Tools and Technology

Theres way too much wrong with this response... no where to start.... but lemme just say that if you've fallen in love so quick that you haven't had a chance to ask where they're from... you have issues.  LOL

Second Life isn't made to be a "dating service" .. just like its not made to be something like Facebook.  A bigger portion than not don't want to be pushed into the RL and WANT to keep their second life private. 
There ARE dating sites for SL'ers like avmatch.com if you want to go that route....  otherwise, keep it strictly SL.  Stop pushing it past the viewer.

I'm not really fussy about where a profile pops up. However, every time I select to view the profile of a nearby resident in 2.5, MY profile pops up first every time. Yes, my own!  I close this first attempt and try again and then their profile is displayed. This happens with every different resident I select to view a profile on. I'm hoping it's not the only one experiencing this.

Aside from this glitch, I feel the introduction of a web based profile will help nail down a standard picture size for profile and picks images.  Up until now, I have found it difficult to provide a "one size fits all" approach when it comes to profile and picks images in SL due to different viewers providing different size image holders.  If LL can provide a single and consistent image sizing list for this new web based format, that would be great.

On another note, I don't see my Favourite LM listed in the login screen. Am I missing something?

So I'm happy with the changes, all good n' well.

What I'm NOT happy about? Heh, lemme' tell ya. I'm a person who likes to type, be it useless or useful information, so my RL/SL biography was chocked to the brim of text limit.

In this new update, they lowered the text cap for whatever rediculous reason. Although, I can live with this! This isn't so much my problem, but rather, since BOTH, RL and SL descriptions were over the limit initially, and it only allows you to save one at a time? Even if I change them both at the same time, and try to save then. It only 'saves' one side, not both.

SO I cannot edit my profile, at all. I tried just about everything with it, nothing works! Keeps saying they're over text limit, hell can't even change my display picture anymore. So I hope this is updated soon... I would much rather them wipe all I've written on my file, than not be able to do a damned thing with it.

Thx for the tip on AvMatch.com.  It is really kindof frustrating that so many people in SL are interested in dating in SL, but it can be so hard to find locals.

>Find in 2.4 now Broken?

Grr.  I am having a new problem with 2.4  Is anyone else noticing extra slowness in the find command?  It is always pretty slow to load up for the first time, but in 2.4, I seem to be having particular trouble.  It won't load at all quite often and I'll have to close the window and try again multiple times to get it to work or even relog.  Find seems to be working better now in 2.5.

*** 2.5 Mongering Alert ***

If you want to keep both 2.4 and 2.5 installed in order to test the differences between the two, at EVERY time you start the program, make sure you go to Me > Preferences > Setup and deselect install updates automatically.  I have noticed if you open one version and then the other, it is now resetting this preference to automatically update. 

*** It downloads updates at the LOGIN screen before/while you sign in! ***

*** Make sure EVERY TIME you open another version you deselect install automatic updates ***
Or next time you close the program and login, you will be running 2.5.

>Use External Browser
I have gladly discovered lately that just bypassing the internal browser and loading profiles in the external browser can turn a 30-60 second wait into 5 seconds (of course not even half a second with 2.4).  Just click the external browser button in the profile view in the upper right of the window.  At first, I thought a lot of your options such as adding a friend and editing personal notes were left out of the external browser entirely.  But you just have to login to the web profile to access them.  It will make you login again every single time you restart the viewer even if you already logged into the web version (and yes, with your full name and password even if you keep selecting remember me).

But full profile features seem to work in the external (even IM ... it loads the IM in the viewer) ... so it may be worth it for a lot of users. 

Seems other are at least able to login with 2.5 ... not me!

In fact, I wasn't even given the option to upgrade -- a freakin' DOS window opens, the upgrade starts, I'm asked whether to allow to connect, I say no repeatedly, the upgrade proceeds anyway.

Now I'm left with a viewer that says it can't resolve the host name, and no access.

So, I uninstall the viewer, re-install 2.4, and guess what?  Forced to upgrade again.  Same result.

Lovely.  Thank you very much.

As soon as I had a perfect stranger asking me for friendship in-world, where my profile is hidden, I feared that my profile MUST be visible on the web. In fact, it was.

