DISQUS

OK if it is just a 'what's hot' or 'fun/indicative' can I suggest you don't call it a Traffic Index (which makes it sound scientific and formal) and call it something like "Lowells Top Oz Pics" or something fluffy like that.

Regarding your quote - can I suggest yet again that there has to be some 'common' measurement for SL (or it will not be taken seriously by anyone and will fail). At the moment SL dwell figures are the only game in town that everyone can see - rather than the alternative of hot air, selective sites, opinion and hype.

You will be glad to hear that I will not comment on this topic again.

Sorry skribe I care and am passionate about what environments I create and an entitled to be as precious as I like, thankyou very much. Send me some slurls of your large creations and I will provide you with constructive critism.

And thank you Tateru for some reason "level the build" struck the wrong chord ;-)

Best Gary

Surprisingly, however flawed the methodology, the stats (which put Pond as No.1 brand Lowell and ABC No.5) are not the concern here, it is Tateru's comment about the Pond

"With these two factors, you could just about level the build, transform the area into a sandbox and have it do as well."

Tateru, I worked very hard to make the Pond a great community place for Australian's and I really take offence at this comment. Can I suggest you actually go there, see what it is your flatenning and speak to the inhabitants who hang around in large numbers before you make such remarks. As I built the ABC sim too I think we should be proud that two non-international Oz brands are doing so well and less of the digs please.

Gary

Thanks Tateru,

Really helps! Would be good to know how timezones are being managed given the Australian sims are obviously more active in peak Oz time (7-12pm local).

For the record we track parcels too so each area's popularity can be seen over longer periods - also because some branded sims have sublet to 3rd parties who are not directly connected with the brand yet are drawing traffic for other reasons...here is a list I had to hand from a couple of weeks ago (some are full sims of course).

Pontiac - pontiac garage, fairgrounds, speedway, dirtfield raceway, drive in, motorati, car design park, g-axis vehicles, pontiac dealership, ride, octane
ABC TV Australia - sandbox tower, triple j club, media pod comedy, eco house, amphitheatre
NetG Training- netg and asl, cisco, mall shops
Nissan- altima island, nissan
Mercedes-Benz - island
IBM - codestation, ibm, boeblingen lab, ibm 6, exec briefing, benelux island, ibm 8, recruitment, portal, matt simpson, eos pilot, cell processor, panini, ucd
Dell - factory, conference, dell city
Mazda - nagare
BigPond - the pond, pondex sandbox, pondex arrival, billabong bar, uluru, ponderosa, the dome, pyramid spa, harbour bridge, club illusion, opera house, ponderama, pondice, ponden, pondschen, pondillion
American Apparel - american apparel
Showtime (L Word)- l word in sl, l word in sl, amphitheare, amphitheatre
Microsoft - Visual studio island
MTVN - laguna beach
Toyota - scion city
Reuters - reuters
AOL- pointe, club aol
Sears - ibm sears, sears
Samsung - softbank slim japan
Sony Ericsson - sony ericsson
Adidas Reebok - reebok
Starwood Hotels - aloft island
Sony BMG - media island, bmg music
STA Travel - sta main island
BMW - new world 1new world 2
Circuit City - ibm 10 circuit city
ABN AMRO - world tennis. landingspunt
Cisco - systems, welcome, field, amphitheatre, connected home
PA Consulting Group - pa consulting office
Intel - intel
Sun Microsystems - sun microsystems
Sundance Channel - screening, sundance channelcafé
Sprint - sprint center
The Infinite Mind - welcome, broadcast, amphitheater
Text 100 - island, island, amphitheater
Wired Magazine - headquarters
CNET - cnet japan, network office

Gary

Also while we are on the subject of dwell. I know many people who pop into SL for 10-20 mins a day, they have limited time. If they choose to spend all that time in one area doesn't that show a commitment and interest in that space that should be rewarded?

Also according to Linden Lab of the 200 000 unique people a day inworld the average time spent is over 4 hours - so nearly 1 million user hours per day. Given this is the case do you not think that dwell 'spikes' are evened out by this?

Another question as to your metrics - could you give the precise times you take people samples and which parcels you are sampling so that I and others can also check. Thanks

Thanks Tateru,

That clarifies things. The other really important element is to know what areas/parcels/sims you are measuring people on. Do you list those?

Obviously a busy are of one sim compared with a quiet area of another is not accurate. How do you choose which parcels to measure?

Best Gary

Sorry Zak this is not sour grapes this is about common-sense. Please look at the image at http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyhayes/527079452/ . Those are the open figures of traffic across a brand and anyone can get see those in simple steps.
1 Boot up Second Life
2 Click Search, Click Places Tab
3 Type the Brand name
4 Add up the traffic for all parcels relating to that brand

I suggest anyone who has SL to go inworld and do the above for 'pontiac' and 'bigpond' and 'abc' and 'IBM' a few of the leading brands to see for yourself - there is no pushing one brand over another here, the figures are there now, available to compare.

What I am disagreeing with is a measurement that says, 'oh well we shall only look at one one of those parcel figures, we shall choose which one to measure and compare'. It is not specificity it is about subjectivity in this case. It takes a second to choose a number from each of those images.

Perhaps we should ask the steps required to run the numbers on SLOz and NWN - but that would involve, and this is the point, a level of 'selectivity'.

This is not rocket science and Zak I am entitled to my opinion as much as you, and do not approve of your 'no class' comment, which is personally targeted.

Gary

I apologise if you took manipulation to mean the way you obviously took it. All methods are using LL inworld traffic measurement, yes? The word is intended to mean that if you take raw figures (each brand has a combination of parcels which has a daily traffic figure) and selectively choose which parcel you measure and take samples of the same traffic at various points in the day then surely the figures are being 'manipulated'?

I also don't think that anyone can run the numbers unless they are very familiar with SL and have the time to do so. If they are out of world then they need to trust a source for how brands are doing, especially those thinking of engaging with SL inhabitants. So if 3 or 4 or 5 systems pop up all saying different things then the whole thing becomes very suspect in my opinion. I will keep going back to my hobby horse - the ones that we do are unfiltered (vs manipulated - semantics may have caused offence) based on 'all' the traffic to a brand based on open inworld figures...

Gary

Oh just what we need, another 'selective' filter of the open traffic figures in SL. New World Notes as you know is sponsored by 'Millions of Us' who are responsible for Pontiac and Sun amongst others - and so they are taking selective measurements that make those brands come to the fore.

Now SLOZ is going to look at just the popular 'parcels' for each brand - which is a bit like saying we are going to see which are the most popular cities in the world by comparing one of their busiest 'tourist squares' - ummm. Really useful. Bit like saying we can compare London or Tokyo (with many centres) to Hornsby (Sydney) with its one centre?

For those who just want a clear summary of all the parcels for each brand then The Project Factory publish these each week at http://www.theprojectfactory.com and they will also be publishing what parcels are taken into account and more importantly (for those not inworld wondering what manipulation is taking place) the actual 'images' of the search that took place.

In the case of NWN and SLOZ they will be picking/selecting times and/or parcels to come up with manipulated figures, The Project Factory take all parcels that are to do with the brand and that are listed in search and others that do not list we actually take it off the land parcels directly - here is tomorrows montage image for those not in world

http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyhayes/527079452/

Gary