Staralien

Maybe you could start taking newbies to other locations. At this point, the griever is grieving you as much as anyone else, and since no one has stopped it, and you are not getting help from the owner or Linden Lab, then it is time to move on and leave the owner to it. You can't force an owner to do something about their own sim. There are a lot of other places that offer free items. Just put freebies, free into Search and a list will pop up. Some are better than others, and some are far better. You might also want to introduce your Newbie friends to Lucky Boards and Chairs where they can often get better quality items for free...if they are lucky. Grumble has tons of boards that give away gift cards and the odds of winning the cards is good. They also have camping chairs where you can sit for awhile and get clothing and shoes. Another place with tons of Lucky Boards is Snowpaws. Just watch for the first letter of your name and when you see it, touch the board and get clothing for free. They also have quite a few freebies in the same room. There are alternatives out there, you just need to search for them, instead of continuing to fight a war you can't seem to win. I think it is wonderful how you go out of your way to help new people. Because of people like you, the retention rate is probably better. I know having a mentor myself as a newbie really helped me assimilate into SL and improved the chances of me staying long term. Good luck to you!

Well I for one am glad I was able to get here as I can't view my transaction history either, so at least I know I am not alone. I have not tried to log on to SL, and since there is all this trouble going on, guess I will go to bed instead. Hope everyone has a good night/day.

It is too bad we don't have a Name & Shame section here. But then, some people would post stuff about people who don't deserve it I suppose. Some have real issues, but some seem to get their panties tied in a bunch at the least little thing! :matte-motes-nerdy: I hope you get your money back or the product you were promised.

I filled out an application last week at a totally different, RL professional website and now I see ads for them on all the SL pages I visit. Now THAT is creepy!

I really hope this is a joke and you are not leaving for real. You truly are the nicest person in the forums and you will be missed greatly if you go. If it is for real, then I wish you much happiness and that all your dreams come true, no matter where you go.

The ADs don't bother me. I understand completely why SL decided to have them...to make money. I would guess the majority of users have free basic accounts and what they make with other things, like fees doesn't make enough to keep them up and running, pay salaries, maintenance and acquisition of upgrades, etc. In any case, any successful business is always looking for opportunities to bring in revenue. I would rather see the ADs than to see SL shut down because they can't bring in enough revenue to make it worth staying open.

I saw an AD for SL at an online magazine site. I wonder how many other places they are advertising and I wonder how well their ads are working. I really hope it is working well for them. :matte-motes-smile:

I voted for BOA cause I am a former customer and I hate them. I stupidly banked with them twice. The first time was from about 1999-2000 and they were constantly messing up with my account and countless others to the point of a class action law suit against them. A few years later, I had moved to another state and they were the only bank I was familiar with, so I decided to give them a try thinking since the law suit they had cleaned up their act. I actually had no problems a couple of years until I decided to close the account and go with another bank that had much better perks. Instead of closing the account, they continued to pay automatic drafts that had also been canceled, including AOL (remember them?) even though I never made another deposit and kept calling and going into the bank to get this account closed once and for all!. It was a mess and was next to impossible to clear everything up. BOA still claims I owe them money which I refuse to pay. They will never see so much as a nickel from me. I am very good at managing money, so when a company messes up my money...well there is no excuse for it. I am just thankful that I don't have a mortgage or car loan with them. I can't imagine what kind of nightmare that must be!

Sounds like a glitch I was having for awhile on my land. Some tenants would show as having hundreds of prims, yet it wasn't impacting the land, and when you actually counted their prims manually, they would have 3, 10, etc. I still get that glitch now and then. When this happens, it is impossible to rely on the prim count in the About Land window. Either count every prim manually or get a good prim counter. Even those can glitch though. I was renting a place in a role play sim for awhile and every time I checked my prim count on the rental box, it would be over 5000. My allowance was for 125 prims and I knew I was under that. I was always afraid all of my items would be returned, but they never were. The land owner never responded to me either when I informed him of what was going on. I wish someone would fix this issue.

