Unverified Accounts Are Excluded From New Search

Or maybe they are penalised?!

It's the land that is indexed and used to advertise businesses.

So commercial renters who cannot control the land titles and descriptions of the land they are renting, won't be found (via places at least).

Some NPIOFs are listed in the All results with links pointing to their HTML pages. The best way to check it is to search on the name of a popular business - one that is likely to have plenty of Picks. That's the clickable name that appears in the search results - it's the name of the land. Almost all of the results are the html pages of people with the place in the their Picks. Go through those and you'll find some NPIOFs. I'm not in SL just now or I could give you some examples.

It was established some time ago, before this thread started, that the Picks of NPIOFs do show in search and are used as links to places. I found that the majority of avs that count in that way are PIOFs, but NPIOFs are not uncommon.

Right, but only if those NPIOFs own a group that is set to be searched.



I think that whomever established this some time ago, before this thread started, was wrong.

Only the picks of NPIOFs who own searchable groups show up as Profile Links and HTML Links.

Every example provided in this thread, as well as my own recent experiments, shows this to be the case. And further, my own research shows that the day those HTML Links appear, there is a jump in rank.

If I'm wrong in my research and understanding, then everyone here who cares about it will benefit from my being corrected.

That could almost be correct. I examined a number of NPIOFs that are used for Picks links and found that most are group owners, but one was only a group officer, and one wasn't listed as anything special in any group. The guy that wasn't listed as anything special could actually be an officer in a group, because some of the groups didn't list all the members - some only listed the owners, and yet the guy is a member of them all, so he could be a group officer in one. I didn't yet find anything that conclusively shows that certain ranks in groups is not at least one of the triggers. If it is a trigger, then it's owners and officers.

While I was doing it, I did find an example of an av that is set not to show in search, and yet is listed, so an HTML page exists for the av, and the Google system has indexed it, which means that its Picks are counting. Not showing in search means that clicking its listed link returns a page that says it's set not to show in search, instead of its HTML page.

[added]
I've found that the one who is an officer, also owns a group that doesn't show in her groups list. The one who isn't anything special in a group could also own a group that doesn't show in his list.

I just had a thought...

Maybe it's nothing to do with groups specifically. Maybe it's avs with payment info on file PLUS avs that *pay* LL, for something, and regardless of payment info. If I'm not mistaken group owners all pay a share of the monthly cost of the group, when it's set to show in search.

If my memory is correct, someone earlier in the thread did a test by making an alt a group owner, but after several days, nothing had changed. If the key is paying LL, then nothing would change until the payment made, which could be up to a week away, plus maybe a day or three to make it into the system.

You might be right.

I found a person a few hours ago that had "Payment on File" but did not appear at all in new ALL search. It might be that the AV just recently registered a CC and has not been updated. I'll take a look again in 2 days time....that should be enough time for him to be linked.

if nothing else-this thread has been extremely useful. learnt quite a bit from reading all the comments in here...thanks to Wildefire to bringing it to our attention

Well as an experiment, after reading this thread, I took one of my 'no payment info on file' alts and made him 'payment info used'. He has always had 'show in search' checked but as an NPIOF he did not show in all search, other than the profile link.

I think it was Monday afternoon, that I had him register a payment method and buy some L$. Now today he has just appeared in the new 'all' search. I've been checking a few times a day since then.

-Atashi

Under this theory, image uploads would have the same effect. So every NPIOF av with a photo in their profile should have an HTML Link. But they don't.

So I stand by my theory that owning a group set to search, triggers the group and the owner to be indexed.

And since we already know that Payment Info Used (PIU) gets an HTML index, someone should do an experiment and see if a non-group owning, Payment Info On File (PIOF), but not PIU, AV will produce an HTML Link. That's the last variable that needs to be tested.

Please do. Otherwise it appears there are only 2 ways for an AV to receive an HTML Link. PIU or Group Owner.

Update #1: My NPIOF friend who formed a new group and set it to show in search now shows up in the All search. The group was initially set not to show in search, and the avatar did not show in search either. When the group was set to show in search, the avatar appeared in search within a day. I will conclude based on this and the previous responses that owning a group set to show in search is a trigger to get NPIOFs listed in the All search.

Update #2: My alts that I put payment info on file for still do NOT show in search. In fact, their in world profiles still appear as NPIOF, even though they have payment info on file when I look them up on the support page. I will conclude from this that it's not enough to just put payment info on file for a previously unlisted avatar to show in search.

My next step will be to buy some L$s with one of my alts and see if that triggers a change in her status, and to see if she will show in the All search.

I will make another one of my alts an owner in a group I created, and the other an officer, set the group to show in search, and see if that triggers anything.

