Results!

I had several days more away from home--so no blogging, and no Second Life.

But on my return I was happy to see that the Group-owned 16m parcel's extortionist sign had been taken down.

I believe this all happened when I had only very limited time on the computer; the last I'd mentioned was that the parcel in back of my pond (which had been four 1024's originally, I think) had been cut up into 512s-minus-16m's. And these are not along a road (though a road was nearby).

I still think I shouldn't have sent that first Abuse Report, because the giant green neon sign wasn't up, yet, on the L$62/m parcel.

But when I next came inworld, there it was!

And the obvious nature of the extortion attempt was that the same group owns several of the 16m parcels made from the 4096m-or-so original parcel----but ONLY the one that directly backs on my build had the thirty-foot-plus-tall neon-green For Sale sign on it.

So apparently the Linden who looked at my second Abuse Report (with snapshot of the sign) agreed that the person was not, er, conducting legitmate business.

But, you know, there must be quite a number of people who spend their entire time in SL doing this: looking for not-too-expensive parcels next door to parcels with builds that would be impacted by Giant Neon Green Signs; buying and carving up those parcels; changing the per-meter price from L$5/m to L$60/m or L$80/m or such, and then sitting back and collecting the nuisance-payments.

After all, a lot of parcel owners probably DO just pay the five bucks (US) or so, just to have it over and done with.

And since the ad farmer paid only the equivalent of about a quarter-dollar (US) or so for that parcel, it could add up.

Really nasty. How do they justify it, in their own minds? I mean, if someone has a computer and high-speed Internet connection---and how could they be in Second Life otherwise?---then they're not Starving, or Needing to Feed Their Starving Children. So THAT can't be the justification.

I just can't imagine the mindset that would find this sort of thing to be fun. But clearly such minds ARE present in SL.

Anyway, the whole ad-farm phenomenon has been hashed out ad (!) nauseum wherever SL residents gather to post, but I did find it interesting both that the ad-farm-extortion attempts do continue to take place, and that Linden Lab is responding to reports about it. And I'm very grateful for the latter.