Zindra

The graph above shows a trend in use of Hillcrest College, an adult RP community that relocated to Zindra in August. The graph shows, a marked decrease in those dropping into Hillcrest to sample the facilities via the free trial membership, but that paid memberships appear to have been holding steady and that a bigger impact in paid memberships came after the price rise back in March.

The graph, which was sent to me by Summer Haas, can lead to many conclusions. However it is abundantly clear that there is a decline in those who would previously at least have visited Hillcrest College to try a trial membership. Whether this is due to not finding the place in search, or because you need to be account verified to visit the land, we can't tell, but something has changed.

On the other hand, from a business point of view, it's clear that those who do take up paid memberships are largely account verified anyway, that's why those numbers are holding steady, the move has had little impact on paid memberships, which is where the bread and butter for paying for Hillcrest College comes from. The community would appear to be well organisted and perfectly capable of coping with the changes of the move.

What this graph suggests to me is that a business based around a community can adapt better to changes than a business based on drop in customers. There are signs of concern, the drop in free memberships means that there's less of a pool of people visiting who may decide to go from a trial account, to a paid account and there are commercial stores in the facility, so they will be seeing less customers, although less customers doesn't always mean less business, heck the graph shows that.
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Some of the owners of land in Zindra have a big issue with how Linden Lab are handling the issue of getting adult content moved to adult land. They are upset that estates are able to still operate on mature land. I'm not sure why they only pick on estates, as anyone with adult content on mature land is still able to trade but they keep moaning that estates haven't been forced to switch to adult and it's grossly unfair.

They have a point in some regards, people on mature land will be generating more business, people on mature land are still able to use adult keywords. They are losing business but they need to hold their nerve and they also need to appreciate that they are not yet being charged one cent in tier for their Zindra land. This is different to those still operating on mature land and those who have switched their estate land to adult, those guys are getting dinged for tier.

I have an adult homestead, there's nothing too bad on it, I just wanted an adult option, but I am getting charged tier for that adult homestead, I am not being charged tier for my Zindra parcel. I will be eventually of course but those setting up on Zindra now will be in a position of strength when the great switch over comes because they will already be there, those currently on mature land are going to have to move, or if it's estate land, the island owner will have to switch the maturity rating.

There will almost certainly be some fallout when estate owners have to make the decision to switch. Some won't and therefore tenants will have to move if they are selling adult content or services. A disaffected estate tenant will sometimes decide they no longer want to leave decisions in the hands of others and head for mainland, or in this case Zindra. They then have a bad view of estate rentals full stop. I'm pretty sure we'll see some sob stories in the next month or so.
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Jezebel Bailey sent me to bed last night, this was right after I told her that I had photographic evidence of Dough Linden naked and without a freenis. To be fair to Dough he was in a skin store where you want to check out your skin properly.

So Linden's are shopping, when a Linden shops at someone's store it makes them feel all warm and fuzzy, I know this because the store owner excitedly contacted me about it. Other people are shopping too, I know this because I do actually sell some stuff instead of moaning and hanging around with Jezebel Bailey.

However some people seem to be in panic mode. They are ready to push the big red button that says "Do not push". One area where I do see a tinge of concern is the mainland land sales market. Prices are low, low prices mean it will be cheaper for people to abandon than pay tier for another month. Land flippers, seen by many as the evil enemy, will be winding down their empires or putting them into hibernation.

Land flippers have their own hierarchy and often go in circles selling to each other, they generate tier for Linden Lab. Abandoned land generates no tier for Linden Lab. Selfishly I worry if there's a lot of abandoned land, then Linden Lab will turn to us remaining tier payers to pony up a few more bucks so I would like to see land prices rise a little. Right now a 512 can be purchased for around four bucks, if it were eight or ten bucks I don't think it would be a huge barrier to land ownership, tier costs are the long term cost and remain the long term barrier.
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When you're in the position of fighting to get your own way and insisting you're following the right path, you need a little bit of help at times. Help for Linden Lab at this time can come from residents. Those who have already moved to Zindra can rightly point out that the process is working.

However what you don't need is some numpty upsetting the applecart and alas, this is what happened when a resident whose reason for getting a full sim swap to Zindra was already being questioned, then went and did something extremely silly, they set the sim on Zindra for sale for the sum of L$1,000,000.

This undermines Linden Lab's claims that the first settlers in Zindra, those who are entitled to the free moves, are those who are most severely impacted by the new adult content policy. Linden Lab really don't need this sort of thing happening at this time.

