Is Second Life Just Turning Into a Lot of Backdrops?

[Scylla Rhiadra]

2 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Me either, Belinda.  It's fascinating to read this thread and discover a SL feature that I was totally unaware of -- one that seems useful to some people too.  I can't imagine any need for a backdrop myself, but Scylla and others have pointed out some situations when a backdrop could be a nice, low-cost, convenient alternative to using a "real" SL location for photography.  I learn something new every day.

It's odd, because when I first starting doing SL photography about 9 months ago, I found myself mentally scoffing at the idea of using backdrops, green screens, and the like. It seemed to me that the point of the exercise was to capture all of the beauty and excitement of SL itself.

I suppose I still think that, in some regards: there's a whole and very popular genre of SL photo, which you might designate as "landscape," devoted to that. Inara's blog has some beautiful examples, and their function is, in large measure, to open up SL for exploration.

But I've also come to realize that that approach often relegates the photo to the "means," rather than the "ends" of the exercise. And that if you are interested in the photograph itself, as an end in and of itself, then it can make sense to use a good backdrop, because you're not treating the medium as a transparent or semi-transparent means of showcasing SL.

Now, having said that, backdrops are very often used in really sterile and uninteresting ways. There are some makers who sell them cheaply during the weekend sales, and when that happens, you can be sure that your Flickr feed is going to be stuffed to capacity with instances of the same shot, and often the same pose, taken against the same background.

[Rolig Loon]

1 minute ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

But I've also come to realize that that approach often relegates the photo to the "means," rather than the "ends" of the exercise. And that if you are interested in the photograph itself, as an end in and of itself, then it can make sense to use a good backdrop, because you're not treating the medium as a transparent or semi-transparent means of showcasing SL.

I think that's my blind spot.  I can appreciate a good, artistic photo, but that's rarely in my mind when I take photos in SL.  I take a photo to document something, or to show someone else what I find interesting.  In your terms, I am interested in the photo as a "means" of conveying information.  I try to take photos that are not just grab snapshots, of course, but I am not thinking of the photo as an "end" product.  Putting a fake image of an environment that is not in SL wouldn't have occurred to me.  Thank you for showing me a different way to think about it.

8 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

you can be sure that your Flickr feed is going to be stuffed to capacity with instances of the same shot, and often the same pose, taken against the same background.

Not my Flickr feed.  I haven't found a need for one yet, so I'm safe.  😎

[Selene Gregoire]

7 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Not my Flickr feed.  I haven't found a need for one yet, so I'm safe.  😎

[Eva Knoller]

28 minutes ago, janetosilio said:

Just to piggyback off of this: A lot of bloggers that dealt with cool, interesting, photogenic sims are gone. This further exacerbates the situation because more people are taking pictures but don’t know where to go. What becomes the easiest way to find someplace cool and interesting for your picture? Buy it.

Add to this that bloggers may have to post a certain number of photos per week or month of a sponsor’s items, and they may have multiple sponsors. So backdrops are easier to whip out than trying to find a new interesting location multiple days a week.  I personally enjoy looking at all kinds of photos, backdrops or otherwise. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

15 hours ago, BelindaN said:

I had no idea that you could buy backdrops. Another new known unknown for me.

 

 

8 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

Me either, Belinda.  It's fascinating to read this thread and discover a SL feature that I was totally unaware of -- one that seems useful to some people too.  I can't imagine any need for a backdrop myself, but Scylla and others have pointed out some situations when a backdrop could be a nice, low-cost, convenient alternative to using a "real" SL location for photography.  I learn something new every day.

 

After  you spend some time using backdrops, you start noticing them more.  You then realize just how many SL photos on Flickr are using backdrops.  Some creators are getting much better at building something that isn't immediately noticeable as a backdrop, but typically, with a bit of practice, you can spot them more often than not.

 

[Lexbot Sinister]

SL has a limited amount of users, with limited amount of L$- the money to be made is finite. Making a splendid house, or skirt won't make more users to join SL, or the average SL users pockets to grow deeper- all business are competing for the same money.  So while one might argue that backdrops don't offer the exact same thing as full house builds, i feel that they are close enough that one cannibalizes upon the other.

