From Reuters: New SL site rankings may signal end to camping
Text: Eric Reuters
Linden Lab is working to revamp its current traffic ranking system, which has long been manipulated by landowners who pay users to camp out for hours or days at a time in an attempt to climb to the top of the “Popular Places” list.
“It is clear that the current Traffic system is not an effective means of determining the success or popularity of a parcel, nor does it provide useful information about Residents visiting those parcels,” Linden executive Jeska Dzwigalski said in a blog post.
The “Popular Places” tab is often one of the first places that new Second Life users look when exploring the virtual world. But the sites listed almost never offer the rich educational and social content beloved by Second Life’s dedicated users. Due to property owners gaming the system, the top results often offer “free money” or adult-themed content.
Linden is seeking input on how to change its site rankings as a first step in improving Second Life’s in-world search engine. Dzwigalski said Linden will offer a “Second Life Showcase” of content it feels best represents its virtual world.
The current system gave rise to the Second Life phenomena known as “camping”: in order to boost their listing on Linden’s traffic rankings, landowners pay avatars called “campers” simply to visit the sim and spend time there. Camping benches, which pay cash to an avatar simply for sitting on them, are ubiquitous at top ranked sites.
“The system was completely gamed and useless,” said Taran Rampersad, author of “Making Your Mark In Second Life: Business, Land and Money.”
Surprisingly, many owners of sites currently listed on the “Popular Place” list say they don’t mind the change.
“We all knew that the popular list wouldn’t last forever, and it will force some of the islands to reconsider their whole marketing strategy,” said Doug Sievers (Second Life: Doug Pau), whose “Freebie Island” currently ranks as the sixth most popular place in Second Life.
Sievers and other camping site owners complain that even as they’re gaming Second Life’s rankings, users are gaming them. The past few months have seen a rise in “bots,” software-controlled avatars that take up every open camping chair. The bots have forced camping sites into an arms race of open seats and pushed camping rates down from as high as L$24 per hour to under L$3.
“One of my associates and I worked out how much the ‘camping bots’ could be potentially making if they just ran 3 PCs on a 24 hour schedule and it was well over a few hundred dollars a day,” Sievers said.
While the absolute sums are trivial — L$24 translates to less than nine American cents — within Second Life’s economy they can represent significant pocket money. Many avatars have no access to credit cards and no way to purchase in-world currency, and in Second Life’s inexpensive economy, many virtual goods are priced from L$1 to L$10.
If the traffic rating is eliminated, one unexpected result may be a decrease in Linden’s population metrics. It’s impossible to measure how many of the roughly 60,000 avatars typically online in Second Life are campers or camping bots, but it is widely considered to be a significant component of Linden’s population. Second Life’s total hours may also fall sharply.
The camping sites say bots poisoned the old model anyway, and they’re ready to adapt.
“Things change and the system needs to be changed,” said Kenneth Boone, whose Second Life avatar Tray Dyrssen runs the number three and four ranked places in Second Life, “Money Island” and “Money Tree Island.”
“I am not worried about the popular places,” Boone said. “We are able to build interesting things to bring in the traffic.”
Dear readers what do you think about the end of camp? Will that be good for the SL economy?
Showing posts with label Reuters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reuters. Show all posts
Friday, May 2, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
What is coming up next on Second Life?
This is a Reuters article: The last big feature: “HTML on a prim” by By Eric Reuters.
Speaking last summer at the Second Life Community Convention, Philip Rosedale pledged that stability would be Linden Lab’s top priority for the coming year, plus two major new features: the introduction of voice, now live in the virtual world, and the ability to access web pages inside Second Life.
Earlier this month, Linden took a major step towards realizing the second half of Rosedale’s wishlist with the release of a new test version of the Second Life software. Insiders call the long-awaited feature “HTML on a prim,” for the ability to display the language web pages are written in (HTML) on the basic building blocks of Second Life objects (prims).
What it means, to hear Linden Lab executives speak, is to allow people to share the any experience that can be had on the World Web Web, collectively through Second Life. “You can have the experience of watching a video — dare I say YouTube? — with other people at the same time,” Rosedale told Reuters last week in a Second Life interview.
The current test version has nowhere near that capability. Only one URL, or web page, can be used in a given parcel of land. Eventually URLs will be tied to virtual objects, a substantially more difficult task. But as a prototype the functionality works.
Rosedale, noting the shift in his Second Life usage towards educational institutions and non-profits, said he imagined the earliest uses of the new feature would lie in creating “virtual white boards” to share ideas between people in remote locations.
