Popular Places tab goes, but the Places tab remains

Yep - you're absolutely right, Phil.

I thought about it a little more. This isn't about advertising for in-world buisnesses. Its advertising for Second Life - to make *them* look better.

I don't see a whole lot of difference between this, and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eI3frLu32Q

All the show case really is is spam that 2L promotes.. its simply best to never shop in any of the showcase places just like ya never shop or goto and place spamers promote.

but other then that... did ya really think 2L would let the little guys thrive???
They'll be out of site soon enough.

But let's think about it a second. People come here to the forums and get the same answers when they ask "where do I find the best []?" Aren't most of the answers here for hair, skin, clothing the exact same places that will eventually show up in the showcase? What difference does it really make? I mean, I looked... they have the Free Dove in the showcase. And the gnubie store in Indigo. Don't we recommend those pretty often in here?

If it changes very often I think it will be ok. If it changes infrequently it will not be ok.

the difference is we aren't receiving a lot of money 'for our opinion'.

We aren't. And at this point in time, neither is LL.

for LL role in it, it's seems a conflict of interest, if you ask me.

I don't see it yet. If they do start taking money for placement, I would see it. That would be an unfair form of classifieds that would diminish the usefulness of the inworld service. But in its current form, if all it does is rehash the same recommendations we would make to newbies, then what difference does it make? It helps newbies out with popular recommendations.

i don't thnk 'LL-the business' should get in the habit of becoming involved with opinionated recommendations.

To be honest, I think at least 50% of those questions are planted to drive traffic to a given merchant(s.)

The best way to find anything appearance related is to spend a couple of hours at a busy infohub watching people come and go - especially on a weekend. You'll see a greater range of product than any forum thread will give you. When you see something you like, just IM the wearer and ask the name of the designer. I've found at least 75% of the stuff I ended up buying that way.

That means that we don't need Linden Labs to do promotion. Leaving it to the residents to promote places at which they have had positive experiences works just fine.

Because a few of Linden Labs's first choices might appear fine is no great evidence that Linden Labs will exhibit integrity in the long haul. Keep in mind also that currently they are not outright selling spots in the Showcase- but according to the FAQ, the idea of selling space in the Showcase is under development. In fact, by simultaneously promoting the Showcase as "editorial" and considering selling space in the Showcase proves well enough for me that whomever is in charge of the Showcase project doesn't understand what integrity means. There's a reason that newspapers put "editorials" and "classifieds" in separate sections.

Plus, Linden Labs's staff would be far better used working on more pressing concerns, and working on tasks that only Linden Labs can accomplish, rather than doing things (like recommending sites) that residents can and should be doing. A better way to solve the problem of traffic in search would be to pay someone to work on developing a more usuable search engine, rather than pay someone to essentially be a resident blogger.

LL the business has an interest in newbie retention, so giving resident-recommended favorites is one way to help. If newbie retention leads to more landowning residents, that's good for the business. So long as it's not a FIC thing, and really reflects the kind of places that residents frequent, then fine. But if it becomes paid, that would be problematic.

And Isablan, I've never done that... very rarely do I ask what people wear. I do inspect hair and prim skirts from time to time, but I've never just sat and watched. The infohub is something I never really indulged in.

What about a section in showcase called 'Residents Choice' ?

Well if you were the most popular location in SL you wouldn't care if you were in showcase or not
Well at least LL gaming it will be 20k worth of bots less laggy and crashy on weekends

A long time ago they actually had a tab in the search that was Linden Picks. And most of the paces in it were pretty good. Classics like the Ivory Tower of Primatives. The down side was it never changed (or rarely). Same 20 or so places permanently there. Just wasnt very useful and I think the excuse given when they did away with it was something to the effect it wasnt time efficient for a Linden to do anymore.

I see little difference between it and this new system other than people can buy thier way onto the new one.

Nope thi sis another bad idea in a long sad history of bad ideas.

I was about to make roughly the same post as this.