It's similar with the number of content creators, although there the number is more flexible depending on skills, and how much/little earnings is the threshold for giving up.

Since the introduction of mesh in SL, creations have shifted very largely towards visuals, and further and further away from interactivity.  New creators came in with already pre-existing 3d creation skills, and the learning curve for SL imports wasn't that steep. LSL coding however, is an in-house -special, so you can only learn it within SL. Interactive items that can't use a pre-exising posing system, were pushed out in favor of the much prettier, decorative mesh items.  It's cheaper and less effort to make a static coffee maker, than one that actually fills up a coffee pot over time, and has movable parts and gives you a cup when done.

So why bother with finding a scripter and all that fuss, when the item can compete on the marketplace with looks alone, and nobody that has joined past 2013 will ever know it didn't use to be that way?

 

A creator with the skill of making environments, houses, roads etc, why would they want to spend the effort and time on making an environment, trying to keep the LI as low as possible, making sure all the physics are right, that doors etc work.... when they can just sell a backdrop to the same customer, getting paid roughly the same?

And the customer might even no longer have an interest in curating an interactive space, paying for it to remain online, etc. When it's cheaper and convenient to just take snapshots in a booth.

 

Times are changing and whatever flaots peoples boats. But from my perspective, SL isn't getting any more interesting from it.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

9 hours ago, Lexbot Sinister said:

SL has a limited amount of users, with limited amount of L$- the money to be made is finite. Making a splendid house, or skirt won't make more users to join SL, or the average SL users pockets to grow deeper- all business are competing for the same money.  So while one might argue that backdrops don't offer the exact same thing as full house builds, i feel that they are close enough that one cannibalizes upon the other.

It's similar with the number of content creators, although there the number is more flexible depending on skills, and how much/little earnings is the threshold for giving up.

Since the introduction of mesh in SL, creations have shifted very largely towards visuals, and further and further away from interactivity.  New creators came in with already pre-existing 3d creation skills, and the learning curve for SL imports wasn't that steep. LSL coding however, is an in-house -special, so you can only learn it within SL. Interactive items that can't use a pre-exising posing system, were pushed out in favor of the much prettier, decorative mesh items.  It's cheaper and less effort to make a static coffee maker, than one that actually fills up a coffee pot over time, and has movable parts and gives you a cup when done.

So why bother with finding a scripter and all that fuss, when the item can compete on the marketplace with looks alone, and nobody that has joined past 2013 will ever know it didn't use to be that way?

 

A creator with the skill of making environments, houses, roads etc, why would they want to spend the effort and time on making an environment, trying to keep the LI as low as possible, making sure all the physics are right, that doors etc work.... when they can just sell a backdrop to the same customer, getting paid roughly the same?

And the customer might even no longer have an interest in curating an interactive space, paying for it to remain online, etc. When it's cheaper and convenient to just take snapshots in a booth.

 

Times are changing and whatever flaots peoples boats. But from my perspective, SL isn't getting any more interesting from it.

This is an excellent post. Your point about the limited amount of money available from consumers is well-taken -- although I don't necessarily think that all the money now being spent on backdrops (which generally are less expensive than full builds) is being lost by those who are making house builds. But overall, you're right: of course the rise of backdrops is going to impact on the sale of full builds.

It doesn't hurt, from my perspective, that your overall thesis supports a point I have made elsewhere: that creativity in SL is, generally, in trouble.

I'd just make two additional points that are somewhat relevant to your argument. The first is that your argument implies that the popularity of backdrops is a symptom, rather than a cause, of a larger malaise.

And the second is to point out that photography, which does very much seem to be on the rise in SL, is also a form of creativity. That much of it is dreck doesn't change that: there are a great many pretty terrible full builds on the MP too. But whether the kind of creativity represented by photography is good for SL in the long term is another issue entirely.

