politics, virtual land, and you...

I have seen blue anti-Bush signs towering over empty land in two regions now.

I am curious is this a standard practice?

Do people actually buy land in sl to politic in rl?

Yes

@Dnate: say more?

I'll be happy to put up some anti Hillary Clinton signs to even things out if you want

The W-Hats did a swastika once... guess that counts as politics.

Yes, but as an investment in actually swaying public opinion or votes (as was the case during the last US election) it has a miserable ROI when compared to RL ways of getting the same message across (e.g. a bumper sticker on a RL car in any metropolitan area gets more visibility than an anti-Bush, Hillary, Condi, Cheney, et al sign in SL).

I have always felt that people hurt their causes by force feeding them to the rest of us. Regardless of the person or issue, I get angrier at the anti-x forces when their signage is plopped all over the world. Similar to 'for sale' signs plopped all over the world.

The giant pillars of rotating pro-bush/anti-bush signs you see on 16m2 parcels dotted around the world are about griefing in order to drive down land prices by inciting strong emotional response from irrational liberals and fanatical conservatives.

It has very little to do with real politics or swaying general opinion.

Ha! I bought a plot near one of those today (for more than average price for my own reasons). Doesn't bother me, it'll be gone soon enough.

I've sold quite a bit of land around them for a profit. It doesn't seem to stop people from moving next to them. I think people mind them less than the plywood houses people put up. It seems plain wood is the main thing to devalue property, though I know there have been many other things attempted such as garbage cans. I honestly don't think the owner of these signs is out to make a profit. I haven't seen him sell any of his land, and if land goes down in value, others are the one who get the property when it goes to sale. He has to be fast to beat us, so I'm wondering if he is just trying to make a politcal statement, and that is it.

Thank you all for your replies!

I actually wondered about the "decrease land value so I can buy it up" ploy, but it sounds like it's a weak scheme at best. I agree politicking in sl is low "roi" lol!

Keeping surroundings aesthetic for one's sl land looks like a challenge! So far the answers seem to be: 1. Become a Land Baroness and own your surroundings, or 2. Teleport your guests directly in-structure and use false-outside-view windows.

Any other suggestions? All counsel gratefully received and listened to!

Trees, flowers, and bushes can do wonders to improve the aesthetics of your land. If you have the prims, use a few prims to landscape outside in front of things you consider ugly. A row of trees can hide the offending neighbor's prims, and it tends not to piss others off like a wall can as long as you keep the vegetation on your property. The false outside view windows also seem to give some good effects. I've been in some neat buildings that use surrounding wall with "scenery" textures in all directions when inside, but they leave the "scenery" walls phantom and invisible from the outside so that no one realizes there is a wall on the property.

the party that is putting up the signs has refused to resize his sign so it does not overhang my property. His property is 16 sq m, his sign is a rotating 10x10. I have filed report with lindens to no avail. Being i three side the sign some friends of friends made a nice water fall feature that hides it from us all.

Well, this has changed. It seems the land is now for sale.

This is not an attemp to make a political statement. A person can't possibly believe that anyone is going to take their opinion seriously when they pull stunts like this.

I don't think they're trying to lower surrounding prices either. It seems they're actually trying to raise the price of their own land by intentionally causing great annoyance to their neighbors.

Kudos on the trees and waterfalls. Let them pay their tier for a few months with no income from neighbors who simply screen and ignore them and they'll go away. Griefers are children, treat them as such. Well I shouldn't say that they ARE children. The rouge landowner in Slate and Aqua is an "adult" college professor that hasn't logged in since March. In fact the only time I've ever seen him was when he was building all over Jarod's land in Teal and wouldn't respond to anybody or move his stuff. Gosh that was a long time ago.