Why is Relay for Life Advertising on Adfarms?

The good news from all this is Relay for Life is getting some publicity. It's a good cause and I wish them the best with their efforts.

I don't think they are getting good publicity unless they change what they are doing.

Land extortionists make the place ugly exactly so people buy them out -- YOU are their best customer. The money you spent probably allowed them to move to several more sims, affecting dozens of other landowners. Stop funding them, please.

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Limit maximum sale price based on land parcel size, to combat ad farms
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-894

I am one of those people who hate being forced to deal with ads in games and virtual worlds. It's worse when they are close enough for my property that the scanner they use reads off my land makes me less happy with them. Not that they can see the ads, mind you. Any ads near my land gets automatically blocked from view.

Yeah, I don't like ads and I do use an ad-blocker on my browser. I rarely watch television and when I do, it's DVD's or one of the commercial-light preschool channels.

this is easy for those of us to say who don't live next to an ad farm.

i've been traveling the road system on heterocera & sansara for a while now. sometimes i see small ad farms. sometimes they even seem appropriate when they are amidst a large urban area.

but those poor 512 m avatar residences with big ad farms next door. i feel sorry for them.

Some close friends of mine recently bought out some ad farms next to them. As much as it completely went against my grain I must admit that the sight of them was so bad that I can't say I wouldn't have been tempted to do the same if I was in that position.

I watched about a month ago as some low-level jerk purchased two roadside 512m lots in the Plio region, the place i have been in for over a year, and cut them up for resale because "he'd learned how to make money from a friend this way". Before that we never, ever, had any ad farms or even any overt ads at all there (though, there are a few ugly builds).

I talked to him while he cut those parcels. I tried explaining the impact it would have. I did everything I could, and yet the appeal of making a quick buck was compelling for him. And you know what, he did. Its ridiculously easy to make money being an ass. That is the scary truth.

I chose not to buy his marked up lots (even though they were most only about double price). I was tempted, but I knew if I did, it would prove to him even sooner that this is a good money-making venture. So I know better than anyone. I watched the whole thing, I bought whatever leftovers i could that were normal price, and left the extortion lots. It tore at my heart not to buy the marked-up ones, because i knew what would happen.

The next day, the lots had new owners... several of the extortionists we all know and hate. You can see them today. This was the moment that i realized that there is no solution in educating people. There is no solution in blocking them, nor in boycotting their "ads" (which we know are nothing more than legal griefing to extort high prices). Nothing will work, because any idiot can get a premium account and start making money fairly fast doing this. In fact... he can make an account, go premium, run around flipping land over into ad farms, tiering up as high as he likes, then send his cash to his main AV before his tier payment is even due.

This is why we need caps on prices for very small parcels. http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-894

Of course these metrics are merely made up and have no basis to them anyway, something which I have argued back and forward over the months and years before reaching my current state of not bothering any more. The presence of an ad griefer in this sort of thread is not one which will result in any actual information being transferred; it is there to spread doubt, to justify the ad griefer in their own mind so that they can start their sleep animations at night, and sometimes simply to troll. Either deliberately disruptive or self-serving or both.

As to the topic, well, it is good that this is being investigated, and I'm sure that when it has been the ads will be removed. We can't expect things to follow within hours of a post after all, this is a large organisation and it will take time for the right people to hear of it and make a decision. No doubt, in a day or two everyone will be perfectly happy.

i have a vision ....

everyone having a sky box at 500 meters. a BOX. plywood outside. beautiful skyscapes inside with house(s) and landscaping.

and on the ground?

ad-farms as far as one can see.

Nice comeback. someone claims that using extortionists with non-existent morals and ethics to promote a product is damaging to the products reputation and the best you can come up with is "lol. as if". I'm guessing you might have been on the debate team.



They are a good source of income for the extortionist. I suppose if you lack a conscience, then you can both be a successful adfarmer AND sleep at night. Otherwise you're going to have to make a choice. Prove that they help anyone else's revenue stream in any meaningful way. Please note I said meaningful, and please back up your argument with proof. Until there is some proof that the advertising works to do anything other than drive the neighbors so insane that they are willing to pay overinflated prices for land, then it cannot even be considered advertising and the adfarmers are little more than parasites.



