Coby Foden

Some history: It's good to remember that Linden Lab made the big mistake by removing the ability from new users to get lastnames. It was not liked at all by the users, nobody wanted that change. But nevertheless the Lab just ignored everything what the users said. Creation of lastnames was removed (with some excuses why it was "necessary"). At the same same time display names were introduced with glorious words how they can be used "to enhance your experience". As we know it didn't work as advertised and intended. Most display names are just unreadable garbage as people started to 'decorate' their display names with most weird Unicode characters. Users are very 'inventive', if something can be misused, then it will be eventually. Present: Now Linden Lab plans to start 'milking' money from the innocent users so that Linden Lab can correct their own mistake. Hmm.. Linden Lab is still the same company, even though some who were responsible for the removal of lastnames have left the company. One would expect that the company would listen to the wishes of the users and act towards reasonable wishes. And I think most wishes in this thread have been reasonable. (Maybe we are just banging our heads against a brick wall?)

I'm not fan of the 'sl**ty' clothes, even on avatar they don't look quite right and nice. At least not to me. However I do like nice sexy clothes, even a bit 'teasing' ones in SL, just carefully trying to avoid that they don't look 'sl**ty'. I like also wearing beautiful gowns when going to ballroom for example. It gives that extra nice feeling being well dressed. Anyway, I like also wearing simple everyday clothes, jeans, pants, shorts and tops to go with them. And my specialty like is sometimes to wear some tribal outfits. Even fairy outfits. To sum it up, I like versatility in my wardrobe. Selection of clothes for all purposes.

They might find out later on to their surprise that their plan didn't bring any meaningful income after all. Not providing good names for free at the account creation stage for virtual world seems really weird idea. I can understand the fee for name change, that's ok, if it was available for all members, not specifically only for premium members. There must be more inviting perks for premium members. Perks that really would have value and interest for the users. That would make people more interested to go premium.

This plan means that everybody who's creating new account hasn't much other choice than to create a crappy single name. Naturally they can spend ages trying to find a single name what wasn't so crappy. But most people would not spend long time in just creating an account. They won't. So the flood of crappy single names will continue. Would people like to become premium members at the time of account creation (for example to be able to create name with last name at once)? I doubt that very much. They surely want to create free account first, then login and see what Second Life is all about. After spending good amount of time inworld, only then they have enough information to decide whether to go premium or not. Nobody wants to buy a pig in a bag. From the users point of view the way Linden Lab intends to implement the lastnames and name change is no good at all. First you waived a delicious candy under our noses and everybody jumped out of joy! And now you are about to offer us a half rotten carrot instead. It's time to carefully re-think this name thing all over again. Do not make a big mistake (again) with lastnames. Everybody making a new account should be able to have Firstname and selectable Last name - while creating the account. Combining the name change possibility with premium account is really bad thing. It is, from user's point of view.

I'm dancing with my friend in some club. Then some guy standing further away IMs me with single word "hi". And then silence. Naturally the proper way to do it is to say "Excuse me if I'm disturbing, but..." and then explain why they are IMing. That would be ok, and many nice persons even do that.

If Linden Lab is really going to make the lastnames thing a premium feature only, then they are (again) making a mistake with the lastnames. Surely most everyone would like to have a nice name. Therefore good easily readable Firstname Lastname should be available for everybody. At account creation stage it must be free (just like it was earlier), at later name change it can have a fee. This is the only way to stop the flood of the hard to read, meaningless letter/number single names. Anything else would make the lastnames feature a half-baked feature only. Which would be really sad thing.

Anybody using Firestorm viewer can turn on and turn off the 'Resident' in the name tags. No escaping from the 'Resident' name.

In Firestorm 5.0.11.53634 there are tick boxes for: • Legacy names instead of usernames • Trim 'Resident' from legacy names If the first one is not selected then the second one is dimmed, not selectable. If the first one is selected (i.e. showing legacy names is on) then the second one is selectable too. What are legacy names and usernames? My legacy name is Coby Foden My username is coby.foden

This thread already got HOT status. Lots of lurkers too in it. (What's going on here...?)

Yes, people get to change their name if they want to. But nobody is forced to change their name though.

If the last names come back, nobody is forced to change their existing name. You can remain the same. Satisfied now?

There could be tens of thousands of widely well known real person's names in the world. To list them all as forbidden names would be quite a task. Not impossible, but time consuming to create and keep up to date. To forbid the names of famous brands and famous celebrities is probably a lot easier task. With predefined invented lastnames lists they can perhaps mostly avoid that problem.

Is it so that you would prefer to have only single name, no last name? And the other option what you would like is free to type the last name. I'm pretty sure that the latter option is not possible. Linden Lab does not want that people would start creating the names of famous celebrities and other internationally well known real person's names as their avatar's name. So, it's better to have a last name list to select a name than no last names at all. Even if you don't like it.

But it was easier with lastnames available. I have created many Firstname Lastname accounts and in every single case it was easy to find a nice name combination. It didn't even take long time to find one. What those people with weird firstname in combination with lastname probably didn't know that it was possible to refresh the offered lastname list to get new list of lastnames. So they were stuck with the first offered list. And then created names such as "Allnamesaretaken Allen". And actually they were not all taken. Unfortunately Linden Lab didn't give any instruction about how the name creation thing worked. It was kind of a secret perhaps? Like even still now, it's a secret what the name what you use for login actually is. At least it seems so, as no information is given that it is actually your avatar's name too. What is said is only: "You will use your username to login." (Ah, ok I'll create my avatar's name later then...) So to say it again: Lastnames made available for all at account creation for free is much needed feature to be able to create good name easily. Nobody would pay for good name at that stage. If a fee was introduced there, people would find it very off-putting. "A fee for a name! Seriously!" And what Ebbe suggested last is not good idea at all, for the reason I have already mentioned earlier in this thread.

