Do we really need these ads on the web site and login screen?

[Aryna Markova]

Come on....what is up with these advertisements? It makes the whole site look cheap and ugly. Is Linden Labs really hurting so badly they have to sell ad space on the web page and now the website login page?

[Teagan Tobias]

The American business model has nothing to do with making a living, its only intent is to make a killing. So yes the ads are necessary, very necessary.

[Lori Paramour]

Precisely correct.  The business of business is to make money, i.e.. Profits.  Otherwise, why would anyone invest in them? 

Only an idiot would invest or buy stock in a business if they didn't think there would be profits that wouldn't translate into 1) returns on that investment and 2) future growth and expansions of said business.   LL-SL is no different than any other business in that respect.

I see lots of complaints about customer service in these forums.   Do you think these people work because they love it?  Do you think they don't want better benefits and higher pay in the future.   Bonuses for doing a better job than their co-worker or for coming up with new, innovative ideas?

I doubt anyone went to work for LL-SL because they believed it to be some sort of worker's paradise.  If they did, I certainly wouldn't want them having access to my personal information.  They wouldn't be intelligent enough to be trusted with it..

 

 

[Staralien]

The ADs don't bother me. I understand completely why SL decided to have them...to make money. I would guess the majority of users have free basic accounts and what they make with other things, like fees doesn't make enough to keep them up and running, pay salaries, maintenance and acquisition of upgrades, etc. In any case, any successful business is always looking for opportunities to bring in revenue. I would rather see the ADs than to see SL shut down because they can't bring in enough revenue to make it worth staying open.

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

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Staralien wrote:

The ADs don't bother me. I understand completely why SL decided to have them...to make money. I would guess the majority of users have free basic accounts and what they make with other things, like fees doesn't make enough to keep them up and running, pay salaries, maintenance and acquisition of upgrades, etc. In any case, any successful business is always looking for opportunities to bring in revenue. I would rather see the ADs than to see SL shut down because they can't bring in enough revenue to make it worth staying open.

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 They do not bother me, until I saw it on my android phone.. then its like HUGE and you have to scroll and expand and.. augh.. not cool

[Brayla Ravenhurst]

They keep losing sims, so they have to make money somehow...

[Amethyst Jetaime]

If LL can make money other ways other than raising land prices, I'm all for it.  They are not a charity after all.  They need to make enough money to keep their stockholders and the board happy.

Personally I don't like them myself, but installing Adblocker got rid of them on my screen.

[Phil Deakins]

No you don't "really need these ads on the web site and login screen" and you don't really need pages that don't have the ads. The ads are nothing to do with what we need, and they are not our concern or business.

[Renate Kiranov]

Despite all the "blah blah it's only business" replies--yes, the ads cheapen SL, especially for anyone who might be thinking of joining who happens upon the log-in page. It no longer seems something special--and attractive. And in the past two days, the ads have gone over the top--Thai models and Ukrainian women looking for lonely hearts? And just today, ads for other virtual worlds? A golf game with 6 million members? And as I write this, I"m invited to "rebulid Middle-Earth by playing the Hobbit." That's rather like GM running ads for Ford. Is LL hoping to shut themselves down? I've been in SL for 6 years, and this is the first thing LL has done that truly leads me to think it's sinking fast.

[Phil Deakins]

I disagree with you about the ads cheapening the site, but whether it does or not is just personal opinion.

As for the ads you mentioned, LL can choose not to have the ads of specific sites on the pages, just as advertisers can choose that their ads are not displayed on specific sites. It's up to LL to deal with the problem of SL alternatives, or any other sites they think are not good, advertising here.

[Teagan Tobias]

I agree, I don't think I would go so far as to say the ads cheapen SL. After all, when someone is not afraid to advertise rivals on there site, they must feel pretty confident about there “game”. And a lot of the games advertised have a lot better graphics, and if your looking for action they have more of that too. And no, I have not used any of them, all I need to do is look over the shoulder of any other person in the house, its gamer city around here and I am the only one on SL. The other family members have SL accounts but think its lame and just shake their heads when I log on.

But after being on the receiving end of a griefer attack not long ago, I am looking at other places to play, and when I did see the ads I made note of several games that looked interesting. And no, I'm not leaving SL, just not on line as much. Knowing that LL does nothing about the griefers and I have no recourse about what happened has really taken the wind out of my sails.

[Mapprehension Octagon]

Dumping irrelevant garbage on your home page dilutes the brand. That’s inarguable. 

Linden Lab appears to believe the benefits outweigh the dilution, and that the money outweighs the classiness.

Mostly it feels like sad desperation and gross cynicism.

My first acquaintance with advertising on the Second Life home page was a shady “alert window” banner ad attempting to lure me into clicking the top right corner of the ad (which so cleverly imitated an ugly Windows close-window icon—on my Macintosh) in order to magically clean up my computer of the kind of garbage that clicking the ad would infest my computer with.

I understand a lot of people love being manipulated by advertising. Personally I’d rather pay directly for what I use rather than subsidize services with advertising. Everything is a lot cheaper that way. But I don’t even have the choice because so few people think the same way. Instead, so many gullible souls delude themselves into believing they’re getting something (an Internet service) for nothing (because it’s paid for by advertising). By that behavior we’re all exposing our lives to exploitation, malware, blackmail, and insecurity. AND, ironically, we’re paying more for everything in the end anyway because companies that advertise must charge higher prices for their goods to pay for the advertising—which we then allow ourselves to be manipulated by when we shop.

We are sheep. Baaaaaaa.

— Mapprehension Octagon