Doesn't matter if it says 0. The prims are impacting the land, period. One of my biggest headaches for my rental property are tenants that think they can rez hundreds of prims because their rental box is showing 0. Rental boxes only update every couple of hours or so to reduce lag, so unless you see it in that time frame, it will almost always show 0. If you rez anything at all, just know that it does indeed impact the land no matter what any counters may be showing you. If you share resources with others, using more than your alloted share is unfair to them and can cause problems later. It is nice to think so, but glitches like that are never a good thing. It catches up to you eventually. :matte-motes-smile:

The best day for me is when I got my land, Oct 31, 2011. I was so excited! I had been working with a builder friend and he even took the day off from work to help me put up builds we had been working on, landscaping, etc. We were so proud of ourselves at the end of the day. I never rented anything in that building. Nor in Plan B or C. It wasn't until several months and Plan D that things started renting faster then I could build. THAT was my second best day! I have had a lot of best days! And worst days. But those are stories that don't need to be told. :matte-motes-grin:

Firestorm has a support group you can join. I think you can access it by going to the Help Menu at the top of your screen. They are very active in chat and there is almost always someone on there to help you. They would be the best people to advise you and help you with any problems you are having. Also, SL has been pretty messed up lately for a lot of people, so it may not be Firestorm at all, but if it is, the support group will help you. Good Luck!

Welcome back to SL! There are lots of things to do and explore. If you like roleplay, there are quite a few role play sims. There is Tombstone that is a lot of fun and very active if you enjoy a western theme. There is a role play sim modeled after the movie Avatar (Pandora) that is breathtaking. You can get a visitor tag and explore it and if you decide you would like to participate, they have some free skins and shapes to get you started.There are vampire, werewolves and other creatures of the dark roleplay sims.There are so many different ones and time periods Use Search to find them all. Shopping is a good idea to get a good skin, shape, AO, etc. if you want your avatar to look its best. If you shop in world you can also explore while you shop. For affordable clothing, you can try Grumble. They give away a lot of gift cards, so be sure and slap all of their boards. If you don't know how, I am sure there will be someone to help you. They always have greeters at the landing point. There are tons of other stores and designers so use Search to find them. You can always use the Market Place as well. You are right, auctions you can find good deals, but you have to be a premium member to own the land and pay tier fees every month.You can also look in Search for land sales and find good deals too. The auctions you have to win the bid, but the land sales, you only have to visit the location and right click>About Land (on the ground) to pull up the info and then usually, right click on the land and choose pay if you want it. Again, you have to be premium. You can also have land by paying tier to a land owner. You have all the rights of ownership, but instead of paying LL, you pay them. You don't have to be premium and if you decide you no longer want it, just stop paying as you are really only renting. I suggest you do a lot of research and ask a lot of questions to make sure you understand how both ways work before doing anything as it is all kind of confusing at first. You can always rent a house, apartment, sky box, etc as well. There are lots of places that have rentals, including myself. The prices vary considerably. But that can be a good option as you settle into Second Life and figure out exactly what you want to do. You have a place to open boxes, change, and have friends over for less money than actual ownership. Good luck and have fun in your explorations!

I had a guy friend I took hair shopping and I paid for it. Another one... I flat out told a guy friend he needed to update his hair and took him to the place to get it. He tried on a bunch of demos, and when we found a hair we both liked...HE paid for it! Both were thankful for me being honest with them enough to tell them they needed a new look. :matte-motes-evil-invert:

The best person to go to for help with your issues is the creator that you bought your items from. They are really the only one that can help you with this. Things can mess up and you don't always get what you paid for when they do. Most creators will be happy to re-place items in the event this happens, so drop them a notecard and explain what happened. It would also be helpful if you can give them a copy of the transaction as well from your transaction history. Good luck and welcome back!

When I first came to SL Aug 2011, I was a victim of bling.I found all the freebie stores right away and loaded up on clothes and tons of shoes. Just about every pair had bling. Not one person ever said anything to me and I am sure I annoyed at least some. As time went on, I started noticing most girls didn't have flashing shoes (or jewels) and I eventually found better shoes and clothing. I like the sexy stuff, but it has to have class. Most things I wear is classy, elegant, conservative, etc. I am not ashamed of what I wear, if my family sees it, or anything I do in SL. I think it is a matter of taste and everyone has different taste. Sl can be anything you want it to be and if you don't like what you are seeing or where you are going, find other locations and keep looking until you find the style and look you can be happy with. There are so many good designers in SL of clothing, skins, and shoes that I know you will eventually find the look that is perfect for you...and don't worry about what others are wearing...it is their SL too after all. :matte-motes-big-grin-wink:

Why not ask Linden Lab if they could donate a sim for a week? It would be good PR for them and the worst that can happen is they say no. I wish I could help but I don't have what you need. Good luck to you!

Done! Good luck to you!

If I had to pay out of my own pocket, I would not be able to afford the tier fees. My rentals and furniture store both in-world and the market pay the fees. It really helps that I also get a few donations from time to time. I don't make much of a profit. The only way I could is if my rentals were at 100% most of the time, and I am lucky if they are at 90% most of the time. I am hoping my furniture store becomes more profitable this year. So far the sales are better than last year, so i am making some progress. I believe I will be able to maintain what I have in SL, but I could not afford any more and it all depends on continued occupancy, which I have no reason not to expect. If you build some sort of business and work hard at it, it is reasonable to expect it will eventually be able to pay your teir fees. if all you want is some private place that doesn't make any money for you, then you have no choice but to pay out of your RL pocket. You can always consider downsizing the amount of land you hold as well.

