Feedback on Ad Farm Post - Part 2

You know the claim of extortion is more applicable being applied to those who are trying to force landowners to sell their land for less than market value. I am offended and consider your continued personal attacks against legitimate business people to be broadly offensive.

Main Entry:
ex·tor·tion Listen to the pronunciation of extortion
Pronunciation:
\ik-ˈstȯr-shən\
Function:
noun
Date:
14th century

1: the act or practice of extorting especially money or other property ; especially : the offense committed by an official engaging in such practice
2: something extorted ; especially : a gross overcharge

Don't like it? Sue Webster.

People who set strategically placed small parcels at exorbitant prices are not legitimate business people. They are, as I have said before, ethically bankrupt two-bit hacks.

They also say things like this:

"Your dreaming or just lying, I never touched the ground. You can have it b4 a licensed advertiser gets it though. $L4999 for you."

Playing pretend CEO and businessmen dolls in bad suits with clip on ties because they couldn't even tie their own shoes without mama's help, I would add.

There was a small panic and a certain group interested in price control of micro parcels arrived in abnormal numbers at the guise of "advertising".

According to Jack: "nothing much in terms of zoning"

At today's OH meeting. Pay Attention!

hi dytska just got one of these emails you mentioned it warned it was going to terminate my account for having an adfarm, which i dont i a hate the damn things at least they havnt yet pulled my plug


[2. There has been at least one documented case already, where LL has issued a warning to someone for them to remove their ads.. on land which contained no advertising. We have seen lands seized, under the guise of advertising abuse.. where no advertising was going on.

see what fuels my apathy?

Where was this mentioned? I haven't heard about problems like that yet.

If there was a mistaken issue about this, then I suggest to go to the support.secondlife.com maze and submit a ticket under:

" Advertising Appeals and Questions"

Needless to say, LL does make mistakes and if you are in the right, they *should* resolve the problem quickly and in the support system, also explain what happened. Give them all the details!

I would not sit around on the specific issue, but initiate the prompt action to resolve the situation immediately!

Don't worry about it too much ROBO. Once your backer's do the same thing to you, and you find yourself alone with a tin cup to rattle on your micro extortion parcel, I will toss in a $L for the valuable lesson you and your once trusted partners in crime have taught me. That is if the people you have F'd over let you out of the doughnut hole you've dug for yourself.

Yes my wife purchased her land because it was cheap at over 10L/sqm well now you have a new land cutter not interested in money.

I began last night cutting and selling at loss and shall continue till LL put a stop to it, so you and your cronies can come gorge yourselves on any uncut land I find from now on till all the sims are filled with holes.

It is a sad thing but as in real life people don't act untill things sink to very sorry levels, things have to get worse before they can get better.
I will not be forced to pay over 40usd for a 16sqm plot, I would rather spend 100 times that to ensure this problem goes away for all users and believe the only way LL will act is when they see cut land is what destroys Sims not just advertising.
Adfarming does not require the use of adverts and never has it was just termed that because adverts were the tool of choice, a new line in porta potties will change the term to potty farming they may even provide a public convenience if they were not locked all the time.

Your game machines and coloured sculpties are not adverts but they still look like sh*t and you know it, so stop pretending to be a businessman and let people know what you are doing.
Stop hiding like a coward be a fu**ing man, show yourself for what you are.

I spoke with Jack Linden last night and he told me small plots are not an adfarm, when they are empty, well I am sorry but most of them have been empty for ages, and the only difference now is the banlines have had to go.
Jack obviously thinks it is acceptable to cut 16sqm parcels and sell them for whatever price you feel like, so enjoy you have his blessing.

Sure some hideous adverts have been taken down, but other than that nothing has changed, still a load of greed fueled to**ers buying any 16's they can get their hands on, with the hope of making easy money.


Land at 3L/sqm just makes the whole process cheaper for them.

I have to advise against this.

I thought about this too, and I know I'm not the only one. The problem is that it won't be effective at getting LL to fix what's really wrong. They're just intent on the next baby-step of stopping landcutting--which would stop the specific act, without offering any mechanism for gluing the mess back together again.

