What's that coming over the hill? Is it a Monster? No it's a rental box.

There's a theme you know. So I'm reporting live from my home after just attending Jack Linden's office hour and what a vicious office hour it was. The mob were in the house, the monster and his sidekick were in the house, Jack Linden was in the house and by the end of the meeting someone with the ominous name of "Beware Hax" was asking questions, which had an eerie feeling to it as earlier in the meeting someone reported that the notorious Hax himself had been inworld at the weekend, however like reports of the loch ness monster and the yeti it's a case of "Pics or it never happened".

So what's the skinny on the lowdown I hear you ask. Well here's the rub of the green, rental boxes are a pretty core part of business for many landlords in Second Life, yet they're advertising aren't they? For sale signs are covered by the ad policy, the policy aims to be consistent and well, many a mainland landlord is going to be in a bit of a pickle if rental boxes are covered by this ad policy.

Jack isn't sure at the moment if they are covered, yet he did say the policy has to be consistent. This is a big can of worms, not least because it could well have implications for some big inworld companies.

This is careful what you wish for territory, a bit like searching You Tube for "You shook me all night long" and finding yourself inexplicably drawn to a Celine Dion cover of the song, well it beats Baccara and "Yes Sir I can Boogie", some people have a lot to answer for.

We're sleepwalking into silliness over this ad policy. We all know what an ad farm is, we all know what an eyesore is, we all know what an extortion plot is, and many of us are going to find out the complexities of strict enforcement of an ill thought out policy come October 2nd.

The best policy in the world is common sense. That's all that was needed here. Stopping the banlines used to extort, the silly ad towers and the ridiculous non advertising plots. It really shouldn't be this hard to deal with this, I don't even see why they needed a new policy and by going down this route we're going to see a whole new set of problems arising.

The meeting tonight really wasn't pleasant. Two sides entrenched in their views of right and wrong, freedom and liberty, Pinky and Perky, it has all gotten very silly and now those in the red corner are armed with their list of plots to abuse report at just past midnight October 1st, whilst those in the blue corner are saying they comply and won't go away, well maybe, well they're not sure. Oh the economy is on its knees.

The ad plot guys really need to prove the power of advertising and they haven't done that here inworld. Too many have been a blight on the landscape, do any of them have the ability to come up with the advertising tools inworld business would like to see? Working with parcel owners is the key to a good advertising system, not working against them.

Those straining at the leash to report plots need to take a step back, consider the consequences of inundating the governance team with reports and realise, that like it or not, advertising is a tool that won't go away. Indeed I wonder at times if people even undersrand what an advert is because people who carry adverts don't seem to realise it.

Jack's office hour is a concierge meeting, many concierge level residents use automated rental systems and automated rental systems advertise plots that are available for rent. This policy needs to be flexible, most of all it needs to have at the heart of it common sense and right now I'm not seeing that.