Yes and no. I have things go to my email so I see them throughout the day and, in general, those I ignore since they are for things going on when I am at RL work and can't attend anyway. So, when I log on, I glance at the group NAME to assure that I'm not deleting the wrong thing and then just "ok" them closed.

If something pops up when I am on SL, yes, I'll glance at it. One of my pet peeves are notices that do not give enough information to help me decide if I want to attend something or not. So my eyes scan and if I do not see a start time and music style listed, I close it without reading further. If I see a music genre that I'm interested in, I will go back and read the entire thing. If I go so far as to read it, then my attendance is dependent on what else I have planned.

Personally, when it's a DJ (or a group of DJ's) notice, I'd prefer a once a week group notice with an "upcoming events" notecard attached that I can save to my inventory and consult when convenient. "I will be playing here (with embeded LM) at this time on this date and playing this kind of music" type thing as opposed to ONLY a five minutes before you start notice or multiple notices all day long on the day of the event. I have limited time on SL and rarely do anything spontaneously. I have to plan my activities in advance so, chances are, 99% of the time the last minute notice thing will be ignored.

If it is a club specific group notice... well, same thing: A group notice with an upcoming events notecard (themes, contests, DJ's and what type music, etc) once a week in addition to a reminder an hour or so before each event is much more likely to get me to go somewhere.

Sure, sometimes there are last minute changes, someone cancels and you are filling in, etc. but advance notice is a very, very good thing.

Occasionally, I will find myself with unexpected time on my hands and will go looking for a club to attend. However, most of the time I give up pretty quickly because "event listings" rarely give enough information (no location information given besides "club whatever", no music genre listed, etc). Typing "club" or "nightclub" or "DJ" in search to find groups is often useless as not every club has the word "club" in their title, etc.

Then, if I do find an event listing or DJ or club group on search, notices for club groups which say what is going on are not accessible to non-group members. So, besides group notices and group chat, having your schedule on the "group description" portion of your DJ group is also helpful, especially if you play the same club the same night of every week. Same goes for the group page of the club. If they have a schedule of events with the type of music being played on that date on their group FRONT page (that is viewable by even non-group members), I'm much more likely to come check it out on those occasions that I'm looking for something going on.

1. Advance notice
2. Complete information
3. Information accessible to non-group members

That's all I can think of at the moment.

I'm at a current peak of 14 groups because I'm currently in the Kids5B group to hear about the announcements from there.... And to snitch if I spot a Linden. (^_^)

But, I've said it before, boring and redundant group announcement/chat = boring redundant group. I read every single group announcement I get. Sometimes I go to the event, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I accept the item, sometimes I don't. If a group gets too uninteresting or spammy to me... I leave. (^_^)y

Thanks.

That's very helpful, and something I have been considering for my Tuesday night events (usually a different theme each week).

I tend to send a notice about fifteen minutes before an event, and I might do one a few minutes into the event if I have the time, but I don't like spamming people and wanted input on how best to avoid it, because I'd also rather people not leave my group because of spam.

Part of the reason to join a group would be to get group noticed I wanted.

Whether they are annoying or not depends on frequency and content.

Getting a notice at the start of an event is welcome. Getting multiple notices for one event is excessive.

The content of the notice is also important. If the notice is a concise, simple invitation to an event, with information about what the event is, that is welcome. A rambling notice that doesn't tell me much about the event is annoying.

The other annoyance I get sometimes is the use of both Group Chat and Notices that say the same thing. Use one or the other, not both. Preferably, use a Notice, because Group Chat is an invitation to a lot of annoying chatter.

Another point is that the notice for an event should probably clearly include the start and stop times for the event. The notice comes with a timestamp of when it was sent; however, that isn't enough information for me to know whether a notice that is waiting form me when I log is is a timely notice or not.

Oh, and one other annoything is when I join a group expecting one kind of notice, but I get another. Such as with one dance club whose group I joined. I'd like to know about the club events. However, the owner of the club is also selling land recently, and now I get land sales pitches from the club notices.

You might consider sending a group IM instead of that second notice once the event has started.

I am sure there are strong feelings about this; some people don't like group IMs, but I've never had complaints with my practice, which is as follows:

(1) send a group notice prior to the event, anywhere from half an hour before (for my regular weekly event that everyone in the group knows about) to a day or two before (for events at special times).

(2) send a group IM once the event is underway.

(3) send another group IM about an hour in, or any time I feel attendance could use a bit of a goose.

I like the use the group IMs for the reminders because they only go to people who are already logged in. Those who aren't logged in will get the group notice from prior to the event when they do log in. And since the goal of (2) and (3) is to get people to TP over *now*, it makes the most sense to restrict these messages to people who are logged in *now*. So group IM seems to me a sensible way to go.

Yeah the group IM thing makes a lot of sense. I usually encourage my event host to use my group IM for that activity, but I will let the chatter die out if it gets excessive. All I want said is "The event is this, goes on till such and such, and DJ Johnny is spinning these tunes, here's your limo" or something to that effect.

I just quit a VIP group because (a) I was already in the staff group and (b) because I was getting multiple notices per event from both groups simultaneously AND both group IMs.

I had a little chat with the club owner about it, but club owners sometimes don't take suggestions very well, so I decided it would be easier to leave the unnecessary (to me) group.

I try to keep my groups list from 10 to 15 . Most are social or RP groups. I pretty much stopped joining fashion groups, usually too much noise and spam. I belong to maybe one or two. I look at the notices, but don't always read the attachments. Some I will look at later, some I never open at all. None of the IM's or notices from these groups bother me. If they did, I wouldn't belong to the group.

no. i delete then without reading them. always. i hate them. they are spam to me. and i quit groups that give more than one a week.

