Rufferta Mainlander

I am standing in a Hole in the Sea. Holocluck Henly, in one of the excellent notecards he is handing out at SL18B (Incredible) says it is a plug that has been pulled out of the bottom of the sea. I think it is a magical vortex that is shifting water to other parts of Second Life (perhaps that's why water levels are different in different regions?) Since he refers to "one of the plugs" perhaps there is another? I'll go look. Where was I?

This is in Galgano, in an underwater canyon near a rezz zone. (151,100,32) While you are in the area, if you fly south to Imona, a disturbance on the water will show you the location of a Hydrothermal Brine Pool. I'm trying to persuade the Cthumoleator of the benefits of being a vegetarian. I'm thinking "He's not so big!" and then realizing that what I'm looking at is just the head - the rest of him is underground.. I think I have an urgent appointment somewhere else.....

Check out the exhibits at SL18B. I've already collected a ton of new landmarks!

You are right - I goofed. Since you guessed it, why not submit something on the Mainland (I'll do better next time...).

I went and looked at two different Belli trees and yes, they were made of from 25 to 30 prims and had high download rates. In contrast, I'm looking at Cypress Tree 1 from the Library and it has 1 prim land impact and download weight of 0.1. * Perhaps there could be some compromise. I believe that outside plants are as important to a home as the furniture inside. Why have a 'Homes & Gardens' interior when your outside looks like the landscaper hasn't shown up yet? *Using it as background filler and also because it matches the trees next door.

Result of unofficial survey of abandoned land. Spent about an hour* jumping from one continent to another looking for abandoned land and trying to figure out if there was a common denominator. I checked at least one plot on each Mainland Continent - there were none on Zindra that I could find. Size of abandoned parcels - Parcels were mostly large - 9072 to 65536. Some were odd-shaped, but most were more-or-less regular-shaped. Date of abandonment: Many of them state abandonment dates in 2021. I found one abandoned in 2017. Road access: Four. View: Two. Water access: None Terrain: One smooth light green sand, two rock, one snow, one 'rumpled' green, rest relatively smooth green. (I took a quick glance at the rock in Corsica and there seemed to be more but I didn't want to spend more time - perhaps some Continents have more abandons than others?) Lag - two had minor lag. All had sky junk, from 200 meters on up. Most had at least one ugly neighbor with large black or full-bright build or ban lines. I had not expected that so many would be on roads. I also wasn't expecting the fact that there were large parcels of Maintenance Land that seem to have been set aside since 2004. One had a 'forest' of system trees. I don't know what conclusion to make. It bothered me that many of the largest parcels seem to have been abandoned fairly recently - but I'm also wondering if those dates were changed somehow when the maps were fixed. Definitely having ugly neighbors and skyjunk visible were factors, but there are large stretches of Mainland with the same blight that have not been abandoned. Wonder if Linden Lab could do 'exit interviews' to ask people why they are leaving. *So you know this is an in-depth survey.

This is a chapel high in an incredible recreation of a World Heritage site. The original is off the coast of France. The build was made by Moeka Kohime, a graphic designer from Japan. Where am I?

This is Tuulikki in the Coastal Waterway -

Capital expenditures (CAPEX) are major purchases a company makes that are designed to be used over the long term. Operating expenses (OPEX) are the day-to-day expenses a company incurs to keep its business operational.

Underwater?

I have no problem with "the more you own, the less you pay per unit." Landlords need to make a living, and communities that build in landscaping and other amenities are good things. I am concerned that Bellisseria is sucking residents away from the Mainland, where it is sometimes very difficult to find an affordable 1024 next to a road, in a nice community, etc....I would like to see what would happen if the Lindens took one of those big abandoned pieces of land and split it into 1024 plots with "Protected Land" roads and easements. If I win the lottery, I might try doing something like that myself, just for an experiment - only I'd have to pay tier for the roads and easements.... (Just dreaming).

My alts and I (we) have lived in every different type of home in Bellisseria and they were all lovely. I think my favorite was a houseboat on the end of the row with a small adjoining beach and a view of a lighthouse. I loved sitting there and watching other residents sail by. I think my alt had that place for over a year. Now only one of 'us' has a place - a nice Victorian backing on a park - but I know I will get restless and will probably move on soon and let someone else enjoy it. Today I took the "hobo locomotive' for a long ride, and it was wonderful passing through different districts and seeing the landscaping. Bellisseria is huge, and I never got the feeling that I was seeing a repeat of a previous area. I hope we can all find our 'pefect home.' Added below photo from 2019 - wish I had taken a better picture.