Yes. Maybe not YEARS ago, but they would have done something if they cared. Just because LL doesn't stop something doesn't make it ok.

Incorrect. I am only buying the ones which are priced reasonably. The rest, I will wait until they reprice reasonably, or Governor Linden takes them over, which has happened to several of them.

What they do elsewhere has little bearing on me getting rid of them adjacent to my land.

You should also yell at the Arbor Project, as they do this all over the place, too.

ive always looked forward to rfl events in the time ive been in sl gone to every shop that had rfl special items and bought them as well as tons of other items while there gone to every event i could find that helped rfl and given till i was broke

this year i will NOT be doing that i do NOT care if this adfarmer thinks he is doing things in such a great way i will NOT support anyone that uses adfarms no matter what their business is

and its people like ancient that make up all their excuses as to how their way is better it makes me glad i sold my mainland and never looked back

Yeah, just proves my point when someone claiming to be such an egalitarian adfarmer has to contact folks in-world and harass and insult them to show how superior his business model is to "all the others".

Just continues to justify my apparently "Luddite" view that ALL advertising companies are bad, and why I am happy to continue to fight against their efforts at every turn. Freedom, indeed.

Hold on a moment - I would suggest that one should not stop supporting RFL unless they actually say "we are quite fine with this and we will continue with the ads" which, I'm sure, they will not be saying.

As has been mentioned the odd one or two times, I hate ad griefing with a passion; I also support RFL, and I'm sure that they have just made a bit of a mistake here and not quite understood the situation. I wouldn't want to see them damaged from it.

RFL has beein in SL long enough to know how the community feels about adfarms and the like, ill go donate in rl in memory of family members that have died from cancer rather then do the the ammount i would have done in here

its a great cause dont get me wrong but someone had to pay for those adfarms and by donating to rfl in sl id be helping to support that

The organization may have been in long enough, but not necessarily its volunteers. How many of the established newspapers, for example, use newbie journalists? And even if not a true noob, what makes you think RFL players are necessarily playing the game? They may be here JUST for RFL, which makes the scope of their knowledge of SL culture limited.

I would agree that it's a shame that they wouldn't know, and you would think that they should know, but it is easy to get taken in by the promise of prospective eyes when you don't understand that it's going to involve a blight on the community.

Correct, but we also need to make it quite clear to RFL that this was a VERY VERY bad decision.

I also hope they have read Ancients unprofessional and condescending responses in this thread and it helps them in making their decision. Any business has every right to defend themselves, but I would expect them to do so in a respectful and professional manner.



I have much respect for your comments and opinions, Desmond, but your experience may have shown politeness. Must be the status you hold within SL. I sure don't see it occurring here.

Count me in among the Ad hating Luddites. I refuse to even look at any of these monstrosities in world, I never click ad banners, and always use popup blockers. I have no use for RL companies in SL. I avoid their marketing garbage as much as possible in RL, all TV shows I watch are recorded so I can skip commercials, and even going to the theatre now, I refuse to sit down until the main feature is starting. I don't live in the mainland so I can't begrudge whatever steps those that do are taking in getting rid of the blight. I'd rather see it done through refusing to buy the plots at exhorbitant prices, and by boycotting businesses that employ these methods, as opposed to any forced banning however. Let them choke on the tier.

I have to say that, after the past few days watching a little more carefully, I no longer think anything involving the size of the parcel will have much impact. Some adfarmers are spread thin enough that it would force them to sell-out to the big guys, but as long as it's possible to spread a single 512 parcel across dozens of 4x4 plots in a sim, I fear such measures will only serve to out who's alt of whom.

