Will Land-Cutting Ban Redeem Jack Linden?

by Curious Rousselot

Jack Linden, the Linden in charge of making the mainland more beautiful, has posted an entry on the official Linden Blog informing us that the much hated practice of land cutting may soon be at an end. In the blog Jack fairly clearly discusses the definition of land cutting, "Whenever you see land that has a grid of 16m parcels for sale that are all clumped together, or in a checkerboard pattern, then what you’re seeing is an example of land cutting." And goes on to clarify further, "To be clear, we are not talking about creating one or two small parcels for legitimate reasons ...".

But perhaps best of all, Jack is asking us, the residents questions and in an amazing sign that the new Linden administration is actually listening to resident input he has even shown signs that resident suggestions are being seriously considered:

Here’s a list of questions we’d love to get your opinion on in the forums.

    * Do you agree in principle that land cutting needs to be a violation?
    * Are there any legitimate reasons for land cutting (excluding profit) that we should consider when setting policy?
    * With land that is already cut up, but still mostly owned by the resident that cut it, should we ask that the land be joined back together?

Please join me in the forums to provide your feedback.

Finally, it has also been suggested that parcels of 64m or smaller have their sale value clamped to be no higher than the current average price per meter. This would obviously involve development work so wouldn’t be something we could deliver quickly, but I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Regular readers of the Herald are no doubt aware of Jack Linden as head of the Lab's Land Team but some occasional readers may not be as familiar with his recent exploits. He was the Linden who announced the 66% price hike for OpenSpaces in October 2008 - but let's not forget that he also listened to the outcries and worked to find a compromise which has brought us not only a lower price hike on the new OpenSpaces but also the new Homesteads.

In February 2008, Jack was the Linden that took on the Ad Farms to significantly cut down on the horrid visual mess that covered much of the mainland. We may still think that much of the mainland is ugly but at least now, for the most part, that ugliness is due to residents who may have a different sense of aesthetics as opposed to blatant profiteering an possible "extortion".

During the summer of 2008, when mainland prices plummeted, it was Jack's team that stopped adding mainland for several months to allow prices to stabilize again. Some may say that the "discovery" of the new large island adjacent to the Nautilus continent was far too early for prices to stabilize but for the most part they did not fall further. And, although my opinion is not universally shared, I believe that the new island in the Nautilus continent is quite beautiful and the Moles have done a great job! I only wish I could afford a plot there.

Jack's team are also responsible for the very recent move to allow a set of private island to be connected via the new Blake Sea. The United Sailing Sims (USS) are now connect to Nautilus City, announced in December 2008. This recent shift back to a more organized and visually appealing mainland along with the concept of integrating communities in Second Life may not be solely Jack's ideas but it is being implemented by Jack's team and clearly shows how hard they have been working to improve the virtual world for all of us.

Comments

[LOL]

he is just Jacking off the residents. The Lab does not care what you say, just what you spend.

[Alazarin]

Well, I'll believe Jack Linden's words when I see some action. But in answer to the question:

Are there any legitimate reasons for land cutting (excluding profit) that we should consider when setting policy?

The answer is yes. For instance a mall may need to deed microparcels to individual vendors. OK, this would not be necessary in most cases but in the case of a music store selling music by artists in SL it is very useful to be able to set each vendor out on it's own microparcel so that customers can get a preview listen of tracks before they buy.... just like they would do in an RL music store.

That said I know full well that any loophole allwing a legitimate use of collections of microparcels is bound to be gamed. The amount of policing required to prevent it being gamed would probably require another full-time employee on LL's payroll. Something I doubt they can afford in the current finacial climate.

[nimrod yaffle]

I'm sure this will be like Age Verification and them setting the auto-return minimum to 10 minutes. They talk about it, say they WILL implement it, then don't follow through.

[Viva]

The thought of people still playing SL makes me nauseous

[Saffia Widdershins]

Quote: He was the Linden who announced the 66% price hike for OpenSpaces in October 2008 - but let's not forget that he also listened to the outcries and worked to find a compromise which has brought us not only a lower price hike on the new OpenSpaces but also the new Homesteads.

~~~~~~~~~~

This is disingenuous to say the least. The 'lower price hike' on the new OpenSpace entailed crippling them with such a tiny prim and avatar count (and we're still waiting news on scripts) that they became unfit for virtually any purpose such as hosting art exhibitions or sailing.

As for the new Homesteads - they keep the huge (67%) price rise AND suffer avatar limits. In addition, at some unspecified future time, they too will have script limits. People have been deserting them in droves or combining with friends (with each previous island becoming a quarter island. The anger and the pain are still out there, and with it, at times, a bitter cynicism. Two out of every three interviews I conduct with an SL business brings up the question of the Open Space sim debacle, as people recount how they had to abandon projects, switch business plans mid-stream, or lose cherished dreams. And this is coming from them, not me; I've given up asking about Open Space sims, as it just opens the floodgates.

I think Linden Lab are doing some great things recently. I think the Open Space sim debacle has taught them a lot about their client base, and that they are still sucking up the poisonous legacy (and really, really wish it would stop just, like, you know, upsetting people). But it was a huge pit, and pretending that hey, it was a good thing in the end because we got those cute Homesteads and those sweet little Opens Spaces - well, that's just nonsense.

[Curious Rousselot]

Alazarin, Jack made it pretty clear that the Lab's definition of "land cutting" involves putting the tiny 16m2 plots up for sale on the mainland. You examples cover reasons to have a 16m2 slice out of your own land but neither of them require that the 16m2 be sold.

The policy they are proposing appears to be against the outrageously overpriced tiny 16m2 doughnut holes and corners in or near other people's plots of land. Nowhere does Jack indicate that the plan is to prevent you from creating small 16m2 sub-regions for media or merchant marketing needs.

[General Drama]

Once again Jack demonstrates his complete lack of competency in all things economic, trying to rewrite the laws of economics along the lines of Karl Marx.

Despite Jacks "land freeze" land prices continue to remain in the tank under 2 L per sqm, and he continues to screw people out of their investments in openspaces (now called homesteads).

[Corona]

re
The thought of people still playing SL makes me nauseous

in which case why are you even reading the SL herald which by its nature will remind you of this

[Karl Reisman]

We actaully have a legitimate use for microparcels, in that parcels with one prim allowed are perfect to put up "Update Severs " on continents so users of our products cange ttheir updates from the closest working server, and we put them on may mainland areas, and the small size of the parcels, do not affect our land tier. We buy them in casl and then bury the server object underground so there is no visual trash.

--Karl

P.S> I can never get to the "forums"?