What services has LL co-opted and what services will LindenLab co-opt or just kill?

Because those begrudging LL are the same ones who are being affected by the changes. Nobody wants to see their pocketbook impacted - but this change is for the positive and will force the LB's to "man-up" and become more competitive.

So in many ways, LL is actually helping competition.

The point is, and I'm sorry if I sound repetitive, is that this *ISN'T* about the money.

Just like Lindex wasn't about the money.

It's about CONTROL.

They could have empowered content creators to make this happen - they did not.

That's because they don't trust anyone to do it better than they could.

Rubbish.

Have you ever dealt with a SL landlord? Many are shady and unethical to say the least. Thats the reason I said screw renting and bought the land that my store sits on.

I don't blame LL for protecting newbies from being ripped off by the greedy LB's on day one. I'm sure that puts a very bad taste in newbie's mouths.

There is no argument that a newbie zoned area is not a great idea.

It's an AWESOME idea.

However, we had this idea a long long time ago.

The problem with it is that LL is doing it.

LL *sucks* the big one when it comes to zoning and content.

I mean, have you seen linden village?

Dude, LindeX was ALL about the money. In fact, its probably the only operating segment of SL that IS profitable.

Perhaps, but as none of us are inside LL, I'll call it protecting their business interests.

They measure conversion.

Landlords who's newbies don't stay on as premium stop getting fresh meat.

It's trivial to implement.

I call it control freakdom.

SL prospers when an ecology exists, when the community is allowed to innovate and extend the platform.

Lindex was the one case where that wasn't true, because of how it had to be done and where not much innovation could really happen.

However, I argue that Philip showed significant arrogance in that case by not trying to motivate the GOM guys better. He basically figured that he didn't have to communicate with them.

That arrogance is bleading over into this newbie zone. They figured they could do it better than users could.

I just disagree with that. I think the community can do a far far better job.

Well, when you create your own BlazeWorld metaverse, you can run it any way you like.

The way I see it is that SL is what it is and tilting at windmills Quioxte style accomplishes nothing except making one tired.

Given further thought:

If what we're looking at with these newbie neighborhoods is a means for Linden Lab to improve their premium conversions... Well, that's a pretty important thing for the the LL bottom line.

With that said, I'm not sure I would have left such an element to the capricious whims of a resident-run business. What happens if customer service is bad with the resident business? (just an example -- not sure it would be any worse than LL's spotty record). What happens if the resident decides they want out?

The list of reasons not to farm this out as a business program for residents could get pretty lengthy, I am certain.

I'm assuming all of this happens on the mainland? That's a bit of a value-add that resident businesses can't offer, either (even if by design).

Meh. If it makes for a more bustling world, I'm cool with it.

I think initially Blumfield IS competition for player run,zoned, rental areas. But correct me if I'm wrong, there won't be any type of zoning enforcement at all. This could mean that entire sim could look different in a month if the residents chose to delete the little houses and put up 40m tall builds.

With no one around to encourage the residents to build by any rules, as in player run zoned areas or Brown and Boardman, I wonder about Blunfield's long term success as an attractive place to own land.

No blaze, it is because LL will not step in and help save a sinking ship. Imagine for a moment, GOM is still here. Imagine all the residents are using GOM, imagine now that something had happened to GOM's leadership and GOM just went poof overnight. Imagine if GOM in the the poofiness just decided to not even mess with finishing currrent transactions/issuing refunds/etc. Imagine all the upset residents. I imagine that if this scenario were to happen, you would be at the front of the line yelling at LL and asking them why they didn't step in sooner. While it can be looked as direct competition but LL is trying to cover their asses mainly because their policy is to not step in if a resident's business venture fails. By directly controlling some aspects of their platform, they can make sure the functions/features are still there no matter what resident decides to leave for whatever reason. I used GOM as an example of the reason as to why it was necessary, it still relates to this current issue because there is still the same underlying reason, not control but stability and the sense of security. This is the same reason at my company, my IT department handles all computer repairs, regardless of the size, even replacing a mouse or keyboard. Not about control, about maintaining a stable environment in which it will work day in and day out no matter if that employee is still working here or not. At least they are using houses built by residents, if it was all about control, they would have supplied their own darned houses. I will believe the control conspiracy theory when LL starts taking over/buying out Anshe/Prok and all the other land owners who mainly buy to rent/resell.

Content creators are still allowed to do it, I think Prok's land is still there and still under Prok's control, same with Anshe's. You could develop a product like this and advertise it and set restictions on it as well, I never read anywhere that you couldn't, so the opportunity for residents to do it is there it is just that since LL is stepping up with a product/service that has any resemblance to competition, all of a sudden the sky is on fire and falling. This was a specific product targeted at new residents to make the transition easier to SL because we all know how wonderfully fun it is trying to buy land when we are new...

Blaze, what do you mean by "it would have been done right"?

Please explain to me what LL did wrong. The zoned neighborhood looks very appealing to me and if I were a newbie I would jump at the chance to reside there.

And to do this they're trying something that has been proven to work; the suburban landscape. Nothing wrong with that.

Even if LL had 20 zoned sims like this it wouldnt matter much. As soon as a new player made friends and visited their friends houses (in non-zoned areas) and see all the freedom they have to build what do you think will happen? Thats right, they'll move out of newbie zoned land and buy land and products (including prefabs) from SL residents. By placing a few residents in zoned sims it will allow them to experience SL without alot of the drama thats associated with moving into a free-for-all 512m plot ghetto next to established residents that probably loathe them and their box house.

This isnt about snuffing user creativity or seizing any market away from SL residents. Its about providing new residents a more stable and pleasant atmosphere to begin their SL lives and hopefully retain more of them. However I think LL will quickly grow tiresome of dealing with these sims and drop the idea completely. I suggest mega-landlords and prefab home builders need not worry. In fact this has a chance of retaining more people in SL which translates into more potential customers for SL's resident merchants.

Ingrid, I think the long term success is for them to have the premium membership, not how those sims look in 3 months.

You're probably right. What would they do? Just keeping popping out more of these sims as the old ones get bought out?

One possibility, which I think might be what's going on here, is that LL is testing to see if it's worthwhile going to the trouble to empower users to do this.

Their reasoning might be, if they can't get it to work, content creators would probably have a tough time so there isn't much point in going to a lot of developer time adding zoning functionality.

There DogSpot, how's that for half full.

How? Better group land tools? How would LL empower them?

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Linden Lab originally had zoned sims - community sims blah blah blah - long before anyone had land rentals, zoned communities, island sims et al. hell before there was even such a thing as tier!

They're revisiting an old idea as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah but this is the forums. It HAS to be a conspiracy with hefty sprinkles of drama tossed in.

Better group land tools, yeah.

Another possibility is that if it works out, they might be trying to inspire people to follow suit more closely to the model that they provide.

If these are their goals, one would think that they could spare the microseconds to let us know.

I just hate to think of the work thats going to be required to update these signs once Bush is out of office.

Oops, my bad!... ahm ok... DOWN WIT DA MAN!!! F*CK DEM LINDEN BASTARDS!

ok thanks, I'm back on track now

I think their goals are - what they told us they were, which is to get more basic players to convert to premium.

coco