Back when UH was still actively dicing, I thought about how this very approach could be used by a serious competitor (or even a very large estate owner) to destroy the Mainland, and cut a huge chunk out of LL's revenue and userbase. Every time a new player started aggressively chopping, I worried that somebody had finally pulled the trigger. LL is extremely vulnerable to this: With a bankroll of well under US$100,000, the existing Mainland can be rendered utterly useless.

(I won't detail here why it would be so inexpensive; although it's pretty obvious, it would be, technically, an exploit. There even may be a few "free market" idiots out there too blinded by their own bullshit to see it.)

When that scenario plays out, all the existing extortionists will realize they're just patsies in a much bigger game. But while their holdings will turn to dust, so will everyone else's--most importantly, the Lindens'.

I honestly don't think LL has the gumption to deal with such a threat fast enough to save itself, were it to occur. They'll just keep dreaming those happy "market forces" dreams until no "market" remains.

Ouch Neptune.

It wasn't just about the adfarms, and no that single plot has nothing to do with adfarms sitting as is.

But it IS blatant land extortion and a form of harrassment, and I believe they were taking an active role in eliminating that as well as microplots with banlines along with the adfarms and any ads not conforming to their specs limitations.

They've been good about responding to ARs. Don't sell yourself short and give the freak satisfaction.

As I was investigating the source of the micro extortion parcels on my land, including the adverts, avatars, and groups behind them. Funny thing, your name kept coming up, and now that you have decided to post this hilarious insight into your intelligence level, I was able to find previous post threads you have written describing taking advantage of newbies when buying and selling land, and even funnier; in one paragraph you mention the words dough and hole LOL!
I Also see that your ACE was started less than a year ago, and that the people who are posting here are using a lot of your stats to sway opinion about this AD Farm Blog, and causing some if not most to throw there hands in the air.
Well Dear Sir/Madman, I for one will not give in to your scheme to topple LL, as with further investigation of your "legitimate business" practices LOL! Holy Cow Intlibber you are offended by our continued personal attacks? My Goodness, are you JOKING?
Well I am offended by you personally, because I was the newbie that purchased land from someone following your scheme which has brought us all here to this point, and I for one will not stop, nor throw my hands in the air because an idiot like yourself who has done so much damage to what was supposed to be a creative fun filled imaginative world into this mess now.
And Intlibber your markets may crash (more than likely will now, or already have), and I am sorry for those who fell for your "legitimate business BS", but I will not surrender my Second Life for you, or anyone who has unfortunately listened to your lunacy, and further more I will not rest until you are surrounded by ban lines on your island.
Please get off the mainland, leave the noobs alone, and do not return! Thank-You
Sincerely,
Bushido Contepomi

I think at land market prices as they are now the cost would be far less than $100,000
Last night I bought three reasonable sized parcels for 3.1L / sqm using the search and cut out a bit of either side of them selling off the plots at 3L/sqm instantly as soon as I listed them to various purchasers.
My time in doing it was the expense as I just used the funds from one plot to purchase the next plot holding back a plot in each area to put a porta potty on, these I could sell for 480L 10x actual value to bring me into profit if I sold them.

Without selling the potty plots My losses on a 512 plot work out to be around 52L the actual price a 16sqm should cost at actual market price.
How easy is it to make 50L in world?
I would laugh it it wasn't such a shame that this is possible, and is exactly the way adfarmers or whatever people like to call them operate.

If as Qie suggests a competitor using Land bots to purchase cheapest land in Sims and then automate the cutting before selling off the plots in much the same way mainland could be almost destroyed in just a couple of days and everyone would lose out.

If LL were serious about preventing cutting they would have stopped me last night with parcel names and descriptions like Want to make money fast? Practice extortion make a mole hill or a place a 8m high potty thats should P*ss someone off.
Appearing on my newly cut 16sqm plots.




You are right though it is not fair to put other users through this, so I have decided now on reflection having calmed down a bit to stop and not carry on cutting, I also apologize to any potential future victims of the plots I have cut.

And will send a copy of my transaction history for last night as proof to Jack Linden as evidence of the continued desire by certain individuals to carry on with their extortion practices.
Maybe then he will see market forces are not going to solve this issue.



Jack

Personally at no extra cost I could hold 1350 16sqm just by using excess tier.