The options open to Linden Lab are slim as they fully intend to auction land on Zindra, they can hardly ban reselling of land when they themselves intend to do it, but maybe they should point out to people that this sort of profiteering during the land migration period really isn't on. Whilst technically it's allowed, ethically it stinks, it's two fingers up not only at Linden Lab, but also at those residents who are anxiously waiting to see if their application for a land swap will be approved.

The sim has since been taken off the market and the owners are now erecting a castle but this sort of thing only adds to the discontent over this policy and the way it is being implemented. Linden Lab can't envisage every scenario but concerns about exactly this sort of thing happening have been raised with Linden Lab over the past three months. Whilst the queue is frozen it's time for Linden Lab to prevent resale for a period of say a month, then we don't have all these accusations about people gaming the system being thrown around so easily.

I have mixed views about the latest blip in the adult content saga. All land swaps are on hold until Wednesday July 8th, as blogged by Jack. This is good and bad news. The good news is more land is coming online, more waterfront and more choice.

The bad news is that it yet again exemplifies what a shocking display of customer service ineptitude this whole process is. Throughout this process Linden Lab have had feedback on how to improve the process, how to make it less painful, suggestions of far superior alternatives and all they have done is put on their "Blah Blah Blah we're not listening" headphones, they've done this from day one and they're still doing it today.

The whole thing is a disgrace, the people involved should be hugely embarrassed at how badly they've handled this. However there is hope during this pause that maybe someone will take the whole fiasco by the scruff of its neck and whip it into shape.

Anyone who owns mature mainland should be entitled to a swap to Zindra, absolutely anyone. They purchased that land under terms that are no longer valid, Linden Lab should use this pause to give those people what they paid for. Linden Lab moved the goalposts, for what reason is still a huge mystery because I still haven't seen people congratulating LL in any sort of large numbers over this policy. I still can't recall huge debates about the issue of adult content.

All Linden Lab had to do was:

Default all mature mainland to mature content, putting the onus on the parcel owner to identify if it was PG safe.

Ditto with classifieds on mature land.
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In a rather bizarre Jack Linden office hour the Freedom for Robo front accused the G-team of corruption, accused Linden Lab of following a socialist doctrine, threw in the word "communist" a lot and to put the icing on the cake one of them is conducting a hunger strike in support of Robo in the lobby of the Linden estate services building, I'm not making this up! How long they remain there is another issue but we were invited to pop by during the week amid claims that they will still be there at the same bat time on the same bat channel next week.

From the sidelines someone asked "Who is Robo Marx?" which generated many answers, some suggesting he's the messiah... he's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy. Attempts to raise Robo from the dead put him more in the Ra Ra Rasputin, Russia's greatest love machine category. I can picture it now, ten years from now in SL Che Guevara T-Shirts will have been replaced with Robo Marx T-Shirts, the great freedom fighter struck down by the establishment.

I thought it was just in the UK that we were experiencing summer madness due to the heat, seriously, two days of being in serious Betty Swollocks territory does strange things to one.

Meanwhile Jack promised that more waterfront land will be available in Zindra. The mess that is the adult content policy just gets murkier, already people are getting rather irked that so and so got a waterfront parcel when previously they had an empty parcel/no adult content/ they're fic/ Linden alts. Really, is everyone going off their rocker?
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Three months of feedback and Jack Linden shows that Linden Lab really do listen to the community by parcelling land on Zindra to make it easier for people to choose parcels. There you go, customer service at its finest.

Actually I'm only half kidding, the fact that they have cut parcels has came after residents asked for it so this is a response to residents, it's an easy one but it's still a response and that should be welcomed.

More interestingly Jack clarified the position of kid avatars on Zindra and I agree with his approach, on the blog post Jack said:

"Are child avatars allowed on Adult land? Child avatars are allowed on adult land as long as they are account verified like any other Resident. Those choosing to represent themselves with a child avatar do not represent a minor as the account holder. Not all adult land is going to be hosting adult content either. There is plenty of protected land on Zindra that will technically be adult but safe in terms of content. This however does not change any prior policies regarding child avatars. Sexual ageplay is not allowed anywhere on the grid, regardless of rating."

That's a sensible policy, the hoo-ha over kids on Zindra blew up on empty land for goodness sake, nobody has moved there. A kid AV in an orgy room would be bad, a kid AV standing in a monorail station shouldn't be bad and call me a prude but I don't see the need for people to be whipping out their avatar bits on every square inch of Zindra and nor it seems, do Linden Lab. { Read more }