Codex Alpha
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Posts posted by Codex Alpha
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Well, after all the assumptions of bad faith and negative portrayals of creators who decide to use no-mod on some of their products, it's not like I or any other creators would want to really enter this convo. I've probably already stated my position this, but nothing ever changes in attitudes around here, and this topic pops up every 6 months or so.
Here are some reasons I or others MAY decide to no-mod our products:
1) Because we reserve the right to set any permissions we want, and don't really owe anyone any explanation.
I don't think it is very courteous or fair to demand things from creators, or shame them or portray them in a negative fashion, in some bid to influence how creators will behave or list items here.
You are free to ignore the product and leave it at that, if it does not suit your needs. Now going one step further and saying "I will never buy anything from this creator because this product(s) are no-mod!" is in your power, but then you might miss out on other products you might actually like, and fit with your needs.
This number one reason really is where any discussion can end, but I can give more reasons.
2) It protects the creation from getting broken
The product might be a specialized machine, vehicle or composition that relies on all its parts working along with the scripts.
This action might include the creator having a vision and usage and presentation for the product, and does not desire the product to be represented or used in any other way.
Even if one made a 'creator has an ego/pride' argument, then so what? I take pride in things that I make, and I do them to the best of my ability. Yes, sometimes I don't want my baby bastardized, destroyed and meddled with - see #1.
It may cut down on complaints and helping people figure out what they did to mess up the product, as a creator can carefully create an interface with the product to change anything that a user might need to, such as textures, colors, lights, etc
3) I only want you to have ONE instance of the item
As relating to number 2, it may be a specialized product, robot, machine, vehicle or other that was not meant to be instanced 100 times, on perhaps multiple lands and on multiple users lands, and only to be used one time, in one instance with one user - the customer.
I also have felt the same myself, when buying a no-mod product. I've never had such complaints, and of course I wished I could have multiples at times, but I worked with it. Like a certain inworld LSL book on programming with LSL, that you pulled out inworld and flipped through the pages. I can see that creator not wanting you to buy one book, then copying it to all your 33 friends for free.
I also held that no-mod piece in high regard, yes due to the fear I would lose it, or leave it behind LOL, and in some people's minds, that creates a feeling of HIGH VALUE to this piece. This is a magical orb object, and must be looked after carefully :-D. No mod, countless copies has the opposite result: a possible perceived 'less value' of sorts, as it is not so precious and unique.
4) To protect IP or to discourage reverse engineering a product
Yes, there are individuals out there who have a sole purpose to deconstruct your object for whatever nefarious purpose. This is not as much of a recent concern, but HAS been concerns by creators in the past.
That being said, I do deconstruct things myself to learn from, in good faith and do not seek to reverse-engineer or 'copy' someone's product - and can learn a lot from and admire that person because I was able to do so. However, I don't complain if a creator doesn't want to share.
Even if some here would like to portray creators as 'paranoid', see #1. They can be paranoid or not, they don't need a reason. That reason is their own.
5) The product is intended to be used as a composition, and not a building set.
This is an interesting challenge for me, as I progress (on other 3d platforms) into more of a modular builder and tackling more architectural targets (finally).
I must create, texture and optimize each piece, and build final products out of them from the same pieces. These pieces allow me to build several products in the same style and look, and could be sold as their composite products.
Sometimes in SL, it is more efficient for Land Impact and LODS for pieces to be uploaded and the product built within SL (the LI impacts can be huge depending on the size of your uploaded piece).
So here's the challenge. Do you sell a modular built house with mod or no-mod? If mod, the end user can deconstruct your house and use the pieces to build whatever they want. If it is a full modular set, they could do QUITE A LOT with that.
With no-mod, they buy the house as is. Modifications to interior walls, window shades, door passwords, etc can all be provided with a creator made custom menu (like SL homes), so customization wouldn't be a problem.
So then, we would need to price our products BY INTENDED END USE.
An intact house would be one price. A house BUILDING SET would definitely be a different price, and most likely priced much higher - due to the options available.