Edited August 20, 2019 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Rolig Loon]

2 hours ago, Lexbot Sinister said:

So why bother with finding a scripter and all that fuss, when the item can compete on the marketplace with looks alone, and nobody that has joined past 2013 will ever know it didn't use to be that way?

As a scripter, I find the implications of this part troubling, but I don't believe it. It is true that more and more mesh objects are being created by a professional caste of artists rather than by people who learned to build with simple prims and the basic tools in the viewer.  They are making assets that could be in any on-line environment, not exclusively in SL.  Unlike the past, when builders and scripters mostly learned their skills inside SL, we're seeing a new division between builders and scripters who learned in different worlds. However, I don't accept the conclusion that this means there's less need for scripted items or that mesh creators and scripters can't make even more interesting things together.

Large objects -- buildings -- have always needed fewer bits of scripting magic that vehicles, weapons, and household gadgets.  They can be almost static, except for an occasional door or drawbridge.  A static airplane is pretty useless.  So are pendulums that do not swing, lighthouses that don't have beacons, and animesh pets that just sit and stare..  People are drawn to things that they can interact with and that make SL environments dynamic.  Even those large,  static houses are more interesting when the owner can change wall textures, light a fire in the fireplace, and manage music and lighting.  There will always be residents who love to take pictures of their living spaces, but I don't see that those residents are displacing people who want to live in and play with them.  Mesh creators and scripters still need to collaborate to meet that expectation.  As I look around SL today, I see ample evidence to convince me not only that many items need more than looks alone to compete in the marketplace but also that mesh designers and scripters are keeping up with the demand  for dynamic products.

[Coffee Pancake]

To that end I would very much like to see rezzed Animesh consume a lot fewer Li.

We should be using it for everything that moves, without exception.

[Kyrah Abattoir]

4 hours ago, Lexbot Sinister said:

SL has a limited amount of users, with limited amount of L$- the money to be made is finite. Making a splendid house, or skirt won't make more users to join SL, or the average SL users pockets to grow deeper- all business are competing for the same money.  So while one might argue that backdrops don't offer the exact same thing as full house builds, i feel that they are close enough that one cannibalizes upon the other.

It's similar with the number of content creators, although there the number is more flexible depending on skills, and how much/little earnings is the threshold for giving up.

Since the introduction of mesh in SL, creations have shifted very largely towards visuals, and further and further away from interactivity.  New creators came in with already pre-existing 3d creation skills, and the learning curve for SL imports wasn't that steep. LSL coding however, is an in-house -special, so you can only learn it within SL. Interactive items that can't use a pre-exising posing system, were pushed out in favor of the much prettier, decorative mesh items.  It's cheaper and less effort to make a static coffee maker, than one that actually fills up a coffee pot over time, and has movable parts and gives you a cup when done.

So why bother with finding a scripter and all that fuss, when the item can compete on the marketplace with looks alone, and nobody that has joined past 2013 will ever know it didn't use to be that way?

 

A creator with the skill of making environments, houses, roads etc, why would they want to spend the effort and time on making an environment, trying to keep the LI as low as possible, making sure all the physics are right, that doors etc work.... when they can just sell a backdrop to the same customer, getting paid roughly the same?

And the customer might even no longer have an interest in curating an interactive space, paying for it to remain online, etc. When it's cheaper and convenient to just take snapshots in a booth.

 

Times are changing and whatever flaots peoples boats. But from my perspective, SL isn't getting any more interesting from it.

This makes way too much sense, I see less and less original scripting nowadays...

[Luna Bliss]

6 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

There will always be residents who love to take pictures of their living spaces, but I don't see that those residents are displacing people who want to live in and play with them.

Yes that's my impression too, at this point. The backdrops are just an additional feature and not replacing anything in the world overall.

[Lexbot Sinister]

11 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

 

  A static airplane is pretty useless.  So are pendulums that do not swing, lighthouses that don't have beacons, and animesh pets that just sit and stare..  People are drawn to things that they can interact with and that make SL environments dynamic.

