INFOHUB UPDATE: auctioning off the land!

Do you have any evidence to support the idea that LL changes it's underwear?

I'm not sure if I'd be able to say yes just yet, I may have another big project coming up on the horizon... but, if by chance it does get added to the auction list (and hopefully it won't) then I'd be interested in adding to a development idea. I'd be happy just to see a series of big ice sculptures there.

Without wanting to hijack this thread, I wanted to post a few links in regards to Linden competing with Resident ran businesses in hopes to clarify some of the concerns raised in this thread.

* Philip Linden posted an answer to the "Does LL compete with its customers or not?" question in the Hotline last summer. Excerpt below:


* Around the same time, Philip wrote a lengthy blog post examining the question of competition. Excerpt below:


* Also, you may wish to read the transcript from a Town Hall where this topic was one of the primary focuses.

This is an important and complex issue and as not to derail this thread more, if you would like to discuss topic further, please use this thread

Perhaps LL could start here, and wait a month or so before auctioning off the land. It's not very necessary, but It would be a sign of good faith that they plan on keeping us pre-informed about what they're going to do and give us all time to adjust to future changes.

That's probably better than auctioning the locations off. Just take the Infohub icon off if you want to (or not), and wait.

There's no rush.

Maybe put a sign-up board for people to do short-term builds, or vote on them, and when one gets enough votes freeze it for a while.

Speaking of protected land... are there roads going down in the protected land in the "Korean" sims in the far south, or what? A group of us have gotten together and bought in to a chunk of land in Noonkkot (yes, I'm a Premium now... for a while... if I start talking about killing the Basic stipend though will someone shoot me before I start voting Republicn or something) with a stretch of protected land alongside, and I'm curious about what's going to happen with that?

Pfft

I'd ask Guy Linden on SLLM about this.

The last thing I want to see in a Resident-created world is a sense of powerlessness when it comes to affecting relevant community issues like this.

For the sake of simplicity, the Infohub auctions have been put on HOLD because of the feedback that's come in. Thank you for speaking up. I'm still going to give this a week until the poll finishes to evaluate further--that's a reasonable amount of time. Again, please vote, please reply here if this means something to you.

'Cuz some have asked, currently, my duties on the Community Team include: Infohub supervision, answering SL Answers, assisting with the ResMod programme and general forum happiness, and a lot of interconnected observations which mainly have to do with MAKING SL MORE FUN AND USEABLE. Stubbed toes, cracks between the floorboards, loose change in the couch--having had my inworld experiences, I communicate a lot of what Resis want from the SL Forums and inworld, as well as what is not wanted too. Specifics include UI tweaks (yes, I am a YUGE Force Sun fan) and prioritizing little things which make a big difference. It keeps me very busy. I see so many amazing things thought about--and more importantly, done by the Lindens and Residents of Second Life alike.

It is truely inspirational.

That's exactly why I think it's important that LL isn't saddled with burdens that won't mean a dang thing to the community. If we allocate time, it should count for impact. And again, to see how much some people care about the Infohubs--means volumes.

"Infohub" isn't the most accurate term, I agree. We'll use it as an accessible placeholder for now, tho.

Perhaps it's ironic I once chanted "BURN THE TELEHUBS!" but it's now more like "SAVE THE INFOHUBS!"

That being said, having mentioned "Infohub" too much, I've got a variety of approaches and my arms are full hugging them: individuals and groups of Resis have stepped up to contribute to Infohubs. I've got about a dozen different projects of that magnitude right now, I'm eager to assist, and because I love to communicate, I'll be speaking more about this soon. I just wanted to say, upfront, how wonderful it is to see the spark and spirit here.

Sometimes I've been getting stressed after a day at work, and as it turns out, the same place I work is the same place I play--and both can coexist.

Thank you for proving me wrong Torley. I still, however, reserve the right to remonstrate if this hold is lifted and nothing more substantive is decided upon beyond simply auctioning off these parcels.

I like the idea of the Infohubs being officially turned into parks (they are all but that already), so I'll comment further. One idea would be to name the parks after Linden employees and/or residents (or groups) who have made exceptional contributions to SL; perhaps beginning with those folks who have either moved on or who have passed away.

