Friday, June 3, 2011

Pythonesque

It made Newbab a little mad, but, well, that's not cucumber-grade serious. 
It's my first and last notice in the group. And before you say (although strangely, nobody is saying this) that it's harsh and unfair on poor old Chuck, firstly because he's far from being the only offender, and secondly because he did send out an apology, via ... Group Notice, I know all that. And sure, other names spring to mind; Vaneeesa somebody or other, a person called Monroe, who I think is a gallery owner, then of course, there's the spamalicious
Kalli Birman, and ayayayAY, the Spammy Gonzalez of SL, Mexi Lane. Seriously. It's not that we don't want to know what's going on across the worlds of art, written word, and music, but come on, all those damn' self-interested blue boxes! Enough is enough.
Someone said that there is a fine line between joyfully sharing your art and spamming. There isn't.
It's a big fat freeway of a line, constructed of workmanlike good sense, proportion, and awareness of those around you. Anyone who says - "If you don't want to get my messages, then leave the group or disable notices" might want to double check their self-absorption meter, and remember how annoying the Ancient Mariner was, stopping one of three with his stupid story, and all that. And remember, studies show that people who send out dozens of self-promoting notices are 275% more likely to produce derivative, poorly executed crap.

So what ought to be "Miss Manner's Rules of Notice Sending"? Send me yours.
 My top 3 are:
1.   Never send more than one notice a day, 3 a week is probably more than most people want to see from you. Notices about a performance event about to begin don't count, of course. But try some empathy - think about all those people in Facebook you've hidden - they were all over-posters, right? yeah.

2.   Remember that if you're in, say, 5 of the big art/music/literary groups, well so are all your friends, and we don't appreciate getting half a dozen duplicate messages about your latest oeuvre.

3.  If you must be a boasting ninny, try to get a grip, and save it for your fawning friends. Describing yourself as 'Epic' 'makes you sound like a complete fool. Other epithets that become ridiculous, when you apply them to yourself, include:  'Award winning', 'Legendary', 'Brilliant', 'Beloved Poet', 'Renaissance Man/Woman' and, of course, "I'm also in a band".
Try to realize that the prefix "self-proclaimed" is shorthand for "'only in my own head".
I have no idea if Chuckmatrix Clip's art is any good, or indeed how much wood he would chuck, if he would and could chuck wood. Thanks to his "Epic" Notices, I've no inclination to find out.

8 comments:

Miso Susanowa said...

very nice post! I have missed many events I wanted to know about because I am capped by multiple ingroup and in other group postings, dj commercials and the like which not only flood my Group Messages quota but cut off my offline IMs.

Since many of the new groups seem to be crosslinked (you know who you are) Miss Manners would say posting to ONE of them is sufficient; you know that most of the people in Group A are in Group B so quit being a spamtard.

I think this post is crucial enough to be... copied to a Group Notice and spammed :D

Thirza Ember said...

I'll get hold of Chuck and have him send it out, Miso... Most people just quietly drop groups when the spamtards get on their nerves - so maybe the people to blame are the group moderators? Shouldn't they be paying attention to this sort of thing?

Vanish said...

Hm, I can add some of my "rules of internet self-promotion":

1. When talking about yourself, the correct word is "I". "We" is plural and usually means a multitude of people. Talking about yourself in the third person makes you either Caesar or a creep.

2. Always assume your work is about 1/10th as awesome as you think it is, and you're adressing people who are about 1/100th as interested in it as you think they are.

3. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sell_generation

Greetings
V

Dividni Shostakovich said...

As someone who -- much against my wishes -- occasionally spams art groups when I have a show opening, I think your post misses the most important question: why are there so many groups? Some groups do have a specific purpose or target audience (the Impossible IRL [In Real Life] group, gallery- or space-specific groups such as for Odyssey), but why several general groups like Art & Artist Network and SL Art? But I have to hit them all because in fact there isn't exact overlap. ImpIRL members may not be in a general arts group (for that matter, some ImpIRL-type artists aren't in any group, including ImpIRL), some people in the Art & Artist Network aren't in SL Art, etc. I wish some of the general groups would merge.

In any case, I send notices to multiple groups for a specific reason: on the one hand, ImpIRL members (and maybe some others, like ArtNation) are the ones most likely to want to see what's up at Split Screen since that's the kind of work I'm encouraging; but on the other hand I want to build the audience for ImpIRL work, which means sending notices to people interested in art generally. I don't know if other people have those kinds of strategic considerations, and I don't like getting multiple notices myself, but that's the reasoning behind what I do.

But I entirely agree that people should minimize the frequency of their posts. And I prefer posts that give a little hint of what one will find -- not just that the work is "fantastic" or "amazing."

Thirza Ember said...

Yay @Vanish, we are loving your top 3.
@Dividni, groups are like blogs, everyone wants their own, and none are universal.
Word of mouth is way more powerful than Notices or Notecards. I rarely read either, but an informed IM is always welcome.

Miso Susanowa said...

lol @Vanish- "The only persons who should use the word "we" are kings, editors and people with tapeworms." — Mark Twain

CHUCKMATRIX Clip said...

"Mr. Manners Rules of Dealing With An Issue:"
1. When taking issue with the actions of a person in a group, address the issue to the person directly.

2. If option 1 is unavailable contact a group moderator, don't call the person out by spamming the group with a notice complaining about notices.

3. When the issue is over, let it be over. Don't assume the "offender" doesn't read your blog and insult the person in as many ways as you can think of. (Although I'm sure you could think of more.)

I sent two notices, one for the beginning of my grand reopening, and one for the spectacle I planned for weeks for the people who came. YOU decided to take issue. YOU decided to call me out in the group. YOU decided to blog about me and think I wouldn't see it. Next time pull up your big girl pants and either deal withe horrible spam of two notices an hour apart, or IM me politely like an adult. Had you done that? I would have explained why I sent the TWO notices, and assured you it wouldn't be a recurring event.

Thirza Ember said...

It's all the same to me if you read or not, Chuck, it's not a hidden blog, and I stand by my comments, general and specific. The idea that you've only sent 2 notices in the recent weeks is pretty funny. *rushes out to buy some big girl pants*