See, i fully agree that it's scripting, and interactivity that make objects in SL interesting, but i also see more and more of the above. Lighthouses without a beacon, static pets to hold that are not animated (but still look just as good in a photo), cakes you can't have a slice of and lamps that don't even turn on and off. And this, not from any beginners but high-earning creators visible in many shopping events that draw crowds.  It also seems that the buyers are so used to non-interactivity that they go for visuals, and interactivity is just an added bonus, not a salepoint.

[Chic Aeon]

10 minutes ago, Lexbot Sinister said:

See, i fully agree that it's scripting, and interactivity that make objects in SL interesting, but i also see more and more of the above. Lighthouses without a beacon, static pets to hold that are not animated (but still look just as good in a photo), cakes you can't have a slice of and lamps that don't even turn on and off. And this, not from any beginners but high-earning creators visible in many shopping events that draw crowds.  It also seems that the buyers are so used to non-interactivity that they go for visuals, and interactivity is just an added bonus, not a salepoint.

It is each creators choice of course with what they do with scripts. For awhile I made texture change furniture but I have found that just as many people (in my case anyway) prefer non-scripted items.   My sims usually run way faster FPS wise -- partly because of my building and buying choices and partly because I use as few a scripts as possible.   Quite a few folks on the Bellisseria home photos thread take out the texture change scripts in furniture and indeed I will do that on some of my purchased items (mod is good :D) at my new place. 

 

There are some really lovely backdrops being made. The new one from minimal is outstanding. But it IS "primmy" because of so much detail (not all of the backdrops are as many land impact but this one is).   It is impressive as are many by other backdrop builders. One thing I have noticed over the last year or so as these have gained popularity is that not all have physics. In that you cannot NECESSARILY walk up or stand on stairs. You could use a poseball of course.  Some are difficult to enter etc.  So for SOME creators (certainly not all) the building of backdrops rather than buildings MAY be because they haven't figured out how to make good physics -- or maybe any physics at all :D.   

 

I DO like them though and use them often. You don't have to worry about 10 fps pretty sims when you are rezzing at your own place or on a quiet sandbox :D.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2019 by Chic Aeon
spelling

[Prokofy Neva]

On 8/19/2019 at 12:06 PM, Eva Knoller said:

I wish more scenic region owners would allow this. I will gladly pay a join fee for group access to rez props and poses. I usually donate to the sim anyway. But like others have said there's just more I can do with a backdrop rezzed on my sky platform in terms of poses and props, than on land where I cannot rezz anything and have to attach things may need. This is strictly photography related.

The SL Public Land Preserve which I run and which is helped by many people with tier, cash, and content donations allows you to rez at the locations after you join the group for $5. Look it up in search/places you will likely find something that is scenic although I have to say I focus more on usability, interactivity, things to do, quests, hangouts, etc. more than "scenery" although some places are indeed pretty and I see them cropping up from time to time on blogs or Flickr. 

[Prokofy Neva]

16 hours ago, Lexbot Sinister said:

SL has a limited amount of users, with limited amount of L$- the money to be made is finite. Making a splendid house, or skirt won't make more users to join SL, or the average SL users pockets to grow deeper- all business are competing for the same money.  So while one might argue that backdrops don't offer the exact same thing as full house builds, i feel that they are close enough that one cannibalizes upon the other.

It's similar with the number of content creators, although there the number is more flexible depending on skills, and how much/little earnings is the threshold for giving up.

Since the introduction of mesh in SL, creations have shifted very largely towards visuals, and further and further away from interactivity.  New creators came in with already pre-existing 3d creation skills, and the learning curve for SL imports wasn't that steep. LSL coding however, is an in-house -special, so you can only learn it within SL. Interactive items that can't use a pre-exising posing system, were pushed out in favor of the much prettier, decorative mesh items.  It's cheaper and less effort to make a static coffee maker, than one that actually fills up a coffee pot over time, and has movable parts and gives you a cup when done.

So why bother with finding a scripter and all that fuss, when the item can compete on the marketplace with looks alone, and nobody that has joined past 2013 will ever know it didn't use to be that way?

