Lewis Luminos

They didn't though. My last name was active for 18 months and had 12,000 signps. (It's one of the reasons why I don't like it any more). And it wasn't the only one.

Yes. It was M who ditched the last names, though there was almost a year of them still being available via third-party registration sites. I don't remember whether display names came in at the same time or later. I'm disappointed that old names won't ever be released again. One of them is my RL last name and I'd switch to that in a heartbeat. In the meantime, I'd be happy to settle for "Lincoln" (my hometown), which is as yet unused. I and all my alts have voted for it but no luck yet. Come on, Linden Lab, you got a guaranteed sale with that one too.

I did, once, and I still, after all these years, don't know what it means. Years ago in the mid-1990s, long before SL was even a glimmer in Philip Rosedale's eye, I had a dream. In that dream, I wasn't myself. I was someone else. living in what appeared to be a post-apocalyptic world of some kind. I was travelling with my family, a wife and two teenage children, on the run from... whatever was chasing us, I never knew what the danger was. We were in the US, and headed for the Canadian border, and I knew that once we reached that border, we would be safe. We travelled through a cornfield and found an abandoned rusty old locomotive where we took shelter. I remember spreading out a map on the floor of the loco, checking our position and which way we had to go. I think you know where this is going... In 2009 or thereabouts, I found the cornfield and the locomotive, in the place called the Far Away. Much later, I did some research on Bryn's build and discovered that the locomotive here is modeled on a real one in Illinois, which (coincidentally??) is where Madison is from, but in the dream I was in North Dakota, and headed straight for Winnipeg. Another not-a-coincidence is that my avatar's appearance is and always has been 100% based on how I looked in that dream.

If you wear BOM underwear, or system alphas instead of HUD alpha, they won't be able to get a snapshot of anything AR'able.

With careful land settings you can do that on Moderate land too. Limit access, either with group only access or a security orb, and untick the "Avatars can be seen by other avatars outside the parcel" and that is effectively "behind closed doors" - you've just moved the "doors" from the boundary of the house to the boundary of the parcel. So your outdoor sex is no longer public. Yes, there are ways for a determined peeping-tom to circumvent these settings, but it has to be a deliberate act on their part, which means the responsibility for them seeing anything naughty is on them, not you. Your activity is still not public. What I think is not allowed, is leaving adult rated furniture outside unattended on moderate land that does not have limited access.

I think it depends on what you're looking for with your land. If you want to be part of a larger themed community with one or more regions all consistent to the theme, and if a Bellisseria Linden home isn't big enough for you, then in this case, renting will be better value for you. It WILL be more expensive, signigicantly more, than buying land yourself, but what yo're renting here is something that cannot be obtained when you're buying mainland as an individual. (with very rare exceptions). Another occasion in which renting may be better value is when you rent in one of the "skybox towers" which gives you near a full region of space with a limited LI allowance. This is because the landlord sets up several skyboxes at different altitudes, so you are sharing the parcel (and its available LI) with many other renters. These sre cheap, but what you lose is parcel admin rights, so you can't change the music stream, the land description or control access etc. If you want luxury waterside or Blake Sea property, and intend to stay in one place for less than a year, thats another case where renting is likely to be cheaper. If you buy, you'll still be able to sell the land afterwards- likely not at anywhere near a profit, but you'll get something back at least. Boat slips on sailable water (less than 125LI) will be cheaper to rent than to buy. In just about every other case, buying mainland land (or having a Bellisseria home) is cheaper by far. A 1024 parcel of ordinary mainland costs less than the price of a pair of jeans. Even if you have to abandon your land when you're done with it, it's still better value. Value for money is best of all when you pay your premium fee annually rather than quarterly or monthly. I have three premium accounts all contributing to my land holdings, and I pay them annualy but staggered throughout the year rather than all in the same month.

My guess was either PBR or the mobile viewer going live. They've already stated that the NUX avatars will be modifyable AND free dev kits will be available to anyone.

Totaly agree. Back when I still ran events at Club Noir, I had my DJs play a special request from me at the end of each set, for this exact reason. SL is a wonderful world for me, and will always remain so, even when it's long gone.

