Thank you, Tor, for your hardwork on the budget. I have some notes on that but first, since it has come up, I'd like to remind everyone that just a little over a year ago, all the sims were almost full to capacity, INCLUDING Locus Amoenus.
Locus Amoenus is my favorite of all the CDS sims, I've owned property and spent a lot of time there in the 3+ years I've been in CDS.
The problem with Locus Amoenus is not the sim itself - in my opinion - but how it has been treated.
It is too often treated as the fairgrounds of CDS with rezzed large objects in violation of the covenant and out-of-character with the sim on a regular basis. I've complained one-on-one to those who I thought could do something about it, about monstrous concert stages that look like something more appropriate for a death-rock/heavy metal concert, or oversized ferris wheels that are 4x the height limit, or floating tents that are neither on the ground nor above the 500meter skybox limit. The promise is always that these things are temporary and/or to promote the sim, but they happen too frequently and really spoil the sim while they are there.
There is only one change I think should be looked at in regards to LA which is that there are many large parcels which are designated "residential only" and oftentimes people are dreaming of trying their hand at business in SL, so this designation possibly scares them off. I'd suggest mitigating that somehow, perhaps by amending the covenant to allow businesses above 500meters or similar; and then whatever caveat there is needs to be stated clearly in the land covenant.
In terms of promoting the CDS overall, we must look outside and see what we are up against. For example, in December, AnsheX was offering 1000m FREE of homestead sim to any new customer. Fortunately, this promotion has ended, however they have always offered a large library of objects for free to their tenants, something CDS should endeavor to develop, at least on a small scale. On the plus side, AnsheX parcels (and the Linden Lab "free" parcels) tend to have a crowded and sloppy feel, whereas CDS offers spaciousness within a community and a really gorgeous environment. We are comparable to Nautilus without the Nautilus pricetag.
I have some success developing traffic in Second Life from promoting my own store and also working with friends to promote their art galleries and concerts. As part of my campaign platform, I mentioned I wanted to offer these skills to help CDS during my time as RA.
Here are some of the things I'd like to see happen and intend to bring up at RA meetings (& a couple notes by me on the budget). I welcome the community's input and hope this list will start a dialogue.
1) I can help with Marketplace listings and promoting land, including making Internet videos
2) Every RA meeting and CDS event should be listed on the Linden Labs official events calendar at secondlife.com
3) I suggest holding hunts if we have enough citizens interested in contributing / hiding items.
4) If the fishing event is free to hold, I believe we should continue it and make sure it gets on the Linden Labs official events calendar.
5) I think we should re-institute primtionary and other events-games and be sure they get onto the Linden Labs official events calendar.
6) We could rez chess and other board/table games that anyone can play at anytime.
7) I think the budget needs to have an allocation for showing parcel in search expenses (30/L per parcel per week) with at least a visitor landing parcel for each sim optimized with title and description, then set to show in Search, as well as MoCa, the Praetorium, and other parcels that are in active use and would bring in visitors (i.e. places where events are held).
If we give people a reason to visit and to come back, they will come.
Thank you for your kind attention.
