Policies for Transitioning Old Linden Homes to Bellisseria

[Prokofy Neva]

So I want to pull this topic out to its own thread from other topics.

So for years, Lindens have noted the possibility that the old Linden Homes may be withdrawn or consolidated and residents asked to move to the new offerings. Their fan base heartily welcomes this because these homes are smaller and not as stylish (and made of prims and sculpties and not mesh) and it seems given that they are "obsolete" and "must" be changed. There will always be someone on hand to point out theories of "creative destruction" and "change is good" -- mainly because they won't be the ones changing.

I moved out of my Elderglen Wizard home probably 10 years ago, and wrote a little inworld book about it so I have no stake in this except a theoretical one as it is a precedent for other types of change.

It is now no longer possible even to choose one of those very old Linden homes, by which I mean the old Asian style or old fantasy style, not the original Bellisseria small homes which now feel obsolete to some compared to many later iterations.

At first, the decision to remove these homes seemed put off into the distant future. Then, in response to a query, at a MonCierge meeting of 2 months ago, Wendi Linden said they would not be removing them as if it were settled. But now at the latest Lab Gab, Patch said that "early next year" a decision may be made to remove them.

Why? Because the sims are empty, no one logs on to them, and there is no good reason for the Lindens to keep putting them up. They may feel this way about contiguous old Mainland, but at least people drive through there now and then and even heavily abandoned sims often still have a few tier-paying customers. Since Linden Home areas feel more under their control and ARE under their control in that they depend on premium accounts (i.e. there are no tenants of original owners) and have more rules, it will be a certain puzzle problem perhaps of how to delete most of them so that the remainder still look natural, but it can be done.  Or they might all be made to disappear based on some marker like type of house, i.e. the actual servers will remain in place at that location, but will be scrubbed clean and turned to new Bellisseria content. I actually think this might create problems if it is harder for some reason to make new landscape features common to Bellisseria but not old Linden Homes, i.e. lots of rivers, pools, parks etc. 

There is no resident lobby of people who want to keep these houses. That's because the people in them likely don't even know they may disappear. They already don't log on much and are not likely to be the types to read the forums or what LL news -- or they would have long ago moved into the more favourable offerings.

Still, they should be treated humanely and that means some basic principles:

o Ample notification -- three months? With repeat emails and blog posts.

o Fair relocation plan -- one on one to a new Bellisseria house or camper

o Relocation of some prominent geographical locations/Linden builds, like the dragon cave. I think it would be great even to put those with the new fantasy area, except that someone is sure to complain that it was made out of prims and therefore "doesn't fit". It's not that big a space, and could be left out to sea like other Linden prim and sculpty builds in the Sea of Fables or Nautilus. I don't see that it needs to be destroyed. The 3-sim ship Galaxy was moved, and that was a prim build, no? The quest in the dragon cave could be kept. Even so, it's a good idea to visit it now as Lindens can be ruthless with their old builds they've grown to loathe (like telehubs) and it may disappear.

Can it be done piece-meal, i.e. removing a lot of old sims and consolidating a certain old home type on the few remaining sims? This sounds like an awful lot of work. Even if there was some lobby loudly complaining, I think likely the Lindens couldn't justify the work of puzzle piece matching. And there is NO lobby, so they will feel confident in pressing "delete" and feeling a sense of relief. No more paying for servers with no people on them. 

Server costs INCREASED SHARPLY as Patch explained once again when LL moved to the cloud, so they are highly motivated to delete old Linden Home sims.

Why do people ask about this in meetings when they don't even live in these homes? Because as I've explained it's an important watershed.

The Lindens have almost never deleted content that they made and offered to residents to put their content on. The only reason your land would be seized or your content would be returned to Lost & Found is if you did not pay for your premium account or your tier, or you violated the TOS with your behaviour or content.

Just being old has not been a reason to be deleted in the history of Second Life. In the early years of beta, the Lindens gave out charter accounts, marked as such with 4096 m of tier-free land, to the first round of residents including many beta testers. Some of those people are long gone from SL and haven't logged in for 10 years but their land remains.

Still, the Lindens have made changes to offerings, sometimes with great hue and cry from residents:

o they removed void sims as an offering and made it possible only to buy homesteads, and only if an island had already been purchased -- this was to cut down on the widespread abuse of void sims, originally only meant to contain "a stretch of water" or parks, as Jack Linden explained, because they were chopped up into 16 pieces and overloaded with rentals (creating performance issues and customer service tickets for Lindens).

