Ad Farmer Suspensions Have Started. :)

Bradley, thanks for testing! I was too busy prim-sweeping and chasing rental boxes last night to try it.

What threw me was: when I AR'ed one of Umnik's plots (which I now own) I did it from just over the sim border, and noticed that the AR seemed to be labeled as that other sim, rather the sim the plot was in. I thought that would be too confusing, so I canceled it, moved over into the same sim, and AR'ed it from there. I think I was AR'ing the parcel, though, and not the spinning grass cube. So I wonder if it works differently if you AR land itself?

Second Ad Farmer suspension reported! I love it when LL backs up their talk with action.

Date: Friday, February 22, 2008
Violation: Community Standards: Harassment, Ad Farms
Region: Anilis
Description: Visual spam from ad farms.
Action taken: Suspended 7 days.

I haven't searched the forums for this, but has there ever been any discussion about changing the minimum parcel size to combat ad farms? How about if the minimum mainland plot size was 512m? Then wouldn't the tier fees drive out ad farmers?

Of course there would be a logistical difficulty that there are already smaller plots in existence, but at least new sims could be free from ad farms, and older sims could slowly convert.

Is there any legitimate (non-ad-farm) use/need for a 16m plot? I have tried building a house on a 512m plot, and I find that 512m is way too small to be useful for anything. Most 512 land-owners end up building their house right up to the property line, which is completely understandable with the difficulty of navigating an avatar in a small enclosed space. So it seems to me that 16m is useless, except to grief.

But, I may be missing something...
Maybe there are legitimate uses for tiny plots that I can't think of off the top of my head. Maybe there are people doing useful and beautiful things with their tiny plots?

Just wondering if it's ever been discussed.

It would not solve anything. A larger parcel would simply mean more prims to annoy the neighbors with and a higher asking price for the land.

I remember dealing with this on a 512 about 3 years. someone boght it and put up about a 100 meter high NO TELL MOTEL. deliberately the most hideous thing they possibly could, all particles, prim flash, neon and porn. Then set it for sale for 75k.

Yes, but hard to annoy when they paying hefty tier costs. That will limit it to 1 to 2 parcels vs. hundreds.

Yes they wouldn't be able to afford to have 5 in 800 sims anymore dor the same amount in 512m they could only afford 126 parcels

Guess it has been discussed because it's happening on some new sims: "Most parcels will be around 1024 square meters and “join and divide parcels” will be turned off at the estate level."

I can't tell if this is estate land or mainland. Does anyone else have a clear answer on that?

Today's announcement:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/02/22/linden-department-of-public-works-update/

Hardly the second. I've been seeing them for days. Anywhere from 1 day to 14 day suspensions, often more than one a day. The suspensions started appearing in the Incident Report some time ago.

Seen any slimy green prims lately? I've gone to some of the places where they used to flourish, and the land is bare of slime (or smiley faces). A check of the land listings shows that a certain player seems to be absent, as well.

The map, correct link:

https://wiki.secondlife.com/w/images/8/8a/Bay_City_Map_1.jpg

makes it look like it's connected mainland (therefore, it's mainland).

Edit to add: BTW, I *love* the minimum parcel size/can't join and divide restrictilons. It would be nice if you could divide/join just for setting up properties (i.e., media) for parts of the land but *sell* only on original property lines. This will be interesting to watch.

--Hugsy

Is there a page that provides more blotter info than this one? http://secondlife.com/community/blotter.php

I thought I was checking the page above pretty frequently and only saw two suspensions this week.

No, it's the same page. I may have misunderstood the post I was replying to.

I thought the point was that there had been a second suspension, as in a total of two. I've seen more than that in the report. Unfortunately, I didn't think to save the data. I wish I had, since I'm curious about the total.

Anyway, things are different. Whether or not they're better - too soon to say.

Part of the problem is that there is no good way to advertise in SL. It makes it way too easy for people to equate visibility with exposure to customers, which is simply not the case in this environment.

It will be interesting to see what the next dodge is.

I have to agree with Senga.

Ad farmers have no real interest in advertising, of course. Their true goal is grief and extortion. They are merely using advertising as their weapon.

