Is that really the best name for that tab in the search function in Second Life, Popular Places? I’ve been visiting them periodically for different reasons lately, and EVERY ONE of them have been because of camping spots. I was looking tonight and noticed that at least three of them were Brazilian and I thought I would check those out to see if there was anything different from the other popular places.

Nope.

Camping, camping, camping, oh and of course shopping spots and clubs. I did find one that had a cyber cafe in it, but don’t get me started on that.

What the popular places tab needs is to be rated by us, with some kind of favorite tool, like an add to favorites, a vote for, or some kind of system that lets users pick actual popular places, and not places that are there just because of traffic. If not for us regular users, at least do it for the newbie’s, they will end up going to these places just because of some of the keywords, like sex, dancing, free, make lindens, etc. Its no wonder lots of people think all Second Life is about is sex and dancing, and these camping sites are also reinforcing the myth that everywhere is deserted. While you land in the places with lots of avatars hanging around, half the time you don’t see anyone when you get there.

Come on Lindens, give us a say in the popular places and it will help us all out. Just make sure users can only vote once per place.

Popularity: 6%