They have been firm in their resistance to customers asking to have homesteads as a stand-alone purchase. I think the only way we might ever see homesteads for individual purchase is if they turn off search and the ability to have Linden transactions as they do with Bellisseria -- something to prevent abuse from sub-letting.

o they removed telehubs and offered those who owned land adjacent to telehubs a $5/m buy-back -- this came only after a huge amount of protest by owners that there was "bait and switch" as they were sold on the auctions after LL knew they were moving to point-to-point teleportation.

o they opened up the sale of grandfathered islands beyond the list of their "solution providers" to the general population - again, only after it was discovered and protested.

o they demanded that adult clubs and venues in mature move to the adult continent of Zindra and gave them one-to-one amounts of land.

Note that in some cases of what seemed like drastic changes, only mass resident protest led to mitigation of the policy.

When the Lindens first announced Sansara, they faced a terrible backlash from residents who feared they would stop developing both the land and the software and features on the old Second Life and would lavish all their attention and shiny-ness on Sansara. Ebbe had to do a lot of placating of worried users and assure them that LL would keep both going. At the time that terrible backlash occurred, no one imagined that Sansara itself would fail and be sold and the Lindens would throw themselves into building Bellisseria -- it was inconceivable. Yet they did. They paid attention to customer requests and tried to retain new customers, something they didn't do in the early beta years when they were flush with VC cash (and don't forget Philip put his own money into SL at first).

So it matters how the Lindens accomplish this transition because it will be indicative of how they might accomplish other transitions that may be looming, whether reduction or change of the old Mainland or even closure of all of SL and a move to a "host your own sim" type of arrangement.

Thus, ample notification and one-to-one compensation would seem to be a minimum. Should there be a cut-off date? That if you don't make this transition within 3 months you lost your opportunity? This was the case when the Lindens demanded that some clubs and public venues in mature that had adult activities move to Zindra. Interestingly, you could choose the land that you wanted to move to in Zindra. That's because it was all rolled out and not settled yet.  The Lindens couldn't do that for a move from an old LH to Bellisseria because that would disrupt their methodology of random placement by scripts currently in place. I think they shouldn't have a deadline, however, as too many people may be recovering from COVID or job loss and unable to respond to a three month deadline.

 

 

 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Prokofy Neva

[Nika Talaj]

6 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

It is now no longer possible even to choose one of those very old Linden homes, by which I mean the old Asian style or old fantasy style, not the original Bellisseria small homes which now feel obsolete to some compared to many later iterations.

? what  .  Pic taken 2 minutes ago.  Elderglen also available.

7 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Why? Because the sims are empty, no one logs on to them, and there is no good reason for the Lindens to keep putting them up.

Here's the green dots at this moment in an old LH continent, and in Belli, at the exact same degree of map zoom.  Neither are densely populated right now, but the LH continent is certainly not empty.  I don't envy Patch's team, if they have to come up with a plan to close down the old LH regions.  To me, Patch's tone about that possibility has always seemed very tentative; I don't have the sense that LL has a plan to do so, though I bet they have a desire to do so!

[Prokofy Neva]

Oh, interesting! I wonder why they didn't show up for me before, maybe just a glitch. Thanks for that correction.

[Polenth Yue]

I'm a little surprised they haven't cut off new residents in the old areas. Maybe they're waiting until a few more themes have dropped, though there's pretty much always some newer houses waiting now.

[Prokofy Neva]

1 hour ago, Polenth Yue said:

I'm a little surprised they haven't cut off new residents in the old areas. Maybe they're waiting until a few more themes have dropped, though there's pretty much always some newer houses waiting now.

I'm glad Nika told me about this because now I'm the proud owner of an old Loftroom home on the very edge of the world.

It's only 3 sims away from my beloved Cape Etkind which is where the old dragon build is.

There isn't a soul for many sims, it's like Chernobyl.

Perfect place to watch the process and PS put a gallery up and visit the dragon often.

The slate siding texture is very nice although the hedges are hideous, I may put something entirely over them.

 

[Aethelwine]

There are at least three separate Linden Home continents, I have always imagined one way to reduce the costs for them would be to consolidate the residents in to one of them so you could remove the other two. They are I think pretty much mirrored, it may even be possible to move their build across into the new area and have everything line up perfectly, but perhaps not... I think their landmarks would break. Maybe that just isn't possible.... or the support needs for the shocked residents would be overwhelming for their Live Chat. 

I would say three months notice sufficient for doing any changes like that.

