Landmarks Are Pointless

[Coffee Pancake]

Landmarks ... there has to be a better way to provide a link to a location that doesn't immediately go out of date. I've just been though my inventory and 90% ended up in the trash because what I had saved was long gone.

Perhaps something that an avatar creates assigned to their account that links to an inworld inventory asset. Update the info, move the location and all the linked landmarks update, change your mind and decide you don't want people to visit anymore, delete the location from your account and all linked landmarks vanish.

 

[Solar Legion]

Funny, I have landmarks I made several years ago that actually still work.

Then again, the places they go to don't go changing their decor or pulling up and moving elsewhere on a whim either.

Landmarks for a Private Island will update the actual grid positions/names if either actually changes so the Landmark can take you there.

They may be useless to you but they're sure as heck not useless to everyone.

Your suggested system would be lovely if offered as an alternative - not as a replacement.

 

[Coffee Pancake]

There is no way the existing landmark setup could be depreciated, so anything else would have to be in addition.

[Qie Niangao]

24 minutes ago, CoffeeDujour said:

Landmarks ... there has to be a better way to provide a link to a location that doesn't immediately go out of date. I've just been though my inventory and 90% ended up in the trash because what I had saved was long gone.

I've been thinking of doing that myself, after reading Inara's recent blog about the latest TPV developer meeting:

Quote

[11:37-14:10] Landmark assets getting fetched twice at log-in: this appears to be a new(ish) issue. Although landmark assets only appear once in inventory, the viewer appears to be fetching them twice; once around mid-way through the log-in process, and then again at the end. The cause is unknown at present, but it has been noted by the Lab.

An intermediate workaround if your logins are being delayed unduly is to delete you landmarks.

This can might cause the degraded performance message (see below).

I rarely use any landmarks that aren't in my Favorites bar, which I sweep of defunct entries fairly regularly. They're a strange little asset... not as weird as calling cards, but very odd nonetheless, and pop up in unexpected scripting places.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Qie Niangao

[Blush Bravin]

Landmarks are useless IMO. I delete them as soon as I get them. I stopped putting them inside my vendors as well. I haven't moved my shop in 5 years but I moved often enough before that that changing out landmarks got to be a real pain in the butt. I do rely heavily on the teleport history feature in FS. I use that for places I know have not moved. If I want to find a creator's shop, I look up the creator's profile and get a fresh slurl from their profile figuring that will at least be kept up to date.

41 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

not as weird as calling cards,

I have kept every calling card I've ever received. It's my timeline in SL. When I get nostalgic I go walking through those calling cards. They are probably the most valuable thing I possess in SL. 

[Selene Gregoire]

50 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

I've been thinking of doing that myself, after reading Inara's recent blog about the latest TPV developer meeting:

I rarely use any landmarks that aren't in my Favorites bar, which I sweep of defunct entries fairly regularly. They're a strange little asset... not as weird as calling cards, but very odd nonetheless, and pop up in unexpected scripting places.

Once or twice a year (usually a little more often) I do some sim hopping to check which LMs are still valid for the reason I saved them and just delete those that are no longer useful to me. Doesn't take all that long usually because  I try to keep the number of LMs down to begin with and it gives the opportunity to discover new places to visit/hang out at. Of course, every now and then I land in someone's shiny new living room but I like seeing what others have done with their homes as well.

No, I don't run around inside their homes poking around in closets, rummaging through drawers and peeking under the beds. I go outside and cam in. 

Edited February 19, 2019 by Selene Gregoire

[Lindal Kidd]

2 hours ago, Blush Bravin said:

I have kept every calling card I've ever received. It's my timeline in SL. When I get nostalgic I go walking through those calling cards. They are probably the most valuable thing I possess in SL. 

...offers you her calling card in a bid for immortality.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Yeah some venues move on a dime, and others have laid down roots and grabbed a hold of the servers their sim is on...

Just the way it is...

[LittleMe Jewell]

3 hours ago, Blush Bravin said:

If I want to find a creator's shop, I look up the creator's profile and get a fresh slurl from their profile figuring that will at least be kept up to date.

The number of times that I've looked up a creator's profile and found either an out of date SLURL/Pick or none at all just blows my mind.  It happens a lot - at least 50% of the time.  There are times when the LM provide for a hunt or in a sale notecard (Super Sales Weekend, Steals & Deals, etc...) is wrong AND the creator doesn't have valid location info in their profile.  I suppose if you have to suddenly move, maybe forgetting to update your profile right away, but to not have any location info at all in the profile tells me they aren't very serious about their business.

 

[Maitimo]

I only keep landmarks for places I visit regularly (more than once a month, generally). Everything else gets deleted and I primarily use search places instead.

[Gabriele Graves]

Landmarks are definitely pointless.  In some ways it would be better if they were a link to search and then you could teleport from there, more like a browser bookmark.

Edited February 22, 2019 by Gabriele Graves
wrong word order

[Tari Landar]

I love landmarks. 

As an avid explorer and all around random tp-er, they are absolutely amazing tools for me. Though I can appreciate why others don't like them.

