When sims go bad - Price Gouging Land Barons, eyesores and incredibly obtuse requests

llRantMode(NULL_KEY, PROFANE_VERBOSE, TRUE);

So I've been around awhile now. You may know me, you may not, I'm a vampire dentist.

Anyways back in late December, I bought a little plot up in the north east corner of the northern continent it was a nice deal and it got me established and gave me and my family a place to be. A few weeks after that I went into business for myself, and well the rest is more or less history.

I now own 1/3rd of the entire sim. And I do my best to keep the place as nice as possible.

Well, the sim right to the west of me (most of my property is situated right on the sim border) used to have a sex club that owned about 60% of the sim. They weren't bad neighbors at all, hardly ever a bother, but the owner had to sell off tier and sell off fast due to RL problems...so what happens? She calls in an instant transaction land baron.

Well anyways he buys all her property, and then while splitting it all up, contacts my associate (cause thats the name on the exterior prims) about our wall.

We've had a 30m wall around our main parcel, its to give us a sembalence of privacy and containment from other peoples homes and what not. And thats just it, before this huge land sell off, almost 95% of the surrounding sims were all RESIDENTIAL sims and were well settled.

So anyways he contacts my associate about our wall, why? Cause its right next to I guess the best piece of property he picked up in the sim. And he asks "Hey, I just wanted to check with you...is that wall really necessary?"

So my associate told him it was and we left it at that and didn't think much more of it.

So over the next few days I noticed that oh...about 25% of the land this land baron bought has been split into AD PARCELS....little 16m plots for people to buy and place ads on them.

IS MY WALL NECESSARY? Well as of today, you are good goddamn right it is. In fact the 30m wall is now a 60m wall because it has to be. The sim right next to me, which my tenants on the backside of my building now have to endure is literally NOTHING but ad spam for about 4000 square meters of individual parcels.

Crappy ass floating signs that spin and make noise trying to sell the plots at hugely inflated rates, ads for peoples products and businesses...the works...the western sim right next to me is now a mainland trash build/ad hell wasteland. This USED to be a beautiful stretch of mainly residential coastal sims...and now we've got this HUGE EYESORE of a sim right in the middle of them all....all FOR MONEY.

I don't want a 60m wall around my property, personally I think its overkill and I think its not very considerate to the other RESIDENTS of my sim that are still in my sim. But I can't take it down now...not without completely indundating my family, parcel residents, and customers with spam from unprincipled opportunists.

And you advertisers....WHO ARE YOU ADVERTISING TO anyways? Theres not a single high traffic social spot ANYWHERE NEAR the ad space you've bought there. Highest traffic parcel in that area is mine..which averages between 4000 - 7000 traffic a day other than that, you're advertising to groundhogs....you're just making the area look crappy. Theres no road there....yeah theres protected Linden Land thats supposed to have a road on it, but theres no road, theres never going to be a road...you're advertising to WEEDS and just making peoples residential experiences unpleasant and distasteful and whats more you're destroying the land value of that entire sim.

I personally have two ads out in the world myself...I at least took the time to make my signs attractive and realistic...not just a crappy textured prim with a couple of freebie scripts in it to annoy people into considering buying you off the land.

And thats the other thing...cleaning up that mess isn't even economically sound for me. None of the land would do me any good, its not in my sim, its not land I want to buy at this time cause it just does me absolutely no good and I'm already paying a pretty high tier and going up in tier further simply to hold a bunch of ad land to preserve the integrity of the area I live in just isn't economic.

So yeah...my wall is necessary and will always be necessary til I'm finally in a position to own my own island....because til I can do that, apparently my property will never be safe from the tendency of unprincipled opportunists to take advantage of people in trouble, and turn what was a beautiful north coast community into a mainland spam pit for profit.

So I guess I have to be a bad neighbor to the residents that are left in my sim...though I don't really want to be...and have this 60m wall up around my parcel just to keep from being spammed by people who have no respect for other peoples experiences of the game.

