Chic Aeon

The rule at Shop and Hop (not a new rule but in effect for this round also) is that each store needed to have a completely free GIFT that was NOT GROUP oriented and any gift cards needed to be 300 or more (no group required to qualify as the Shop and Hop gift). There were not supposed to be "dollar back" vendors but I found a couple of those along the way. There were some stores where I never found a gift and I really looked hard, but most creators made their gifts obvious AND many had pictures or the actual item out so you could skip buying if you knew you wouldn't keep it. I did all 400 stores over a matter of days and found a lot of stores that had both gifts AND group credit. A few S&H gifts were under the 300 minimum when I looked; that may have been adjusted after the store was checked as I was doing the round before opening). So in MOST cases there was ALSO a S&H gift; you just may have missed it.

Honestly when you do the math and realize that MESH uploads are still charged it would take a LOT of textures uploaded to compensate for that extra 50 US a year. 25 per dollar say so 1,250 uploads per year to break even. Since we have both local textures and the beta grid I doubt that there are that many creators uploading that many textures -- and again that is just breaking even.

Yes there very much IS THAT - LOL. A Linden at one of the open meetings said this would be a discount so most of us were thinking LESS than $200 US a year. Since the 2048 Belli "estates" didn't happen (so far anyway) I can't see why many people would go for it. It doesn't seem like a plus for most folks.

Well I had to smile as about two hours after my post (above) I got a complaint and a not very friendly message from someone saying that the item "took" their money AND their "friends" . Even a gacha machine and the newer renditions similar put the value up there and ask -- even a tip jar asks. The sims look pretty calm now with 19 in my sim. I told "them" that if they believed it was a LL server error that they needed to contact support. If they didn't get the cabinet that they bought I would send a replacement. No refund from me. People need to understand that if they are having REAL lag issues they should just wait until the sims are very calm. There is almost a month to shop. (insert sigh here). EDIT: I remember a couple of years ago when what certainly SEEMED like a "con" was rampant. Many sellers ended up putting their gift in a HUGE box with floating text RIGHT out front in the center by the mall entrance. Often also with a gift sign. I had one very complex pose prop that had presents in it. It clearly stated it was a pose prop. There were many signs. I finally renamed the item to "this is a pose prop not a gift" or something like that. In my mind people were using area search and simply touching or buying anything that said "gift". I think my item was "gift wrapping time" or something similar. There were plenty of very unhappy sellers that round and some never came back. Edit again: I just looked and the person complaining had a one month old account with no info or picture. And they were buying a fairly sophisticated piece of furniture? HMMMMMMM LOL

Here is a bit of history over the history of Shop and Hops. * There have apparently been some cases in the PAST where the servers really were acting wonky because of all the lag. Reports currently that I have heard is that the lag isn't so much in effect now. * There have been cases of sellers putting out items in "gift boxes" that WERE confusing (purposefully or not I can't say). * There have definitely been cases of buyers trying to scam the creators asking for a refund on non transfer items -- and often in a very rude manner. Most of the sellers NOW (and even back a couple of years ago) have tried to make it VERY clear what is a gift with big gift signs etc. In all cases over time except server glitches which I hope are gone now (including the time THIS YEAR that "I" bought something thinking it was a gift and not in a hurry at all) the error is on the part of the buyer. I have even had folks in the past write and complain that they didn't wait for the sign to rez and "thought" it was a gift. NOT my responsibility as a seller. Yes, to my responsibility as a buyer. In the first three days of this SL19B Shop and Hop I gave away over a thousand gifts and sold a bunch of stuff. Almost all items were right click and buy including the gift which was clearly marked. I did NOT however name the gift as "gift" so that folks can't area search and buy from a distance. Honestly they should at least come to the front of your both or cam it . I can only remember giving out a "refund" once and that was to a new gal who really did seem to be having issues and there WAS a server error (which in theory LL should have responded to and fixed and hopefully they did). To HER I gave a refund in goods and she picked out the equivalent of things that she DID want rather than get lindens back. I don't use vendors or gift cards so this was time consuming for me but I thought it was fair. So far this year I have had no requests for refunds. Edit: It wasn't really clear to me in the OP what the exact nature of the issue was. IF this was a vendor issue wouldn't there be a record of the problem on-line or a message given back to the person trying to buy? When I have used vendors this week I have been given clear error messages from the vendor when something wasn't working correctly -- this NOT at Shop and Hop, just in a store. It seems like the seller would have access to this info (again I don't use vendor systems so may be wrong there).

