We Need You in the Fight Against Land Extortionists and Ad Farms!

What is the problem?
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Parasites exist in Second Life who use land as an extortion and griefing weapon against you and your neighbors all over the mainland. They do this in numerous ways, but most often, they strategically cut land into small parcels, setting the prices for the parcels to extreme amounts (often well over 10x present Fair Market Value (FMV)), and then find ways within (and often outside of) the SL Terms of Service to “entice” you to “buy them out”. In times past, one of the methods was to use advertising or annoying/nusiance content to do so (large garish spinning For Sale towers, for example). However, a recent Linden Lab policy change has made such activities against the Terms of Service, so it is used by fewer and fewer of them, even though it still does occur. Other methods include the use of ban lines, or simply strategically cutting land such that it leaves donut holes or “cut corners” for future land owners to deal with.

Why is it a problem?
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Normally, setting land to a high price is not a big deal. If you see your neighbor set a price for his land that is absolutely outrageous, then that becomes his problem, as the market will sort the situation out. His land will probably never sell, but it really doesn’t matter to you, if his land is a medium-to-large parcel. It also doesn’t bother you, nor does it affect what you do on your land. However, with small parcels, there are several psychological effects at play. One is the “mosquito” effect. Being a small parcel, it is easy to look at the otherwise insane price per square meter and go “well, I can afford that”, biting the bullet, and letting the mosquito bite you and suck a little blood. Surely it doesn’t hurt all that bad, and the mosquito goes away. The problem is that the mosquito is a female, and will lay many “eggs”. Basically, by feeding the parasite, it multiplies. That money is immediately turned over and more plots are bought and cut up similarly, usually in newer sims, as people move in and find that the place is infested. In many cases, parcels in old, established regions are targeted, where an owner sells out for cheap, or abandons his land. The parasites descend, chop up the land, ad farms go up, and what was a once pristine neighborhood turns into a slum. The most devastating effect is to land values of the neighbors to ad farms. Usually, you can expect land adjacent to ad farms to drop to well under half its value overnight, once the land extortionists and ad farmers show up.

Small parcels, especially when they are strategically placed in or adjacent to your land, present a natural psychological temptation to “absorb” them. Sometimes, a corner of a build can now be freed up. Other times, it makes the rest of your parcel more aesthetically pleasing to you. Either way, the natural tendency is to want to organize your parcel with your neighbors’ around some plan. Small plots, especially 16sqm ones (4m x 4m, also known as “microplots” or “postage stamp” plots), are most enticing. The extortionists know this fact, and they have learned where best to place them for maximum effect on your desire to buy them.

Purchasing small parcels at outrageous prices is a losing proposition in terms of your property’s value. If you purchase a larger parcel at a certain price per square meter, then buy one or more extortionist parcels at an extreme price per sqm to add to it, the whole cost of your land goes up severely. When it comes time for you to sell, your overall profit will be lower (or loss will be higher, if you have to sell when the market is low). So, it is something to consider when you think about your land’s value to you, as well as its overall sale value to others.

Why does this apply only to the mainland?
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Private Island Estates are owned and managed by residents, and they are allowed to set whatever rules they wish. Since they are effectively their own private kingdoms, more or less, the owners can choose to allow or ban any activity they see fit. Private Island owners have a vested interest in what happens on their own lands, and will often act very quickly and proactively to issues that can threaten their peace and prosperity. As such, they are not considered as part of the problem, since they can put a stop to it any time they want.

The Mainland, in contrast, is owned and managed exclusively by Linden Lab on our behalf. It is a VERY large estate, and managed by only a few Lindens who are always overworked. The rules on the mainland are often very lax, to allow the greatest overall “communal” freedom for the residents who own land here. As a result, a good deal of anti-resident behavior is tolerated largely until it becomes a serious threat to LL’s bottom line with people leaving the mainland (”tiering down”), or leaving the service altogether.

Why don’t the Lindens stop it, then?
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Linden Lab is first and foremost a service provider. The mainland “estate” is but a small part of their operation, and they have not allocated enough resources to be as responsive to many issues as we, the residents, would like them to be. It is understandable and, though much of our effort is spent in educating and keeping the Lindens up-to-date on the problem, and trying to get them to do something about it, they have tended to be more reactionary than being proactive towards solving the issues. In addition, this is not an easy issue to define as a boundary where it goes from valid, legitimate use and trade, to invalid, illegitimate abuse and extortion.

Ultimately, the reponsibility for dealing the situation proactively rests within our hands. That is why this movement was formed; to provide the knowledge, information, tools, support, and solidarity to fight this problem and get rid of it once and for all. We, the land owners of the mainland, have within our power the capability to stop this blight, because we are the ones, often unwittingly, keeping it going. The parasites feed off of us because we let them. It is not an automatic process, since we choose to feed them. However, what this movement is all about is to choose to NOT feed them anymore, no matter how much they may crawl over us and prod us, looking for blood.

