Aethelwine

In my case I have been paying VAT for some time. I suppose my main surprise is that it has taken time for this to be introduced more widely.

I would have thought any complaints were better raised with your State rather than Linden Lab. It does seem to me that Sale's Taxes and VAT on digital goods is possibly an overly complex burden on businesses and administration costs for complying might be excessive, but that is just off the top of my head. A Tax expert would probably be better placed to inform that than my idle speculation. The fact however is alot of States and Countries demand these payments to support their infrastructure costs that their Tax regimes fund. Whilst even just a handful of countries tax digital goods that burden would have to be met by any e-business. I don't think complaining to Linden Lab for complying with Tax law is really going to be effective, better to talk with your local State legislature representative to see if the Tax revenue could be better obtained in a different way and they could drop taxes on digital goods.

I have in the past off-roaded underwater on the sea floor. Plenty of space, minimal obstructions, in Nautilus\Blake area interesting terraforming.

I tend to like small homes, this is my latest: it has a fully enclosed Kitchen with everything I need and can roll out a mattress on the floor for sleeping when there is inclement weather. An outside toilet and outside dining. 61 prims in total used, leaving plenty remaining for any passing traffic. I am always meeting friends and new nice people there.

I wouldn't say waterways are out of the way, they are fairly high traffic areas. Run a few boats through there and it is not long before the homestead is at capacity and boats are queuing up to pass through.

Mine always vote against me too!

What we can see though is that demand for Bellisserian homes with water access be they Houseboat or Stilts, still outstrips their availability. It is another indicator besides land prices of the value of open waterways. Maybe the Lindens will eventually realise that not just providing links through Bellisseria will add value but looking back and making links elsewhere on mainland like between Alston and Tuvan would add more value than the cost. Maybe they will even go back to Zindra and complete the link between the North and South!

They are connected via Pooley aren't they? or do you mean filling in the voids West of Pooley? A link from there to Henshaw or Tuvan would be good. The route along the West edge of Furness, has always been difficult on the corners.

I don't think it is treated as a high priority, but I have lived next to a parcel like that and it did get tidied up and the owner remains as absent as ever. I presume governance in an idle moment tidied it up

Normally 40 avatars I think or 44 including premium. Some of the linked private estates allow for 100. I know I have had to consider and start work on party barges we can use to accommodate people at after cruise parties on adjoining regions.

Well I certainly wouldn't advocate for Linden Lab to adopt an aesthetics police on mainland, but I see no harm with them tidying up chairs and stray prims and beds floating around over peoples parcels that are clearly oversights or neglect. In rare cases where that might be some sort of intended Dadaist statement.... then well I think the chances of that being the case slim enough to not be too concerned. I am pretty sure they occasionally do this anyway. Where the person paying rent is absent they wouldn't know anyway to complain, so not sure why that is an objection. I suppose it would be polite for the Governance to leave the parcel owner a message. For example if they were to get involved with banlines they might conceivably send a message like "Hello xxxx, as you have not been in world for 6 months and we have received reports of the banlines on your parcel causing grief to neighbours and travellers we have taken the liberty of turning them off for you. " But I don't really feel that message would be essential in circumstances like that.

You might find it annoying and think it won't achieve anything, but on threads like this there are queues of people wanting to express their frustration with the current system. They have every right to express themselves, they aren't breaking any rules, they no doubt feel better for getting it off their chests and getting sympathy and and empathy from others feeling the same way. That in itself is good enough reason to let people express themselves. As to whether it will achieve anything, maybe you are right and it won't but it is not impossible. Bellisseria originally released without restrictions, but similar feedback caused Linden Lab to change their minds and change the covenant. Going back further once upon a time micro parcel ad farms were allowed, it was through people expressing their feelings and frustrations that they changed the rules. You and others treat the TOS as some sort of inviolable right, it isn't it is clear all the way through it that it is subject to change depending upon what Linden Lab wants..

I can't get those links to work, but I think i got this map from there:

The word offender has a dual but related meaning. It can mean rule breaker or it can mean someone that causes offence or problems. Calling someone that is causing problems an offender is a correct use of the word. You can't deny someone the right to express their feelings of being offended by saying the person that is offending them will be offended.

I think the color regions were like the second or third wave of regions after the original 13.

I like them all in different ways for the reasons already given. Asking to chose a favourite is a bit like asking which kitten from the litter is your favourite... it is a hard choice and don't want to hurt the feelings of the others. No one has mentioned Nautilus yet, and perhaps for good reason the road system is a disjointed afterthought making actually owning land there pretty pointless unless you are on a waterway... but the waterways are its main selling point. In the North West there is a lovely and creative chain of mole built islands and a link to Corsica. On the East and South there are waterway connections to privately owned estates with the Seychelles, USS sailing sims and others around the blake and Fairchang in the SW. To the South Connections with Satori and the fun Nautilus City with its Citadel and canal. I love Corsica waterways and roads. I love Sansara's Seas and roads, the sense of history and variety of areas, the Atolls geography road and rail networks and its little sometimes infuriating waterways. But my heart would always lead me back to Nautilus and the opportunities it offers for sailing, the little islands and features dotted around and the links with the private estates.

Motorcycle club regions are often well done and will likely have build enabled primarily for vehicles, but I doubt anyone would complain if you rezzed something for poses for photos or to show friends.

All the maps got me interested. This one of an LCC cruise from May 2012 shows the addition of the original 5 Snug Harbor regions

Atlan Blades map from 2018 is a classic, would be nice to see ones for the intervening period

Now I am home, Here is the map to compare with from 2008.

It would be interesting to see more maps from the years after to show additions over time. Second Norway - 2012/13? The Seychelles, Brookland, the opening up of North West Coast of Satori, links to Corsica etc I have a map in my inventory of the USS sims from 2008, from before the Blake sea

It is interesting to me at least to see the 2010 map before Snug Harbor (2011 I think) and before the Grumphmunch Channel.

It would be such a huge missed opportunity if they don't ultimately provide that link, that it is hard to believe that they would get so close and then not do it. Those missing 18 regions would probably double the amount of water Bellisserians have access to. And the Houseboats and now the Stilts seem to be the most popular Bellisserian homes, consistently hardest to get.