Music Groups are of huge importance in getting the word out that your show is happening.
Not to be confused with Event Listings, Group Notices and Group IMs are one of the main ways of announcing your event to every group member in one go just before your event.
As more and more musicians start performing live in SL of course the number of these notices increases each day.
Some of the music groups only allow the Musician/performer to post a notice. Some, also allow a venue owner or host/musician manager to post for the performer.
By allowing the host or the venue to post the event it can take the pressure off the musician/performer in announcing his/her own set whilst setting up.
Along with the ever increasing influx of new musicians performing live, posting a creative and eye catching announcement makes some even more desperate as we all vie for attention
Common Misconceptions about how to post a Music Event
(or those guaranteed to annoy just about everyone who reads them)
Using All Caps
Typing the event notice or group IM in capitals makes the event more noticeable.
Example 1
' U MUST COME AND LISTEN TO THIS AWESOME SINGER PERFORMER OMG HE IS AMAZING I CANT BELIEVE IT'S NOT BUTTER MUSICIAN. HE IS A ROCK LEGEND.THE VERY BEST IN SL. OMG ITS FABULOUS EVERYONE IN SL IS HERE WE HAVE LIKE 500 NEAR THE STAGE AND U BETTER GET HERE OR U WILL MISS THIS INCREDIBLE ECLETIC UNIQUE SEXY STUNNING ORIGINAL ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD BUT ITS GREAT PLEASE TAKE UR TAXI/CABRIOLET/ARMCHAIR AND GET UR BUTTS HERE TO LISTEN'
It doesn't make the show any better.
Wording:
Lets provide the artist background info to make them look more interesting/more talented
Example 2
Born to Mr and Mrs Notso n00b in 1970 n00b Star attended rock school elementary high school and made quite a few friends. Whilst spending an inordinate amount of time in school detention for failing to finish homework in time, the young n00b Star decided that perhaps life would be more fun if there was music in her life. After leaving school she went to a lot of pubs and listened to an awful lot of live music and one day while she was in the pub she heard a singer and decided then and there to become one herself..........
Posting a complete Life biography of an artist is not only useless but most people will not read any of
it.
Untruthful Statements
Whilst trying to raise the profile of the musician, some posters become totally indulgent and OTT in their event descriptions of the artist.
Example 3
Having taken the world by storm with her hauntingly eclectic spoon banging, n00b star has risen to the ranks of legendary status here in SL. Reigning supreme over absolutely every musician/performer in this virtual world, (in fact there aren't any other musicians as talented or as amazing as n00b Star in the whole world actually) so you would be wasting your time going to listen to anyone else ever again after hearing n00b so come and join us
and just how many other musicians have you heard?
Caps and Lowercase
Choosing to type in a mixture of caps and lowercase makes the show look more interesting.
Example 4
JoIn uR frIenDS aS wE RoCK SeCoNd LiFE wItH n00b StAr aNd HeR sPoOn bAnGing
Maybe you have a faulty keyboard but that is VERY hard to read.
Emoticons and Squiggles
Dressing up an event post makes me look like a cool event host
Example 5
➜➜ ♬ ♬ ☺ ☀ .: ★/ \ n00bStar > ㄨ ㄨ¶ .: ✳WOOOT ✳ㄨ ㄨ ☺ ☀ .: ★
✳WOOOT ✳ㄨ ㄨ ☺ ☀ .: ★♬ ♬♬ ♬♬ ♬✳ㄨ ㄨ ☺ ☀ .: ★
☺ ☀ .: ★♬ ♬♬ Spoon Banging ♬♬ ♬✳ㄨ ㄨ ☺ ☀ .: ★
☀ .: ★♬ ♬♬
Er... what time is the event?
Wrong Group
What I have to tell you all is VERY important regardless of the group name or function
Example 6
➜➜ ♬ ♬ ☺ ☀ .: ★/ \ FREE MONEY> ㄨ ㄨ¶ .: ✳WOOOT ✳ㄨ ㄨ ☺ UR CHANCE TO WIN 250 $LS ☀ .: ★☀ . NAKED AVATARS ONLY ★☀ .: ★
Gosh, let me drop everything I am doing right now and turn up!
The Repetitive Post
My Tips are commission based.