I would recommend that everyone who hid their profile in-world use their privacy settings on the web and set them so they do not allow their profile to be available to everyone, or they will be flooded with networkers' requests for useless friendships. The networking maniacs are a royal pain in the a**, and I know this for a fact since I am on Facebook, too.

Mind you, I like to make friends, but I am slightly old-fashioned, I need to meet them in the flesh FIRST.

Of course, LL should have taken our in-world privacy into account for starters, but no. Another proof they ignore their customers even when they say they listen to them.

Sandor

Kotari,

Thank you for taking the time to reply, but I am afraid that you didn't address my questions.  What you said makes perfect sense to me if I were asking why textures/objects take  longer in SL to load than in WoW, but that was not the question. The question is why the number of textures/objects would affect the way that they load--in other words, the problems with textures failing to rez completely, objects, especially sculpts, not rendering properly, avatars failing to load, etc.  If all textures and all objects are rezzed by the same software (in a given viewer), the number of different textures and objects shouldn't make any difference except for the amount of time required to get the information (as you said).

Where is the YouTube link on the my.profile web page? Shouldn't it be in the Share Elsewhere area as an icon?

That's where it appears in my profile. Maybe try reloading the profile page, or repeat the connection process.

Ah ...edit and add in on the edit page.. gotcha!! All we need now is Plurk & Blogger and perhaps Photobucket and until the next rage, we'll be all sort of connected.

Lulu, I would be the last fennec on earth to suggest that you keep silent when there is something going on of which you disapprove.  I did not mean to suggest that you should not express your disapproval, or approval for that matter.  The only thing I really meant to address was your comment about there being a "friendlier" way for LL to do what they are doing.

The rest of my post to you was more a restatement that LL is going to do whatever they feel they must do, regardless of what the residents of SL think of such actions. They have never been swayed very much by community feeling in the past, and I don't see any particular reason they would start now... though that is only my personal opinion and I hope I am wrong.

My.secondlife.com? isn't there already a dead social site name myspace.com? Make that two,  this is like Avatar United. It makes no sense what so ever.

Here's an idea, LL. Mak a simple yes or no poll on the log in screen, and see what everyone thinks about it. It's extremely frustrating that LL is wasting resource on fixing stuff that is not broken, and yet ignoring the ones are broken.

I don't mind my sl profile to be view by all, SL is an extension of oneself. But what I/we don't want is to have facebook cookies in profile, nor we want to make every simple SL task into a chore.

I would like to add: if you are trying to update web profiles and make them accessable online .... provide a way to search for people by RL location (especially by city).  IMVU does this quite well.

There is a wonderful dating potential in Second Life, but by the time you fall in love, you realize they're in Croatia or something.  Give us a reliable way to meet local singles!

Nooooo!!! That is insanity. Have you seen some of the twisted shit in SL, items sold as BDSM that would kill someone, like guillotines that make the avatar headless, axe beheading  and impaling "scenes," all combined with poseballs to "have sex" with the avatars that have been essentially made into corpses. I didn't even search for these, I was looking at XStreet the marketplace for medical items for a hospital, boots, a roleplay meter tachi, goth clothing and an ambulance with "adult" content set to show when these necrophilia items showed in the searches. I don't want someone who would buy those or any number of the rape and tentacle rape items (btw, rape is not sexual, it is a crime of violence and hatred, intercourse with a corpse is not sexual either and both rape and necrophilia are illegal in RL but many SL sims encourage them.) I would not want anyone who would buy such things or go to such sims to know if I was "local" or even in the same country for that matter. It is madness to enable people who are being encouraged to do hate crimes in SL to be able to tell if someone is local. Not all of them are rapists or murderers but who can tell how many are or would be given the opportunity. They definitely have some issues that are scary enough I don't want them to have any clue where I am from, let them think I am from Alpha Centari or somewhere even further away.

Caitlin, I'm pretty sure that at least some of the items you describe are already against the rules. See this page:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/listing_guidelines#adult-guidelines

Particularly the part about "Banned Content". I'm sure that at least the part about rape you mentioned, is against the rules.

