I notice that here there is an article that suggests that the ability to mute groups *will* be in SL version 1.12.
I own two groups, one with over 1100 members and the other with (IIRC) about 400.
The 1000 member group is used for admin announcements, and the 400 member group is used for 'chat' between members.
We have it set up this way so that we can use the 1100 member group to send admin announcements (low traffic) and the 400 member group to enable members to chat to each other.
The goal of this system is to ensure that everyone gets important admin announcements, but only people who wish to opt-in get chat sent by other non-admin members of the group.
Unfortunately, we have a steady stream of new members into the 1100 group, and many of these members do not take the time to read the instruction that they are not to IM the group.
This results in unwanted chat on the main group that annoys other members.
I worry that with the new group mute tools, members will simply mute the whole main group in order to counter the spam, and thus will not get the admin announcements which are the point of the group.
Thus, a blanket mute feature, whilst very useful to people who use it responsibly, will probably also result in a lot of important admin messages never being noticed as members will feel they have to mute the whole group to cut down on the spam.
Obviously, "can start group IMs", "can recieve group IMs" group role permissions would be better, but even with a probably client-side group muting feature, it would be nice if even when activated this group muting feature did not mute group sessions started by, say, group owners, or maybe people in a role apart from 'everyone'.
This works on the principle that if you're a member of a group you should have to at least listen to important announcements made by the people who run the group, even if you choose not to listen to ordinary 'chat' by group members. After all, membership of groups is volantary and their purpose is usually to help organise groups of people, and organisation is impossible if group members have to ignore the group admins in order to stop getting spam IMs from other group members.
I realise you're working on the UserServer, and you probably plan to put in "can start group IMs", "can recieve group IMs" in the future, and this group muting feature is just a stopgap. Thus, I'm not going to ask you to do lots of work upgrading a stopgap measure when an even better solution is coming in future.
What I would like to know, though, is :
1) Will 1.12 be released next wednesday?
2) Is the 'group mute' in the current 1.12 a client-side blanket ignore feature for all group IMs?
3) What does the mute feature cover? Does it stop you getting new IM sessions? Does it stop you hearing group votes, and group announcements? If you send an IM to a group you have muted, can you hear the replies?
4) If a role-based way of controlling who can send/recieve group IMs is far off, do you plan on making an exception in the 1.12 group mute tool for group owners or people in roles beyond 'everyone'?
5) Who put the group mute feature in 1.12? If it is getting released with 1.12 this wednesday or next, said person should fess up so all the people who want group muting can rejoice and thank them, as I know lots of people have wanted this.
6) Will it be possible to tell *who* has muted a group, say, in the members list? No problem if not, I assume 90% of the effort is (rightly) going into pressing for effective "can send group IMs" and "can recieve group IMs" permissions for the group role system.
I'm very glad we're progressing towards better tools for controlling IMs on groups. Thank you to whoever is responsible for this.