Self-Serving

Hamlet nee Linden Au admits that his current blogation is self-serving. It features his favourite SL mascot, Aimee Weber, and her pals at Midnight City.

Hamlet says that the click-through power of his blog is awesomalacious. He says on Friday, when the ad was launched, traffic was at a dull 3686. By Sunday, it was at 8515, an increase of nearly 5000 points.

He claimed there was no special event, and nothing other than the ad to drive people to the store.

Well, uh...the ad says there is a *half-price sale*. And of course, nothing magnetizes avatars like half-price sales of pixelated puffs that are overpriced to start with.

I'd like to contrast these figures with some others inworld just to get a perspective on it.

I have residential or store parcels that have a 750 on Friday -- by Sunday they always have 1500 or 2000 just because weekends are when people tend to come in SL. That's not rocket science.

Simone, one of the top designers, had a sale a few weekends ago, and her traffic, which is normally at 15,000-20,000, and it was more than doubled every day from what it had normally, with a total for all 3 days of half a million. Traffic like that around a sale dwarfs Midnight City, and many designers routinely get double, triple or more what Midnight City gets. The world has just gotten more bigger, and there is more competition, and just more popular designers, as hard as that is for Hamlet nee Linden and other Lindens and of course the FIC to admit.

Another thing to think about is how few people can get the power of Hamlet harnessed to their business. He has a coterie of FIC and SIC he covers over and over and OVER again, and their greased wheels to his blog generates their sales, and it's one of those things that helps solidify the FIC and SIC and make them tough to beat -- having your own press machine is helpful, of course.

Another interesting fact to think about is the obstacles the non-FIC face in the economy. Simone's traffic, for instance, was achieved *in spite* of the vicious net nannies who got the Lindens to remove the announcement of her event from the list. Sales and yard sales and grand openings are supposed to be allowed under "commercial". If they have hosts -- which hers surely did -- they are legal.

The net-nannies and rivals in the fashion industry use a technicality regarding duration -- if you have an all-day sale, or weekend-long sale, you're not supposed to put your event on the event list.

Well, that's stupid, because whether an event lasts 4 hours or 12 hours or 3 days, it's still an event. This is one of those ridiculous things we fought with the FIC and the Lindens about for days last summer in the Events Working Group. We tried to get them to put in a category for events of duration like that, and also to get the clutching paws of the FIC off the list.

FlipperPA fought it tooth and nail and still leads the charge against sales, yardsales, grand openings, etc. which he tries to use technicalities, or blatant lies about (claiming "all yard sales are illegal" which they are not) in order to crush a sector of the economy which is in competition to him. He can't get any commissions off inworld sales, so he'd like to get the killed off and drive vendors and shoppers to his third-party shopping site and inworld stores.

Bleh to all that. Fortunately everybody keeps walking around these obstacles -- which are significant, but not unbeatable.

Comments

[Stan Pomeray]

What exactly is the supposed reason that an all-day event cannot go on the events list? Is there actually any logical or operational reason why they cannot go on the list, or is it just another whim of some fuckwit in dire need of another power trip?

It would be more interesting if it was the former, but I have an uneasy feeling that it might be the latter.

[Prokofy Neva]

There's no reason in hell. It is merely a power-trip by the Lindens, but even more importantly, their selected special partners with third-party shopping sites like SL Boutique and others with stores that evidently feel threatened by the newbie economy and the yardsale economy.

Obviously, when Hamlet has a contest to make Cory Doctorow's book, he puts in an all-day event without himself as host, and he gets to do that, even if we don't.

[Cocoanut]

Plus he also named Cory Doctorow as one of the "ten most influential people in SL," or something like that. Which is pretty funny, considering that was the only time Cory Doctorow was even in SL, I believe.

There is no reason why there can't be a category for events that last all day, three days, or a week - such as the Touchstone Fair, which lasted only a week. It's a slam-dunk logical thing to do.

For that matter, there is no reason why the Events Workshop stopped meeting.

It is thanks to that workshop, and those of us in it who requested a commercial category, that there is one.

As for Hamlet's blog - well, I don't think he really knows any other people to write about.

coco

[Brace]

Gawed Prokovy I'd marry ya ifn I wasn't already hitch-i-fied twice over ;)~~

I been pointing out these very facts for YONKS and nobody was getting my drift.

You write brilliantly and aren't too lazy like yours truly, to go around and dig up numbahs and info to support your facts.

I gave enough warnings to the dusty old oldbies that they day was gone, and the only one who seems to have wised up to any extent is Neph - tho word on the street is she's feeling the effects too.

You just don't see noobies running around clad in her stuff anymore at the NCI, instead you em wafting around in Simone/Sherona gear and sporting Starley skins.
*shrugs*

Poor ole Hams. I've let him off the hook since his semi-official not lindie-reporting-on-what's-actually-happening-in SL status is halfway not in existence.

Not to mention I've stopped reading his way outta touch blatherings.

As for that Events dealy, its death knell was sounded from the getgo with Robin making it a join the group only, haphazard posting of logs, and really not extending anywhere beyond the forums in the first place.

Again, old skool tacticts in a totally new type of world.

Excellent post darlin. You get 7 gold stars from this chica HUGGGS :D

[Stan Pomeray]

Heh...it would be amusing if it wasn't so pathetic! "Ooh..someone else is competition with us...better use a law to prevent them from taking away some of our business"....

The spirit of free enterprise indeed!

[Brace]

Oh Coco darlin - I just HAVE to correct ya. The esteemed Cory Doctorow was in Second Life TWICE actually.

Apparently during those two momentous occasions he influenced SL so much that it was like he never showed up in the first place.

Or mebbe I was absent that day. Err days.

Does anyone know exactly what homedude did that was so goddam influential as to bump (heck any paying resident) off that list?

Cuz seriously I wanna know.

[Prokofy Neva]

I think Hamlet just wanted to suck up to him, which is why he put him on the list. Notice that Cory has an ad (bought) on his NWN blog now. So there's some payola at work there. Cory is an author that is known in some circles on the Internet, some sci-fi geek types, but I don't think he is that widely known. He's been inworld 2ce. I happened to be at one of the meetings. I dunno, I was less than impressed. I didn't get what all the fuss was about.

The book was fanciful, but there are other Canadian authors in the same magic realism or surreal vain I enjoy more.

[Brace]

Figures.

[Khamon]

Or, they may have been summoned to participate in a gomming session to discuss how LL will capitalize on the businesses and connections they've built using Second Life. That's a pretty easy selection processes eh.

They'll be watching their backs I imagine.