Also a creator could argue that the home itself is an advanced product, well-oiled crafted product that the creator doesn't want tampered with, relating to previous points...
6) No matter what, the customer is protected anyway, as the product can be redelivered at any time
No-mod creations put no undue risk of loss to the customer, and if lost can always be redelivered at any time.
EXPERIENCE:
Oddly enough, as I am FOR giving the end user as much choice, re-usability and customization, in experience - it doesn't mean that the customer understands they can, want to , or even care.
I've had just as many complaints for no-mod as mod items, and amazingly on the items that I spent EXTRA time to have features, customizations, etc - so quite odd.
Other 3d asset platforms don't have all the choice that SL'ers too. The vast MAJORITY of users of 3d assets out there (if not game devs, etc) just take the item and plop it in their world and move on. Most are not looking at a dress and saying "I like that blue floral dress, but I'm going to buy it and make it green".
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2 hours ago, Schimmelpelz said:
What counts as spam (paraphrased cuz I cant go up at the moment)
Yet the keyword spam remains:
doe,deer,buck,cervine,fur,furry,creature,satyr,baby,ungulate,carrier,pot,potty,pacifier,brood,half,mixed,monster,humanoid,brood,child,kid,fawn,mutant,composite being,composite,being,onesie,family,cute
Most of these keywords are mostly redundant, not terms the average person would search for (eg. cervine, ungulate, 'composite being'), or not accurate at all.
Many keywords would get hit from people looking for specific things, and your listing coming up would stop them from doing that.
NOT A satyr: "A satyr is a mythological creature with the upper body of a man and the lower body of a horse or goat."
NOT A furry (SL): "The furry fandom is a subculture interested in anthropomorphic animal characters."
NOT A onesie: One piece garment for babies. What you are representing is a swaddle/swaddling
NOT A doe (female deer), buck (male deer WITH antlers), fawn (actual baby deer).
Hybrid, human, deer, baby is what you're representing. Most products can be described in 3-5 keywords, no more. You have already described it succinctly in the product title "Half Deer Baby", so why do you feel the need to add the rest?
NOT A carrier, pot, potty, pacifier, family as relating to you listing a "Half Deer Baby" as the actual product.
Use the description to further describe any accessories, bonuses and props that come along with it, and showcase THOSE as well in your images.
That being said, almost every listing on Second Life MP would qualify for 'keyword spam' and in past days I'd report those myself, in the misguided effort to 'help clean up the MP', but if I were to do that for every listing I found, my finger would have broken off, and it would be an unpaid full-time job.
So hopefully we can change your mind and others here to see the value of using less and more accurate keywords, if only to make your workload creating a listing even easier for you, more accurate, and gets you more customers who are ACTUALLY interested in your product.
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It's sad that OP has to put big long disclaimers on his listings still at this point and time, but I feel for the same situation.
Once I figured out SL's classic SPC/GLS system, and made the appropriate maps in all the right places and alpha channels, etc, all I got were complaints from those products and low ratings - because people still didn't have their Advanced Lighting Model on, so the textures will appear flat and dead to them.
When you explain to them they need ALM, they might go fix it, but their 1 star rating remains, and you no longer sell a single item of that product ever again.
This is when I realized most creators were baking lights and environments into their products and many times even foregoing using Normal maps too (from inworld research of many products). If it is done right, baked lighting can certainly trick the eye into thinking the product has more detail and may help to minimize texture load impact.I do like the PBR ease of upload, and not having to create a whole new workflow to get PBR projects into SPC/GLS format as of old, but I suspect the same result can happen "This doesn't look as good inworld as it does in the photos! Looks terrible! 1-star!" can still happen, or even from users who don't know how to set up PBR environment on their own land, etc.
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On 7/6/2023 at 7:53 AM, ContessaHavendale said:
It made me really think about how skin and clothing creators are able to clearly reference skins and clothing that are in regards to irl people and brands and these users are able to keep their products up for sale on SL.
So right now I am a little puzzled because I have the name of my brand created and I was not going to use the label as the real-life brand on my products, I was going to simply replicate the designs of this specific designer and place my own logo onto it.