[Rufferta]

Actually, there are Four separate "First Generation" Linden Home continents. There is one way South that I didn't know about until recently. They are pretty much clones of each other with some minor differences. I also have speculated that with the appropriate technology the Lindens could surgically remove a house from one region and insert it in the same location on another region, and possibly the residents wouldn't notice.*

Just for info, the equivalent "Meadowbrook Infohub" for each Continent is at:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Meadowbrook/67/171/41 (The one with Cape Ekim)

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Meadowcreek/68/164/55

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ravenbrook/74/184/41

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bucksnort/68/170/41

I agree with Prokofy that the Continent with Cape Ekim should be preserved. 

*Yeah, their landmarks would break, but perhaps the Lindens could just tell them they are renaming the Region? 

Edited July 1, 2021 by Rufferta

[Sister Nova]

2 hours ago, Aethelwine said:

I think their landmarks would break

 

2 hours ago, Rufferta said:

*Yeah, their landmarks would break, but perhaps the Lindens could just tell them they are renaming the Region? 

No, landmarks are tied to a region rather than a grid location, it was changed a few years ago and brought up by Patch in a chat a few months ago.

 

[Logan Elf]

I personally doubt much will be done with the old homes until all planned Bellisseria themes are done -- only now does It seem that the overall supply vs demand tipping point has been reached  Certainly an Asian-inspired theme is required to at least provide a loose equivalence for all the old themes.

Shuffling residents around the old home regions would be a logistical nightmare and ultimately really annoy them if you then turn round a few months later and say you have to completely move elsewhere. I think it would be far simpler to just make a simulator host 2-4 old home regions. That would just be an internal change, no need to involve residents.

[LibGwen]

In the last year I've seen two regions move, one by one grid square, one a long distance, but my LMs for them still work.  The first few days they may not, but after that a landmark works as if nothing changed.

Edited July 3, 2021 by LibGwen

[Leora Jacobus]

If I were the Lindens I would just cut out the old homes from being availabe on the LP. Maybe slowly one after the other. I would first cut Tahoe for fans of those have easily available Loghomes and Chalets to choose from.  After the new Fantasy theme is fully released and the hipe and the "shiny new toy" affect has cooled down and it turns out that there are more of them than demand ... I would cut down Elderglen off the LP.

Doing this will have effects. People MIGHT complain but I doubt it. After some time I would start with Tahoe giving notice. I would send people IMs (that are usually forwarded to mailaccounts) telling them that they have one month to get out and take one of the new homes or else there stuff will be returned to their inventory. Then wait for the reactions. People MIGHT howl and protest but I doubt it ... wait for that to cool down ... then proceed ...

I assume that MOST people who still have old homes and did not apply for the new ones (which are far better in lots of respects) just do not care for these homes at all and never use them , maybe have forgotten they have them!

Edited July 3, 2021 by Leora Jacobus

[Marianne Little]

Yes, I would remove the old houses from the Get your Home page, starting yesterday.

Because why add more residents to homes LL will get rid of? (In the future) It was different when it was no Bellisseria homes on the Get your Home page. Now there is plenty.

Even if not all the types are available all the time, LL never promised people they could get just what they wanted with the old LHomes either. Some of the old styles were sold out too.

Edited July 3, 2021 by Marianne Little
changed a few words to clarify

[LibGwen]

Several people in these forums in the last two years have sought an old Linden home because they wanted to, not because there was no new housing available.  I wonder if LL should keep one of the old Linden home continents for a long time which has all four housing types?  They could funnel everyone who wants one into just it.  I expect there are a few people who can give very good reasons why they ought to be able to continue to obtain a home there.  I just thought of one:  Lower land allowance means less lag from the neighbors.

Edited July 5, 2021 by LibGwen

[Sparkle Bunny]

Other reasons for hanging on to an old Linden home: you only have 512 tier to spare and would rather not live in a camper; you hate gardens; you're addicted to banlines; all your furniture is pre-mesh poseball stuff and you don't want to be mocked by the neighbours...

I'd probably go ahead with evicting people theme-by-theme (Tahoe, Elderglen, Shareta Osumai, leaving Meadowbrook for last as it's the biggest) and allowing them a couple of months to claim a replacement on the consolidation continent, before removing the theme from the land page and deleting any unoccupied regions. If you wanted an unclaimed or abandoned home after that point you could file a support ticket requesting it. There might even be a resurgence of community feeling from having consciously chosen to inhabit a heritage space and preserve that part of SL history.