“Today, you have to take screenshots of your slides and upload them as textures, which normal people just aren’t going to do,” he said. Coding a presentation as a webpage is substantially easier.
Eventually, more capabilities will be added. “We’re shooting a lot higher then just ‘HTML on a prim’,” said Samuel Kolb, a Linden developer working on the project. “Anything you can do on the Web, you should be able to do within Second Life.”
Rosedale shied away from promising a deadline for the general release of the new feature, but when pressed said he hoped to have a first version by the end of year. “If you wanted to be all Steve Jobs about it, you wouldn’t say anything to the public until it was all ready and finished,” he joked.
What you think about this innovation? Had you hear about it? Do you think this will transform Second Life? Please leave your comment about this topic.
Speaking last summer at the Second Life Community Convention, Philip Rosedale pledged that stability would be Linden Lab’s top priority for the coming year, plus two major new features: the introduction of voice, now live in the virtual world, and the ability to access web pages inside Second Life.
Earlier this month, Linden took a major step towards realizing the second half of Rosedale’s wishlist with the release of a new test version of the Second Life software. Insiders call the long-awaited feature “HTML on a prim,” for the ability to display the language web pages are written in (HTML) on the basic building blocks of Second Life objects (prims).
What it means, to hear Linden Lab executives speak, is to allow people to share the any experience that can be had on the World Web Web, collectively through Second Life. “You can have the experience of watching a video — dare I say YouTube? — with other people at the same time,” Rosedale told Reuters last week in a Second Life interview.
The current test version has nowhere near that capability. Only one URL, or web page, can be used in a given parcel of land. Eventually URLs will be tied to virtual objects, a substantially more difficult task. But as a prototype the functionality works.
Rosedale, noting the shift in his Second Life usage towards educational institutions and non-profits, said he imagined the earliest uses of the new feature would lie in creating “virtual white boards” to share ideas between people in remote locations.
“Today, you have to take screenshots of your slides and upload them as textures, which normal people just aren’t going to do,” he said. Coding a presentation as a webpage is substantially easier.
Eventually, more capabilities will be added. “We’re shooting a lot higher then just ‘HTML on a prim’,” said Samuel Kolb, a Linden developer working on the project. “Anything you can do on the Web, you should be able to do within Second Life.”
Rosedale shied away from promising a deadline for the general release of the new feature, but when pressed said he hoped to have a first version by the end of year. “If you wanted to be all Steve Jobs about it, you wouldn’t say anything to the public until it was all ready and finished,” he joked.
What you think about this innovation? Had you hear about it? Do you think this will transform Second Life? Please leave your comment about this topic.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Linden looks outside the company for new CEO
SECOND LIFE, March 20 (Reuters) - Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab who is stepping down as chief executive, told Reuters on Thursday he was looking to bring in someone from outside the company rather than promote from within.
He also said the new CEO would have the freedom to change elements of Linden’s quirky culture.
“Companies always talk about the fear of losing their culture because parts of their culture are lame,” he said. “It would be inconsistent of me to bring someone in and say ‘Listen, buddy, you have to use the love machine.’”
Rosedale spoke at length in a Second Life interview about what Linden Lab was looking for in a new chief executive. He is leading the search and will become chairman of Linden’s board once a replacement is found.
The most important criteria, he said, was to find someone who’s had experience growing a small company into a global player. No one at Linden Lab brings the right résumé to the job.
“We need someone who’s done this stuff on a organizational scale we haven’t,” Rosedale said. “We’re all relatively junior.”
In describing the skills he was looking for in his replacement, Rosedale said the new chief should already be a passionate user of Second Life. They also have to be “a great coach” who will work well with Linden’s staff.
“And they have to have complementary skill sets to mine,” he said. “Because I’m staying and will still be involved.”
Experience operating in a global information technology market is necessary. Rosedale pointed to Second Life’s large non-American resident population and the company’s confusion last year as it began to charge VAT to European Second Life users.
“Me, I’m a California guy, all the way,” he said.
Looking forward to the year ahead, Rosedale expressed optimism about the new “HTML-on-a-prim” feature in development, but said his company’s top priorities remain making Second Life easier to use, and improving the stability of the software.
He said Second Life is currently able to turn between three and five percent of new registrants into committed users, compared with ten to fifteen percent for sites like Facebook or LinkedIn.
“I want my new role to be about getting that retention up,” he said. “I don’t want the community thinking I’m reducing my hours.”
By Eric Reuters from Reuters
I will love to have the community comments on this information.
He also said the new CEO would have the freedom to change elements of Linden’s quirky culture.
