Just a thought: A lot of places in SL threaten to ban you or eject you if you try to promote your own stuff. I guess that's fair enough if you liken an SL club to a shop like WH Smiths - if you went into WH Smiths waving an ad for Tesco's rival products that would be bad. But it's not - these places are pubs & clubs. While you would probably get banned for handing out fliers for a rival club inside a club, you certainly wouldn't get banned for mentioning it in conversation.
Imagine a club where (and here I'm imagining the barman as having a voice like Mr Krabs from Spongebob Squarepants) the following scene took place:
Customer 1 to Customer 2: "Ok, when this is done shall we head over to the ${otherBar}? Their DJ should be just about starting by the time we get there."
Customer 2 "Sure, that sounds goo-"
Barman (cutting in) "WHAT?! Yer promotin' a rival's operation in *my* pub?! Get out ye scum! Yer barred!"
Customer 1 & 2 leave, accompanied by a few who overheard the fracas. I don't think they'd have too much custom if that happened every time anyone mentioned another pub.
One thing I notice about the RL DJ scene is that they are quite happy to promote each other. If you go to Mark EG's (A RL DJ I knew at Huddersfield University) MySpace page & follow the link to his (own, run by himself) record label, Blackout Audio, you find there's space in his forum where he actively encourages people to promote & discuss different acts & events all over.
Why's this? Surely they're the competition?
Well, yes, maybe so, but they're also his peers & compadres in the old-skool rave & techno scene, a scene which he wishes to keep alive - because if he's the only person doing it, he'll soon be the only person even vaguely interested in it, and the culture that supports and sustains him & his business will die. Censorship & monopolies really help nobody in the long-run.
So. Want me to promote you & encourage my mates to come to your events? Of course I will. I'll encourage discussion of each other's styles & what so-and-so played last Friday at such and such a place - and then what people like will survive, and crap won't. Quality arises from culture, and culture arises from discussion. If you wish to censor that well, maybe your quality isn't up to a bit of competition?
3 hours ago