Caitlin, I'm pretty sure that at least some of the items you describe are already against the rules. See this page:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/listing_guidelines#adult-guidelines

Particularly the part about "Banned Content". I'm sure that at least the part about rape you mentioned, is against the rules.

Thank you for the link. Unfortunately even though it is banned rape is listed as forced sex, forced sex is just semantic wordplay for rape as if it is forced then the one being forced does not want it. Nothing consensual is forced so every mention of forced sex by the definition of rape is rape and not sexual. Rather it is a violent criminal act of hate that is patently offensive to sane people. This really belongs in another place except that web profiles are an addition of ways for predators to find victims for hate crimes. I am very outspoken about hate crime issues to speak for victims who are too afraid to even though it scares the bejeebes out of me too, and web profiles are a possible tool for predators in a place that is you look around is filled with rape under the semantic of forced sex and misclassifying it as BDSM, which by its own rules is consensual, meaning not forced.

I have disabled my web profile under privacy and had it tested to see if it really is disabled and even my SL partner can not get a web profile for me, for which I am glad. But from what I have read in the comments people who have viewer 2.5 are having their web profiles made public again by the viewer. I have also turned off show in search inworld in SL and of course it did nothing, I still show up in a people search, which leads me to serious doubts that the privacy settings will actually work in the long run. I will not use Linden Labs viewer 2.anything and will stick to 3rd party viewers. The problem there is when SL decided to delete things or ruth you and get you stuck in the ruth state to the point an inventory reset has to be done by LL the first thing they tell you is to sign on with the current official viewer, claiming it works better. Watching things since the beta announcement for viewer 2 it will just be a matter of time before there will be banner ads at the top of the LL viewers.

Dont like it

Inworld should always be inworld

For me things only got worse, if i want to check web profiles i go to websites

I takes much longer to find people, open profiles and IM them, clicking is a hell now

sl geting worse on this point

SL IS ABOUT INWORLD, what are you guys doing to SL ???

Kotari,

Thank you for taking the time to reply, but I am afraid that you didn't address my questions.  What you said makes perfect sense to me if I were asking why textures/objects take  longer in SL to load than in WoW, but that was not the question. The question is why the number of textures/objects would affect the way that they load--in other words, the problems with textures failing to rez completely, objects, especially sculpts, not rendering properly, avatars failing to load, etc.  If all textures and all objects are rezzed by the same software (in a given viewer), the number of different textures and objects shouldn't make any difference except for the amount of time required to get the information (as you said).

You're welcome, I'm sorry I didn't do a very good job of explaining before though! Again, its a matter of things being saved to your computer versus being loaded via servers. In SL everything is stored via their servers, everything is using up your bandwith. However, if the files are stored in your computer then there is a lot of bandwith being freed up for other things like movement, gestures, scripts, ect. Its why things don't just load faster but are less likely to fail/glitch. In SL the reason things don't load sometimes is simply because your bandwith is struggling to do everything at once and then eventually it just gives up or thinks its loaded completely even when it hasn't.

I've used SL with cable internet as high as 50mbs but I've also used it with a connection as low as 4mbs. The difference in performance rises drastically the more bandwith you have to use. Essentially, lag is the root of all evil!

Note, that SL DOES have a place to store object/texture data (the cache) but its maxed out at 1gb versus the aforementioned 20+ for games like WoW. You can read more about that on the SL wiki under "cache".

SL IS ABOUT INWORLD, what are you guys doing to SL ???

Increasing exposure and gaining ad revenue, much like thier competition has done?

Thanks Fredrik, YouTube support in profiles is a welcome feature.

Videos are a very effective way to show what people can do with Second Life! (or to document a new bug, as shown below)

And now I'll quote myself "Sure..  there are a couple of poeple in these forums that will take anything you  throw at them and say "Thank you, sir, may I have another""

Kotari, that certainly sounds like a reasonable explanation.  Going back to the original post on this subject:

"Also how  come Activision Blizzard can remake the entire world of Azeroth in a  year, and you guys started working on stability 2 years ago and items  from the marketplace still don't deliver all the time; people walk  around without knowing their skin hasn't loaded; inventories fail to  load. This is all backend stuff."

