Rufferta Mainlander

I have a houseboat I got on the second day Bellisseria was open. I enjoy the community there, and I can sail quite a distance from my dock. I do worry that there is a very small contingent of Bellisserians who complain about "those crazy neighbors" on the forums and who may some day decide my sea serpent does not conform to 'community standards'. I also have a small parcel in Ukanipo for my Unofficial Tourist Information Office (which is on a sky platform). Right now I am working on landscaping at ground level. Here my worry is that a lot of the Region is for sale, and I have no idea who my new neighbors will be. I already have more tier expenses than I can really afford, seeing as my RL rent has just gone up, but if I had a significant increase in RL finances I would buy more Mainland.

Corrected map. I will also be replacing the map I had on the Marketplace. Hope there are no more mistakes!

Thanks for the correction.

I don’t know about you, but since teleportation is the usual means of travel in Second Life, I often end up in a location without really knowing whether I am on part of the Mainland or on an isolated private Region. This is a short tour I’ve put together as a bit of introduction to Second Life Geography. It is the Second Life version of “If it is Tuesday, this must be Belgium”. I have tried to find a neutral teleport destination on each continent where you can stop, look around, and move on to the next site. For those who want to spend more time exploring I have added the slurl for the closest Pod Station. I made an updated map of the Mainland showing Bellisseria. Let's start with Corsica: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Paneer/217/62/23 If you have Second Life installed the link will take you to the Explorer's Information Center in Paneer, Corsica. Inside the building you will find a variety of maps and information, including a map of Corsica showing the two main routes - Circuit La Corse, and Route 11. There are Explorer Information Centers on most continents. Another spot to visit in Corsica is http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fishers%20Rest/33/67/23 Fishers Rest, Corsica One Corsica Pod Station is at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Corfeld/247/62/71 - Yavascript Pod Station Gaeta 1 (The Unfinished Continent) Lastness Marina and Lighthouse is at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lastness/215/104/23 from there you can explore the Sandy Beach Trail, or try sailing around the shoreline. There is a Gaeta 1 Pod Station at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Elten/12/149/29 Gaeta V 
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Helfell/208/133/72 - This is a public beach area near an Infohub. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//186/178/48 Heterocera has many roads. This slurl will take you to a spot on the High Mountain Road just below Simple's Zoo. The High Mountain Road is excellent for travelling by horseback. 
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Concinna/23/182/40 - High Mountain Road Calleta Pod Station - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//122/150/43 Jeogeot 
In Jeogeot The Lordshore Bridge spans several regions. There are underwater wrecks and a cave nearby. 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lordshore/65/59/55 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Monowai/8/141/73 Nautilus Magellan crash-landed in Nautilus and his rocket is still there. You can sit in the cockpit and view his first surveillance photos. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nautilus%20-%20Mysehi/109/36/24 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cecil/9/118/60 First Generation Linden Premium Home Continents There are actually four First Generation Linden Premium Home continents. Each continent has Meadowbrook, Tahoe, Shareta Osumai, and Elderglen housing communities and infohubs. In this case we are only going to visit one location on one continent, but it is well worth exploring the rest on your own. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Shareta%20Osumai/138/171/89 There are no pod tours on any of the First or Second Generation Premium Home Continents Sansara may be considered "The Mother Continent". Second Life started with a small cluster of 16 regions near Da Boom on March 13, 2002. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Da%20Boom/159/219/36 This will land you next to Caffe DaBoom. One Sansar Pod Station is at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Durango/154/188/119 Satori has Asian-themed signposts, but a diverse Second Life population. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bagheera/59/125/57 This is the end of Route 8 in Bagheera. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//3/156/24 is the landmark for the Pod Station in Basilisk. The Sharp Continent (Teen Second Life or TSL) used to be the place where teenagers were sent before they were old enough to venture on Mainland. There are many places to visit. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//3/156/24 There is a Pod Station at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//137/147/116 Zindra is away on the right side of the map. Linden Lab started it as a project to create a new continent specifically designed for Adult content. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pengallen%20Bridge/199/242/38 - From here you can take a free sailboat explore the river, head straight back and explore the interior of the power station under Pengallen Bridge, or just walk up to the top of the bridge and look at the statues. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bronlen/36/11/37 I have found most of the residents I've met there to be very friendly and helpful. Bellisseria. This is the "Second Generation" Premium Linden Home Continent. It was first opened to residents in April 2019, and has been steadily adding land and structures. You can get more information at the Bellisseria Citizens Group Headquarters in Arghh or visit the forums. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Arrgh/145/124/27 I hope this post encourages someone to explore the Mainland.

