Zidaya Zenovka

My rocker roo Zid in their purple DeLorean.

The thing with furry avatars is aside from a few custom body shapes most furry avatars I've seen that use mesh bodies use the same mesh bodies everyone else does. Which means unless you're looking to commission a custom furry avatar maker to make you a human skin you're just going to end up being stuck with the same male mesh bodies everyone else uses. You're either looking like you spend hours in the gym OR you're using a Piggu avatar. It might look realistic as far as looking like your average overweight thirty-year-old but I understand not everyone is into that look plus you have a narrow range of clothing to go with. SL sucks when it comes to representing what most actual people look like. For example I'm 6'5" and 1/2, and weigh 430lbs. I've wanted to make an avatar that looks similar to how I do IRL only one where I can wear the kind of dresses I don't get to in the real world. So far I've been unable to do this as there just aren't any bodies out there that match my physique. Plus I'd never be able to find anything to wear. People come to SL to live out their fantasies, and because gender stereotyping and media have led us to having a very screwed up idea of beauty most people only want to look the way males and females look in movies, TV shows, and advertisements. Never mind expressing being gender fluid. There are only male and female in SL, for the most part. Anyone who (like me) is gender fluid or believe it's a spectrum not a binary is ***** out of luck. That is unless they have a ton of money to throw at people in order to get their own custom avatars made for them, and for the most part that sort of business has moved over to platforms like VRChat.

It's like joining an exclusive golf club in real life. As long as the owners of the club aren't kicking you out because you're from a certain ethnic background or because you're differently abled or something that would be legally considered discriminatory they can kick you out for whatever reason they like. They don't need to warn you, they don't need to cover all the reasons you might get kicked out in their rules. They can do this because it's their right as owners of that club. Same thing with SL. If you're looking to join a group that has a fee to join it's in your best interest to ask the owner what their conditions are for remaining a member of that group. Otherwise unless you have proof they kicked you out for reasons that violate LL's TOS you're ***** out of luck. If you know you aren't going to visit places associated with groups that have a fee to join all that often I don't understand why you'd pay to join them anyways. There are plenty of clubs with groups that don't cost money that don't care how often you show up they're just glad to have people in their group at all. Stick to those.

Even if there was a chance of making a decent profit in SL the last thing anyone needs are more land barons or landlords. It's one thing for creative types to make a profit-it's capitalism but on a limited scale. It's another thing to end up having people buy up sims then turn around and jack up the cost of owning one. That or do things like what one land group I saw was doing and getting businesses to rent at a low tier then slowly nudging up costs once their renters had become firmly established. I'm more for community groups who rent land as at least then you know the money you're paying is helping support the community you're part of. This whole aspect of SL where it supports late stage capitalism is one of its worst aspects.

Sorry but the whole 'staying together for better or worse' thing just leads to people staying with terrible partners. It's great when it works out for people. I'm glad you seem to have ended up happy with your relationship, and you have my most sincere condolences for your loss. That said nobody should be obligated to stay with someone just because they're in a relationship with them or married. My mom was married to an abusive husband. She was told (by his family who ignored the obvious physical and emotional abuse) that she needed to stay with him 'through good times and bad' because she'd made those vows. She was emotionally manipulated by his relatives because they were old school Catholic, and thought that once you made that kind of commitment you stuck with it. Young people today know better. They understand that relationships aren't the big deal Hollywood movies make them out to be. There's always been a lot of pressure on young people to get into a relationship. Like it's somehow the pinnacle of the human experience. Get a job, get married, have kids, retire in Boca. It's the classic American sitcom/Hollywood romance cliche. Only it's bull*****. Because people feel this societal pressure to hook up and breed you end up with a high divorce rate and a lot of unhappy people. Instead what people should be allowed to do is do what they want, even if it includes never being in a relationship. That, and if people don't want kids that's OK! There's a ton of pressure for that nonsense, too. People are always-ALWAYS-asking me if I've settled down and had a kid. First off after a rather unsuccessful marriage (we weren't meant to be with one another) I've decided I'm happy being single, and second the LAST thing I ever want to deal with is all the nonsense that comes along with having kids. Sleep deprivation, smelly diapers, never getting a good nights sleep, and a boatload of money tossed into a bonfire. So, yeah-a lot more young people are realizing that either relationships aren't for them-which is totally OK-or that they're not obligated to stay in relationships they're not happy in. Which is also totally OK.

...why would it be? You make it sound like 30's and 40's is old. Given the average human life expectancy is around 76 years you'd still have a few decades left to enjoy a decent amount of time with a partner. Many people get married well into their 80's and even 90's. What matters is how the people getting married feel about each other. As long as both are of legal age and consent to it go for it.

