Rene Erlanger

Pussycat Catnap wrote: Rene Erlanger wrote: Amazing.....and yet there are potentially 30,000 sims to explore! Hamlet Au, on his blog, posted up a few times in November / December about statistics that suggest that most people in SL never leave the sims they're in. Certainly I've spent days at a time in one place. But yes - exploring is a lot more interesting. That's always been the draw for me in Second Life....exploring! Some people love attending in-world concerts or shopping or roleplay.....exploring was always my SL activity. Even when I have busy periods in SL...i'll take some time out to do a bit of sim-hopping.

Might be the keyword "drinking"...which is deemed an over-18 activity. Stupid i know....but it's LL logic for you! Would "Kisses" be a General rating? I'm not so sure it could be that.

Amazing.....and yet there are potentially 30,000 sims to explore!

Sometimes its a case of mistaken identity....or they might blocked a series of Mac addresses in which you were accidentally captured. I had the mistaken identity ban in 2007...which lasted nearly a week. I had to email Phillip Rosedale twice to finally get it resolved. (the 2nd email wasn't so polite!). I never got an apology or even an adequate reason....which is what narked me the most. My IP number or Mac address ebing blocked, occured on 3 different occasions during early 2010 (space of 2 months)....there was some reason for it, but it was again due to LL errors. This time they did apologise on each occasion ...and took less than a day to sort out.

Amethyst Jetaime wrote: If people didn't show a bit of support where they can, a lot of those places would not exist. The entire world, with the exception of a very few linden sites, was built by residents, most of whom couldn't have afforded to do that for any length of time without a bit of community support. The Lost Gardens of Apollo and Nemo Trilogy sims being good examples In the end those sims were un-sustainable for those Sim owners. Plenty of residents mourned the loss of those sims....but without contributions (tips), they were hard to keep going.

Lucinda Bulloch wrote: The lindens changed the prices so they could strip the money and business from people like me and my estate, they dressed it up as other things, next on the list was to strip the malls, they did this by buying Xstreet, before sim owners were getting the commissions from sales and from that they paid for there sims, well now the lindens get all the commission though market place and now malls are dead and all buy though market place with a forced commission given to the lindens. Can't you see what is happening, all the sources of income that we created they have taken over so to strip it of money.The minds behind this see you as cash cows Quite true...Linden Lab can't help themselves by interfering in both the Land & Content economies.....and going into direct competition with it's customers. It's a very bizarre situation....with more and more Resident income sources being choked off! I think with falling concurrency and declining numbers of Estate sims...LL realise their days of milking the cash cow is nearing it's end....hence Rodvik's year-end speech when referring to LL diversifying and developing non-SL related projects.

There are 183,000 items priced between 0 -10 L.....out of 2 million products. That's about 9% of the entire Marketplace that is priced next to nothing! I agree with your points 1 to 5 though.

Well, if you can't figure out why dumping millions of Freebie content onto the Main Grid over a period of 3-4 years isn't' eventually going to catch up with the SL economy...then you'll never know. There's 2 types of merchant cultures clashing over the middle ground....it's unsustainable. It eventually forces Merchants into rounds of price dumping in order to survive......there comes a point when selling 10 L items in-world isn't going to pay the Land Tier bills. It's a nonsense! This doesn't effect all sectors.....but it certainly harms a lot of the most popular market sectors. (like Female fashion, skins, furniture etc) Look at all the LL data and stats.....and where Second Life is heading to. Shops and commercials are rapidly closing or downsizing..

Toysoldier Thor wrote: My understanding is that traffic on a sim is now not a factor for search results order. As such if my understanding is true, there would be no reason for a mall or club owner to have a farm of Alt Bots at 2000M in a box to create high traffic counts for this reason. Camping to attract real noobs could return and it did have a value inworld for both the commercial owner and the noob. I know back in 2008 in my first 30 - 60 days on SL, camping was a critical source of income for me. Camping and particular the BOT camping benefitted from "Places Search" tab which was ranked by Traffic units....Traffic never really had any meaningful impact on GSA "ALL Search" engine though . Nowadays the "Places search isn't a factor (scrapped) in V2 & V3 viewers...and though "Traffic" has a bit more impact in this new "All Search" engine....it still isn't significant .(it helps, but not that much!)

