The new policy regarding ad farms has not missed it’s effect – as I was taking a stroll – or rather a fly – through several sims, a lot of the ad farms have been removed or toned down by their owners. Umnik Hax has changed all his obnoxious smiley rotating towers to a less obvious green leaves texture, but that doesn’t mean he’s still extorting people by selling his 16sqm lots at exaggerated prices. Same goes for ROBO Marx.
Several warnings have been issued so far according to the police blotter RSS feed that I subscribe to, but there will be much more to come. In the past 24 hours, I’ve filed no less than 39 Abuse Reports (AR for short) concerning ad farms in sims. And believe me that I’ve not yet bothered reporting the cases that are not so clear to start off with. Right now, lots with high rise advertising for sale at more than L$30/sqm gets the axe, which leaves quite a lot of ad farm owners unaffected for the time being. I think it’s best to send only the clear cases to LL for the time being, to prevent them from being flooded with hard to decide upon issues.
Mind you, not all the AR’s filed were for harassment (ad farms). A couple were filed under indecency for promoting adult services such as escorts in a PG sim. While it technically was still an ad farm, the lot was not for sale, so the chance of LL actually issuing a warning or taking action was less likely. In that case, one needs to take another approach 
Last night, one member of the Arbor Project group called it the “Valentines Day Ad Farm Massacre” which wraps it up quite nicely. I think I’ll refer to it like that from now on, lol!
So far no AR’s on my ad parks, but I don’t doubt that some residents will file sooner or later – then it’ll be up to me to either defend myself or adapt to the new rules of engagement so to speak. I’m rather confident though, as quite often when I set up a new park, I have concerned residents contact me. After chatting with them, explaining how I see things and how they see their neighborhood, we find a balance that works for everyone involved. I value community feedback very highly and have always dealt with issues that arise. I don’t plan on changing my attitude towards it.
Tags: ad farm, adfarms, advertising, Business, policy, promotion, Second Life®
