Hunter, Traffic and Myths

I confess, I am not a huge 'hunt' participant. However, I do recognise the appeal and the fun of the 'hunt' and I hold a view that when there is fun involved in something, and gifts made with care that it all helps create good feelings that get carried along to the next person one encounters. To me this makes sense, so it was not a difficult decision to share some of my textures in the Building Blocks Hunt, and an outfit for the Ostara Hunt. I also expect that there will be a degree of mutuality in terms of good will and pleasantness. What was unexpected was the sheer, unadulterated rudeness of many of the hunters to the vendors participating.

The Building Block hunters in particular contained a particularly ill-mannered group who seemed to feel that whining, whinging, bitching, complaining and generally dribbling was their right in exchange for the 'traffic' they brought. To me, anyone behaving in this way should either not go in a hunt or simply be given a chock for their trailer wheels. ... I need to be clear here, I only encountered one rude person and that was nothing the eject button couldn't solve swiftly. However, some vendors giving freely to the hunt were harassed and abused to the extent that the hunter group was disbanded and some vendors removed themselves and their gifts from the hunt.

Now I have heard this word 'traffic' used like some form of gold nugget that people hold up to sim owners but I never understood what they meant. Here's a tip ... 'traffic' is neither here nor there for many of us. I do fine out of my little 'artistic' ventures, I don't use 'bots' (whatever THEY are *makes note to look that up*) and there are many ways to feature in the 'search' menu without having people tp-ing in clicking and tp-ing out. I never really understood the 'traffic' thing but listening to other vendors, this seemed to be a constant justification for ill-manners and general naff-ness. I decided to find out more about it

It seems that at one time, traffic on a sim had two benefits:

1) Ranking in Search results (under popular places). .... In 2010 the 'traffic' influence on this is less clear. It seems that satisfied customers having a place in their picks, or paying for a classified seems more helpful; and
2) L$ payments based on the number of avatars on a sim and some form of additional L$ bonus for the highest ranking sites..... However, this practice ceased in mid 2006 - almost four years ago! The following statement from LL clarifies the situation to date:

"There are currently no official Traffic incentive programs in place; owners of popular parcels do not receive any Linden dollar bonuses based on their Traffic scores."

It seems clear that sim/business owners do not get some kind of financial recompense for traffic. OK - that's THAT myth knocked on the head. So now we know those that hold the 'traffic gold nugget' up as some form of 'I'm entitled to be rude and naff' talisman - are also hopelessly out of date.

So then I decided to see how, IF traffic WAS important, how it was in fact, calculated. It appears from LL that traffic is one point per avatar per minute but only for avatars that do not move to another parcel for at least five minutes:

"In 2006 traffic was changed to be a minute an avatar spends in a parcel but only for avatars that do not move to another parcel for at least five minutes"

Now looking at the average hunter, the use of 'wireframe' to search, the presence of 'cheat sheets', 'official' hints and people tp-ing their friends in and pointing to the item and then tp-ing out again, the chances of anyone apart from the noob remaining long enough to register as 'traffic' seems to me in the words of the Great John Cleese.. 'to be an act of the purest optimism' - if indeed traffic IS meaningful at all to anyone other than the LL statisticians.

In reality, people either like your creations or they don't. They either buy things, or they don't.

So as a content creator that owns a class five sim at almost $400USD/month, enjoys pottering about making stuff and sharing it, and one who has the ability to pay for a classified ad.. I remain bewildered at why 'traffic' for the sake of 'traffic' is supposed to be a Good Thing. I'm even more bewildered as to why anyone would think 'traffic' is the magic word to somehow 'justify' poor behaviour.

What I DO know is this, people who feel they are entitled to whinge and whine can get out of my 'garden' - the virtual roses don't need the horsesh**t.

Content Creators in SL Commence Action Against Content Theft

Just about every content creator in Second Life is concerned about the epidemic level of copying and straight out rip off of their designs and goods in Second Life. Short of being under a virtual rock it would be impossible not to be aware.

It's not clear whether it's the introduction of the copybot program or the increased use of third party viewers with their additional 'features' that has enabled such widespread theft, but one thing IS for sure, when Linden Labs uses as one of their main 'selling' points to prospective residents the ability to create content in SL (on the Linden Labs servers) they neglected to add the little 'detail' that once created and 'planted' in the SL 'fields', the creation will quite probably be harvested and resold in SL and other grid and Internet based markets by opportunistic thieves. Linden Labs also don't say that in fact their response to content theft is inadequate and slow to the point of enabling the content thieves. Yet it is all occurring on LL servers on a grid administered by LL salaried professional staff.

I have heard many (probably kids and those with the IQ of a carrot) that SL is a 'game', that it isn't 'real' money, that this doesn't matter, that it's not 'real' theft, that the content creators are 'only in it for the money' and somehow 'deserve' to be ripped off; that it's no big deal. Let's dig a hole, scrape the abovementioned idiot group into it and look at this issue logically....

Second Life is enhanced by the content created by residents. Without it there are no shopping, clubs, builds, great sims and environments to explore and enjoy, no virtual weapons, spaceships, vehicles etc. There are no schools, universities, community discussion and self help groups. In short.. what would it look like without content creators' creations? Cos funnily enough, it isn't Linden Lab providing all that you enjoy and that enhances your SL experience.

Without content creators you may as well be on email. Oh wait.. someone created email too..

Now here is the odd thing.. you may need to really engage brains and think about this.... ready.... this is a biggie....sitting comfortably for this Big Revealing Fact?

Content creation takes time.

'OMG!' I hear you say!....'It does?'

See, content does not create itself. (Told you this was a Big Fact..)