“Companies always talk about the fear of losing their culture because parts of their culture are lame,” he said. “It would be inconsistent of me to bring someone in and say ‘Listen, buddy, you have to use the love machine.’”
Rosedale spoke at length in a Second Life interview about what Linden Lab was looking for in a new chief executive. He is leading the search and will become chairman of Linden’s board once a replacement is found.
The most important criteria, he said, was to find someone who’s had experience growing a small company into a global player. No one at Linden Lab brings the right résumé to the job.
“We need someone who’s done this stuff on a organizational scale we haven’t,” Rosedale said. “We’re all relatively junior.”
In describing the skills he was looking for in his replacement, Rosedale said the new chief should already be a passionate user of Second Life. They also have to be “a great coach” who will work well with Linden’s staff.
“And they have to have complementary skill sets to mine,” he said. “Because I’m staying and will still be involved.”
Experience operating in a global information technology market is necessary. Rosedale pointed to Second Life’s large non-American resident population and the company’s confusion last year as it began to charge VAT to European Second Life users.
“Me, I’m a California guy, all the way,” he said.
Looking forward to the year ahead, Rosedale expressed optimism about the new “HTML-on-a-prim” feature in development, but said his company’s top priorities remain making Second Life easier to use, and improving the stability of the software.
He said Second Life is currently able to turn between three and five percent of new registrants into committed users, compared with ten to fifteen percent for sites like Facebook or LinkedIn.
“I want my new role to be about getting that retention up,” he said. “I don’t want the community thinking I’m reducing my hours.”
By Eric Reuters from Reuters
I will love to have the community comments on this information.
Friday, March 7, 2008
The first days of Second Life
The following is a book summary that originally appeared on Reuters.com.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - When executives from San Francisco-based Linden Lab built Second Life, they had a sense they were doing something historic. So, to keep tabs on their creation, they contracted their own journalist to chronicle the growth of the Internet’s first virtual world.
Now that chronicler, Wagner James Au, has released a comprehensive history of Second Life’s early days in his book “The Making of Second Life: Notes from the New World” (HarperCollins, $25.95).
Second Life has lost some of its buzz in the past year. Growth has leveled, and media investigations have highlighted possible fraud and child pornography within its borders. Early hopes of Second Life’s potential to market real-world brands largely failed in practice. But with 1.2 million active users, it is still the dominant player in a rapidly expanding virtual worlds industry, with the most content and a highly loyal fan base.
It may surprise readers of Au’s book to find that Linden Lab originally wanted a simulation of the natural world. What actually transpired is quite different.
While many people have a Second Life character — called an “avatar” — that looks like them, others pick talking cartoon animals or blinking robots. The environments are similarly varied, from reproductions of European cities to areas with a fantasy or science-fiction theme.
Repeatedly, Linden Lab set out to offer one product, only to find a combination of financial restraints and input from their customers pushing them into marketing something very different.
ACCIDENTAL FLIGHT
For example, one of Second Life’s most distinctive and memorable experiences is flying. With the click of a button, an avatar will soar gracefully into the stratosphere, exactly as one might imagine Superman does it.
But flight, as Au recalls, was practically an accident. In a virtual world filled with hills and buildings, no one had the time for the more difficult task of programming an avatar’s ability to climb.
Similarly, Linden Lab assumed it would create an in-world experience for avatars to play in. It was only after programmers started using their own product they realized it would be better to allow their users to build their world for them.
Linden’s users quickly began constructing their own buildings, clothing, and nightclubs. Pleased to have their users create content, Linden tried to encourage the practice with a system of ratings. An avatar could register an endorsement of a particularly attractive home with the click of a mouse.
“It’s fair to say the voting boxes began to be abused almost the very moment they were introduced,” Au writes.
Cliques of users banded together to vote positively or negatively en masse, in exchange for favors or to pursue petty vendettas.
The ratings system was eventually abandoned. Like so much else in Second Life, including the in-world currency called the “Linden Dollar,” the ability to buy and sell land, or the popularity of adult-themed virtual goods and services, users had their own ideas about the technology and what best to do with it.
Au dedicates his book to those creators of content. “They’re more important to the world’s success than the company which actually owns it,” he said.
As new virtual worlds come online and try to lure some of Second Life’s users and hype, the story of how Second Life came to be may provide a road map for others.
“Second Life isn’t the only model, but ultimately I think it’s the only reliable one,” Au said. “Otherwise, a company will be forced to produce content to an ever-demanding audience of largely passive consumers. That’s destined to fail.”
(Reporting by Eric Krangel; Editing by Eddie Evans)
from Reuters
If you have a history about the old times of SL and would like to share with us please get in touch with me (Anna Avalanche). I would love to publish it!
