May 16th 2007 a Jira proposal was posted asking for group limits to be raised. Here we are on February 19th/20th and the proposal with 1005 votes is still unassigned.
When oh when are LL going to do something about this? The answer is quite clearly not to merely raise group limits, there needs to be some new thinking on this. However something that would greatly alleviate this issue would be if LL would introduce a new type of group, a social group. There would be no land permissions for these groups, they are merely forms of communication and collaboration.
Today I left yet another group I didn’t want to leave to be able to perform business functions within SL. Yet again I’m having to leave a group that I have a shared interest in because LL won’t address this glaring issue.
I’ve heard explanations as to why the limit is there. They simply don’t wash anymore. This is a feature that is going to seriously impede SL’s ability to compete with other platforms out there. There has been talk of linking your SL profile to facebook and yet, that’s simply avoiding the issue that SL should be able to be its own facebook.
I know some people don’t like social networking, but there’s more to this than merely posting messages and funny pictures on someone’s page. SL is a social and business platform and yet I’ve had to leave a land dealer’s group that covers SL business issues. This group doesn’t need land permissions.
I currently have flexibility for about two or three short term groups, that’s it. I’ve had to leave groups ranging from my local football team to Discworld because of these absurd limits. Indeed there is no point whatsoever in me joining any long term social groups because the time will come when I need to leave. I simply can’t get my teeth into anything group related here.
Get an alt some tell me, but that is again avoiding the issue. I shouldn’t need to use an alt to work and collaborate with others. Whereas there will never be enough groups for some, the fact that my contacts here are stifled by these group limits disappoints me. There are umpteen projects that could be better managed and proposals that could be given more teeth if LL would simply address the need for communications within their own platform. I shouldn’t have to go to facebook or anywhere else to be able to do this.
Ziggy figaro is in favour of a better group system, plenty of people quite clearly are and yet this issue sits there, lonely, unassigned, nobody taking an interest. This is a fundamental flaw in SL. This not only hampers social networking, it hampers business interests too.
The time is now LL, this issue is long overdue. Stop hampering me and more importantly stop hampering yourselves because this will be an issue that will slap you hard around the face one day if you don’t get off your backsides and address it.