Openlife will stay as it is as long as no currency exchange is possible. Once that feature is implemented, all your fears will come true. Of course, I get flamed for saying stuff like that, but only by greedy people whose only goal in the virtual universe is to make a quick buck.

Go visit Nara. I don't build to make a profit.

No, i don't think so. Even when currency exchange arrives, it simply won't happen, not at the magnitude of SL. The main flaw with SecondLife is that Linden Labs is constricting everyone with artificially high land prices and not enough space. If one is capable of hosting a sim on their own servers, it will be in their interest to make their sims as friendly and beautiful as possible to attract visitors. There will be a lot less money going down the drain, prices will change back to their true value. The price for my 10GB webhosting for example sums up to 40$ per year, which is more than enough for hosting a sim, or maybe two. That way you wont have to satisfy yourself with a ridiculous congested chunk of land  when you can have a whole sim.

One of the main flaws of capitalism is the monopoly a corporation can have over the market, just look at Microsoft. I say it's time LindenLabs took a back seat and let the technology evolve on its own.

Yeah, that is true, but it's still a lot less than what LL offers. Many people would be satisfied with 30-40$ per month for a sim, and it would be even better for those already running their own servers. A dedicated server from my webhosting company costs 930$ per year. That is for an AMD Opteron 275 (4-cpu) 16GB DDR machine with 4x320 GB HDD's for storage. Lets say it's running 4 sims instead of 10 (2.2Ghz Opteron processor, 320Gb hdd and 4GB ram per sim, ideally ), that makes the yearly cost of a sim 233$, or 20$ a month. In contrast, for the same money, you get 4096sqm from LindenLabs...

Currently there are many "virtual realestate" companies in SL but the prices are more or less the same, because LL always has the final word on how much a sim costs. Plus as computers become more powerful it would be possible to run more and more sims on a single machine, and owning vast chunks of land, unpolluted by ads should be more realistic.

I for one refuse to buy land on the mainland in SL. I purchased my own region and there is no way that I'd clutter up my land just so that people notice my property more than others. It is possible to have vendors and attract people without all the clutter of spinning ads, rotating lights, huge rediculous signs and everything else that makes one person stand out more than another. But I guess it's easier and cheaper to put obnoxious stuff on your land to get attention than to pay for advertising.

Hi Galen,

Heh - true about our Mother Earth, but - maybe there is hope for OL since we all know what *not* to be like.

Ayawaste' ota ye~
Dreena

I'd like to throw my two cents in here since I am about to become a region owner. I'm hoping to connect with a community that ABSOLUTELY doesn't tolerate adfarms and money mongers. Making money in Second Life turned into individuals looking for ways to work out of their house and make easy money, all be it a pittance for most.

"Hey. I know. Let's buy 5 boxes and create 10 avatars that camp twenty four hours a day."

I was completely let down in the first few weeks of Second Life (that was 2006 for me) when I bought my first little 512 and had to deal with my neighbors ugly adfarm and particle generator that emitted rain over one corner of my land. Helpless.

Keep it clean and OpenLife will see a VERY prosperous future from organizations looking for cleanliness.

Professor Merryman,

and everyone else.. Although I completely understand the fears, there is really no reason to attack commercialism.  This "easy" money you speak of is not as easy as one would think.  I happen to be one of those people working at home.  I do not consider myself to be "greedy" nor a money monger.

That's absolutely fantastic for those of you who do not need to work or who have the luxury of having a decent well paying job outside the realms of virtual reality.. but please do not knock those of us who do not.

As for keeping "it" clean and beautiful, that is in the eye of the beholder.  What is one man's trash is another's treasure. 

Yes, that's all good and well but unfortunately to the dismay of Sir Thomas More and his followers to come, there could never be such a thing as a Utopian society.  As much I personally like the Lennon song "Imagine", I am realistic enough to know that such a world can never exist, not even in virtual reality.  Bartering is all nice and fine but at the end of the day, that is not how most pay their bills, including the ability to communicate as we are.  Of course, none of us would have known about SL or Open Life and many other programs online and off without having seen the  advertisement ourselves or by a freind who told us and they saw it and so on.  Decent advertisements are certainly not the same as adfarms. 

For some reason, I think you probably know all of this and maybe just maybe you may like to get a reaction from people as you sit back at the pc with a big smile on your face... hehe.

Have some Mint Julep Tea. :-)

lol .. yes so true I have spammed the forums and I have also reported the spam, too.  :-)  This happened purely by mistake... eek, so sorry.  It is not 5 duplicate posts but 4.... still, it is 3 more than I wanted. :-)

As for calling me "dumb", isn't there a nicer way to address issues rather than direct personal attacks and name calling?  Manners please.  Thanks.  :-)

And "who" will pull my rights?  "You" ? :-)

If you want to know about my opinions concerning adfarms before you hastely insult me, attack me, threaten me and judge me as you have.. please do read this first:  http://www.slnn.com/article/big-paw-paw/ 

Have a nice day.

here goes the neighborhood...

I mentioned "unsollicited advertising" but you seem not to understand that ALL advertising is by nature unsollicited by those who get to be bombarded by them everywhere they look, anything they listen to... Expound you ideas all you want, nobody is paying attention, you have made your intentions clear.