Linden Lab bans extortionate “ad farms”
By Eric Reuters
SECOND LIFE, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Linden Lab has banned “ad farms,” the small plots of land with gaudy advertisements that are designed to extort neighboring landowners.
“Whilst advertising in itself is okay, where it crosses the line into harassing behavior or visual spam, where the intent is purely to compel another resident to pay an unreasonable price to restore their view - then this will be covered under Harassment in our Community Standards,” Jack Linden wrote in a blog post.
“It will obviously be difficult for us to define exactly where example A is an abuse issue as compared to example B where it is not,” he added. “‘Ad Farm’ will apply specifically to advertising or content that is intended solely to drive an unreasonable price for the parcel it is on, usually by spoiling the view of others.”
Early reaction from Second Life residents was largely positive, but concerns over what will be considered an “ad farm” linger. “It’s imperfect, but it’s a start,” said Taran Rampersad, who writes about Second Life under the avatar name Nobody Fugazi. “Linden Lab taking this step indicates a willingness to deal with the harder questions to come.”
Jeff Strohman, a Second Life land trader known in-world as Stetson Rail, was so exasperated by ad farmers he said he considered a lawsuit, but opted not to take action due to the costs of suing an avatar physically located in another country. He estimated ad farms lower the value of adjacent land by 20 percent.
Beyond the economic damage ad farms cause, there’s also the aesthetic one, Strohman said. “They only hurt Second Life and make it look like a damn junkyard,” he said.
(Image courtesy of Carl Metropolitan)
This is the best news I ever heard! I have spent 10’s of thousands of Lindens trying to clear the land of the garbage of the same spinning advertisements from people who’s middle name is greed.
Hooray for the Lindens
Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:02am PSTLet’s not celebrate here until they do more here. There’s still no maximum price withing reasonable ranges being set for a 16sq m parcel is there?
Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:02pm PSTLuficrem,
There’s no such thing. The market determines pricing. To set an artificial cap would be a mistake.
I think Linden Lab is taking a reasonable first step here. If it continues to be a problem there are technical solutions, not economic ones.
The ability to mute parcels is one, another is having a minimum parcel size that is allowed to be set for sale for any price (other than free).
Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:02pm PSTUnfortunately, this policy is too vague and broad, and they are using it against non ad farms also.
Basicly, anything with high price + content falls under it, especially if it’s a smaller parcel.
For my personal grief, i run an advertising network called Mainostaulu Network (MAI @ ANCAPEX), and even after our very clear policy of placing, density and pricing they decided we are ad farmers, even tho we have the nicest billboards available in Second Life, continuing contributions to Arbor Project and continuing efforts to protect land from ad farming.
Certain realtors leave odd small cuts, intentionally or due to not finding a way to cut it nicely, which are subject to get ad farmed very soon, or under priced roadside parcels. We bought them out systematically in order to prevent ad farming.
None of the good will we have done meant nothing for Linden Lab, even after making an press release about our network and how it does not fall into Ad Farming policy.
You can read this press release at: http://ancapex.net/home/story/MAI/264
That being said, i initially welcomed this greatly, saying “Finally!”, as ad farms has been huge problem for myself as well due to many reasons. I’m glad to see that this means true ad farmers will be gone, but this policy is also applied upon me, and on my case it does way more harm than good for the whole community.
It’s sad to see this is being overtly applied and there is no clear guideline what is ad farming and what is not, and in the end, this might not stop what it was made to stop: The ugly farms of spinning cubes of “want to be advertising”, or other floating and/or ugly advertising methods.
Sat Feb 16, 2008 11:02pm PSTThis is good news. The ad farms are ugly and they really do detract from land values. Plus, their purpose is to extort unreasonable land prices in order to eliminate them.
The problem is that farms are not solely the problem. Even one sign, inappropriately placed, can reduce one’s view and land value.
This is probably one reason why many prefer to reside on private islands rather than mainland.