Aside from the global recession and people stripping back on their entertainment budget, this. Now that Bellisseria has just about enough homes to accommodate everyone in just about any theme they wish (with the possible exception of Stilts and Trads), there's less demand for mainland because more people are going to Bellisseria instead and letting mainland go. This means that there's FAR more mainland available than there's demand for. Plus, you can get any patch of abandoned land for L$1 per sq. m just by raising a support ticket, so anyone selling land (except coastal) for anything more than L$1 per sq m is going to have a tough time trying to sell. I'm one exception to all of this - three premium accounts and no Linden Home at all, because the tier for all three is tied up in my mainland holdings. But this is land I've owned for years, land which isn't changing hands at all. And my next-door neighbor has owned his land for longer than I've had mine (since 2009) so that's another factor; residents who are keeping their land long-term rather than constantly flipping and moving.

Oh! I know who you mean, and I've met her in-world. She is (or was) a friend of one of my Club Noir DJs and she came to a few events. She's a lovely person when off-duty too.

Actually that one is part of the same set as the 70s disco guy, they were both released at the same time.

This is the best way. Use what mesh you want, don't use what mesh you don't want. Madison doesn't have a mesh head, and I don't care, I still think she looks beautiful. And she still wears flexi gowns when we go dancing, and I love the way they move, and there isn't a mesh gown anywhere on the grid that looks as lovely in motion as her system gowns from 2008-2010. Ain't no mesh dress can do this:

Jake is definitely the way to go. It's very reasonably priced (though by no means "free" or "dollarbie"). There ARE one or two free bodies for men but they are (a) very old (b) rubbish and (c) have almost no clothes that will fit them. If you can't afford Jake yet, stay classic and save up until you can. Even L$1 for the free Legacy body is L$1 wasted. For a head, hold off until November/December. There will be Black Friday and Christmas sales (Lelutka has a male & female giveaway every Christmas and other brands sometimes do Black friday). If you're too impatient to wait untl then and you have an extra L$1000 to spend until then, get one of the heads from Lightstar: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/40878 There's a decent variety of choices, they're limited functionality but worth the cost as long as you go BOM and don't use the built-in skins. One of my alts still has a Lightstar head.

Your method is absolutely a standard model of operation. The Chungs have been doing it that way for years, as do many others. This method has two major advantages for the tenant; first, that the tenant can have full control of their parcel; rename it, set the media stream, control access, terraforming etc. Second, they don't have to hang around waiting for a group invite, they can dive right in and use the land right away. Purchase the land for an amount equal to the first week's tier, and the rest is paid via a rental box. It's the only way I would ever consider renting land. And, no disadvantage to the estate owner; you're still getting the same amount of money whether that first week's payment is a rental or a purchase. This method only works on private estates, it can't be done on mainland because there, Linden Lab is the estate owner and the land baron is just the middleman. But on private islands, the land baron is the estate owner. The only drawback is that the tenant may choose to ignore your theme, but provided that you set up your Covenant to incorporate all of your requirements, then you're good, and within your rights and your ability to evict tenants who don't comply. Doing it your friend's way has no advantages to you, as an estate owner, and many disadvantages to your tenants, who will be put off and expect much cheaper rent as a result.

My birthday's in November, so I'll do the same on Nov 31st. 😆 ETA: I'm still waiting for "Lincoln" as a last name. Yes, I've submitted it. Yes, they've ignored it. No, it's not stupid enough to be actually chosen. No, I do not have a fetish for Abraham Lincoln, it's just the name of the city where I was born. As soon as it gets in the list, they have a guaranteed sale of at least one.

"These people are all bonkers"

Rather than just jumping onto the "No I don't feel vulnerable on my female alts" bandwaggon, I'm going to try and tackle @Gopi Passiflora's actual question... Does it say something about me... I think a big part of it is likely to be unfamiliarity. Things that are familiar will always feel safer, more comfortable, than things that are novel. Some people thrive on the excitement of the new thing but to others it's a source of anxiety, and that anxiety in itself will cause a feeling of internal vulnerability. I'm in the "thrive on the new thing" camp, but then again I have ADHD so thats my brain getting the dopamine it craves. (Maybe that's one of the reasons I've long had a case of alt-oholism. Bored with the old accounts, let's make someone new.). You've never lived as a woman in RL, never experienced first-hand what it's really like, so of course it's going to feel unfamiliar. Whereas I was stuck with it against my will for 42 years. When I first made Indra, it was very early in my transition journey (from female to male). I hadn't even started any kind of medical transition yet, and had only recently gone full time with social transition. And I found it... very uncomfortable. In the same way that I hated looking in a mirror and seeing a face that felt like it didn't belong to me, having a female avatar also felt wrong, like I didn't belong in her either. It was only a few years later, when my transition was complete, that I logged her in again and that feeling of wrongness was gone. I suspect part of the reason for that was impostor syndrome - "am I trans enough to be really trans, if I want to have an avatar that matches my assigned gender instead of my affirmed one?" Now I've emerged from the other side, I know I'm trans enough and that feeling doesn't occur any more. So... maybe could be some of the impostor syndrome going on with that vulnerability feeling too. A feeling that you might not act "right" for a female avatar and a worry that others might catch you out - and how they might react if they do.

