Chronometria

Hit first and hit hard. If they are threatening you like this, then "not wanting to get them banned" is out the window, you need to whack em. It's their problem that the account was used in this way and that you were tricked, not yours. The account owner was lucky that they didnt find a bill for 50,000 lindens slapped on their account when their son went on a spending spree with "magic money that comes when you click this button at the top of the screen".

Please dont call basic mode viewer 3. I use viewer 3 and its fine, but i agree that basic mode is terrible.

Viewer 2 if you are a newcomer i would say, especially as it makes helping you easier. Also its the basic template for mesh and firestorm is very similar to it anyway.

I think one of the problems is that people feel "the powers that be" are not listening to them. Take the issue of display names for example, which is currently part of a JIRA i am watching. There is a lot, an awful lot, of opinion out there that losing second names was a bad idea and that a step back must be taken. But will it happen? I have seen a lot of other companies taking the attitude that they know best and that has cost them dearly. In MMO terms, with games like EVE online, an adversarial relationship has developed where companies make product changes that nobody asked for and that are unpopular, expecting customers to accept it, when really it is they who are meant to be catered for. Roleplayers among us may be familiar with the edition change of the dungeons and dragons tabletop game, which was so destructive to the fanbase that it fractured in two and spawned a whole other company to take the disgruntled players (now as big as the original parent in terms of sales). Pride is becoming a major barrier in customer relations and the EVE online company was hammered over leaked emails where they openly insulted their customers, titling one of their company memo's "Greed is good" (in reference to their cash shop for the product). Changes are not being reverted as companies are refusing to admit fault and would rather burn their whole product and peoples jobs than say "we messed up". When people feel they are not being listened to, or are being taken for granted, thats when you see these fierce stances being taken. When on deadly ground, people fight.

In my experience there are only a few freebies that are actively hazardous. The first is any sort of item that is unlinked and that comes in ten thousand pieces (these show up as broken cubes rather than orange cubes). The second is any freebie that is a huge number of prims, to the point where you cant put it down anywhere or it fills your whole linden home even though its a chair. Even so, its very rare to run into a troublesome freebie and so long as you open them up in a sandbox that sweeps every so often, then you shouldnt have any problems. A few may have adverts in, which sucks, but you can spot those pretty quickly.

These vehicles are more of a pain than serving any productive use. They crash a lot, they make it hard for actual roadusers and they seem to come by at a rate of one every ten seconds. I wouldnt mind it if they were occasional, but it is coming to the point where there are just so many of them that its a bit daft. As to the fact that they are often nasty looking, freebie style vehicles, that doesnt help their cause. Tanks? Why are tanks grinding around on the roads anyway. Motorbikes and trucks ok, but tanks is just bizarre.

You get the human one. Hmm, this is not helping my righteous fury here. Ah well, nothing to see here, move along. :matte-motes-frown:

Fair point, i went back and poked around through the different options and it does seem that the larger selection of human avatars is still there, though the default page is to offer the selection in the picture. So it seems that the sky isnt falling in after all, as i was led to believe. I am still fairly puzzled by the avatars on offer though. How is someone supposed to learn the basics of second life when they are a car or an airship? The robots, the rabbit, they are all humanoid at least. It's also very strange that this selection is offered as the default and not the human one.

I was following the JIRA on surnames when i saw a comment by Timo Gufler about the newbie avatars. He noted that there was only one male human on offer.....one.....and two female humans. Rightly he asked if second names were a priority when it seemed that LL had turned away from actually having human avatars at all. I really do not know what the newbie welcome areas look like right now. I love steampunk.....but actually having a tiny airship as an avatar - wait what?

I guess one crafty trick would be to give what appears to be a marketplace link that raises that popup saying "you are trying to view an adult rated item, please login to see this page". I think a fair few people would fall for that one, so be cautious.

The "game" term makes me think of MMO's and how many people, such as myself, came here from games like Warcraft. After a time i realised that all the roleplaying i did wasnt helped by the game itself and second life is the natural next step for that. It keeps the massive, online feel and gets rid of all the pointless extras, allowing me the freedom i need to make and place or persona for rp that i need. There are a good few people languishing in MMO's who would be much better suited to second life. Often they just log on to be social, as they did indeed play the game aspect but have grown tired of it, or have completed it. Roleplayers especially.

