SpiritSparrow Skydancer Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Deja Letov wrote: The ads are getting really stupid too. Today I logged in and at the top of my screen were 4 busty chicks, one apparently had no bra on and her top was wide open but the picture was conveniently cut off right above the **bleep**...with the message "We don't like Young Men! We want you!" So they are trying to say I'm old...and male? The chick with the giant basketballs on her chest was kinda hot I guess, if you're into girls. They could at least make an attempt to tailor them to a video game genre, or business, or let SL merchants advertise or something. but really...SL peddling smut and what I'm assuming is a adult porn website? Really SL? These ads seem to target your web browsing trends as well as location specifics... I never get the busty women : ( I get the mug shots and disney ads... cookies suck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpiritSparrow Skydancer Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Deja Letov wrote: Dartagan Shepherd wrote: I feel cheated, I got ads for Zwinky, a free hobbit game and California Psychics. Agree though, it needs to be work safe and not tacky, if that can be said of the kind of ads that they'd rather you just click on and not purchase anything. Well it got better today. Yesterday it was the chicks with giant boobs telling me they don't want young men they want me. Today....I sign in and got invited to a Roman orgy! man SL must think I am the biggest sex freak on the planet. just so you guys don't think I'm making this up lol LMAO on a whim, turn off adult and browse only non adult .. what kinda ads you get? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggy Paperdoll Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Bingo once again. Y'all just don't understand the ads are keyed off your personal browsing habits. You don't like sexy ads or get of out jail ads then browse better sites. If they don't bother you then what's the beef? Everyone is their own worse enemy on the Internet. I would think you would know that by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dartagan Shepherd Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Peggy Paperdoll wrote: Bingo once again. Y'all just don't understand the ads are keyed off your personal browsing habits. You don't like sexy ads or get of out jail ads then browse better sites. If they don't bother you then what's the beef? Everyone is their own worse enemy on the Internet. I would think you would know that by now. Yes and no. A few of these I get normally ... if you surf anything 3D you're likely to be pulling up those Full Sail University ads for instance. The rest of these tacky ones I get from no other sites that I visit, which is why some of them are particularly obnoxious or just plain amusing due to the hokey factor. Who knows what criteria they're setting, but it's looking like LL's own special blend. Bloody eggs and battery acid through a plastic tube, I have to thank Couldbe for that lasting vision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggy Paperdoll Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 You know I wondered for weeks why I got oil change coupons ads when I was visiting some sites (and even a few in my email..........I don't filter my email. I deal with it on a case by case basis). I never visited any auto repair site (nor did I search for one). I never visited any "how to" site about oil changing (I already know how to do that). But here I was getting all these pop-ups about oil change coupons.........where the heck were they coming from? I figured it out. I did search Auto Zone to get the price on full synthetic oil the last time I needed to change my oil for my car. That's all I did........I searched Auto Zone for oil. It doesn't take much to get on someone's list. You're browsing habits have everything to do with ads you see on the Internet (and in your email). It's a science that marketers are very good at. Browse sexy sites you get sexy ads.........it's that's simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coby Foden Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Peggy Paperdoll wrote: It's a science that marketers are very good at. Browse sexy sites you get sexy ads.........it's that's simple. Lately I have been studying human body structure and proportions. The best source for that naturally is where the nude photos are. So, I have been browsing tens and tens (even hundreds perhaps) of those 'sexy' sites to learn how the human body really looks like. So far I have received no sexy adds at all, just some other silly stuff (for what I have no interest at all). :smileyindifferent: The marketing science seems not to work on me. :smileysurprised: I must have been doing something totally wrong! :smileytongue: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deja Letov Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Tarina Sewell wrote: Deja Letov wrote: The ads are getting really stupid too. Today I logged in and at the top of my screen were 4 busty chicks, one apparently had no bra on and her top was wide open but the picture was conveniently cut off right above the **bleep**...with the message "We don't like Young Men! We want you!" So they are trying to say I'm old...and male? The chick with the giant basketballs on her chest was kinda hot I guess, if you're into girls. They could at least make an attempt to tailor them to a video game genre, or business, or let SL merchants advertise or something. but really...SL peddling smut and what I'm assuming is a adult porn website? Really SL? These ads seem to target your web browsing trends as well as location specifics... I never get the busty women : ( I get the mug shots and disney ads... cookies suck Are you saying I'm looking for busty chicks and roman orgy's? hahaha I am curious how they get my browsing trends. I clear my cache, cookies and internet history every night before I leave work (I have to with my job), I have nothing installed that would track