Maybe just maybe there IS an FIC

Ok I made an alt...............and didn't have a 'home' to call my own, so when I TP'd 'home'...it was an Ambat info hub I was redirected to.

Ok fine......there was a mall close by....and IN...directly IN the Info hub shelter was an add for a land sale...I touched for info and here is the info on the notecard:

***There are so many uses for this prime, mature, once in a Second Lifetime land. It's good for building a oceanfront home people will envy, or even for business uses (rent out the dock space maybe?), etc. The list is endless.

The land is divided into four 512m parcels because I need a quick sale (512m ocean property with views like this are rare and sell fast), but I WILL REFUND $2000L** to the buyer of all four parcels.

**THIS OFFER ONLY VALID UNTIL 06 JULY 2006.

PLEASE ENSURE DILLON MORENZ IS OWNER OF ALL FOUR PLOTS IF YOU INTEND TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF DISCOUNT. If somebody buys one or more parcels beforehand, obviously, the discount will no longer apply.

I will either refund money after transaction of all four parcels, or IM me in world, and I will join the four plots and SET THEM TO SELL TO YOU ONLY at the discounted price. If I'm offline though, one or more parcels may sell before I get your IM, so be careful of that.***

Why is this ad in a 'newb' homebase? And THEN a Linden came by while I was there (not sure why as I was AFK on the phone) and I asked her......why is this ad here? I was told that the 'land ad' was a resident kiosk and I needed to contact the owner if I wanted to advertise...hehe. When I had a few more questions to ask she said "I'm sorry.....I need to run"

The owner of the 'hub' along w/ a number of the Lindens, was an AV that has been here since 7/6/2004. And that same AV is the owner of the land ad kiosk.....what gives?


Ahh after playing w/ the kiosk a bit more I see that ANYONE can advertise there.

Still I didn't know I could advertise my hubby's 'gurl bits' to newbs so easily, they would sell like hotcakes .....if I had only known....................

Are you talking about player/group owned hubs? They've been around for awhile since LL got rid of telehubs. Players/groups that asked for a infonet hub to decorate and claim as their own came into effect. I assume that's what you are referring to, right?

I built Ambat Infohub for the fun of it, and so all the objects there (well, most, anyway) belong to me. I think you are talking about the resident advertiser board - any resident with a texture and notecard control-drops these on the back of it and then the ad is shown for two weeks. These advertisers are at all the infohubs and anyone can use them.

I hope you like Ambat - I love it there

Ok maybe...I'm not really sure....BUT if I am a NEW player, why would one of those hubs be my 'home'?

The Lindens had a rotating hammer up for ages that was a thing that gave info notecards because they wanted residents to build Infohubs.

Ok, but WHY, as a new player was my 'home' set as that hub?

Any Linden land can be set as "home." It may be because the WA is so...

Because the FIC is real and out to steal noob's monies. Or because new players don't have a starting home, and they started doing infohubs instead of the welcome area for home points.

Nah I hadn't set anyplace as home...on purpose. Makes no sense.

Maybe new residents are spread out to many areas for both protection from crowds and as a way to spread out their impact.

This is like having a conversation in IM

Goes to sleep before she says shit she 'thinks' she may regret in the morning.........G'nite

Will revisit this in the morning, it is odd.

Night night, Nyx... /me waves to Tren.

But why would a resident owned infohub be counted as "Linden land"?

FIC = Fictional Idiot's Conspiracy.

P2

Just to clear something up - noobs are spit out all over the grid at these 'infohubs' or whatever they are being called this week.

I made a few alts recently (for perfectly legitimate purposes I might add) and they all, except one, rezed at different locations, so it does look a pretty random process.

Your alt arrived at a 'infohub' with adverts? No big deal, make a few more and see where they come out.

No conspiracy here, nothing to see, now move along please!

I wouldn't call it FIC, but I would be concerned that there's a policy that any Infohub build can be made the home point for new players, even if it isn't Linden owned.

All newbies used to be homed at the Welcome Area. Those who didn't care to re-home themselves would remain there forever making it a sort of newbie squatter camp and wildly congested.

This distributed "homing" may be the first sensible change I've seen in while.

It's a sensible change but it has the usual problems that come up when such a change is made.

Did the people who built InfoHubs know that they were going to be used as centre points for new arrivals?

Did people who decided not to build InfoHubs know that they were turning down a chance to advertise at someone's home location?

Most allegations of FICdom seem to stem from this sort of thing, when a change is made without people being informed, or a change is made that retroactively changes the nature or value of particular works. I don't think there's a FIC but I do think this sort of change does need to be more closely monitored.

Looking at the facilities to help a noob get orientated at the 'infohubs' I've had alts arrive at, which range from 'absolutely none' to 'a complete joke', and the number of confused and disorientated noobs blundering about, I'd say it's highly unlikely that the builders in question had any idea this was going to happen.

I think they have been used as reception areas only to avoid the original WA being stomped flat by the volume of alts/noobs popping into existence. Also the OI system has changed, allowing noobs to skip even that minimal exercise. You can now sign up - login - rez- and go STRAIGHT inworld - bypassing both the parrot and the chance of HI!
Again, an emergency move to avoid the OIs, HI and WA being trampled flat.

This doesn't exactly reek of forward planning, does it?

We... I mean, the FIC does not exist.

The FIC is a figment of "you know who's" imagination.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to leave to attend that Pro-"Big Business", Anti-"Land Baron" meeting with Philip and Robin.

Exactly - and that's not a good thing!

While we had no idea it would ultimately become an arrival point at the time, the Isabel infohub is quite new-resident friendly.

However, this came to be primarily because the Shelter is in Isabel, and not too far from the Infohub. Those of us that stepped up to rebuild the Isabel hub had new residents first on our minds.

At least for Isabel, the land the infohub sits on is indeed Linden-owned - but the build was created by local residents.

It's not resident-owned. The Infohub is Linden land - I just made objects that are on it.

I didn't know what the Infohub would be used for.

EVERY resident had the opportunity to submit a proposal to build an Infohub.

I DON'T OWN THE LAND.

The ADVERTISEMENTS can be from any resident - I don't advertise there, however. If you want to add your ad to the Infohub advertisers, go to an Infohub and add a notecard and a texture to it. ANYONE can do it. It is not exclusive to Ambat, or my idea - I modded the advertiser so it fit in with my overall design, though.