No, I didn't miss them. I'm not talking about bad first names in combination with the old last names. You are the one always bringing it up though. What I'm talking about is that bringing back the last names available for all will make good name creation easier than it is just with a single name.

I'm wondering why an avatar's name has to be relevant to you? In my opinion you are just making the name thing too difficult. Personally the name "Coby Foden" has no relevance at all to me, the operator. But I'm perfectly happy with it. It's short, it's good. All is well. I have few alts with first and last names, all of them have good names (again having no relevance to me). I always found the selection of a good last name from the list, and typing the first name fairly easy process.

@Ebbe Linden Evident frustration going on in the name creation process: AllNamesAreBeingUsed AllNamesAreChosen allnamesarealreadytaken AllNamesHaveAlreadyBeenTaken AllNamesThatExistAreTaken AllNamesTakenSuicidePlz AreThereAnyNamesNotTaken2 aretherenousernames CannotBelieveItIsThisHard cannotfindagoodname CannotFindAvailabileName cannotfindusername2525 CannotThinkOfaName2 cannotmakeanamelol toohardtofindausername givemeanameplease2004 givemeanameomg MyNameByTheWayIsDante Mynamehasbeentakenhowcome MyNameIsAlwaysTaken Good name is one of the basic first requirements for enjoyable Second Life experience. Why is it so hard for Linden Lab to understand this? Making such basic need a premium perk, and even with extra fee. Seriously? Looking at the profiles of those avatars with weird name one can see that most of them are totally blank. It's quite obvious that they have never logged in again because the very first experience was very bad. • Hmm... no good names available. Ok, I'll just type something there, it's just a login name. • Ok, I'm in now. Let's see... • OMG! My avatar has my login name on it! • I will change it. But how, there is no information to be seen. No way to change a name? • Let's see is there anything on the web page? (Digging there a long time...) • What? Need to go to premium and even then need extra fee for just simply to change a name? OMG! • Well, it seems this game is not for me.

Well, if you were given a chance to type first name (related to you) and type last name (related to you) you might surprisingly find that it was already taken. Out of luck again. Then you would be angry again. Selecting last name from list shouldn't be very difficult. There have been really nice ones available. At one time it was even possible to refresh the list when creating name to get more options from which to select the name.

About to go traveling but the driver is missing.

I would do the lastname and the name change thing like this: 1. Fix the name creation window. Tell clearly what the username actually is. 2. Lastnames would be available for all new account creators for free at the account creation process. Why? Lastnames make it a lot easier to make nice account name. With single names it's almost impossible nowadays. All good single names are taken already. Surely most users who plan to stay in SL want to have good name. 3. All those accounts with "Resident" last name can change their name one time for free. Any consecutive name changes would have a fee. Why free for Resident last namers? It was a mistake made by Linden Lab to stop giving last names. So they should not punish Resident last namers for LL's own mistake. 4. All others who want to change their name would have to pay a fee. These features would be available for all - not only as a premium "perk". Invent something more inviting for the perks. If it would be just as a premium feature then the constant flood of bad single names would continue. Who wants that to happen?

I regularly go to popular dancing place where there are from 50 to 70 avatars at peak time. Every single time I see lots very weird "not proper" single usernames on the avatars. And most often that is accompanied with almost unreadable "decorated" display name. So it seems that people don't understand the process. Or get tired even to try to create a good name "because all good names seem to be taken". Last names available for all at the account creation stage surely will make the process creating a good name easier. (Surely there will always be jerks creating throw away accounts with horrible names. But that doesn't mean that last names would not be needed.)

Out of curiosity I went to look how is the username creation process now (June 3, 2018). Linden Lab forgot very important information from that window. This is missing: Please do create a meaningful, good and proper username. Besides using it for login, everybody in Second Life will see this name on your avatar. The lack of last names when creating username will make the creation of nice name very difficult. With last names available it will be a lot easier process. (Amazingly that name what I put there was still available! Any takers? It's still available as I didn't create an account.)

So, the flood of crazy single names will continue. Very bad decision. Some examples what names people have created: allnamesarealreadytake AllNamesAreBeingUsed ALLNAMESARETAKENADAMMIT Allnamesaretakenareyouserious AllNamesAreTakenButImHotB1tch allnamesaretakenincludingthis1 ALLNAMESARETAKENPLZKILLMEEEEE etc, etc, etc... @Ebbe Linden Doesn't look like pleasant account creation process.

There is visible seam in the neck when using different skin on the head and body. However for Altamura body there is Omega installer available (50 L$). And Akeruka head has body appliers (Belleza, Maitreya, Slink, and Omega) for Akeruka skins (the same what the head uses). So I guess using the same skin on the head and body will solve the neck seam problem. I haven't tried that yet.

Finally I upgraded my alt to mesh head and mesh body. Head: Akeruka - Anniversary Group Gift "Maia" Bento Head (just released as a group gift) Body: Altamura - "Valentina" full body, head hidden (free group gift) Skins: For head and body, the skins what came with them. Hair: DrLife - "Lui" flexi hair (ancient free hair ) Top and Jacket: From library - "Shawna" avatar's Top & Jacket Pants: HashTag - Ripped Capri jeans Shoes: KC - Hedy high heels, slink shoes fit altamura body (free group gift) Everything free except the group join fee 150 L$ for Akeruka group. How amazingly easy it is to create nice avatar without spending lots of money. The best thing, avatar complexity: 33074 only - Yay! Maia head vendor image below: