Questions re Adult, Ursula and land

Hello!

1) Is there a target time for Ursula to open for land sales or when existing "Adult" shops will be forced to move there?

2) Given the amount of land on Ursula and the presumably large number of mainland mature parcels becoming free, will prices fall sharply?

3) If they do fall, doesn't this play into the hands of land flippers as it will be a predictable drop? (I am assuming they will all leap and buy the land at cheap prices and flip it before ordinary folk - i.e. without land bots have a chance to buy any).

I suppose this all depends on how well the process is handled by LL but I wondered what the ppl here felt about it.

Thanks in advance !

I would like to see a commitment from Linden Lab to actually improve the mainland with at least a percentage of the reclaimed land being used for public works. Create some new parks. Let paid providers do some builds worth visiting. Make a fantastic xStreet mall. Put in some next-generation sandboxes and info hubs.

Here's a thought: Take some whole regions that are newly vacated, make them double-prims, themed like a Nautilus or some other desirable land and offer land swaps to those who have leftover ad-farm micro plots for sale. m2 for m2 consolidation. Let them charge outrageous rates for their new 1024s or 512s. Then make a real effort to merge the old 16s and 32s back into existing properties or protected land. I think that would help to clean up mainland.

I am also concerned about regions being thrown into chaos by land flippers who dive in solely to divide land turn a profit. Neighbors should be given a chance to acquire vacated land at market value before it is auctioned. It is just good business to encourage residents to expand in their own regions, to grow and take tier jumps like many of us did.

I think first they have to get their verified/access stuff to work correctly. Might be a while then.

Wasn't there a rumour that payment info used was going to be accepted as verification?

If so, then thats already in place so it could all happen as soon as Ursula is ready.

Payment info is considered "adult verification" (when it registers correctly in-world--this sometimes requires a support ticket). Unfortunately, there are technical problems with how these access restrictions are working in-world, above and beyond any problems with the processes of getting verified (the old Aristotle/Integrity IDV thing, or now payment info).

It's pretty difficult to guess just how far the prices will fall on the existing Mainland continents as people move to Ursula or to Adult private sims. One mitigating factor is that the second Homestead fee increase is scheduled to come shortly afterwards which will probably wipe out pretty much all remaining regions of that class. Assuming not all those residents (owners and renters) will be leaving SL, some may wash ashore on the Mainland, establishing some kind of price floor.

On the other hand, per Jack at his office hour yesterday, it seems that Mainland swapped out by residents on their way to Ursula will not be automatically reclaimed by LL, and that the landowners will have a chance to dump the land for whatever price they can raise, before they have to pay extra tier. If that's really the case, prices could fall arbitrarily close to 0$L/m2 at least during that transition--and may stay that way for some time, with all that land in circulation instead of held by the Governor until prices stabilize.

To further add to the complexity, it's not a completely sure thing that Ursula land will command a premium, especially for the commercial use for which it was intended, just because the market is smaller and it's just not known what share of the large number of NPIOF/unverified residents who'll get themselves age-qualified to enter that market. On the other hand, the changes to Search for Adult content are looking very much more restrictive than limits on the actual content itself, so many merchants will need an Adult location where they can list their products in such a way that they can be found in Search.

It wouldn't work.

I don't plan to have payment info on file, I got other ways of getting money into SL (was using SLX for awhile till I got pretty much all I needed... the rest I get through dancing now and then)

As for verification, I watched my buddy fail four times with his data... only to pass when he grabbed his 16yr old brother's learners license. I mean come on, the dude verified as an adult with a 16 year old's information!

Why should people waste time with the system when it don't work. I've been teleported directly into age restricted parcels, flown into them because it seems the restriction is only at ground level, and watched his verified account be kicked back from them while I entered.

They have a long long way to go before they can segregate the grid.

So if I have to verify or link my account, something I don't even do for auto bill pay... not happening.

[QUOTE (from Qie)=<snip>One mitigating factor is that the second Homestead fee increase is scheduled to come shortly afterwards which will probably wipe out pretty much all remaining regions of that class.<snip>[/QUOTE]

Do I read that as "yes there IS a planned date for the move to adult"?

They intend swapping the land (letting those who are forced to move have Ursula land without buying it), and then allow those who are forced to move to sell the old land, effectively giving the Ursula land for free?

I believe I recall them saying that the moves would start during June - that may have changed since then, though. I can't believe they would start selling anything over there until space for the moves are all allocated.