 

A creator with the skill of making environments, houses, roads etc, why would they want to spend the effort and time on making an environment, trying to keep the LI as low as possible, making sure all the physics are right, that doors etc work.... when they can just sell a backdrop to the same customer, getting paid roughly the same?

And the customer might even no longer have an interest in curating an interactive space, paying for it to remain online, etc. When it's cheaper and convenient to just take snapshots in a booth.

 

Times are changing and whatever flaots peoples boats. But from my perspective, SL isn't getting any more interesting from it.

That's very well said. I agree that there is way less attention to scripting and interactivity to the point where one famous designer recently put out a whole skybox and furniture set with no sit poses in the chairs and couch. I was surprised and annoyed- and it wasn't the first time, either. I myself put in the poses because even slow learners like me can use the newly-revised version of Lex Neva's tool to place poses.  So why didn't they bother? Maybe because people shooting photos don't use the poses inside chairs as they don't work always for the scene you want, or they are repetitive or awkward in conjunction with clothing (I've seen this with Designing Worlds, they have to bring their own poses with them). And maybe they know that people just drape themselves around a build posing, not living/interacting. Or maybe they are just under the crush of events, which are like sweat shops.

I make it a hobby to take all these gorgeous looking mesh food and drink items that don't dispense and make them dispense, even if I have to put some over-primmed cocktail from 2004 into it. I will scour the full perm items on offer in search of something that might be close enough to use and even managed to make a whole brunch tray myself after long hours of struggle because I couldn't believe this scrumptious sprinkly toast couldn't be put in your hand and "eaten".

Lately, this space has filled in with bento, but it seems unless you have the bento hands out there, if you take the food with bento anims, it may go in your hand but then you "do nothing". I'm puzzled by the mechanics of this but have found it repeatedly. I don't have bento hands and I managed to make something that still worked for the animations but they don't always and I have no idea why.

Some bento creators are also deliberately not making the eating/drinking anims but just "hold" because it is god-awful hard to do, lining it up for both male and female, small and large, human and furry, etc. Some diligent makers will put in like 3-4 sets of these anims. I am at heart a sim from the Sims Online so I want things to be interactive and dispensable. And I find there is a contingent of people in SL who want/like the same thing.

I am trying to understand the life of the backdropper. I suppose are some people who only get backdrops and only use them in sandboxes or no-autoreturn land -- I do see them there.  That way they don't have to buy or rent land although you could do this on a 512 with the elaborate nature of these backdrops (they are terribly primmy however).

But others (including my tenants but also neighbouring land-holders) put the backdrop up on the roof of their house and shoot there, or put it in the yard somewhere or the sky, but still maintain the whole compound of house, pool, helicopter, skybox, garage etc. The backdrop is just like one more luxury.

Backdrops are less expensive than houses, but put them in a gatcha and you can make a fortune from them.

 

Edited August 20, 2019 by Prokofy Neva

[Adriana Ulich]

This is definitely not a discussion that's going to be resolved, or understood, in an SL forum because it mirrors RL.

We are now living in an era when the PICTURE is now the end goal instead of a simple documentation of the journey.  People will spend 15 minutes to get a perfect, post worthy, picture of their food and then eat a cold dinner.  People score front row seats to a concert and then spend the concert watching the artist on an 8" phone screen.

There was an article just last week about an Instagram personality that was busted by her sister faking rugged outdoor pictures by setting up scenes in her back yard.

I don't understand it, but there's an entire generation and groups that live for the picture instead of the actual experience.  I fully believe that this is one of the reasons that SL has become less social and more focused on blogs, Flikr, and other media.

 

[Prokofy Neva]

1 minute ago, Adriana Ulich said:

This is definitely not a discussion that's going to be resolved, or understood, in an SL forum because it mirrors RL.

We are now living in an era when the PICTURE is now the end goal instead of a simple documentation of the journey.  People will spend 15 minutes to get a perfect, post worthy, picture of their food and then eat a cold dinner.  People score front row seats to a concert and then spend the concert watching the artist on an 8" phone screen.

