They're baaaaack! (extortionist adfarming landsplitters)

[Qie Niangao]

This gem is in Wildmutt, along Route 12.  Among its many retro attractions:

• Microparcels with ads!
• Microparcels for sale at L$150/sq.m. -- freshly landsplit since this January!
• Microparcels for sale with "sell pass" banlines -- for extra effect: right at the corner of a Linden road!
• Microparcel "terrorforming"!

and in case you're really nostalgic

• A casino ad!

This site came to my attention back in January when some of us Arbor Project members AR'd it.  I sent an IM to Blondin about it on January 31st, begging for some help, even though it's really not his responsibility.  Yesterday I AR'd it again for some adult content (which was removed overnight, thankfully), this being a General-rated region.  I again mentioned the "casino" and landsplitting thing in that AR, but nothing seems to have happened about that yet.

So a challenge to our intrepid explorers:  Who can top this as a candidate for the Destination Guide of Mainland attractions?

[Marianne McCann]

Wow - if it wasn't for the V2 style buy pass barricade, I'd swear that was from the heyday of ad farms.

[leliel Mirihi]

I think this parcel should be designated as an historical landmark to remind us of what mainland used to look like.

[Blondin Linden]

Send love to Bernard. He's going to take care of it.

[Blondin Linden]

So much for history ..

[Marianne McCann]

Love to both of ya f'r that. :-)

[Storm Clarence]

Qie, for the benefit of some of the newer people (like myself) what does this all mean exactly?  Excuse my newness ignorance. 

[PeterCanessa Oh]

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Storm Clarence wrote:

Qie, for the benefit of some of the newer people (like myself) what does this all mean exactly?  Excuse my newness ignorance. 

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Ad-farms/landsplitters became a really serious blight on the landscape and were made illegal.  The scam is - buy a small parcel of land, make it as ugly and inaccesible as possible and place as many, preferably annoying or offensive adverts on it as possible.  The adverts 'might' get some business but the real intention is, to sell the land at an extortionate price since the griefers won't make the place attractive and it's the only way neighbours can get rid of them.

@ Blondin - nice one :-)

[Qie Niangao]

First, thanks to Bernard and Blondin.  Although the parcel doesn't actually look any different than it did before, at least the parcels that had been set for sale at extortion prices (including one set pay to access) are no longer for sale.  So, while it's nothing I'll be bragging to my Arbor friends about, at least it removes an incentive for landsplitting.

 

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Storm Clarence wrote:

Qie, for the benefit of some of the newer people (like myself) what does this all mean exactly?  Excuse my newness ignorance. 

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Wow, where to start?  There was a practice on the Mainland of dividing up parcels into tiny bit, usually 16 or 32sq.m., and erecting sham "advertisements" on them -- the uglier the better -- and setting them for sale in hopes a larger landowner in the sim would be willing to "buy the view" and pay outrageously high prices to make the eyesores go away.  Getting the Lab to do anything about this was a long running battle by many folks including the Arbor Project that I mentioned; many others fought as long as they could but finally gave up on Mainland ownership, retaining a hatred of the Mainland to this day.  Some will still boast of not having set foot anywhere on the Mainland in years.

There were all sorts of variants to the scheme, many proposed remedies, but ultimately the Lab took a series of policy steps, tightening the Community Standards to control "Network Advertising" and "land splitting".

At its worst, most Mainland sims had at least one 512 that had been diced up.  Route 1 on the Atoll opened near the height of adfaming and I made a little photo journal; others have much more extensive records of the phenomenon.  There are still scars all over: scattered 16s stranded in the middle of nowhere set for sale at L$4000, or the hundreds of enormous glowing purple crystals that are still along most roads.

Oh, and going back further, gambling was once widespread across the grid.  Games of chance are now prohibited in the ToS, and you can't search for the word "Casino".  I'd thought that such terms were banned from all forms of advertising including billboards and parcel names and descriptions, but that appears not to be the case: the "CASINO" ad remains as in the image, delivering a landmark to a parcel named "LITTLE CASINO" in one of the old "color" sims with a few forlorn Zyngo-like machines scattered around.  That parcel is also extortion-priced, at over L$600/sq.m., but it appears that bot-baiting 16s were carved out for cheap, based on which dealers got stuck owning bits of the mess.

[Dillon Levenque]

Hmm. I didn't know what this topic was about, but I'm glad I read through it. I was out for a walk around the neighborhood last night just to see what's new. I noticed an empty 512 near my lot, deeply recessed and with banlines.

I have never seen banlines on the sim ever; the same company owns almost all of it and the CEO is a very nice guy, careful of the interests of his tenants and neighbors (my little parcel is practically the only piece of the sim he doesn't own).

I did check to see who owned it but now I can't recall if it was the Land Group or a private owner. I'll check next time I'm inworld. I'd be surprised at private ownership; the group is more a land lease operation. If the group still owns it no big deal, just somebody with a strong sense of privacy. But if by chance it's privately owned I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Thanks for the history lesson in any case.

[Melita Magic]

I've seen some gems too. That photo is one for the album, though.

Are they like locusts? Never really became extinct and come out in force every few years?