Define an ad farm?

So in reading some of the discussion of Jack Linden's blog post. as well as some discussion at Blue Linden's office hours, I find myself wondering just what people would define an "ad Farm" as -- the more concrete and concise the better.

if it can be clearly defined, then it can be regulated, I think?

Things can be regulated without strict definitions all the time. For instance, what makes for a naughty picture, versus something anthropological in National Geographic?

No clear definition there, but that hasn't stopped anyone from dealing with the issues.

Judging such things is always going to be a bit imperfect.

Understanding this, most judicial systems have a 'jury of peers' mechanism for the trying of fact; the judge only bases trying of law based upon the results of the jury's findings.

Subjective right to the very core.

The clearer and less ambigious the definition, the more opportunity there is for anyone to slightly adjust in a such way that they no longer fit the definition.

In context it's quite clear what's an ad farm and what isn't so there's no need for a strict definition, just strict pruning of what's undesirable.

The problem has never been definitions, but rather LL's inability and unwillingness to actually see things through.

A Tour of Route 1
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Qie_Niangao

Linden “actively discussing” ad farms
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2008/02/11/linden-actively-discussing-ad-farms/

Jack Linden Office Hour June 25th 2008
http://www.your2ndplace.com/node/1231

Mainland and the Ad Farm Problem, Linden Blog, by Jack Linden
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/02/13/mainland-and-the-ad-farm-problem/

The Future of the Second Life Mainland, Linden Blog, by Jack Linden
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/08/05/the-future-of-the-second-life-mainland/

Mainland Discussion with Jack Linden
/346/1.html

Meta-Issue: Ad Farms
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-608

Further Offensive Advertising Behaviour http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/2008/01/22/further-offensive-advertising-behaviour/

DMCA Dustup Over Second Life Ad Farm Screenshots Highlights Virtual World Copyright Question
http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/01/23/second-life-dmca-ad-farms/

To me an ad farm is a collection of ads that assaults my eyes and detracts from my enjoyment of my virtual space. My definition includes both ads supposedly placed to bring business to some venue on SL (or off of it as seen lately on a Foxboro tower), and those placed with intent to extort nearby landowners.

When we were new to SL, we purchased a bit of land and made a home of it. We now refuse to leave, though we know we could...we stubbornly refuse to give in and leave. And so our little oasis exists in the middle of sign hell (see my sig).

To me, an ad farm is a series of small plots or a singular small plot whose sole job is to hold a single prim or more for the express intent of advertising a business or place, with little regard to those around the plot. This includes places that are used to extort sales of land from surrounding land owners via visual annoyance and very high prices.

I don't want regulation. I want to be able to mute the damned things, like my browser does.

I agree, actually I tend to be a "I know it when I see it" type. But, well... some others disagree. :-/

Yes. And it tempts "solutions" that treat the details of the definition, instead of the problem itself; indeed, that's how the original adfarm ban failed so utterly.To broaden that a bit: the extortion side of the adfarming synergy system is really just the attempt to compel a purchase at inflated prices not justified by the value of the land if acquired, but rather by the costs of not buying the land. Such costs may include the inconvenience or inability to build on one's own land--if, for example, the extortion parcel is carved from the middle of it; the perceived risk of the parcel becoming host to offensive content (a strong synergy with advertising); banlines; extreme terraforming; and other acts or threats, expressed or implied. The point being that the extortion plot need not itself host any content whatsoever and still pose a real hardship to adjacent landowners.

Adfarmers are human garbage and should be thrown out like the stinking waste of flesh they are.

Ad farms are useless and if they exist, they should be housed on walls.
I go to some sims, think a place is a store and it's weblinks to various, events, groups, SL relations and irl products promoted in SL.

Is it either of these?

a) You don't want people to be allowed to put advertisements on their land, because it's ugly
or
b) If you put only an ad on your land, you're not allowed to sell it, and vice versa

I am indeed really confused about it, and those are the best ideas I have of what it means...

I agree with Qie. Ads are a red herring IMO. It seems to me the basic problem is not ads per se, as there are all sorts of perfectly legitimate uses of adverts or posters. No, it's the use of a plot with the sole objective of bullying, harassment and land sales extortion that needs to be addressed.

If ad farmers couldn't use ads they'd merely turn to using or doing something equally unpleasant and annoying instead. E.g I gather many now use banlines to similarly try and force overpriced sales. So definitions and banning of some types of ads would add bureaucracy but won't solve the actual problem that blights the mainland.

I ploughed through most of Jack Linden's thread and there are now many more quoted instances of the Adstortionists (great word whoever it was that coined it!) having been swiftly responded to and favoured over their abused victim neighbour who had erected screening wholly on their own land in a last ditch defence.