I always read the group notices. I have quit groups that I think send too many for reasons that I am not interested in. Most of my groups are fashion stores and I am usually interested when they have a new item or a group gift. The few clubs that I belong to, I joined to specifically find out about events.

Given all of that, I actually check all group notice history once or twice a day now because I do not get many of the notices due to whatever the latest SL bug is with them.

Pet peeve with group notices is repetition....i receive one to tell me whuts happening & when, i dont wnat it on the minute every minute until the event kicks off...or a blow by blow account of whos there and what they are doing.
CAPS LOCK CAN BE TURNED OFF !!!! Why do people think writing a group notice entirely in caps is going to attract my attention ?

For events I like a notecard with relevant details...time, location , embedded LM is nice, up to 3-4 days in advance so i can plan and make time to go. Ive got a terrible memory, so a notecard means I can go back and re-read.

I have a large group that needs updated info several times a week. There are always the few that just refuse to read the notices OR take the attachments. I always compare these folks to people who play Space Invaders. They think they win if they click all of the little blue boxes really fast and make them go away.

.

I quit LME because of the spam and the DJ events and people just shooting the breeze in it... The rule on that group as far as I read it was only musicians could send alerts, but everyone and their mom was doing it.. Now I just check live events or the specific musicians I care to see

I am the only one in my group allowed to send notices, but anyone can IM.

I generally discourage group IM unless it's for an event I'm playing, or if someone needs genuine help with something.

I am only in groups I find intersting so read Group Notices as they are generally of interest to me.

I like the idea of date stamped auto delete ... this is a method which I use to manage paperwork at my desk in RL - short lived memos etc get a date pencilled on them, after which they get binned from the tray.

Like others, I scroll through a mountain of messages when I log on, and may miss important ones ...

Group IMs are ok, but annoying if I am in a private IM (or several) ...

I've thought a lot about events and clubs and socialization in SL in general, and have some loosely-related observations...

When I sign in, most of the notices waiting for me are old. It's a waste of time to read them, so I don't.

If they come in when I'm online I'll read them if I'm not too busy.

SL needs a calendar function. Club events that I've subscribed to should be automatically added to it. I'm unlikely to notice an event notice that comes in, but sometimes I'd like to be able to see what's happening right now. The events search results are mostly crap. I want a calendar that I have more control over.

Most club notices are useless. I don't care one bit what the current event is called, and I usually don't care who's DJ. If it's a club that's open every day an event notice every hour is just noise and will eventually piss me off. I only want event notices from clubs that open only for infrequent events.

Good DJs should send their own group notices, but when they start advertising their buddy's club and this event and that event to which they won't be DJing, they become useless.

Clubs that don't have a consistent genre are mostly useless, unless they are truly social clubs, which brings me to...

I've been in SL almost two years and have searched for truly social clubs and I've found very very few. Most "conversation" at clubs is really stupid, and I'm half convinced it's scripted and there's nobody actually there. Clubs need to concentrate on creating events that are actually worth going to, not on getting people in the door.

Watching my avatar dance got old after just a couple days in SL. It's no longer a good enough reason to go to a club. If what you have to offer is a place to dance and a music stream you are offering nothing at all.

Is it just me or has SL become a lot less social in the last two years? I'm still here only because I remember the wonder of it all when I first came here and I'm sentimental and really stubborn. If I joined today I wouldn't stay.

SL is *really* depressing these days.

I read all group notices (that I get -- it's so patchy whether you actually receive them these days). And, yes, I attend a large number of events (live music) specifically because of the notices. If I find that I'm getting notices of events and I'm not attending them, I generally drop the group. It means I wasn't as interested in whatever it is advertising than I had originally thought.

I prefer a notice a few hours ahead of time, and then a group IM reminder "hey, starting in 5 minutes, here's the SURL." Spamming me with 4 notices in one day for a single event's likely to get your group dropped, too.

I just quit a group last night. I joined it by invitation (invitation only group) while I was hanging out at Kids5B. I had the space, and since it was a help/service group of sorts I figured it might be something to to be in. (^_^)

What it wound up being was a string of requests for AR parties and a member here and there recruiting people in the group to quit and go to some other group for "better" help... (=_=)

Ugh! ... *goes to group list* .... *marks group* .... *clicks leave* .... Problem solved. (^_^)y

It's mostly unconscious for me: when a notice pops up I'll glance over it and if it's something I'm not interested in I just click it away without ever consciously noticing it.

I guess I developed a mental spam filter for them by being in the Fashion Consolidated group .

I like that idea.



Anya, I've only been here a little over a year, but I think you may be right about SL becoming less social, even in that time. I have a hard time finding places to hang out, and it seems to be a common theme.

So how do I get you in the door of our club? We have a somewhat loose theme (formal/James Bond) but out focus during events is conversation. If you show up during an event, someone WILL talk to you, and it will be REAL talk, not canned baloney. I do have a few hostess gestures, mostly to save typing out "To dance, touch the poster overhead," but I usually end up typing something out anyway.

So, with all the people in SL looking for sociable conversation, hasn't the dance floor been packed for my last few events? Do I need to pick a different time? Do we need to emphasize the social and conversational aspect of our events more in our listings? Is our formalwear requirement too off-putting?

I think you'd like our place. What would it take to get you in the door?

I don't even read group notices I send out myself - why would i bother reading any of the others ?