that and I'm not signed into google...which I know can be famous for that. but really...I'm more interested in how they come up with those ads specifically for me. I don't ever go to sites like that. Although I wonder if it's a network thing and not a computer thing. maybe someone else here is surfing porn all day or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deja Letov Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Peggy Paperdoll wrote: Bingo once again. Y'all just don't understand the ads are keyed off your personal browsing habits. You don't like sexy ads or get of out jail ads then browse better sites. If they don't bother you then what's the beef? Everyone is their own worse enemy on the Internet. I would think you would know that by now. I don't know how true that is. I can tell you I only go to the SL website during the day when I'm at work. And it's the only website, aside from Facebook, that I even touch that's not related to my job. The rest would all be IT websites and our own education based website. Unless it's based on things I look at on SL. Sometimes when i search for a product, other results that are in no way related to what I'm looking for (and are often adult oriented) will pop up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valerie Inshan Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Gadget Portal wrote: At first I thought the ads were annoyingly placed but I could understand them. Now they're on the marketplace, too? What's next? In the viewers? Just saw this blog (sorry if it has been mentioned before): Advertising on Second Life Web Properties As you may have noticed, we recently added some banner ads to SecondLife.com. Today, we’ve also added them to the Marketplace, and we’ll soon expand the program to other Second Life web properties as well. The placement of these ads is designed to be unobtrusive, as we don’t want them to interfere with your Second Life experience on the web, and we’re taking care to keep the content appropriate. These ads are a great opportunity for advertisers to reach the large, global audience that visits the Second Life web properties every day, and we want to extend that opportunity to Second Life merchants as soon as we can. For Merchants, advertising on the Second Life web properties will be a new way to get their offerings in front of potential customers, while at the same time making the ads extremely relevant to every Second Life user who sees them. We have some work to do before we can make the ads purchasable by Second Life business owners, and it’s too soon to say precisely when we’ll be able to, but we wanted to let you all in on this plan early on. We’ll blog again when we have more info to share, so keep an eye on this space! http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/Advertising-on-Second-Life-Web-Properties/ba-p/1927315 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herkimer Highmist Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Peggy Paperdoll wrote: Bingo once again. Y'all just don't understand the ads are keyed off your personal browsing habits. You don't like sexy ads or get of out jail ads then browse better sites. If they don't bother you then what's the beef? Everyone is their own worse enemy on the Internet. I would think you would know that by now. Um no, the people who try to track me are my worst enemy, not myself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggy Paperdoll Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 You are dreaming. Yeah, you can limit who might track you or make it more difficult to be tracked but you cannot, without a doubt prevent being tracked. The best you can do is make sure what information about you is revealed is benign (no personal information). But your IP address that is assigned to your account by your ISP is public information. The IP is assigned to you by your ISP for a specific time frame if your IP address is dynamic (which most home accounts are). As long as that IP address leads to your ISP your ISP will direct the cookie to your computer......you can block it and/or delete it from your computer so that it is not stored (which means it will not report back to the site that placed it, but it's still has the address and your ISP will continue to route the cookie to you). Changing your IP address will prevent further "tracking"......until you visit that site again (then it starts all over again). You're just fooling yourself if you think you can browse the Internet and not be tracked. Stop lying to yourself and understand what is going on and you'll be so much safer than declaring "Um no, the people who try to track me are my worst enemy, not myself!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jer Straaf Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 First it was just a couple greeters per shift, now Linden Labs sending entire crews to greet customers in "my store." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evhalyn Serpente Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 I agree, these advertisements are pretty upsetting. They make our site (which we all DID love) look very cheap. This is our SecondLife- we've grown to know, love and appreciate it for what it is and most of us do not welcome change, especially something so low standard. I got the opportunity to host these same advertisements on my site- you are paid per click and rerouting others to these sites- needless to say I opted out. I want people on MY page, not redirecting them to previously mentioned physic, hotline websites and Virtual Orgy communities- so why does LL want us to click these places and leave? I have redirected myself a few times, as someone mentioned- working from the phone now with all of the advertisements is challenging and I have mis-clicked several times into no man's land. In regards to us merchants paying for advertisements, I don't see that being plausible as 90% of us SL merchants are not in the same financial standings as these websites apparently paying Google to run these