I wouldn't say 'save' I just think that I'd like to see something WORK for a change.

I think a lot of residents would too. To be blunt - I keep hearing lots of 'big plans' with not a lot of follow through, and I beleive it's eroding away the faith of the community to a degree.

When I hear of great plan X nowadays it leaves me thinking not 'oh wow this is cool' but 'eh - buzzphrase of the month time, better shove a cork up my ass so the smoke don't leak out...'

I'd like to see something run the course - and see where it leads.. The Telehub -> Infohub -> buggerall hub thing appears to be following same line of 'vaporware' thats a lot of us are sadly coming to expect.

I think its rather sad that my once thoughts of things were 'wow... what a GREAT idea! cool! lets get involved and do something!' are now 'meh - money talks, bullshit walks', and its getting increasingly hard to get enthusiastic about new shit when in your heart you're thinking theres an 80% chance that its gonna be a bout of PR bullshit.

I had a plan, made a proposal, it got accepted, and I'm working on it amongst all the other stuff like work and sleep that get in the way of my SL time.

Watch this space.

Lewis

I made some enquiries about the Infohub near my house, put forward my ideas for it, and was given permission to build! Sometimes it's just as simple as asking. I'd tell you where it is but the build has only just started and the workers are taking a tea-break already.

Torley, it is not about saving the Infohubs, it is about beeing able to count on LL that Linden-land stays that way. Many ppl buy by roads, void sims, former hubs, because they know ( or at least thought) they would have a "buffer" against others that way eg, no matter what will be built on 3 sides of my land I know the Linden-land will stay the same.

And yes, why not put the old telehubs back, would be something fore us nostalgic people, could also be a monument /reminder about one occasion LL killed the business for some ppl.

Exactly. I got talked into joining up and upgrading to premium because the land I was buying into was next to this long swath of protected land. I don't mind it staying rural rather than getting a Linden Road through... in fact I'd kind of prefer that... but I'd really be upset about it going up for auction.

Reducing the number of infohubs, OK, that's a good idea. But the infohub land is not just protected, it's special. Auctioning it off to make it a resident-managed space, sure, but not if it just becomes another resident land. There's people who are set home at infohubs, for example, what happens to them?

One of the main reasons that I don't own enough land to showcase anything I've made (besides it being prim -intense) is that there is no way to protect yourself from the volatility of the land market, specifically neighbors.

I've ranted about this in a recent MaxxCast - where I really wish we had the same ability to move and contribute our sq/m free of the land metaphor, but as a stopgap, I'd really like to be able to relocate with the same ease as ordering new colocation space, or creating a new webpage.

In the end, I think depending on land and geography as constructs to help us navigate this virtual space isn't really a great idea - just like how people were hung up on 'horseless carriages' after automobiles emerged, we need to shed a few real life preconceptions in this new world.

So until we get a few more options in controlling our server space we're renting from LL, I'll abstain from what I really want to do. Its just unfortunate.

I completely agree. If I didn't have land in Linden zoned areas, I wouldn't bother with the mainland at all. Why would anyone pay for a lovely view of someone's pink, flashing wall? Or violent yellow towers, set to full bright? What's the point in making something that is aesthetically pleasing and paying for tier in an environment like this? Flip is right, the mainland is becoming a ghetto.

Ingrid Dearheart you really must keep up. We don't call it the mainland anymore, the chic terminology is "Linden Estate" ~ Please update your records accordingly.

Didn't a lot of people keep their telehub land rather than selling it back to LL, due to LL's commitment to maintain its value and usefulness with information hubs? I know a lot of people couldn't sell their telehub land back too, and were stuck with it, as only one resident (to my knowledge) was allowed to sell massive tracts of telehub land back that were owned before the earliest allowed date for the buyback. I bet those people who got shafted into keeping their older telehub land, while one resident was allowed to sell back, were really counting on LL's commitment to information hubs also.

This seems to be a complete 180 on LL's commitment to telehub customers who took LL at its word and didn't bail on their telehub land. All I can say about this, is that I'm glad I didn't fall for this deception, and sold my telehub land back. I feel really sorry for those who believed in this whole information hub thing.