The first answer to why they can continue to list and sell on SL, even though they may clearly represent a brand and design from RL, and sometime obviously - is because unless the copyright holder files a complaint to SL management - they can get away with it. It is very risky for all parties involved, as a copyright holder can simply do an investigation taking a year or more - and calculate damages from that and sue for that amount. It rarely happens though, since SL is not really big enough or even considered at all by a corporation. However, some corporations are more nasty than others about this, and will aggressively pursue any creator (or SL as the platform) they become aware of.
The second answer is more related to ethics and what kind of creator do you want to be? An ethical creator who uses RL designs as 'inspiration' for your own designs, and build your brand that way? Or just be another unethical creator who wants to 'replicate the designs of a RL designer/company, and slap my own logo on it and call it my own work AND sell the resulting items for my own profit'.
That's the decision many creators have to make at some point. Believe me, copycat stuff sells more than original stuff, and always does no matter what platform the 'replicated designs' are sold on. It DOES pay to upload copyrighted content, or 'replicated designs', as long as the creator can get away with it.
It's more of an ethical choice than a legal one. Most likely you can get away with the legal issues (mostly), but it's your integrity and character (and the satisfaction you get) from your activities that you alone can decide.
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9 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:
You'll be alright. 🙂
Yes, I will.
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3 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:
I tried to explain but here's another try. I was tempted to respond to a bunch of Codex's individual points, mostly with my own agreement and encouragement on some of his points. But, since my "gut feeling" said it wouldn't be helpful, I decided not to. It seemed appropriate to quote in that instance, to confirm what I was referring to. And as I said earlier, I really don't like it when someone does NOT quote me - in part because I will not get notified of their reply.
I didn't have a "pretext" for quoting him this time, or that's my story and I'm sticking with it (which is a "pretext"..)!
Just to be clear, and publicly, I do not read into your intent in doing so, but I'm glad it happened to demonstrate my position in this thread, and any personal reference to that is not intended
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24 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:
This thread is all the evidence needed as to why that would be a good idea.
And conversely this thread is all the evidence needed as to why it would be a good idea to allow posters with good intent (my default view of others) to be able to edit their posts.
Except I supported my statement with reasons, while you did not. An unqualified and unsupported view means nothing without you expanding on it as to why you hold that position...
and not to be vague about it.
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1 hour ago, Solar Legion said:
Ah yes, such a prime example given in this very thread of how a post edit can be manipulative ...
And such a prime example given in this very thread of how a post 'quoting' can be manipulative..
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Instead of the person I responded to expanding on their statement they decided to laugh at it instead.
Therefore being able to edit this post after the fact, and to discourage further commenting by others for whom it was never intended is attained.
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Post unneeded as the person who it was made to decided to laugh at it instead of making a coherent response.
Therefore removing this post eliminates anyone else other than the person this was intended to, to comment on it.
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This post is no longer needed, as other forum members have 'documented' it on my behalf, and they feel that once I hit enter, I should not be able to edit it, as I may be 'doing it for nefarious reasons' which is a common accusation of others who try to participate in the forums here, and always the basis to call for greater restrictions against SL users.
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3 hours ago, colleen Criss said:
I have always been confused about posting here. Last week I posted about an inworld activity and it was taken down and a warning was sent. *shrugs* so I just follow topics and post photos. My days of trying to begin a topic are over, and lol I feel like a pre k on the 1st day of school. Most of SL is becoming too much BS, from forums to blogging to flickr. 😞
I might be able to even sum it up thusly;
Just by being active anywhere you risk a ban.
Welcome to 2022.
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Anytime I've been 'pinged', I know exactly why. Sometimes it's my fault, sometimes I react to someone pushing buttons, or posting controversial responses myself that are hot buttons, and the moderators don't want the discussion to get worse after that.
It's okay to say "Yeah my bad, shouldn't have posted that" or "Thanks, that post got taken the wrong way and it all went to hell after" or "Yeah I went over the line, thanks for the heads up".