NEW YORK (Reuters) - When executives from San Francisco-based Linden Lab built Second Life, they had a sense they were doing something historic. So, to keep tabs on their creation, they contracted their own journalist to chronicle the growth of the Internet’s first virtual world.
Now that chronicler, Wagner James Au, has released a comprehensive history of Second Life’s early days in his book “The Making of Second Life: Notes from the New World” (HarperCollins, $25.95).
Second Life has lost some of its buzz in the past year. Growth has leveled, and media investigations have highlighted possible fraud and child pornography within its borders. Early hopes of Second Life’s potential to market real-world brands largely failed in practice. But with 1.2 million active users, it is still the dominant player in a rapidly expanding virtual worlds industry, with the most content and a highly loyal fan base.
It may surprise readers of Au’s book to find that Linden Lab originally wanted a simulation of the natural world. What actually transpired is quite different.
While many people have a Second Life character — called an “avatar” — that looks like them, others pick talking cartoon animals or blinking robots. The environments are similarly varied, from reproductions of European cities to areas with a fantasy or science-fiction theme.
Repeatedly, Linden Lab set out to offer one product, only to find a combination of financial restraints and input from their customers pushing them into marketing something very different.
ACCIDENTAL FLIGHT
For example, one of Second Life’s most distinctive and memorable experiences is flying. With the click of a button, an avatar will soar gracefully into the stratosphere, exactly as one might imagine Superman does it.
But flight, as Au recalls, was practically an accident. In a virtual world filled with hills and buildings, no one had the time for the more difficult task of programming an avatar’s ability to climb.
Similarly, Linden Lab assumed it would create an in-world experience for avatars to play in. It was only after programmers started using their own product they realized it would be better to allow their users to build their world for them.
Linden’s users quickly began constructing their own buildings, clothing, and nightclubs. Pleased to have their users create content, Linden tried to encourage the practice with a system of ratings. An avatar could register an endorsement of a particularly attractive home with the click of a mouse.
“It’s fair to say the voting boxes began to be abused almost the very moment they were introduced,” Au writes.
Cliques of users banded together to vote positively or negatively en masse, in exchange for favors or to pursue petty vendettas.
The ratings system was eventually abandoned. Like so much else in Second Life, including the in-world currency called the “Linden Dollar,” the ability to buy and sell land, or the popularity of adult-themed virtual goods and services, users had their own ideas about the technology and what best to do with it.
Au dedicates his book to those creators of content. “They’re more important to the world’s success than the company which actually owns it,” he said.
As new virtual worlds come online and try to lure some of Second Life’s users and hype, the story of how Second Life came to be may provide a road map for others.
“Second Life isn’t the only model, but ultimately I think it’s the only reliable one,” Au said. “Otherwise, a company will be forced to produce content to an ever-demanding audience of largely passive consumers. That’s destined to fail.”
(Reporting by Eric Krangel; Editing by Eddie Evans)
from Reuters
If you have a history about the old times of SL and would like to share with us please get in touch with me (Anna Avalanche). I would love to publish it!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Linden Lab bans extortionate “ad farms"
SECOND LIFE, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Linden Lab has banned “ad farms,” the small plots of land with gaudy advertisements that are designed to extort neighboring landowners.
“Whilst advertising in itself is okay, where it crosses the line into harassing behavior or visual spam, where the intent is purely to compel another resident to pay an unreasonable price to restore their view - then this will be covered under Harassment in our Community Standards,” Jack Linden wrote in a blog post.
“It will obviously be difficult for us to define exactly where example A is an abuse issue as compared to example B where it is not,” he added. “‘Ad Farm’ will apply specifically to advertising or content that is intended solely to drive an unreasonable price for the parcel it is on, usually by spoiling the view of others.”
Early reaction from Second Life residents was largely positive, but concerns over what will be considered an “ad farm” linger. “It’s imperfect, but it’s a start,” said Taran Rampersad, who writes about Second Life under the avatar name Nobody Fugazi. “Linden Lab taking this step indicates a willingness to deal with the harder questions to come.”
Jeff Strohman, a Second Life land trader known in-world as Stetson Rail, was so exasperated by ad farmers he said he considered a lawsuit, but opted not to take action due to the costs of suing an avatar physically located in another country. He estimated ad farms lower the value of adjacent land by 20 percent.
Beyond the economic damage ad farms cause, there’s also the aesthetic one, Strohman said. “They only hurt Second Life and make it look like a damn junkyard,” he said.
(Image courtesy of Carl Metropolitan)
By Eric Reuters
From Reuters
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