$75 each at The Sales Room. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MoonLand/149/16/22 Bench is separate purchase from display cabinet.

Didn't check the LODs on this but saw the add and thought of the new Belli area https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bee Designs/129/104/21 Not sure if this is a sub-brand of Bee.

A really good H and G sales weekend. From Merak - separate pieces. Some "primmy" and others not so much. But you can use the various parts without the cabinet. I am guessing this was a gacha item at one point. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Missing Mile/99/204/1004 Also a huge set of gorgeous (and high land impact) drapes that come with a ton of texture choices at Pitaya http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Atelier/65/72/22

Zerkalo was apparently a fill i at Hop and Shop as I don't remember them being in the list. But surprise they have a 500 gift card to use. I already have a LOT of 60 linden items plus event things from there but in case you don't ---- I am going to go over to the main store and see what I "don't" already have :D,

Premium Plus is going to be revealed very soon (yes really at SL19B) and that will most likely shake things up just like when Premium allotment went to 1024. You don't say what size "small" is but if it is a 2048 it will likely be worth more than it is today and if it is a 1024 or smaller it will likely be worth less. That is certainly what happened in the past. You can list it for 1 linden per square meter (so 512 for a 612 etc) and you will have a fairly good chance selling. It is summer which is the slowest time of the year for land sales. And much if not all of the world in in a very harsh economy so it isn't really a good time to sell. If you want to save on paying Premium fees and you can't sell quickly then it may make more sense to just abandon the land or sell it to someone you know for almost nothing.

Madras has a big and very nice display at Shop and Hop. Soft opening today for Second Life Birthday group. Likely there will be an official post coming up soon. Also Meva had a gacha (furniture) with wall hangings and pillows and other décor. Not sure what happened to her gachas but there may be some things on the Marketplace in the aftermarket. The Looking Glass also had a gacha with carved wood and dividers and bright colors that looked in this theme. Roawenwood also had some pieces over the years.

I have never had these black screen graphics card crashes -- or at least for MANY years until this latest FS -- which did fix some other issues for me. It isn't a driver problem but could certainly be a conflict with other software. I can't even remember the last time I crashed during teleport so this is definitely a graphics card during photo taking thing for me. I have seen many reports of that in the past from others. Issues come and they go and then Windows updates again :D. It is a bit of a pain though since I blog and take a lot of photos. It isn't a "busy region" issue either as it can happen when I take photos with no DOF (shadows always on) on my building pad and it doesn't get much more "game asset meshy" than that LOL. At least I am still WEARING my body and teeth and not in orange cloud mode :D.

No legal advice here and I doubt LL will respond although you might want to contact them directly inworld -- the ACTUAL US world that is. There are pertinent parts of the TOS that would apply here and there is also the photo and machinima policy. But beyond reading those an attorney would be the only one who could say. To "me" it seems like it would be fine unless of course the region the photos were taken on prohibits photographs (few do). https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Snapshot_and_machinima_policy#:~:text=You may take snapshots and,any current or future media.

Well my only crash was a graphics card issue on taking photos which has been happening a lot lately (high end 3070 card) but may be a FS issue. By NOW though you would think (19 years) we wouldn't have these issues on crashing. It also resets my graphics settings back to low and takes off shadows and I need to remember to fix all that. So sort of a pain. But yes, my strange movement of items was like a crash thing. Realized that after a bit. Still never happy with database gets worked on. Too many "war" stories I don't want to relive.

