Events/Announcements Reworked

can we not just toogle all announcements on now? i thought we could.

well then yes i have no problem with a remind me of everything checkbox.

or better yet, a set of checkboxes per category.

I will say this once, and only once... You force me to listen to hourly annoucements, or wade through sales spam in the events listing, and I will hunt you down and rip out your brains through your nose. Slowly. With a spork.

<sarcasm>
Ooh Mole, you're threatening people... that's against the TOS
</sarcasm>

sorry, I had to... some imbecile pulled it on me earlier today.

Brace,

I completely agree with you.

I've tried expressing my views on this before, but was quickly told that i was too new to have an opinion, that my definition of an event was not valid, and when i opposed, i was called an asshole. I'm not here to take shit, so i stopped talking about it.

The know-it-alls won. One of them even hold regular events about 'How to make money in SL', even if i doubt he has ever made any significant money, apart from Linden event support.

Forcing people to lie about the purpose of their event is just plain stupid.
Making it hard for newbies to make a buck is even more stupid. They quit before their trial runs out when they find out how hard it is. I have several friends that has given up because they can't afford to own land, and when they have no scripting or designing skills, they quit.

I am opposed to any censorship to what is a valid event. As long as there is a host present to take care of the visitors, and the meeting has a purpose, its an event, IMO. Give us enough categories and filters, goddamit, and people will see exactly what they want on the events list. The event listing as it is now, is just full of hidden agendas. It's moronic. Ive also stopped browsing and attending event because of this.

My SL economy is strong, I've found other ways to make money to pay for my tier. But the censorship bugs me every day, and i have developed an attitude towards Lindens much like the one i have towards governments and stupid politicians. So I will probably never take the step fully and get my own sim, since my experience is that a few whines on the forums from a couple of vocal members can change the rules in a couple of days notice. I sell my extra L$ on GOM instead. As fast as possible. I have better use for the money RL. And more joy.

But if you have the energy to fight, Brace: Know that you have the full support of a lot of users. Most of them dont even frequent the forums, because of all the shit they have to take if they dare to voice their opinion.

Thanks Moonshine. I hear you loud and clear. I wonder if anyone else does?

I love all the suggestions about hosting a "real" sales event. Prior to the event changes, I did just that. One of my events got singled out by someone as a prime example of how people are trashing up the events listings, and I also got some pretty personal attacks from that thread as well.

The suggestions to hold a real event for retail ventures are moot. Read the guidelines as they stand today. Those are not allowed.

When I defended myself against the allegations mentioned above, I said that I was always present at my location. I hosted the event, I was there to help folks with anything they needed, since my primary clientele for my first line of clothing was and still is very new people to SL.

If you have been around awhile ie beta times and already established, you cannot know how frustrating, and difficult and impossible it is as a new person, to start a business of any kind from scratch, and have it be successful.

When I did what was then perfectly fine and not against the rules, I was singled out, called a "talentless noobie" and basically was told to stfu and keep my crappy events and products out of everyone's face. This a wonderful way to welcome new people to secondlife.

Soon after that, the events/announcements got changed. What do you think I learned from that?

I don't care about personal attacks. I do care about folks not reading my proposal and then spouting on about what they think I said.

This will help:
Any hourly event announcements are on a toggle. The default is on. Ya click once and they are gone forever.
Any buy/sales events are on a toggle. The default is on. Ya click once and they are gone forever.
You know, just like the mature events and mature toggle for places search. You know, like the online toggle for people search.
Painless. No need to chip your fingernails while you pull brains out from noses.

Just as Mole is passionate about his stance, I am doubly so about taking away choices from everyone, and making it super not fun for new people to participate in SL. I am doubly so on how clear it is, that some folks get listened to, and others do not.

Times are different now, there are new people coming in everyday, and the community is bigger and wider. Favoritism from the powers that be is not conducive to growth.

I'll keep squeaking my wheel, and I won't shut up, and I won't back down. This is not a knee jerk reaction. I took time out to observe and research, to ask questions of noobies and oldies alike, and to see with my own eyes what is going on. I took time to write down my ideas, and suggestions, then sleep on them, think some more, re-write, do more reseach etc etc

All I'm asking here is for LL to take a look again at this issue, think on ways that a solution could be implemented that is win-win for everyone and not just a chosen few. My proposal is one of many of suggested solutions.

This forum is where we can all converse about what we would like to see in Second Life. Threats and insults only serve to discourage people from participating and debase the effort. If you do not agree with a suggested feature or topic you are encouraged to pipe up and tell everyone why - so long as you can do so in a civil manor.

Remember many of these ideas may well server your needs better too - it is in your best interest to be civil and encourage people to participate.

Thank you. While I'm sure there will be many things we'll disagree on (ie: feature priorities), moderating out these sorts of posts will certainly not be one of them.

If it were implemented with no ability to turn it off, I would be opposed to it. However, the entire proposal Brace gave contains options for turning it off completely - so I don't see any reason to be opposed to it. The loss of the announcements did have a negative effect on events, as did the generic - "coming up this hour, a party and three store openings" announcements. Seeing them come back in an automated way would be nice for those that are interested in receiving them, and those who don't want them could turn them off one time and never see them again. I think that strikes a nice balance between the two extremes.

Great suggestion Brace.

Speaking as a born again newbie, ( I lost my first avie when I ran out of money and didn't know about tiering down yet), I love this post. I came back to SL because I had remembered that they had nice little announcements so I could attend classes with other noobs, take balloon rides, I remember YadNi showing off his (at that time) brand new water dragon avie. Even though I didn't have money to buy anything, that was a worthwhile event to go to imho. He was there and I met several new friends.

All in all even now I'd still love to have reminders of events.

just my L$0.02

Bumpalicious

Whathehey - since we are talking about economics ~ I still think my Proposal is valid and might cure a LOT of ills.

Thank you Cristiano and others for reading my proposal through and through before commenting ~ it does a body good!