Bye Bellisseria

[Evangeline Arcadia]

21 minutes ago, Elena Core said:

Abnor, this is my opinion, but to me, the work done by the Moles has never been an issue. The communication strategy from Linden Lab is, and it doesn't just apply to Bellisseria.

There is no clear communication on what is and what is not allowed (because of the many exceptions), what is on the pipeline, the management team's view....

And sorry, uploading content from time to time, chatting inworld through some Belli groups, creating a few posts in a pinned thread, is not working. Everything has to come through official channels, where all residents can have access, and haave an objective neutral approach. 

Many of the issues we are facing as residents come from a lack of communication from LL. 

 

I agree with some of this in that the majority of residents probably haven't actually read the covenant - it's not the first thing you think of doing when getting a home, no matter how much LL might like it to be.

@Abnor Mole @Patch Linden I'm not sure why LL couldn't have some kind of function whereby when you first go to your LL home after having got it through the Land Page,  a large pop-up box comes on the screen showing the covenant which you can only close by having to confirm by a button/tick box that you have read and understood it. Have the first few lines in caps and bold saying something to effect of 'you can't add to or modify this home' which might make people read on (I'm sure LL would have a better sentence).

I'm not talking about whether or not the covenant is fair or open to interpretation - just that not everyone may be aware of it.

It probably wouldn't be a 100% solution to preventing out of covenant builds (nothing is ever 100%),  but at least it would make everyone aware that rules for the homes exist. Sure, someone might just not read it and tick the box anyway ( but then they can't complain about builds being returned  they've said they understood). And again, they've been made aware that there are rules in place. I can't see how else to get the covenant across to everyone.

Perhaps it's too technically difficult to do? 

[Marianne Little]

1 hour ago, Abnor Mole said:

These are all questions that are just going to beg more questions and requests for more specifics. If the statement is "Please stay away from the edge if the cliff", the response shouldn't be "Well, how close exactly to the edge in millimeters can we go?" 

We can spend more time enforcing the covenant, constantly looking out for those who want to push the boundaries to see how far they can go. That pulls resources directly from our ability to build and release homes. Or... we can ask people to use their better judgement and not to try to see how close to the cliff they can go and be upset when they find out the hard way. A good rule of thumb is if you're asking yourself if you're going to far, you probably already know the answer.  

I will not sound aggressive here with my questions, but it is good to have a number, like "Not over 15 m up, fences not over 4 m". A rule is a rule and a number is a number. It is not open for opinions. If I think "I like this, it is in theme, and not hindering walking around me on public land". That is my opinon, maybe I am right, maybe I am wrong according to an unwritten rule. I should know what is wrong, so I could shrink the build, remove roof windows or things like that. Or even better, build it right the first time.

[Prokofy Neva]

6 hours ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

Very confused as to how just having 1 or 2 homes in Bellisseria is "leaving" or how you think that reducing your spending by "half" will in any way hurt LL?

You had fair warning that this would probably happen. Bellisseria is a residential area. While your bowling alley was cute, in a retro kind of way, if I had rolled a house that had a line of vision to it I would have not been happy.  Imagine if 300 other people decided to put out builds like this all over Bellisseria and they had no building skills whatsoever? 

I think allowing them in other regions in the first place was a very bad corporate decision.  Of course now to be fair to you LL needs to remove all commercial type builds from Bellisseria.  They need to give ample warning to those so that they are able to save them. Maybe a  *10 day warning*?

The lesson here is that money doesn't always "talk" as you posted before. Threatening, blackmailing and whining rarely works, especially since you are not really leaving. You are still spending more money than most people in SL and still right in Bellisseria.  

 

Keeping one or two houses where you would only have essentially a private experience, or hang out with a few friends, is a far cry from having the kind of public projects and personas that Evangeline is talking about. So there isn't any contradiction here.

And she never implied that reducing spending from 7 houses to 2 houses or whatever "hurts the Lindens" at all -- it's just that there is a certain implication that this then picks up speed. I would never have imagined that a bowling ally would be returned, because retro, suburban fun things seem to be what Belli is all about in some ways. If Sprocket Pockets or whatever that cafe is not returned (or is that a Linden build?), why would a bowling alley be? Or is the point that only the Moles can build anything that seems like it is "public"? Except the Slenderman caves, which were a big hit, and some of the stamp locations, including one I maintain called the Bellisseria Commissary, with an alligator out back and a mushroom forest upstairs inside, are not just plain old residences. The very existence of the stamp game, where you publicly invite people to your house which you have made some kind of club or gallery or hangout, implies that "residence only" is not strictly understood. That's what I find baffling about this bowling alley thing.

Abnor Mole stated that "faux businesses" have always been allowed if they don't disrupt the "residence feel" of the area. So does this essentially mean "everything has to be indoors," you know, like that thing you do in M regions that is by strict definition only allowed in A regions? I think that's probably the best rule of thumb. Keep it all indoors. I had an opium den in a Vic, for example, that was actually the cover for a British spy listening station. The skybox contained a temp-rez radar station. Nothing visible from the outside, never any trouble from the neighbours or Lindens.

After all, if your residence was just to be a House Beautiful, it would go in Parade of Homes, not the BBB stamp locations, no? Stamps are public, which implies a public venue like a club -- but then it has to look like a residence which kinda cuts down on just how creative you can be with these things. 

Also I hear you saying that you can become unhappy about your neighbours' choices. Does this mean you AR them? Will I have to check any Belli house I take to make sure you are not nearby? The only thing I've ever had returned is two extra cats (only two are allowed). But one never knows.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Prokofy Neva

[Marianne Little]

If the issue was the roof of the bowling alley, what about an add-on that has a flat roof, but raised to accommodate better view for the people bowling? I seem to remember the angled roof was there to give better camera view.

Under 15 m height - check. Flat roof - check. Not out of style, since it is other 2 stories houses - check. And textures from the content pack, tar black roof and all.

In my head, that is legal.

[Tommy Linden]

There was a lot said in just these short two pages, and I just wanted to jump in and take a moment to try and add some clarity from the side of our Governance team. 

First and foremost, I am sorry that you are upset over the return of your bowling alley, I understand that it is never a good feeling to see your hard work returned like that. In these scenarios my team always sends a message letting the person know what is going on, which does open the opportunity for a dialogue if the other person chooses to do so. 

That being said we have always been very up front in saying that Residents need to follow the covenant for Bellisseria, and we try to make it as clear as possible for everyone, to the point that you even stated that you knew there would be the possibility of the bowling alley being returned, and you decided to take the risk anyways. I think it would have been more beneficial for everyone involved, if a dialogue was started first, I am sure Abnor would have been happy to discuss as I have seen him do so a few times now. The Moles do their very best to respond to inquiries as Resident's work on their homes, asking for opinions on items that may or may not fall within the theme of the area, or the covenant.

Now I have seen concerns raised in this thread, as well as a few others now, that enforcement of items that might be potentially violating the covenant or theme are not being equally enforced and I would just like to point out that the Governance team does the best they can with that. There is only so many of them, 10 to be exact. So while we do our best to try and review as much content in Second Life as we can proactively, the reality is Second Life is still a huge world, and we need to rely on our Residents to help point us in the direction of something that might need our attention as well.

All that being said, it is never our intention to punish someone, but we are in the position of having to do our humanly best to balance out the needs of many, and unfortunately that also means that some times, people are going to be unhappy. My hope, is that while my team takes their actions into consideration, that our Resident's also take into consideration the ultimate goal behind our actions, and that is to do our best to provide an enjoyable experience for as many people and communities as possible.