Good estate owners and land barons are valuable, because they provide residents with safe places to live and not everybody wants to live in Bellisseria. I think it would be fair to give them a space to advertise their communities. I envision something like a permanent virtual ComiCon - bottom floor full of booths offering information, and lecture halls where folks like Oxbridge instructor Lindal Kidd could talk about how to actually buy land. Perhaps there could be panel discussions like "Rent or Own?" or "Can You Still Build With Prims?". In the past "Housing festivals" seem to have focused on the buildings to put on the land, not so much how to get a place to call home. To save wear and tear on the instructors and presenters, perhaps some of the lectures could be canned (like Great Courses). Many times I miss scheduled classes in SL because their times conflict with RL priorities. How about individual viewing booths where we could sit down and choose a lecture from a menu? For those classes that require an actual virtual avatar instructor be present an integrated Calendar board could show place and time. Perhaps LL could sponsor a contest for "Best Instructional Video" for such a venue.

ProzacGummyBear's question reminds me that there is a big gap between being spit out of the chute at the current Noob Indoctrination Point, and actually learning to walk around and do things. It seems as if many unofficial residents have teamed up to provide places where people can ask questions and learn basic skills but there is so much to learn...how about Linden Labs gives every new avatar a handbook containing links to the official help pages, the forums, and the different in-world help groups? I am still learning things every day.

About moving the Constellation from the Blake Sea area: My understanding is that several years ago Linden Lab partnered with a Blake Sea group to extend access to the Mainland. http://blakesea.blogspot.com/p/history-of-blake-sea.html - To my mind while this made Mainland accessible to sailors from Blake Sea private estates, it also meant that some Mainland residents had more access to the Blake Sea Region. I would love it if Linden Lab opened a sea route from Bellisseria to the Blake Sea. Perhaps the next Premium Home continent could be put into place between Sansara and Satori - just move some little Void-Ocean-locked private regions over a smidge (they won't notice the difference). Also, for those who are interested, there is a life-size recreation of an independence-class light aircraft carrier, the USS Woodbine, in the Woodbine Region. It is not as large or impressive as the Constellation, but still worth a visit.

One of my alts is in the Pod Riders group and saw the list there. I think you have to be a member to access the notices, but there is no fee to join.

Checking out the new Victorians, I found wonderful forested regions with streams and clear pools. One of the Regions is SSPE375, right above Banebury. I'm wondering if they are going to give it a name?

Last night I was exploring an historic Mole Build, and I saw this huge sign on the edge of an adjoining sim. When I flew closer to see what the sign was protecting a teleport orb gave me a 15-second warning. It made me sad to think how many new residents, exploring the Mainland, had probably run into something like this. I'm used to it by now. When I checked for the owner, and started to add a note on their profile, I saw that I had been stuck on a ban line* on one of his properties in Corsica a few days before - again, the owner was within his rights, but this was in a narrow public sailing channel, and the banline (while on the edge of their property) was a few meters from an obvious property barrier. I did IM suggesting that the owner put up a marker buoy, but I'm not holding my breath for a response. I love the Mainland, and I'm not leaving it, but sometimes I despair... *experienced sailors probably know this, but I found that I could get out of the banline by editing my sailboat and moving away, then restarting it.

1. If you derender the water you will see either the black of the Ocean Void, or the terrain texture for that region. 2. Where the water is cut off at the end of the parcel, it could be either because there isn't anything there, or because the Owner is using an object with an animated water texture that resembles 'real' water. Nothing is real. Also, I have been told that water levels may be different in different regions. "Off sim" objects like rocks and lighthouses often make it look as if the 'real' water extends over the Ocean Void. Sometimes it is very hard to tell.