All for money. Its amazing. How something so tranquil and beautiful can be turned into a chaotic mess of uninspired, ugly advertising just cause someones out to make a quick buck.

llRantMode(NULL_KEY, PROFANE_VERBOSE, FALSE);

That's capitalism for you. Sorry, but it really sucks that someone could be so thoughtless. I would probably have done the same thing, although setting the wall phantom and transparent on their side so they don't see it, assuming the wall has now become a barrier rather than protection.

Unfortunately more and more of this sort of bull is going to happen, unless Linden Labs start to introduce some form of zoning. Whilst free expression may be a good thing, it can easily be abused as this example shows - Bush sign guy anyone? - and if more people would think of their neighbours before building, SL would be a much happier experience.

I have, in the past, had advertising outside my property (helping friends out), but they have been in the form of proper billboards that can blend in much better to the the landscape than huge spinning noise-making cubes that can be seen for miles. Classified and other proper advertising will get much better results every time, at least from me.

Lewis

I'm just glad I don't live near you or your neighbours.

Im just glad I dont live near the Matrix casino.. is that the ugliest build in SL or is it just the most obnoxious?

but I would agree the border walls should be made transparent on the neighbours side. whats privacy to you is ugly to others (

I guess? Thank you for the meaningless commentary?

This has been suggested, but I don't ask the neighbors to make their houses transparent so I can have an uninterrupted view of the coast line they've paid for...so I think compromising my privacy out of being good natured is hardly fair.

I wouldn't bother with it. This is obvious retaliation for your deciding to keep your wall up. Obviously the seller thought that they'd get a better rate if the buyers saw *your* land as open space next to the parcles that they wee selling. I'd advise you to keep your wall up at this point, and keep it opaque.

There was nothing wrong with you having a wall up. I own about the same amount of land in Meins, and I have a (Nice looking.) 10m tall fence around it, and feel that I have a right to have it there. If someone doesn't want to live next to a 10m fence, the don't have to move there.

Unfortunately, I think that LL really *does* need to have some sort of zoning in place. Anyone with a residential property for instance, so long as I've been in SL, has always had to live with the fear that a big huge club or mall will move in, and lag the sim that they live in into unusability. I've had it happen to me. (And this is one reason why I'm damn glad that they've eliminated dwell. It makes big ass, lag generating clubs less profitable, and thus less likely to wind up near me.)

Simply having some sims that are zoned "residential" would allow people to be free of any risk of getting lagged out by big clubsor malls, or clobbered by advertising.

Anyway, I wish you luck in your fight against this land baron turned griefer.

I think both you, AND the 'Land Baron' are in a no win situation.

The only thing I would say is that screens between offensive builds and your own property should ALWAYS be phantom and invisible from outside your property. If not you are no better than the other person - after all, it's someone else's land and they can buld what they like there - and they may see YOUR build as an eyesore.

Sadly I've had to screen eyesores several times in the past and have always construced one-way phantom screens. Which have got the job done without any problems while I bought up the surrounding properties then errected my OWN eyesores surrounding the other guy's...
And THAT is the only solution I know to the situation you find yourself in... Squeeze HARD!

This is the kernel of truth. The mainland is a compelling place where new residents acclimate to the interface and where new groups form. Mainland parcel owners are not equipped to support large scale, long term residential projects and we never will be. You're operating outside the bounds of intent.

Even in old group established sims we have people who horde tiny plots of land and cause excessive sim lag or wave spikey, flashing ugliness in our faces to lower our fps, or let physical trash and particle spewers pile up on the land to the residents' dismay. Why do we tolerate it?

Well, we live on the Linden estates if we want to belong to a compelling international community of flyover trafficers that will treat our land as public domain and damn well do anything they like with theirs. We move to our own estates when we want to build nice, comfortable environments with views to enjoy and share with our friends.

While I agree with what you're saying I still find it incredibly disturbing that just because I can't currently cough up $1250 USD for the setup fee for an island that I'm more or less in danger of being in the middle of a ghetto enviroment full of trash and spam at a moments notice simply because of that. Saying that I'm operating outside the bounds of intent seems a bit hard line.

