It has been a consistent impression with me since joining this community that our commercial localities are not endowed with the traffic that they rightly "deserve" considering the quality of some of the goods on display there. I should not hesitate to add that this impression of mine is not qualified by systematic observation of primary data i.e. information from the actual purveyors of goods but rather by my own casual observations from my presence in the streets of our communities at various times around the clock.
It strikes me as a possibility that one of the factors, which could potentially be suspected of hampering traffic to the shops is the phenomenon of all teleporting visitors to the sims being directed toward a central location from where it is their own responsibility to walk or fly until they find their actual destination marked by a glowing red pillar (and supporting arrow).
Perhaps many among the masses of new users that seem to flock to SL at the moment do not have the experience with and thus tolerance of such a system but rather expect to arrive more or less directly at the point of their desired destination and upon seeing they've arrived in some complicated urban environment that can take a while to rezz in they abandon their visit and continue their pursuit of talking shoulder-monkeys elsewhere.
Even if this is not the actual behaviour among bargainhunting visitors even the impression of this being the case could serve as a deterrance against successful SL retailers setting up shop with us.
I would therefore like to open a debate on the merits of the centralised "telehubs" or teleport arrival points. Do shopowners perceive the level of traffic to their shop that they experience in CDS to be abnormally low or not? Is it their opinion that their shop might be more successful if visitors arrived directly on the doorstep of their shop with the possibility of being able to immediately fulfil their shopping desires and then _afterwards_ being encouraged to walk outside and explore the beautiful, pittoresque urban environment?
By allowing shopkeepers and event holders the ability to attract visitors from all of SL directly onto their land I submit that we will distribute the challenge of attracting visitors to our community among more shoulders - each of which being directly motivated to act to increase the traffic - unlike the present situation where it seems to me the responsibility of attracting visitors belongs to some diffuse entity known as our collective community and its marketing efforts.
There may of course also be other good arguments in favour of retaining the telehubs - such as their being part of us maintaining a distinct difference in culture and city planning from the mainland and that the telehub is essential for the maintenance of this equilibrium.
Another possible argument would be that by removing from the telehub its "centralistic power" we rob the owners of marketplace / Forum properties part of the value that came from the increased flow of traffic. That may or may not be a valid argument, which possibly it would be for a court to finally arbitrate over. Personally I'd think the ability to attract customers directly into one's shop and the general impetus of being part of a greater commercial centre would still be a most valuable asset for the shop.
Please note that I am not advocating the total abolishment of the telehubs since they would to my mind still be listed in the directory but in the future possible only serve as the entry points for those visitors who do not have a specific destination in mind or simply wish to visit our community as a whole.
So to sum up I'd like to invite all the residents of the CDS to chime in and contribute with their experiences and arguments for and against the proposal to allow shopowners and event holders in the future to attract visitors directly to a selected teleport point on their parcel.
