Dumb newbie questions

[friscolives]

Sorry for asking silly questions, but I've only been active on Second Life for two days and I'm confused on a few things.

1) Is Premium worth it? I was thinking of getting a house and putting furniture and so forth in it, and to my understanding if you are a member of premium they give you a house, so it might be a good thing to do. Are there any other benefits to premium?

2) Can you have more than one avatar (character for rping) or would I have to open a second account if that were the case?

3)What is meant by "rebirth?"

thanks in advance.

[Ariel Vuissent]

1) Premium membership is worth it for some and not for others. With a Premium membership, you get:

a) The ability to own mainland.

b) A free Linden home or the ability to own 512sqm of mainland without any additional fee beyond the $9.95 Premium membership fee.

c) A $300L stipend every Tuesday.

d) A one-time $1000L "bonus" after 45 consecutive days of Premium membership.

e) Live chat support and more extensive support in general.

f) Access to free Premium content - items that are made specifically for Premium members.

g) Access to Premium sandboxes, for building, changing, or whatever else you need them for. There are, supposedly, fewer griefers in Premium sandboxes than there are in most normal sandboxes.

I think I covered most of it. Keep in mind that neither the free Linden home nor any 512sqm mainland plot have many prims - you get 117 prims, which isn't much, but it's certainly possible to furnish a home very nicely on that number of prims. You don't HAVE to take the Linden home; as I said, you can instead get a free 512sqm plot (free in that you have to buy the land but don't have to pay additional tier). The benefit of a Linden home is that the prims for the home itself do not count towards your prim limit, so you still have 117 prims to use. On a 512sqm plot, the house prims do count. Say you buy a house that's 57 prims; to decorate it, you only have 60 prims left. With the Linden home you still have the full 117. Neither the Linden home nor a 512sqm plot is very big, but it should suffice, at least for now.

2) You can have as many "characters" as you want. They'll all share the same name, but you can get a titler to put a name over your head. I have one titler that I've copied multiple times, and each is set for a different name. Changing characters is as simple as changing outfits in SL - you just put everything together, and either keep it in it's own folder or create an outfit with all of those things (or both). Then you can simply right-click the folder in your inventory and choose "replace" to easily switch between them. I have my normal human avi, a fairy, an elf, an Indian princess, a mermaid, a horse, as well as a few others currently in my inventory, and can switch between them at will.

3) I have no idea in what context you heard "rebirth" in relation to SL, so I have no idea there.

ETA point g; forgot about it for a second there.

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello friscolives and welcome to SL and SL Forums.

A premium account requires a  monthly fee.  

With a premium membership you can:

• Own land on the mainland, including a Linden Home.
• Get free exclusive virtual goods
• Have access to premium sandboxes
• Submit support cases for an expanded set of problems.
• Initiate live chat sessions with customer support.
• Get a weekly stipend of Linden dollars.  For more information, see Linden dollars (Getting your premium account stipend).

For more information, see Premium membership.

Signup bonus:  When you register a premium account, you receive a one-time signup bonus of L$1000 in approximately 45 days.

You have as many avatars as you wish under your main account. However, you can create up to 5 alternative accounts.

About your last question i don't understand what you mean saying "rebirth". Maybe someone else has a better answer. Have fun, enjoy your new Second Life and for everything you need don't hesitate to ask or here in Forums or in World.

[Rufus Mistwalker]

Hey..we al were noobs at one tiem

 

No, Premium is not worth it.  Therer are many free user groups (like those for specific viewers) where you can get help.

and the house you get for being a premium member is a joke.

 

Each avatar (AV) is an account.  Many SL'ers have ALTS (alternative AV's) but each requires a whole new registration process.  There is no limit to the numberr of AV's, or accounts, you can have.

 

and.. I recollect seeing the term "rebirth" bandied about..but not what it means (:

[valerie Inshan]

1. Premium benefits:

What else do I get with a Premium account?

With a premium account, you get:

• Access to live chat customer support.
• An initial grant of L$1,000. The premium bonus is for new premium accounts and for accounts wich upgrade from basic to premium. 
• A weekly stipend of L$300 (even if you don't log in).
• The ability to purchase a 512 square meter plot of land on the mainland without any maintenance fees.
• A free Linden Home, if you want it.
• Access to premium sandboxes
• Exclusive virtual goods provided on a regular basis.

For more information, see Premium membership.

