If consumers treated content like many treat events....

1. Most folks would get free stuff at Yadni's and never shop. After all, why should we pay for stuff over and above what we give to LL?
   
2. People would say "I don't ever shop because its too hard to find the good shops with all the crap that's out there"
   
3. People wouldn't read the new product forums and classified because "its all junked up with the *.*slutwear" and script stuff that I can't really use because I don't have land
   
4. People would never go see your fantastic new build because "it takes too much time flying around and looking at ugly stuff before you find something that's really cool"
   

I'm just sayin....

lol - very good, Vivianne!

coco

lol so what you're saying is consumers do treat content like they treat events?

Don't build or sell to the mainstream users. Build and sell to the niches. They're more willing to go the extra meter. The mainstreamers are already well served... by people I will now call Resident Rustlers.

<- worships jake for not only alliterating but doing it with the letter R.

What?

coco

I think he means find eccentrics and shamelessly exploit them.

or he could mean if its not lame bling, hiphop wear and actually an original idea, it might actually command a better price!

lol or someone will ask if they can get it with bling.

One difference is that events are consumables and most other content isn't. I think people are more willing to pay in SL for stuff that can clutter up their inventories.

Part of the problem happens to do with apathy via attrition—a downslide began, clutter started to pile up, and among other things, we are lacking better filters to organize our information.

There is a lot being missed though, in some instances, the right people will come along and fill those voids. One person taking the initiative can make a big difference.

Don't try to swing for the fences. Find special-interest groups and cater to them, I think is the idea.

I.E, "serious discussions" might not attract a bunch of people, but the people that do show up are likely to be highly interested.

Niche markets...

Interesting point, I think this comes down to a 'lowest common denominator' factor. The bigger you want your audience to be, the more you will have to lower the standards.

The way I've often seen it is like a magnifying glass—if you choose to, you can focus. Some want to cast big nets that happen to interest a lot (i.e. pro wrestling), but others are fine with diehardcore cult followings. What I enjoy are the contradictions that can cover both, if not yet, then in time as popularity grows.

The events list is such an absurdity now that the abuse of it now includes classified ads for goods sold at businesses.

Shopping is now an event. Shopping and money chairs have overtaken SL. Why venture out now...content in the metaverse is like riding down Admiral Wilson Blvd in Camden New Jersey..

I guess I'm lucky in a way that I design content which is not necessarily the norm. My designs cater to the mechaphiles. THose people who buy mecha avatars because it IS mecha. In a way it's a cyclical pattern. I design stuff that appeals to the 'niche' crowd, and the 'niche' crowd boosts my ego and my inspiration to design more machine-based stuff for the niche.

My earlier comment about taking advantage of eccentrics wasn't meant to be a cut at anybody. It wasn't entirely untruthfull either . What I implied that might offend is that the people designing for niche groups were doing so for purely cold and calculated reasons and doing so unethically. This is not the case and I know it.

The lowest common denominator theory sounds about right. Sadly it seems to preclude large profitable events which also contain any really interesting content. Now if you can make a small profitable event, that might just be in the realm of possibility. You have to find people who appreciate the quality and are also willing to pay enough to compensate for the small audience.

YOIKS!

Envy factor. There's not many events where you can feel that you really missed out by not attending. On the other hand, if someone has a just plain coolier/sexier/furrier avatar than you, then..



That's because if you don't find the event in time, it's over and gone. The shop is there forever.

there'd be a million of them - all saying the the same shit till we were utterly sick of the sight of them and stopped bothering to look because its the same old crap........

Except, of course, for repeating events. I'm thinking of Zonax Delorean's Primworx Show and Tell, or the Shelter's Payment Podium/Trivial Obsession, or (blows horn) my own Tuesday Primtionary.

Actually, aside from the gameshows, the Shelter has a regular schedule of stuff they don't always post to the events list proper.

This doesn't help for one-time-only events, true, but finding something good and sticking to the same day and time every week helps for those that are repeatable.

*applauds*

This is a very interesting comparison... and a valid one at that. In the content vs events duality, we must keep in mind that events are non-reproducible, which is a major pressure factor in keeping most of them simple, while "quality" events are scarce.
By non-reproducible I mean that you cannot simply design an event like you do with an object, set it down and let it sell. Not for the general case at least. We could certainly create events that are more content-centric instead of people-centric. We see that happen with Tringo and clubs. You go to any Tringo parlor or club house, and you get the same kind of experience everywhere. Movies are also a good, reproducible sort of event for those who can afford the bandwidth.
Game show types of events can be made more reproducible if you work hard to automate the game part of the show.
What types of events are there, anyway?

Shhhh - dont give away the secret!


- Newfie