Codex Alpha

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the matter.

It is clear from your posting history that you rarely comprehend the words that people type on these forums, which causes you to react in the condescending and hostile manner that you do. Most posts you make are accusatory, some pathetic attempt at making anyone out of your elitist circle to defend themselves. Now you want to add the accusation of 'deleting posts' to the queue.. you are a piece of work indeed. I'm sorry you are upset with my opinions and observations of many merchants and their practices on the Marketplace. If the statements don't apply to you, (or your alternate store accounts), then it shouldn't concern you. I wouldnt communicate anything that I didn't experience firsthand. Maybe you're better off ignoring my posts and account in general, to spare you the evident stress it seems to cause you.

You truly are a snide and bitter one, aren't you. It is my opinion that Gacha and its use of images is spam, and that will never change. Dakota demonstrated to me that it is legal to do so, as long as the individual item is outlined in the image. It is my opinion that it is a crappy system, and I've already had to report purchases I've made myself where the images were actually wrong (due to the uploader's fatigue at creating 30 listings and uploaded the wrong image). I'm sorry you don't like my opinion that Gacha needs its own category, and that it's current implementation on the Marketplace equates to visual spam. Add to that the misuse of keywords in many of the same listings, it is a blight on the Marketplace. in my opinion. Its okay to have my opinion is it not.

Don't worry, you are right. I"ve dealt with many people here since I started myself a few years ago. They are quick to condescend and point to any TOS violations, long before responding to the actual OP. They seem to assume everyone is up to no good, and enjoy pointing out any mistakes. There are several 'policy enforcer' types on this forum that seem to appear only when it suits them, and they are rarely seen posting actual answers or help to OPs. If you can weather those users (you'll learn their names quickly), and keep patient, a few usually show up later in the topic with some real answers. Your original question could have been answered without the concern about IP infringement. Learning Blender or Maya to even get to that point would take you months to learn and perfect - so I personally wouldn't even have addressed that at all at this point. That being said, there is no specific learning path for avatar creation/rigging and importing of avatars into SL. The elitists keep the knowledge a very closely guarded secret - and refer to Avastar to get yet another sale, when probably it can all be done in Blender alone. Some people are very helpful in SL, others rely on their avatar creation income to pay their mortgages and bills so don't like sharing their knowledge or secrets with other people - you will just have to find other ways to figure it out. The times I run into SL users who make great tutorials and generously share their knowledge and experience through YouTube or other means - I always ensure to thank profusely - since it is so rare.

Basically it means you can't wear anything cool. If I have any sci-fi pieces on my avatar, it skyrockets too.

I havent' found a single mesh that fits my default avatar "base male shape" Linden Labs shape without making me look frumpy or wearing big brother's hand me downs. Even those that are close still have issues, just bought some mesh pants that looked alright, except there is about the equivalent of 2 inches from my stomach to the edge of the mesh pants. Close, but not close enough. Going back to my old style "Canada Jeans" skinned texture mesh pants that I got at a freebie store when I first joined SL. Must always try a demo. Cannot buy mesh without a demo, but I got sloppy.

Everything prior being said to this, the Second Life economy is open to all with minimal starting requirements. Unlike RL, with red tape, licensing, accreditation, and other bar-raising measures to keep the majority of people out, anything you can attain in SL is based on your creativity, innovation, and originality and the skills you develop to communicate them. At one point I could only use prims in SL, and dreamed of a day I could enter the world of 'mesh' and start designing my own stuff. Having no income for an official education in 3D Modeling, I instead set out to use the amazing world library called the Internet to learn and implement anything I wanted to, now I'm on my way contributing content to SL myself beyond simple blocks. Everything I create in SL have been self-taught, and with guidance from other helpful SL creators. Some things still exist - such as not being able to afford land rentals or ownership, but as I progressed I could fund such efforts creating an income selling content in SL. SL has been good to me that way, and the only obstacle to my success is how I utilize the opportunity. Unlike RL, where there are many things that can stop you, SL is open to anyone interested.

5 kudos say many agree, and many more if they knew these things were even available in Second Life. Too much I have seen exhibits by the same artists, and it feels like I'm not really part of Second Life at all, that I'm on the outside looking in. I'm sure there are many creators like me that feel the same way, and we need to hear about these events, these galleries and in-SL magazines much more than we are.

