Discussion: Ugly Sign/Billboard Hider

If you stoop to this level of stupidness you are in violation of the terms of service you have checked that box that said you agreed on when installing the application / If you dont like what you see on others land then move lol. I know this is just a wrong answer for you to hear but sorry the rules are the rules.

I say use it, but at your own risk of course. The owner of the land may eventually notice and abuse report you. Good for him. At that point there is a a*SLIGHT* chance that the Lindens might take action against you, but this seems unlikely given their track record of dealing with abuse reports in a timely and fair manner.

you also have to keep in mind that your neigbor might find things on your land he might find "offensiv" and do the same thing to you in turn by say covering your house in temp rez boxs to sheild it from his veiw because i thinks it's ugly. So i say if you don't mind when it happens to you then by all means proseed and if it does don't complain that someone is covering up your stuff...

Since we seem to have beat this horse to death (about putting things on someone else's property to hide things on it) I'd like to play a little "what if" game.

Let's say person L buys a small plot of land, surrounded on all four sides by land owned by people I'll name N, E, S, and W. L puts up a box sign that is mere centimeters away from his property lines bordering N, E, S, and W. All perfectly fine, his right of expression, no TOS violation, no problem.

Neighbor N talks to neighbor L and says "I politely object to that object, would you please consider removing it, which would make me happy. The presence of your sign decreases my enjoyment of SL greatly". Neighbor L thanks N for her feedback but leaves the sign up as is his right to do. He can do what he wants on his land, obviously.

So neighbor N says "Hm I think I'll put up a sign ON MY LAND with a pretty cloud on it". She makes a phantom object that's full alpha on the side bordering L (so that if L happens to be sitting on his tiny plot of land gazing out, his view of the beautiful scenery around him is not occluded in any way). He places it on her land, and positions it RIGHT next to the sign on L's land. Now she can't see L's sign from her property. Her enjoyment of SL is now greatly increased and she decides to continue paying her monthly fees and land tier to LL instead of quitting SL in disgust.

Based on everything that's been discussed I assume everyone can agree that what N is doing is not a TOS violation? Or even that N is being a big jerk in some way? N's sign is on N's land. It's phantom so that it doesn't block access in any way to L's land. It's alpha on L's side so L can't see it from his land. Is everything OK here?

So now neighbors E, S, and W think "wow what a clever girl that N is, I think I shall do the same" and they erect something similar on their land. At no time is any object ever placed or rezzed on L's land. Net result is that now no one can see L's sign, which could in fact be attributed to the fact that L didn't plan things quite like he could have to ensure good viewability regardless of what his neighbors do. He could buy bigger plots of land, which is really the only way to guarantee some viewing buffer room, for example.

So is there now some TOS violation? What if the neighbors got together and discussed this beforehand, like all good neighborhoods tend to do that want to keep the quality of the neighborhood high, would it *then* be crossing some line into a TOS violation since now it could be interpreted that there is collusion afoot to hide views of the sign outside of L's property? L can see his object inside his own property, of course. No one is stopping him from viewing his own objects.

What if one of the neighbors says, hey I have an idea, I can save you all one prim count and I'll just temp-on-rez *your* sign on your property as a service to you. I'm a sign-rezzer service and I'll place it where you want it, on your land, and I'll do it for free. The neighbors say "yes I would benefit from this service, thank you". Is this now a TOS violation?

What if one of the neighbors is instead Governer Linden, who obviously wouldn't be a part of the previous "neighborhood improvement project", and someone is temp-on-rezzing a sign over Linden land that happens to cover that one side of the sign?

Just to be clear, there's no personal agenda here, I don't have any such sign next to me personally at present. It's just an interesting theoretical discussion.

-Sasun

what about pushing partials from a partical effect to cover the sign? using thick black smoke? what about building your own sign on your land over to cover the same area, with a nice picture of the sun or the moon or something?

The sign guys seem to be getting a tad more aggressive. I'm seeing land marketers buy up a sim or parts of it, then sell lots, but leaving a 16 m plot unsellable, and then when the surrounding land is developed, up pops a billboard or sign or whatever.

For people leaving the game this probably doesn't matter, but as a general principle, before you sell your house or first land, ask your neighbor or neighbors if they want to buy it. It allows community and it prevents these land marketers and advertisers who apparently work hand in hand from spoiling the view of the sim.

For me, I treat the advertisements on those signs like I do pop-up adds. If I see one, I make note of who is advertising there and I go out of my way to avoid them at all costs.

The better way to advertise if to go to SLBoutique.com or check out the Ad's in the classified forums.

haha I can imagine now billboards hiding underground and popping up like popcorns from the soil and then bouncing mad like rubber balls everytime you get near and then it hides again

More importantly, never buy land with a 16m square taken out of it. The people who buy the land and carve out a 16m square before reselling aren't going to do so if they can't resell the land for more an L$1/sq.m. Any land dealer who does this ought to be driven into bankruptcy. There's at least one charming dealer I won't ever do business with because of this practice.