Whats the deal with "Voting Stations"?

[HeatherD Tungsten]

I have seen Voting Stations in a few places now - that are supposed to help raise awareness and traffic to locations in Second Life.    But the versions in the Marketplace all seem to be old products and with a lot of bad reviews.    So is this still a thing in Second Life, and is it worth setting one up on my land?

 

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

I don't think they have worked for that purpose in many years. 

[Kathlen Onyx]

So basically when clubs tell you to click to vote for the club it does nothing?  It does log and the club owner thanks for the vote. I mean if it does nothing I'm just going to stop doing it. It's about as beneficial as the SHX song boards.

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/120706-voting-station-v13-useless/

https://secondlife.fandom.com/wiki/Voting_Stations

http://nuvibez.com/blog/2014/06/01/from-the-pages-of-sl-history-the-sl-vote-podium/

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

@HeatherD Tungsten, @Sam1 Bellisserian

Voting Stations stopped taking votes in 2011 after SL's vote system was found being abused by deliberate targeted over-voting, as the system rewarded "popular" vote locations with more publicity, more resident traffic and for the Vote Station owner, a financial reward from LL.

The Vote Station's themselves are now just harmless nostalgia items from SL's first decade and do nothing, except for playing a "fanfare" sound when clicked. 

I do still love seeing them around SL ten years after they became obsolete, as they are a reminder of the earlier days of SL. Sadly, Vote Stations are becoming rarer to find around SL, but if I see one, I will usually click one to hear that pleasing "fanfare" sound again.

Some Vote Stations have been preserved inworld for their early SL nostalgia value, with some being adapted into new useful lives as tip jars or as landmark vendors. I believe that the Vote Stations are also still capable of IM'ing their owners each day with details of the previous day's "vote" total.

Don't waste your money buying them off Marketplace, there is a free one in everyone's inventory, inside the Library folder. along with other nostalgic items.

Vote Stations also have their own history section at the unofficial SL Museum in Phobos region.

Edited April 12, 2021 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Coffee Pancake]

A replacement should have been put in place as they killed the old ones off.

Yes, we would have gamed that too and it would need to be junked when things got really out of hand.

But everything that happened during would be beneficial, encouraging interaction and engagement. It's sad that LL missed the point and just stopped wanting to play silly games with us.

[bobsknief Orsini]

Unless they are custom voting stations that add you to a specific user created website (that is still up and running) they are no more then retro decoration.