Sign the "Boycott Camping in SL" petition!

Because SL killed my interest in more productive interests like primming, scripting or setting up businesses! And thats what i originally did do! Hr after hr of primming items that i found wernt worth selling! I used to give some to friends and they were extrtemly happy to use and comment on their quality!

HOWEVER< Sl convinced me not to invest in potential future problem with business, property and product development! I had enough crap from support without making potential new fields they could torture me with

So SL creates campers like me

If they got their strategy right, ppl could possably lose interest in such activites!

not sure where that low cash out figure came you can sell a substantial amount of L's np if you apply for the right tier. Camping basically killed money trees because they keep people on the land longer. I'd agree with a camping ban and count "unique names"only for traffic not the time spent on a parcel and maybe the trees would make a comeback

Intersting thought here about money trees..........But have they been killed off? I don`t believe so. Infact it might be opposite. I wish money trees whould be killed off the sooner the better.

Using Camp sites are much better than using those scamming survey places. Sure it takes up server resources and scew the popularity. But I couldn't care less. For someone who can't afford to be a premium member or isn't good at creating objects camping is a bliss.

A way to earn Linden so that you can get the clothes etc that you want.

It's not like they get massive amounts of it.

We need a petition for MORE camping not less

I would rather there was no camping.

I am in more favor of banning the people who want to ban everything.

"If people choose to give money to others here that's fine!

I am against the tie between camping and search where all business owners are either forced to use campers or pay much more than they would for ads to get themselves on the search list ahead of businesses that do use them"

Camping itself is not bad at all. The abuse of camping happens ONLY because its tie to popular places and search. So the real problem is the corrupted search. Search is essential to both businesses and buyers - if the first group can not sell their merchandise and the second group can not find what they are looking for it's obvious something has to be done about it and I don't understand what Lindens are waiting for. The current system sucks tons of money from big businesses and does not get small businesses a chance to be found. It should function as any normal search engine - with a good, keyword driven natural search and some paid search. As a newbie I was shocked that I was not able to find products I wanted to buy and I still can not find REALLY popular places with good content in search.

As was pointed out to me many times from day one...when you see some of the outrageous traffic numbers some places get - you can tell it's from camping (club I went to tonight - was told by friend was quiet good.....over 100k in traffic so I KNEW it had campers, but because a friend recommended it I went. It was "ok" but not my style so I left). As you go along in SL, you learn that high traffic numbers don't mean it's the best place. You learn to go to the lower range places with more "realistic" numbers and check out a bunch of stores before you buy. Those places with lower traffic mostly show "real" customers coming in, having a look around and hopefully spending some L's on your merchandise.

*flips coin*
We've all been there. Coming in to SL and seeing all the wonderful things you can buy. But wait...how do I pay for it? I am lucky enough to have some great friends in there who really helped me out when I joined up.

I love the "environmental" campers. In RL you see people cleaning windows, gardening, playing guitar on the street for a few tips. You don't see many people sitting on a park bench for hours and hours....and yes...they don't usually talk.

I went to one particular store recently, not because of traffic but because it appeared to have what I was looking for. I was shocked to see a yard FILLED with campers. On the ground, in little huts in the air. The more I looked at all the people..the more I realized the names and avatars were VERY similar. Curiosity got the best of me so I started clicking on the profiles. ALL BUT TWO were born on the same day (and those 2 didnt have the newbie avatar but real clothes lol).

I don't condemn people for wanting to earn a few L's, but that was just ridiculous. The owners of the properties should ban that type of person...that comes in with 50 *yeah there was that many* alts to suck up any free L's that someone else might need to upload their new textures so they can start up their own business.

In a nutshell. Pardon my ignorance on this - am I missing something? There are good points and bad points about camping, but I don't see how this affects everyone in SL to the point they'd want to ban it.

If you know the traffic is because of campers....don't go there. Or if you KNOW the store has something you need and there's campers there..are they really bothering you by being there? The ones just sitting on a bench earning some L's being "mindless afk campers"...are they sticking their foot out and tripping you as you walk by?


*i like turbos attitude btw*

The whole idea of camping is to put green dots on the map and give their lindens.
SL is a feudal society. The campers are serfs; commoners. Those who refuse for whatever reason to pay LL $10 a month for the right to own land and be the recipient of a L$300 stipend, camp to make money.
So if you are boycotting Camping, boycott Hippiepay and money trees as well.

people are perfectly welcome to have all the camp pads they want, they just won't be seeing the Linden I have to spend.

I accidentally hit NEXT on the donate page...I thought it would have a $0 default...but noooo...it was $10. You better believed I hit stop faster than a ferret on coke.

That was a bit of a scam I think. I wonder how many poor unsuspecting souls have had to go without food on their tables because of this trickery!

See today's blog post about the new Search capability, now available for preview in the new Release Candidate viewer.

The new Search will rank results by relevancy, not traffic count. Huzzah! Adios, campers.

Of course, that leaves us with a new problem. How do SL newcomers get a few L$ together to buy something from the merchants? Gambling's out, money trees are an endangered species, camping will soon be history. Most newcomers aren't willing to actually BUY L$ with real money, at least until they're really hooked on the game.

My rather lame suggestion would be a "starting bonus" of L$500 for every new citizen. But surely the creative minds here can come up with something more capitalistic. Some form of unskilled labor that's worth a camping-level wage.

Comment of Jeska Linden:
High traffic somewhat increases the relevance of search results.