advertisements. Also, many people have already installed the advertisement blockers or surely will (as no mother will want those crude pictures popping onto their screen with their families in the background) so why would I pay money for something that 50% of the community will not see anyhow? As previously mentioned, paying members should not have to endure the ads. Us freebie players? Sure, why not- if we don't like them we can pay for an advertisement free membership or a superb ad blocker- but come on? The people that pay you to provide them with an entertainment service should not have to endure this crap- *grr* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czari Zenovka Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 This is not a direct reply to you, Evhalyn, although I agree 100% with your post. This is an "in general" thought: What I find interesting about this whole ad issue is that, here on the Merchant Forum, most of us dislike these ads, don't want them on our MP stores and, in some cases, are blocking them. However, this same topic is ongoing on the General Forum and many of the people there think this is an excellent idea for more revenue for LL, are berating the people who don't like the ads to "get over it" or "don't open the website," - some are even intimating that by using an ad blocker we are somehow "cheating" or opening our PCs to more intrusive data mining. One difference I note is that the majority of people responding on the General thread are either not merchants or do not have MP stores so they are mainly referring to the ads on the SL website in general but I have to admit I am surprised at some of the heated exchanges over there in support of the ads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herkimer Highmist Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Peggy Paperdoll wrote: You are dreaming. Yeah, you can limit who might track you or make it more difficult to be tracked but you cannot, without a doubt prevent being tracked. The best you can do is make sure what information about you is revealed is benign (no personal information). But your IP address that is assigned to your account by your ISP is public information. The IP is assigned to you by your ISP for a specific time frame if your IP address is dynamic (which most home accounts are). As long as that IP address leads to your ISP your ISP will direct the cookie to your computer......you can block it and/or delete it from your computer so that it is not stored (which means it will not report back to the site that placed it, but it's still has the address and your ISP will continue to route the cookie to you). Changing your IP address will prevent further "tracking"......until you visit that site again (then it starts all over again). You're just fooling yourself if you think you can browse the Internet and not be tracked. Stop lying to yourself and understand what is going on and you'll be so much safer than declaring "Um no, the people who try to track me are my worst enemy, not myself!" So they have my IP. So what? I could tell you my IP, and all you could find is where the router assigning it'd DHCP lease is registered at (which is several miles from where I sit typing this). There are so many things you have wrong, but I am not prepared to give a class on privacy and network/data security today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herkimer Highmist Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Czari Zenovka wrote: What I find interesting about this whole ad issue is that, here on the Merchant Forum, most of us dislike these ads, don't want them on our MP stores and, in some cases, are blocking them. However, this same topic is ongoing on the General Forum and many of the people there think this is an excellent idea for more revenue for LL, are berating the people who don't like the ads to "get over it" or "don't open the website," - some are even intimating that by using an ad blocker we are somehow "cheating" or opening our PCs to more intrusive data mining. What a crock! First, it's cheating on LL's part to monetize content CREATED BY MERCHANTS. Second, the argument that about more intrusive data mining is an absolute lie. I'm sure the people saying that are ethically-challenged marketing pimps in RL who should wash their mouths out with soap before discussing (much less judging) anyone else "cheating". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perrie Juran Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 valerie Inshan wrote: Gadget Portal wrote: At first I thought the ads were annoyingly placed but I could understand them. Now they're on the marketplace, too? What's next? In the viewers? Just saw this blog (sorry if it has been mentioned before): Advertising on Second Life Web Properties As you may have noticed, we recently added some banner ads to SecondLife.com. Today, we’ve also added them to the Marketplace, and we’ll soon expand the program to other Second Life web properties as well. The placement of these ads is designed to be unobtrusive, as we don’t want them to interfere with your Second Life experience on the web, and we’re taking care to keep the content appropriate. These ads are a great opportunity for advertisers to reach the large, global audience that visits the Second Life web properties every day, and we want to extend that opportunity to Second Life merchants as soon as we can. For Merchants, advertising on the Second Life web properties will be a new way to get their offerings in front of potential customers, while at the same time making the ads extremely relevant to every Second Life user who sees them. We have some work to do before we can make the ads purchasable by Second Life business owners, and it’s too soon to say precisely when we’ll be able to, but we wanted to let you all in on this plan early on. We’ll blog again when we have more info to share, so keep an eye on this space! http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/Advertising-on-Second-Life-Web-Properties/ba-p/1927315 