SL20B in Second Life - The Tragedy of the Commons

An illustration for one act of the Exhibit. I voted to have a pony in the Welcome Area.

Prokofy Neva's SL20B Exhibit is called "The Tragedy of the Commons", but he also has information about historical and future 'Content/Discontent' in Second Life.

The exhibit title refers to the fact that if multiple people have unrestricted access to a limited resource, they will tend to over-use it, and may end up destroying it altogether. If one person has no rational reason to exercise restraint, they will try to use all the resources they can, but everyone loses in the end. 

The term originated from a time when villages shared a 'commons' or common area where everyone in the village could graze their animals, and the 'commons' became over-grazed. 

A field in the center of the exhibit shows an overgrazed commons.

Another field shows what happens when homesteads are managed by individuals or groups.

Metaphorically, the term "tragedy of the commons" is used in to refer to problems like overpopulation, pollution, habitat destruction, overfishing, and filling space with debris. 

In this exhibit, the 'commons' are the Mainlands in Second Life.

In Second Life there are several types of land: Estates and Homesteads that are purchased from Linden Lab and which are managed by the owner; Premium Home Continents managed by Linden Lab; and Mainland where residents buy land from LL or another resident and pay tier to Linden Lab. Estates and Homesteads have most rules set by the owner, the Premium Home Continents have covenants set by Linden Labs, but most of the Mainland has very few restrictions and even those are often not enforced. 

What were the 'Content/Discontents' of the Mainland? As Prokofy Neva writes:

"Many of the protests that developed in SL over the years related to the ruination of the virtual experience of the many by the few, and the effort by the platform providers to provide the maximum freedom of creativity to grow the world, but not yield to forces bent on destroying it to fulfill the whims of the few."...

"Within a few years of its founding, Second Life was forced to abandon the dream of harmonious civic life on a contiguous mainland and offer private islands for people to get away from each other, represented by the sheep paddock here, and give in to strenuous customer demand for planned communities with more rules and predictable content, which began with Brown and Boardman and continued to Bellisseria and similar Linden Home communities."

Some of the problems his exhibit covers are:  Ad Farmers, Mentoring, Copybots, New User Experience, User Interface and Land Tools not working, Land being too expensive, The end of Gachas, Overzealous Security Orbs, Resource Hoarders, Griefing,  and Bots.

Prokofy always has good information about the history of Second Life, and he was there when a lot of it happened. About different 'citizen revolts' in Second Life, he writes about The Prim Tax Revolt, and the complaints about Griefers, Copybots, Land Tools, Group Tools, and references Lucy Linden and the problem in Tenera.

He writes about what is left to protest: 

" -the fee increases for purchase of Lindens and cashouts which came soon enough after the lowering of the cost of tier and the increase of prims per square meter;

  - application of US state taxes -- ouch, ouch, ouch (unless you're in like Montana);
 more fee hikes for conversion of Lindens to dollars and process of credits;

  - lack of void sims laid out in a row from their Mainland properties with money-making venues and the newest Bellissseria content"

I do not agree with a lot of what he writes, but I admire the fact that he expresses his opinion and fights to change things. 

He has a blog, Second Thoughts, and his rental headquarters is at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ravenglass/21/234/57.

His exhibit was filled with unique objects he has collected, and tons of freebies.