0THELLA wrote: Incase there is some confusion about the nature of MAGE Magazine, it is not a business. We distribute the magazine for free in the form of a 3D book / slideshow and the artists affiliated with MAGE Magazine are volunteers. Occasionally we will place an advertisement or accept donations to help cover the cost of producing the magazine. It costs 10 lindens per texture upload and as each page of the magazine is a texture this adds up to between 300 to 500 L per month. It is not a large sum but most of this comes out of pocket as does the cost of furniture and props used to create our sets and the cost of purchasing costumes. My reason for co founding and promoting MAGE Magazine is to create a community of artists who help each other to learn and inspire each other and help each other find opportunities in the virtual world of Second Life. I don't understand why anyone would object to this, however if you do have a problem with the content of my posts please let me know. Thank you 0THELLA - Editor for MAGE Magazine http://0zymandius.wix.com/magemagazine Thank you for your magazine and your idea to include SL artists (some which are never heard from because only the same top elitist names do) Anything that promotes art and artists, paid magazine or not, that is open to all is a benefit to SL. We need more of this, not less, and I rarely hear anything about this kind of thing, so thank you for doing so.

You're not too far off. Many of my fair and constructively critical reviews have been removed through sheer intimidation and harrassment of the seller and their various alt accounts. Some will stop at nothing, even posting private conversations on their internet blogs, using names and such in order to blackmail the take down of a less than 5 star review. Rather than have drama like that or the back and forth between the reviewer and seller on their store page - which they try to make you look much like a villain and oppressor - its sometimes better just to remove it. Another seller would simply harass me in game, offering to give back money for the product, instead of fixing the issue that caused the original review. Another seller harasses all my alt accounts and friends accounts associated wiht the groups we belonged to, rebroadcasting the original reviews and using their Land Admin powers to find shared IPs and such which brought about the accusations to start with. Another threatened to simply report the reviews (and discussions) as unfair to LL - making a point of threatening that I would lose my own store. I don't write any reviews any more for the most part, since unless you're willing to give a 5 star - you're just asking for trouble. This hasn't been the case for ALL my reviews, but certainly the large majority, which has since discouraged me giving any feedback, good and bad on any product. This is why you only see 1 and 5 star reviews. The 5 stars are for people who absolutely are thrilled with the product, and the 1 stars are by people so mad that they dont care if the seller gets upset. The 2-4 mid rating reviews you will rarely see, as it is a trigger for the seller to contact you in-game, usually with a lot of ego and anger attached - wondering why you left such a review.. 'Are you stupid? Cant read instructions? Didn't read the details? Won't take money back? Why not contact me first before review? You're a jerk", etc.

Please ensure that you have the normals on those faces pointed the right way. Notice on the wireframe how the faces aren't showing. Edit Mode, hit N go to Mesh Display -> Normals-> Select the Face option to see the lines. This can happen if you used "Solidify" modifier or extruded a different way than you expected and the normals on the faces flipped for some reason. If you did not ensure this on the original mesh, then your LODs will follow suit.

On a sim, my avatar complexity is apparently 220980 or so, and I recieve a warning 'avatar may not be seen by others'. I haven't changed my avatar from the default avatar I signed up wiht 5 years ago, as well as the main mesh props I wear (NeuroLab :D gasmask, gloves, goggles) haven't changed for at least 3 years. Why am I getting avatar complexity warnings now, and what changed? I can't strip this avatar any lower, since my clothes are the old style body skin types no mesh... Thanks

Sounds like an inexperienced, new sim renter/owner who is experimenting. Best to find somewhere else, because with numerous reboots and such - must be testing and experimenting features, loading up landscape terrain files or w/e and messing with your inventory listings or w/e on the sim. Thogh I have never rented a SL sim, I have rented game servers and i have messed up regular players' things, houses, builds, etc tryhing to install plugins or testing or w/e. It happens.

