1. I obviously have strong enough feelings about this to have put up protest prims. It gets tiring. I'm tired of it. I don't think I'm alone in being tired of this sort of behavior - the initial one of slicing up perfectly good 512m plots to destroy other people's experience and extort higher land prices. Let's be serious- there are no serious marketing studies which would support this sort of advertising, since there are no real metrics.

There could be, if done properly, but if there were real metrics - they would be out by now.

16m plots get out of hand when advertising is used as a guise for extorting people to increase tier and buy more land such that the people who exhibit negative behaviour toward residents in this regard are rewarded. A newbie with an orbit gun is not as much of an annoyance as "Buy this plot or watch spinning signs that make noise" griefing.

I am not against advertising. However, if one is going to advertise one should do so effectively and not bring a negative feel to a situation.

In other scenarios, I have dealt with Alex Potato (http://www.knowprose.com/node/17474 ) who is still using LindenLab's name on a 16m plot to extort members of the community for - get this - 10,000 Linden. That shouldn't shock long time residents. The price. I've got several abuse reports in for ads that are infringing upon my property. One person I contacted about it said "P*ss off" and muted me. I filed the AR. I've filed ARs for weeks of spinning prims that extend beyond the owner's borders. Weeks.

And when I log into SecondLife, every time, I am reminded of how important the experience of the community is to these people who flex and even break the terms of service with impunity. I have been reasonable, buying out areas when prices were reasonable. But no more. No more. Too many.

It has to end.

As far as being a destroyer of sims, I'm betting a lawyer would like evidence of that to support such a claim. Me? I know what I'm doing, I know what my goal is here - it is quite finite - and I don't care too much what the opinion of a person is. I think anyone in SL will be hard pressed to find someone who will say, "No, I want a plot of land with spinning ads nearby!"

The kind of logic which supports that sort of advertising is faulty. It alienates. So if these folks are as intelligent as they would have us believe, what does that leave us with? Extortion? An inflated increase in land prices?

Ahh well. I'm not backing down, but I'm staying within the ToS. If I step out of the ToS, it will be a matter of interpretation - but I'm using what these people are allowed to get away with as a guideline. I'm operating in good faith.

And I don't have a problem with international law either. I'm somewhat familiar with this sort of stuff in an international sense.

Posted at 4:35AM on Mar 4th 2007 by Nobody Fugazi

2. Welcome to the suck that is mainland.

Give us SL Server, we can run our own and SL Grid can be like AOLZORZ.

This has been going on forever. As long as there is such a hands-off approach to zoning, it will continue. Forever.

Posted at 5:39AM on Mar 4th 2007 by Eric Rice

3. I applaud your stand, Nobody. It's time the front page pic on the SL web page was updated to show the reality of Mainland life -- it's not green open space, it's a zoning/building fuckup. Time to agitate the photoshop phucktards...

xx KK

Posted at 8:34AM on Mar 4th 2007 by kz

4. Depending who I am demonstrating Second Life to, I generally include a quick drop into a random First Land ghetto. Sometimes it's where our original plot was in Seopophang (moved out after two clubs made it impossible to get work done), maybe where our office was in Manduca (where there was a giant pot leaf in the background from day one). Or just a random sim that looks appropriate.

The mainland is a mess, and it's solely due to the lack of planning (zoning) by the powers that be. Does that mean I want to them to step in and start zoning ? No, but I would like to see the sort of tools to allow the community to enforce their own zoning ideals in the appropriate regions.

Posted at 11:05AM on Mar 4th 2007 by otakup0pe

5. I got an email that my AR was addressed. I logged in to find my messages capped. A Linden had returned my protest prims. Apparently, they had also returned the prims that made this story.

And in the interim, Alex Potato bought two plots and set them to sale for 9,995L.

The message I am getting here from LL is that (1) They didn't deem it worthy of comment, (2) They don't care too much about land extortion and *perhaps* support it. Maybe I'm wrong, but the actions, well - they have spoken louder than words.

Posted at 12:10PM on Mar 4th 2007 by Nobody Fugazi

6. I see the enforcement of planning and zoning as an ever increasing issue. Perhaps somethiing needs to be done by giving essentially region power in proportion to the people who own land, i.e, per 512sqm, u are able to do something..

I dont really see anyway to stop people dicing up the land into small ad-spin plots, but i agree its woeful. But if we are on the concept of bad land / harsh tactics

how about terraforming so as to make the land so damn ugly, or devalue adjacent plots by max/min elevation stealing, or bulding everything on solid 20m high cubes so that the hill slope is not preserved hence blocking any view behind, then setting the land for sale. Why do you think that's done?

I know that i have learnt some harsh lessons about trying to buy in areas where you can not have dominant control.

Z.C

Posted at 1:11PM on Mar 4th 2007 by Zal Chevalier

7. It seems to me, although I am not a land owner just a wandering bum due to crazy prices and my unwillingness to buy money that has no value, that it might be appropriate to engage other nearby land owners and form a group of people who are interested in the common good of the area, similar to real life.
For example, the issue of Wal-mart in certain communities has become a hotbed issue by which people with similar interests within a community get together and vote on what is or is not appropriate for that community. I know that San Diego (where I live) will not allow Wal-mart Supercenters in the city (and probably county although I can't say for certain) because they're annoying. They still allow the old fashioned Wal-mart.
It should be the same for SL; if there is a large community within a certain area (a township, for example, within a city, within a county, within a state) that does not support spinning advertisements or proposes to restrict said advertisements to what is determined to be appropriate by a regional mandate, then that should be the law. I don't see why Linden should have any say in such a manner. They do not own the land and are in it for the money involved. That's probably why they didn't care about your problem. They are basically the federal government, and have little concern over your issue because it could be considered a state, town, or county issue. That's what SL needs. Electable government to preside over defined counties/towns/whatever you want to call them. Why isn't there voting in SL? I mean, c'mon. There has to be SOME rules right? I would think Linden might support this movement because then they don't have to be the police over little arguments (or jerks randomly attacking me for simply flying around an area where they were arguing with someone else) and can focus on dealing with larger problems.
My two cents, sorry if it's not applicable due to some sort of imposed limit to SL, but hey, I've only been playing for 2 weeks.

Posted at 3:20PM on Mar 5th 2007 by Jungle Roar

8. Jungle Roar - your idea is a good one, and is one a few people have become interested in at a grid-wide level. And some things are happening to do things, yet the crux of the issue is that buying out these plots at up to $10K a pop rewards a community-perceived negative behavior. Would you give thousands of dollars to bank robbers? No.

But a blacklist on properties? Now that could be worthwhile. Avatar non grata. The script wars, it seems, are escalating.

Posted at 12:46PM on Mar 6th 2007 by Nobody Fugazi