Group Owners: Survey about Offering Content to Second Life.

My name is Man Monnett, I run the Monastery of Felix Meritis. In the past 3 years that I spent time in Second Life the content and endless opportunities of this world have seriously declined. There used to be whole cities, universities, and great experiences. Big companies pulled back, schools closed, churches abandoned, yet more malls popped up. Second Life became an empty shell in which people who try to serve instead of gain are losing ground.

It's time to show that we care about this fall into decay of our Second Life. I started this survey in Second Life by handing out this notecard to group owners.

We're working on a petition to Linden Lab to show them our concern.
Who are We? We see ourselves as the serious content providers in Second Life. We are a large group and widely spread all through SL. Some of us provide religion, some education, some arts. And you are probably one of us.

This survey is to get your opinion. Please answer these short questions and give us some feedback on where you stand.


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What kind of content do you offer SL? (pick categorie and describe)
Discussion / Sports / Music / Entertainment / Games / Education / Art / Cultur / Religion


How many hours weekly do you send on making this content inside SL and outside SL?
Less then 1
1 to 5
5 to 15
more then 15

Who benefits (enjoys) you content?


When and why did you start offering serious content?


How do you see the visitors growth of your contented plot?
Stable
Increasing
Decreasing
Don't know the numbers


What would you like to see LL improve to help you offering serious content to SL?


Your SL name:
Your SL Group:

Your main goal in SL:

Your SL Location (LM):


Please:
Return this completed survey in a notecard to Man Monnett @ the Monastery of Felix Meritis. Thank you for your help to improve Second Life.

tar and feathers, or stake and some matches?

No, I think this one is actually a good one, with a valid cause. Shame I don't apply because I'm more of a consumer than a maker/provider.

What kind of content do you offer SL? (pick categorie and describe)
Discussion / Sports / Music / Entertainment / Games / Education / Art / Cultur / Religion

Religious Entertainment


How many hours weekly do you send on making this content inside SL and outside SL?
Less then 1
1 to 5
5 to 15
more then 15

about 80 hours

Who benefits (enjoys) you content?

Anyone with a brain, a sense of humor, or hasn't been dead for more than 71 years


When and why did you start offering serious content?

When I woke up - because I realized that it was fun - and fun is almost as important as chocolate.


How do you see the visitors growth of your contented plot?
Stable
Increasing
Decreasing
Don't know the numbers

insane


What would you like to see LL improve to help you offering serious content to SL?

Actually, serious is bad.. fun is good.. define serious?


Your SL name: Kokoro Fasching
Your SL Group: ^^ Silly ^^

Your main goal in SL: Spontaneous Laughter, fear, thought, shiny things, and chocolate

Your SL Location (LM): Anywhere I'm not banned at.


Please:
Return this completed survey in a notecard to Man Monnett @ the Monastery of Felix Meritis. Thank you for your help to improve Second Life.

Ah, I see, so it's *your* fault then. We've been wondering.
In-world? Uh huh. So, when SL's inexorable "fall into decay" reaches the point I've nothing better to do in-world than to complete surveys, then it will be time to have a survey about it.

This is wrong on so many levels I don't know where to start...but it's obviously well intentioned.

To the OP: "Serious" content is certainly important in SL. Churches, schools, and the arts are all Worthwhile Things and should be encouraged.

Having said that, frivolous content is just as important. If a shopping mall makes more money than an art gallery, doesn't that tell you that more people get more out of the mall? And if that bugs you, you can mutter "Philistines" and go off and sulk, or you can find ways to make your content more relevant and appealing.

I would say, "don't look for a free ride". If LL gives "serious" content creators a break, the money to do so has to come from somewhere. In this case, most likely higher tier fees for the rest of us. However you disguise it, we would be paying a "culture tax" to support you.

I salute and appreciate and revel in arts and culture and stuff. Solicit me for donations, even. But do NOT expect people to give you a break just because you're so special and important. Make your stuff so appealing that I can't live without you...and you'll survive. Just like Damselfly, the people who make my favorite hairstyles.

I have to go with this. Of all the content categories, Consumer Goods is missing, so it leads me to believe that you don't consider the people who make them, "serious" enough.In my opinion, no one group should be favored. Arts, Education, Entertainment, religion, they are all reasons to use SL, but none of them by itself is THE reason for using SL. Whatever areas SL residents as a whole make more promonent is what should be.

The tone of your survey sounds a bit elitist to me.

The main reason why non-profit cultures pull back from Second Life is because Linden Labs still charges an insane amount for land that doesn't exist.

Malls survive, because their selling usually covers the expenses needed to pay the tiers, and other fees, which can go up go hundreds of US Dollars every month.

