Looking for Help to Formulate a Jira Proposal to Get Rid of Ad Farms

See, if the revenue from adfarm ads went directly to Linden Labs, then this would be true. But as it is, the adfarms *hurt* LL's revenues by acting as a disincentive to own land or to tier-up. The tiny amount of tier paid by the entire adfarm "industry" doesn't begin to make up for the lost revenue. Because it's LL's top line that's affected here, they'll act. And sooner rather than later, I suspect, if they keep getting the message through ARs and every other channel we have to them.

The problem is that on your TV or radio, you can mute the commercials. You can prevent pop ups on your internet browser. In SL, however, we're forced to "see" these things. I know that I can mentally turn them off, but there are times that I'm shocked into really noticing how bad they are.

The 'mute parcel' proposal could work, but then i'd have to fly around muting every single stupid ad farm parcel. To hinder the ad farmers economically by charging them extra tier over a certain number of parcels would both add to Linden Lab's bottom line (for a while anyway) and decrease the number of people jumping into the ad farming business.

True 'nuff. Who wants to buy land in a blighted sim? Mind you the island sim owners must be rubbing the paws together with glee at the prospect of floods of disenchanted ex-mainlanders.


I hope so. Your analysis may be correct but so far LL seems to be turning a blind eye to the ad farm blight

All you will do is force them on to bigger plots, whatever the smallest size is not to have the extra fees. You can still put 32 ads on a 512m lot. The market always adapts. And for better or worse there is a market for these ads. End the demand and the supply will dry up.

Exactly! This is why it will work -- they will pay more tier for the same number of plots, or be forced to reduce the number of plots. Ad farms make pennies per plot -- this idea will force them to become uneconomical.

pennies? Not when you get someone willing to pay 5000L to get rid of a 16 sqm blight that was purchased for 200-400L. The problem is people continue to buy them up at insane prices just to be rid of them, which empowers them to move on.

I was looking at Zamyatin on the map - Linden road cuts a huge swath through this sim. from northeast to southwest. Guess what is there almost every meter of the way? It used to be a number of large land holdings but they moved on... and the land got carved up into the crap it is today.

You can have 512sqm spread through a parcel in separate 16m pieces, none of them touching the others- and still group them together as a parcel.

Most cutters have multiple plots in each sim anyways- combining them into one official parcel- even though they're scattered all over, is an easy work around.


I don't disagree that they're an eyesore- but this isn't the way to eliminate them.

Maybe this should be a new thread, because it's a new question... but it's related, so...

What should a "stop adfarms" distribution contain?

You know how scammers encase things like SLX terminals, vendors, etc. with full-alpha prims, scripted to take the money of the unsuspecting? Well, if one owns the land adjacent to an adfarm, surely the adfarmers couldn't complain about what you put on your land. So one would be perfectly within one's rights to surround the ads not with visual screens, but with invisible, clickable prims that distribute anti-adfarm info. So the question is: what should such a thing distribute?

So far, I've thought of
- calling llLoadURL() to ,
- a Clocktower Network probe,
- a landmark and notecard to the Arbor Project site, and
- a nicely worded IM (suggestions?)

Any suggestions for additional or different contents?

ummm no.

You can fit 32 ads on a 512 plot, then number of 16m plots you can carve out. It won't affect their tier in the least.

if you write it, i'll definitely take one!

Obviously Chris. The point is, if we implement the tier penalty for large numbers of plots, we can assume that the ad farmers will put all their ads on one plot. Duh. BUT. If we ALSO implement the "visually mute parcel" proposal, it would only be ONE parcel that residents would have to mute, not 32 separate parcels.

I've added comments on both VWR-1017 and SVC-400 that would encourage packaging both of these proposals together. Vote for both!

This is now freely available just outside my barn, at if anyone would like to pick one up and test it out. It starts out 4x10m, ultra-thin, and opaque for easy positioning; when touched by the owner, it can be toggled to transparent. Any feedback much appreciated.

You rock, Qie!

In other news, I just got some feedback from an ad farmer last night. Apparently he has "inherited" (whatever that means) hundreds of 16 m off-road plots. (Off Linden roads, that is.) He will still farm on roadsides, but doesn't want to deal with all these other plots... we're trying to work out an amicable solution.

Well done!

If you need some help with finance, let me know - or, indeed, contact Xerses or others from the Arbor project.

Thanks... I'm a member!

I agree, but they're not going to ban something that comes down to ugly builds.

Ugly mainland and lack of control about this kinda thing is why I live on a private island.

yes i have one of these!

mmm great idea. much better looking than an adfarm

I for one think that ad farms are an eyesore. However, I don't like the idea of them being banned either.

I was exploring the other day along a section of Linden land roadway. The edges of these roadways seem to attract ad farms. Although it's a bit out of character for me, I went to the website of the one of the advertising companies. I located the company's contact info and sent a polite email, stating that I felt these types of ads were an eyesore and that there were better ways to advertise in SL. I was pleased and surprised when I recieved the following reply;

"Thank you for letting us know about this problem. XXXXXX.com does not
directly advertise in Second Life. I believe this is someone that is
part of our affiliate network. I myself have been a part of the SL
community since 3/06 and can appreciate your comments about how it is
indeed an eyesore. Would you be able to tell me what sim you saw the
ads in so I can find the creator?"

So, I would like to encourage others who dislike ad farms to politely let the companies being advertised know your feelings. I'm sure many of these companies wont care if there ads are an eyesore or not, but it only takes a little effort and it can't hurt to try.

Also I X'd out the actual company name. I wasn't sure if mentioning it here was against forum rules out not.

In my experience the people who own the adfarms are all big players. They are paying big buck to linden labs and LL won't do anything to piss them off.