Drake1 Nightfire wrote: I'm sure you don't mean to, but they way you respond you sound very condesending.. Speaking as if you are talking to a noob. I have been around SL as long as you have. I seem to remember many many freebies on SLEX and Xstreet. And if it was gamed by bots, how is that a good thing? Why would anyone want that back? I would rather have noobs meet the few actual people inworld than non responsive bots. Noobs have always been reliant on freebies. the freebie warehouse has been around since forever and most merchants back in the day gave a few select freebies to avs less than 30 days old. Quality stuff too. Nowadays they just get the first freebie they find. Sorry if it sounds condescending...but i did state seasoned SL'ers as well as Noobs benefitted from camping. There were 2 types of camping.....good camping (real avatars earning some Lindens to spend in-world) and bad camping (army of Traffic bots hogging SIm resources and grossly inflating traffic figures) . Generally people objected to Traffic bots and not the real avatar camping. Jack Linden decided to ban both in one swoop which was a mistake....should have just banned Traffic bots. I don't remember SLEX being loaded by the same percentage of Freebies as were the cases to both XStreet and Marketplace. Like i said in an earlier post ....the fuss on SLEX forums were that Ahnse Chung threatened to hire a 100 or so content creators and sell all her ACS products for 10 Lindens regardless. There wasn't any noise about Freebies as it wasn't prevelant like nowadays.

These Marketplace rants will become academic if LL doesn't remain profitable.......and that profitablity is mainly derived from income generated from the Grid and not Marketplace. Without a grid...there won't be anywhere to place or use any of these wonderful SL creations. The bigger picture needs to be investigated....and SL Merchants & Investors ought to keep a close eye on it.

Drake1 Nightfire wrote: Most of the camping i have seen is for items.. how is that different from freebies? Also, didnt someone (possibly you, there are too many posts to check) say that most campers were bots back in the day? and they just camped to cash out? how does that help the SL economy? No, i was talking about the original form of camping for money prior to the Camping bans. Noobs are more reliant on Freebies nowadays, whereas before they could earn money to buy half decent products In-world. Actually not only noobs, but plenty of seasoned SL'ers also derived spending money from camping. It wasn't me.....however it was proper Avatar camping to begin with until late 2007. Like all profitable events, it was gamed by individuals loggin in teams of camping Bots (a bit like Chinese Gold farming in WoW).....followed by Merchants replacing actual Avatar campers (saving themselves a lot of money in the process) with their own army of Bots.

I've never had Magic Box issues going back to SLEX days right through to the current Marketplace....I guess I'm lucky. :matte-motes-tongue: I've also not had any non-delivery issues, admittedly i don't sell the kind of volumes that some Merchants on this thread do. Reading some of the comments on here, you'd think Marketplace is some kind of unique product for SL shopping....the truth of the matter we could shop offline, whlst at work since the SLEX days. Although it stated that one should be logged into SL in order to accept delivery of products....that wasn't entirely true. I recieved many an item whilst not being logged into SL....the same as it works with Marketplace. Again these shopping website searches are not unique.....they were present in SLEX then to Xstreet and now Marketplace. (Search by Product) The only significant difference between 2006 and 2012, is that Linden Lab heavily promotes Marketplace in their official Viewers, which they never did for either SLEX or Xstreet.

Drake1 Nightfire wrote: Gavin Hird wrote: The net effect is not the same, because it keeps concurrency low and therefore new signups (16k per day) largely find a ghost town, where there before were campers (and such.) – So they leave, never to return. – Over 5 million per year turn their backs within the first hour. I agree that getting rid of camping was a big mistake. /me slams on the brakes...... Camping is ok but freebies are evil?!?!?! umm, you might want to check your statements for consistency and logic. It recycles "money supply" which is good for the economy and provides it fluidity (turning over money supply)....Shop A pays Individual B to camp....who in turns spends his earnt camping money in Shop C. That money is moving around and circulating...otherwise you'd be soley reliant on fresh money being brought into SL (BUY Lindens)...offset by the amounts taken out of the economy i.e cashing out (SELL Lindens and Tfr USD).

Drake1 Nightfire wrote: I see a crappy search and keyword spam as the #1 reason inworld purchases are failing. Toysolder -->For LL to deem inworld shopping to be an evil competitor to LL's own MP is a clear example of the poor business decisions LL keeps practicing to continue to destroy SL. Actually In-World search is working correctly, and even better since LL changed over from GSA to OS Lucene search engine. For starters it's much harder to game...and spam does not work or help much with rankings. The problem is that so many Merchants don't understand even the basic forms of SEO or how to rank higher.....so it's easy to dismiss something that you don't understand or have no desire to focus on....as being a "crappy Search"...when actually It isn't! If one performs a search on some of the most popular keywords e.g Hair....you'll see the 1st few pages listing shops that sell hair. The Search engine isn't suppose rank shops by "best products" or "brand names"....as it has no way of knowing. If Redgrave, LAQ or Belleza want top spots for a keyword search on "Skins" or "Female Skins"....it's down to their owners to optimise their lands for it......as the system won't naturally do it for them. It's the same with Marketplace Search, as it ranks by certain criteria.....it could be a combination of "most views" or "most sales" or "most 5-star ranking points" or the relevance/ strength of Product title name etc etc. Some of these were gameable in Xstreet....i'm not sure what the current MP Search bases it's rankings on, but i'm sure some of the top MP Merchants would know...or have a clue.