You tend to mix advertising with land extortion. Isn’t there a place for legitimate advertising?
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In many cases, the nuisance tactic of choice for many of the land extortionists is large outdoor billboard advertising. EXTREMELY few people like living next to a bunch of brightly-lit signs. They are often very ugly, and the advertising content is often very dubious. Many of these so-called “advertising systems” are funded primarily by land cutting and extortion, as it has yet to be proven that advertising in virtual worlds is remotely lucrative. This is borne out by the fact that many advertising systems have failed, either going away from attrition, showing very few ads in their rotations, or only showing ads for the ad network itself. It begs the question, if this form of advertising is so lucrative, where are the ads? The answer is that it isn’t lucrative, as many people detest having what amounts to visual spam foisted on them without recompense.

Some of the so-called advertising networks are now organizing and claiming to be trying to legitimize themselves. However, their origins and history have yet to be answered for by the people involved.

While this movement is not directly attacking advertising in general, the Ad Zoo and our affiliates are currently working to sponsor new policies for Linden Lab to consider regarding legitimate mainland advertising. We would appreciate your input to help support and shape those policy suggestions as well.

I’ve bought some of those 16s before; I feel so guilty for being taken like that!
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Many of us have been there with you before. It is nothing to feel ashamed of; the people who are behind this blight have honed their tactics to a fine art, and know how to prey on people’s psyches to achieve their ends. As such, take it as nothing more than a lesson learned, and resolve that it will never happen again. Resolve to put an end to their shenanigans once and for all, and dedicate yourself to doing all you can to make it happen. Always remember you are not alone, and support is just an IM away!

OK. You’ve convinced me. What should I do?
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There are numerous things you can do to fight the parasites:

1) “Don’t feed the adnimals”. Don’t buy any small plots priced significantly (say 1.5 to 2 times) above Fair Market Value. Especially don’t buy plots from known extortionists above FMV. Their business model depends on sales; don’t give any to them.
2) Report any who overtly break the rules. If you see small plots set for sale at excessively high prices, and have nuisance content on them, most especially advertising, file an abuse report on them. See the section below on how to do that.

Those two things you should do at the very minimum. If you are further inclined to do more, here are some recommendations that we urge you to consider:

3) If you surround small plots, find creative ways to include them in your build, rather than buying them out. The Ad Zoo and affiliated organizations provide build objects, advice, and support to help you minimize the impact of small plots within or adjacent to your land and builds.
4) Help inform your neighbors and visitors by putting up signs, information givers, and other notice objects to let people know to avoid buying the extortionists plots.
5) Start a neighborhood watch campaign with your neighbors to watch out for and keep track of extortionist activity. Work together with informal and formal agreements to offer each other “First Right of Purchase”; when a neighbor leaves the region, selling out, the first chance at buying his/her property is offered to the other neighbors.
6) Install one of several tools on your property available to hamper/impede the extortionists as they travel around the grid, such as the Arbor Project’s Clocktower Network Banlist probe, or LandMachine.com’s Landmine.
7) JOIN US! Help us in the fight to free the mainland from the extortionists and advertising blights that plague our lands and help make the mainland a better place to live, work, and play for our Second Life! The Ad Zoo and our affiliates always have many roles for motivated folks to participate.

Filing Abuse Reports on ToS violations.
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If you find a plot, or have an encounter with an extortionist, which breaks the Terms of Service rules, IMMEDIATELY file an abuse report on the plot content or the person. To do this on objects, make sure you are physically near the object/plot in question, right-click the offending object, and then More->More->Report Abuse on the pie menus. For Ad Farm reports (small plots set for sale at abusive prices with harassing content), select Harassment as the type of report, put “Ad Farm Policy Abuse” in the summary, and give a quick synopsis of what you are reporting in the description. It is often useful for ad farms to check the “include screenshot” checkbox, and make sure that the About Land window is open so they can see what you saw at the time, and who owned it.

The Ad Zoo acts as a clearinghouse for information regarding land extortionists and their activities. However, our information is only as good as what is provided to us. We ask that you forward any and all evidence regarding their activities in your neighborhood, including snapshots, interactions with ad farmers and land extortionists, and any other information which will help us in the fight to end their shenanigans once and for all.

In closing, The Ad Zoo is only the front runner of this movement, and it would not be possible without the active and determined support of these organizations, their leaders, and their members:

James Gill, Xerses Goff – Arbor Project
Talarus Luan – Archaean Designs Land Recovery Project
Timo Daehlie – Ad Zoo
Klaatu Congrejo – PeacenHarmony
RemNIghtfire  - Direct Action Land Repair

(more will be added as we continue)