People 'not knowing' what they did, come on. People know when they push the line, or skirt so near the rules that others pick up on it too, especially if it's in a string of posts with the same intent.
Usually if one sticks to debating the argument/position someone made, and refrain from personal attacks, or casting aspersions as to their intent, their thoughts, w/e you can have some spirited discussions that everyone can learn from.
However if people want to 'win' and not understand the other side, there are more chances of everyone involved to get more militant or lose their temper. When dog piling occurs, the fight can get pretty real and the drama intensifies.
Hence best to remove hot topics from the forums, that should be dedicated to Second Life themes anyway. Plenty of websites, forums and social media to wage a social or political war already - which in the end is a waste of time as both sides eventually create their own bubbles (eg Gab and Twitter) and the minority opinion on both sides get cancelled (which defeats the purpose of trying come to solutions).
In general, it is safest to respond to what the OP posted, and perhaps come back later and add new thoughts as others offer theirs, and it's not hard to stay on topic.
I've also ran and been a member of many forums over the years, and going off-topic can become quite an issue if not moderated strongly. Some topics would go off topic by 3 responses in at the earliest and many times at the next page.
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There's a meowing cat nearby, and cats are cute but zomg... I keep hearing the cat meowing. How do I find it lol and derender/mute gahhhhh
Update: Figured it out. Unfortunately the developers decided to put cat meowing, bird chirping and 100 sounds of the jungle into the "Sound Effects" panel, instead of a more appropriate "Ambient" Channel.
Would be nice if sounds were alloted where they belonged;
eg.
"Wind, Rain, Gentle Breeze, Distant Traffic, Dungeon Sound" etc are in "Ambient"
Sound effects reserved for inworld event sounds like footsteps, door openings, object sounds, etc.
Now I can't hear any effects in Belissaria because the meowing and repeated chirping drove me nuts.
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On 7/31/2022 at 7:27 PM, WinnieTheWerewolfPup said:
This has been bugging me for quite some time. I have been playing secondlife for over 3 years now and it boggles my mind that there is rampant discrimination of people simply because of their choice of avatar. People flip their lids if a certain type of avatar shows up and immediately ban said person from events, public sims, and public stores even though the person did nothing wrong other than choosing an avatar that other people dont like. We all have our opinions but this is starting to get ridiculous that certain avatars cant go practically anywhere because people are "scared of them" or just simply dont like them. that is not how this place is supposed to be. secondlife is supposed to be a fun, nice place to be yet its hostile and discriminatory. ive been waiting for 3 years now and all Linden Labs has done is ban gatchas. because THAT of all things was the biggest problem. So I am asking Linden Labs. when do you all plan to do something about all this racism, discrimination, and intolerance running rampant across SL? Even when we report people that very clearly violate TOS you do nothing. Do you plan on doing anything about this? or are we just going to have to suffer and avoid expressing ourselfs for who we want to be in order to participate in the game? does anyone else agree? Its been getting worse and worse and Linden Labs wont lift a single finger about it.
Discrimination will always happen, because all of us are discriminating. It's all discrimination, but depending on the popular culture's opinion of the day, one thing is discrimination, but another is not.
Best to take it in stride and welcome the day where you can find a group with like-minded individuals and friends.
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15 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:
True but you blocking them doesn't mean they can't still see and respond to what you say and report if offensive. 🤔
14 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:Well, except perhaps not being offensive.
Rather than cast aspersions or make accusations to an individual's behaviour just be informed that the post applies not only to SL but every other online platform, virtual or not - where this is now my personal policy trying to survive in a changed world of 2022.
And yes, I'm sure I'll offend someone again, and that's okay ::wink:: That's the risk of conversing and discussing ideas with other people - to accept that you will offend people, and that you will be offended.
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It has been Meta's aim and goal from the beginning to be THE Metaverse, and in their own words "to discourage competition and if possible make sure they don't even get started", and their words back up their actions so far, so not a surprise.
Meta is not our friend, nor anyone's friend. What Zuckerberg wants is everyone on his version 'working, living, and playing' there. Yuck.
