Groups are very important in SL. Groups are formed by people of like interests. They can also be formed to provide special rights to members and restrict the rights of other members. Groups are a great way for people of like minds to keep in touch via group notices. Groups can update you to shopping sales or changes of location via landmarks or inform you of events or meetings. Groups are very important in SL.
In SL, you are limited to 42 groups. You can join no more than that, but you can leave a group at anytime. Some groups are open for free enrollment. These types of groups are usually shopping groups or club/party groups. Once you join, you may be given rights to remark in the group chat or rez items on group land. You will also likely be on the group's notify list. If this is the case, you can be sent group chats or group announcements at any time. Group chats occur in your chat box window. A new tab will open when group chat is initiated. You are probably able to participate in that chat if you wish. If you choose to close that group chat, it's likely you will not receive another notice from that group during your current session. A group announcement comes in the form of a blue drop-down window which can contain a text message and an attachment. In the case of a club/party group, the message might contain the time and location of the event. A file can be attached to the announcement such as a landmark or notecard.
All groups can show up in your profile. The title or name of the group is important. It can inform anyone examining your profile as to what sort of things or activities or interests you enjoy in SL. A group listed in your profile can be opened up and read about. The group description pretty much says it all. And open enrollment groups can be joined right then and there, just by someone examining your profile. But you can also hide any group in your profile. You can also choose to not receive group notice too. Some groups do not send out notices to members at all. Some groups are formed solely for the sake of controlling land. Anytime I purchase land I "deed" it to my group. This allows me to let group members do as they wish or need while in my group and on my land. I may also "deed" equipment, such as a media controller, to the group. In this way, the other group members can control it, just so long as I have given them permissions.
Permissions in groups is very complicated. After nearly 4 years of setting group permissions, I still fuck up. But I'll give an example here so that it illustrates how powerful these groups can be. I have a parcel of land and have deeded it to my group. So now, I no longer show up as the owner of the land, rather my group is the owner of the land (Group Owned). I have different levels of people in my group. There are owners, which is usually just me, officers and managers and then everyone else. The officers will have rights to the land's media streams such as music and video. They can change the media being streamed into the land using either a device which I have deeded to the group or they can manually insert their own streaming media URL into the parcel's land options. The members listed under Everyone Else cannot do this. Officers and managers will also be allowed to eject and ban SL avatars if they so choose. Reasons for this may vary, but it's mostly due to griefers trying to cause trouble. Other privileges may include being able to rez objects, run scripts and fly. Most everyone has those abilities though. If it's ever abused then I will usually seek out the culprit and ban them. Nothing personal, it's just that drama and chaos is not always fun for everyone. Group officers may also be able to create notices and such.
While it is very important to get the word out prior to a party or event, it's not always welcome. For example, I belong to a group that has parties 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. I belong to that group not to party but because my sub and I like to hang out there. But because an event lasts two hours, I will get two notices from them every two hours. It's mildly annoying getting those blue drop down windows, especially if I'm in the middle of doing someone. But I keep the notices activated because it's important for me to know what is going on with them. Another real good example is a place I DJ at. Of course they are going to be in my groups. It is important that I know of every announcement they broadcast. And while they don't operate 24/7, they do have oodles of events. And I belong to not one but two of their groups. I had 3 groups of theirs but I left his DJ group because let's face it, it didn't have any announcements unique from the regular groups. So of these two groups they put out an announcement for an event on each of them, plus an announcement in both group chats, plus some sort of local chat announcement for the same event from a bot. Don't ask me how this is done, I don't understand it yet but I would imagine that if I ever open a club again, you can bet I'll be finding out how it's done. It's a great way to get an event announced but think about it; I get 5 notices for the exact same event! That gets pretty annoying but there's no way I can leave any of these groups, so I put up with it.
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| Nezzy and me |
Some groups require that you pay a fee to join. These are usually highly specialized groups who want to make sure that you are serious about their interests before you join, hence the fee. I belong to at least one of these groups. It's Frank's The Other Place. It's a formal dance place that has an open enrollment group plus this closed enrollment group. I had already belonged to the open enrollment group when Whisper had asked me to come and dance with her while we visited and "caught up". She was in the paid group member's part and I was unable to get in because that parcel only allowed paying group access. So I finally paid, L$500 I think, and was able to get in to dance. But that was the only time I have ever used that group. I haven't left the group yet because it pains me to have thrown L$500 away but I suppose I should so that I can use the empty slot to join a group that I would be more likely to use such as game playing or racing groups.
Okay, why is that picture of Nezzy and me here? No reason at all. It did not pertain to the subject of the post. It was just on my desktop and I wanted to post it. That's her and I on cat's new cabana. Why are we naked? Why not!?