I would like to have a graduated tier system but keeping the 'more you own the less you pay per sq meter - the fact that sometimes adding a 512 to your parcel means your tier is increased disproportionately can keep you from buying more land. Also, I believe that the way tier is now calculated may be responsible for all the little odd parcels created when someone figures out "OK, if I dump a 512, my tier will go down to the next level." I also wish it was easier to figure out the 'alt donates tier to the group' discount thing, but that's just me.

Didn't want to leave this hanging. This mine is in Owens Beach, near Bay City. There are quite a few interesting builds in the area, including a unique railway bridge.

That is really nice. I don't suppose they would let me do that to my place in Belli?

Thank you posters, for all the great information. I would like to add one suggestion - LOCK the platform when it is in place.

I am in an underwater mine looking at something labelled 'prim ore'. This is from a 2011 project by Mouldy Mole that apparently was never completed. (From Adamburp's list).

I've heard many references to "Logland" - the log home area, but are there also names for the other types of homes like Stilthouses, Modern, Victorian, Campers, Houseboats, Chalets?

This is in Cerrado - 62/215/23 - Part of the Sailors Cove South group. Now I remember that Yukiko led a tour through the nearby Rainforest Reserve in Cooper Creek Wilderness. A very nice area, and the group has made certain parts of the area public access. I think I was blocking the memory because it was during this tour I paddled a kayak up a tree and then got lost in a cave*. *The tour guide tried repeatedly to send me a teleport to join the group, but I was too panicked to pay attention.

I'm sure I've been there, but darned if I can find it.

Random comments. Improving the newcomer experience. I was at an Infohub yesterday - it was in a courtyard in an impressive but otherwise empty building complex. There were the usual 'get Lindens/Information' kiosks but there was another kiosk directing newcomers to the '2009 Avi Choice Awards site', another kiosk 'Hot Spots in Second Life' that was broken, and one directed to what looked like Torley's videos but which sent you to something entirely different. There was a nice castle build on one side with cannons that could shoot cannonballs down into the Courtyard ("Take that! Welcome to Second Life!") If you could figure your way out of the Infohub there was a nice beach area nearby, but otherwise not much of interest. If I ran Second Life I would have put up clear signage to the beach and given everyone a driveable car so they could explore the roads, or a boat so they could sail along the coast for a bit. I recently read Mona Eberhardt's "Interpreting SL's 2020 Metrics" and watched the imbedded parts of Torulf Jenstrom's presentation on monetizing in-app-purchases for game makers, and I concluded that Second Life is more of a landlord than a game operator. New Users: I have been impressed by how educators are using virtual reality as a learning tool and hope Linden Lab will continue to offer educator discounts. Second Life is also a great resource for those of us who are unable to travel in RL, but most of my contemporaries don't have computers that can access it. Newcomer experience: One of the things I enjoy in Minecraft is building things - it would be nice if the new user experience in Second Life had some way of letting newcomers build a few things (Maybe it does, I haven't rolled up a new avatar since MyLastAlt).

I always enjoy visiting Raglan Shire for their Annual Art Walk, and this year it was even better. There are many activities, and lots of art - so much art, in fact, that the best way to see the drawings and paintings is to hop on one of the cute Hedgepillars for a free tour. There are statues and interactive art in other regions, and at one point I accidentally clicked on "ride to the tower' and was given wings to fly there!

I'm sorry I started this thread. I was just curious about the orange clouds, and apparently they DO have something to do with Gaming of Homes*, but there is no way to be sure that any of the lucky new settlers were actually involved. Yes, I suspect at least one, because her cloud-profile and resident-profile are very similar, but that's not proof. To be a bit pedantic, from Wikipedia "Post hoc ergo propter hoc (Latin: 'after this, therefore because of this') is an informal fallacy that states: "Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X." It is often shortened simply to post hoc fallacy." Just because our new neighbors arrived after orange clouds, doesn't mean any of them were orange clouds or cheated in other ways. Please give them the benefit of the doubt before we tar and feather them. *Actually, at first I thought they were just code-farts.

Underwater, near previously-mentioned sites, segments of a green-brick road lead to a sunken telehub. Along the road are at least 13 corroded go-carts, many of them driven by Pumpkin Tripsa's 'Strange Statues'. Where am I?