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A whole lot of typing and words displayed, but it really is quite simple. This is no different than many forums that only exist because they're meant to serve the discussion and promotion of the game/software/platform.
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General Discussion areas are usually set for grab bag or garage sale or topics that people don't know where to post them, and some leeway is given in those areas. Having run forum of my own on a variety of game-related topics when hosting game servers and running resultant 'clans' and 'guilds', that was all the General was supposed to be.
The thing here on SL was that the General Discussion wasn't really being used like that, and too many way non-SL related topics were appearing - and many of them political or social or real world issues that don't really belong here - nor is it LL's responsibility to give them a platform to their myriad numbers of users - especially if the internet is available and many other forums out there to express themselves already.
For others, it's not why we come to Second Life forums, nor is it our goal to bring RL issues into SL, as it is meant to be something else.
Whether or not I agree or understand to the issues people may post from time to time, it's not why I'm here, and I and others appreciate the move to keep it a bit more SL-centric. It also keeps a lot of divisive topics down, and subsequent AR's and discipline and possible bans for people who feel passionate one way or another and 'go too far' - which is an expected result from hot-button topics. So best to keep it to other places like Gab vs Twitter, etc - people can argue and debate and point fingers and make aspersions against one another all they want there.
Here's too more on-topic and unifying discussions regarding SL and related virtual world discussions in the future, I for one welcome the new changes.
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3 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:
Oh and one from the forums who I did block inworld. I like to see what offensive thing they have said here so I can "tattletale to the authorities" when needed. 😂🤣
People can't get offended, get frustrated or angry or tattletale if they can't see or read or hear anything you say. It's the best policy moving forward
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11 hours ago, Stephanie Lovely said:
How many entries are on your block list in world? After 16 years, mine stands at 194 entries. I have to say, I am pretty fast to block people. I don't put up with creepiness, or trolling, and I don't engage with anyone who annoys me in that way, I just immediately block. What about you, do you make much use of the block feature in world?
it used to be zero. Until 2022 when individuals on SL kept vocalizing that that is their preferred method to treat anyone they disagreed with.. so I initiated the "When In Rome" protocol and gave them exactly what they wanted - with them first on the list.
Also extending it cross-platform to anyone who acts offended to anything I say, or has a tantrum or any other issue that would cause them to want to tattletale to the authorities. So not I block them so they never have to feel that ever again.
Sad, but true.
That is the way.-
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1 hour ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:
Too many people have thousands of dollars invested in Second Life they would be reluctant to start over.
This is not really the best argument for anyone to make even if they did spend thousands of dollars.
I know many gamers that spend hundreds and thousands over time just on cosmetic items, experience boosts, etc in their favourite FPS Shooter games, that they only played for 1-2 years. With micro transactions in every game nowadays, people are spending that normally.
It's just that many SL creators are in the upper and older age bracket, with much time invested into SL, and are understandably concerned especially if they rely on it in full or part of income.
However, everything progresses, and I too will get older and face the same issues - but I don't expect a company or anyone to be held back on my account...
A move to a more modern system was admirable, and needed. One can only expand on an old SL so much until a complete rewrite is needed.
For me, now spoiled by newer platforms like Sansar and others - along with the prevalence of accessible game engines like Unreal, Unity and Godot, it is becoming harder and harder to warrant continued investment of time and money into an old SL.
If anything Sansar failed (in part) because they tried to attract the older crowd from SL and ignored the younger generations (graduating from Roblox and other younger audience platforms) into Sansar as the next step - almost seemingly not wanting them at all in their attitudes.
Like any business, if you're not growing, you are stagnating.. and if you're stagnating you are dying.
And with LL's observably glacial pace at doing anything who knows what the future brings for it - while all of us age out of the equation instead of packing up our tents and making camp on a new platform.