That's just it. Like in my previous post all I see here is people making assumptions about the behavior of the majority of child rp'rs just based on either a negative interaction with a small few OR some stereotype of what they're like. I've met maybe ten or fifteen child rp'rs in my time in SL, and save for two most of them didn't talk in a childish manner. Most were playful, and a bit silly...but then so are many adults I've met. If anything I've met way more problematic adults in SL. Heaps of them. It's why I get a kick out of threads like this. We're discussing child rp'rs like they're some kind of issue when what we really should be discussing are the jerks OP mentioned, and just how prevalent they are in SL, and how not enough people seem willing to speak out against people who grief communities like the child rp community (or the furry community, or brony community, or tinies, etc). It just seems like if you're looked at as being some kind of weirdo or part of a niche that appeals to oddly creative types, it's OK for people to hassle you.

No. Of course not. Most regions I hang out in aren't. If the implication is that every person rp'ing a child avatar is treating every region like an rp region then we're going from discussing actual rp'rs to discussing theoretical ones, which really isn't all that constructive and is entirely unfair to actual child rp'rs, the majority of whom aren't here to defend themselves or discuss their own POV in regards to why and how they go about child rp'ing. I think the point should be-like with anything else-just treat people how you'd want to be treated & don't make negative assumptions about entire groups of people just based on negative interactions with a few or on stereotypes.

Too bad, then because if I ever met Harry Potter in Second Life, and was asked to help him defeat he who shall not be named I'd be the first to take off my top hat, put on my feathered bards hat, and cast vicious mockery at the nearest Dementor. It's entirely your prerogative of course but it just sounds like you're not a fan of whimsy more than it's any kind of actual issue on the child roleplayer's part.

Nah, you're cool. For me that last bit has been what the furry thing has been about. While I rp a character my own age (47), I still engage in quite a bit of fanciful whimsy. When I was a kid I was raised by someone who expected me to behave like a miniature adult. I wasn't allowed to play with others much, I was kept from my birth mother and sister save for on rare occasions, and for the most part I never really had the kind of childhood you see in so many films and TV movies or read about in books. While I've always been reluctant to call it abuse it kind of was. So I can see why someone would want to get to experience at least some of how it feels to be a kid, even if it's in a limited fashion. I don't know if it's something I could do just due to how much stigma there is around adults interacting with kids in anything other than an 'adult being a responsible adult behaving responsibly around them, and not doing anything childish or child-like lest they be considered some kind of groomer' way. That's the whole issue, really, and what this thread's OP seems to be dealing with. Everyone just assumes if you're an adult rp'ing a kid or even just interacting with a kid on their level you must be some kind of creep. It's really unfair-not just to the adults (whether they're rp'ing or not) but to kids as well. I think it's why a lot of adults end up misjudging kids or not respecting them the way they ought to because people are too afraid to. So we end up expecting them to grow up to fast to better fit in with adults instead of letting them develop at their own pace, and maybe in a way where the adults they become aren't as close-minded as the ones that came before.

Care to explain? Because when one writes and publishes a children's book one is-to a large degree-expecting both children and the adults raising them to indulge in fantasy with you. Maybe you're not expecting them to roleplay with you like you're a kid but you are asking people to engage in their sense of whimsy. That aspect of it is no different from what child roleplayers in Second Life are asking others to do. It's harmless whimsy meant to elicit a sense of child-like wonder or at the very least help the roleplayer perhaps escape from some of the stresses and anxieties that are so often attached to the times when one has to do the whole adult thing.

I've never, ever encountered someone with a child avatar who wrote like that. This seems to be a common stereotype spread by people who are either unfamiliar with the community or misinformed. Most 'children' I've met in SL sounded like most kids I've known IRL. They're either shy or silly or-like a lot of kids these days-a lot more intelligent and experienced than people give them credit for. I know when I was eight years old I was reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation series and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. I would discuss their themes with my reading teacher and get pretty in-depth. Later-when I was around twelve-I was corresponding secretary for my schools malacological society (shell club). I wrote letters to the governors of every state asking them what their state shell was. Eventually I helped our little club get the Quahog voted state shell (I lived in Rhode Island). My point is kids don't always have to talk like stereotypical little kids to sound like actual young kids.