There was an article just last week about an Instagram personality that was busted by her sister faking rugged outdoor pictures by setting up scenes in her back yard.

I don't understand it, but there's an entire generation and groups that live for the picture instead of the actual experience.  I fully believe that this is one of the reasons that SL has become less social and more focused on blogs, Flikr, and other media.

 

Oh, there, thank you, you've explained it to me! Every time this discussion comes up, I recall this photo on social media of the Kentucky Downs. This old lady was watching the end of a horse race with a look of joy on her face, totally in the moment, while two young people beside her with fiddling with their phones and trying to get the "photo finish".  I sometimes go out with my children and find that they want to capture things with their phones -- pictures they never look at again -- rather than just living in them. Of course so many public places have people in twos or threes all looking at their phones, not talking to each other. This gets most absurd when you see a couple out on a date just thumbing their phones the entire time.

Decades ago, the French philosopher Guy Debord said, "Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation." He's very difficult to read (and committed suicide).

Maybe it has become too hard to look at reality. I remember Philip Rosedale (founder of Second Life) used to say the skyscrapers in New York City would all become empty because no one would need to go to work, they would all work online and live in a virtual world.  Well, maybe they could fill up those towers with servers or something.

I appreciate how you have related it to a RL trend, because we tend to think that in SL, we are somehow isolated from, or different from RL trends, but we aren't at all, if anything we're an early or concentrated form of them. I am trying to think if one form of activity is cannibalizing the other, and I suppose it is...

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

14 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

 People are drawn to things that they can interact with and that make SL environments dynamic.

I'm not so sure about this Rolig. When you posted pictures of your merself interacting with various things in my underwater garden, it really made my day - because I've been having such a difficult time getting people to be curious and explore. It's surprised me, but it seems like there's been a shift towards looking rather than interacting.

There also seems to be less curiousity about what you can do with a prim.

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, Prokofy Neva said:

And maybe they know that people just drape themselves around a build posing, not living/interacting. Or maybe they are just under the crush of events, which are like sweat shops.

A.  Poses in chairs and other furniture SELDOM fit me. There are many MANY times that I take photos in front of furniture rather than using it simply because there are no animations that will work. This with oh so many creators. It is very difficult to get animations and poses that fit "most" people. Instead many designers buy animations that look good on their particular avatar, not testing what they look like on other shapes and sizes. It isn't like I am THAT oddly shaped :D.    Usually there is at least one animation that will work for me and I am thankful to have that. I could of course remake the furniture with the animations from various chairs and such that will fit me.  I haven't ever done that though :D.

 

B.  Creators can always JUST SAY NO to events if they are overworked.  It is their responsibility to budget their time and energy -- in virtual life just like RL.   We all have choices.  

 

Personally I think some creators are simply aiming at a new and niche market.  If it works for them -- then it works for them!     I have a big collection of backdrops -- mostly from blogging but several that I purchased and another that I plan to purchase.  They are useful in their own way. Maybe not for everyone, but for a large slice of the SL citizenry.   And there are plenty of backdrops out there that are NOT primmy.  Just like with other products, one needs to shop around.   

[Rolig Loon]

43 minutes ago, Bitsy Buccaneer said:

15 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

 People are drawn to things that they can interact with and that make SL environments dynamic.

I'm not so sure about this Rolig. When you posted pictures of your merself interacting with various things in my underwater garden, it really made my day - because I've been having such a difficult time getting people to be curious and explore. It's surprised me, but it seems like there's been a shift towards looking rather than interacting.

There also seems to be less curiousity about what you can do with a prim.

Reading this and other posts in this thread leaves me feeling very sad, as if I am watching a world (RL) slowly fading away.  I suppose this is what each generation feels as it watches the world change hands.  I remember my own mother finally adopting the attitude that, as she said, "It ain't my ship.  Let 'er sink."  That struck me as much too pessimistic at the time, but I am beginning to appreciate her perspective. 

