Together with friends we have built up the SkyInn events club at a large shopping centre at the mainland - at Newman sim - which I own. This is not a commercial enterprise, we are doing it because it is fun, and I do invest considerable money into it, in addition to high overall tier fees.
We have arranged some successful live music events, the last one brought 38 AVs when it was at its peak. I count on us having spent 10,000 LS in direct expenses that evening - for the artist, for our dancers and for other running costs. Some of us worked very hard to make it possible, and yes, it was great fun.
One way of getting back some of the financial outlays is of course to generate business at the shopping centre. It will never be profitable, but at least allow us to continue with live music in SL. Also, for all of us that work on these places and events, looking at traffic numbers and participation is an important source of encouragement.
That is, if it is.
When I look at the search results today, particularly for the category 'places', I become disillusioned. With our honest traffic numbers of 7,288 we are nowhere near the top with popular search words, often even down on the second page, or perhaps lower. Looking at those with bigger numbers and higher up on the list, on the map, I realise that they have crammed their sites with campers, most probably bots.
I have another large site, Shiner, where I own over 2/3 of the sim. It is a completely non-commercial site, without a single item to sell or rent, created there for the enjoyment of my friends and others. I cannot even think of arranging events there with close to 20 campers (bots mainly, I am sure) sitting on a small shop parcel in the corner of the sim.
I am sure that we are not the only ones to experience these problems, and I hope they would finally be taken seriously. It is not honest to allow these ghosts to be used to falsify the statistics that are there as a basis for AVs to make their selections, concerning much of what they want to do with their SL experiences.
Oh yes, we cannot welcome honest campers either, as the bot owners rush to cash in. We have the technical applications to pay small amounts to AVs who use the many animations and browse the stores and the area, or socialise with others, and would be happy to do it, but just cannot because of the bot abuse.
It is regrettably clear that we cannot go on for ever, supporting live music on the SL mainland, if LL allows this abuse by camping bot owners and users to continue. We would love to do it and we would also want to give opportunities for new and aspiring artists, as we are now planning to do, but...
Clear choices need to be made, like we all have to do in our real and second businesses at times. Probably this means choosing between a real and genuine animation of SL, supporting and enabling real AVs who are interested in making the place alive, or killing the fun by inflating bogus statistics about users, on all levels.
Will SL and particularly the mainland stay alive or become a ghost world? Something for the new LL CEO to think about, and above all, to act fast and decisively on? The choice should not be too difficult.
Yes, it may hurt once, online user numbers may drop, but after that they are at least honest, and will surely grow in a sound way as the mainland gets alive and attractive. If SL is to remain competitive, this must happen soon.