{15.29} n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging, Awesome!
{15.31} n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging, Awesome!
{15.35} n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging, Awesome!
{15.40} n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging, Awesome!
{15.43} n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging, Awesome!
{15.49} n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging, Awesome!
{15.52} n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging, Awesome!
{16.00} n00b Star Live NOW! spoon banging, Awesome!
{16.00} n00b Star Live NOW! spoon banging, Awesome!
I am so glad you posted that or I would have missed the show!
The Weeks Events in IM
I don't know how do a single post in Event Listings
Monday: 5pm n00b star
6pm n00b star
7pm n00b star
8pm n00b Star
Tuesday: 4pm n000b star
5pm n00b Star
6pm n00b Star
Wednesday: 2pm n00b Star
3pm OPEN MIC
4pm n00b Star
I have all that memorized completely!
--------------------------------
Of course I could write up a few more examples and poke fun at the number of ways that people like to post the music shows in SL.
BUT, if you are a musician/performer and you want to be taken seriously, then Do check how notices of your events are posted and how they may viewed by the rest of us.
Don't let your managers/ hosts contribute to one of the main reasons people leave Groups
Would be pretty sad to see a message like this on your screen
 |
| "You are the only participant in this IM session. Your message is not being retransmitted or stored" |
There is certainly room for creativeness and fun and also mistakes, but when you truly DO see these similar examples on a daily basis, the chances of people attending drops dramatically when they discover that on arrival, perhaps your hyped up super worded event doesn't quite add up to the star quality promised.
or maybe
no one cares
* edited to add*- as we are all learning to ignore the notices all together
* edited to add*- as we are all learning to ignore the notices all together
5 comments:
Kat and I just laughed until we cried at this post. I suppose the one good thing about the horrible 75%+ of group notices is that those of us who do them right get good results. Well, we would, if SL didn't suck on so many other levels. :)
There is also the "I'm not actually reading this group, I just pressed CTRL-V. What?"
Adam X: yes, sorry, not been around a lot, you know my wife had cancer, well, it didn't work out and she passed last week
Adam X: not handling it too well but people say it gets easier
Betty Y: oh I'm so sorry Adam
Charles Z: if you ever need to talk, just let me know, man
David A: All the best to you. Really brings it home to hear this. I'm going to put in a donation to cancer research right now.
Spammer B: HEY LOL PHAT BEATZ AT THE {{{{{ZZZZOOOONE}}}}}}} NOW AND 4 2 HOURZ!!!!!!! COME SEE THE BEST DRUM N BASS DJ IN THE UNIVERSE AS RATED BY PHACT MAGAZINE!!!!!!!!?!!!!! THE {{{{{{{{ZZZZOOOOOONNNNNNEEEE}}}}}}}} SECOND LIFES BEST CLUB YES YES
(everyone): ....
Agreed Zak, those that are done properly are the ones that should be getting the right results and I know that they do for the most part.
However, last night I and a friend kept an eye on group IMs and Group notices for shows and seriously they got worse and worse, some were so blatantly over the top as to be almost laughable and definitely cringingly terrible.
I think what bothers me and prolly quite a few others, is that these Notices are pretty vital for getting people to our shows and when the worded event notice does NOT live up to the quality promised, it is starting to
a) detract from some seriously GOOD musicians
b) encourage more and more of us to pretty much click the notice off without even reading them
c) groups lose a certain percentage of group users because of this as they drop out.
Gosh, Ordinal, those types of notices are seriously the worst of the worst. They are usually done by people group hopping and yes, as you say, they are just hitting ctrl-v and have absolutely zero brain cells (imho).
The groups are starting to look like Livestream or Ustream when they run ads right in the middle of a broadcast.. the only prob being is that the group doesn't get the ad revenue..
hmm, now there's an idea ;)
Great post, Slim. Hilarious, but also accurate! Great stuff!
It's amusing because it's all true. I'd be hopeful that those who write such entries would read this but, judging by their notices, it's not likely they can read anything.
Tip: Don't go with people to write your notices who have ever needed Remedial English.
Consider people who can actually speak English.
If someone says, "Let's RAWK," more than once in a paragraph, you might want to consider others.
Only The Beatles can compare themselves to religious figures. Try to avoid this in notices.
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