Now I don't have to. Excellent.

Obviously, presenting a few picks can never be 100% "fair", and I don’t actually think it should strive for that, but instead be biased towards non-profit or upcoming talent, and in any case should change quickly. That way, you can stumble upon new, interesting things you’d not otherwise find.
Introducing the option to pay for a place on this list entirely undermines the very idea, and I see absolutely no point to it, since that would only turn it into yet another "classifieds" list. -If LL wants to sell premium ad spots on their site, they can certainly do so, but it should *not* be mingled into an "endorsed" list.

-And I'd certainly not mind seeing some classy, sexy/erotic spots make the list as well, as long as the listing itself doesn't slam porn on your screen.
SL is, after all, for mature persons, as we have all agreed upon when entering the grid.

I've been slow but I've just realised that the Showcase will be incorporated into the viewer - a search tab probably. Now that I REALLY dislike. I think that's absolutely abominable for all the reasons that have been stated in this thread.

LL: "It's your world, your imagination" except that *we'll* decide which businesses and place prosper the most, and which don't.

That's REALLY bad. It's gross interference in what SL is about.

I only use the old basic search tabs. Popular, classifieds, I never check them. I use Places, People, groups and educational events. The rest are wasted on me.

People need to get it through their heads that the showcase isn't for us. It's for new users, and as someone already pointed out, it's probably intended to help with keeping new users interested enough to stick around. In that regard it makes perfect sense for LL to pick whatever places they think will interest new users and will aid that purpose. It doesn't have to be fair. It only has to be effective.

It isn't a replacement for traffic, but it's probably fair to say that it's a direct response by LL to having the purpose they wanted traffic to serve destroyed by unscrupulous cheats. If you don't like it you might want to place the blame where it belongs. They gave us an objective metric and people like you ruined it for everyone else.

Whatever LL comes up with to replace traffic will have to be impossible to game. If it isn't then people will just subvert it and game it into uselessness, just like everything else they've tried. Should it surprise anyone that they want a way to promote some popular places that residents can't destroy? Given the history of voting and traffic I don't blame them for taking matters into their own hands.

Yay! They got rid of Popular Places! What a crap-hole that was. Camping, camping, camping, sex (hmmm), camping, sex, camping. And this is what directed new people around. It was kind of embarrassing when I told people to check the popular places tab for places to go.

As far as this new Showcase goes... we'll just have to wait and see. I'm all for editorially picked content. They should certainly have NO PAID CONTENT. At least none that isn't clearly marked as paid. I think that people will have a better chance of getting into the showcase than getting into the popular places. But let us wait and see before we judge this.

It may be intended for new people, and not for us, but in practise everyone will use it. Surely you can't think that regular users won't use it to see what LL 'recommends' this week, and find places that way, if it's incorporated into the search system.

The traffic metric was ruined years before I decided to level the field for myself, so let's try not to get personal, shall we. The moment that camping arrived, the traffic metric was gone as a reliable metric for ranking.

There is no need for LL to come up with anything to replace traffic. As many people in the blog posted - just remove the tabs in the search box. Nobody particularly wants them, and nobody particularly wants any sort of replacement for them. The idea of SL is that it is what the residents make it. There is no need for the sort of outside (personally biased) interference that the Showcase will be, if it's accessible from the search box.

If people didn't care about trying to get an advantage over their competition traffic wouldn't have been gamed into uselessness to begin with. If they get rid of any kind of ranking you can expect thousands of resident businesses named AAAAAAA11111 Furniture.

People gaining advantages over the competiton is called "normal business" - nothing wrong with that. Nobody suggested getting rid of rankings. The All search is very good, although it could be improved (that's where they should spend their time). People suggest getting rid of the Popular Places and Places tabs. That's all. There is no need for anything to replace them, as we already have a very good search system.

Get rid of popular place oui I agree. But NOT get rid of Places. Many , many people use places not all tab for faster access to exactly what they are looking for.