I had this happen once, where a folder i picked up became green and acted like a system folder. Luckily, i still had the chat open and clicked "discard", even though i had previously clicked accept and it removed it. Once that option is closed though, i really wouldnt know.

I don't really care personally. It's a car, from a game that has had its day. When people think of grand theft auto, they dont immediately think of this car, they think of the various characters that are in it, like Tommy vercetti or that gang from san andreas. Cars in grand theft auto are usually vaguely modelled and name after real cars anyway. I mean, what else is going to be on the roads in a game that simulates real life to an extent. I have outfits that clearly look like the ones in TRON and i have seen numerous skins that are attempting to look like real people. I think this car is a fairly minor concern.

You can have a really nice meal at the ballroom of the SS Galaxy. Its a cruise liner, where you can rent a room, or go to a Spa. I took a partner on a date there for a cool meal, lots of fun choosing food and exploring. At the other end of the boat is a wedding garden where you can sit and have romantic chats. You need to join their group to use the poseballs and items there, may be a little wait to get into the group, but everyone there was friendly from my experience. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Galaxy%20AFT/128/128/2

Premium Sandboxes is a good start. Freebie furniture really is not, however. What i would suggest is raising the weekly stipend, especially as it is lowest for new signups. I get 300 a week, for example, whereas signups earlier than me get 400 or 500. It's bad enough i dont get a surname, but this financial imbalance further reminds me that i`m some sort of unworthy newcomer and that my money isnt as good as that of older accounts.

I always find it quite novel when i see an elderly looking avatar in second life. Reminds me of the game "bioshock" where the residents of the perfect city could choose whatever looks they pleased. There was a big piece of graffiti that read "Beauty is a moral imperative". Perhaps we are like this in second life, where not choosing to be perfect is considered "sinful". I think we all loved sloth from the goonies. I looked on marketplace for an avatar for him, but didnt find one.

Ahh, draw distance makes sense as i keep mine quite low for performance reasons. Useful to have these encounters with mesh so as to learn a little about how it works.

Visited today, the bird looks good, reminds me of claymation as the animation doesnt look like unrelated pictures but like invisible fingers are shaping the bird. A little alarmed at how close you need to be to see mesh birds, as they turn into triangles from only a short distance. Even if this saves server resources, its still too short a distance and the triangles look bad, would rather not see them at all.

Solar Legion speaks a lot of wisdom there and he says it better than I did. Being a newbie comes with certain responsibilities... You only have a right to help from others if you are prepared to help yourself as much as you can. If there is a problem that a newbie can solve by reading one of the help posters three feet away, or by using google or simply by spending a half hour trying to figure it out, then they shouldnt be acting helpless. Often these people are incapable of acting on help given because their own skills are not up to the task of following guidance. Anybody who continues to expect everything and puts in no effort is not going to make a good citizen in second life and if some vamps can get a few souls out of them, then it is the vamps who are the more worthy residents as at least they pay for their HUD and are motivated enough to want to stick around. Solar and I both make a point of going far out of our way to help new residents. I have spent many evenings teaching basic building, helping people get their first outfit or otherwise just giving some directions and making someone feel welcome. The only "newbie" area i do this in is the shelter, as people who have found their way their have at least put in some effort beyond logging on. I`m not a shelter mentor, because i like the freedom to help people anywhere i stumble across them or to spend half a day taking them on a tour of the cool spots. I wear a garlic necklace myself and i had one after a few days, purely as i learned about bloodlines and went off to get one. It's free and transferrable. I found out about it myself and they are easily obtained from most helper type people, who carry a copy with them.

If someone is having trouble walking after 2 days, then they probably deserve to be munched on by vampires. See it as a Darwin's natural selection. Only the strongest noobs survive.

Here's a shocker- try asking them.....brace yourself......not to play that video as it upsets people. If they ignore your polite request, then think again about having them as an admitted member. It doesnt make sense to take away the tv just because one person abuses the privelige

I use viewer 2 (now 3) and build quite happily. The only bad time i had was when a bug meant i couldnt count prims. That was fixed with the next update that came along.

Basic mode of V2 and 3 has a lot to answer for. If they got rid of that, it would make a lot more sense to new users.

I was making an octopus into a giant squid and was like "woah, how big do i want this?". It could have been the king of kraken.