I've used both Imgur and Gyazo, and I find Gyazo much quicker and easier. I can have a snip button on my toolbar and crop a section of the screen which is automatically uploaded,, whereas imgur requires me to print screen, load the image into a graphics program to crop it to the required section, then upload it manually. If there's a similar snip function in Imgur, they've hidden it so well that I haven't been able to find it in eight years.

Darn. Club Noir would have suited you perfectly, sadly I stopped doing DJ events a while back, because of dwindling audience. However, the club itself is still there, and will remain, so if you're just looking for somewhere quiet to go and dance with a partner or a handful of friends, you're welcome to pop by any time. If the rado stream is playing something that's not swing, hit the jukebox and select streams 1, 4 or 6. A few of the others are defunct and some play a mix but those three play just vintage swing/jazz 24/7. (number 1 is KCEA; they are sometimes a bit hit and miss, and go offline occasionally). http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Badger/16/152/3678 I suggest you send an in-world IM to Beathag McMahon - she was my best swing DJ and she still works elsewhere around the grid but it changes frequently so I'm not sure what's current. But I promise, if there is any swing happening in SL, she will know about it (and she is probably DJing there). Tell her I sent you

This. Absolutely. You know, when white people scream "cultural appropriation", what they are really saying is "only white people stuff is good enough for white people". And you know what "-ism" that is. The only people who have the right to claim cultural appropriation are the people whose culture is being appropriated. For example, I know that indigenous American people get really ticked off when white people wear ceremonial tribal dress without understanding it's traditional meaning. So maybe don't wear that. But Indian people are generally the opposite; they love to share their cultural dress with others. When deciding what to wear when deciding to represent another culture, whether that's in SL or RL, listen to people who belong to that culture and hear their opinions.

They are selling stolen L$ from hacked accounts, or obtained by other fraudulent means, so they aren't losing any of their own money by selling at rates below the official rate.

The reasons why land owners ban or allow certain sorts of avatars is usually either for immersion in a particular theme, or for economic reasons, because they fear that certain avatar types will put off existing paying customers. The latter is particularly common in adult regions. Then again, sometimes the paying customers aren't worth keeping. Avatars of all types are welcome at Club Noir, and from time to time we've had furry guests. One time at an event, a guest demanded, in local chat no less, that I eject another guest, who was a furry. I replied with "She is appropriately dressed, she has tipped the DJ, and this is not Frank's". I felt like adding "and she is not as rude as you" but I didn't. Guess which one of the two was gone 5 seconds later (I didn't ban her, she just flounced off). Hint, it wasn't the furry. No regrets, except maybe not telling the dreadful woman how rude I thought she was. As for place reviews... nope. That would end very, very badly.

(L-R - Tammi, me, Indra) I left Tammi's text as the default, because it was funnier than making up my own.

One of my alts is of Indian ethnicity and is both a different gender and ethnicity to my RL self. I am open in her profile that she is not Indian in RL and speaks only English (I added that in because people tried to talk to her in Hindi, which I do not know). I don't mention that I'm male in RL because I don't use her for relationships of any kind, but if someone does try to chat her up, I will tell them immediately. That usually shuts them up quick. In all the years since I made her, I've never once had anyone accuse me of cultural appropriation, or said it was wrong. As has already been said, the key points are to be respectful to the culture you're honouring, and don't play stereotypes.

You might not think you are, but you almost certainly are. There are a few solutions. First, log in with an alt and send your original self an IM or pay L$1. If you don't have an alt, ask a friend to do this. It sometimes causes the region to realise the avatar is not actually there. If this fails, a region re-start is necessary. If you're on a private region, ask the estate owner to do so. If you're on mainland, submit a support ticket and ask for a region re-start. They will usually do this pretty quickly, within 24 hours.