Jubilynn Lane

The Traffic calc is back to how it was. (as of 12-20) Glitch or Experiment? With Linden Labs you never know I hope it was actually an experiment. The numbers yesterday much closer approximation to 'live traffic' . Time will see if they change it.

The 'sim' is the product, many of those sims offer RP rentals, or a min game "meter combat ' for instance of some type. They are enganged in a program of driving new traffic to their sims to encourage people to use the sim's services, what ever those services might be. RPG sims, use that trick to drive new players to a sim. I don't' disagree that if your not a 'new ' player, you kind of know the trick so its not as effective. Saying its 'not effective' is a misstatement however, we've literally run several experiments with it, and it clearly works to drive new people to your sim. What you do with them once they get there, is kinda where most sims miss the mark. But saying it doesn't work as a means to get new visitors, is factually not true. The reason I noticed this traffic change, and made the post, was we were actually in the middle of an experiment right now about two weeks in. And 'new ' user engagement was up over 100%, simply by us leaving a couple of 'bots' on to push us up the search. It clearly works. But it shouldn't work, its clearly bad of the grid for all the reasons discussed in this thread. I'd be happy if they did actually change the calculations to exclude idle avatars.

The point is to drive new user traffic to your sim. The stat places you higher in the search. It clearly works btw. We've tested it many times.

You miss the point entirely, those Avatars , on sims, use CPU time and band with, On Amazon Cloud, which LL pays for. Those Avatars are 'ghosts' they are free accounts that conduct no commerce on SL or Marketplace. They are ONLY a lability for LL. Their only purpose from users is to 'game' the traffic number. if you can't do that anymore they serve no purpose, their use will discontinue, and all that CPU and Bandwidth LL pays Amazon for , goes away. Thus, LL clearly pays for 'traffic' though Amazon, the less time avatars are being rendered on the server less CPU time and Bandwidth LL pays Amazon for.

Summarizing comments: 1. I agree, time will tell if the was intentional or not. 2. Looking at my home sim, and across multiple other sims, it seems today's (12/19) traffic (yesterdays actual traffic) only included times unique avatars were not idle. Under the already posted by LL's : http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/About_Traffic That seemed to work out, for those places we could account for idle avatars vs active avatars using 'back of napkin' math. We shall see how it works out going forward. But LLs may have a motivation for discouraging bot traffic avatars, beyond the in world 'quality of product' issue: Money. The move to Amazon cloud changed their cost model a bit, it was one thing when these bot accounts were considered 'sunk cost' and were using bandwidth and cpu time that was 'excess' and LLs already owned the capacity on. Now that they are on Amazon Cloud services, LL is paying a cost on these logged in avi's ( all the server side render metadata, asset server and scripting calls ect) on accounts that have zero income to LL's. Its an interesting take, that these ghost accounts are a '1000 paper cuts' for LLs with the move to the cloud.

Well, It looks like Linden Labs finally made good on the 2009 traffic policy. If you look at the traffic numbers in search today, its seems like they finally stopped counting idle dwell time from traffic "bots" or afk accounts that are clearly logged in just to count on the traffic numbers. Bunch of discussion today in world in various groups, but overall I think this is a good move Despite what 'you' might do , the traffic number is clearly a useful thing for a new user to find sims with active traffic, and this was also, clearly being 'gamed' by using afk accounts. Lets see if they stick to this or if its just a fluke.

Thank You for all your wonderful submissions and suggestions for naming our six 2015 Convention Sims! As promised, voting is now open! Your votes will be combined with the staff votes to name our 2015 Sims! http://slscificonvention.wordpress.com/

2015 Second Life Sci-Fi Convetion Booth & Exhibitor Registration Live! Registration for the 2015 Second Life Sci-Fi Convention has gone Live! The Convention will be held Feburary 20th - March 1st and will feature over 105 exhibitors! Sign Up now, while there is still space: http://slscificonvention.wordpress.com/booth-information/ Wether your a Sci-fi Group, Sim, or content creator be a part of this great event and fund raiser!

Cruising the Exhibit booths is fun and exciting, but the real excitement at the Convention are the Events! Convention events are held throughout the day and night and cater to the many interests of our convention goers. This year, we are making it even easier for you to sponsor or run an event at the convention, check out the Event Registration: http://slscificonvention.wordpress.com/2014/11/15/event-sign-ups-are-live/ Check it out !

Its Exactly rasing funds for the American Cancer Society. Last year the convention raised over a million lindens for the ACS.

Last Year’s Jules Verne / Incredible Island Water Theme was a great success, this year we have an exciting new theme for our builders and visitors! We’re doing our most ambitious Estate ever! What will this years convention, 20 February - 1 March 2015, be? Interested? check it out here: http://slscificonvention.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/2015-convention-theme-announced/ Exhibitor Registration Here: http://slscificonvention.wordpress.com/booth-information/

Registration for the 2015 Second Life Sci-Fi Convention has gone Live! The Convention will be held Feburary 20th - March 1st and will feature over 105 exhibitors! Sign Up now, while there is still space: http://slscificonvention.wordpress.com/booth-information/ Wether your a Sci-fi Group, Sim, or content creator be a part of this great event and fund raiser!