Need for group ceiling to be raised yet again

Agrees withthe Veggie Person But sadly LLAbs will not do it.

I'm not sure where I heard it, but apparently the database load increases significantly with every group slot, as each time you try to edit/rez a prim, go into a parcel, the server needs to check your permissions against each group?

Doesn't make much sense to me though...it should look at the prim/parcel 1st, then check 'are you a member of x'?

I don't understand how it contributes to lag either.. I thought the whole point of having a group 'active' was so that the system would know if you were entering a parcle or rezzing a prim, whether that was permitted. In other words, it shouldn't matter if you have 10 or 1000 groups in your account, when doing these things it should only have to check one thing - what is your active group.

The only times when having 1000 groups should matter would be when you open a group list window, like to change the group settings of a prim, or when you need to change active groups...in other words anywhere it has to list all your groups, is the only time it should have to, well, send the whole list of groups. Personally, although it is sometimes interesting to see what groups are in someone else's profile, I would be just as happy if the group listing was not in the profile. Maybe that would reduce lag, not having to drag long group lists around with us in our profiles?

As far as sending group IMs, it shouldn't matter how many groups you are in -- sending an IM to a group should all happen server-side, and the only thing that should matter is how many people are in the group you're sending the IM to. Like others, I would love to see a way to turn off the group IMs. Notices are fine, but the IMs sometimes get a little much.

-Atashi

As far as the necessity of joining groups - sure, on the one hand, yeah, every club and their dog is willing to hand out VIP memberships - but groups are also necessary for other things.

- Many mall owners use groups to manage prims from their vendors - so if you're a merchant and you want to sell stuff in a mall, chances are you need to join a group to sell your prims there.

- I have land in a private sim - one of the conditions is to subscribe to the sim's group in order to recieve updates about the sim itself and how things are being run.

- I know of several people who have to be part of multiple groups as a condition of their companies being in world.

- Groups are not just 'things to join' - they can also be close knit communities in some cases. Being able to keep in touch with a community of friends that is centered around a group is difficult when the limit basically leaves people with no choice but to drop groups they'd *like* to be in.

As for the thought that additional groups would be an additional load on SL's performance, I don't agree that gradiating the availability of groups based on verification or account type is the answer. After all - there are plenty of verifieds who pay far more than some premium members - just through other avenues.

Perhaps instead there could be some means of making additional group joins (above 25) cost a certain amount. Perhaps $50L? $100L?

That's correct - it's only the active group that is checked.

Ah you're probably right on the active group issue... however all groups still count for showing "parcel lines" and "show land owner" views, however, that may be done entirely in the client.

Without being able to see what goes on server side, the exact "why"'s of more groups being a problem is just guess work.

I had to quit a group last night to get another for land access for a building job.

I made an alt instead for building, that just makes more sense now. I could leave a couple more but I'd rather not- "Albion Family" may be completely pointless as a group for me, but it was the second group I ever joined (after the blacklibrary "blackboreders" group) and I'm not quitting it ever. I think I got defaulted to an officer of it at one point when the founder left

Then I have about five land groups, another five or so around building/architecture to keep on the grapevine, concierge, sellers guild (great for gossip n drama), *one* friend's vanity group... it does all add up.

What I do know is, 15 was one less than I needed then, and 25 is one less than I need now

When Vendors add me to a group. I inform them that I'm near my 25 group limit. Once the prims are placed, I leave the group. The prims are still "set to group" and are therefore safe from autoreturn.. and as owner, I can still manipulate them to my heart's content.

This of course, DOES present a problem when the group owners want to do mass announcements. But at this point, there's not too much I can do about it. If it were "just me" selling my stuff, joining a few groups would be fine. But installing vendors for a "big name" product.. I'd have filled up my groups in an hour if I left them all joined.

If I need to make changes, the land owner will IM me or I'll IM them.. and then I can be added back to the group long enough to make the changes.

That actually seems to work out quite well. And I've only had one person question it.

Ah, I was wondering if that would work. Thanks for the info, that will save a lot of trouble.