If attractive builds that enhance the game and make it a nicer place to be must be self contained within their own sims to the tune of $1250 USD then $200 USD a month afterwards...then whats the point of trying to improve SL through building at all? Wheres the incentive for me...as a developer and a builder, to do that? Squirrelling away my nice build where its not really part of the world at all...just off in some parallel dimension people can visit via teleporting?

Simple facts are, that attractive, sim enhancing builds should be what the Lindens WANT in their mainland sims. And thats exactly because of the reason you're describing its where the community exploration/flyover traffifc is taking place. The LEAST the Lindens should want is that demographic..which is its open draw of potential capital from new premium subscribers, to be flying around a bunch of uninspired, profane and downright ugly ads and crappy builds from sim to sim as far as the eye can see.

So to say that I'm operating outside intent is very incorrect. I'm operating well INSIDE the true intent of Second Life and what Second Life should be showing these new subs. Its the advertisers and Land Barons that are defeating the purpose of building sim enhancing builds in the mainland.

Oh and whats more, since theres no DI, I don't even get a nod from LL for my efforts like alot of the earlier crowd did. I have to generate everything I've got in SL off my own efforts alone...so its not like I'm getting any recognition at all for my build unlike many who did and used the DI to finance their own islands or to line their own pockets.

So not only do I have no incentive for what I do, you're now telling me that to do what I want to do..I have to have an island...and should just give up the mainland to let it be the equivalent of several thousand square miles of internet pop up ads, online casinos, and porn sites?

Sad...indeed. Cause in my opinion, the mainland is where you'd want some nice builds. Its where everyone starts out after all.

I see this kind of crap everywhere I go and I always wonder about the mentality of people who put these things up.

They don't seem to realise that a large percentage of those few who actually see it, will find it offensive and never buy a single thing from them. They are effectively killing their own brand.

But then its usually crap they are trying to sell in the first place.

I liked your wall. Sadly, I've moved, but I spoke to Fox and she had some nice scenery up for the land renters.

I would have stayed if me and the partner hadn't split.

At the least my store produced little to no lag and tended to be a 'nice' build versus plaid walls arounf particles. The only issue might have been the rotating sign, but at least it wasn't a laggy and ugly billboard.

It is a harsh truth. Can't argue that point.

The incentive is wanting an environment you can control. For LL to excersice such control on their estates will require hiring countless liasons with the power to evaluate and delete "unacceptable" content. They'll have to raise teir fees considerably to pay for that. Then they'll have to put up with a lot of flack over what they decide to delete for being "inappropriate."

Simple facts and the least they SHOULD want, yes. But after three years it's clearly not what they want because it's not what they've worked to facilitate all these years.

Well, no. You're suddenly claiming that what you just said the Linden's SHOULD want is what they DO want ergo my statement is incorrect. In fact, what you just said the Linden's SHOULD want is obviously not what they DO want because it's not what they've worked to facilitate all these years.

As Linden Lab has yet to reach profitability, we're hardly lining their pockets.

Yes

And yes again, it is sad; but it's true.

Thing is, LL doesn't WANT you to live on the mainland, or any of the 'continents'.

Islands are much more profitable for LL and a lot less trouble to administer. The 'mainland' sims have to be there, otherwise here would be nowhere for the 'Soylent Green' (noobs) to hang out - other than that, the mainland represents something of a blind alley for LL, if they ever find a way of disposing of the mainland sims and forcing everyone onto islands the mainland will be history...
And looking at the sheer amount of mainland up for sale, plus the amount that's abandoned and not being auctioned by LL, the number of entire mainland sims on the southern continent that are for sale - and NOT selling, I think the demise of the mainland is well under way already.

Suzanne-- I feel your pain.

Having been in my manland location for close to 18 months now (some sort of a record here in Wilmot), I too have endured my share of unsightly malls, laggy bling-clubs, Bush-guy signage wars, 10m spinning black & chartreuse For Sale Signs of Hate, and builds that make you wonder wtf the builder was smoking or is it just brain damage(???). While I realize most of this was done because the people involved were just doing their own thing & amusing themselves, I also know a fair ammount was to deliberately annoy myself and our neighbors. I have been fortunate enough to have counteracted a lot of this intermittent eyesore with tree placement, and at one point- a wall like you have now. The rest I and my good neighbors have simply endured. This is the sole beauty of such things-- if you wait long enough, the owners will change and, with any luck, the scenery. Till then, you do what you can & your wall is your bestest friend.