How many hundreds if not thousands of other users under your Tier structure can do the same?

Do you think Jack that market forces alone would stop me having 1350 16sqm plots, even if I was able to sell only one a month and pocket a couple of hundred Lindens?

Please wake up this has never been about advertising, something needs to be done and quickly or nothing has been acheived.

Failing to act against people using these small plots for no good reason is giving your blessing to people who want to practise extortion.

Personally I think the only way to combat these land extortionists is to play them at their own game and rip the market out from them, but in a way that doesn't break the TOS and doesn't cause AR's against yourself.

For example launching a massive campaign to educate newbies about land prices and stop them from making the mistake of spending a ridiculous amount on small parcels.

I heard back from him and he checked with James, who did the coding, and this appears to be what happened. So I'm all set - that's a relief!

Now, if only people would really stop cutting up extortion lots, the SL world would be a much better place!

Oh why oh why do you ever bother replying to Robo Marx's posts, he's an accomplished extortionist in his mind he's always right and whatever you say, however reasonable, will just bounce off his thick skin.

Also some of the posts made since October 1st by the anti-adfarm/extortionist plots posters have started to lose the plot, they are creeping into paranoia.

You are never going to know how LL implement the new policies because LL is non-transparent company, because legally there is so much information they can't or just simply refuse to tell it's customers, which I can understand because giving an explanation to everyone ARd is an enormous task and something most commercial companies charge between $10 and $50 US dollars for now, because answering such questions loses them so much money in man hours.

So sit back and relax and observe how things change over a longer period than a few days, I would suggest a few months, which is still quick albeit probably annoying.

My wife did that, she set up a sand box for all users to use and made textures to warn people how to look at the land before making a purchase, she spent a great deal of time and effort to protect other members from experiencing the harassment she recieved, placing out notice boards near adfarms.

I am very angry she has been let down by LL along with all of the other users.

I'd like to second this remark. I get the feeling sometimes he's having great fun with frustrating people. I'll pass.


Paranoia is your friend. Sometimes, "they" really are out to get you!

That's not happening. In fact, if your friends were willing to sell for even two or three *times* market value we wouldn't be in this situation.

There's an interesting effect caused by the ultra-high-priced parcels. I've noticed in the clusters of adfarms in some of the sims where I have land that there are often a bunch of 16s or 32s at like L$10/m2 or less. Sometimes these all get bought and the land rejoined. But they'll just sit for sale forever at that price if there's another parcel in the cluster that's priced at L$9999 or something absurd. Obviously, there's no hope of rejoining the mess into anything usable again as long as that one microparcel is priced ridiculously out of reach, so nobody buys any of the more reasonably priced ones either.

Taking the broader view, it's probably very helpful that there's usually one of those outrageously priced parcels preventing the sale of the more reasonable ones. If the reasonable ones would actually sell, the profits would spread the practice even faster than is the case already.

I think people would pay 10 times the current market value thats why I thought about 480L -500L as a maximum price for extortion plots but 9999L is just taking the p*ss when that has been coupled with the deliberate attempts to harass that Jack Linden has now had to try and prevent.

You have to ask yourself why are these bas*ards still here? why hasn't anything been done to stop them fu**ing things up for everyone else?

Porta potties are just as much an irritant as an advert and could be used to harass within the terms of TOS, so we stop allowing porta potties to be stuck everywhere in a year or two, while we wait for the next pile of crap to appear, either change the way land is sold to auctions ,limit prices for small plots to 500L/16sqm or limit the number of small parcels a user can own.

I have put all of these ideas foward as this thread progressed, I really don't care what you do Jack just do something because advertising is not the problem and has never been the problem.

It was just the tool of choice.

Think 30m prim towers two prims set to transparent and one with 20% alpha and 40%some sort of design, these placed in adfields would soon do just as annoying as the ban lines.

Or adfarmers picking out houses with transparent texture detail, rezzing transparent towers next door while they wait for the texture bug to sell their plots.

Jack this has not gone away, market forces will not stop what we now call adfarming, if anything they help fuel the problem, Adfarming will just start being called something different, perhaps Surreptitious Harassment Involving Tiny Squares would be a good name for it in the future, it fits nicely with the parasites who practice it.