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Linden-Home-FAQ/ta-p/700101

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Linden-Home-FAQ/ta-p/700101

 

2. Yes you can have up to 5 accounts per household. Please see here:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Alt_account_policies

 

3. I don't have a clue what this "rebirth" thing is about! :smileyvery-happy:

 

[Syo Emerald]

You don't need a second account because of roleplay. You can easily change your look.

But if you want another name for your roleplay, a secound account might be a good idea.

[mortalum]

I've got two newb questions so I hope it's ok to hijack this thread now the OP has been answered!!

 

1. In "about land, objects" is 'simulator prim usage" for the whole region or just your land? So if it says "prims parcel supports" is that the amount of prims available to whoever buys the land?

 

2. I know some people RP children in SL and I don't have a problem with that. But if I was flying around, found a shop with child AVs that were -just- sexually provocative enough to make me very uncomfortable, and found out that the owner has been banned for this but their friend has taken over the shop is there anything I could/should do? Or should I leave it?

[Sy Beck]

Some RPers I know will now change their "Display Name" to play another character rather than create and kit out an alt.  The one drawback being is that you may only change your display name once a week.

[friscolives]

Thanks for the advice. A few more questions if I may.

You said I could have a second avatar, keep it in storage and just switch it out if I wanted to do that. I'm not sure how I'd do it. For example, I recently purchased a complete avatar figure, but I can't even figure how to get her out of the box lol. Everytime I click it I get this box on my arm, I detach it and still get nothing. I don't know how to open the box and gain access to the figure.

Does it somehow go in my inventory, in some catagory where I can simply click it and switch to the new figure? It would be good to just switch from time to time, but I'm lost as to how to do that.

I just heard the term "rebirth." not even sure it was used properly. I hear a lot of new stuff--rezing for example--and I'm clueless lol. I'm loving my experience here at second life so far, but there's a bit of a learning curve for us new people.

[mortalum]

Friscolives: Search "sandbox". Go to one of the sandboxes. Put the box in front of you on the ground. Right click and "Open" it. Then "copy items to inventory". Now what you do is look for them in your inventory, drag the outfit onto yourself. You can take things off again by right clicking your avatar and selecting "take off"

[mortalum]

The best way to imagine it is; if you go shopping RL you might get a box with your item in but you wouldnt wear the box, you would put it down, take the item out, put it in your wardrobe (inventory) and then take it out to put on afterwards.

[friscolives]

Thanks again. I'll do that when I get home from work and see what happens.

BTW, what is "type killer?" I notice when I chat, the hands on my avatar move like they are typing. Someone said I should get a free type killer to stop that, but I tried searching for type killer and I'm not finding anything. I dont have this problem for IMs, just regular chatting.

Lots of questions I know.

[Jennifer Boyle]

I was a basic member for a year, and have been a premium member for four years.  I intend to continue premium membership as long as I am in SL.  The one benefit that I think makes it very worthwhile is support, particularly chat support.  About once a year, I have a major problem that I get solved in real time.  Twice, Lindens came to my house to fix something.  I can also get the mainland sim where I live restarted when it needs to be.  

If you pay for premium membership annually, as I do, it costs 72 USD per year, or 6 USD per month.  The L$300 per week stiopend is worth enough to make the cost negligable.  If you don't want to use it, you can rent out the 512 square meter land allowance you get for L$75 per week; if you do that, you'll actually make a few dollars a year by being a premium member.  The only reasons that I can think of for not being a premium member are not being reasonably sure that you want to stay in SL on the account in question for a year and not being able to pay the 72 USD up front.

[Dillon Levenque]

---

friscolives wrote:

Thanks again. I'll do that when I get home from work and see what happens.

BTW, what is "type killer?" I notice when I chat, the hands on my avatar move like they are typing. Someone said I should get a free type killer to stop that, but I tried searching for type killer and I'm not finding anything. I dont have this problem for IMs, just regular chatting.

Lots of questions I know.

---

Since you're new (welcome) chances are you are using the official Second Life viewer: go here to see how to turn it off. Either way you shouldn't need to get or buy anything; I think just about every viewer has an on/off for that.

[Rene Erlanger]

Your Inventory will be made up of 3 tabs - Inventory, Recent Items & Worn Items.  To manage your inventory easily and look for new incoming objects/ folders etc...highlight the "Recent Items" tab.....then in your menu bar above...click on the 1st option "File"...then click on "Show Filters". Near the bottom of that box is a setting called "Days Ago"....set that to 1 day (for now, until you get real familiar with your Inventory")......that will show you all the items entering your Inventory in last 24 hours. You can always extend the "Days Ago" as you get use to your Inventory.

