Picks Camping

How does this work?

I've added two places to my picks and have gone back to click the sign 24 hours later as was stated only to be told that the owner has specified that you must wait 1 more day in order to be paid for this pick.
And what IS picks camping? How does it work? So you add them to your picks and someone looks at your picks and tps to the place you've added....ok...How can they call it camping if the person who's pick you've added never pays you for adding it? One of these pics in question I've gone back daily over the course of a week to click the sign and never received a payout for adding it. I deleted that dirty lying bastard.

Now, I'm fully capable of buying lindens..however, this is not how I intend to make my way in SL, I just came across this and wanted to see it work. So what's going on and why aren't these picks paying out?

Why you aren't being paid I haven't a clue, but what they're doing is using you to artificially inflate their ranking in the search engine. My advice is don't participate in these scams at all. Only add a place to your picks if it's actually one of your favorite places in SL. That's what picks are supposed to be for. They shouldn't be for sale.

But how do they artificially inflate their ranking in search? Does having their site listed in someone's picks affect the search? How so? Camping on a bench is one thing, there is a body on their premisis but how does picks get them ranked? Mostly that's what I don't understand. I absolutely don't want to participate in any type of scam. Paid or not.

A few places started in with picks bribes shortly before any details of the new search were announced, a fun way to spot moonlighting Lindens and their pals.

Picks create inbound links for that "place". The more people have it in their picks, the more inbound links they have. Those inbound links are used to weigh the relevancy of the place in the search results.

So, by paying people to have them in their picks, they are buying their way up in the search rankings.

Just another way to game the system.

The search engine considers every pick as an inbound link. The more inbound links a parcel has the higher it ranks.

edit: Kathy beat me to it

It's a forced and somewhat flawed analogy, but look at adding a pick as casting a vote for a certain parcel. The more picks, the more "votes", the higher it ranks.

You can read the search sticky for a more in-depth explanation of how the new search works .

Ahhh! So in effect it would almost seem that they are paying more to advertise via picks bribary than had they advertised in the natural way through the classifieds. That being if in fact these people actually paid people for adding them to picks. In my two experiences, it's definately a scam cause neither of them paid.
Thanks for the clarification.

I use Picks at our mall and adopted it when they changed the search engine. Frankly, I don't view it as a 'scam' as I put the L$7,000/week that I would have paid into a now ineffective classified into Picks.
Does it raise traffic?..No, as people are only there for less than 1 minute.
Does it raise our search ranking?...Yes
I fail to see the 'moral' difference between paying L$7,000/week on picks or L$45,000/week on a classified (other than the obvious).
The reason why it does not always pay-out is that there is a daily limit set by the owner, in our case this is L$1,000/day. The answer is to IM the owner and ask him if he would re-set it for you so as it re-starts it's 'countdown'.

It's no different than using traffic bots which makes it a scam in my book. They aren't honest picks where someone came, saw, and liked what you had enough to name you as one of their ten favorite places. It's just gaming the system and buying influence that you didn't honestly earn.

Hopefully the Traffic Reform coming down the pike will end this new traffic cheat along with the old ones. I say if you enhance your ranking with bots, camping or picks gaming - you should be removed completely from the traffic metric altogether. No rewards for cheaters.

I think no matter what LL comes up with, someone will figure out how to game it in a couple of days.

So your argument is, playing by the rules is too expensive, and cheating is so much easier, so you'll just cheat.

Well, I suppose that's ALWAYS been true - the cheating being easier part.

I can't speak for anyone else, but when I do a search, I look through the whole list. And the way I choose which places I visit, is determined by my opinion of their parcel/shop descriptions, not how "high" up the list they are.

I visit businesses whose descriptions are straight-talk about what they are and what they sell. I do not visit businesses with no description, or incoherent descriptions, or descriptions that are nothing but long lists of keywords.

One would assume the more friends who link your business the more of appearance of popularity you have in google search engine but I don't know if it would help necessarily in classified search.
It seems bit like someone is doing scam to game the system still to me.

I tried to find picks of camping but there were not any.

I hope you will settle for this wonderful shot of the traffic bots instead.

I tried to find picks of camping but there were not any.

I hope you will settle for this wonderful shot of the traffic bots instead.







Concerning WOW. I just did google search on WOW bots and WOW scams. Looks to me like they have lots of problems with both.

Think anyone would notice right away if you went there and just started orbiting bots? I bet you could get through llike two-thirds of them and leave before their owner noticed anything.

Good thing about bots.. they don't know how to AR.

....must...behave...........must....not.....give..........in................

LOL I threatened that already and Phil banned me.

So I went to another bot farm way up in the sky and the owner caught me and banned me.

Then I found another bot farm in the sky but there was nothing to sit on inside of the box so I couldn't get in...

One day....I will keel me some bots! It is something I must experience....

The only good thing about pick camping is the zombies don't have to be online and hence lagging us to buggery.

When they unveiled the new search and people figured out the usefulness of picks, many people, even on these forums, were exchanging picks, sure they weren't charging each other, but it was you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

I'm not surprised that business owners will pay for someone to carry their picks, it's advertising. How effective it is, is open to debate but I don't see it as a scam at all, unless they're not paying the person who agrees to sell their picks space.

It's all very well saying "That's not what picks are supposed to be for", but as their importance on relevancy has changed, so has their use.

Yep, they've become the vote boxes of old. You vote for me, I'll vote for you. Hey, let's have a rating party. Etc etc ad nauseum. There's a reason vote boxes and ratings were scrapped but LL seems bound a determined not to learn from history.

Well now I do have a question for all of you

As a starting business (which I still am) I have to compete with established businesses, who might or might not run botfarms, picks systems, just name it. So how should I start?

Well I used all the tips I could find, including parcel description, items set to show up in search, and yes I do use picks. And I have a system that pays people who have my name in Search. Works better then the 1250 linden classified I ran for a few weeks too, and I rather make some residents happy then put my lindens in some classified. Especially when it works for me.

So now some of you are telling me I am doing wrong. Because Picks are important in Search, I use that to get higher in Search. Tell me where that is wrong? Do I use valuable resources? No, but people should only use picks for places they really like.

Well I have news for you. Take a look at picks on the average person. Most are not Picks of places they really like, but of loved ones they have in their second life. How wrong is that? As those spaces seem to be reserved for places we really like?
Can I have a Pick of my own store? I do like it, but isnt that some sort of classified?

You get the point, I guess. Linden Labs comes up with a search system, and I use that system to optimize my results. To those of you who find that cheating, well probably you will not buy at my place. But at least you can find it. If I just create stuff and do nothing, no one will ever find me, so you would not have purchased anything anyway. You would not have known I existed But what I really do not get, why paying for picks is cheating....

Personally I would like to see locations listed in search totally randomly. Get rid of all rankings. Even the playing field. Better yet its impossible to game.

Will this happen...nope. Too many peoplei nvolved in traffic reform will skew thing in favor of thier particular business model.

One thing is for certain it will be interesting to watch how this all plays out.