What is Dwell?

Linden introduced "traffic" or "dwell" as a way to reward residents who create popular locations. Each night a pool of $L is paid out to landowners in proportion to the number of avatars visiting and the amount of time spent on any of their parcels. The dwell that any one avatar triggers in a day is divided up proportionally to the time spent on any given parcel.
The total dwell generated by an avatar is the same whether they spend 5 minutes or 24 hours in SL on a particular day.

· An avatar must spend at least 5 minutes on a parcel for any dwell to register. Landowners who own several parcels next to each other may benefit from joining them in case some avatars spend less than 5 minutes on any parcel.

· Each month, Linden offers a $US reward to the 2% of landowners who receive the most dwell - in proportion to the dwell their properties received. In August of 2004, US$2,308 was distributed to 36 landowners.

· Dwell on group land also counts. The nightly $L that results from dwell on group-owned land is distributed equally to all members. However, the dwell "points" that count toward the monthly US$ awards are distributed to the members who contributed land allocations to group land, in proportion to their contribution. This offers a better chance for someone in the group to receive some of the US$ awards. We started tracking this September 1st so the September US$ awards will reflect group land.

· Both visible and invisible Private Islands receive dwell.

· The nightly L$ pool and the monthly US$ pool increase regularly, based on the growth of Second Life.

· Dwell also determines which "Popular Places" are selected each night. You can see these by clicking on the Find button and selecting the "Popular Places" tab. They also appear on the Map as a "thumbs up" icon.

· The dwell of all avatars count, including the 7-day trial accounts.

Some more information about Dwell and Groups:

Group members who contribute land allocations get credit towards these awards in proportion to the amount of land allocation they’ve contributed. The daily $L that results from traffice on group land is paid to all group members equally.

Private Islands also receive traffic and in most situations it goes to the owner of the island. The exception is if the Private lsland is set to a group, then the group members will equally share the daily L$ dwell. However, when calculating the monthly reward, all traffic goes to the owner. Private Island owners should make sure that the same group does not own land on the mainland, otherwise the traffic won't be counted correctly. Also, if a Private Island is transferred then the traffic for that month won't count towards the monthly award.