[Mollymews]

3 hours ago, Sparkle Bunny said:

(Tahoe, Elderglen, Shareta Osumai, leaving Meadowbrook for last as it's the biggest)

if we squint our eyes and angle our heads then some already Belli Homes could be consideredish Tahoe and Meadowbrook replacements

Linden have shown a replacementish for Elderglen which is going to be a standalone sub-continent. I think the same sub-continent approach for an oriental flavour would also be necessary before the old Linden Home estates could be flattened

[Always Incognito]

8 hours ago, Sparkle Bunny said:

Other reasons for hanging on to an old Linden home: you only have 512 tier to spare and would rather not live in a camper; you hate gardens; you're addicted to banlines; all your furniture is pre-mesh poseball stuff and you don't want to be mocked by the neighbours...

🤣

[BJoyful]

On 7/1/2021 at 6:06 AM, LoganPryor said:

I personally doubt much will be done with the old homes until all planned Bellisseria themes are done -- only now does It seem that the overall supply vs demand tipping point has been reached  Certainly an Asian-inspired theme is required to at least provide a loose equivalence for all the old themes.

Shuffling residents around the old home regions would be a logistical nightmare and ultimately really annoy them if you then turn round a few months later and say you have to completely move elsewhere. I think it would be far simpler to just make a simulator host 2-4 old home regions. That would just be an internal change, no need to involve residents.

I agree with this 👆for sure!  Even though there are now “some” new Premium homes available there’s not “enough” available ones  for the number of Premium Residents who still have Old Premium Homes and Patch did promise that no one would get tossed out on the street… they will make sure there are “enough” of the New Premium Homes.  I’m pretty sure there will need to be enough, plus a surplus to accommodate any new Premium Members they expect.  I think once the amount is getting near “enough” then the Old Premium Homes will be Unavailable on the Dashboard for a while …and then perhaps there will be a communication to each Old Premium Homeowner with an invitation to take a New one at that time and then once those are moved… there will be a Notice of shutdown and give them a timeframe to move.

Perhaps during that final phase, some of the best bits of Old Premium Homes will be preserved or rescued in some way because LL does know how important our History is to us and to new Residents as well.  I’m sure they won’t just flick off the switch and poof them.  LL does understand these have been Home to some people for 11 years!  They are simply inefficient to operate as housing in comparison to the New Premium Homes.  If these models are so important to their owners who have held on to them for many years perhaps LL will find a way to keep a few of these older models somehow or make an updated version of those models for the people who have loved them as their home for a long time.  LL does care about things like that.  They can’t keep everything for posterity, but I’m sure they aren’t ever going to toss people out into the grid, homeless with nowhere else to go 🏡

Edited July 9, 2021 by BJoyful
Sp, smh

[Eowyn Southmoor]

This weekend just passed, the Drivers Of SL Group did their weekly grid drive starting in the old LL home continent (the one with the dragon). We drove through quite a lot of it and whilst it certainly wasn't teeming with avi's as some parts of Bellisseria are, there were certainly people at home. 

Having not been to these continents in a few years, I actually really enjoyed driving and exploring round there, and really enjoyed how little lag there was there - in fact it was the least lag I've experience in SL in 18 months 

A bit off topic now, but one thing though became rather obvious, is that Bellisseria isn't really "new" in any sense. Sure it's built with the last mesh etc, but this was always going to be inevitable when you re-make something several years later - you always use the latest techniques and materials.  But in terms of overall design concept, the old versus new is almost the same - these old LL continents have roads, paths, community areas, places of interest, parks etc - just like Bellisseria has now.

The key difference is in the governance aspect of the continents - where Bellisseria is a substantial improvement due to lack of ban lines and more restrictions in terms of what you can build, keeping in theme etc.  For Bellisseria to continue to be popular and important to LL, it's the governance / covenant side of it that needs to be kept on top of, to ensure that Bellisseria remains looking as good as it does. Unfortunately this seems to be slipping lately - as the bigger Bellisseria gets the more covenant violations need to be dealt with, and it now seems that the LL staff are falling behind with this. Violations like bad orbs, low skyboxes, places full of breedables etc used to be dealt with within 3 days, now it's taking several weeks - i really hope this trend doesn't continue.

[animats]

On 7/8/2021 at 8:48 PM, Sparkle Bunny said:

Other reasons for hanging on to an old Linden home: you only have 512 tier to spare and would rather not live in a camper; you hate gardens; you're addicted to banlines; all your furniture is pre-mesh poseball stuff and you don't want to be mocked by the neighbours...

Good point. If you move, you have to redecorate, and fill up a Bellessaria house with furniture.