I use a 22 inch. I would love to have another monitor hooked up, but then I would have to get a bigger desk. Great survey!

People that brag about money are usually very insecure and seem to think that having money somehow makes up for the qualities that are lacking in their character. -or- People who brag about money are trying to make you feel bad for not having it and seem to think it makes them the better person, therefore showing their lack of character.

Welcome back!! I heard about Second Life in 2007 when some friends from another site I belonged to for the Sims 2 (we created content for the game) joined and were talking about making real money there. I was intrigued, but when I logged on, I too had trouble navigating my avatar and was immensely intimidated by the whole thing. I had no idea what to do or where to go, and no one came to take me under their wing, so I just felt lost. My friends were so busy with it, they rarely logged on to our site, so I just gave up on it and continued playing and creating for the Sims 2. August of 2011 a friend on Facebook posted stuff about Second Life, so I decided to check it out once again. I watched some tutorials and stuff so maybe that is what made the difference, plus I met some really nice people right away that helped me. I loved exploring and was amazed at the creativity of all the places I visited. I decided I wanted to build something of my own. Oct 31st of 2011 I built a rental business called Melody Star Paradise Village, low cost housing that has grown into a successful enterprise. Soon after that I also opened a furniture store called Un-Needed Things and it has steadily grown. Recently I opened an art gallery and conference center with a friend, Le Beau Trouve'. I don't understand how people get bored with SL either as I stay pretty busy. Even if you are just a consumer, shopping exploring, and attending events alone can keep you busy and I wish I had more time for those things. I hope you continue enjoying Second Life, make good friends and always have fun!

Misfit21 wrote: is it you? sounds interesting enough to meet No, no not me. I stick my foot in my mouth too much and get grumpy when someone speaks too loudly before my first cup of coffee in the morning. I don't have a shining personality and I am far too shy in crowds to make friends easily. I am good at conversation on a one on one basis, but in a crowd I become terrified and everything I know or have learned flies right out of my head. My tongue grows to twice its size and I end up looking like an idiot. I am talking about people that have that magic spark that no one in their right minds can ever say an unkind word about and everyone but ogres like them. :matte-motes-smile:

I think everyone has known someone at one time or another that has that magical spark. They walk into the room and the whole room lights up. Not just for one person in the room, but for everyone there. They always have a ready smile, a thoughtfulness about them that is so deep it is absolutely natural for them. Everyone loves them and loves being around them. They seem to know everyone and treat everyone like they are their best friend. They never seem unhappy and are always positive. Being around them is so wonderful and such a joy, you hate it when they go. Usually you see this or notice this after they have become an adult. I am blessed to have a seven year old in my life whom I knew was special, but thought I may be biased. Last week I went to her open house at school (where you get to see all they have been working on, their class room, and meet with the teacher) and the child seemed to know everyone. Smiles and hugs for everyone! I was in awe of this child, how she seemed to light up the whole school with her presence. It will be interesting to see the kind of person she becomes as she already has an amazing personality. I have a friend that is like this as well. She is so sweet and caring and truly the most personable person I know. She has the best personality and it is always so much fun being with her. I feel it makes me a better person just by knowing her. Who do you know that is like this?

Qwalyphi Korpov wrote: Staralien wrote: in the initial post: "The situation: You are in your apartment sharing an intimate moment with a friend and someone cams into your apartment and takes photos of you and then sends them to a third party." in message 26 of this thread: "I said they had an intimate moment in a PG hot tub (I clarified it was PG in a later post and were cuddling, and should have initially)..." in message 57 of this thread "... The incident this thread is about didn't involve sex in any form what so ever, yet people have made it about sex. .." So please stop complaining about a situation you yourself created. You said a photograph of an intimate moment was shared without any indication that it's PG. This leads people to discuss how it could relate to the TOS because you make your subject "Privacy and TOS." That discussion is focused on sex because the TOS items people associate with privacy mostly are about sex. Now after the fact you clarify what you wanted to discuss initially. Fine. The discussion is already going and you can't have a do-over of the thread by restating your issue. It's not all about you. If I haven't been clear enough: You made it about sex with your vague statement of your issue. I suppose you have never blundered about trying to communicate with the written word and not made yourself clear from the get go? I should have not been in the heat of the moment when I made my intial post, and I should have written the post better and been more clear. My mistake. Thank you for you input.