Bravo LL.
gh
Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:02am PSTThis doesn’t actually achieve what general populace thought of in the long run.
Because it’s not ban against making the eyesores etc. it’s actually a ban on high land prices.
The problem being with this is that serious advertisers might also want to give option for people to buy out the parcels for various LEGIT reasons (Neighbours and Advertisers), unfortunately, Linden Lab arbitrarily decides what is an agreeable price, without any kind of guideline.
Furthermore, this also affects any larger parcel sale with high price and any content, of Linden Lab truly applies it in the broadest possible meaning. So, in practice this is a ban on high parcel prices, infringing on individual’s property rights. The future shall reveal what the end effect is.
However, it is rather clear that even most of the ad farmers who had some advertising revenue will initially attempt to run without selling the parcels, and some people will keep cutting and put very high prices in this might not achieve the good community effect in short order.
Personally, i decided to sell of all the walkways on mainland we had ad sponsored for 10-30% and remainder of upkeep funds came from advertising parcel sales. They aren’t anymore feasible because most of the funding vanished. All our smaller parcels are profitable and feasible, and will continue running, so the minority who thought Mainostaulu is about ad farming didn’t get their desired end result.
Unfortunately, that all also means we have to stop donations to neighbours & Arbor Project
My wish is that Linden Lab, Inc. would have handled this better, and with better communication and time frame, the current format of the policy might cause community damage.
Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:02pm PSTThis new “law” is so obviously the type of thing that will be applied to the wrong people by hatchet-job over-zealous “monitors.”
For example the guy named Tyrian here in the comments.
And then is LL really going to listen when an ACCUSED advertiser tries to defend himself?
Is there any due process? A hearing? Fact-finding? An investigation? No. Just some ham-handed “monitor” roving the land looking for whom he may strike down next.
This may be just the beginning of new SL “laws” that give monitors sweeping powers to be judge, jury, and executioner.
Mon Feb 18, 2008 6:02am PSTThis new “law” is so obviously the type of thing that will be applied to the wrong people by hatchet-job over-zealous “monitors.”
For example the guy named Tyrian Camilo here in the comments.
And then is LL really going to listen when an ACCUSED advertiser tries to defend himself?
Is there any due process? A hearing? Fact-finding? An investigation? No. Just some ham-handed “monitor” roving the land looking for whom he may strike down next.
This may be just the beginning of new SL “laws” that give monitors sweeping powers to be judge, jury, and executioner.
Mon Feb 18, 2008 6:02am PSTAnother one of those “fraud / scam” items linden is slowly but surely getting around to. For the last year, I’ve not even went to the mainland areas. At least not on purpose. Most of it looks like a trash factory.
I’m not sure how far this will go to clean up the mess on the mainland, but I’m quite sure it won’t happen over night unless they wipe it all and start over implementing building codes. Such an eye sore.
Now to remove the highly gamed and conned traffic stats (bot magnets).
Linden is on a role. Good to see.
Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:02pm PST–rjs
Say what you like, I have already seen major changes. I have land everywhere, I am land addict and I have been able to take down quite a few shades of that ugly advertising/extortion nonsense. Fair market? 9000L for 16m? 51000 f0r 512M while other 512 attached are selling for 8000?
Sure, schemes, tricks and greed. They never work. Fun Always Works
Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:02am PSTThis is a ban on extortion.
No one really looks at billboard ads. Tyrian and others can talk all the want about being treated unfairly, but the point is this: if you’re actually making money off that plot through advertising and it’s not about extortion, then the land shouldn’t be for sale at some exorbitant price, if at all. If you want to sell your land for exorbitant prices, you can - but you can’t put objects on it that are designed to harass the neighbors into getting rid of it.
Exorbitant prices tell rational people that the land isn’t really for sale. Couple that with an offensive build, and extortion is a fair conclusion to draw, and that is the no-no.
