Cocoanut Koala

OK, Jeska held her last traffic meeting. (We were each allowed to attend one of four.)

I just received her notes from this meeting, and I am going to present here an abridged version, focusing on the Showcase.

As you probably know, they are replacing the "Popular Places" tab with a "Showcase" tab, which will be like the Showcase that is on the website now.

These will consist of Linden picks, and people can nominate places for the Lindens to consider including.

I have asked for for-profit businesses to be excluded from the list, on the basis that those chosen by LL will get a huge boost in sales and a huge portion of the new residents, at the expense of their competitors.

(I think it will cause mid-level shops to close, rather than little ones, because it is the mid-level ones which compete so tightly for the customer dollar. They are the ones who are spending so much on classifieds, etc., and generally have more tier to pay as well; whereas the small shops will be less affected by this.)

I have suggested that the Showcase of Linden picks be limited to only non-profit places of interest, events, educational things, and so on.

A lot of other people asked for that, too.

But here we are, at the last meeting, and Jeska is still saying what she said at the meeting I attended: "I'll take that back to the editorial team."
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LL Traffic Future Meeting Notes from Meeting 4
May 8, 2008

Jeska Linden: The three things I'd like us to cover include: Showcase in the viewer (briefly), parcel metrics, and the future of traffic and/or another search-related public metrics.

Galt Hax: I've read through the chat histories for the previous meetings. From the perspective of the SHOWCASE list, as long as it changes frequently, provides a good cross section of what SL has to offer, and is at least partly driven by resident suggestions (flags) it should be very useful, and much more so than Popular Places for the purposes of providing new folks (and others) examples of what can be found and new places to try.

Jeska Linden: Galt - excellent feedback, thanks!

Nalates Urriah: I'm new and friends I bring in cry that finding things is hard...

Divinitee Dreamscape: yes i agree that it could be useful , but i am opposed to having LL be the selection committee

Rock Paderborn: I think the sshowcase is faar too"political".

Tray Dyrssen: My concerns are more for how the showcase is run and when the flagging system will be in place. I think that with lindens picking the places then there content will come first and leave the others out!

Ciaran Laval:I don't think the showcase should highlight specific brands or stores, if Linden alts are involved there's a real conflict of interests going on there.

Jeska Linden: Let's start with a brief conversation abuot the replacing of the Popular Places tab content with content pulled from the Showcase on the Second Life Web site.

Rock Paderborn: Without some more forum from the residents to get you into the showcase, it becomes political, or what the "xommittee wnats to show off

Divinitee Dreamscape: yes i agree rock

Tray Dyrssen: I agree also Rock

Galt Hax: yes that is why it needs to be at least partly driven by resident input and it has to change frequently

Ciaran Laval: Well if they stick to non for profit examples it's not so bad, once brands and stores come into it gets very political

Divinitee Dreamscape: and perhaps thoughts should be to limit the showcase to non-profit and educational places (she says knowing she runs a mall)

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Cocoanut Koala

Jeska Linden: I can give a little more information on why we're making the change and what our plans are for the future if you'd like Rock

Jezzie McCellan: I am wondering why it has to be replaced, why not reform popular places and add Showcase.

Divinitee Dreamscape: yes please do jeska
Jeska Linden: The Popular Places tab was started a long time ago, when the world of Second Life was much, much smaller.

Ciaran Laval: Some of those popular places, like it or not, are indeed genuinely popular

Nalates Urriah: I am assuming that other parts of search will still allow us to find brands?

Jeska Linden: At that time it was also tied to a "traffice incentive" where LL paid the people who had the most traffic (which has not been done for some time).

Galt Hax: it should be balanced between business and non-profit venues, as well as a representative cross section of what existsin SL

Jeska Linden: It was one of my ye olde jobs I used to "cut the check"

Jeska Linden: As the world has grown and many things have changed, it has been made pretty clear taht the popular places tab, while reflecting a certain type of popular behaviour in Second Life, does not even begin to reflect the vast diversity of Second Life

Divinitee Dreamscape: very true

Jeska Linden: The Showcase is something very different - it's been on the website for about the last few months and highlights various inworld locations.

Jeska Linden: Currently there are about 50 locations included in the Showcase, or more than twice as many as in the Popular Places

Jezzie McCellan: Why cannot it be made to reflect the diversity of SL. We could include the categories of places. If we were to do something about bots and camping that would help.

Tray Dyrssen: How many locations will it grow too?

Ace Albion: did you see which places would be in the most popular list if you filtered out certain words, like "sex", "money" or "camping"? I just wonder.

