Linden Labs have announced that they will take a tougher approach to garish advertising on the Mainland, with the suggestion of 'zoning' as a way forward. Previously Linden have operated light-touch, reactionary approach to regulation, but are now looking to turn away from this liberal approach. They write: "Unfortunately with the wonderful freedoms and creativity the Mainland offers have also come substantial problems that are unique to this area of the grid and so the time for change is now."
The main problem which Linden are attempting to solve is that of unwelcome advertising. They suggest it leads to volatile values for land parcels and splits opinion – some residents want a clean view free of advertising, and others welcome it (particularly the brands which Second Life is so keen to court). The solution which the blog post suggests is that of zoning: "Whilst many Residents love the ever changing aspect of the Mainland, for some Residents living there is just too dynamic and too unpredictable. We intend to provide more choice in the kinds of new Mainland continents that we make available because just as our customer base is very diverse, so are their land needs. To meet those diverse needs we plan to create different areas with different covenants in place that are actively enforced by Linden Lab; basically this means Zoning. This may include commercial areas, or residential only, or areas with no advertising. We hope to be talking more about how this will happen towards the end of the quarter."
In many ways, the problems Second Life's Mainland face are identical to those of a city – a scarcity of land creates a need for its use to be planned and governed more effectively. The extent to which interoperability with OpenSim will change this situation is unclear, however; fully interoperable OpenSim worlds would reduce the scarcity of land in Second Life, as the price of land effectively reduced to zero. Nevertheless, the challenge of how to attract residents to that land would remain.
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