The Group Tools met at 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20, to keep sharing ideas. The 7 p.m. meeting was cancelled. This is a summary of the discussion.
Several Lindens have confirmed in follow-up emails or comments from a number of us seeking clarity on this that the group tools reform and the covenants efforts are separate, and that while group tools reform are already scheduled for actual coding and production, the covenants are not yet in the plan and schedule, and there appears to be agreement that group tools should be sequenced before covenants.
We agreed that before the Lindens begin the series of group meetings of 8 persons x 5 groups starting Jan. 23 (focus groups, to register write [email]jeska@lindenlab.com[/email]), we should ask the Lindens to put their concept, even briefly, in the group forums or feature suggestions.
We've already heard that they are working on some kind of menu that would involve tabs, with labels like "group management" or "land management" with different groups of functions.
Accordingly, we need to know the basics:
1. What is the concept for the group tools at root? Does it involve a founder who possesses the right to determine all functions for himself and the group members, or group limitations on the group founder, even if he purchases land and tiers it all himself? Will the founder have the right to decide whether he alone determines that he alone has all the most powers, or alternatively, determines if he wishes to share those powers equally with other officers, or will there be functions that could override him in any fashion?
2. Will groups as they are be grandfathered, i.e. at least in terms of the existing functions, the status of officer vs. member, the membership and land lists, etc., i.e. so that a new software update will graft right over and update existing groups? Or will brand-new groups have to be started to obtain the new features?
3. What will happen to groups where the founder is no longer in SL, is a cancelled account, or never logs on?
As Robin Linden had said she was working with a list longer than 24 (now 35 adding a few new ones I thought of), we vowed to try to make this list as complete as possible, and will follow up with Khamon Fate and any others who thought up new functions:
Original post here: /148/ac/44268/1.html had 35 -- I added 11 more as I thought of it -- please everyone check and add any others currently in the tool set -- keep a separate list of the wish list.
35 *Current* Functions Within Groups
For Founder Only
o Founds Group, Pays $100
o Names Group
Functions for Officers Only
o Decides To Keep Open or Invitation-Only Membership
o Decides to Make Public Group Name in FIND GROUPS
o Decides to Make Public Members' Names
o Invites Members
o Expels Members
o Invites Officers
o Expels Officers (currently not possible as officer recall was removed)
o Names Titles
o Pays Purchase Price of Land When Buying for Group
o Names Land and Describes Land
o Puts Land in Find Places With Check-Off ($30 Fee Debits Equally from All)
o Puts Classified Ad on Land Parcel
o Sets Landing Point
o Returns Prims
o Parcels Land
o Sets Music/Video Stream
o Sets Land to Sale to Anyone Out of Group
o Puts Land to Sale to Specific Person
o Takes Land Out of Group Through $0 Sale to Self
o Accepts Deeded Land Contributions
o Announces Events on Events Calendar
o Deeds Objects
o Collects Portion of Membership Fee
o Sets About Land Options (Edit, Fly, Outside Scripts, Damage, Create/Edit, Landmark,)
For Officers and Members Also
o Starts Election to Move from Member to Officer
o Pays Tier Contributed to Group
o Announces Events on Events Calendar
o Sets Home to Here on Group Land
o Makes Proposals for Votes
o Makes Group IMs
o Collects Portion of Income
o Collects Portion of Dwell
o Leaves Group
Basic Concepts that Should Be Goals of Group Tool Reform:
1. The Founder must be able to choose between keeping the right to handle all the functions to him/herself - or delegate them to others. Flexibility and customization are the rule here, rather than enforcement of pre-conceived notions of groups.
2. The group reform should not be a compromise between different models of how groups should be run in SL, but deliver *choice* as to how groups can be created for different purposes.
3. The reforms should either grandfather, or override and encompass, existing groups as they are now, with officer/member designations, etc.
Basic Suggestions for Changes:
1. There should be a way to keep accounts of tier and cash contributions to groups, i.e. a "treaurer" function held by the founder or delegated to officers. The founder must be able to decide to hold all group income, or to apportion it among officers only, or allow it to circulate equally to all officers and members, as in current model.
2. A function is needed whereby land purchased by one member or officer could be deeded for the group's use, and the group's return of prims from it, so that the original owner could retain the control over it to pull it back out of the group, and no other member or officer could sell it but him.
3. The Lindens must drop the current system whereby the founder calls up LL and asks to have an officer removed. Either officer recall should be reinstated *for the officer class only and not members* and NOT be anonymous, or the founder should have the option, within his own set of tools, to remove any officer at his will.
4. A feature for group communications, whereby messages can be sent to the group online and offline, and possibly also notecards delivered to all, should be created. The voting system is currently used as a workaround for such communications but should be reserved just for actual voting proposals so that voting spam doesn't keep reaching members for days.
5. Group features should contain an option for only officers, and not members, initiating group messages to those online/offline.
6. There should be an option for remaining in a group, and following group IMs if desired, but not be compelled to be spammed with them, i.e. shutting off group IMs temporarily.
7. A solution must be found to the problem of groups with founders now absent or who have left SL, if certain functions only accrue to founders. Rather than creating cumbersome "officer recall" type voting procedures to vote founders out of groups, which opens up the problem of theft of land and lack of trust again, a determination should be made whether this is significant enough of issue to solve it by either manual LL changes with written requests, or by simply making new groups beyond the original group.
8. The limit of 15 groups per avatar should be increased to as many as can be coded now.
9. Groups should not disband after 3 days because they have less than 3 people; the limit should extend to 7 days.