I think that if LL fails in its commitment to build these information hubs into community gathering places, and instead yanks them like they yanked the telehubs, all owners of land in an information hub sim should demand a second round of telehub buybacks WITHOUT any restrictions based on ownership time! It's a shame that your trust is being rewarded in this manner!

KDC's freebie delivery system is done ^^ here is one design ^^

http://sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?id=59289&sort=PictureID+desc

comments apreciated

Looks good! ^^
Do you plan to submit that to LL, or buy an infohub lot and put it there?

You don't have to buy one ... just express an interest, submit a plan, and if it's acceptable, you may get the chance to rebuild one yourself.

Just like I'm doing.

Lewis

The Shelter was approximately 120m from the Isabel Telehub. As a result, we just missed the cutoff for being eligible for the buyback program.

Even if we had been eligible, (while it would have been nice in principle to have options) I don't think we would have sold back and moved. The Shelter is and always has been - a group effort. Many folks have contributed to the build in so many different ways, and continue to do so: It would have been a monumental task to try and relocate it all without starting over. So, unless something drastically changes - we're quite committed to the Mainland and plan to stay.

We've put a small team together to rebuild the Infohub at Isabel. The two team leads are FireEyes Fauna (an older resident) and Mera Pixel (a newer resident). Both of them are very talented, and I'm confident that what they come up with will be a nice contribution to the resident-built Infohubs out there. It's probably no surprise we're trying to design the build with new residents in mind.

Thanks to Torley for giving us the opportunity to be involved!

As a person that owns telehub land in five different sims I would like the opportunity to consolidate all these fairly small lots into fewer but larger lots before LL auctions off the land. Here is what I mean:


There is land that used to have a telehub on it.
For this example let's call it "telehub land".
And there is land whose property line shares a border or borders with telehub land.
For this example let's call it "adjoining land"

Before you auction off "telehub land" allow the owners of "adjoining land" to use a portion of the telehub land for consolidation of the adjoining land they own in several sims.

The size of this portion would be determined by what percentage of telehub land perimeter the adjoining land shares.

If my property surrounds 15% of the perimiter of a sims telehub land then I could use 15% percent of the telehub land adjacent to me to consolidate my adjoining land from two, three, four or more sims into fewer sims.

What I end up with is larger lots in less sims. Linden Lab benefits because as I empty out of some sims (consolidating into another) the size of the lots LL can auction could be larger.

I benefit because I can create more thematically on my fewer but larger lots.

I am not getting more land, I am only trading location of some of my "adjoining land" for some of LL's "telehub land" So that I may have larger, less fractured, lots with higher prim usage.

well i got contacted for making a freebie delivery system across the grid for the info hubs

well i might have an idea for an info hub, but i will have to put myself to the drawing table...

Also... since I don't expect the majority of people to pore over the Neualtenburg forums - we submitted a plan to renovate the infohub in N'burg's original home, Anzere, and yr. humble post-writer here is the one doing the bulk of the construction. Nothing near as fancy as Lewis's effort, mind, and I've a ways to go... but do feel free to stop by and give an opinion.

The end result will combine the basic "newbie news and freebie distro" functions with some historical information on Neualtenburg; appropriate enough since it had its origins, way back when, as a LL-sponsored project. Assuming LL ever sells off the remainder of Anzere, the land will serve as a "historical marker".

I'm also in the progress of rebuilding the Mahulu infohub at the base of the infamous Mt. G'al.

--> Click here for infamy. <--

(Bring back the sacrifices! Come on, who's with me?)

A long work in progress, but feel free to drop by and critique. Due to the history, I'm kind of working in a somewhat dark tribal theme with a few twists. If nothing else, you have to stop by and click the Mini-Me Mt. G'al at the infohub and watch the eruption.

Much thanks to Salazar Jack for pointing me at some of the archives regarding Mt. G'al. The new infohub should incorporate the history when it's done as well as any relevant newbie information I can get my hands on, and whatever else randomly occurs to me. I was rather surprised how many newbies end up at the infohubs for some reason. While I've been working there I get frequent brand spanking new spit-polished newbies landing in the hub looking for the hippos. Is there a hippo finding contest somewhere? When I get the time I'll probably try and dress up a Hippo Shaman.