Remember, each Linden Home owner is a premium member. One who's not costing LL many resources. Annoying them is bad.

I'd suggest continuing to offer the old Linden homes, but collect new move-ins in areas intended to remain busy. When a region is 1/4 rented, reduce its compute allocation to homestead level. Regions that have no tenants become open space, and the houses can be removed while retaining the landscaping. LL can probably get the operating cost for the Linden Home regions down substantially. Offer existing tenants a free move to an identical house in a busier area, if they want.

[Coffee Pancake]

We can just hope old Linden homes are only on offer as demand outstrips supply for the new ones.

 

[Vihmakass]

One main difference between new and old LH is - land.

Old LH has 512, what is all under house, no much yard.

New house is 1024, with yard/garden.

Premium members are allowed 1024 tier free land.

Like you see new LH "eats" up ALL your premium land allowance......and that is big flaw. Many old LH home owners have donated their free part of land allowance to some group to support it and many have land plot on mainland.

Now forcing to move them mean many groups lose their support form members...and even might vanish bc tier will be come too big burden to bear.

Owners of mainland plot loose their land.....what many have used like "countryside home"

There has been suggested that old LH could take land instead of new LH......there is one flaw too - it isnt fair bc they loose prims what other LH owners are given in form of houses

and feels like discrimination a bit.

I own old LH, very nice one / despite being outdated building/. I have remodeled it inside / what isnt much possible with new LH/....and mine furniture is all new and HQ.

I have small "countryside" plot what is next to mine SL family member one , so we have nice place there what we keep open to visitors.

From here arises one issue more - is it true or i am mistaken that new LH doesnt have banlines?

I love ban lines.

Why? bc they keep trolls and creeps away from mine home. I want one place in SL world be safe for me to leave avi online and not come back to see some naked, completely stranger guy trying hump her or find house filled with group of persons who refuse leave and whom i must then one by one ban.....only them coming back like alts again and again.

Other thing are privacy screens- what i think in general should be banned from SL or using them be moderated and under supervision of LL..of course for some nice lindens fee.

Solution?

Make some new LH WITHOUT yard, only 512 and in similar styles what old LH have. Let people support groups or have their "countryside".

I became premium to have those two options....loosing them....yeah, I can be not premium and pay just rent somewhere for same amount of money.

p.s. ...I forgot lagg issue - yes in old LH it isnt problem.....but in new ones often is.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Vihmakass

[Sister Nova]

6 hours ago, Vihmakass said:

One main difference between new and old LH is - land.

Old LH has 512, what is all under house, no much yard.

New house is 1024, with yard/garden.

Premium members are allowed 1024 tier free land.

Like you see new LH "eats" up ALL your premium land allowance......and that is big flaw. Many old LH home owners have donated their free part of land allowance to some group to support it and many have land plot on mainland.

Now forcing to move them mean many groups lose their support form members...and even might vanish bc tier will be come too big burden to bear.

Owners of mainland plot loose their land.....what many have used like "countryside home"

There has been suggested that old LH could take land instead of new LH......there is one flaw too - it isnt fair bc they loose prims what other LH owners are given in form of houses

and feels like discrimination a bit.

I own old LH, very nice one / despite being outdated building/. I have remodeled it inside / what isnt much possible with new LH/....and mine furniture is all new and HQ.

I have small "countryside" plot what is next to mine SL family member one , so we have nice place there what we keep open to visitors.

From here arises one issue more - is it true or i am mistaken that new LH doesnt have banlines?

I love ban lines.

Why? bc they keep trolls and creeps away from mine home. I want one place in SL world be safe for me to leave avi online and not come back to see some naked, completely stranger guy trying hump her or find house filled with group of persons who refuse leave and whom i must then one by one ban.....only them coming back like alts again and again.

Other thing are privacy screens- what i think in general should be banned from SL or using them be moderated and under supervision of LL..of course for some nice lindens fee.

Solution?

Make some new LH WITHOUT yard, only 512 and in similar styles what old LH have. Let people support groups or have their "countryside".

I became premium to have those two options....loosing them....yeah, I can be not premium and pay just rent somewhere for same amount of money.

p.s. ...I forgot lagg issue - yes in old LH it isnt problem.....but in new ones often is.

 

I have a camper in the new LH Bellisseria, and that has a 512 sqm parcel just like the old LH. Like you, I do use the remaining allowance for mainland parcels (yes, ‘parcels’ lol. I have two 256 sqm on different continents). But then again, I also have two other premium accounts and have a houseboat and a Victorian in Bellisseria too.