I can just see it now. Everytime we go to teleport insted of a black screen with a progress line, we'll be seeing ads for cornflakes or flesh lights according to our ratings settings. Of course the claim will be that it doesn't interfere with our experience once we get we're we are going. If we ever get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggy Paperdoll Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 In three posts you have implicated that you have some level of expertise in marketing, Internet security, privacy, and ethics. That might lead some to think of you as some "professional". Professionals do not make statements like "I'm sure the people saying that are ethically-challenged marketing pimps in RL who should wash their mouths out with soap before discussing (much less judging) anyone else "cheating"." People who don't see things the way you see them are ethnically challenged and marketing pimps? That's always a sign of someone who does not know what they are talking about (maybe they do but are out of legitimate arguments). Professionals don't act that way. Professionals present their arguments without resorting to name calling or degrading the people who are arguing a different point of view......you just lost your argument. I do think Czari is a little off base in her assessment of the people who don't see the ads as a problem (I'm one such person myself). I've never said (or implied) that use of ad or banner blocking software is cheating anyone. I don' think I even mentioned ad-blocking at all. Use the software if you want (I actually do use such software......but it's the Windows ad-blocking which is not very robust). The ads don't bother me and because of that the ads don't "cheapen" the sites who use such advertising..........it's a method for the owners of the sites to pay the bills without charging me to use the site (I actually would not opt to pay to visit any site that does not have a product that I feel worth paying for.........Marketplace is one such site that is simply not worth a single penny of my money to visit. There are very few sites I would even consider paying for....if it's not free to visit and browse then I don't want to be there. Ads keep things free........and I have no issue with any company using them because of that. I can "opt out" of the ads by using an ad-blocker.......as can anyone else That's not cheating and I never said it was (nor did I even think of the word "cheat" when the subject of ad blockers were mentioned). I've also never said (or implied) that if someone doesn't like it, get over it or don't visit the site........but I will admit that that thought has crossed my mind (it amazes me how people can complain about how much it hurts to pound their head against a brick wall, yet continue to pound their head against the brick wall). I can only speak for myself but since I have been participating in the "General Discussions" thread on this subject I just wanted to say I don't think Czari is quite right in her observations of what "proponents" of the ads have said...........I've seen very little support for the ads and what little "support" I have seen is much like my "support". I'm no lover of pop-up ads, targeted ads, or ads in general but I do see their purpose and, to a fairly large degree, their necessity.........I also don't like TV commercials but I'd much rather "suffer" through those idiotic advertisements than have to pay to watch "Dancing with the Stars". Small sacrifice in my mind. However I didn't even jump into this discussion about ads on Marketplace to voice my objections or support one way or the other. I jumped in because some people where all "up in arms" about the type of ads they were seeing. Somehow some were seeing "smut" and it was Linden Lab's fault because they were pushing porn to the users of Marketplace....."cheapening" the merchants products. If anyone has been on the Internet more than a few days they have a profile......Google and Facebook are the biggest profile producers on the Internet. They don't develop those profiles for the fun of it. The build those profiles to sell to advertisers.........to make money. The money they make is from advertisers letting the users have free access.......but the users get the ads (pop-ups, banners etc). The profile shows the users' web browsing habits which, in turn, shows the advertisers which user might be more interested in the product they want to sell......that's call targeted advertising. That profile is sold (without any personally identifiable information).........and the marketer presents and ad that will fit that profile. You browse gardening sites you get "Miracle Grow" ads. You browse new car sites you get "Ford F-150" ads. You browse adult sites you get smut. LL has nothing to do with the ads your see.......your web browsing habits have everything to do it. That's "data mining". There's nothing you can do to prevent it as long as the Internet is free.......you are being profiled and will continue to be profiled as long as you access the Internet. You will be targeted by advertisers because of that profile. Even with ad-blockers you will be profiled. You can delete cookies, you can block cookies......that will not prevent you from being profiled (it show it down but the public IP address is still being logged and a profile is being developed). There is nothing inherently sinister in "data mining" as long as not personal information is obtained. There is only one way to prevent being profiled (or "tracked").........get off the Internet (smart phones, tablets, computers, smart TV's, those fancy network security systems......stop any digital activity) And that is pretty much impossible. You're defense is being smart.........keep personal information encrypted and protect it with your life, think what you are doing, pay attention to the site you are on (if there in no "s" at the end of http then it's not encrypted and not secure). Common sense. And never, ever, think that you are "safe" because you know better.........you don't know better (no one knows better.......someone is always going to out smart you no matter how smart you think you are). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dartagan Shepherd Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Czari Zenovka wrote: This is not a direct reply to you, Evhalyn, although I agree 100% with your post. This is an "in general" thought: What I find interesting about this whole ad issue is that, here on the Merchant Forum, most of us dislike these ads, don't want them on our MP stores and, in some cases, are blocking them. However, this same topic is ongoing on the General Forum and many of the people there think this is an excellent idea for more revenue for LL, are berating the people who don't like the ads to "get over it" or "don't open the website," - some are even intimating that by using an ad blocker we are somehow "cheating" or opening our PCs to more intrusive data mining. One difference I note is that the majority of people responding on the General thread are either not merchants or do not have MP stores so they are mainly referring to the ads on the SL website in general but I have to admit I am surprised at some of the heated exchanges over there in support of the ads. Just caught up on some of those threads over there. Looks like a few are advocating them or advocating LL's "right" to use them. Personally I think it's obvious that LL "can" do it, although there are some discrepencies with the reasons: 1) LL needs the revenue. Cannot be proven. All statements by LL claim they were in profit and comfortable. Phil Rosedale saying in a recent article that "LL didn't fail --- it's still profitable". Regardless there are no statements by LL that they "need" the revenue. There are indicators that LL might be starting to feel the decline, such as privately offering universities a discount to come back, trimming down data centers, etc. If they do need the revenue they're not telling. Either way, it's doubtful that LL "needs" the ads for survival quite yet. 2) Ads keeps the marketplace free. False, LL can provide the marketplace for "free" (although the sink can cover operating costs) out of any other revenue stream including tier or L$ sales or premium accounts. There doesn't need to be a direct compensation for every "free" feature of SL. As far as them trying to convince people that don't like the ads by telling them it's just the internet as usual, that's not entirely true because there are many professional sites that won't "cheapen" the experience by 3rd party advertising. One of my sites is one of them and I know for a fact that my customers would consider ads "cheap" ... I talk to them. I also use sites that share the same opinion about advertisng. Some do, some don't. The sites that don't usually will give the "cheapen" reason as well as that it makes them look like they need the money, which is not the image they want to give. Also, if someone says "I don't like it.", then people who are fine with the ads need to live with that, the same as people who don't like them having to live with LL. "I don't like it." is pretty much something that can't be argued, it's subjective, it's honest ... deal with it. It's as valid as anyone elses opinion. However, it would be silly for LL to ignore. When too many people don't like something, they can lose more money in the long run. If they determine that it's worth the short term revenue boost and it's not adding to the list of peoples "don't like" experience in SL that will cause users to leave, so be it. I think merchants don't like it because they see it as competition for eyeballs. It's supposed to be merchant space for commerce. 3rd party ads that are hokey are that much more insulting to a merchant that makes a great effort to establish a trustworthy brand. Shoving arrest record lookups in their face isn't going to be a happy thought moment. Merchants ads are superior in general to some of these 3rd party ads. In that sense they destroy the look of the marketplace. They're badly done for the most part because of the quality of the advertisers and LL's poor implementation. Whether they stay or go, they need a great deal of tweaking to look like someone else besides LL slapped it together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dartagan Shepherd Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Not sure if you're getting the fact that what ads are shown, allowed and blocked and what types of ads display are under LL's control. Google delivers ads to me all over the internet, and these types of ads to this extent are not at all common for me. This has less to do with peoples browsing and internet habits and more to do with LL's implementation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czari Zenovka Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Peggy Paperdoll wrote: I do think Czari is a little off base in her assessment of the people who don't see the ads as a problem (I'm one such person myself). I've never said (or implied) that use of ad or banner blocking software is cheating anyone. I don' think I even mentioned ad-blocking at all. What I wrote in my post was: "However, this same topic is ongoing on the General Forum and many of the people there think this is an excellent idea for more revenue for LL..." I didn't say "all of the people." I'm sorry if you thought I was referring to you, Peggy. I was not at all. I was making an observation that more people on that thread are in favor of the ads overall than on this thread. I can "opt out" of the ads by using an ad-blocker.......as can anyone else That's not cheating and I never said it was (nor did I even think of the word "cheat" when the subject of ad blockers were mentioned). I've also never said (or implied) that if someone doesn't like it, get over it or don't visit the site........but I will admit that that thought has crossed my mind (it amazes me how people can complain about how much it hurts to pound their head against a brick wall, yet continue to pound their head against the brick wall). Again, I was not referring to you at all. The posters to whom I refer were the two most adamant that the ads are a good thing and my quotes were from them. I did not want to specify the posters, but to assure you I was not referring to you, here are some direct quotes and where they can be found (all bolding is mine): *Just a forewarning, adblock is against the ToS of many websites and it is just wrong. People who use adblock are essentially robbing their favorite websites of revenue which is needed to keep going. http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Adverts-now-on-marketplace-GRRR/td-p/1929245 *1. Nobody has to use any website if they don't like what's on it. If you dislike the ads so much, don't use the pages where they appear. There are alternatives for shopping. 