How many avs does your friend (update #1) have that show in the All search? The reason I ask is because I've had 2 avs showing in search all along, but I've never managed to get a third one to show. Two days ago I set a NPIOF one as a group owner, and it still doesn't show in search. The group payment day is still a few days away, so the av hasn't yet paid anything to LL.

I'm thinking that owning a group won't do it on its own. I'll see if there's a change after the av has paid a few Ls for the group and, if there's a change, I'd think that paying is the key, rather than anything to do with groups. Did you buy some Ls with the alt, Puppet. If so, any change?

Update to my updates:
#1 - More than one, I believe, though this particular one owns a small business (rents space). The NPIOF account only appeared after creating a new group with that AV as owner. This avatar had previously uploaded a bunch of textures, and thus had previously paid LL in the form of texture upload fees, but still did not appear in search until after the group was created.

#2 - Setting my two alts to co-owner and officer in my pre-existing group did not trigger the show in search, but I didn't consider the group payment day issue. I bought $5USD worth of L$s for the third alt, and she appeared in search the next day. I just bought $1 worth of L$ for another and will see if she appears in search, to see if it's tied to the monetary amount. I don't think there is a limit on the number of avatars that can appear in search linked to one IP address.

I have 4 avatars in search now, myself included. My 1st alt and I are both premium and we have always been in new search. I had another alt register a payment method and buy a few L$, and 2 or 3 days later he turned up in search. I gave some L$ to the fourth one and had her create a group, now 2 or 3 days later both her and the group show up in search.

-Atashi

This is really interesting. Don't forget to update us even if this thread drops off the first page, as it it frequently does.

I'll let the group payment day go by before doing anything else with that 'group owner' alt.

Remember, the only avs that we count as showing in search are those that have a listing/link to their HTML page, and not those that only have a link to their normal Profile box. Are all yours like that, Atashi?

A group owner doesn't get a link-back to their profile from the group page, but a group founder does. If they're trying to make the new search consistent then any avie that created a group would need a web profile or else the link on the group page would result in a 404.

Good thinking, Kitty. 404s wouldn't matter to the system, but they would matter to people who click on those links. They could have chosen not to make the founder's name clickable in cases where there is no other reason to create an html page for it, though.

Yes - when I say I have four in search, I mean with the full html profile link. Two premium, one payment info used (bought some L$) and one NPIOF who founded a group that is shown in search.

-Atashi

indexing for search doesn't seem tied to profile page creation JSYK... take an av you know doesn't show up in search, and paste their key into the following address
http:world.secondlife.com/resident/ <key goes here>

I have yet to hit a not found by this method, but haven't tested extensively.

for business' using picks for rewards this should help since they should already know the key, for people looking to reportal name to key, it isn't going to help.

Updating my update to my updates (and thoroughly confusing myself): The alt I bought $1USD worth of Lindens for now appears in search too. I think you can have unlimited AV's showing in search, as long as you're willing to pay something, either through LindeX or by starting a group.

Woohoo, now I can game the picks search by breeding an army of Puppets and buying $1 in Lindens for each of them! Or I can go even cheaper by starting unlimited groups with each alt!

Actually that's kinda too much effort for me. But I'm sure someone will do it.

Presumably, they one that bought L$ is PIOF?

It's a lot cheaper to buy L$ than to start groups. The L$ can be collected by one av and cashed out again, and there's no ongoing cost

It raises a question. Can a basic account use the Lindex to sell L$ for US$? I'm wondering how to get US$ into an account without putting any payment info on file.

I tried this earlier and it told me I was over my trading limit, which was $0. Although the chart suggests I should be able to after 14 days. However my AV is a lot older than 14 days, so I don't know how it works.

I'll give it a go. It may be their way of declining the facility to basic accounts.

You used to be able to go by that chart. However, I remember a discussion a while back in which it seems the timer got reset, and now the calendar starts when you make your first LindeX transaction, which is set to buy only. Basically, you stay at $0 sell limit until you buy L$s. It pissed off a lot of people who made money in world and didn't want to have to buy L$s first in order to be able to sell them. I guess this was done to keep NPIOF accounts from converting to USD without putting payment info on file.

And Phil, yes, the one that bought the L$ had payment info on file. She still showed up as NPIOF in world though until she made a LindeX transaction.

Excuse my bad math re: groups vs. buying L$s. For some reason, I associate buying L$s with spending them!

That AV should be listed as a Payment Information Used (PIU) and not PIOF. True?

That one is listed as PIU now after buying L$. But there was a period of a few days where I had payment info on file for that avatar, before I bought L$, but she still showed as NPIOF in-world.