Your answer supports this comment--my connection to the SL servers is spending almost all of it's time doing ACK/NACKs, so Guinevere is in fact correct.

NOOOO, you changed the websearch also.

Now I can no longer find the keys of people through the websearch.

Please bring that back. I have a huge amounts of systems depending on this technology.

Yes.  The websearch is changed.  And you're right about script keys becoming more hidden now.  And stop making us login again just to access profiles after we've already logged in.  Arrrg!

And what's the deal to implement those features on the website only - in an optional fashion? And let inworld profiles be inworld profiles? Changing the input length of those boxes is such a big deal now they have changed their databases already: Locate the XML definition file for the profile tab/floater, change the length attribute, done! Oh did I mention friends are already clickable in the dashboard? That is if they allow you to see your inworld location.

Oh and dude, why do you have a RL pic for the avatar here? You know this ain't Twitter nor Facebook, don't you?

And for all others: I completely disabled my web profile because I don't wanna be liked on Facebook. Get your hands on a pre-2.5-viewer if you want to see it!

Perhaps everyone should just completely disable the web profile. Wondering if LL will listen when lots of (new) people start complaining the profiles don't work.

And now I'll quote myself "Sure..  there are a couple of poeple in these forums that will take anything you  throw at them and say "Thank you, sir, may I have another""

 

Perfectly said!

LL only gives lip service and uses crap like this to distract the sheeple from the fact they haven't done squat to fix the problems that we have been screaming about for years!  They insist on shoving this crap viewer down our throats even though the vast majority don't like it, don't want it, don't use it.

So the fanboys/girls will all cheer and kiss LL butt and will make it look like LL is doing a great job.  But now they are pushing us to FB and they are going to be sorry when their mess goes public.

So flame away, sheeple.  The opinions of the fanboys/girls means as much to me as what LL says - zip!

I am not sure my opinion will really matter in the grand scheme of things but I need to say how much I dislike the web profiles. I am a big advocate of viewer 2 and absolutely love it because it hits my OCD nature just right. It is organized and linear in its approach. However, the web profile option is slow, covers up the screen and defeats the purpose of being able to have an organized side tab system. I would love to see it go back to the way it was with the option to take it to a webpage for ease. I am a profile nut and love to read them because I can learn so much about people from SL. This is hindering that part of my enjoyment of SL.

Thanks!

Ephany

 

I quote Ephany on all the line. I'm new in SL, started with the previous Viewer 2 version which I find perfect specially for the fluidity of movements. I installed this last update and I hated that hassle caused by the slow loading of the web profile - when it loads! - so I tried 3rd parties viewers with this result:

1. Phoenix - I know old users started with that and are very strict about using anything different than that but despite the huge number of interesting features - ehm... I'm a man and I must admit the 'breasts effect' was a pleasant shock! - I resolved to uninstall it straight away... I felt completely lost with that, ok I was a soldier, I'm supposed to love a spartan look but I'm also scandinavian and a photographer so I have my own background of taste for a good design, I guess. In any case I didn't feel that viewer 'mine'.

2. Kirsten's - amazing redesign of Viewer 2 interface, loved the use of icons to open the different tabs and the inclusion of the mini map directly in the 'nearby' tab which makes easier to see who's around and where. I also loved the lightning system, shadows are awesome BUT at the end of the day none of those great features were worth to wait ages to load textures and the frustrating slowness and lack of fluidity. I gave up with that, in the official viewer I have ultra graphics settings so I guess such a difference of performance forces me to renounce to those features which could be great for experimenting with photography in SL.

 

I kept the previous viewer installer saved in my PC so I could install it again, in a different folder, so I can be back in SL moving at ease and keeping on with old style profiles. I still have the same problems when teleporting - the screen starts flickering like a xmas tree becoming black so I still have to patiently wait everything gets loaded or to relog. I guess the new viewer fixed that but even if it didn't nothing changes for me, I still rely on this Viewer 2.4 I started my SL with.

 

 

Håkon Magnusson

GOOD:

It's nice to link profiles on other websites such as game rank posting.

 

BAD:

I couldn't find a place to leave notes on people in their profiles. Which is a must when dealing with customers.

That plus it takes a long time to load a profile now.