5. To those who object to the ads, get over it. It's neither your business nor your concern. Nobody is making you use the site. *I hadn't even really noticed the ads that much as they really are not intrusive or annoying. Ads bring in revenue. Revenue can only benefit SL., which is a good thing. With so many companies across the world closing and the economy so bad in so many places, kudos to LL for coming up with a way to bring in money rather then ending basic accounts and forcing people to pay or get out, raising tier fees or membership fees, or increasing the amount they take from merchants for allowing them to use their site to sell their stuff. I really hope the ads work for them. For those who don't like it..shop in-world or stop shopping The above are from two different authors on this page: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Adverts-now-on-marketplace-GRRR/td-p/1929245/page/3 This was in response to someone who stated they had not seen the ads because they use Ad blocker. (The post, btw, was not smug, imo.) *Smug responses like this forget that AdBlock only works because you're willing to put your trust in [unknown] people to malform your received web content, and subjugate to others the power to decide what you shouldn't see. <snip> The purity of the stream starts at home; LL can do whatever they like to their revenue. AdBlock is a poor noob's solution. A second post by same person: LL decides for us how their own webpages should look. Continuing to provide traffic to pages that serve ads implies your consent to viewing ads, whether you see them or not. Asking for a pageload implies asking for them, and will result in waiting for them, your expectations notwithstanding. Your options (as always) remain in the binary present/not present. LL has for the longest time tried to prevent the creation of fractioned viewing perspectives between user accounts. Congruence is stressed within their operating procedures, as is internal server security. No-one can guess at their motives, but flying somewhat in the face of ten years of the Tao of Linden must be notable behaviour. The last paragraph had the person to whom she was responding concerned that by using an ad blocker that she/he was somehow interfering with others being able to see the ads. All of these posts are at: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Adverts-now-on-marketplace-GRRR/td-p/1929245/page/4 Another response to this person ended with: *So do as you please, but be aware of the men behind the curtain (especially if you're the one hiding enemies behind curtains in the first place). MOST importantly, try to learn as much as you can about how this business model operates. You should trust me and anyone else here to inform you on data security/inference tracking as much as you would trust them to hold your personal browsing habits (i.e., not at all). The vast majority of modern SL users are non-technical or non-current in their understanding, and basically everyone has a horse in this race. On this page, one of the previous-referenced posters adds some more comments: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Adverts-now-on-marketplace-GRRR/td-p/1929245/page/7 *You don't pay for LL services not to have advertisements; i.e. no ads is not part of the deal bectween you and LL. You simply pay for LL services. You do have an alternative if you are so much against seeing advertisements - stop using the places that show them. It's *entirely* your choice *I am very surprised how much some people dislike advertisements. I can't understand it. The only thing I can think of is that it is on principle because ads don't get in anyone's way, and the 'on principle' reason is not a valid reason at all. <snip> I suppose I'm writing this post to state that there is no valid reason whatsoever to object to the sort of ads being complained about in several threads here, and in VM threads concerning the TiVo. The idea that 'I just don't want to be advertised to', which I've seen written, doesn't hold even a drop of water as a valid reason. I'm not saying that people shouldn't have that attitude because it's entirely up to each individual. What I do say is that those people ought not to object to the sort of ads they object to. Even if there is no way to avoid them, they ought not to object because it's an extremely selfish attitude. But there is always the alternative of simply not using places where ads appear. ### A couple of these posters *did* say using Ad Block was a person's choice, but made it clear they did not agree with using one for the reasons noted above. Normally I would not go into this much detail to cross-reference threads, but when I read: I can only speak for myself but since I have been participating in the "General Discussions" thread on this subject I just wanted to say I don't think Czari is quite right in her observations of what "proponents" of the ads have said........... I am most certainly going to respond to that, I do agree that there are some other proponents who responded more similarly to your posts, but it does not negate that there were some very strong opinions on how positive the ads are. There were also some posters against the ads, many of which were then "refuted" by