I keep all of my lms, even old outdated ones, for the most part. I like to go back through them, and am often surprised at how many of my older, like pre-2010, ones still work, and still go to the same places, even if what was once there no longer is, or has changed. The only time I ever get rid of an actual lm, is if in checking on it, I find that what is now at that location is something I will never, ever, ever want to visit (for example one of my most favorite places from 2009 is now a very, erm... extremely unpleasant place, so I deleted that lm ages ago, so I don't accidentally visit it again). For lms that I DO delete, I will often take note of what was once there, even if in name only, and place it in a NC, or text file. I like revisiting old memories sometimes, and yes, I know I'm weird, lol

My lms, much like calling cards (I agree with you so very much on this Blush) are memories of what has been, what once was, what still might be, my own little sl journey, and I really like it. Many of my lms are likely defunct, some were once places owned by those no longer with us, some are still, in some fashion, connected to those people, and, in a fashion, connected to me.  I'm certain most of you are all   right about now too. It's ok, I often feel the same way about lots of things in rl too. Oh that stick...it's from that day we walked to the grocery store and saw that really cool bird. That wrapper..that's from the day my niece kept sticking her hand in my pocket, trying to steal candy, and I finally caved after she tripped and fell and I felt bad for laughing at her. That rock, that simple looking piece of rock....I found that outside of union station, my foot slid on it,  the very first time I got to meet hubby in person. That cup, I had ice in that cup that I let melt on the 8+ hour train ride home, after that first month long meeting-incidentally, that cup holds that rock and sits on top of my desk, right this very moment, many years later. Yeah, I save weird *****, a lot, and every little item can bring back a memory as vivid as if it literally just happened. I look at lms the same way....that place, oh, that's where we first danced. This lm, oh, that was our first house. That freebie place lm, that's where I first bought my first outfit, for a whole linden..it was an ugly outfit, but I got lost in that freebie place for days on end. That lm on the bottom, that was where the first money tree i ever found was.  This lm....that's where me and my friends met up together for the first time ever.  You get the picture   I'm a  very nostalgic person, and sometimes the visual reminders, though seemingly insignificant, perhaps outdated, even defunct...can bring about all kinds of memories, good, sad, emotional, amazing..all kinds and I really love that. 

I have also found some awesome places using old lms that once went somewhere completely different..and I LOVE that aspect too. 

[Zeta Vandyke]

I would literally be lost without my LM's

I would have forgotten about most shops and exploring places I visited without them. Even if they move around and LM stops working, they are a reminder for me about the place, and I can always search the new location when one is outdated.

[Ginger Shostakovich]

I have lost count of the times when I am looking at something on the marketplace and click on the "see this item in world"-link only to find myself in someone else's home, on an empty plot of land in the middle of nowhere, or in some memorable cases underwater or falling down from the sky. 

Same with landmarks I save, even more recent ones. 

[Qie Niangao]

2 hours ago, Tari Landar said:

I have also found some awesome places using old lms that once went somewhere completely different..and I LOVE that aspect too. 

Interesting. So there's kind of two different things folks want to represent:

1. A fixed geographic location that might get new occupants (or vanish altogether) -- the current semantics of Landmarks.
2. An occupant-following virtual address that may point to a different geographic location as the occupant moves around (or vanishes altogether).

I can see that both of these things would be good to have for different purposes. There's a very definite gap where that second meaning should be -- and it sure would be nice if it could be used for automatically updating references in Picks and in Marketplace listings, as well as an option for the meaning of Landmark.

It's not so obvious to me who should get to decide between these two meanings of a Landmark: the person who creates it, or the person (or script) trying to use it.

However it works, there should be a "location abstraction" level above the locations in Picks, Marketplace listings, and dynamic Landmarks, such that somebody could change their "location abstraction" and thereby instantly update all associated Picks, Marketplace listings, dynamic Landmarks, and whatever other location references that point to that abstraction.

[Marianne Little]

On 2/20/2019 at 2:48 AM, LittleMe Jewell said:

The number of times that I've looked up a creator's profile and found either an out of date SLURL/Pick or none at all just blows my mind.  It happens a lot - at least 50% of the time.  There are times when the LM provide for a hunt or in a sale notecard (Super Sales Weekend, Steals & Deals, etc...) is wrong AND the creator doesn't have valid location info in their profile.  I suppose if you have to suddenly move, maybe forgetting to update your profile right away, but to not have any location info at all in the profile tells me they aren't very serious about their business.

 

I have the opposite experience. I usually inspect what others are wearing and open creator profile, and find working locations. Or I inspect furniture or landscaping. Yes I find profiles that look abandoned, maybe the creator has left SL. I would say that the majority of items I inspect is taking me straight to a store. 9/10 times or 8/10.

[CheriColette]

@Tari Landar Nice idea finding new places to explore  through old LM's.  For me its the challenge to find new landmark that I enjoy. Its like detective work, may take a while and sometimes I dont succeed but when I do, its very satisfying.   Of course, I dont always have the time to look and sometimes I just have to let that idea go. 

[Blush Bravin]

15 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

Yes I find profiles that look abandoned, maybe the creator has left SL.

For me this is good information to have as well, because I really don't want to be purchasing items that will have no customer support.