I just want to point out that if calling people wearing child avatars creepy isn't OK it's also not OK to call adults wearing furry avatars who just happen to have genitalia attached 'creepy'. First off the overwhelming majority of furries who wear sexualized furry avatars wear them in adult-rated sims where it belongs, and second the only difference between a furry avatar and a human one is fur. Most of us rp sapient humanoids. As far as child avatars I've considered making a few to represent child OC's I've created over the years. It's exactly because some people make negative assumptions about adults wearing them that I've been reluctant to. Which is a shame as I don't feel it any different from an adult writing a young adult novel where the main character is a child. If adults weren't allowed to imagine life from the perspective of a youth we wouldn't have books like The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe or Hello, God It's Me, Margaret.

Can anyone explain to me why a merchant would go out of business just because they can no longer sell Gacha's in SL? Why can't people just sell this stuff on the marketplace for a reasonable price, and do away with the whole stupid artificial scarcity thing? It just seems silly to me, and kind of dumb given they spent all that time and effort creating the things only to limit how many people can buy them, then go giving up on selling them at all because they can't artificially inflate the prices to a ridiculous degree.

While I'm not into smoking (my mom died of smoking-related COPD), I would find it kind of ridiculous in a virtual world where you're able to torture, maim, and kill people with impunity (as long as they're consenting to it of course), anyone would care about something like someone taking a puff of a cigarette. Even if it's depicted in a way that glamorizes it (which let's face it-most of the time it is) so what? Unless there's some type of corporate money behind it where you've got smoking ads on the same scale as Marlboro or Joe the Camel, and there's cigarette ads everywhere you're talking about maybe coming across someone smoking every once in a blue moon. In my 14 years in SL I've maybe seen someone's avatar smoking a cigarette a handful of times. and those were using in cyberpunk or post-apocalyptic rp sims where you've either got settings that involve quick healing due to nanotechnology or an environment far more toxic than a lifetime of cigarette smoking would ever be. Tl;dr smoking in SL is a silly thing to be concerned about.

I play SL so I don't have to wear pants.

I've been playing 7seas since I joined SL. I have 14 years of fish in my inventory and only once have I ever given one of them to anyone else. I've never bothered buying one on the marketplace or trying to, anyways nor have I ever been given one by anyone or heard anyone talking about selling/giving fish away. They're collectibles in the sense that some are unique and interesting but it's not like Magic:The Gathering. There isn't a huge market for 7seas fish that I'm aware of. Trust me-7seas will be fine. Most people I know who play it are in it for the community and conversation. As far as the decision being made in haste I very much doubt that. It's more likely they waited until the last minute because it made more sense to them to look out for their pocketbook and leave the mess to us to clean up than spend money, time and resources doing this in way that would benefit all the soon to be ex-Gacha vendors out there.

Great pic. Reminds me of the station wagon my aunt and uncle had as a kid

Start buying a bunch of freaky BDSM gear and really see how far they're willing to copy you. Go crazy-be artistic. Make your land look like Jackson Pollock threw up on it after an all-night Everclear bender. I know it means sacrificing a nice looking piece of property but this is an opportunity to teach someone a lesson. That or you can just try talking to them and asking them-nicely-why they're doing that. A lot of times people who do that sort of thing are doing it because they're missing something from their life-like a friend. Or learn to just ignore it.

I was homeless for most of my life in SL. While I have a skybox now it's through the charity of a long-time friend. It's definitely nice to have a place to call your own. It's also sad to see places you used to call home disappear. Back when I was still married my ex and I had our own little quarter sim. It only lasted a few years but I have many fond memories of it. I hope you're able to find a new home soon.

Seriously, though-no. Cops are bad enough IRL we don't need more authoritarian nonsense in SL. It's fine if you're in your own sim and you're doing it with people you know have consented to the rp. I'm not about to pull over for some wanna-be jackboot.

Sex. I'm in it for the mind-blowingly amazing virtual booty knocking. The real thing is way overrated. Been there, done that. Gimme the ability to be an anthropomorphic kangaroo romancing a stunningly beautiful eggheaded alicorn and I'll welcome the singularity with open arms.

It's because whoever implemented that rule is ignorant. I'm pretty sure it doesn't take that long for someone scraping their sim to do so. All banning people for being AFK outside of peak customer visit time and events is inconvenience people and make you look paranoid. That said at least they give you three minutes instead of 30 or 10 seconds like some jerks.

People who use the bug tracker's feature request for dumb stuff like this: "Partner more than one person How would you like the feature to work? Hello please allow us to partner more than one person Why is this feature important to you? How would it benefit the community? Because there is this ***** tryna steal my wife." ...really? Granted I think it would be a great feature but requesting it that way isn't going to further your goals.