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10 hours ago, Bree Giffen said:
What if LL made a completely new client and server with a small continent, new avatars, a new prim building system, new engine and physics, but kept the exact same SL style where the residents make everything. Then they named it a completely new name like 'whatever life'. If you logged into it you'd feel right at home in the virtual world but it would be all shiny and new. This would not be like Sansar which was made very differently from SL. It would be hard reset and a starting point but SL would still exist as well. Do you think this would make people think about joining because it is simply not SL with all it's baggage? Maybe new creators would come in knowing they don't have to compete with the established ones. LL would also be able to regain it's control over the base avatars and not be dependent on resident made avatars. This wouldn't destroy SL. It would be like taking a seed from a plant and making a whole new plant.
You're asking the people who rejected Sansar en masse if they would move to a newer platform instead of staying on SL.
I welcome anything new. I'd be there, but the same people would NOT be.
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2 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:
There is the technical side of course and not wanting to damage existing content. Then there's the often messy laissze faire social side.
LL had to try to stop depictions of sex with child avatars for legal reasons, but even with that being against the TOS, it still has to be reported and proven to be acted upon.
If LL wanted to clean up SL's image by making other depictions against the TOS, would they be able to enforce that? I don't think they let all that go on because they really don't care or because they want the money of those who engage in those particular kinks or questionable roleplay. I think they let it go because trying to stop it would be a task that even Hercules wouldn't be able to tackle,
Could Linden Lab even clean up Second Life if they wanted to?
No, and either than dealing with illegal activity, why would they want to?
Take a look around. The most successful online platforms, VR or otherwise, are those who offer the most freedom with the least limits possible, and other platforms who over-moderate, over-rule and micro-manage are very low number of users or completely empty.
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Meta's sole purpose is to drive the population of the world to it's virtual universe and closed environment by any means possible.
Discerning creators and participants may enjoy it as an escape, but as a way of life may not be so fun.
"You will own nothing and be happy" is closely linked to such goals, a trojan horse of sorts, a dance with the devil - mind your toes because you might get burned.
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Marketplace reviews, what is the point anymore.
in General Discussion Forum
Posted
Much like in review sections in RL, on Yelp, Google or even a department store site, reviews don't really help anymore as they are mostly polarized.
You'll have reviews with 5 stars heralding the product as the most amazing thing out there, and then there will be 1-star ratings claiming they are the worst thing ever, scam, ripoff, etc.
This is why with reviews, it seems only the most happiest and the most angriest people leave a review.
In SL, in general, people will buy your product and not leave a review because they are satisfied. It is very RARE to get any review nowadays - I notice that products from 10+ years ago have much more participation, but nowadays people don't bother for the most part.
The reviews I get are of course polarized as well.
Most, if not all of the 'negative' reviews I've gotten have mainly been user error, misunderstanding, or even now with PBR and even FULL SL Texture sets - get angry complaints because those users do not have ALM or ability to see PBR.
The problem is, I and other creators will bend over backwards to make these customers happy, or to educate them... and our $40 cents of profit long out the window... will solve their issue, yet their INACCURATE review remains on your product. You can report it, and LL comes and sees and thinks "Well that's a legit review with concerns, why is he flagging this 1 star review?"
Why? Because there is no option for us to have a 'customer problem resolved' on the product, even if the issues were legit and were fixed (with a product update).
I've had several listings have low ratings due to ALM in the past that kept their low ratings even though I responded inworld and on the listing, AND YES THEIR SALES WENT DOWN - on perfectly good products!
Reviews without context, reviews without ability to 'resolve' them if they are negative, and reviews that don't actually help improve the product, are no help at all - and could actually damage the listing and potential sales...
"I would have given this 5 stars, but it didn't come in blue, the textures don't look inworld as do in pictures (Even though I take pictures in HIGH NOON ugliest light because if it looks good there, it will look good anywhere!), and it is nomod/copy, etc - so I gave it 1-3 stars..."
The flag mechanism needs a "I believe this review is outdated/irrelevant/problem solved" or yes, some creators may be tempted to relist - and for LEGITIMATE (even if illegal to do).
The result on some listings is I just remove them, and the experience(s) have a longer lasting impact that I am now discouraged from putting up more stuff (especially PBR) as I don't want to waste my time until it's guaranteed the product will be represented properly - OR having an option to remove 'reviews' that are just bug reports and complaints.