Plenty of stores like that about. My latest favourite is the female sock account of an eltie SL seller, (who apparently has access to all SL accounts on this IP), who likes to sell textures on prims, but advertise them as 3D. She spammed my 1 alt along with other existing SL accounts at this multi-user IP address in a bid to shut down the reviews. Most of the images are also copyrighted images she has stolen from other sites. To make it even more heinous, her use of keyword spam clogs up many categories on the SLMP. My only response was to make a cup of coffee, and flag each and every listing that was misrepresented - the only real flag that could be used was the spamming of keywords (as no option exists for misrepresentation of a product). A 100 or so clicks later, after my finger was breaking off - all the product listings and store still remains. Most of the items are $0 to $1 listings, which leads users into purchasing items $20 to $50L for exactly the same one-prim- textured non-3D item.

You will find that in many cases. I believe it is due to rampant seller corruption and LL at this time may simply be unable to process the claims.

The problem with many Gacha listings, (as I have posted about in this forum), is that they're frequent use of similar images can lead to mispurchases of items you may expect. Also, on the seller end, I can imagine it can be quite confusing over 30 items being listed - using similar product images - and possibly uploading the wrong image (circled or indicated). In other words, it could be an honest mistake, and since it is a Gacha item, sold in limited quantities, and could disappear quicker than the merchant realizes. You are correct though in expecting a response, but since many Gacha items already are accompanied with a 'no refunds' kind of policy, perhaps the seller simply doesn't care to address it. Thats the risk of Gacha, and on the seller's end - a greater risk of getting mixed up when listing multiple products using the same product image.

OzwellWayfarer wrote: I think there are two important factors when it comes to explaining the expecting 5 stars thing. First, reviews are pretty rare these days. Some of the oder products on the marketplace have 500+ reviews. Even the most popular products are lucky to hit 100. Second, people generally use the review system if they love something, or HATE IT!!!!! Very few people will leave a review if they are merely satisfied. Together, I think that leads some to obsess over their ratings, and fair and ballanced or not, a string of "poor" reviews will have a real impact on sales. Yes, this is why YouTube eliminated the star system for a more simplified thumbs up/down system, because people generally voted on extreme poles anyway. For myself, I dont care about the thumbs up and down, I want to know WHY on both accounts. I WANT to be the best i can be at this and I WANT constructive feedback. It doesn't hurt my feelings if someone doesn't like something of mine - art is in the eye of the beholder. Its far worse to not know WHY, becaue perhaps the issue could be accomodated or at least fixed, and everyone is happy

Thank you for your perspective, you summed it up nicely. In general, leaving a review, especially a helpful and honest review, is usually met with snarky or hostile responses. I would love to leave reviews - I love to recieve feedback and I like to give it - for the betterment of all and the improvement of my products and others. However, the hostility and snarkiness is not worth the trouble. I am a reviewer that makes full use of the star system, and doesn't just use 1 star or 5. 1 star is reserved for absolutely terrible or misleading, or outright fraud, and I will RARELY leave a 5 star because I reserve that for somethign TRULY amazing. Usually I will rate 4 stars if there is room for improvement, 3 if there is some severe issues.. never have gone below that. However, the outrage suffered by the merchants I DO review can get quite nasty. I can return to SL with IM chats of threats and vitriol, wanting to give my money back to remove the review (which is NOT a reasonable response, because I actually want the product to be fixed/improved), or even spamming of messages and accusations that this is my ALT making reviews. A merchant of an in-world 'animating' program even went so far as posting private conversations on his blog site in order to embarrass me off the review site - in some attempt of shaming me for a bad review. Out of 10 or so reviews I have made in SL products, I would say I have only had 2 or 3 reasonable responses, thanking me for my feedback. The rest were downright snarky and hostile, some DEMANDING that I should have sent a notecard to them FIRST before leaving a review (which I am under no obligation). It is amazing to me how tenaciously some merchants fight over substandard products and are willing to attempt to destroy my standing on the MP community by w/e means at their disposal. I must say it DOES work smashingly. Why leave a more than fair review up on a product when the drama isn't worth dealing with. I now default to NO reviews, and I would encourage people to do the same. Most reviews are now 1 star or 5 star anyway, and offer no real perspective at all.

I believe LL has all but abandoned any policing of marketplace content, most likely due to rampant corruption of all sorts, the complaints probably outweight the manpower able to deal with them. My biggest gripe right now is keyword spam. Many are using keywords they should not for many products, and are severely muddying up the search results because of it.