/me runs in to make a sex bed shop to get the cheap land - c'mon everyone!

The initial Ursula land for those forced to move was always intended to be "free".

I didn't know that. I'd understood it would be a free swap; i.e. not have to buy over there but, at the same time, relinquishing any financial rights in the old land (after a period of time to allow LM givers to operate for a while).

Ah they clarified that a while ago to say people could sell the initial land. They're either hoping it will help smooth the move or that people will keep both parcels and if you sell PG and items like sex beds then you might want two parcels.

Interesting. There was so much being written about it that I didn't even try to follow all that was said.

I still won't move though, and I won't move part of the shop. It'll still end up with extra tier, so the freeness of the land wouldn't even be tempting.

Yeah, that was pretty much my understanding, too, with the extra twist that folks could elect to retain the sub-Adult parcels *iff* they paid the extra tier--essentially buying it back from LL for L$0 at the time tier comes due (and then sell it, of course). But now I understand them to be saying the owner can just sell that land before tier is due, which is what I find slightly incredible about this news.

In a way, I suppose it's fair compensation for the hardships Adult content providers will suffer in the move.

And (as Ciaran mentioned) maybe there's a hope that this will help folks come to the (Linden desired) conclusion that they really want to tier-up and have land on Ursula and the sub-Adult continents, both.

But if they really do this, there will be race to the bottom for Mainland prices, at least during the move, with a persistent over-supply continuing to depress prices for some time thereafter.

Some compensation, perhaps, but I wouldn't call it fair compensation. Any move will mean starting from scratch in the All search, and it would take more than some free land to compensate for the loss of earnings that would cause.

You can clue yourself up on everything to do with the Adult Content Purge Here

http://www.slapt.me/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

And Here

http://satiateddesires.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/second-life-adult-content-changes-how-theyll-affect-you/

And then I recommend once you've made up your mind about it you go here and vote

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-2727

And should you feel inclined to make a more visible protest check out these free resources

http://satiateddesires.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/protest-against-the-second-life-adult-content-changes/

Agreed and this is the point being missed by many, it's notjust a matter of moving your stuff and add to that LL's disgraceful ignorance of private island issues.

What disgraceful ignorance of private island issues?

Switching an entire islands to AO if they have any parcels with Adult content causes enough problems or evictions of the AO. All the renters would have to verify. Any potential renters would have to verify - just to be able to find it in Search.
The real killer is that all joined islands have to follow. If they didn't then you have AO sitting 2 metres from PG/Mature/Disney

You'd think, wouldn't ya? But no: Adult and sub-Adult Estate regions can be adjacent. Which of course means this whole thing is pointless, at least as far as making anything a "more predictable experience."

(That's not to say that I think Adult islands should have to move away from sub-Adult regions; there's going to be plenty enough wailing and gnashing of teeth as-is, both on Mainland and Estates. I only just wish there were some hope of some benefit from all this, but I sure don't see it.)

No, that's not correct. An adult sim can join a mature or PG. Strange but true...so far.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Sullivan
What i meant was can an adult flagged sim and a Mature sim be placed side by side with a PG sim in a block or row so i can walk from one private sim to another, so walk from PG into Mature into Adult

Not that they had to move to Ursula, sorry i thought i had made that clear



Quote: Blondin Linden
As long as your maturity levels allow access, then yes, you could walk from one to the other.

I'd missed that bit.
It is inconsistent with their stated aims.

[QUOTE (from Qie)=<snip>One mitigating factor is that the second Homestead fee increase is scheduled to come shortly afterwards which will probably wipe out pretty much all remaining regions of that class.<snip>[/QUOTE]

From the Upcoming Changes thread, post #7154
Originally Posted by Tcko Cazalet
3. Can you give us a close time frame to when SL will open up tickets for the move?

and post #7221
Originally Posted by Kalderi Tomsen
Well, that's something. Care to share with us whether there is any change in the general thought processes as a consequence of this awareness?

or is it more "Oh this is going to tick a lot of people off, but we need to do it anyway - FULL STEAM AHEAD!"?

ETA: I mean at the very best you're getting the feedback that this is too far away from being "ready for prime time" that you can't meet the deadline with any sort of real resident satisfaction, and at the other extreme you have residents who just don't want you to do it at all, and would rather you enforce the current standards and work on other things. Even the big adult producers seem to be saying "yes, but..."

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Now up to 1853 votes and in 2nd place, in spite of having to be reopened because LL closed it again.