Ugly or SL?

I used to hate the "blight" of rotating ads everywhere.

When I was a newbie, I could almost cry seeing someone's little paradise garden - an obvious labor of love and creative expression - seemingly abandoned and surrounded by a bleak confusion of ads.

But a customer who was beta-testing one of my new products TP'd me to their place one day. I was greeted in their beautiful, realistic nature-themed area on the mainland. I looked around and saw that it was surrounded by for sale signs and spinning ads.

I helpfully offered a nice meadow/treeline "screen" that I once made to hide those ugly ads at a small plot of land I once had.

They accepted it but said they no plans on using it, explaining to me that billboards and spinning ads are an integral PART of what SL really is, just as much as trees and clouds. They had planned their build to intermingle nature with human blight - like a tiny jade jewel of an oasis amid the confusion of city life.

As we talked, I realized I was having as much fun admiring this natural landscaping as I was "camming" around at all the various ads - some of them were funny, some looked quite creative and interesting - and yes - I did click a few and had a wonderful time visiting the places that interested me.

It then occurred to me that these ads really are all a major part of what SL is!

While relaxing in a nice green meadow, I can peruse the various ads from some interesting places I'd never have chanced upon otherwise. I mean, how else are the owners of some highly specialized areas going to get word out to those few people in SL who would be interested in their works?

Sure - Classified Ads are useful - but that usability is determined by interested parties actually SEARCHING you out, whereas billboard ads have that serendipitous "I didn't know this even existed in SL" feeling of at-the-moment discovery.

And I've come to realize that most people's attempts at putting up "screens" to block the view of these ads are much uglier than the ads themselves - like living in a box.

So, if you're looking for a solution to the "blight" around your land, think about your little "oasis" and how it might exist alongside the rest of SL all around you.

And - if your little oasis is your store (a nice home/garden store amidst the blight?), consider the benefits of how you stand out on the map as a peaceful sanctuary amid the confusion. Take into account how your visible tolerance for others in SL reflects positively on your customer relations. A store with big ugly walls blocking the other areas around it looks desperate and mean. Tolerance of others around you says a lot about your personality and results in high opinions of you from your customers.

Sure, it's not a solution for everybody - taking into account the fact that each spinning/animated ad causes measurable lag, and you may have other neighbors with big ugly walls up against your land that you may need to hide. But I think many of us take the active solution before considering the passive solution (of which I'm guilty of myself most times), and if we look at it with a creative eye, creative solutions become obvious.

And the next time you're bored in SL, check out some of the ads in the heavy blight areas - you just might find something you never knew existed.

Oh darn - I just realized I posted this in the wrong thread.

Sorry about that, perhaps we can move this to the proper forum?

One of the board moderators has to move it. You could try sending a private message (via the forums, not in world) to Torley Linden.