This post is long over due – and long! – I apologize for not putting it up earlier, but I had limited SL time after closing the group.
A lot of people thought I closed the group without notice, but a notice was sent out. Some people received it and many did not. I still get some IMs and notecards from people who have not been online for a while and have only received an offline IM telling them they have been ejected, and are unaware that the group was closed.
Here is a copy of the notice that was sent out:

hi everyone,
The Lucky Chair Stalker group is going to be closed in the next few minutes. I no longer have the time nor the desire to keep it open and manage it.
This group was created to help you get chairs flipped, to help you find freebies and bargains, and of course, have some fun. A lot of hard work and time was put into posting notices about the best chairs and freebies we could find, hunt cheat sheets, etc., by myself, the officers and some of our members.
As the group grew, rules were put into place to ensure that chat remained useful, fun and above all spam and abuse free.
I was faced with a lot of anger and hostility, often those rules were mocked and people felt they had every right to attack me in private IMs. This went on for months.
Another major issue is member disputes. I have sent out more than a dozen notices asking you to solve your disputes with other members in private, yet notification of IMs and NCs with complaints still come to my email inbox to this very day.
I’m here to enjoy myself, not deal with drama. While I could spend the time I have on SL arguing in IMs, holding hands and comforting hurt feelings, muting/ejecting/sending ARs to LL…I really don’t see the point. I’ve tolerated bad attitudes and unpleasantness for as long as I could, I’m done with that.
A huge thank you to the handful of truly wonderful people who have been supportive and have generously contributed time and effort into this group – I deeply appreciate your kindness.

Clara

Some members sent me really wonderful notecards and IMs either thanking me or expressing their concern; thank you so very much for that, I deeply appreciate such a kind and gracious gesture.
I also heard that I was torn to shreds by people who were very angry with me for closing LCS in another group’s chat. While I was not surprised, it only added to my disappointment in the way a lot of people conducted themselves in the group and reacted just as selfishly when it closed.

So many people take the “freebie culture” in SL for granted. I don’t understand why they fail to realize that the designers offering the freebies, be it in lucky chairs, MM boards, in hunts, etc., and all the bloggers and freebie group owners out there are not just a bunch of programmed pixels.
They are real people who put in time and effort, spend their own money and invest so much of themselves in offering these gifts and services. Yet they are often abused and attacked by people who believe it is their God given right to have all these things instead of seeing them for what they really are: a privilege.
So designers are bashed, group owners are bashed, lucky chairs are pulled, hunt prizes are pulled, bloggers give up and leave, groups close, the angry mobs get angrier, and it’s just a nasty viscous cycle. No one is OBLIGED to serve you.

I got called a “bitch” and a “nazi” for putting very simple rules in place that basically asked people to respect each other, keep chat clean, and spam and drama free. I was mocked in group chat or attacked in IM every single time I asked a group member to take an inappropriate conversation into IM.
I sent out numerous notices about griefing and harassment, others pleading with members to settle their disputes in private and not involve me or the group officers in them. They were ignored by the large majority. I could go on forever, but I think you get the idea. It gets extremely exhausting and discouraging.

Anyway, unpleasantness aside, we did at one point have a wonderful community of some extremely helpful people who would spend a lot of time creating hunt sheets, looking for freebies, MMs and so on and taking the time to make notecards for the group. The others that made huge lists of lucky chair locations and MM lists – you’re just amazing! I am grateful our paths crossed, and it’s this part of LCS I am deeply sorry I had to lose.

If you’ve read this far, thank you
Please keep it fun. Always keep in mind it’s people over freebies, not the other way around. It really isn’t worth the energy to get angry and be hostile or rude to others because you didn’t get a chair prize, couldn’t find something in a hunt, or whatever. Just try later, enjoy it and let others have their fun too.