KWC 1.3: showcase worlds

[Dot Matrix]

Now that the Hall of Merchants has been updated, I can turn my attention to the World Showcase building.

In another thread, Question re premium members and access to sims, there has been discussion about whether the worlds included as showcases should be open to everyone, or whether some accessible only to Premium account holders should be included.

Worlds currently set to Premium only are the following:
Butterfly Cove
Dogwood Arts Festival
Friendship Skills
Laurel Highlands
Linda Kellie Freebie Mall
Vana Bazaar and Botanical Garden (based on LK's freebie OpenSim furniture shop)

I would argue that the two LK-based freebie malls need to be accessible to all, both Regular and Premium. These particular worlds were originally included in the Showcase only because they help newcomers get up to speed quickly. However, there is a cost associated with that: is it fair to expect the world managers sponsoring these worlds to use their KC to pay for what can be lengthy spells inworld by newcomers trying to get content for their avatar and/or region?

On the other hand, once Kitely is connected to the Hypergrid, the argument for including them as showcase worlds becomes moot, since people will probably be able to go freebie shopping on other OpenSim grids via hypergates.

What do others think?

And is there a case for refreshing the list of what is included (or not)?

[Marstol Nitely]

I think they should be included, but worlds that are Premium Only, should be clearly marked in a way that's easily understood. There's no reason to not showcase the world just because regular members can't go there. While I'm glad that Kitely offers free (regular) membership, I don't necessarily think it's a good idea to design everything around them. I just had two friends sign up as premium members because they wanted to be able to go everywhere. It would have been a shame for them to pay to join and then not be able to find the LK stores because the free members can't go there. As far as what should or shouldn't be open, I would never think to tell another world manager how to run their world or who it should/shouldn't be open to.

[Dot Matrix]

It's time for another update.

The two LK-based malls are now accessible to all, and I've added another shopping area to the mix: City Life (it includes Fleep Grid and Oni Kenyon shops). It's easy to alternate among these three using the Dundridge's Google spreadsheet set-up for featured worlds. Maria's LK Freebie Mall will probably be a permanent fixture because she has taken care to remove any non-General-rated material. The other two malls contain Moderate-rated material. This helps to expand available freebie content to new users.

There are now just four Premium-only worlds: Butterfly Cove, Dogwood Arts Festival, Friendship Skills, Laurel Highlands. These are placed in the central area at the entrance closest to the Community Meeting area. The board name clearly shows they are Premium worlds.

Some new worlds have been added to the showcase spreadsheet: French Quarter, Hosoi Mura - Edo Honshu Japan, Imladris, Lllanfarian, Vector's Vortex. What other worlds do you think should be added? Again, it is relatively easy to rotate among the different worlds.

[Dot Matrix]

Another update: Dundridge has been working on a system based on the April Hunt teleportals that will enable people to randomly teleport to any of the worlds on the featured world spreadsheet. There is no need for world owners to place an accompanying portal at the other end -- the spreadsheet has all the information needed.

This will make it easier for individuals to quickly and literally throw themselves into exploring what Kitely has to offer in terms of inspirational builds.

It will also make it easier for showcase worlds to be added to the list and to be enjoyed more widely.

Design is being worked on.

[Dot Matrix]

At the Kitely Community Meeting on 7 May 2014, there was a fair amount of discussion about the featured world portal and the showcase world boards.

Both use the same underlying spreadsheet, i.e. list of worlds.

The number of boards is limited, whereas the portal teleports a user to a General-rated world at random from the list.

Because this is at random, the user has no prior knowledge of what type of world they might be taken to, which might encourage wider exploration of different genres.

Having the portal enables more worlds to become "featured".

When the Welcome Center was first developed, the question of showcase worlds was discussed here: Welcome Center: Which worlds to showcase?. Skimming the thread gives a good idea of the criteria behind the original choice of worlds.

Some key posts from that thread are (in order):
http://www.kitely.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4431#p4431

...There are various beautiful worlds on Kitely (Devokan worlds, Karima Hoisan worlds and David Denton worlds (both covered in Prim Perfect), and too many others to mention), there are worlds that belong to interesting groups (education, HIV awareness, art galleries, etc.), and there are worlds that people may find useful (e.g. Kitely Merchants Sandbox, Maria Korlov's free-access G-rated version of the Linda Kellie Freebie mall, etc.).

There are more than 4000 worlds on Kitely so we can only showcase a very small sample percentage wise. Our goal should be to showcase the worlds that would help convert someone who is checking out Kitely to an active user.

...Long term we'll want to have an automated mechanism to switch billboards periodically and replace ones for worlds that are not available (suspended world due to lack of payment, deleted world, etc.). However for the first phase we're just going to have to choose a few dozen worlds that leave a good impression and stick with them until we roll out phase 2. The worlds we choose are more likely to be ones that have unique content than ones that use the same freebie content people use everywhere (unless the world's purpose is of very high promotional value for Kitely).

http://www.kitely.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4464#p4464 -- this is the main post of criteria for inclusion

We should limit showcase worlds (at least at this stage) to teen-safe worlds (so no Adult rated worlds in the showcase).

...The goal is to impress people that Kitely isn't just a place where people upload the builds that visitors have seen in many other grids before. We also want to show high performance. This means that we can't use worlds that are freebie OAR based with only minor modifications and additions. We also don't want to leave people with the impression that worlds are abandoned before they are completed so we can't choose worlds that look empty or are still clearly under construction. We can't include worlds that require people to start configuring viewer settings to view correctly. We also can't include worlds that are hard to navigate. Finally we can't choose worlds that take too long to rez or create too much viewer lag while they're rezzing.

http://www.kitely.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4506#p4506
This starts a short discussion on completeness of builds. It might be something to re-consider for the portal.

