National Treasures

So, we've lost the Starry Night sim, and the SS Galaxy will soon be making her final voyage.

Do you think that LL should work with designers of those types of sims to procure the build and keep it alive, effectively creating a "National Treasure"?

Or is it burdensome to expect them to utilize apparently precious simulator space for them?

The question is: Who decides what's worth to keep? I do not perceive the Lindens to be interested in keeping and subsidising 3rd party owned content.

Different places come and go, some more well known, some not at all.

I think it is fairly evident from the response to the "Save the Hippo" JIRA that not only are the more involved inhabitants enthusiastic about their heritage, but that they can be mobilised into demonstrating a degree of commitment - and that the Lindens can be encouraged into participating in the preservation of the history of SL.

Who would decide? Acclamation would be as good a mechanism as any, if the Lindens could be persuaded to offer an island home for builds which might otherwise be retired. If there were a limited amount of space and resources available, then it would surely not be impossible to accept projects on some kind of regular (quarterly?) vote, with new projects having to achieve a greater degree of measurable public approbation than those which would have to be replaced in the existing "top ten". You could even charge people to vote and give them a "season ticket" for the rest of the quarter to visit the museum.

Pep (I would have thought that a "museum" sim showcasing the best of SL would be of interest to LL)

Idea:
Let other people know if you find one of these "national treasures". Put them in your picks, post about them, talk about them. I have a Flickr page, as do many others.

Then people can visit those wonderful spots, perhaps do a little shopping or, if there are no shops, donate money to the creators. While some sims go down because the owners are tired of them or leave SL, many owners are simply finding them hard to support financially.

Bottom line, if there is no traffic (and it's unbelivable how many utterly stunning places are also utterly deserted), what's the point of maintaining even the best of places?

Many utterly stunning works of art are held in private collections in rl; would you not bother maintaining them since hardly anybody gets to see them?

Pep (Or do you agree with national governments buying such works so that they can be displayed publicly?)

As painful as it is to lose some of these places, I think it would put Linden Lab in a worse position than they have already gotten themselves, if they were to save some of them.

The questions then become, what gets saved, what doesn't, who decides, who ultimately pays for it... While some builds may get saved, others won't and it will generate ill will and upset a lot of people. It will also prompt more people who may be supporting great builds to pull the plug, since they will feel that they too should get subsidized / saved.

I know what it feels like to have to pull the plug on a region, a build, that is loved and admired, but is unsustainable. It is unpleasant. But life (first and second) moves on, and nothing lasts forever.

-Atashi

LL might consider saving a few of them, for the marketing angle. They want to (I presume) convince the media that SL is educational, artistic, and everything else that isn't porn/child stalking. Maintaining the best of the best would go a long way.

As I see it, saving builds should come out of a marketing budget, as opposed to becoming an extra hidden fee tacked on one way or another for residents to pay.

Dammit! Now I am agreeing with *you* . . .

Pep ( . . . but don't get used to it)

Try to remain focused.
The national treasures to which HoneyBear refers already ARE in private collections (the owner's inventory). She is trying to find a way to keep them public so "we" don't lose them.

While some wonders like the Gion Project and Privateer Space shut down for other reasons, I am guessing that the majority close up because of lack of traffic and/or revenue.

Perhaps creators of expansive installations could be encouraged to try to find a buyer rather than just shut their places down.

Perhaps you didn't remain focused enough to read the latter part of my post? I'll repeat it.

Pep (Or do you agree with national governments buying such works so that they can be displayed publicly?)

Like most of the English-speaking world, I tend to view items added after a signature to be less relevant postscripts that are not part of the main message. Especially when, inexplicably, such doodlings are enclosed in brackets. In other words, they are ignored.

To be given appropriate consideration, and in light of your self-proclaimed interest in language, please structure your contributions logically.

Thank you for your comments.

Pep (You are confirming the lack of understanding I have suspected for a long time; have you never heard of the "hand on the door-handle" effect?)

I think it would be awesome if there were a system in place whereby such content creators could archive their builds into downloadable packs that are viewable via an offline sandbox viewer of sorts. That way you don't need to take up server space, but you can keep them around for posterity years from now and people can load them up on their local computer and reminisce. Copyright considerations would be a a lynchpin however...

As far as I know the Lindens have only ever saved one build - the Ivory Tower of Prims.

Any official policy would have the problems mentioned here where there would be disputes over what should be saved, and people planning ahead to have their build saved to get a free island.

Only if it were a democracy. SL isn't a democracy.

I don't even know if sl should be kept alive.

Let evolution take its course.

And don't forget to take a picture... it'll last longer.

Going to be a devil's advocate for just a moment...

If these builds really matter, I mean... *really* matter... get 30 people together to cough up 10 bucks a month indefinitely. Or 60 people to give 5 a month. That will float a region no problem! You could get stickers or something, or a mug to show your support.

Or maybe it's not so important... and there really aren't 60 people out there who care enough?

Could this really be about getting others to pay for what we enjoy, but we aren't willing to *personally* pay for ourselves?

It's a hard mirror to look into.

I think we would end up paying for National Almost-But-Not-Quite-Treasures.

Isn't this what publicly funded art is all about?

Isn't SS Galaxy a commercial venture?

While it's an excellent build, and I'd rather not see it go, do you really want LL subsidizing businesses in SL? Do you think that'll go over well with their competitors?

If we get public funds for art, I want some public funds to offset the huge hit I took from the openspace mess.

I, for one, have learned that much of what Pep says is encased behind his sig. Most of the English speaking world with 1/2 a brain or more will have figured this out.

Fifa (fully supports pep with his musings post sig)

All builds are temp-rezzed, just on different timescales.

I'd be interested in how people used SL if builds were to decay automatically--if prims just disappeared with some probability each day after a week or a month of disuse.

(I know: that kinda happens already; I mean something more predictably random.)

+++

To me, the hippo is more about the future than the past. Yes, of course it's silly and trivial and offbeat and whimsical; that's why it belongs in SL's future.

In contrast, National Treasures are Meaningful and Serious and Important--until they're not, and then they're gone. And then the replacement earns some new creator a blog post or a showcase slot or a media mention.

I'm really not sure whether it would be better to delay that process or to accelerate it.

What about some kind of yearly Linden Awards - the best builds get nominated and the winners get free or discounted tier for a year. There could be a Showcase category for current and former winners, helping them to get traffic and business to stay afloat after the free-tier year ends.

When Renaissance Island recently lost its initial funding source, the organizers took this action. They appealed to the group for donations--and spelled out exactly what they needed. Enough of us responded that funds were raised within a week to make tier for the next quarter. They also threw a benefit-concert, the profits of which went into a tier account. The organizers are still looking for other non-SL funding sources, but if none emerge, the avatar-sponsorship model may have to do.

They didn't offer mugs, by the way, but they did offer a special group title for a sufficiently large donation.

Wow, how many alts is that now? 10? More?