Thank you, Linden Lab.

[Prokofy Neva]

7 minutes ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

No. Mine required opt-in. Nowhere did I say it was opt-out only.

I'm really getting quite enough of these baseless assumptions.

While Phil is a contrarian, you seemed unusually thin-skinned, or maybe it's a language barrier.

"You" is a generic in English that means "all the people". Or "myself". In British English, you say "One doesn't know..." instead of "You don't know."

In the usage here above, any native English language speaker can tell that the "you" is a generic "you" that in fact refers to ME -- as if I said "One" in British English. Or used the dative in Russian with an impersonal reflexive verb.

It's not you, Arduenn Schwartzman.

So again, to translate my post for you as a non-native speaker, it's "I AM TO BLAME" because I, Prokofy, signed up for those listserves.

Native English or no, you should also be able to tell from reading my post that the reference to unscrupulous listservers isn't some reference to you or even a hint about you but a generic -- "there are such merchants" -- as I have never found that with you, as a customer of yours, and you should realize that. But maybe not, you have so many customers.

I wonder why I buy your products. But I do. Because I don't tie forums behaviour to the economy as so many do. If something is clever and well made and cheap, I buy it. 

Edited October 28, 2021 by Prokofy Neva

[Rolig Loon]

1 hour ago, Arielle Popstar said:

I am too frugal ie cheap to be considered compulsive but otoh so many stores require a group join for certain rights and benefits as well as easy access to their newest locations. That alone is a fairly large source of spam. Add to that fact that in some cases it seems like when I join certain groups, I open myself up to advertising spam that wasn't even a part of the actual group. That is hard to track down and remove. Add to that club announcements and the just general Groups for viewer help etc, it adds up quickly without even trying.

Exactly.  So, as I speculated, the number of spam messages that you get is directly related to how many of these groups you decide to join.  (As Prok points out, there are also those extremely annoying Subscription services that enroll you for just  walking in the door, and then make it hard to UNsubscribe.)  I have no way to guess how many of those groups the "typical secondlifer" opts into.  Almost certainly more than I do, maybe more than you do.   My basic observation is that I don't get very many spam messages at all; I'm pretty sure it's because I don't do things that invite them. If the "typical secondlifer" didn't join so many spamming groups, the problem would probably be much smaller.  (I know, I'm blaming the victim. Sometimes that's where the answer lies.  😉)

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

The one time I closed a group - it was just 31 people and I posted in group chat and notices a few times it was going away and if they wanted to leave early, go for it. About 10 aknowledged it and 5 left. The day I started turfing I PMed each member I was closing the group and will be clearing everyone out.  Only got 1 complaint back.

I remember a few years ago a store that closed put in the group's description "My shop is now closed --- please eject yourself from the group, I'm too lazy. Thanks for the fun times."

[Prokofy Neva]

31 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Exactly.  So, as I speculated, the number of spam messages that you get is directly related to how many of these groups you decide to join.  (As Prok points out, there are also those extremely annoying Subscription services that enroll you for just  walking in the door, and then make it hard to UNsubscribe.)  I have no way to guess how many of those groups the "typical secondlifer" opts into.  Almost certainly more than I do, maybe more than you do.   My basic observation is that I don't get very many spam messages at all; I'm pretty sure it's because I don't do things that invite them. If the "typical secondlifer" didn't join so many spamming groups, the problem would probably be much smaller.  (I know, I'm blaming the victim. Sometimes that's where the answer lies.  😉)

Well, you don't have a rentals company and parcels to furnish with houses and furniture that you hope to buy on weekends sales, not at cost. So the only reason you join these groups (again, this means "one joins them") is to be able to learn of the sales or even to get a notecard of landmarks that aren't on Seraphim. It's truly annoying and sure, you can blame yourself but you can't blame yourself for wanting a 75L building instead of a 750L building. 

Of course there are all these edifying art and culture groups one can find if one finds American capitalism in its virtual form particularly vulgar. But these groups might be working for stores on RL E. 42nd Street, so much do they get in your face with flyers and call outs to come buy their stuff -- in one form or another. I recently joined a book club group and the notices are insane, and a lot of them are of the "spooktacular" type that set your teeth on edge. So I guess I'll back out of that one.

If you are in business in SL, you have to have groups and be in groups. You can be very low key on this like me -- I even have a role called "Ravenglass Silent" you can be assigned to in order to never get even those once a month notices or very occasional chat from some newb disobeying the rules. You know what? No one ever asks to be assigned that role. Why? They find it much more satisfying either to yell at me for "spam" coming at most once every 2 weeks or more likely 4 weeks, or to yell at a clueless newb who stumbles in asking for an officer online instead of just looking at the membership list and roles -- which aren't hidden. Because they don't know to do that.

Most groups chatter all day long about inanities until they get into drama and fights because people are lonely and bored, as Gorky put it in "Mother," "A scratch embellishes an empty face."

Edited October 28, 2021 by Prokofy Neva

[Rolig Loon]

7 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

If you are in business in SL, you have to have groups and be in groups.

I will definitely grant you that one, Prok.  If I were handling a big rental business or a store that has to deal with a ton of customers, I would be on the other side of the equation.  I don't see how a big scale business can operate without groups.  Fortunately, that's not one that I worry about myself.  I don't think that the average SL resident does either.  Most of us are consumers.  I am a small-time landlord; all my renters own their own parcels and I have no need of a group for just a dozen people.

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

1 hour ago, Prokofy Neva said:

maybe it's a language barrier

Sorry I just misread that.

[Silent Mistwalker]

2 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

I will believe that's what life is like for compulsive shoppers who have joined every group they can find, maybe.  Personally, I don't recall receiving a barrage for a very long time.  Either I am not a "typical secondlifer" (highly possible) or the typical secondlifer isn't really receiving the barrage you describe.  I suspect the number of annoying message that anyone gets depends on how many people and groups you have invited to send them to you.

The barrage is real. I eliminated the worst of it simply by turning off certain notices and group chats in FS. Now I just go through notices about once a week to see if anything is interesting. 

Nothing gets sent to an email and if I log in daily I never have more than 5-7 notices waiting, one or two of those being FS class notices that just get removed without reading.

[Chris Corvinus]

So I've been the only one in the group since Thursday. How long does it take for groups to be deleted???

[Rolig Loon]

Usually 48 hours, so depending on what time Thursday you ejected everyone else, your group should be toast within the next few hours.