Tue Feb 19, 2008 8:02pm PSTI am a private mainland small-parcel landowner who tries to provide an inexpensive but nice place for residents to live in SL. My five unfurnished rentals in Beatrice offer one of if not THE best bang-for-your-L$ living space deals in all of SL. But my tenants’ view and my own nearby home’s view is spoiled by gaudy, unnecessary ads placed on adjacent properties. These ads HAVE improved considerably since this new view of advertizing displays has cropped up, and I applaud Linden Labs for at least making an effort to do away with ugly ad farms and intrusive, view-cluttering advertizing that spoils the environment for everyone. There is no reason why TASTEFUL advertizing and freedom of speech have to be incompatible in SL. If the majority of a random sampling of, say, 100 residents would vote/agree that a given ad display is ugly, garish, rude, intrusive, or otherwise devaluating or objectionable to neighboring landowners, then the advertizer should be forced to pay a stiff additional fee for the continued privilege of being allowed to inflict such advertizing on the hapless public. Perhaps then the value of such advertizing would lose some of its luster for the perpetrator. The fee could be made proportional to the size of the display, say, so many L$ per square meter of surface area needed to draw an enclosing perimeter around all the signs placed on a given parcel. In a truly free marketplace, there should be no restrictions on asking prices for land. Let the marketplace sort out what the market will bear as far as that goes. But SL residents who own holdings in non-commercial areas within sight of what THEY deem as garish or otherwise overly intrusive ad displays should have a voice to eliminate such neighbor-inflicted abuse.
Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:02pm PSTPersonally, I’d like a script like the invisi-prim script you can get for attachments that would allow you not to see anything but the terrain when looking through a prim containing it - now that would make this whole issue of saving your view obsolete and give those of us whose tastes in architecture differ from our neighbours a bit of relief too!
Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:02am PSTMany many people have been forced to live in sky boxes or in my case, moved my prefab store up into the air, to avoid ad farms on the ground. No one lives on the ground anymore because of them. They have destroyed community and look hideous in the process.
I’m very happy they’re now taking steps to fix this problem, but it’s going to take a long long time for them to start ironing out what exactly is an ad farm and what isn’t. It’s a start and we can all start slowly moving back down to the ground again.
Tue Feb 26, 2008 5:02pm PSTI am always shocked at how people develop was to attack each other in any platform they are given. But still I agree that Linden labs has a tendency to be a bit overreaching in the scope of their power. I guess the next question (one that seems a constant in this kind of enviorment) is how much of a challenge we as Second Life citizens can pose to them–the game creators.
All the same I am happy they are fixing this issue.
Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:02am PSTThis is a real good measure Linden is taking to ban this unaestetic problem on mainland. Already long time ago I sold my land to move to anestate island, so bothering it was to be surrounded by junk advertising around my nice house. for sure this was also profitable to the estate owner.
Thu Mar 6, 2008 6:03am PSTso, if I make a truly extraordinarly beautiful build on a parcel and have an insanely high price on the parcel, even if only to represent what I feel is its insurable value in work, expense etc. then if I have ONE sign on it that says “provided by BNT Holdings”, that then becomes an adfarm.
Fri Mar 7, 2008 1:03am PSTno intLibber, I don’t believe that is what is being said nor the intention. When I first moved to Hazeldean, there were about 100 spinning giant advertisements of the same service all over the land.
Now if you built your extraordinarly beautiful build and I moved next door to you with all these scripts and ugly view, you would probably feel I was infringing upon your rights, particulary if I was doing this for just the purpose of getting you to buy my land at extreme prices that don’t meet market value by say 500%.
It’s a rip off that has cost me thousands and thousands of lindens.
Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:03am PDTThis might actually get me to buy land again. One of my major pet peeves was that I’d buy a plot, build something cool and then a giant ad farm would show up. Sure, I could try buying all the land around them and blocking them in, but that creates a different kind of eyesore.
Thanks LL!
Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:03pm PDT