Big Shuffle in the All Search. Will it last?

That I did not know. I have been getting all the dancers at my club to add the club to their Picks to increase our Search results. However, I also encouraged them to customize the Pick field to make it something of an advertisement for themselves. I though the fact that the Pick linked to the parcel was all that mattered. So if they are substituting their own text in the Pick, they are hurting the effectiveness of the Pick for Search results?

This, by the way, is one of my frustrations with the Search Engine in SL. Because it is shrouded in mystery, someone who wants to honestly improve results and be creative shoots hurts herself by being too honest and creative. I thought residents putting their own words in picks was part of the spirit of the Picks. That little spirit kills me. Thanks, LL.

This obvioulsy comes from someone who doesnt make allot of money from gaming the system. It's far from pointless for those people that do.

I make a lot of money from gaming the system.

I merely do not make that money from gaming SL.

Oh, and there's also the fact that I don't care whether it's pointless or not for them. I assume that it isn't, if they insist on doing it here. They just need to be stopped, that's all.

If you are boastful of your ability of gaming the "system" then I don't understand why you find a discussion on the gaming of SL's search system as being pointless. Gaming is gaming and it's important to discuss what people think is going on. Far form pointless.

You were mistaken.
Residents putting Picks and putting their own words was *the entire* spirit of Picks. People had places in their picks as a vote of worth. There would have been people putting Picks for friends places, or simply using Picks to talk more about themselves. That what Profiles are for

Then LL made Picks a ranking factor in the new All Seach.
Enter the search-gamers! The spirit of Picks flew out the door.

That lack of spirit kills us all.
Thanks, gamers.

The system is "life". I get positions by all sorts of different mechanisms, including shining up my CV, though knowing what I am doing helps. On the other hand, I need that to eat.

"Boastful" is something that you have made up; I would not dream to ask why.

I think you are sarcastically thanking the wrong people. As you said, "LL made Picks a ranking factor" so I would blame them over the gamers. Just another example of thier poor management of an already shambolic search system. I dont think you can blame residents for using the tools at their disposal to achieve the highest possible ranking (within the TOS).

You really are a one (as we say in the UK)

Wrong. I was never concerned about ARs. I've been ARed for the bots many times - all to no avail. The system allowed me to increase the number of bots I used while (note this bit, Sling - I said it before) - while ensuring that there are plenty of avatar spaces for people to arrive in the sim. Do you see the difference between your lies and the facts?


<sigh> Sling. Read my words. LL cannot change the GSA algorithms. They can't touch it. Alright? Do you know what an algorithm is?

Sling is way beyond redemption as far as mental ability is concerned but for anyone else who might be interested...

Apart from the ability to change the odd slider or switch, such as making it rank on content only or not, the only ways that LL can do the sort of thing they are talking about are by external means. They cannot touch the internal. An example of external means is traffic. They created 12 html pages that contained lists of the top traffic places. The top 100 are listed on page 1. The top 200 (including the top 100) are listed on page 2. The top 300, on page 3 - and so on. The items in the list are all links to the parcels' pages. So the top 100 places get 12 links to their parcels' pages, because they are on all 12 pages. Parcel from 101 to 200 get 11 links because they are 11 of the pages but not on the first page. And so on.

That's the sort of thing that LL has to do to accomodate such things as traffic, and provide it with some sort of merit boost. They can't change the algorithms. And any traffic scrubbing, etc. will be done externally. They cannot do anything internally.

As I said, Gaming is gaming. Whether or not you reap financial social or personal rewards from that gaming you are still using the rules, policies and procedures of a system against itself for purposes outside what these rules were intended for.

If you are not doing this then you are not gaming. If you are doing this then you are gaming the "system" and are a hypocrite for deeming this post as pointless.

No offence intended.

The link text is important because it is attributed to the page that the link points to, and it is weighted heavily for that page. Yes, changing the text in their Picks is throwing away your, presumably, keyword rich link text. A count of links may be helpful but not as helpful as good link text.

i am so confused.

eh?

The way I see it, Linden Lab has put me in the position where if I use Picks in the spirit of them (encouraging dancers to put in their own descriptions like I want), I lose ranking in Search.

That is, my business is punished in the Search for being honest.

This is the problem with Search. Of course people would rather game it, because it punishes the honest.

The fact that someone else games the Search engine with Picks doesn't change the fact that every time someone puts down their own description in their Pick of my parcel, it hurts my search ranking. That is not the fault of any resident.

But what is worse to me is not that it works one way or another (as a mere "vote", or with weight to the description). It's the fact that I, trying to be honest, can't find out that information. Only the people who devote their time to gaming the system figure it out.

Linden Lab sets up the system that punishes the honest and rewards gamers. It's maddening to me.

Where do you draw the line between gaming and marketing? False keywords I see as gaming, optimising your parcel for search I see as a marketing technique.

<sigh> Phil. Read my words.
<sigh> Phil. Read LL's words.

GSA is not the only game in town.
GSA is a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It's also the wrong kind of sledgehammer.
Nothing is set in concrete.

Your problem illustrates the point that the GSA is not an appropriate system for Search in SL.
A system that uses residents Picks should simply use the existence of the Pick as a 'vote' in exactly the way that you intuitively thought about it. It would make perfect sense.
The thing about the text of the Pick being of any relevance to ranking is just pure nonsens parachuted into SL along with the GSA system.

The way that the GSA uses Picks as IBLs is not appropriate. In any case, using Picks at all became inappropriate once systematic gaming of Picks began.

The obvious solution for LL is to get rid of the GSA.

Ah. So your theory is that they will stop using the GSA, is it? LMAO!!!! Stop squirming, Sling. It's so unbecoming.

This coming from the guy who finished developing a traffic-bot optimisation system just as LL banned traffic-botting ....
Got your finger well on the pulse there Phil.

I don't know everything about the GSA (Google Search Engine?) But I can agree with you that they should scrap what system they are using and try something different. Their system is the problem.

Will they ever? I don't know. Is there a better alternative? I don't know that either. But the problem comes from the search system itself.

Aaw Stop squirming, for goodness sakes. It looks silly.

I do admit to expecting a decision about bots to be at least a couple of months away, but I did know it was coming, and I enjoyed creating the system anyway. You would have loved seeing in operation. I was a beautiful thing to behold

The GSA is the Google Search Appliance - an off-the-shelf search engine for small systems (by comparison with web search engines). Using it for SL really is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Oh, I see. Charming. The Bot War is over....so now you're going to go down the list of marketing tools and make a judgment on those.....

Pick away at the Pick Tool. Most of the people who placed my store in picks did so as a nice gesture. Mostly good friends. And some dedicated shoppers who simply want to do something kind. Tarnish that.

Next on the list. Group membership. So now it will be an unfair advantage for store owners to work their ass off to build up their store groups and keep them happy by providing good service and special deals. Totally wrong now.

Next. Effective labeling of product. Make sure you all go back and label that Light Magenta Angora Long Sleeved Turtleneck Sweater with Hoodie....as simply a Sweater. Much more acceptable and much easier for your customer to find now.

Next. Don't you dare spend more than me on those Classified Ads. That is not fair!

Next. You have too many parcels! Don't you dare have more than one parcel so you can take advantage by using more than one set of keywords. Not Fair!

Next. You have too many items in your store! That is not fair! There is no way my 200 items can compete with your 2000. By you having 2000...you are allowed to use another 1800 keywords than I can use. There should be a product limit!

Keep going.

I suppose that because I'm better looking than Phil and Marcel....that's an unfair advantage too. Outlaw THAT.

We need SL Socialism to keep everyone equal.

'sweater'? that sounds revolting!