Mainland improvements receive frosty welcome
November 15, 2008 by Ciaran Laval
Posted in
* ad farms
* imrpovements
* Mainland
* Second Life
Jack's blog post about improvements to mainland should be welcomed with open arms by most people. Mainland is a very important place. News that micro parcel advertising and the term advertising needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, has been drastically reduced is good news to most.
The blog post gives you a good idea of how widespread the issue was:
"Before the new policy, between 15%-18% of parcels were being used primarily to advertise, mostly on micro parcels. As of this post, that figure has dropped to 2% and is still dropping."
That's a rather impressive statistic and shows that they aren't ignoring this policy and just making a token effort.
The problem for Jack is however the openspcace issue, rightly or wrongly Jack's reputation over the policy has taken a battering. This was magnified by his lack of performance in the discussion thread.
Compare this with Zee who engaged in a very robust discussion regarding the economy. Zee's reputation has improved and yet he was also involved in the openspace policy decision. The difference is that Zee was prepared to hold his hands up and say "Yes, we got it wrong". Jack has not done that and for a lot of people that erodes trust.
Zee was of course instrumental in the last big price hike when full sim pricing increased by a massive amount. The difference again is in the wording. Zee explained why the price had to go up so much, the company were running sims at more or less cost, it wasn't financially viable to keep doing that. Whether people bought that explanation isn't as important as a viable explanation being made.
When I asked Jack why the price had to be USD$125 for Openspaces he simply replied that they thought that was the right price. No real explanation and no real reasoning other than saying that was the right price. This approach doesn't convince people at all.
However Jack has been instrumental in the cleanup of mainland. Some people will say it has taken a long time, but we're seeing results and it's a better late than never scenario. This news should be being greeted well, but the messenger currently has a public relations cloud hanging over him and people aren't paying much attention.
We should be paying attention, this is good news. Jack deserves a pat on the back but Linden Lab have a long way to go before they regain trust.
Jack tried to raise the issue of advertising at his office hour on Thursday. The majority of people didn't want to hear it. This is a shame, but is no surprise. There are also policies in the pipeline to deal with land cutting and again these are policies those of us who have mainland interests should want to hear. Ive recently purchased a 16M plot for L$102 from someone who decided to terraform this plot lower than all surrounding land. Why would they do that? L$102 is overpriced, but not as heinously overpriced as the neighbouring 16M plots, one of which is L$1495. I've seen much higher than that price before.
I have been largely against price caps, I'm not 100% against them because you need to be flexible on these issues. If people are going to raise and lower land just to be gits it needs to be looked at. Banlines have been taken away as an extortion tool, if raising and lowering land becomes a new extortion tool that will need to be taken away too. There is no need whatsoever for someone to buy a 16M plot and then raise or lower it to extremes. People generally raise or lower plots to make the land even, if you're just reselling a 16M plot that really isn't an issue and there are no excuses for it.
Over time the anger will subside over openspaces, people will have to adjust but the underlying issue of lost trust is going to run deep for quite a while yet and there are two milestones ahead to remind people of this over the next eight months.
We're entering the season of goodwill (especially to shopkeepers), Linden Lab really need to find a means to extend some goodwill to their residents.
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Re: Mainland improvements receive frosty welcome
Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 11/15/2008 - 13:20.
After being harassed for months by the surrounding land owner, Harry Linden confiscated two plots from me and shifted them elsewhere. When i asked for the same rule to be applied to two extortion microplots surrounded by my land (priced at 10k and 15k) Harry Linden refused my request because there were "no harassment issues". Seems it pays to harass plot owners to get the land!
Trust and fairness? I think not... are they ever going to address extortion prices on microplots? Or unable to because it keeps their average land price artificially high therefore maintaining the illusion of mainland having value?
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Re: Mainland improvements receive frosty welcome
Submitted by Bart Heart on Sat, 11/15/2008 - 22:40.
Jack does not tell the thruth, he is the "King of Spin". In the office hour of Nov 6th Jack stated:[11:07] Jack Linden: we don't have that many conversion requests in the queue now and yes they are a priority. most are being done within 5 working days
[11:07] Jack Linden: so we'll see how many requests we get
Well Jack its been 8 Working days, 11 tier payment days. If I go to the nent working day wch Im assuming is Monday Tht willbe th 9th Working Day and the 13th tier day. !3 tier days cost me 300us in tier on 8OS, so much for free conversion. So my next question is, Is Jack Linden not telling the truth or are the conceigers just lazy? or Do the Lindens only work 2 Days a week, cause that would make it abou the right timing.
I opened 5 tickets for conversions last night, all put in the details "more info to come next week". This way when Im ready I will fill in the OS names and the convertion will be done all most instantly.
And to comment on Zee Linden, when I asked about why they made the OS with more prims, alow people to buy 1 OS from the 4OS ata time policy, allow them to be stand alone and lower the price. If t was not the grand scam to 'jack" the prices. Zee responded " We are neither the smart, nor that evil." I have to disagree. Most of the Lindens that mke these calles are well educated and they are Lindens, so they are smart and evil.
So now I have nicknames for these two Lindens: Jack "Ass" Linden & Zee "Evil" Linden