Simple way to stop the Anti-Bush signs

After reading a lot of these Anti-Bush sign threads I seems one thing hasn't came up.... stop caring about em. Yes they are a pain for everyone but if we simply ignored them the guy would stop. This guy has gotten so much attention... has it dawned on people that maybe he enjoys being famous? I say we make this the last Anti-Bush sign thread and we ignore the guy... he can put up as many of the signs as he wants but they aren't going to do much of people just ignore em. I bet they'd come down

I think it's awesome that even in a vrtual world people will voice their political voice. Think about is like this, in 7 - 10 years if you still remember them it will be a good feeling that people speak their minds no matter where they are? This is along the same lines of the "Don't litter" signs because even in another world people are still just people.

You should probably explore inworld a little bit more and read some of the other threads on this subject before getting all teary-eyed over how great these signs are. They are not politically motivated, it is greed pure and simple.

If the landowners nearby caved and bought all of "Mr. Anti-Bush-Sign Guy" land at his current asking prices, he would stand to make about $150,000 US dollars at current exchange rates. That assumes no continuing turnover, and him not cycling money back into tier and purchasing even more tiny plots to harass nearby property owners.

I do not agree with the signs and I was not meaning to be teary-eyed and pro the signs... the second part is what I can't understand happening. Why would people cave? Are the signs really that bad? Yes they are a pain but they don't harm your lot other then putting an eyesore in the backround. If people stopped caring so much about them "Mr. Anti-Bush-Sign Guy" would be gone.

I believe that was referring to Maxwolf's post:



Maxwolf obviously doesn't know the history behind these signs. The reason that they are "that bad" is that they reduce the value of the surrounding land, something like this scenario: I buy a plot of land and put it up for sale. A day or two later, a set of these signs sprouts up on the adjacent land. Now no one wants to buy my land because of the eyesore that is nearby. Hence, I have been injured by these signs being put up.

P2

I suppose I should quote; I was responding to Maxwolf. But your suggestion won't work either. People ARE buying these tiny plots of land for hundreds of $L per square meter. Some have put a lot of work into their builds and have been patient about their new neighbors building ugly things before finally settling on something great. Or maybe not. It's not really the ugliness of the build that bothers people, but that its sole purpose is to be ugly and the fact that the same scene is repeated on hundreds of lots across the SL world. If it were just one spot, the neighbors would either laugh it off and chalk it up to free speech or just move. That is becoming less and less of a possibility as the signs spread.

My only real question about these signs is who the hell is selling this guy these tiny plots of land?

People are setting their small plots for sale, he (possibly) has a land scanner that tells him when land is for sale, he buys it.

Once again...who sells their tiny plot of 16sm? Who buys that small, or would think to sell that small?

He doesn't buy 16m plots! He buys 512m or bigger, then subdivides down to several 16m plots, puts up ugly bush signs, then sets-up for sale to extortionist prices. Then sits back and laugh his head off....

The guy sounds like a Republican to me. Probably has pictures of Tom Delay on his walls.

Simone

Do people just not look around the edges of their land before buying right next to one of these plots he's subdivided?

I don't know... People probably don't. People probably think that a real estate scheme that exists solely to annoy and then extort usurious sums to make that annoyance go away would be handled by Linden Labs for the griefing that it is.

I am not getting teary eyed, thank you for the laugh though. It's a political thing at heart, other wise those signs just would not bother you. I just don't want this to turn into a poo flinging contest that politics is with the donkey yelling at the elephant and vice versa.

You are mad because you are trying to sell land and you got some ugly signs next to you, and it decreases your chances to make L's and you are mad because you cannot tell this guy what to do and what he can and cannot put on his land.

Well, if you are just renting that land and this is the admin putting these signs here you have no choice and must leave or just learn to deal with it. Second Life is a large place and there is no reason you just have to have "that one spot", go fine some place else that has no signs.

Of course then you are going to up in arms over the above paragraph, I have been browsing these posts and you people are using some very strong language in relation to extortion, and greifing, etc. Then ontop of that people are trying to enforce laws that just don't work in the world of SL. There is NO goverment other than the Linden's. Period.

SL is an Anarchy with land/IP rights and an exchange rates. So if you build a beautiful whatever, and someone moves in next door and makes the most god-awful ugly building I don't see where you can do much about it, especially for a sign.

Do I even have to mention that the more you talk about this issue the more the person will create the signs? If I could press people's buttons just with a simple sign I would make sure they are clearly visible. That is human nature

As I've mentioned before, I'm in 10,000% agreement with the sign's sentiment. But this is no political thing.