Answer their review. I've had people with "Environment Lighting" turned off that said my light was a scam, or gave a lower rating because the item was not a MOD permission on it. Responding to them is not really effective, because I don't even think they even know the post was responded to, so its only function is to inform future buyers of the reviewer's mistake or beef, and how you are working to remedy it.

Generally you should be fine unless the original company believes that a potential client can reasonably confuse your company for theirs. A simple Google search shows up many 'Kyoob' s anyway, so you're probably fine. If you're name is a play on "cube", you could just create a variant on it like Qyoob, Kyube, Kyuub, Xube, or w/e. If you like what you got, go with it, good luck

A simple Google search and even on the SL LSL wiki site you can find several. You will need to still understand what the scripts are doing, and some are very bloated or use old and longer methods. In a nutshell, you can control those properties of an object with one main LSL function; http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LlSetPrimitiveParams related; (llSetLinkPrimitiveParams), (llSetPrimitiveParamsFast), (llSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast) By using flags and parameters you can change any property of an object you would like. There are several examples and scripts to download or reference, but it is always better to try to create your own script so that they are not as verbose as the available 'free' ones.

i've also had the fortune of getting ripped off by a seemingly 'serene' themed rental group renting mall space on a sim similar in name to "Big Island", who took $150L . Good thing I only bought a week. After depositing the $L in the vendor box, and sending a notecard to the host (who seemed to be a well-established member with 1000s of group members), not a word back about it, so I guess I'm out. I'm just not going to use vendor boxes now. Good luck to all you legits that provide them, this being the second time hosed inworld by allegedly reputable groups, cant trust them anymore.

If I use Qavimator, I should always save to *.anim to preserve the animation so I can edit it later, right? Sorry to ask, never knew I could upload *.anim to SL, I always assumed BVH, because Qavimator says "Export for 2nd Life" and saves it as BVH.

Aileen Aiten wrote: This may just be me, and i could be off on a rant here, but it seems that LL has changed the way they process credits. Now, instead of a flat percentage rate, they have added a minimum fee.. For those cashing out large sums, i'm sure it's not that big of a deal, but for those who wish to cash out a little here and there, it can be quite perterbing. The second part to this, is the announcement (if you can call a small blog post in the missle of freaking nowhere) states the changes are due to the insurmountable ammount of red tape they must navigate to make sure there's no money laundering going on, and to get payments to different countries.. I highly doubt those two claims are nearly as significant as they make them out to be, as most banks, and payment services just require the transfer to be from a legitimate source (i.e. LL's accounting offices, or bank etc) As for the money laundering claim, while technically pheasable, unless LL watched every L sent, recieved, and source of injection into the accounts of each person (which they probably do anyway) It's reasonable to think that tracking laundering would begin at the deposit, not the export section of the transaction.. And really, how would one know money is being laundered, unless it comes from a known source.. i.e. a known cartel bank or something random. There is also a claim, that these changes would expedite transfers. Instead of taking 7 business days, they should take on average 2.. I'm not sure about anyone else, but i have NEVER had a cretid process take less than 2 weeks. Not once. So the 7 day claim must be for special, or preferential people. As for the 2 days claim.. Yea, we all know that's not happening. So what is the reality behind the changes? Could it be LL simply wants to snatch a bit more from the little guy, while trying to maintain favor whith those to cash out more? I mean, really, it seems like a tax on those who are trying to pull out the leaste, while capping the rate, allows those who cash out more, to keep more of it. I don't know. And this could all be in my head, but i've seen too many business use creativly worded ToS updates to basically pilfer from those who they deem lesser prone to action. Regardless of their intent, the end result is that yes, it does deter the little guy from cashing out as often. I'm one of the 'little guys' who uses the meagre Lindens I do make at this point to re-invest into learning/making new products, and funding uploads and such into SL. Currently I cannot afford or warrant renting land at current prices, and putting higher tax on selling products to fund such an endevour is only going to delay that. Yes, the extra charges always hit the little guy first, as the 'cash-out' power at thousands of lindens is much lower than 100's of thousands - we each must withdraw as we need, though I'm not against minimums or even monthly restrictions. The charges and subsequent levies, and current price of $L means you net about $3 or less per 1000L you cashout now. My credit processes usually take about a week still, I have never seen 2 days.