EVENTS in SECOND LIFE
Trash, Cash, and Sleaze






by "Merlyn Bailly"
copyright 4 May 2006

SECOND LIFE | SECOND OPINION | TEEN SECOND LIFE

Just checked the EVENTS schedule for today (Thursday - 4 May, 2006). As usual, alot of tringo, slingo, blackjack, camping chairs, money balls, slots, a phony yard sale at a "mini-mall".

Recently, there has been alot of discussion in the EVENTS forum about the definition of the word "event", and the criteria set up by LL for posting an "event" to the EVENTS calendar. Basically, the "event" must be TIME-LIMITED, and there MUST be a resident ON-SITE during the "event".

I hate fake "yard sales" that are set up by commercial used-goods dealers who throw stuff out the front doors of their shops and call it a "yard sale". It's not a yard sale -- REAL YARD SALES are held by individuals who want to clean out their garage/attic/basement, and they don't just throw things out and expect them to sell themselves.

Over and over again, the Lindens have said TIME-LIMITED -- so what do I find in the EVENTS calendar?

Yard Sale 24 hours a day 7 days a week<---the true times -- hardly "LIMITED" Date: Thursday, May 4, 2006 Time: 4:00AM - 7:00AM (180 minutes) <---------------put in ONLY to mollify Linden rules Location: Pavonia (,) Host: audrey Magpie Category: Commercial Cover Charge? No Event description: Come on over and stroll around! we have all kinds of pic frames,artwork,benches,tables,foutians,stainwindows and more! we have vendors set up for u to look throu! great low prices,and low prims!

These are the kind of dealers that I avoid like the plague. They even put out VENDORS so that the buyer cannot check the contents of the box and cannot verify that the item he is paying for is what he will get when he opens the box in his inventory.

And since they've got VENDORS, they don't need a real person on-site to answer questions about the items for sale. I wonder if anyone would be there if I went to check it out... hmmmm. Scusi for a few...

Nope, not a single av in sight -- and please note that the time of this "event" is not specified as to time zone, whether PST or SLT or any other. Of course no-one is going to be there between 4-7AM -- and no way to check if they were, since it's ALWAYS 4-7AM somewhere on the planet. Nothing to indicate a "yard sale" is going on, either. Teleporting from the link in the EVENTS list simply dropped me in front of what I presume was a shop (given the CATEGORY of "commercial"), next to a large pool of some kind. Unless parking a pool in the front yard of your store counts as a "yard sale", I'd say this vendor was a blatant fraudster, who was using the SL EVENTS calendar as free advertising.

That's just sleazy.

There was one quality event listed in the calendar, I should add: Teazer's Isle, another excellent educational seminar. As that is non-commercial, and all the gambling "events" and the so-called "yard sales" are being run by commercial business owners, all of these PSEUDO-EVENTS can be seen as THEFT OF SERVICES -- they are defrauding LL by posting this crap instead of listing their events on their own blogs and in the CLASSIFIEDS (where, of course, they'd have to pay for it). After all the discussion in the EVENTS forum, the Lindens are still allowing this crap to be posted to the EVENTS calendar, and those of us who are looking for QUALITY EVENTS would have to wade through all the sleaze and crap to find it. Unfortunately, most people don't waste their time with the EVENTS calendar anymore, due to the proliferation of such FRAUDULENT ADVERTISING.

The Linden's laziness in dealing with the crap is regrettable, as those residents who cannot find anything worthwhile in the EVENTS calendar will eventually decide there IS nothing worth doing in SL, and migrate to ENTROPIA.

PHILIP: Get off the damned stick and kick some ass -- make your Lindens clean up the EVENTS calendar and POLICE IT!!!