So far I haven't seen Jack or Kate L offer any explantion for this frankly astonishing way of dealing with these false ARs. Everyone else can recognise this situation when they see it - how come the Linden responding to an AR by an ad farmer/griefer being screened off is unable to recognise it too? Remove screening if necessary BUT deal firmly with the Adstortionist *at the same time*.

There's something very fishy about this whole situation and the injustice is causing a lot of anger. Until LL's attitude to false ARing and harrassment/extortion of residents alters, I can't see things changing much in practice, whatever new rules they dream up. I do hope a visual mute option of some sort will be made available asap though. Residents need to have options to use themselves rather than have to AR everything.
--
Aes

I think that *any* ads that cause visual blight should be dealt with under the adfarm policy. The land next to mine is owned by a store. The actual store is way up in the sky, yet they have four massive rotating prims spread across the land at eye level, advertising the store above. The prims are all set to full bright so they're even visible at night, and unless I have my draw distance down to 64m, I see them no matter where I go on my land. I will *not* move because of these ugly things, because the place where I live is not only beautiful and has a protected oceanfront view, but it's also a deepwater area and I have fallen in love with it. (I don't ever give the name of it out in forums, because it's our private home and not our public land where we meet friends etc, but some of you that have been around for a while might know of the area.)

Not only have these ad prims grown from three to four lately, but the store owner has increased the number of traffic bots in tiny skyboxes (average of 15 now) and spread them all over the sim. She owns almost all of the waterfront of the sim, and if I'm even an hour or so late paying my rent, my landlord often sends me IM to chivvy me along, sometimes telling me someone is interested in my land, sometimes asking me cryptic questions about how things are down there. So I definitely feel the increase in ad boxes next to my land (together with the other things she's doing) is an attempt to force me out.

sounds like it Skell

I think any plot 16m w/an ad is one. If its placed where no store is around it is wrong.
have on next to my land and it sucks. I like the idea of regulating them, ie no glow how tall and how many sounds good. I do recognize the right to have one where your store is on your land with in reason. The ones near Skell seem in excess.

I agree with the any plot 16m bit. Between myself and a good neighbour is a 16 m plot that has 2 prim in use. One is a huge tree which overhangs our land,this plot however is not set for sale but on contacting the owner we are both told to "make me a good offer".this is still extortion and must also be stamped out.So for me it's just not all about ads.

If the tree overhangs your land, go ahead and file an AR about it, pointing out what the owner has said. Both of you need to do it and have as many of your friends do it too.

I pretty much agree with this, there is something extremely fishy about the way these AR's are being handled. It really isn't hard to figure out why someone has put screens or trees or whatever up to protect their view and yet, the reason for this is ignored time after time.

Reading yesterday that someone had their objects returned because they blocked access to a parcel was really frustrating, because the person didn't block all sides of the parcel, one side of the parcel was blocked by a parcel that had banned everyone and yet who do Linden Lab decide the guilty person is? The person erecting walls to protect their view, it's a ridiculous situation.

Visual mute would be helpful, but I'm not sure how easy that would be to implement, but giving people the ability to protect their view without having to erect walls and screens would pretty much eradicate the extortion plots.

One of the biggest issues for me, is that I consider signs "along the roadside" to not only be reasonable, but desireable. Signs in the middle of a sim (or in the middle of someone else's parcel) are not.

Signs on the sides of a building.. reasonable, Signs on the roof, fine, Signs in a "parking lot".. etc.

I find that I'm far more willing to tolerate advertising if:

1. it's an inworld product, venue, event, or service being advertised.
2. The sign is tastefully built
3. The sign isn't obnoxious. (noisy, chatty, overly scripted, flashing constantly, TEMP REZZING, using particles, glowing, a light source, etc)
4. The sign adheres to the sim's rating. (PG/Mature)

I think that the roadside signs are an important component to the SL universe. But I also think they should be "built in theme" (if it's a coastal styled sim, the sign should probably LOOK like a billboard or real-world sign.)

Frankly, I think that there's a reasonable market for this sort of parcel, But I also think it's being exploited by less than scrupulous "extortionists".

It is a "you know it when you see it" issue.. because the absolutely LOVELY billboard in my sim, is perfectly acceptable to me, and yet the 4x4 plots with nothing on them, set to sell for 8000L$ and 9000L$... That's unreasonable in my opinion. But with nothing on the plots, there's nothing to Abuse Report.

I'd accept as reasonable, selling "advertising sized (and located) plots" for 4x the going rate for other land.

At the same time, I am concerned with what happens to owners of small plots of land, when LL decides to "take" their land. I've heard of at least one person that this happened to... and they weren't hosting ads on their microplot.