Here it is almost mid June (but not the 21st) and I have something odd to report. Both my Maitreya body (which I am wearing) and my Lelutka teeth (also wearing) have moved to my Objects folder. They were NOT there last Sunday when I cleaned my inventory. I am moving them BACK under Body (well Duh!). I also carefully opened each folder in my trash as usual to make sure no other folders had moved inside. That was fine. Then I deleted in my weekly purge. So just a reminder that things may be amiss -- even before the official date. This was likely because of a crash? Not sure but good to keep vigilant; the inventory fairy is not always freindly.

Great new tree out by Compulsion. Comes with three smaller (different than this) bushes. 15 land impact. Good LODs. Lots of character. Cosmopolitan

Just for the record - Superfans and Edo :D. Free group. Two choices each week (change date varies a bit). Vendors at the landing point and group sign up poster.

We already know that Premium Plus will increase 'free tier" -- most are assuming to a 2048. So in another week or so depending on how many folks opt into Premium Plus some of that empty mainland should disappear. From Inara's run down on the last meeting. Owning a region (sim still works for me by the way and many old-timers) is a LUXURY and not a necessity. 95 percent of folks creating can do fine without a sim so it is not a requirement to creativity or marketing. We each get to choose which luxuries we incorporate into our lives -- well most folks get to; some are working on supplying food and shelter. If a person gets more enjoyment out of a big hunk of virtual land than they do from a fancy restaurant, drinks, and a show with friends -- then that is their choice. As things get more expensive many folks will have fewer luxuries and fewer choices. The current world economy wasn't of The Lab's making but it was easy enough to see that "stagflation" was coming -- at least in the US where most of SL folks are from. So hopefully the board has been planning for the long term all along. That hasn't appeared to be their method in the past, be there are new folks in the mix now. Each typist gets to make their own choices. Second Life can still be enjoyed without spending ANY money. So personally I don't see much to talk about.

For anyone curious (and maybe new?) I thought this was pretty telling. IF this build was that popular and that great I think I would have seen it -- or heard of the store selling it? I have items that I have sold many hundreds of times with NO reviews at all. Anytime I see something like this I run away clickety split. There is no place to see a demo of the build and the newest review from last year had issues getting the raw file. There is no mention of LODs which is REALLY important on a whole sim build. ALSO of note, any raw file that I have used (I typically terraform by hand) still needed a fair amount of fine tuning. Not a simple fix. This is a $19,000 and ten year old build. I hope the OP finds someone willing to deal with it. It seems likely that the main issue is that the whole build needs to be rotated. If that is it, typically deleting and starting over and rotating the rez box (?) would work. The issue is that this cannot be redelivered and not everything is copy. Just like with the top selling online retailer in RL it is REALLY important to pay attention to all the info in the listing AND read (also carefully) the reviews. And then you still end up with things that don't work as expected :(.

FLF from D-Lab --- http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/D LAB/26/134/3001

For 25 Tuesday and the new Sakura homes maybe :D. https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Artisan Fantasy/190/107/2002

In case folks haven't heard (I haven't been watching this thread) : Premium Plus will officially launch during SL19B (Thursday, June 16th through to Sunday, June 26th, 2022).

Well THIS is exciting! Nutmeg is at Shop and Hop this round. I can't post a photo but there is a very nice (if heavy) gift. Really gorgeous. Plus one half off item I am definitely going to buy -- again heavy mesh so won't work for everyone. I am perusing the TWENTY sims (mostly empty at the moment still ) to make my reporting easier and still timely *wink*. Less stress. PS: So I bought the item I wanted to find out that it wasn't delivered. Went back. Searched inventory and -- I had already bought it. I knew I had the carpet but the other piece. So the vendor remembered and gave me my money back and didn't deliver. I had read about this sort of new feature but USUALLY I remember what I buy LOL. So one point for the vendor system.

Kraftwork at The Food Court Also comes in black plus a cute pot wall hanger. Mudhoney - The Food Court (79K triangles per set) http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lovespell/130/154/26

Tri Count on daybed is 116K