The 1st tab "Inventory"...is your Master Folder and contains all your sub-folders & objects.....it's a bit like Windows Explorer, but as that grows, it takes longer to find things (unless you use the Search box and type in part words of things you're looking for).....hence using "Recent Items" tab will be easier on a day to day basis.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Premium membership may or may not be worth it to you. Its something only you can decide.  However check it all out before paying.  Here are of the negative things to think about, since so many have posted about the benefits.

The free house isn't much and you may not be satisfied with it for long unless you only want a place to rez into and change clothes.  Its only 512sqm and 117 prims.  The most popular lot size in general is 4096sqm with 937 prims.  You can only decorate the inside of the house, nothing outside except on patios.   Go to one of the free house sims and you'll see that they are built very close together and the houses themselves aren't that great.  You can get better houses for free or for little to nothing to use on your own land.

Owning mainland isn't all that great either.  Other than a few sims, most land has no building restrictions.  That sounds good until your neighbor puts an ugly build or annoying objects on his land, or is running so many scripts it lags out the sim.  Many people have bought land there on what looks like a nice sim, then someone buys land next to them or in site of their property and erects something that is just awful.  Another thing that happens is that people abandon land leaving it empty bare wasteland and sometiems squatters come along and rez all kinds of things all over it.  Go to the mainland and fly around a number of different sims to see if you can live with it before going premium.

You can have land without a premium account by buying/renting it from a private estate owner.  The aquisition cost is generally a lot less (generally only 1L or the first weeks tier), but the tiers cost a bit more.  However, to me its worth it.  There are generally rules that are enforced to keep the sim looking good and builds within a certain theme or climate and preventing one land owner from hogging all the resources or annoying their neighbors. You also may have more flexibility in being able to terraform your land how you would like it.  You can only terraform mainland a tiny bit.   The 'rules' are shown in the convenant in the Parcel Details under the World menue. Always read the rules before buying land. Also be sure that the estate has been around awhile (an indication of stability) and talk to other landowners there to get their opinions of the landlord.  Pretty much what you'd do in RL when considering property.

Live Chat isn't the advantage that some may lead you to believe.  See  this thread for peoples opinions on it.  Also support tickets take a long time to be resolved.  Sometimes weeks or months.  Most problems you may have can be resoved faster by asking here or asking someone with more experience in world.  In all the time I've been here I haven't had one problem with my avatar that I couldn't fix myself by asking around or by knowing what to do myself. 

As for the stipend 'benefit' , you basically give LL your money and they give part of it back a little at a time.  I don't see any advantage with that at all unless you think other things that come with premium membership are of a benefit to you.  What you get is $300L a week, which isn't much.  That can be spent on one purchase easily.  Once in a while they give away a freebie such as a livingroom set, but that's only of benefit if you like it and will use it.

Premium sandboxes may be a benefit if you don't own your own land that you can build on or have friends that let you build on theirs.  However if you look around you can find quiet sandboxes that are public that accomplish the same thing.

 

 

 

[Ariel Vuissent]

Questions are expected; SL has a very steep learning curve, so ask away and we'll do what we can!

"Type killer" can be written in many different ways, but it is what it sounds like - a way to "kill," or turn off, that typing animation. There's nothing wrong with the typing animation, but it does look a little "newb-ish." Someone else already linked you to how to do this thorugh the viewer. Here's a little more, though, to help you get out of "newb" status:

You need an AO. If you've been around places with a lot of other avatars, you may have noticed how they move, versus how you move. By default you have no AO (animation override), so you have those weird, stilted, jerky movements. To fix this, you need an AO. You can find free ones through the marketplace, so pick up a few freebie AO's and try them out to see which one you like. Many preloaded AO's (which is what you'll probably want to start with) come with their own typing animation. If not, just disabling it in the viewer should be enough; but if it does have an animation, it may also have a typing killer built in to stop the animation if you don't want it.

I know, it's probably a little confusing, but you'll get it Just take your time.

Someone else already told you how to open boxes to get that avatar you bought out and be able to wear it.

As for switching avatars, there's a way to do this pretty easily. Set up your avi the way you want it - hair, skin, shape, eyes, and anything else that you consider a "basic" for you. Perhaps your AO as well, once you find it. Basically things you always wear and rarely change out. Move or copy all of those things into a folder, labelled something you'll remember - "basic me" or something. You can save yourself with an outfit, or not. Then you can feel free to change to another avatar. For example, say you get your basic self down, then want to create an elf. Save all your basic stuff into a folder. Find what you want/need for your elf avi. If you use anything from your basic avi, I suggest you make a copy if you can (right-click it in your inventory, choose copy, create a new folder - name it "elf me" or something - right-click the folder, and choose paste). Put what you want for your elf avi into the elf folder. (Again, skin, shape, eyes, hair, etc. Whatever you feel you need.) Now you can easily switch between the two avis by right-clicking the appropriate folder and choosing "replace."

PS: to create a new folder, right-click your main inventory folder and choose "Create Folder."

[Melita Magic]

For wearing clothes I would recommend adding each piece one by one instead of dragging an entire folder onto yourself. You can end up wearing a pose stand and various other things that way.

Just right click each item by name in your inventory and select "wear." Make sure if you wear a dress you wear the pants that go under it. 

When I say something gender specific people often sound offended and say "but I'm a male/female." They forget their name is androgynous and they haven't posted a photo of their av yet.  

 

[friscolives]

What does AO stand for? Is it just a setting?

 

Where do I find "sandlots" I entered sandlots in the search bar, as evidently I need to go to a vacant one to open items, but nothing seems to come up. Everytime I try to open something on property it says I cant do it because the owner doesnt allow it.

Many thanks.

[Syo Emerald]

AO = Animation Overrider.

This are items you can buy which animate your charakter, giving you a different walk and play some other animation when you are typing instead of the basic animation for it.

Also, you really should search for "Sandbox" I don't know where you went or what you found by searching for sandlot....but you have to make sure to visit a place where everyone is allowed to put things to the ground or build.

[Ry0ta Exonar]

AO : http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Animation_Override

Type in "sandbox" in the search box and you'll see lots of results.

[Orca Flotta]

Taking into account the OPs obvious problems with reading (asking what an AO is a few posts after it was spelled out, and calling a sandbox a sandlot)  I guess I know now what s/he meant with "rebirth": maybe someone has asked him/her to "rebake" since he/she didn't render completely.

 

 

[Melita Magic]

---

friscolives wrote:

What does AO stand for? Is it just a setting?

 

Where do I find "sandlots" I entered sandlots in the search bar, as evidently I need to go to a vacant one to open items, but nothing seems to come up. Everytime I try to open something on property it says I cant do it because the owner doesnt allow it.

Many thanks.

---

You can also type CHANGING ROOM and you will get several options.  

Or DRESSING ROOM. 

Orca: Some people learn by repetition. Meh, it's a help forum, right?

[Orca Flotta]

Orca: Some people learn by repetition. Meh, it's a help forum, right?

 

Repetition is good and fine ... in an aural environment.

In a forum with written content it's rather rude and disrespectful to ignore what others have written. Particularly if it was answers to your questions, and the authors have spent time and knowledge to answer you to the best of their abilities. And no, this is not a help forum, this is the General Discussion Forum in the People Forum.

 

[MoiselleErin Teardrop]

Is it true that with premium, if you quit paying, you lose your account completely? I think that question should be addressed.

 

With the premium account, so you get L$1200 a month spending money and the 512 sq M you use would probably run L$800 a month if you rented it on your own, hypothetically speaking (since 1024's run L$1600 a month)

Both of these would cost about $10 a month if you don't have premium.

So basically you get about the same deal with premium or not, financially speaking.

Premium is not a good OR bad deal, it just is what it is.

But yes, if you get hooked on SL you will want a bigger land, nicer house, etc.Anything created by LL is going to be really blah. Just look in the library part of INV for evidence of that and then compare stuff to what creators have done.

LL housing is kind of bland. It is kind of like having a meager apartment in real life. Merely functional.

 

I have been in SL over 3 years and not had premium. You might want to hang out in SL a couple months to see what is out there and THEN decide if you want a premium. I would wager that you would decide it is not needed.

 

Now if you DO go premium, you can always buy more of your own L$ and rent a land to put a nice house, and the plain ol LL home will still be available. Unlike renting a dumpy apartment in RL, nothing stops you in SL from having several properties.