Content creation time at the hourly rate of say a web page developer = $
NOT lindens which can be converted to USD, but real money in real time. See here's the odd thing.. braced for another Big Fact?...

People.. real people.. with real computers, and real flesh and blood bodies at real keyboards with real (expensive) 3D and graphics programs... use their tools and skills to CREATE something that others can use. Yet for some reason, when it comes to bringing their creations into SL and even charging for it, they make themselves the target of those who feel they are entitled to a freebie life (the Gimmee-gimmee toddler mentality) or those who want to make a quick buck by stealing and reselling ( the 'psst wanna buy a watch...it fell off the back of a truck' brigade).

So what are content creators doing about this situation?

Well one group has lodged a submission for Class action against Linden Labs in the NY Supreme Court. For those unaware, a class action is a group of content creators in this instance - not just one content creator.

The 'Step Up' Campaign has been established and the number of content creators joining this campaign and taking strategic action is growing daily. Among these actions are 'designated no upload days'. As Linden Labs charges 10L for every texture and file upload this may help demonstrate a level of economic impact - of course the problem with this is that there will probably be double uploads the following day, but at least LL may be able to have a measure of the level of dissatisfaction and concern. The first designated 'no upload day' is November 5th slt. (see: http://stepupsl.wordpress.com/)

One would think that LL would already be able to identify these figures given they form a large part of the ongoing LL income.. but it seems either they 1) have not the technology to count these uploads and report on them in their monthly financial reports or 2) they don't think them significant enough to be concerned about. I doubt the former and feel the latter would be foolish and short-sighted.

Another form of action is now increasing. Many content creators are now selling their creations on the web and delivering in virtual worlds directly. They are charging $USD via for example, paypal or credit card at a price they feel makes creation and selling creations worth their while. This of course seems sensible, particularly given most harvesting the lush fields of LL are selling the stolen goods to other grids - the Open Sim users being the largest market of opportunity.

So what does this mean for LL and content creator residents? Watch this space.

In the meantime, previous court actions taken against LL have offered obiter dictum that has been followed. That the SL economy is 'real' that it translates to $USD through legitimate conversion and exchange. That SL is NOT a game, it carries none of the pre-requisites of a 'game'. That SL is a social networking and economic/commercial/business venture. That the LL Terms of Service does not override contract and criminal law either domestic or international. I predict another out of court settlement to avoid hard precedent being set.

If this proposed class action succeeds, and there is no reason to believe it won't, this will herald in a new era for LL and content creators on the LL/SL grid.

And remember, every time someone rips off someones work, every time someone accepts the stolen goods either on SL or other grids, the eventual cost increases to all but the thief. Make no mistake, this is theft.

Content Theft, Copying and the Next Step: ES and Glitterati

Update on the recent posemaker case:

Glitterati & ES. Now renamed ES vs Glitterati

A Glitterati customer says there is an ES pose like one of yours.
Glitterati responds with 'they must have copied the Glitterati pose" - and shares this publicly despite clear evidence to the contrary.

This action was not only unreasonable and proved to be lacking in fact but marked the beginning of the corner into which Glitterati had placed themselves.

The poses in question were in fact clearly evidenced as having been developed and up-loaded to SL by ES prior to not only Glitterati's, but also prior to the Glitterati pictures placed on their Flickr site. It is hard to copy something someone made AFTER your creation!!

The latter fact still seems not to have permeated the minds behind Glitterati.

Perhaps Glitterati is a little confused and thinks that ES really means ESP?

Now the reasonable person would would engage the brain rather than the mouth at this stage, but not katy. In what could only be considered either a desperate face-saving exercise or an adolescent temper tanty, she embarks on a very public ES witchunt to the extent of calling on others to join her in this flaming and bullying of ES. This is rather like the yell of 'fight' or 'rumble' behind the bike sheds at school - you all know the type. The crowd forms, the bully blusters but sometimes, the 'reasonable' kid has had enough and bites back.

When this katy-led witchunt evolved into defamation and libel and republication of such on several sites on the world wide web. ES has no option but to defend its reputation.

Being reasonable people ES undertook this through the procedures set in place for dispute resolution.

Recent update:

Katy of Glitterati has not yet responded in a counter claim on the poses that Glitterati ( note: NOT ES!) was asked to decommission. The decommissioning was based on a Linden Labs (LL) investigation in which it was claimed that the Glitterati poses in question were in fact produced AFTER the ES poses. Glitterati claims that they did not defend in the appropriate manner as they wanted to continue to hide their 'real' identities - presumably from legal action arising from their actions.

However, katy and Glitterati did lodge their own claim with LL citing that 10 ES poses were copies of Glitterati's. This claim was also taken seriously by ES and LL. The poses subject to this claim were decommissioned as the claim was investigated, The cited poses were compared, found not to be copied and ES owners lodged a counter-claim, citing evidence to counter the Glitterati claims in accordance with proper procedures

Notice the difference in behaviours here. One party hides behind an avatar name and uses the web and the false sense of anonymity to mischievously flame, harass and defame in a baseless manner.

The party subjected to this behaviour takes appropriate action using proper grievance resolution procedures.

At this point the status is as follows:

ES has:

1. Provided evidence to LL in response to the mischievous Glitterati claims,
2. ES has filed a counter suit in response to the mischievous Glitterati claims (NOTE: no hiding behind false identities here!),
3. ES has engaged legal representation to undertake the counter suit.

One wonders when katy and her 'family' at Glitterati will work out that far from teen high jinx, their behaviour has stepped firmly into the realm of law. No wonder they seek to hide their 'real' identities. A writ served may well cause some questions around the dinner table.