Jeska Linden: It is still very much in its infancy, but with the addition of search flagging (which you may have heard about on some of teh Second Life mailing lists recently) will offer a way for Residents to "nominate" a location for the showcase and maybe in the future we can have a "Digg" or "Craiglist" style "Best of Second Life"

Jeska Linden: For the short term, I really believe this change relfects the vast array of experiences in Second Life, even if it is only a small slice

Parker McTeague: mm, the digg model might work pretty well

Galt Hax: agreed

Jezzie McCellan: are you not concerned about people using alt accounts to flag locations

boita Kohime: ll will kill residents buisness one more time

Jeska Linden: But remember it is a first step

Parker McTeague: i'm thinking back to those old "vote" boxes. sounds like it might come full circle

Ciaran Laval: Take the stores and brands out of it Jeska and you have a decent way of showing people new places, highlighting certain brands and stores just leads to accusations regarding fics. If you want to highlight someone like Sirena for her wonderful blog tutorials do it a different way

Jeska Linden: Jezzie - we're still in the design phase of the Search Flagging but it includes several "griefer" checks

Galt Hax: can't take stores and brands out. its part of sl

Jeska Linden: We have gotten lots of feedback in these meetings about non-business locations only and I will be sure to take that back to the editorial team, given the nature of Second Life, I'm not sure how to prevent some type of entreprenurial (sp?) experiences

Ciaran Laval: Places rather than specific brands helps
there Jeska. Especially in fashion, it's a really competitive area

Jeska Linden: Were there any other questions about the Showcase/Popular Places switch or any other suggestions?

Jeska Linden: I'd like to keep us moving along

Rock Paderborn: i'm not being insulting...shouldnt advertising or reputation be enough to drive your business

Ciaran Laval: Yeah hold events for something like builder of the year and showcase them that way

Divinitee Dreamscape: ut is amajor factor rock

Jeska Linden: (two other meaty topics for us still!)

Galt Hax: if the goal is to showcase examples of what can be found, you can't cut out commercial areas

Divinitee Dreamscape: yes please move on jeska

Galt Hax: yes please move on

Divinitee Dreamscape: most of pop places has been covered in previous meetings

Jeska Linden: Ok, thanks everyone (and thanks for reading the notes from other meetings!)

Ace Albion: How much time are Lindens going to put into managing the list? A lot of options and suggestions don't mean much if we don't know that.

Jeska Linden: Ace - we have a small internal team who have dedicated time to it for the last few months

Divinitee Dreamscape: wellace it's jeska's project... so all her waking momments

Ciaran Laval: Well if the website showcase is anything to go by it's not overly encouraging but hopefully it develops

Jeska Linden: Not my project I'm the messanger

Jeska Linden: If we determine this is successful, we may be able to add more resources to the team, like anything else!
Ace Albion: Picking and sorting takes time, is all. So the amount of editorializing depends on the resource

Jeska Linden: But that is part of the reason we'd like to move to resident suggestions sooner rather than later.

Jeska Linden: Let's move onto traffic, yes?

Jezzie McCellan: but If there is a group that chooses the showcase, there should be residents included on the committee.

Ace Albion: Yes, Ciaran, and my 75 alts.

... Then it goes on to metrics discussion, and various horrors about how to mess with Search and Classifieds

... Toward the end of the meeting:

Ace Albion: Well, in a way, aren't you bringing back Pathfinder's Picks?

Rock Paderborn: lol

Divinitee Dreamscape: lol

Jeska Linden ducks

Jeska Linden: The picks were never updated, Pathfinder was properly drawn and quartered

Ace Albion: It was a Linden edited list of places

Rock Paderborn: it still exists on some infohubs

Ace Albion: so there's a sense of deja-vu

Jeska Linden: Ok everyone - did anyone else have last thoughts?

Ciaran Laval: That's my worry with showcase, people lose interest

Ace Albion: Be prepared for lots of drama.

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An "editorial team" of Lindens is going to decide who gets the most business and makes the most profit in LL. They will help decide that for us. They will help make that come true. They will help other businesses to lose money, and possibly fold.

coco

Cocoanut Koala

P.S. I had to laugh at the "excellent feedback" line.

See, now, THAT is what we need to aspire to, if we want to provide excellent feedback! Simply say what the Linden wants to hear!

Smokergirl Lowenha

On one hand, as a random explorer, if this cuts down the amount of times I TP to an area full of bots or campers, this sounds good, but on the other, why replace popular places? Why not have the showcase as a sperate search option, like a 'Search by popularity' button next to 'Search Showcases' so people have the option?
Or am I missing something?

FlipperPA Peregrine

I like Parker's suggestion of the Digg model - the wisdom of crowds model seems to work quite well for them.

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Peregrine Salon: Flip & Jenn's thang.

Adam Zaius

LQQK - ALIENS ARE CONTROLLING CONGRESS VIA ROBOT SENATORS! ALSO MONEY TREES.

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Originally Posted by Joshua Nightshade Ignore Adam, he's just a troll.

Lecktor Hannibal

$igh