Group Events Feature

I think we should add an Events feature to Groups so that we can have group specific events.

Below I detail why, and also provide an example of how it could be implemented in the viewer for your consideration.

The Problem to be solved

Currently we have one Events list in Second Life (World -> Events or CTRL+E).

The Events List is typically not relevant to our interests or social groups as individual residents, and many sim owners like myself wish to target their own groups, rather than the whole of Second Life, when running events.

Because of these factors, users do not check or use the Events List at all, finding little to no utility in it. Community managers have difficulty when it comes to community events as they have to fall back on group notices, which users learn to ignore due to their spammy nature, especially if community managers are sending out reminders about up coming events frequently.

Above: The current Second Life events page. None of the events are personal to residents in any way. It is spam residents learn to ignore.

Design Requirements

• We should be able to see an overview of any group events from groups we are in when we log in.
• We should be able to open a group profile and see any Events that are happening in the group.
• Group owners should be able to allow other group members to make events via roles.
• Group events should not be exposed on the existing global events calendar. The audience of group events are group members, not the whole of Second Life.
• We should be able to pull up a window which will show all upcoming events in all of our groups.
• Design must avoid spamming the user intrusively about events. The more events feel spammy, the less users will pay attention to them and the more likely users are to turn off notices.
• In general, the design should lend itself to users being aware of what is happening now in the moment, so they do not miss out on events that might have only had a reminder sent out yesterday etc.

Solution

I am proposing the implementation of a new type of Events - Group events. Group Events unlike Global Events are specific to the users Groups.

Group Events Tab

A new tab will be created in the Group Profile window called Events.

A scrollable grid displaying upcoming events will be displayed at the top of the events tab.

A typical point of friction in SL is event time. This is because many residents get tripped up by timezones and are prone to misread event times.

To solve this I propose that events that are happening in less than 24 hours are displayed in the grid in countdown format. That is to say instead of displaying a date which is prone to be misinterpreted, we display the time remaining until the event which is easy to be understood at a glance.

Events that are >24 hours away will display just the day and month in the grid. If the year does not match the current year, also display the year, but typically this is going to be unnecessary information.

When the user clicks an event, the fields displayed below the grid will populate with the event details. The user should be able to click the landmark to open the place profile window from which they can teleport.

Similar to the Notices Tab, the + New Event button will make the fields editable, the user will fill out the event details and click Create Event to submit the event.

The location field is a landmark. Users can drag a landmark onto it from their inventory or click Current Location to fill this field.

Validation - The description field should not be required as the title is often self explanatory, but users should expect to always have a link to the event, so the Location field should be required.

Group Events Window

We will have a window that shows events from all groups we are in. The window will be available from World -> Group Events, and a dedicated toolbar button will exist to open this window too.

The window will be a quick way to see what's going on in all the different groups the user is in. Because it is the users groups, the events displayed are going to be much more likely to be of interest to the user.

The user will have the option to Show the Window at Login, which will help users who like to plan their day get an overview of upcoming events they might otherwise miss out on when they log in to Second Life.

Group Toasts

Group Toasts will help get the attention of users who aren't actively looking for events, without being spammy the way that group notices are. They will be small toasts that dismiss themselves automatically once the event is underway.

Users must be able to opt out of receiving toasts from a given group. This could be done by adding a new setting to the Group preferences or using the existing 'Receive group notices' user setting for the given group.

It is important these toasts are not intrusive, cause toolbar flashing or anything like this. The less that events feel like spam, the more likely users are to pay attention and participate in events. It is better to have a user miss one event than annoy them into turning off notifications and miss all events forever.

The user will be able to opt out of toasts by turning off event notifications for a given group.

Create and Manage Events Ability

Groups will have a new ability, 'Create and Manage Events'. The ability will by default by granted to the Group Owners role, but can also be assigned to other roles as the Group Owner sees fit.

Room for Future Expansion

Some things that could also be useful later down the line but I do not consider critical:-

• Event Duration
• Mobile Notifications for Group Events

That's it!

I think that events are very important to Second Life's long term health as they are the times when people come together and make friends and memories.

With this set of features, I believe that we will be giving residents a highly useful and personal events feature set that balances the needs of sim owners and regular residents elegantly. It would be a meaningful upgrade to Second Life's social tooling that allows for a much more fluid social environment, which will keep the world feeling alive and people coming back.

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