the "proponents." As was stated in the thread on General, we each have the freedom to see or not see these ads. My main point in my post originally was to say that I found it interesting how differently people responded on the same subject in two different forum areas. Again, I am sorry you thought the post was directed at you, but I don't know why you thought that as my initial quotes were nothing you said but were, in fact, quotes directly from others as seen above. Edited to get the links to work properly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Hancroft Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Linden Lab states that they will open up those banner ads to marketplace merchants at some point. If, at ANY time, ANY other merchants banner ad appears on MY store page, I am going to be one VERY pi$$ed off individual! We merchants can have our banner ads (I'll never ever spend money on one), but they should be relegated to ONLY the main marketplace page or search pages that have many different merchants products and NEVER appear on any one merchants store page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggy Paperdoll Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 I'm sure LL has some level of control.......that depends on how any contract is drawn up with whoever it is that is supplying the ad streams. Despite your contention that I may not know what I'm talking about I do understand how targeted ads are delivered.........and the ads seen on the Second Life sties are targeted ads. Though it's probable that Google is the one LL chose for the ads, that is not something you can say with certainty (Google, undoubtedly has the largest browsing profiles on the Internet so that assumption is a good one.....just not a perfect one). You mentioned in another post that there doesn't seem to be a "need" for revenue on LL's part......but you did qualify that with a "yet". It doesn't matter if LL "needs" revenue to survive..........they certainly do need revenue to progress. Any company who ignores revenue and does not strive for continued revenue streams (and, yes, that includes developing more revenue streams) is destined to cease to exist. Everyone thinks become the millions of dollars LL brings in with Second Life that they don't need more..........are energy costs going up or down in the United States? Are insurance costs going up or down in the United States? Are taxes going up or down in the United States? Your revenue stream remains flat then you are going out of business......very soon. Plus I would love for one of those economics experts that so often spout this junk about LL makes enough to give some overhead costs for an operation like SL.....how much per month for energy? Bandwidth? Hardware? Software? Rent or lease? Taxes (city, county, state, federal)? Manpower maintain the equipment? Payroll? Those costs are never mentioned..........partly because LL doesn't publish them but mostly because it's inconvenient to the argument. You simply don't know if LL "needs" the revenue or not.........and since you don't know you certainly cannot argue otherwise (even with qualifications). If a company has a cap on what it wants to earn then maybe a company can get to a point of not "needing" revenue. But, I don't think Linden Lab (or Linden Research) is such a company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czari Zenovka Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Oh I agree, Dart, that everyone is entitled to their opinion; I was just "thinking out loud" about how almost no one on this thread likes the ads while many people not only liked them on the General thread but had rather vehement comments such as blocking them being against TOS. My reply afterwards was to indicate to Peggy that (a) I was not referring to her posts and (b) that indeed there were posters who made the comments to which I alluded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggy Paperdoll Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Czari, I know you were not referring to me directly. But I still think you are a little off base in your assumptions about the reasons people might "support" the ads..........and I simply use my personal stance to demonstrate some of the reasons. I think you know by now that I almost never take anything personal on the forums (about the only time I do is when I'm called out personally). I just disagree with your statement in general. I can see now that you were mostly talking about the different general posting between the two sub-forums......I didn't pick on that before. If you will, I'll say why I think there's the difference. The posters on the Marketplace forum have a larger stake in the Marketplace site than us in the general population. Call it a "special interest" group. But a lot of what those merchants are saying is just not true. The ads they see on their pages are ads that are targeting them..........and their customers are seeing different ads. Who knows, the ads those customers are seeing might just enhance the experience and generate more sales for the merchant (not likely since most people don't like ads at all......good or bad ads..........but it's possible). Some of those merchants probably do feel that LL is providing unfair competition........but I would put that in the category of ignorance (a real life ad for JC Pennys is, in no way, competing with Suzi Avatar Clothing Apparal).. And then there's the ones who are screaming that LL should put the merchants ads up instead of the ABC Bail Bonds ads.........I bet LL would do exactly that if the merchant forked over the real dollars for the ads (and I wonder how many would pay for such advertising.........especially since a lot of those merchants pay LL nothing but the 5% commission for each sale). A lot of screaming from people who have only an emotional reaction.......no thought beyond that the don't like it (and the excuses why they don't like it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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