However, true advertisers should take notice of what the ad farmers are doing, and think about what it means. There is a reason why ad farmers have chosen annoying billboards as their primary weapon. It's because billboards are an eyesore that benefits no one and destroys the beauty of the community. (This is also true in real life. But at least in real life, visibility often does equate to customer exposure, so it's more understandable.)

Billboards are just as annoying as ad farms. In fact, I can't tell the difference between a billboard and an ad farm until I inspect the land to see if it's for sale. Billboards and ad farms both make people angry and hostile. Angry people do not make good customers. So perhaps advertisers should learn a lesson and stop polluting the landscape with billboards.

Sorry to get off-topic for this thread! But to me there is really no difference between a billboard and an ad farm. The result is the same - ugly landscape that gets even uglier when people start putting up walls to block the view.

Not necessarily. Follow the road towards the north end of Rosieri, there's a billboard on the side of the road, albeit an advertisment about a missing boy which looks just like a real billboard. I don't think it's intrusive or ugly in the slightest, and there's no real need to block it either.

Having said that, it is a roadside plot and thus more likely to 'fit in' with having a billboard there rather than in the middle of a pile of regular plots.

I would agree, however, that often the "blockers" are more of a blight on the view than the spinning cube itself.

I have no problem with legitimate advertising, when a plot next door put up a sign that was 30m off the ground at the same height as my party deck I asked nicely and the owner moved it a lot higher out of direct sight.

Well i like to see the numbers of them being stopped. I still many of them questenable ones infact.

Date: Sunday, February 24, 2008
Violation: Community Standards: Harassment, Ad Farms
Region: Sunstream
Description: Visual spam from ad farm.
Action taken: Suspended 7 days.

A couple months of this and we will see better and better results.

I think some of them that are getting suspended or even deleted are old residents who no longer log in, but started doing the ad farm extortion angle back over a year ago.

Case in point: One of the 16s in the adfarm next to me was owned by a dude who claimed he was from Austria. For most of the last year, he had a big 4x4x20 annoying ad tower on it with the land set to L$99999. When I ARed two of the other people in the ad farm for plot encroachment, LL came in and wiped out the prims for the ones I ARed, and also his and a few others (big kudos to LL; it decimated much of the ugliness in the adfarm). This was a few weeks before the ban.

Since then, it was just an empty 16, set for L$99999. Not outside the new rule, though definitely silly and extortive still. I sent the guy IMs and dropped a form letter "I'll buy your small plots in the region for L$10/sqm". I never noticed him receiving them or responding to them. Just last night, a Linden sent me an IM saying "Hey! There's a16sqm here owned by Gov Linden that you surround on 3 sides which I am setting to sale to you for L$16!". I was like "Wow! OK, thanks! I will be right down to claim it". Turns out it was this guys' plot. I check the whole ad farm several times a day to keep up with any changes, and it had only been a few hours since I had last checked his, and it was still owned by him and still L$99999. To top it off, he no longer exists in Search.

Very interesting.

So, hopefully, we are going to see more and more of these as time goes on. Now, if only they would do this with one of the other adfarmers I keep ARing, because he just does not get the message that "big ugly ad/for sale prims on a tiny plot set to ridiculous prices" is against the rules. 3 times and counting now...

Talarus, I have a hard time imagining the gall (or stupidity) of anyone who'd try extortion on a huge, ancient dragon.

Oh but history is littered with the remains of those silly knights errant who tried. Usually in huge, ancient dung piles left behind by said Dragon.

Must kinda hurt, passing all that shining armor. And those lances! O.O

Actually the cans keep them fresh, and once you get a Can opener I hear they are quite tasty

Heh. reminds me of an old cartoon. Polar bear, breaking into an igloo, to friend polar bear: "I love these things. Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. : )

Cold on the outside, warm and screamy on the inside.

Oh, tis a sore Dragon indeed who once failed to heed the rule of "peel before you eat!".

Lances are good to make kabobs. Just peel, skewer, and rotisserie at "low breath" setting for 10 seconds. Yum!