I don’t miss ban lines at all. In fact I have never used them on any mainland property, and the 1LI security system (‘orb’) that is provided by LL from the building selector device on each LH parcel is really almost as effective as ban lines (you have to wait for 15 seconds before it will eject anyone, giving accidental trespassers fair warning). But if you are at home when someone you don’t wish to have access to your parcel enters, you can eject them before the 15 seconds elapse using the land powers.

Admittedly, the camper doesn’t cover the entire parcel as the old homes do, but there are still themes to come, and maybe there will be something that will be more to your liking among them  

[Sparkle Bunny]

If campers are not to your taste you could always toss up a skybox to cover the whole 512. That does eat up some of your prims, which isn't ideal, but you'd have to do the same thing on mainland as well as paying for the parcel.

[LittleMe Jewell]

15 hours ago, Vihmakass said:

One main difference between new and old LH is - land.

Old LH has 512, what is all under house, no much yard.

New house is 1024, with yard/garden.

Premium members are allowed 1024 tier free land.

Like you see new LH "eats" up ALL your premium land allowance......and that is big flaw. Many old LH home owners have donated their free part of land allowance to some group to support it and many have land plot on mainland.

When the old Linden Homes first came out, Premium members only got 512 sqm of tier and if one chose a Linden Home then it used all of that tier.  LL only increased Premium tier allowance to 1024 in early 2018, whereas the original Linden Homes were created in 2010 -- thus for 8 years, having a Linden Home used all available Premium tier allowance.  

At least LL did provide an option in the newer homes that only use 512 sqm of the current tier allowance.

 

[Nika Talaj]

17 hours ago, Vihmakass said:

Now forcing to move them mean many groups lose their support form members...and even might vanish bc tier will be come too big burden to bear.

Owners of mainland plot loose their land.....what many have used like "countryside home"

I own old LH, very nice one / despite being outdated building/. I have remodeled it inside / what isnt much possible with new LH/....and mine furniture is all new and HQ.

I have small "countryside" plot what is next to mine SL family member one , so we have nice place there what we keep open to visitors.

From here arises one issue more - is it true or i am mistaken that new LH doesnt have banlines?

I love ban lines.

Why? bc they keep trolls and creeps away from mine home. I want one place in SL world be safe for me to leave avi online and not come back to see some naked, completely stranger guy trying hump her or find house filled with group of persons who refuse leave and whom i must then one by one ban.....only them coming back like alts again and again.

Other thing are privacy screens- what i think in general should be banned from SL or using them be moderated and under supervision of LL..of course for some nice lindens fee.

Solution?

Make some new LH WITHOUT yard, only 512 and in similar styles what old LH have. Let people support groups or have their "countryside".

You have an interesting perspective!  The amount of traffic seen daily on the older LH regions has always suggested to me that there are residents who simply prefer them.  I think we should all keep in mind that LL has not stated at any time that residents will ever be forced to leave them.  In fact, I'm not sure that LL will ever close them down entirely.  Look at the percentage of mainland that has languished, abandoned, for years.

The reasons you give for liking banlines are ALL addressed by the security system @Sister Nova described. You can set it to eject anyone from your parcel after 15 seconds (it also supports whitelisting your group or individuals by name).  I personally believe LL's security system is a much better solution than banlines.  Bellisseria, unlike the old LH regions, is set up to encourage tourism - that is, it has an extensive derivable road network, navigable waters, etc..  I tested banlines in Belli (by banning one of my own alts), and they were visible when simply passing in a car.  Once you set up banlines, they are there 24 hours a day, not just when you are online.  That's a lot of passersby that your security is annoying! 

If you want to test out LL's security system, maybe make an alt premium for a month and pick up any Bellisseria home - you might enjoy a stilt home or chalet, both of which offer very open interior layouts, so are easy to remodel.  The security system that comes with Bellisseria homes can be used anywhere in SL, so you could try it out on your current Linden Home (eta: just thinking, it may be that LL's system can only be rezzed by the parcel owner.  After the first setup, you can specify other avatars who can manage it.).  You could also try living in a skybox (above 2000m) over a Belli home, which would of course decrease viewer-side lag greatly, as well as avoiding nearly all avatar traffic.

If you have a Meadowbrook home, I personally think LL will introduce a Belli theme that should appeal to Meadowbrook fans within a year.  It will be interesting to see if they come up with another 512 theme, too!  At present, the only Belli 512 theme is Campers.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Nika Talaj