Agreed. That's why only LL can take the steps required.

The more we talk of it, the more chance that LL will step in and do the right thing.

And when people's buttons are being pressed purely with the intention of paying you large sums to make you go way, you've crossed over that line of expressing yourself, ugly build or no ugly build, political statement of no political statement.

Sometimes he buys plots AFTER "people" buy their plots. So the only choices they have are to stay and put up with it, sell their land for way too cheap (and risk him buying it), or buy the tiny squares he's got for far too much L$.

I bought about 1000m of land that had two little 16m squares by it. I would have bought them too if they had been for sale but they weren't.

I guess one of the owners put one of them up for sale as the Bush guy bought this 16m square nd hung the signs basically over my house, the only land for sale in the whole sim which is residential is that one 16m square. It's priced at $5000

This isn't political free speech, it's griefing plain and simple.

He simply skims for very small cheap pieces of land across SL to place a sign on that will annoy people enough to pay his huge price to remove. He uses the guise of free speech to confuse the issue.

Most cities have billboard ordinances and rules about signage for good reasons, there needs to be one here as well for when people complain.

Ya thats what im thinking too, he puts up the signs..and then marks up the land, bet hes made a fortune..lmao..always a better mousetrap here..seems the Lindens will tolerate about anything except camping chairs..lol i get more chuckles out of the idiocy of this game every day

Sympathies to you, Kelli I'm guessing the previous owner of that 16m plot was an alt of the griefer.

The 16m plots usually come out of released land. I had to release 256m of land about 1 year ago, because i was going to buy a larger plot and couldn't manage to sell all my 512 in time, and i didn't want to tier up. Now, after all those months, i happened to be in the sim my old land was, and guess what? One of those signs was on it!

You are so mistaken Jacqueline, and anyone else who thinks the Linden's need to "do what's right".

What is being done by the person in question is wrong, very wrong. What will the community do about it? It's up to us, LL has made it very clear they aren't going to do anything about it.

So, I ask you this...at what point do you stop banging your head against the wall and find a new way to deal with the problem hand? Social shunning is good...and the group for the "corporation" of this person is completely hidden...you can't even find out if someone is in that group when you check their profile...what does that tell you?

No, it's time to band together as citizen's of our new world and work out a solution amongst ourselves...and I think ignoring the signs is a great idea. I also see a whole new sign following that one to see how many "marks" they can get...but if we take the long road, looking forward into the future and not our selfish little "but I had this ugly sign in my view and I wanted it gone" fueling his engine attitudes, it will eventually end...it's the long way, and the only way.
There are many things we can do. So, let's stop griping, get into educating and get into action.

This is MY LAST post on this subject.

Stop paying extortion prices for those little squares, and they will get out of the extortion business.

In the meantime, put up a nice landscape mural or something.

ingore it! who'd a thunk it..

but seriously yes, a very good idea and thank you for saying so.

now.... will ignoring work for Lag? If we ignore it will it go away?

This is a lost cause trying to get the Linden's to take action towards the signs on the basis that the signs are in violation against ToS unless you start nit picking ToS down to bare bones.

The only other way to get rid of the signs is prove there is a second motive behind them i.e land extortion... I know I know you say YES its obvious that is what it is just look at the prices the "Bush Guy" is asking for the small plots. ok do this before you say that log on to SL go to one of these small over priced lots.. the last one I went to said "do not buy this land" in the comment section thus giving a warning to potential buyer's that he really doesnt want you to buy it (all though he might)

If you read the New World Notes interview with the "Bush Guy" he clearly stated he set the land for sale at an extream high price to get exposer personaly I think this is BS because the price he set is an achievible price to alot of people in SL, if this is the case why didnt he set a price that is hard to achieve? why ask 5k for a 16m2 lot instead of 5 million?

Any way the only sure fire way to prove with out a doubt its for land extortion purposes is catch him in the act!! I'm not saying buy the land from him!!!

Just wondering if there are any people out there that sold their land to get away from the signs? who bought it? did the "Bush Guy"?? Land extorsion comes in differnt ways
1. he gets you to buy the over priced parcel to get rid of him.
2. he makes you sale your land cheap, then buys it , joins it with his small 16m2 parcel, removes the signs and sells the land at a fair market price

Either way if its land extortion he profits from it but the only way to prove it is by proving it and not just saying "look he want's L$XXXXXX for such a small piece of land"

The only way to rule out land extortion would be a policy change allowing lindens to delete on request builds which are on land which is for sale.