I’d like to talk a little about land supply for the upcoming period, and also to address the many of you that have asked us whether land pricing changes are coming soon. A year ago, in November 2006, we stated that prices would not change before end of 2007 and so with 2008 fast approaching it is a good time to discuss it.

Firstly, regarding pricing.. our current plan is to keep land prices as they are now through Q1 2008, both for new and existing land, for islands and mainland. Grandfathered islands will also remain the same. So no changes to land pricing in Q1 2008.

Regarding land supply.. the average mainland price per meter has continued to hold at around L$6.3/m, which we feel is a good level, low enough for those coming into the land market for the first time and high enough that both mainland and islands can be profitable for those interested in trading or leasing land.

So with that in mind, we will continue to keep the level of new land we add to the market low, essentially concentrating on recycling abandoned land back into circulation. There will be no whole regions of mainland auctioned in the remaining weeks of 2007. In January 2008 we may begin to auction whole regions once more.

Over the last few weeks we have pushed the amount of abandoned land on the mainland down to around 1 million meters; that probably still sounds like a lot, but in reality it’s the equivalent of less than 16 regions of land or under 0.4% of the total mainland space. We want to keep pushing hard on getting as much of this abandoned land back into use and generally cleaned up, so expect to see more L$ auctions being posted to the auction pages through January.

[UPDATED 1:01 p.m. PST]

Land sales are functional across all regions now.  We apologize to those residents inconvenienced by the interruption.

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Multiple regions are offering “Error fetching data” alerts when residents attempt to buy parcels. Operations is diagnosing and correcting the problem now, and we’ll keep you posted.

The auction page will be unavailable today, November 20th for one hour. It will be unavailable from 8pm until around 9pm Pacific time, so no bidding will be possible during that time (there are no auctions due to end during that period, so this shouldn’t affect any of the live auctions).

Over the last few months the number of class 3 machines running simulators on the grid has slowly fallen as we have migrated machines or used the hardware for other purposes such as web servers. Today or tomorrow, the last of these (around 150 regions in all) will be migrated to class 4 machines as we say a fond farewell to class 3 hardware.

For those private island owners affected, neither your monthly fees or your bill date will change, however your island will be down briefly as we make the switch.

As we do currently allow a paid upgrade from class 3 to class 5 (for a USD$200 fee), should any of the class 3 owners still wish to take advantage of that offer rather than accept this move to class 4 - then please create a support ticket by end of Friday 16th November 2007; we will honour any such upgrade requests we receive.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to update everyone on mainland supply and the new auction system.

Those that have taken a look at the new auction site will have noticed that there hasn’t been much land up for sale since it was launched late last month; there are two reasons for the modest level of supply.

Firstly, we have had a few minor glitches that needed to be resolved - we think most of the issues have been fixed now but have been taking it slowly whilst working to get auctions working smoothly. Secondly, average mainland price has dipped to around L$6.2 per meter and is remaining fairly flat at that rate, therefore we have not been supplying many whole regions for auction.

Going forward, we will continue to hold off on providing any new full regions for auction, at least for the next couple of weeks - however we will be increasing the amount of abandoned land we recycle, so expect to see a larger number of smaller parcels (both USD$ and L$ auctions) which has the added benefit of cleaning up the existing mainland areas.

Today, we are launching the new Second Life Auction system. Our new system will be powered by eBay’s private marketplace technology.

As noted in our previous post, only Linden Lab land auctions (mainland and a small number of abandoned parcels) will be placed into the new system. In the future we may also allow other types of auctions and sales through this new service.

You can get to the site through the “Land Auctions” link in the Land Information page on the Second Life website, or go directly to usd.auctions.secondlife.com

For details on access, eligibility, bidding or tracking your bids, see the auction FAQ.

Happy Bidding!

