Second Life To Remove Free Content From Web Search

Outland Traveller writes "In a move that continues to shake the Second Life community of content creators, merchants, and consumers, Linden Labs has declared that free virtual content will no longer be searchable without listing payments on their website portal; and additional fees will be added with the intention of discouraging content listed for inexpensive selling prices. The move is particularly troubling because the online Web listing service is the de facto search engine for virtual content in Second Life, since the in-world search tools are unable to provide information about an object beyond name and location — basic textual descriptions, pictures, or descriptions of licensing, size, or content-category are not possible. While initially the change was explained as a response to community feedback, the residents involved in this feedback process were revealed to be fewer than 100 in number, primarily larger merchants among a community of millions. Within 24 hours of the announcement, the feedback thread has swelled to over 1,000 overwhelmingly negative responses. Additionally, in-world protests have erupted throughout the day, and over 20,000 objects have been voluntarily removed from the online store by angered merchants." Read on for more details on the brouhaha.

Adding to the controversy are the officially stated justifications in the FAQ, such as 'They [free content listings] hinder the shopping experience because a "sort by price" puts all freebies first,' and the perplexing statement 'They [free listings] garner so much attention that Residents are driven toward the freebies instead of quality, fairly priced items.'

Various independent virtual content listing sites have been proposed, such as Meta-life.net and Slapt.me, but attempts to post this information on the Second Life forums has been met with aggressive administrative censorship of these links.

Bad business model

[hey!]

The customer reaction illustrates that the following is a bad business model: creating a service like Second Life for people who have time to waste on services like Second Life.

They live?

[Quiet_Desperation]

SecondLife community

I thought they were all wiped out in the Final Flying Phallus/Furry War of 2007.

Re:Bad business model

[houstonbofh]

Obviously, Second Life is trying to show how free stuff is of lower quality, and that they do not support free stuff. Like Second life...
Wait a minute! Uh... Thats not what we meant...

Re:Bad business model

[eln]

Summary of the summary: People who get stuff for free don't like it when they're asked to start paying for that stuff. Further, people on the Internet (and especially places like Second Life) LOVE to complain about stuff, and have lots and lots of time to do it. Therefore, when a company that caters to people on the Internet who have lots of time on their hands decides to charge for stuff, the impotent rage reaches epic proportions. Before you know it, disembodied penises start flying everywhere.

Summary of the summary of the summary: People on the Internet complain about everything. Companies like to make money. Result: Nerd (or in this case, Furry) Rage.

Re:Oh, the irony of it all.

[ColdWetDog]

I like Second life

You are a very brave entity to actually come out and say that here. My codpiece is off to you sir/madam/whatever.

Re:Bad business model

[ubrgeek]

Delores?