Times change, and so do the ways that people frame the world.  I grew up in an analog world, thinking of time as a stream that flows smoothly from one moment to the next.  That's very different from the digital world that I now live in, where time is divided into discrete chunks.  Today, we deal in snapshots and sound bites.  We expect to return from a vacation with several thousand photos on an iPhone. Instead of buying an album of music that has been arranged on CD to fill a theme, we plan on grabbing new tunes one at a time from the Internet to create our own patchwork quilt of music.  And then we rearrange the collection at will, moving each  piece of music as a separable chunk.  We even travel in digital ways, visiting the world by hopping from one airport destination to another rather than taking the slow route to see what's between them.

It's hard to explain an analog world to people who are growing up in a digital one.  It's doubly hard to do it without seeming to imply that the worlds are incompatible or that one of them is "wrong".  Neither is true.  My feeling of sadness rises when I find myself forgetting to step back and recognize that my framework is not the only one -- that I have lived long enough to learn that the world changes but have not become wise enough to adapt to it.   And yes, I feel sad when I realize that some people around me don't even know what I mean by living in an analog world, so they only know of one framework.

Thank you, @Bitsy Buccaneer , for your kind words about my mermaid posts.  I'm glad that they have done what I intended --- not to be a snapshot album of things I have seen, but to be an invitation to explore for yourself. As Scylla put it, to be a "means" rather than an "end product".

Edited August 20, 2019 by Rolig Loon

[Madelaine McMasters]

14 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Thank you, @Bitsy Buccaneer , for your kind words about my mermaid posts.  I'm glad that they have done what I intended --- not to be a snapshot album of things I have seen, but to be an invitation to explore for yourself. As Scylla put it, to be a "means" rather than an "end product".

I recently read an article about how pervasive photography isn't actually deteriorating people's engagement with the things they are photographing (a concern of mine). It seems that, rather than documenting our explorations for future reference, we're disseminating our images as... invitations to explore.

Lead on, Ms. Loon!

ETA: I visited Bitsy's house while working on that swing script. I love her sense of humor, particularly turning a houseboat into an aquarium and the statue wearing heels. I should have shared a photograph of it, as an invitation...

Edited August 20, 2019 by Madelaine McMasters

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

invitations

Aren’t mermaids to also be Sirens, always inviting you?

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Aren’t mermaids to also be Sirens, always inviting you?

They are, but we've all been warned to beware the Siren's call, which draws you into Scylla's clutches.

I prefer to take the guise of things you haven't learned to mistrust. I was once keeper of the Forgotten City lighthouse, drawing sailors to their death on the rocks below my bedroom window. They saw the beacon, but they didn't see it coming.

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

15 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Instead of buying an album of music that has been arranged on CD to fill a theme, we plan on grabbing new tunes one at a time from the Internet to create our own patchwork quilt of music.  And then we rearrange the collection at will, moving each  piece of music as a separable chunk.

I'm hoping that some of the trends are a pendulum swinging out wide in one direction and that it will find a better balance at some point. It does feel to me like there's a lack of balance in these trends, and that's where my discomfort lies.

There are still pockets of young people doing things differently, like a favourite musician (he must be about 30 now) who wrote in the liner notes that his recent album is intended to be played as a whole. He's in a non-mainstream genre though, which brought a different thought to mind:

What if the shift towards looking rather than interacting isn't just reflective of RL, but of computers becoming mainstream and SL attracting a greater proportion of mainstream individuals?

Another question which has arisen is if there isn't perhaps more fear. As in the world's going rather mad at the moment and there's a lot to be genuinely worried about. So maybe there's a greater inclination towards a superficially perfect world to escape to, whereas for some of us who've been here longer, SL has been about pushing boundaries, exploring, taking risks and loving it even if it's never going to be perfect.

[Love Zhaoying]

18 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I was once keeper of the Forgotten City lighthouse, drawing sailors to their death on the rocks below my bedroom window. They saw the beacon, but they didn't see it coming.

I’m going to guess, you shined your “headlights” out the window?