[sldev] Re: SLDev Digest, Vol 6, Issue 3

[Able Whitman]

On 6/1/07, Argent Stonecutter <secret.argent at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Jun 1, 2007, at 2:00 PM, sldev-request at lists.secondlife.com wrote:
> > The goal of ad prims (or rather, the goal of their owners) is for
> > the ad prims to be seen, since this is what makes them useful and
> > valuable
> > (from the perspective of the advertiser). If you mute an ad, the
> > owner will
> > obviously want to modify their ad prims so that they circumvent the
> > muting
> > mechanism.
>
> How do they know their prims are muted?
>
> They don't.


Well, if I was an advertiser, and I see a new SL client come out with
"visual object muting", you can bet I'd be figuring out how to get around it
and updating my ad prims to do so. It's a pretty safe bet that any feature
that can be used to block ads will have the advertisers  looking for ways
around it.

This is similar to the back-and-forth between people making browser ad
blockers and online advertisers looking for ways to get around them, etc.

And unless you mute them globally (which the viewer can't do) why do
> they care? Muting would even help... it would reduce complaints from
> nearby landowners and renters (who are almost certainly NOT not
> potential customers) while visitors (who are) would still see them.


Like I said, my point wasn't to condemn the feature idea; if my post came
across as harshly critical, I apologize. I do think the feature is a good
idea, and I'd be more than happy to help implement and/or test it.

All I'm saying is that, if you look a couple of moves into the future, the
advertisers can make use of techniques to circumvent the muting that leave
the client ill-equipped to circumvent their circumventions.

> There are several properties that would be useful as filters for which
> > objects to mute:
> > * object id or object name
> > * owner id or owner name
> > * creator id or creator name
> > * texture id
>
> * Location.
> * Parcel.
>
> Object ID or name would be great for hiding griefers who show up with
> huge prim wangs and the like.
>
> Hiding all prims in a parcel would be great for ad farms, especially
> if you can specify "keep this area muted even if the owner changes".


Yes, I too had thought of the idea of "muting by parcel", after I wrote my
last post. And I agree with you-- muting objects by parcel (or even "mute
all objects within X meters of here") is probably the most effective way to
deal with ad farms, and it has the great advantage of being resistant to
many of the circumvention techniques that filtering by object name or id,
etc. are vulnerable to.

--Able

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