SLMC

ticious · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 2070 Location: Chicago

Event notices in the Second Life Search Events listings are the most effective, broadly based and important advertisement for your Live Music Event (not to mention they are FREE).

Who should post the listing?
Only a parcel owner or venue group member (if the venue parcel is owned by a group) can list an event for your venue. It is the venue's responsibility to list the event, NOT the musician's.

How do you post an event?
Access the Community: Events page of the Second Life website http://secondlife.com/events/ and click on the Add Event link. This will take you to the Event Posting Rules (read them!). Click the I Agree button at the bottom to access the Event Listing Form.

Enter the

Event Name (see notes below about special characters and search)

Description (ideally, use the musician's bio and fill in a bit of 'fluff' about your venue or event here. Note that single or double quotes, colons, semi-colons and other characters which a database may read was field deliminiators will result in an error condition, don't use them!

Set the Date and Start time (be wary of am/pm), Duration, Category, Cover Charge, Location, and tick the Mature box if absolutely necessary (see notes below).

Review your entry!!!

Click the Save Event button Exclamation

IMPORTANT NOTE Exclamation

Once you've hit the Save Event button, it will look like nothing is happening. The page may sit there for quite some time (often a full minute or more). DO NOT HIT SAVE EVENT AGAIN!!!! If you hit the Save Event button again, you will end up with duplicate, triplicate, quadruplicate up to quintuplicate entries in the listings and a reputation as a SPAMMER!!!

Go back to the Search window in world, look for your listing. It should appear there within a few minutes (I've never seen it take more than about 5-10 minutes). Verify that it appears as you wanted it to (and that it appears only once!).
Tip: If you don't see it, you may have gotten the date or time wrong. Go back to the Community: Events page and click on the Host field. This will sort the listing by the name of the poster (you). Find your name, call up your listing and correct it (or delete it if the error is a field you can't edit). Note that this only works for PG rated events as Mature events won't come up on this list. There is no way to get back to and correct or delete a Mature event listing that I know of.

When should the event be listed?
The notice should be posted at least 24 hours before the event to assure the best response. This has nothing to do with how long it takes for the posting to get into in world search (in over 14 months, I've never seen that not be immediate), this has to do with it being there when people search to see what shows are upcoming so they can plan their day. Also, the Second Life engine runs a procedure of some sort early in the morning and posts stars on the Second Life map (blue for Mature, pink for PG) if the listing is there when the procedure runs. If you list your event after this procedure has been run for the day, no star will show on the map for your event.

Don't use special characters (*, %, &, ! or anything else) in the Event Name to try to catch the reader's eye.
Special characters in the event name are ineffective in terms of making your event stand out in the list (too many other folks do it) and invalidates the use of string searches that might bring guests to your event. The find feature of the Live Music events listing is NOT a key word search like the other search functions in Second Life. It is a simple text string search on the event name and the search begins from the left. The body of the event listing is NOT included in the search at all. In other words, if you are listing a show featuring Max Kleene, and you list it *MAX KLEENE* your listing will not come up for anyone searching to find a Max Kleene show using the search string "Max". Also, if you list this show as BEST VENUE IN SL and include Max's name in the body of the listing, his fans will NOT find your show when they search for his name and they likely won't come to your show because they won't know he's playing.

If you're staging a name PROMOTE THE NAME!!!
If you have an event with multiple musicians, it's fine to list one event which lists the musicians in the body of the notice. However, you should be aware, especially if you paid a fee to have those musicians draw a crowd to your venue, no one will know they're playing unless they access the body of your listing (and unless your venue already has an established following, most fans are unlikely to do this). Remember, the body of the notice is NOT INCLUDED in the string search!!

If you give the event a title like BIG BAD ASS PARTY, a lot of folks aren't going to bother to open the event and read that you have Max Kleene, Kim Seifert and Anj Gustafson appearing in your line up. It is better to put up three notices, one for each musician, with their name at the beginning of the event description: MAX KLEENE at our BIG BAD ASS PARTY listing Max at his start time for the duration of his show, KIM SEIFERT at our BIG BAD ASS PARTY listing Kim at her start time for the duration of her show and ANJ GUSTAFSON at our BIG BAD ASS PARTY listing Anj at his start time for the duration of his show.

Should you list as PG or Mature?
Mature Events will not be listed in the Community Events listing on the Second Life website. Only PG listings are included on the web site. Unless your event actually will include mature content (content which you wouldn't see on television) list it as PG. When it comes to Live Music events, very few would actually qualify as Mature, at least in terms of the listing itself. The fact that your venue is on a Mature parcel or that the musician might use profanity does NOT mean you need to list the event as Mature. On the other hand, if your venue is clothing optional or you will have naked people dancing on the stage, yeah, list the event as Mature.

Formatting the body of the event Description, DON'T USE CAP LOCK!!!
USING ALL CAPS IN THE BODY OF YOUR LISTING MAKES IT HARD TO READ AND DOES NOT CONVEY A SENSE OF EXCITEMENT OR ATTRACT LOTS OF ATTENDEES. IT IS VERY UNPROFESSIONAL LOOKING AND MAY ACTUALLY COST YOU ATTENDEES, THE OPPOSITE OF THE REASON YOU DID IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. Use proper type case in the body of your listing, keep it short and sweet and easy to read.

No one likes SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM!!!
Do not spam the list!! If your event begins at Noon and runs until 3pm, it is NOT necessary to list it three times. If you list it as starting at noon and give it a duration of 3 hours, it will remain visible in the listing until 3pm. Also, be sure to check for accidental spam (see the IMPORTANT NOTE above) and be sure to delete the extra listings. Extra listings will garner you the ill will of most folks using the list but will NOT attract avatars to your event. Spamming the Events List is a cheesy and unprofessional practice and folks will assume your event is cheesy and unprofessional also.
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Joy is in the ears that hear
- Saltheart Foamfollower
- The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant