Que Niango, fresh from the Adult Conent User Group reports that Linden Lab have issued the following RFP:
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Linden Lab’s Adult Gateway Proposal
Goal: Enable the adult community to develop and quickly iterate upon a Zindra welcome/gateway experience for Residents interested in exploring adult content.
Situation: With “Zindra” as a primary search terms for adult content in SL, people are more likely to find and start at the current Zindra sim today as a result of its top search ranking. Unfortunately, the current Zindra region experience fails to encourage curious Residents to explore further.
For a number of reasons, it appears unlikely that a successful gateway experience could be efficiently developed and managed as a collaborative effort among Linden Lab and the Adult Content User Group (ACUG) using the existing Zindra region.
The Solution: A Resident controlled group will assume complete control of a prominently promoted Zindra/adult gateway (comprised of four regions). The ZExpo four regions present a relatively easy way to setup Resident group ownership of the adult gateway experience. Upon conclusion of ZExpo 2011, these four region will be reassigned to a new group. This new group would be required to make tier contribution (setup fees waived) in exchange for group governing powers along with the exclusive use of “Zindra” name to guarantee top search ranking and Linden Lab’s active promotion in the Destination Guide. As the single mainland gateway for adult content, these regions would offer a unique opportunity to channel qualified Residents into high-quality, adult-related experiences.
Details:
- Resident group to receive full group ownership of the four ZExpo mainland regions.
- Group must contribute tier and pay $195/month for ea of the four regions or $780/month.
- Use of Zindra name will be reserved exclusively for four regions, guaranteeing top placement in search.
- Linden Lab agrees to promote four new “Zindra” regions in Destination Guide, as well as work with the group to promote the regions in additional marketing channels.
- Linden Lab’s promotion contingent upon the group providing a positive experience for all Residents interested in adult content and reserves the right to cancel promotion at any time and may take actions in accordance with its Terms of Service and related policies and procedures.
Open Call for Proposals
Linden Lab will accept group proposals from all interested parties through September 12th, 2011. Send proposals to community@lindenlab.com with title “Adult Welcome Proposal”
Proposals should include the following details:
- Proposed group members responsible for tier – max of four member (1 for each of the 4 regions). Please include links to each profile i.e.https://my.secondlife.com/Viale.Linden
- Answer the question: how will you develop and manage a good, compelling gateway experience for all residents (new and existing) interested in adult content?
- How will you promote adult venues within Second Life ~ mainland and private regions?
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This RFP may appear novel, but it is entirely in keeping with Linden Lab’s desire to help promote sustainable communities within Second Life, as outlined during Viale’s Linden’s presentation (video) at SLCC 2011. Even so, one cannot help but wonder at how practical it will be; the Adult Content User Group at times appears to be very divided. As such, it’ll be interesting to see how this approach is going to be interpreted and what comes out of the actual implementation once the new tier group has been formed.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
Oh my. So I am reading this as an admission of failure for the continent of Zindra. Lines up with my few explorations. Highest concentration of people were at the hub points where we all would get sent when a teleport in the non-adult regions failed. Someone apparently thought it was hilarious to shunt failed teleports to Caledon into Zindra.
I would suggest that anyone considering this to look closely at the previous Community Gateway program and make sure you have a better deal in writing before dropping a bunch of money.
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Not sure it is an admission of failure per se. LL are looking to move to a position of supporting and – to use Viale Linden’s terms, “bring forward” sustainable communities within SL to the population as a whole, and the world at large. This does tend to fit with that philosophy, although the approach is markedly different from what we’ve seen up until now as LL shifts emphasis. But then, the Adult Community on Zindra is potentially far more complex and harder to deal with compared to other communities within Second Life as it is really itself (for want of a better term) an homogenized group of different “sub-communities” which individually have perhaps a slightly different focus to one another.
It’s this latter aspect that gives me pause to wonder how this is going to work out in practice, especially if the proposed land tier group becomes – and pardon the pun – dominated by one or other particular point of view when it comes to determining how and what should be used to promote Zindra as a whole.
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As a matter of principle, I like the idea. It’s more than time that LL starts supporting existing communities. At least it seems that Viale Linden (possibly a former resident with a good knowledge of what is going on in SL!) is addressing what, for me, is the biggest issue in SL: how to retain the existing residents and how to keep them interested in SL so that they expend more money in the economy — and in tier. New users are nice to have, but I still believe that SL has reached market saturation in what essentially is a very small niche (well, one with millions of users, of course, but not billions…). When that happens, the best strategy is to encourage upselling to existing, happy customers — and supporting communities with similar initiatives is a great idea.
Also, this RFP is cleverly done. In exchange for pretty much what amounts merely to advertising (good placement of the group who will run Zindra), LL is offsetting the costs of the four sims, both in tier and most importantly in maintenance, to an external (external to LL, that is) group. This is precisely what RL governments do when they privatise their assets 🙂 So I like the strategy very much and hope that it becomes a model to follow.
After all, we have been saying for years how so much better residents can run certain services than Linden Lab. Look at things like NCI or the Shelter! Not to mention the dozens of long-lasting communities, which might have been hurt with increasing tier costs and a reduced user base, but so many are still around and managed to survive in spite of everything. If residents know what it takes to retain users, and LL hasn’t got a clue, the best strategy they could employ is to support the ones that are doing a good job. That’s just recognising entrepreneurism and encouraging it!
Of course there might be much more to this than it’s apparent, but, speaking for myself, I like the idea!
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The shift in emphasis – what Viale himself described as a “change of philosophy” when talking at SLCC this year – is heartening, I agree. Viale Linden himself in from a marketing background, and came across as a savvy, sincere individual who is hooked-in to the drive to push the community forward on all fronts. This is something to be welcomed – and like you, I support the idea and think it is very much a move in the right direction (still composing a blog post on this front!).
My reservations around the RFP are not with the approach LL are taking overall; eveything they demonstrated at SLCC in this regard (both Viale Linden and Brett Linden) made perfect sense and deserves support and input. Rather, I’m more curious as to how the Zindra community itself will respond to this particular mechanism and what will come out of it (again see my reply above!).
But nevertheless, kudos for LL and Viale for trying to progress things and present a manageable opportunity along the lines of RFL, etc.
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whats not apparent in the RFP to those from ‘the outside’ is that LL already has a dynamic and very supportive arrangement with those 4 sims (Art Maze 2011, ZEXPO 2011, and the seasonal island events program in general) through its own group which partners with residents and fits the mission. This new development is actually a sudden sell-off of a preexisting concept. Hundreds of residents have worked hard over the past 18 months to build up that island as a truly marketable project, and now that its ‘on the radar’, LL is capitalizing on the works of others and selling off the land to whoever wants to buy it and run a ‘promotional island’. What’s missing in the RFP is the bold fact that this is rash decision that reverses about 18 months of progress, disrespects a prexisting and positive policy, and kills the momentum that been building. Its possibly the most ridiculous marketing move Ive ever seen.
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Hi, Ginette.
Apologies that your comment didn’t appear – for some reason WordPress pushed ito into the spam folder.
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Thanks for the rescue!
I have no idea where this ‘selling off the Island’ debacle will end, BUT one thing I know: never get too over-excited or over-dismayed by anything the LL machine spits at you, because it can all change in a week. Staff changes, policy changes, etc (even staff changing their own policy if you blink sometimes)……the concept of long-term planning and truly big picture thinking seems foreign to many. I’ve been close to this craziness for about 18 months and will probably write a book about it if I survive it.
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