Cee Edman

Grateful to be 91 and aspiring.

Get Stuffed

To use the Laq kitchen island as a breakfast bar, I removed the sink and pulled the cloth with the candles, etc, over to hide the resulting hole.

I searched for a Mac-compatible auto-refresh not long ago, and never found one.

I wondered why I was getting time-outs in 7 minutes or so (set at 72 seconds). Maddening! I didn't detect the double ping.

More like asking for trouble.

Maybe? There's no maybe about it. I know this woman! She's my partner's sister. I double-damn guarantee there will be a tacky snowman at one of our houses (her sister is just as apt to do it as is Nika) throwing snowballs at passers-by, and the address(es) will be posted to garner MORE passers-by. {sigh}

[For the non-British who never watched "Yes Minister", quango = quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization. Which proves our duly unelected Town Clerk knows a thing or three about non-governing! I say next time we elect her mayor, whether she likes it or not.

On Monday, in anticipation of the release, I was refreshing at 3 second intervals (or less when I missed a house and went back and re-started the ARP.) This is what was recorded coming across my screen, beginning at 3:01PM SLT (I also saw two boats and three houses between 1:30 and 3). All are houses unless noted (B). (a number means that many units came up in less than a minute) In a very few cases, I was afk, and a time listed for a house might have been a houseboat. I counted 17 houses and 15 houseboats in the release. Approximately these numbers were confirmed by others on inworld chat. I took it to be two regions. 3:01, 3:19, 3:27, 3:29, 3:58, 4:04, 4:14 (B), 4:24, 4:25, 4:48 (2), 4:50 (2), 4:51, 5:09 (2B), 5:14 (2), 5:35 (6B), 5:41 (6B), 5:58 (2) Then nothing until a house at 6:53, and nothing more. (Shut down at 11:00) I had inworld chat open and noted at least one "I got a houseboat!" when none had come across my screen near that time, so I am sure my refreshing interval missed some.

A lottery solves some intractable process problems. It doesn't solve emotional ones. No system LL could implement can solve them all.

But you specified the imagined complaints of people who DID know!

"You" wouldn't know who won or when.

The OP asks for an opinion of the release method and a suggestion for a better way. Abner Mole has explained a serious constraint on what that might be. Over the last couple of weeks, I have read the complaints and the objections to every proposed improvement. Both seem to me to be entirely valid. Yet, there are serious problems with the “new” release routine. Constrained as it must be to US business hours, it places an insurmountable burden on residents of Europe, Asia, Africa or Australia, and a lesser (but significant) burden on all who work or travel. Then it releases individual homes or very small clusters over several hours. That means hopeful residents must glue themselves to their screens, prepared to jump into action in an instant over that same time span. This also places an extreme burden on invalids and those with less than ideal computers or networks. I gave up on Mainland 11 years ago, and had no other reason to maintain my premium status. Since then I have built and lived happily in private estates. Then, last month, with the announced increase in groups added to the priority treatment in crowded regions, I signed on again for my shopaholic avatar. The potential for a house in Bellisseria was a plus. [Love the look and the community appeal! Thank you, SL and the moles!] With the aid of automatic refresh, I started fishing for abandoned houses about three weeks ago, several hours each day, testing the waters with ever-shortening refresh intervals. Including yesterday's release, I have now seen literally dozens of houses and about an equal number of houseboats come and go in an instant. I have a fast computer and a 200+ mbps network. I rarely have my eyes off the page. I click on “Next” even before ARP signals the “find”. I still missed every house (don't want a houseboat). I'm not complaining. It's not a bit worse (and a lot more comfortable) than waiting in a tree-stand for a passing white-tail in my old RL home in Vermont. But there MUST be a better way. Until the overwhelming demand is satisfied, I think the only thing that makes sense is a lottery. Sign up for a house, for a houseboat or both (two lists). Everyone on each list gets a number. When the staff is ready to release a region (or, for that matter, when an abandonment takes place) they choose a random number for each available unit and notify the person with that number that they've won. Give them 48 hours to take possession or reject. Rejected units are re-cycled. Winners who reject their won unit can sign up again. All done during US business hours with no disadvantage for non-US residents. No click-fest. AND easily understood! Moreover, there would be no second-guessing the Moles, nor would they have the burden of finishing a region every two days, pronto, punctilio, holidays and weekends excepted, just because the residents expect them to adhere to that strict schedule.

Can't be. We have no class.