Camping Skirmishes ....

In the early days of OneFinalDarkness when we were still on the ikyoto Sim one of the principle measures of success of any Sim was the ubiquitous 'Traffic' figures. I suspect that many Sim owners felt much the same as Babette and I did; a certain un ease with the idea of paying people to sit around or 'Pole Dance' on the Sims to bump up the 'Traffic' numbers.

Despite the un ease we fell into the accepted pattern at OneFinalDarkness and tried to make things at least interesting for the 'People!!' who camped with us. In some odd way much of the layout and attractive vista's which abound on OneFinalDarkness were born in this time as we often tested the camping ourselves and asked questions of each other like "Would you sit looking at that view for several hours??".

It was around this time that Babette and I had the good fortune to meet two people who would soon become great friends and real champions of the OneFinalDarkness Sims and our attempts to promote them. The first of these people is Shelly Macchi; we started talking, ironically, because there were issues with the early camping systems and both Babette and I felt that if people were putting the time in then they should be paid so we asked people to tell us if they had any problems receiving their camping money.

The first purely business like conversations we had soon blossomed into regular chats which led us inevitably to a friend of Shelly's who had also started on the camping; Thanatos796 McCallen. Quite an unusual name ... but many names in Second Life are ... and it turned out he is also quite a DJ. There were undoubtedly many more conversations than my ageing memory can recall before the topic arose of Than (as he is affectionately known) becoming a regular DJ for us. Once Than was doing some regular slots for us it was only a short time before Shelly joined him on a regular basis as a host for the events and quite honestly they are such a good team and have gone from strength to strength.

I have of course digressed a little there!

In addition to our newly found friendships, what Than and Shelly also gave us was an insight into what was actually happening with the camping!! It turns out that Babette and I had naively assumed that the avatars we saw camping where linked to real people on a one to one basis .... they weren't!! Shelly and Than were able to show us incidents were as many as 10 avatars were being run by the same person using what are referred to as 'Bot' programs. To say we felt used is an understatement!! The first step was to try different 'Anti-Bot' camping systems but once alerted by Shelly and Than's warnings Babette and I regularly checked for 'Bot' activity ... at almost each turn we discovered Bots taking our money!!!

We still have camping on the Main Sim today ... but it is controlled by a closed, invitation only, group and we insist that any one wishing to join is seen as being a regular visitor to the Sims and taking part in events; it's not that much to ask really as the events are often themed music events and have prize money for best in theme.

At one time we were probably paying out 15000 Lindens per month in camping fees and in reality receiving nothing in return. Some people complained when the way sim popularity, as measured by the Lindens, changed and traffic became less important as an indicator. Since then better ways of getting people to see the Sims have arisen, Earn2Life is a good example of earning opportunities within Second Life and it's companion SLBiz2Life (for the business owners wanting to invest in effective marketting campaigns); these initiatives have bought us some good, solid, genuine traffic some of which has turned into regular shop renters and indeed friends.

Overall I don't regret the camping and it's various skirmishes because of the tangible benefits in terms of friendships that have arisen as a result ... the only disappointing thing is realising that, in what should be an ideal world where everyone has a chance to excel and be the best they can, real life intrudes and the darker side of human nature shows through with some individuals choosing despicable means to further their own personal gain.

The camping will continue on OneFinalDarkness ... the difference these days is that it is more a way of saying thank you to all the regular people who help to make the Sims here what they are, full of life and fun, and as a result keep inspiring Babette and myself to keep modifying little bits and trying to make things even nicer for you all .... One last thought ... Please!!

NO Camp Fires !!! LoLoLoL

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I am new to Second Life ...

... What do I do now? I have genuinely lost count of the number of times I have heard this and similar questions. I always try my best to help people new to Second Life particularly if they have stumbled onto us at OneFinalDarkness; both Babs and I remember being new to Second Life although in fairness that is now over a year ago and we are both very comfortable in our second lives.

The way we look at new residents arriving on our Sim is as an opportunity to help them avoid some of the stumbling blocks of the early days of Second Life and maybe give them a chance to enjoy some safe relaxation in a friendly environment. We always encourage them to come along to our regular events and we often find that when they have been introduced to some of our friends they rapidly start to enjoy Second Life to it's fullest extent.

We are very lucky to have a wide range of friends and some of them enjoy producing music events for us such as: DJ Than and his hostess Shelly (they are US based) or perhaps Meri or Sean they are UK based. With this quite broad range of times we cover and provide events during there is usually something that people can find to look forward to (see calendar here).

In addition to the events we also provide a camping system for people who have demonstrated that they are regularly at events and around the sim. The camping is not for huge amounts of money but for someone just starting up it is a very approachable way to start exploring Second Life with no risk to pocket to be concerned about.

One of the great joys is to see people starting to branch out in Second Life and on more than one occasion we have been able to give them a flying start at the commercail side of Second Life by providing either very cheap or even sometimes Free Rental Shop Space. There really are some superb ideas out there from new residents and unlike us rather more 'jaded' residents the enthusiasm can be infectious!!!

I won't pretend that there haven't been some heated moments with new residents ... In reality we all know it is a virtual world ... we also know that rezzing a full size replica of a B52 in the middle of someones bar isn't exactly going to kill anyone ... LOLOLOL; but of course words have to be exchanged over such incidents and although the vast majority of new residents say 'Oooo I am soooo sorry!!' there are those that take the attitude 'So what ... why shouldn't I do that!!! '. There are different approaches but the one Babs and I find most positive is to be as firm as possible and ask that there are no further instances or polite persuasion will probably have to escalate. We haven't had any real issues so far which is a credit to the general maturity of the people we see attracted to Second Life.

As a summary and an answer to the question ... I would suggest people use common sense and if they don't understand something they find someone to ask rather that blunder on ... we all would prefer to answer questions than pick up the dust of a broken Sim or have to dust off the cobwebs from a banned list.

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