You can't really compare the 2 Search engines for In-World and Marketplace, although they both use the same Open Source Lucene search engine. The algorithms are quite different. In-World searches on locations i.e land parcels...the TPV viewers will provide a 2nd page for product listings (very useful). Marketplace Search concentrates on products....it's comparing apples with oranges. There's far more noise on Marketplace searches than say In-world....this is real obvious, as for example there would be far more "Boots" as products listed on Marketplace....than shops selling boots In-World. Where it's all gone pearshape for In-world shopping, is the promotion of Marketplace through LL Official Viewers.....whereas the In-World "Search" and Classified Adverts buttons are pretty much well hidden and not really prominent ....not to mention killing off the 2nd page which lists products for sale. New residents will naturally go to Marketplace first...and it will be a while before figuring out how to search for In-World shops & products.

Toysoldier Thor wrote: But I will say that Rod Humble isnt stupid and he see the writing on the wall and that the SL Grid as we all know it and loved it... is sadly on a slid to eventual Internet history. That is why he is spending all his time on non SL new ideas. Because even if SL ends up dying - Rod's responsibility is to find ways for LL to exist and make money. It doesnt have to be with SL.... .........If LL is looking for new non-SL straegies to keep LL alive.... SL Customers should strongly listen to what LL is doing and where LL is not wanting to invest anymore. Yep, that's how I explained it....when some seasoned SL'ers didn't understand Rod Humble's year-end speech and wanting to diversify into non-SL products. LL must have crunched the numbers and worked out where the break-even point is (maybe closer than we think)....so it's time to bring on-board other revenue streams. The ultimate goal for both Rod and LL is to survive and remain profitable......so whatever it takes to hit those marks. Giving away Sims free of set-up costs, back in Oct 2011, didn't really kickstart the Land economy nor halt the gradual slide downwards.

Maybe English isn't his 1st Language and doesn't know how to.....just a thought!

Toysoldier Thor wrote: Mickey, You can come up with all your thoeries and excuses and live in a fantasy within a virtual world (lol hey thats funny even) but all of that does not hold a candle to the real facts.... Last year over 900 sims closed. Malls and stores are shrinking in size or closing all together. Shopping $'s are shifting to MP and LEAVING INWORLD shopping. You will need to wake up if you are following a merchant strategy that is based on INWORLD is the cornerstone and MP is just an "ADD" to your main inworld store. Its not an add... its a SHIFT to MP. It's now 1300! .....400+ more in January! 16 Jan 2011 - 24,756 Estate sims 29 Jan 2012 - 23,433 ( UPDATE ** 1st Feb it's gone down to 23,307.....another 120 handed back in 3 days!) Convert all those sims handed back...as lost income that LL won't have during 2012! I wonder what the break-even point is? Anymore potential lay-offs in 2012?

Mickey Vandeverre wrote: Have a tin of sasparilla and an old stogie and enjoy your front porch chit-chats. Rather comical at times, actually. NO.....what's comical are the realities of LL own figures which don't lie! ---> income lost due Sims being handed back, and concurrency continually falling over 24 months.....even more comical are those living in denial !

Oh good....so Second Life will end up being a IMVU business model clone!! :smileyfrustrated: That's not what many of SL'ers initially signed up for and deep down a lot of residents would miss In-world commercial activities....anything else is wishful thinking! Its hardly surprising that both concurrency and SIms have taken a dive......with a significant number of Residents having already voted with their feet!

Toysoldier Thor wrote: MP has become the #1 reason for SL's inworld demise of inworld shopping and the collapse of the inworld economy. MP has so fundamentally shifted where Merchants can best sell their goods that stores are closing, malls are closing, and sims are being abandoned. And then LL still maintains this utterly stupid policy that does not allow merchants to try to encourage and promote that customers do more shopping and buying on the inworld grid. For LL to deem inworld shopping to be an evil competitor to LL's own MP is a clear example of the poor business decisions LL keeps practicing to continue to destroy SL. These statements i believe to be true....that's why i'm not shedding any tears that Marketplace are shooting itself in the foot.. I'd sooner consumer traffic returned In-world to where it belongs. LL lost 1300 Estate sims in 1 year to 31 Jan 2012.....a lost of around 3.25 to 3.50 Million USD tier income they won't have in 2012!!

I have several Facebook and Twitter accounts that are not tied to my real name....just depends how you use those accounts. I contact RL friends & family through other means

Avatars will end up looking like Breedables....with account name, display name, Group role or name, titler name...and now Community Titles.

His builds are a bit basic compared to what's out there nowadays....Scope is in a different league.