As for AdSoft's oh-so-noble network: Pig cosmetology aside, it exists by the simple expediency of moral hazard. Why are some adfarmers able to charge ransoms for each 1/4096 of a sim? Because, of course, each plot vastly diminishes the value of all properties around it. Whatever revenue stream the adfarmer might derive from actual advertising, it comes at the much greater expense of the hundreds or thousands of Mainland property owners from whom those adplots sap value. Every adfarmer knows this; most capitalize on it by occasionally selling their plots at exorbitant cost to abutters who are desperately trying to recover the value taken from them. By not selling the plots, an adfarmer doesn't prove himself noble, only delusional.

Or perhaps just deceitful, as the rest of his ilk. Conspicuous in the comments was this bit of high malarkey:
Nobody--including the poster--believes this is the way the market works. I call shenanigans.

Not to flog an expired horse, but I agree with this myself. I've always said you can't blame someone for being stupid, ill-informed, or naive (although I do give bonus points to those who can research), but you can blame people who are deliberately harming others.

If you believe in a cause, support it. Educate if you can, and I believe that's what many have done here. However, I respect other people's decision to not support a cause due to association. We all have to live with our own choices and beliefs because at the end of the day, we are the ones who have to face ourselves.

As far as in world advertising goes, I just shake my head. I didn't come in to SL to be bombarded with adverts and just as I choose to ignore ads in RL, I do so in SL. The Necros sim community is now nearly 2 sims and while we have a tiny burst of ads nearby, it's all blocked by trees. We're lucky, very lucky. It's mainland and it's beautiful, and I love being there because it's peaceful. I choose not to venture beyond known regions, but that is my choice. Am I missing out? Maybe. But until I exhaust all the beautiful regions of SL, I've no reason to just explore down that Linden Road.

As Desmond Shang said, the ad farmers and in world advert agencies are merely driving many who can afford it towards Estates (or beautiful mainland sim rentals). At least until LL provides the means to mute regions and/or items owned by specific avatars.

Is there a place for in world advertising? Maybe, but I haven't the ideas to back a sensible solution. To me, they all look the same and I can't tell which are legit and which aren't. And it doesn't matter since I don't ascribe to being swayed by billboard type adverts.

There is plenty of inworld advertising that doesn't involve cutting up land into little bits. Malls, shops, magazines, clubs and other venues/organizations use advertising on their land for services. These would be wholly appropriate, and logical. People who are shopping or using a service would be in a place to find other shopping items, or services.

Oh, very much so. The reason that people are enquiring needs to be made very clear indeed.

I also respectfully disagree with Mr Shang about the status of Mr Shriner as well, having seen the products of him and his alts over the months and years.

Grrrrr. I hate Ad farms. Just pleased that in the Sim I live in, A club group owns most of the land and have done a tastful build.

All the other land owners are residential or residential rental. Making it a really nice mainland sim to live in.

That's true, and I hope you don't hesitate to donate in the way you choose. However, for some people events like this are held to remind people of the need and without it, people who are immersed in their SL activities forget ...

Then an otherwise wonderful opportunity to remind people to donate is ruined because of a few ugly noxious signs.

Perhaps ... and if the advertisers keep metrics on how much positive monitary effect the advertisements have (and I think they must, otherwise they wouldn't be so prolific in the face of so much hostility) then it will be considered a success. A harder thing to measure are the handfull of people who decide not to donate because they don't like the ugly signs. In that light it won't really matter because the positive flow of money outweighs the negative.

On the otherhand, a flood of notes, emails, letters and what not can have a big impact. That is something tangible that the organizers of the event will pay attention to. I'm going to speak directly to some aquaintences of mine who are actively involved in the RFL. I think they will be very interested in disgust many of us have for the ad farms and the advertisers.

I also will be participating in the RFL events if real life allows ... my doctor just discovered some new lumps on my chest, you see.

I quote from Linden Labs

"Your World, Your Imagination"

So whilst it is a platform provided by Linden Labs, and yes they do make some rules, it is in fact the residents world.

So why don't you get over your own arrogance and try to take a sympathetic view of your fellow residents. A lot of the people you are insulting are also entrepreneurs on SL and make content, with far more imagination than your spinning prims.