XStreet and Societal Beneficial freebies

In the other topic you already can read that XStreet is going to charge for listings, and freebies will cost 99 linden per month.

This topic is NOT about discussing the good and bad about this decision, but something different:

Some of the freebies are actual goodies for the benefit of SL as a whole. Think for example the MLP menu, sit helpers, megaprim packs, the SALT hud. About those I asked Colossus, and got the following response (permission to quite)

Colossus Linden: Marcel, if there are some items which are truly considered "Societal Benefits" which are not being produced and sold by merchants, then I'd be happy to try to find a way to still make those items available.

Please help providing a list with items that fall in this category. Let's try to keep these items really free. To clarify: NOT the freebies that are meant to get people interested in the main products, but actual open source goodies.

Is there a reason why they need to be on XStreet? Good freebies like that are usually found by word of mouth.

Which is not to say that I object to the idea, just that I don't consider it a priority.

I am distributing about 5-10 copies per day of my megaprim pack for free on SLX without any promotional or commercial interest.

Of course, this will be pulled as soon as this starts to cost me any money. It's the newbies who will suffer in that case.

SLX Link: https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=291482

Just makes it easier as first you have to use "inworld" search then you have to go to another region, wait for it to load which could take "n" minutes and then try to find the thing. If it's not obvious could take another "n" minutes. As opposed to:

Click send to avatar.

And anyway, I assume free will just become "dollarbie" as people will quickly become accustomed to paying $L1.

Maintain a list of places where these items can be found in world.

Now people have one less reason to use XStreet.

I only had a couple things there. One was a demo object to show a JIRA bug, one was this script in a prim, that I wrote so people could sorta see what kinda traffic they would lose when LL improved things with their adult content plan.

You are, of course, free to spend your time on what you want but if LL was interested in exceptions to their rule, they could have just asked us. They're really not interested in reasons why charging money to list freebies might be a retarded idea. It's just not in the business plan.

It can't be that hard to replicate the delivery part of the magic box script well enough to make for a freebie delivery system, and set up a "Free Exchange SL" site for people to advertise pro-bono freebies.

Too late, as far as my free pack of 300+ megaprims goes. I've already pulled them from LL's greedy clutches, and they will NOT be allowed back there again. If people want the Ceera Murakami Megaprims, they are on the Slapt merchant site or available from me directly.

I think my next LSL programming project will be an improved, inworld vending system for freebies and low-cost items.

It would be interesting if another listing class were possible: Societal Benefit.

Creators could put such an item in the queue to be reviewed by a Linden who would then decide if such an item were a societal benefit. These items would then be free and not incur charges to the creator.

Unfortunately, this would require work on behalf of LL, so it likely will not pass.

As much as I disagree with the handling of this entire situation, I'll pay for at least one of my freebies (https://uncensored.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=739762) as I do feel it is a benefit. This "Acquiring Gentleman's Victorian & Inspired Attire" list is bought on XStreet far more times per day than I imagined.

Time will tell, as always.

Um, to get back to the OP for a second, what about books? Does anyone know if any of Caledon Library's freebie books are on XStreet? I don't think they are. Are books a "societal benefit"? (In SL, I mean . . .)

Personally, I think every noob should start by acquiring a decent library . . .

Just last night in group chat, someone asked where they could get one of the Salt HUDs. Rather than that person having to stop whatever they were doing and go to some store and then find the item, someone immediately dropped in the link to the Xstreet listing and the person bought it for L$0 and had it within a couple of minutes.

That is far faster and much more of a community service that having to do it the other way. Not to mention that sending her to a store to get the item would have actually been promoting said store.

I think an inworld, free, virally-distributed (meaning that wearing the device would allow distribution on-demand of the same device) HUD that allowed you to browse through freebies would be a great thing. Something user-generated, developed, and distributed...like all great ideas in SL.

Think of this:

Newbie McNewbie "Where do I find free stuff"
Olbie VonOlbie "Here, wear the Freebie HUB. It's got a great selection of free stuff"


All from a prim that works exclusively inworld, allows people to give away their free stuff, easy to use, and free.

I like it.

I can see some potential drawbacks (who decides what goes in, and if it's open, how do you keep malicious items out) but I think especially if you can find a group to work with (I'm thinking of the NCI freebie nodes now) you've got a great idea.

Or

Someone could start a freebies only website.

Or

Someone could uh donate land for an in world repository. Someone with a half sim that is now just sitting there empty.

*cough*

Marcel come hear me rant some more- u know where to find me at this hour.

If it's building or scripting related, the Builders Resource Network -- http://world.secondlife.com/group/64faed4d-fd09-7584-0332-88ad2ae5c588 -- already has a network of in-world repositories. LilMatty Althouse is always interested in receiving offers of suitable items and, if you have any spare land, considerably smaller plots than half a sim.

What would you call a suitable item?

So you want small plots, then? I'm not sure I understood that last part.

It might also be a good idea to make use of the freebie places that already exist in-world. Sarah Nerd's Freebie Paradise is the one that comes to my mind almost immediately as having a wide range of content types and great organization.

There are also places like the Free Dove and the Gnubie Store, but I think they may be more restrictive - I've never tried to place freebies there. Yadni's Junkyard, Enkythings L$1 store, Freebie paradise, Freebie warehouse, Vienna Freebies...

I think most or all of the new resident portals offer free items to new members.

For building tools/HUDs and the like, there are also the in-world schools.

I like Sarah Nerd's a lot, but I frequently find it a bit overwhelming: there is sooooo much there, and the place is big and a bit complicated. I tend to prefer Gnubie because it's more manageable in size, and easier to navigate (mostly just up and down). I think I would probably send a noob there, rather than Sarah's, just for that reason.

This may not fit the criteria, but I provide this item for free on Xstreet only because rip off merchants try to sell this on for anything between L$5 to L$400 even when they have got it themselves for free. But in my opinion this is a social benefit freebie.

The Art Laxness Noob Pack, now with 5 individual poses and 7 changeable heads

This from the creator himself:

This is a collection of noobs to be distributed FREE to anyone who wants it, to use for any purpose. Only thing I ask is that if you use it, give me credit.

The original away noob was made as part of an art installation for Rezzable's Black Swan. Further noobs were made for the British Council in the teen grid and have recently moved to the main grid. Along the way some of my models were copybotted. It was always my intention to release them free to the grid but when my stuff got stolen I quit Second life for a while. Now I'm back!

Thanks to:
Bettina Tizzy - NPIRL
British Council
Chosen Few
Kim Anubis - The Magicians
Qarl
Rezzable
Robin Sojourner
Seifert Surface

Share and Enjoy!

Art Laxness

Most existing places like that only take freebies when they announce they are open to new freebies. Sarah did so in these forums not long ago, and her place seems pretty full now although I don't know.

Most freebie places will say they are not taking new things. Maybe new freebie places will pop up but doesn't tier cost more than ad listings?

What would be nice is a freebie distrubtion system through a vendor system. I certainly would be happy to place a vendor in my store for freebies, and I think many other merchants would be open to this.

Problem is, someone has to create the various scripts (and web pages if webbed base) and then someone has to manage it. I imagine managing such a system could turn into a nightmare fairly quickly.

Bracken

Do the organization through a website, like XSL. As I said on the first page:

This will be my solution for a while, I have two freebies L$0, and 48 other items which I will reduce to 10 listings, all my stuff under L$10 will go in 2 or 3 packages and I'll try selling the packages for L$15, if I don't get one sale in 6 weeks I'll take them down. In all my sale items, be it hypodermic needle, pray pose or whatever, I will provide free with the item the Art Laxness Noob Pack.