The Lindens Ban Ad Farming, But Can They Enforce It?

Company land manager Jack Linden has announced a continent-wide ban on "unlicensed network advertising", more commonly known as Ad Farms.  ("We are specifically referring to the practice of using many parcels over multiple regions, especially small micro parcels where the predominant purpose of the land is to hold advertising.") On October 1st, this business strategy, near universally regarded as a scourge to overall land values and civic grief, will be banned.

Of course, last Feburary, the Lindens also announced a ban on obtrusive billboard advertising in Feburary, but it's still quite easy to find such signs blighting the vast mainland.  I found a billboard and  the Ad Farm pictured above after randomly exploring for three minutes.  All of which reminds me of something famed MMORPG designer Lum Lumley told us last Monday:

Online Surveys & Market Research

[The] crackdown on errant zoning needs to be visible and accountable. Simply announcing a policy and then not enforcing it (as is the case with the ad/spam farm takedown notices) merely reinforces a sense of bad governance.

So on November 1st or thereabouts, I'll be conducting a random survey of the mainland, to see how consistently the new policy is being enforced.  (I may need volunteers.)  Given the size of the two main continents, the number of active users, and the apparent pervasiveness of Ad Farms, how many of these eyesores do you think we'll find?

Comments

[Christophe Hugo]

No, they can't enforce it: they are too busy trying to change their "brand image" by removing very offensive materials, such as my caricature of Bush "looking nude behind his banjo" (dixit Minerva Linden):

http://www.the-avastar.com/second-life/news/2008/july/linden-lab-scares-away-satirist/article/lab-scares-away-satirist/

[Kate Amdahl]

You know, my gut is telling me they're actually going to enforce it. Maybe it's that it seems specific and easy to enforce, or I might just be a sucker, but I think they're really going to do it. I haven't voted in the survey, though, because I don't really know what success would look like, other than utter success and the erasure of all ad farms immediately. How many ad farm sites would I find in an hour on the mainland now? Thousands? If that's accurate (and I don't know, but it seems like the right scale), then wouldn't 100 ad sites in an hour's search on the mainland on November 1st be dramatic proof of success, even though it would mean the process wasn't finished? Although a month seems like a perfectly generous period to wait before seeing how things turn out.

^^^\ Kate /^^^

[Corcosman Voom]

Can they enforce it?

Yes.

Will they enforce it in a "visible and accountable" manner?

Hope springs eternal.

[Dedric Mauriac]

You may want to talk to Christiano Midnight of SLUniverse about this. He can setup a special email for everyone to email in-world snapshots to and make a special category for them. This could be adfarm at the sl pics domain (dot com) as one example.

[Elysia Snook]

Getting rid of ad farms would be great-- Now if the zoning police could do something about all the darn banlines and ground-level security orbs one runs into while exploring the mainland...

[Allergic to Ad Farms]

"He can setup a special email for everyone to email in-world snapshots to and make a special category for them. This could be adfarm at the sl pics domain (dot com) as one example."

Exactly. Let's help the Lindens out with this. Please?

[Nexus Burbclave]

I'm still very curious about the sudden about face on inworld licensing. Their party line during the banking closures was that they would not under any circumstances become a licensing body. Now all of a sudden, here we are. If they are going to set a new precedent, they really ought to re-visit the idea of licensing in-world banking.

In a virtual setting, consistent governance is the closest we get to the rule of law, which is an essential element for anyone with business interests inworld. It would be nice if they would at least address this inconsistency publicly, especially if there are no plans of revisiting their earlier decision.

[Troy McLuhan]

Linden Lab allows real banks to operate inside SL. Linden Lab doesn't have to license those banks; there are already systems in place for banks to become legitimate, regulated banks (with the mechanism varying from country to country).

[Nexus Burbclave]

Troy, I get what you are saying, but I still don't think it lives up to the "your world, your imagination" ideals. In world, one can be an architect, a real estate broker, and several other things that require licensing in first life. Banking and soon advertising are the exceptions to the rule. I don't disagree that both sectors were in desperate need of some sort of regulation, but I do think there should be some consistency in how that regulation is applied. If they can make an ammended TOS work in the case of advertising, then I think they should at least consider revisiting that for banking. They wouldn't even be the first to implement an in-world licensing model for the financial sector. MindArk already has such a system, in a world with a similarly convertible currency.

[Laetizia Coronet]

Of course they can enforce this ad farm policy - and of course they won't. All over the Mainland there's lots and lots of unmaintained or badly maintained land owned by Governor Linden, some of it with heaps of freebies spread across it. There is noone available, apparently, to cleanup or to dot the proverbial "i's".
So I don't see this happening at all.

[anomouse]

They have banned ad farms already.. and it dosent work. This is nothing more then PR on the Labs part that seems to be all they are able to do lol
O but now you can buy a "lic" to have an ad farm LOL

[BJ Tabor]

They'll enforce it, but since the real point of add farming is extortion they add farms will just morph into something just as irritation that flies just under the Liden rules. Like the same ugly, rotating prims with out the "For Sale" signs on them. This will just keep on going until Liden breaks down and takes away the basic toys for these idiots like the 16m plot.

[Delazouch Ashby]

I reported an ad farm before the ban, a 16 sq metre parcel with an advert for "free sex" etc on it. One of my neighbours put it there after I told him about the ban coming into force because he has another even bigger full bright ad elsewhere on the sim. He bought the 16 sq metre parcel (which had previously been for sale at about L$10000) after I'd had a word with him, then stuck the advert on it!

So I reported it and they removed it. My neighbour then put the land up for sale at around L$300 and I bought it because it's on an old ad farm patch next to my land and I had bought several of the other small parcels with the idea of eventually joining them. No such luck as the owners don't reply when I offer them anything.

The next thing it all escalates. Because I'd been foolish enough to warn my neighbour about the ban he'd obviously guessed it was me that had the ad removed. So, my neighbour appeared and start scouting around the perimeter of my land, I could see him looking and pointing as he was checking out objects. I thought at first that he might be trying to find a reason to report me but I have made sure that not 1 single tree or any other object goes onto anyone else's land. I'm considerate for my neighbours and one of them even lives inside the park I've built, I built her a stone cottage to fit in with the surroundings. So, evil ad neighbour, let's call him Targon Kumaki for the sake of this, after half an hour of nosing around finally settles on one side at the sim border where his land is adjacent to mine. He then proceeds to build a giant wall against my land blocking the sky, towering over 2 of my other neighbours' land and my copy of stone henge. I'm sure there's a moral to this story but um.. anyway...