Something as beautiful a church, which benefits on charity only, cannot cover the costs of a virtual church by charity alone.

Linden labs only supports those who bring in enough money into their account by selling as much as possible in a short time.

Scenery sims are nice to visit, nice to see, but usually don't make any money. And that means no income for Linden Labs, and the tiers that might be paid are not enough compared to the high economy value of clothing and other items sold daily.

If Linden Labs would give away land for free to official church communities, arts, and those willing to build a replica of a city or village, which in return needs quality and poverty, then the sight of Second life will improve instantly.

For now we just have to endure the hardy people who still remain with their non profit sims, and the ugly blocks of shopping malls that dominate the lands.

So it might be an idea to accumulate skilled scriptwriters and builders who can create something worth looking at, and when it proves to be as they should be, Linden labs should remove their tier costs, to preserve the beauty of the lands.

Since Linden Labs only aims to have as much money as possible, this will probably never happen.

I raise my hand to the question who needs skilled builders for free. I'm not a scripter, but I know how to draw and throw prims around.

My services are free, as long as the cause is non-profit and artistically oriented.

All you need is someone who knows something about sculpting and scripting, and an assload of spare time. And a Linden who offers low cost land for the cause of preserving humanity in Secondlife.

just my 2 Eurocents...

I named my shop 'art and oddities'. My first serious content contribution to SL was to scan and import some of my RL paintings. My second serious content contribution was to build a line of execution devices (gallows, guillotine, impaling spike, et cetera). They are both quite serious, though one collection sells better than the other... and they are both art - one is a kind of passive / static visual art that you look at and appreciate, the other is an interactive kind that you dangle from, get sliced by, jabbed with, et cetera. I have other collections of content, but the two I have mentioned are most relavent I believe to the topic at hand.

Both of these collections are valid from a cultural point of view as well as artistic; the first (abstract / surrealist paintings) invites the viewer to contemplate its meaning and almost everyone finds that the paintings mean something different to them, as an individual - the paintings ultimately are mirrors which reflect some part of the viewer themselves, what they see and feel is determined by their own experiences and their cultural references. The second helps us to face death in a different light, and hopefully in some small way breaks down some of the taboos we may have, by making light of a subject that in many cultures is considered too serious to discuss.

As for who enjoys the content I create... I don't know. I don't really list or categorize them. My work is enjoyed by individuals, and I assume that their reasons are as individual as they are. I enjoy what I create, because I enjoy creating, and I create what I enjoy. I am honoured and thrilled that other people may enjoy my creations enough to part with a few L$.

I could go on, but I'm either quite serious or just spouting some amusing BS. Like many things in SL or RL, it depends on your point of view. Ultimately, who's to say that a functional virtual guillotine is more or less valid than a painting inspired by the death of a loved one? Any content can be important, and perhaps all content is important.

The virtual world (again, like the real one) is what we make of it, and whenever you get a group or an individual deciding what is best for the community, odds are that someone is going to be left out simply because they aren't as popular as someone else. Consequently, I agree with Lindal - a "culture tax" in any form is not the solution.

If an individual or group feels that their contribution is worthy of public support, then ask the public to support it. Do not expect someone to force the public to support it.

Cheers!

-Atashi

Man, I understand where you're coming from, but I think it's an issue of adaptation rather than decay - and also a fair bit of awareness of what it is you actually want.

You say that you're concerned for those who want to "serve SL" by providing content . But there is nothing stopping anyone doing that at the moment - it's just that paying for the tier is part of your service. If you don't want to do that, but you still want to have your content hosted, then you are indirectly asking for gain - to gain an amount equal to the tier per month. On the other hand, if you do just want to provide the content to SL as a service, then build it in a sandbox, collect it up, and send it to a freebie place.

What you can't do any more on SL.. and what you probably couldn't ever do.. is to be "the Abbot of Felix Meritis". If you want that.. you don't really want to serve.. you want a particular social role, and they just aren't available in that sense on SL any more.

Petitioning Linden Lab to "do something about" more non-commercial content isn't quite useful. It looks like the original poster either (a) has no plan, or (b) has an undisclosed plan.

Linden Lab already offers discounts and special attention to non-profits. Whether it's enough, I don't know, but Linden Lab doesn't ignore the non-profits. In fact, with all the corporate pull-out, Linden Lab seems to have shifted its strategy to working the non-profits.

I can think of a lot of things that Linden Lab can do to encourage more and better content creation. Does this group advocate any of my ideas, or have ideas of which I haven't thought?

oooooh you are awful ... but I like you
(check out Dick Emery, English comedian, yonks ago - his gag line)