Sometimes I feel like I am playing Survivor: Mainland-- Outwit, Outplay, Outlast. The only difference is noone gets voted off the mainland.

True except for your last point. The mainland serves the pupose you stated plus it gives new residents a wora'uld to wander through while they meet people and learn the ropes. Plus, Doc I'm surprised you didn't mention this, it makes them loads of money in the fact that a good portion of the land turns over every month affording LL double tier charges for the same parcels. That's gotta generate a lot of cash.

Thanks Jonas, I noticed you were sort of in and out. I wondered about that.

You could be right there, on the turnover cashflow.
I haven't bothered tracking land turnover, near where I lived residence was pretty steady, but elsewhere might be different.
Certainly there is a HUGE amount of land up for sale the last 3-4 months, more than ever before, and seeing, on the rare occasions 'Find - land' actually functions, three (last time I looked, it's not functioning right now) entire sims on the South continent for sale and no takers for nearly a month... Is the land really turning over - or just for sale?

I went through the annoying clubs and unruly neighbors for awhile, and I just bought up small parcels as I could afford them, pretty soon I owned the whole sim and thought I was safe....until people started poping thse things up in the sims along my borders *I kinda wonder if it's something designed to get me mad enough to sell so someone can turn a profit. But since I have owned most of the land in my sim since October, I'm not about to move unless someone makes me a good enough offer to consider moving to an island along with my 20+ renters.
Right now I'm dealing with the same large cube signs in the sim next to me and I think it's the same person.......I just hope that what ever or who ever moves in there is a little more considerate then what I've seen so far....taste is definatly lacking in most of SL

Something I would like to see SL implement is a way to set a sim to commercial or residential for someone that owns a sim...so that later on people who move in don't have to worry about these things (Maybe even have a review board in case someone buys the entire sim and wants to have it changed to the opposite, I think most would even be willing to pay a fee for this)

Your business was never a problem. Neither is the business that currently borders me on the other side. They're both small and non-laggy. And I tried to make the wall as decorative as possible.

I'm sorry about your patner, and that you had to move. The current owner is someone who's bought the land and turned on the Red Box 'O Death.

This would solve zero problems. Whether our neighbors are operating a shop, club or residence is entirely beside the point. The solution is for us to all respect our neighbors' views and frame rates. LL can't impose rules to that effect; it requires grouping enough adults to hold enough land to create a contiguous zone of civilization.

Now that might work, zone sims as civilized, where people are required to respect each other or be ejected, and uncivilized where it's understood that the owner can damn well do whatever the hell they damn well please with their land and you can go jump in a lake chump so there.

The one person I know with walls around her property so that she can have the scenery she wants makes the outward side of the wall alpha so that the neighbors don't even *see* the walls. They get a nice lovely view of her land, she gets the view she wants and there is a happy medium for everyone.

Just a thought to consider with your 60m walls. The downside at that height (hers are only 10 or 20m) is you're going to get the bird/window effect with folks flying about. *splat*.

Char

PHANTOM

I went to look around your neighbours land earlier and it really is horrific.
All those boxes and "capsules" are causing a bit of lag so I don't know how the guy intents to sell his 500 16 metre boxes.

I wonder if anyone will rent that cute little cottage between your wall and his boxes

Hmmm, well, I went and I looked...

I have to say, the only time *I* ever built giant black boxes that blighted several sims was when I was playing extremely rough to obtain large chunks of land I really wanted in competition with a very well known land baron way back when...

The advertising in that sim is annoying, though nothing in comparison to the 'fence'.
I can't help wondering who started this little war - and what everyone in the adjacent sims thinks of the visual pollution?

*shrugs* NOT my problem, but I'd abandon the land if I lived anywhere near either of you (no chance of selling it!) - nothing in that area is worth the grief all concerned are causing.