Linden Lab to crack down on events listing spam. Again

Come February, Linden Lab is having yet another attempt at enforcing the existing rules for event posting in Second Life. In the past, the Lab's gone at the process in a rather determined fashion on a number of occasions, but its energy each time ran out after only a few weeks of vetting events listings.

One of the matters of concern would be how event rules are actually applied this time around. If we were to divide events listings into quality events and spammy junk, quite a large number of the quality events don't actually comply with the posting rules – usually due to the number of events being held, and limits on the number of listings (or of listing changes) that the events system will tolerate.

Some organizations, particularly those that work with new users, and many of whom are applicants to the new Resident Help Network have traditionally been exempted from the written rules by Linden Lab, where Lab staff explained that the written rules were only there for 'problem' events and events-posters.

And really, that's a problem in and of itself. That the rules – as written – are heavily exploitable seems no less of an issue than selective enforcement. That is, selective enforcement of the written rules seems as awkward and inappropriate as having the written rules handle a one-size-fits-hardly-anyone system where many of the highest-quality events and activities must necessarily be excluded from the listings.

Maybe it is past time for Linden Lab to go back and look at the (now four-years-old) events-posting rules and the thousands of events listings that exist, and review them with serious consideration for what they want to achieve and what they want to allow or disallow.

Or, of course, they could just go ahead and apply rigid enforcement to an outdated and antiquated set of regulations with little recognition of what benefits and penalizes users. That's obviously an available option, and seems to be the one that is going ahead here.

* Disclosure: I'm responsible for approximately 60 listed events for classes, and Q&A sessions in Second Life each week, and yes, they've previously been deemed exempt; but they shouldn't need to be special-cases.

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