Monday, July 18, 2011

A Zindra Welcome Area: How To Do It Right

As the topic is 'hot' right now, here's a small article: 3 Compelling Reasons to Do A Welcome Area Right. I believe that are some very wring ways being proposed out there. Here are three points to consider......

1. IN THE OCEAN....

A welcome center or infohub belongs in an isolated area, such as the ocean. It should never be in the center of mainland, surrounded by other regions. Why? A common SL phenomenon: neighboring residents taking advantage of the traffic, using signage and other techniques to inappropriately market to 'new arrivals'. It creates an unfair and unbalanced property value situation and opens the door to abusive marketing practices.

2. MATURITY RATING THAT MATTERS.....
An 'adult' welcome center or infohub has incidental value and doesnt involve much space or staff, especially if it caters only to those who are already age verified or who are ready to explore 'Adult' material and know what they want. Many people have little use for such places and never use them, Its not a dynamic use of space. There is barely any use for it. If you are going to do it, at least make it a Moderate-rated area so you can get value by selling the adult SL to the greatest potential number of residents. (And being Moderate, it must be in the ocean and not surrounded by adult regions, of course)

3. INTUITIVE NAME......

If you really want a sim thats the 'first stop' a resident is likely to visit, give it a name that intuitively suggests that: Zindra StartPoint, Zindra Start Here, Zindra Quickstart etc. This almost guarantees a first visit when someone searches inworld vis Map or Search. Calling the region ' Zindra' does not achieve this and only adds confusion. Many people won't even bother unless it is obviously a place to start, and that starts with the name.

CONCLUSION...
Luckily, all three conditions are met perfectly well with LL's Podyan sim (if renamed). That simple initiative needs to be reborn. Using 'Zindra Sim' for this undermines the entire effort of a successful Welcome Center.

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