The comment can be found here:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/10/19/new-search-currently-under-development/#comment-497994

Well... it is more complicated than simply choosing between the one or the other. I think camping might be good if it allows rotation - everyone should have their turn. I see noobs camp for weeks on the same spot, while they are in Busy or Away mode. That I take as an affront! But I approve of camping in general... It's always fun to have one or two camping spots on a big sim - generates a bit of traffic and if you have a shop, campers might be tempted to buy stuff with what they earned.
I myself used to camp when I first came into SL. I had lots of fun while dancing for 2 lindens per 10 mins... It's not that much but you can make freinds meanwhile. And its hard for most newbies...
So camping should be controlled, not simply forbidden.

In most cases campers are obnoxious beggars as well. I personally don't need to be harrassed by endless "Can I have a few L$ please?" cheapskates while I'm shopping. No matter how friendly or polite you phrase your "No" you're in for an onslaught of insults for not handing out free money. The worst was three of them ganging up on me at the same time, needless to say I didn't buy anything nor would I ever consider going back to that store.

Content in SL costs money, if someone can't accept that they need to either make peace with that anyway and be happy with freebies or close their account and move on. Camping only perpetuates the idea that everything in SL *must* be free. Every single last person on the grid can afford to spend $10 one time to get started, there just aren't any excuses that don't boil down to "I'm too good to pay for stuff I want".

Camping is the ONLY way for a total newbie to at least get rid of the newbie look and have some basic things in their inventory. If someone just wants to try SL for a week or two why should they invest money? That would be completely foolish to do. I agree that camp bots and alts have to go because this is really cheating, but real people camping are totally fine. Camping keeps the economy alive. You should rather vote for banning reselling which really kills creativity.

I lived on camping for months until I started to build and sell stuff. I am not ashamed of that. Now I earn enough to keep my land and my shops even without camping. Everything I have now is being paid by money I make. Without camping I probably would have left SL because I didn't want to spend money on an online world.

There is another way, it consist of using your wallet. If you can't make even a tiny starting investment you prolly shouldn't even be there.

There are designers in sl that spend hours, days, weeks sometimes even months to offer a product that will be usually priced way under what you could expect as a real wage.

Perpetuating a spirit of "You don't deserve to be paid for the hard work you have put on this object as much as i deserve to get it for free." is borderline insulting for the peoples that created all the wonderful things in second life.

Most people just want to try SL and see how it works. So camping comes handy.

Then again: Why you don't sign petitions to ban reselling? Isn't that far more damaging to designers than a few campers eventually buying *their* products?

OOps forgot about mentioning something.... "way under a real wage"... well, in SL EVERYTHING is way under a real wage, it is more like earning game money. A DJ making 5 dollars in 3 hours, 50 cents for a clothing set that took hours to make, 30 cents for being a photographer for an hour? LOL. SL is like a banana republic in some jungle with extremely low wages and cheap products. I see it as a virtual economy, a simulation rather than real money circulating. That's why I try to stay "alive" without injecting outside money. It is just more fun to make an in-world living than becoming a rich billioniare instantly by buying lindens... It`s a different approach. I don't plan on selling my lindens either - I will spend them in-world, for designer clothing for example.

And you're doing that on the back of people who actually do inject US$ into the economy. If nobody exchanged US$ for L$, SL would die overnight. L$ that just trades hands in-world only doesn't do a thing for the economy.

Your story just serves to illustrate the effect of camping: you started out not wanting to pay for what you want so you camped instead and months later you're still not paying for anything.

Right, but I create. Not a lot, but still. Other people pay but don't create. If everyone just pays but noone creates, there would be no SL. There are many residents who create stuff but cannot even post here, because they have no payment info. Yet they contribute to SL.

I don't live "on the back" of anyone, as much as I don't live "on the back" of anyone in RL because I don't import money from richter countries.

edit: added last paragraph, dont want to spam the forum.

I confess that in my early days I did some camping, because I thought I had to have money in order to lose the "noob" look. Once I realised how long I would have to camp to really afford anything I realised that it was a waste of time and was about to give up on SL...

... that is, until I found the freebie places. The fact is, nowadays, you don't need money to lose the noob look any more. You can get some great clothes, skin and hair without spending a single Linden$

If people like to camp, that's their thing - I have no problem with it. But saying that it's the only way to lose the noob look isn't really true.

There are a ton of freebies out there, more than enough to get rid of that "newbie look" There is plenty to do in the first couple weeks in world that don't require money if you are just trying the game out. Just hitting the money trees can take up a lot of time, and helps you explore.

1. I have received those "Can I have a few L$ please" messages in my hair groups, so it's not limited to campers.

2. I'm sorry, but your last line was about the most holier than thou thing I've ever heard. You don't know what people can or cannot afford to pay! There are a lot of non-US people in SL and many of them can NOT afford to pay out money (keeping in mind you're not just talking $10USD, you're talking about international conversion rates); not to mention, there are Paypal issues. A friend of mine in England just had Paypal spend 11 days getting a lousy $20 to him.

I agree that camping should not be used for traffic count purposes. However, if I, as a business owner, choose to put out some mechanism to give money to people to help them out, that's my choice, and my business. I personally chose to put out one ball which, when touched, gives $2 every 15 minutes. It's not ton of money and won't make anybody rich, but gives new residents a couple of bucks in their pocket. Because it's ONE mechanism, I'm definitely not using on it for traffic counts.

And frankly, even though I spend no less than $200USD per month on SL (and sometimes more), because my husband and my daughter are both residents and decent jobs hard to come by so I support them as well, I camp to help supplement that. We all shop like fiends and support the SL economy quite well. So sue me for utilizing a tool that someone has put out there.