the ties that bind us just slip away

This, quoted from in-world chat by a friend:

[8:03] June Dion: uh oh
[8:03] June Dion: no more lucky chair X)
[8:03] Nympheas Nogah: ahhhhhhhh
[8:03] Sandriki Roux: really?
[8:03] June Dion: [8:01] Jack Linden: if the land is in search, then those chairs would be giving traffic, which is where it gets bad. if you had them on land that was *not* in search then that would be fine
[8:03] June Dion: [8:02] Jack Linden: you can keep them if the land is not in search, so you could just split the parcel into two for example

So let me get this straight. All of Jack's assurances that this was not about individual lucky chairs, it was about camping bots, and large numbers of camping pads...was all just lip service, and meaningless.

Y'know, I don't like Jack Linden any better since the SL5B stupidity when he was insisting that no nudity was allowed, this was a family operation, goddamn it...and then blithely walked past any incident of male nudity. Apparently he only cares if it's got tits.

But I had thought that he--and the other Lindens--had maybe managed to learn something in the near-year since then. Apparently, I was vastly overrating Jack's ability to learn.

June Dion, in case you don't know, owns Bare Rose. Bare Rose does not need lucky chairs, or lucky fortune machines, or raffle balls, to make money. Bare Rose does not have to put out freebies to entice people to come to the store. Bare Rose does not need traffic at this point--because the store's nearly legendary, old residents pass on the name to newbies, all of her stuph is transferable, so people can buy outfits and then pass them on, her prices are low, so she sells a lot...and her designs remain innovative, original, and a great deal of fun.

I own a lot of Bare Rose outfits. So does almost everyone I know.

The assertion that Bare Rose put in a lucky chair to "game" the traffic system is beyond ludicrous. It is inanity at its highest point. It is sheer lunacy on the part of Jack to say this to June.

But he did.

So let me test understanding again:

* Obviously, camping bots are out.
* Model bots, greeter bots and accounting bots are next.
* Camping pads are out.
* Lucky chairs are disallowed.
* Lucky Fortune machines are disallowed.
* The entire Lucky Chair company is going to go under because they're going to drop about 97% on new sales past this point.

Okay, fine. That's annoying, but fine. But now think of all the other things that generate traffic:

* Fishing areas
* Mobvend machines
* Scavenger hunts
* Grand opening events
* New sim announcements
* Dances
* Seminars
* College classes held in-world
* Business meetings held in-world
* Focus group meetings (including ones held by the Lindens--oh, wait, they'll likely hold those on land they remove from search)
* Sandbox sims (sometimes those get packed with users building things)
* All contests, be they costume or build contests
* Rez-day celebrations
* Weddings
* Funerals

Think I'm insane for listing those things--among them, several things centering on educational and business uses for Second Life? I don't. If Jack can outright lie to us that Lucky Chairs are fine...then what else is he going to change his mind on?

Are we getting to the point where we as users will feel compelled to report any sim that has more than ten avatars in it, because that sim might be "gaming" the traffic system? Are we going to be asked to "shop from home", or shop only via XStreet? Are we going to have to ignore all dances, stop talking to people in village squares, stop going on scavenger hunts, butterfly hunts?

Where is this going to end? What's the end goal, for that matter? Because I don't think I can put a great deal of faith in anything Jack Linden's said so far.