Stupid Question that I'm Sure Has Been Asked Before, But Here Goes.....

The textures have been in there since at least May of 2009. There are also, or were, not sure, free textures offered when Bay City opened and Nautilus City. I was just building with some Nautilus City textures the other day.

So, they have been there for a while and the only way people know that they are in there is if they happen to look at their library. How often do people do that? Maybe everyday for all I know. Personally I do not recall the last time I looked in the library.

There are also free avatars (one from Grendal's), shapes, skins, etc. in that library. How do other avatar/skin/shape/hair/eye merchants compete?

Free content is good. And someone who supplies it deserves to include the landmark to their store as the reward.

The problem is in the typical secrecy / lack of information. If somewhere on the website were information on how merchants get their freebies included in the Library, then there is no feeling that friends of Lindens are getting preferential treatment to the deteriment of everyone not on the inside. It's not fair though when everyone doesn't have a fair chance to participate.

I remember some time ago LL advertising for merchants to design a new AO for newbies (was this ever completed?) That's the right way to go about it, very publicly advertising for it so everyone has a chance to make a submission.

Marlin Studios is a quite famous professional texture company in the graphics arts world. I would imagine they placed some freebies in SL for the same reason any business does, to promote their sales. I won't get into the fairness issues, but I thought I should point out they are not your average SL texture artist, they do it commercially in real life.

And here's your answer: https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/land/dpw/blog/2009/05/04/library-additions-courtesy-of-the-ldpw

You were able to put into words exactly what I was feeling. I don't CARE if Marlin Studios is a professional organization--the fact is that it skews the playing field for merchants. Think about it-- what if Ethan Allen comes in and designs furniture, gets it into the Linden Library and opens a store front; or Gucci comes in and gets designs into the library and opens a boutique? Maybe the GAP will open a place and sell cute little jeans and tees, supported, of course, by LL. I agree that the free content warranted a landmark in the folder, but how does the average Joe get the same opportunity? It smacks of favoritism.

The difference is that those avi/skin/shape/hair/eye/etc objects in the library do NOT include landmarks to various businesses. It's an unfair advantage.

I had a look at those textures and, on the whole, I agree that they aren't up to much, but I did find one nice one that I've just started to use. It's a door - 3rd door in the list - and I'm using it for doors in my castle

They DO have landmarks in the notecards.

Were these the textures used in Linden public builds perhaps?

Otherwise yes I can see some conflict of interest here, considering there wasn't any competion like there was when the Resident Avatars were selected.

By paying LL as much as Vryl Valkyrie did? When the improved, resident made newbie avatars appeared in the library folder they all had landmarks to their creators' in-world shops.

Were the newbie avs part of a competition? I dunno...I just think that to allow folks to "buy in" as has been suggested here creates a skewed market. :: shrug ::

I don't really know anything about it but I couldn't resist chiming in.