And should "worthy" projects based on modifications of LK OARs be included in the portal list?

[Selby Evans]

In the long run, I think the KWC will benefit by letting new people choose the kind of community they want to explore and to go (with random selection) to one of those locations. If the interest, the best thing might be random choice among events active (populated) at the time of choice. SE

[Freda Frostbite]

It was me asking a bunch of questions at the meeting yesterday. I am still not totally clear if there will be a difference in the criterion for showcase worlds and portal worlds. I am hearing that there will not be; it's just that there are a limited number of boards for showcase, so the portal system allows more worlds to be included.

My next question is this-- and I am coming late to the party, so we may be beyond this point -- How effective are the showcase boards? I can tell you that they had no affect on me when I saw them. I did not visit a single world based on having seen it in the showcase. In Sl, there is a showcase. I have maybe twice in many years, looked at the showcase page and visited a world or two after seeing their listings there. I suspect that showcase on a web page is far more effective and a lot less labor intensive than showcase on billboards. Having said that, I would also say that I think sl's showcase is not very effective at all in terms of driving ongoing traffic to sims. It *does* increase traffic on the day a sim appears at the top of a showcase. Lots of people pop in for a few minutes or seconds on those days. It does not lead to continued traffic and long-term growth of activity and involvement on a sim. My parcels in sl have been featured in that showcase. There was a temporary boost, but nothing ongoing. In SL, I won't bother with showcase again, not unless they significantly change the way showcase is done.

I am wondering how the boards have worked in Kitely for actually driving traffic and then how they have worked for ongoing impact. I know they do not drive *me* to visit worlds, but have they driven others?

My suspicion is that the portal system might be far more effective than the boards. It is immediately interactive and it's fun-- more fun than looking at boards. So I am guessing (just guessing) that a random portal system would do far more to drive visitors to worlds than the boards. I would even think that a system that puts portals in all participating worlds would drive even more exploration to all worlds. I mean, if I am new to Kitely and I clicked the portal and was teleported to one cool world, why would I not click it again to be sent to another? I do not think people will return to the welcome center to click again. It is a "welcome center" after all, that does not suggest it being a place to which one returns, having already been welcomed. Maybe it should be called "Kitely Community Center" and a welcome center or point should be one section of it.

I am seriously asking if the showcase as it stands is actually effective or is it just more work for those who organize it? And is there a simpler way to utilize the portal system in place of the boards set-up?

I also would like to know -- am i understanding correctly that only G worlds can be in showcase or on portal system? Given that we have kids in Kitely, I could see the reasoning if that were the case, but it renders the whole discussion meaningless for most worlds, my own included. I have no intention ever of telling artists and poets and authors they have to keep their work and performances G-rated. So if that is a requirement for showcase and portals, then this discussion does not concern me. Maybe I should have asked that question first.

Finally, I really would like to know who is setting the criterion for the portal system. And if issues like educational and entertainment value are among the criterion, who is to decide what constitutes "educational" or "artistic" or, for that matter, "fun?"

Freda

[Dot Matrix]

Freda asked: How effective are the showcase boards? On more than one occasion I've used them to help direct a newcomer to Kitely to something they might find interesting or useful. If you are trying to accompany a group, it can be easier and more understandable to say "Click on this board" (e.g. if they are looking for freebies to change their avatar, I direct them to Maria's LK Shopping Mall). The boards also provide a quick inworld overview of some of the different builds possible in Kitely.

I agree with Freda that the portal system is immediately interactive and fun. I'm not sure whether it would be possible to build up a system of portals in all the featured worlds (for one thing, it would need to be in a lot simpler, less obvious style). That might be worth discussing, and it would also depend on whether Dundridge has capacity to fit them in.

Kitely Welcome Center is where the weekly Kitely Community Meetings take place, so people DO revisit. And as we were discussing in yesterday's Community Meeting, the Center includes several areas suitable for meetings or informal gatherings of different sizes. It's there to be used! Point taken about the name, though. Perhaps that is something to consider for the fabled KWC Stage 2.

The showcase includes both General and Moderate worlds. I tested the portal earlier today, and it took me to some Moderate-rated worlds. So my understanding that results were being filtered was incorrect -- sorry.

Who sets the criteria? Ultimately, Kitely does, as I was trying to show by quoting from the earlier thread.

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

so whaddya want, ten portal types or something ?
gah. how much work do you expect me to do ? I'm not getting paid for this. it's supposed to be fun.

There is a very simple reason for doing things in world instead of on the website, immersion. You cannot explore a virtual world from outside it, you miss all the fun of exploration. It's the same reason I have in-world computing devices, or in-world events boards, or anything else in-world. I have talking NPCs in world instead of displaying talking pictures on a website. It's more fun, and the whole point to virtual worlds. There is more to virtual life than flipping websites. Click for something cool is much more fun than driving traffic.

The portal tech can be set to do any filtering and any list of worlds, it makes no difference to the way it works, just the setup and a teeny configuration change on the script if needed.

The showcase boards are being used, I'm not tracking statistics on them, but I've seen them in use (I do visit the welcome centre frequently) and used them myself (not just for testing)

[Freda Frostbite]

Dundridge it's tons of work, I assume, and we are all thankful to you for doing it. A lot of people do a lot of things inworld and for kitely and we are grateful for all of it. You are not alone. And no I am not asking for ten types of portals. I am asking what the one we have already used could be used for.

I am interested to hear that you and Dot have used the signboards. I wonder if others have. I never have. That is why I ask. I tend to go head into my own work and projects and not see what others are doing and how they are working until such time as they have an affect on me. Now I am curious to know if the sl showcase has been a huge boon to anyone there. Wonder how I would find that out.