On August 29, we announced the beta test of identity verification (IDV). As Robin Linden explained, the goal of IDV is to increase trust, by enabling Residents to voluntarily verify parts of their identity, and giving content creators and landowners the ability to restrict access to content that is inappropriate to minors. In this post, I’ll expand on restricted content and how to flag your parcels.

What is defined as Restricted Content?

As a general rule, Restricted Content is any content that is explicitly sexual or excessively violent in nature. For guidance, consider AO-Rated (Adults Only) video games or R-rated movies.

What is the meaning of “flagged as having restricted content”?

Estate and parcel owners will be asked to flag the presence of restricted content on their land. This flag restricts access to verified Residents only, and provides notice to adults that content within may be objectionable to them. It also provides an added layer of protection for you, your friends, or your customers from being involved in inappropriate contact with minors who have gained unauthorized access to Second Life.

Note that if you are in a PG region, the parcel flagging system does not allow you to have restricted content. Restricted content is only allowable in Mature regions.

How to flag your parcel as having restricted content

The land must be on a region that is marked Mature (PG regions cannot be marked with Restricted content)

From the menu, go to World > About Land > Options. Under ‘Land Options’, check ‘Restricted Content’. The tooltip should read ‘Your parcel information or content is considered inappropriate for a minor’. Unchecking ‘Restricted Content’ will remove the ‘Restricted’ flag from the parcel.

What happens if I don’t flag my restricted content?

We strongly encourage estate owners and parcel owners to flag any restricted content and restrict their parcels to avoid minors inadvertently accessing it. If you are an estate owner, make sure that your parcel owners are flagging restricted content properly.

If Residents and businesses choose not to do this, land containing adult content that is not clearly marked will be easily identifiable by the community. Resident can raise concerns directly with the landowner or with Linden Lab via the Abuse channel.

As has always been the case, Residents are morally, socially and legally responsible for their actions and content in Second Life. Clearly, any illegal activity or content will be investigated and appropriate action will be taken.

So, flag your parcels and do your part to increase trust and safety among your fellow Residents in Second Life.

Consult the Knowledge Base under parcel flagging for more details and updates.

On Wednesday, September 19, we will be launching the new Second Life auction system. Transitioning to FairMarket, an external auction platform powered by eBay technology, allows Linden Lab to continue our focus on improving platform stability and other core initiatives. At this time only Linden Lab land auctions (mainland and a small number of abandoned parcels) will be placed into the new system. In the future we may also allow other types of auctions and sales through this new service.

Buyers will probably notice only minimal differences. Click on Auctions from the Second Life homepage, and find land auctions in $L and $USD, featured parcels, and links to manage and track your bids. Please refer to the FAQ page when we launch next week for more details on registration, eligibility, bidding, billing and resolving problems .

The one exception is that currently you may participate in auctions for land reservations. Residents could reserve space for a period of three months. Under the new system, we are no longer supporting these reservations. For Residents who have unconverted reserved land, we will honor the reservation for a three month period (the maximum a single reservation auction runs without renewal) from the launch date.

After the three month period, all unconverted reservations will be allowed to lapse. This does not alter the reserved area inherent around all regions automatically, and we still will not allow regions to be impinged upon nor allow “blocking” by others. Further details on island placements and moves will be discussed another post.

Happy Bidding!

Over the last couple of months we have been working hard to complete the development of a new and much improved auction system that will initially be used to replace the way we currently auction new and recycled mainland. We’re now drawing close to release day for this auction system, therefore to ensure a smooth transition we will be halting mainland supply using the existing auction page effective immediately.

A further blog post will follow, providing more information on the new system. We hope to have the new auction page up and running within 7-14 days, when we will resume mainland supply at the previously announced rate (no more than 8 regions per day). This rate will then continue through for what remains of September. Until then, there will be no new mainland being auctioned.

Further to the previous post announcing the rate of mainland supply, our rate from 1st September until 14th September will be slightly reduced, down to no more than 8 regions per day from 10 per day currently. In addition, there will likely be smaller parcels appearing for auction as we recycle mainland back into circulation.