Abnor wrote somewhere that he made the obelisk because he was sad at some of the ugliness he saw on the Mainland. He said these are 'suggestions' rather than rules. They are free to copy.

Just from personal experience, I have found it helps me to put the name of the Region (some call them 'sims') first when naming a landmark. I then put it in an inventory folder marked "Places I've Visited".

Please let us know. I'd love to know if there are any I've missed.

Welcome to Second Life! I once tried being a Land Baron - buying property, improving it, and renting it out or re-selling it. It was a lot of fun but when I toted everything up I found I was not making any money - just losing it very slowly. I think you have to be a very dedicated person, willing to put in long hours, to make money in real estate. Premium membership, the cost of land, structures, advertising, etc....all factor in. I don't think I could give you any realistic estimates for how much it would cost, but I agree with Prokofy's advice, above. As for making things to sell, you can download blender for free and there are a ton of tutorials out there. Residents seem to always be buying new clothing and accessories. There seems to be a need for people who can create with bento, animations, and baked-on-mesh (BOM). As for making houses - I recently did a survey of houses on the Marketplace and I was surprised at the variety and quality that was available. I even picked up a few freebie houses that were quite well made. If you want to make a living making and selling houses you will be facing stiff competition. BUT - if you learn to work with Blender and animations you will have skills that you can use outside of Second Life. I've read that some people have no trouble learning Blender, while others (like myself) have yet to get beyond making very simple things. Look around inworld and see what people are doing, and look at the Marketplace to see what is selling. Pick up some freebies and see if you can take them apart to see how they are made. Good luck!

Using an off-the-rack avatar is good cover. Can I add a peeve? Major shopping events are full of floating body parts and folks who seem to be strutting around naked. Is there a way to determine whether an avatar is naked by choice or whether it is just my computer?

Another place to find Victorian and earlier furnishings - There is an entire role-play community, Antiquities. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Antiquity Texas/143/48/1555 - This link is to their information center, which offers free antique clothing and accessories, teleports to their different areas, and even information on how to get a free pirate ship! They have a community shop at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Antiquity Texas/85/190/24. Unfortunately several shops that used to be in Antiquity Heights are now gone, but Art of Saint Bruno is still in the Marketplace. I recommend visiting Antiquities. I notice that they have tour guides available, but you could just don some free period clothing and wander around on your own.

Gosh....does that mean that the Moles could be building anywhere on the grid, disguising what they are doing by putting blue platforms overhead?

The original Premium Home Continents were cloned. I think since you could only get 'home' then by teleporting, there wouldn't have been the problem of mistakenly arriving at the wrong place by simply using Map View. Since Bellisseria is accessible by sea or air, cloning the whole of Bellisseria could be a problem for someone who remembers "My home is a houseboat on the upper NE corner". For street-level viewing; however, the way that Bellissereans have individualized their parcels I think makes it impossible that you would find identical homes on different continents. In California there are subdivisions with perhaps seven different home models. It is obvious at first, but after a few years people have customized their places so much that they all look unique.

This is my Convair house on a 4096 in Ukanipo. Most of my stuff is on a sky platform so that the neighbors won't have so much to defender. The chain in the background tethers one of my neighbor's floating islands - one of the really fantastic builds in the area. (This photo shot at mid-range, so you can't see everything). One of my alts has a houseboat in Bellisseria, a beautiful community, but sometimes it is like living in a condominium where members of the Association are all complaining that one of the resident's curtains are the wrong color. Yes, one of my neighbors in Ukanipo has a scenic privacy screen, and another has breedables, but I'm not perfect either* Living on unzoned Mainland can be risky, but I like it. *Yesterday I accidentally deleted the floor of my sky platform. Fortunately no one was injured. I should remember to always wear my parachute when I'm working up there.

I visited the Second Life Exploratorium and found it very interesting, but if the funding body no longer wants to support it and has stopped updating it, it doesn't make sense for us to expect Linden Labs to continue to pay for the electricity. It is not as if when the Second Life Exploratorium is gone, all traces of it will have vanished. There is a real world Exploratorium in San Francisco, and The Science Circle has had seven regions in Open Sim for some time. I would like to save my "Save Our Heritage" outrage for things that are unique to Second Life, for example, the lighthouse mystery at Cape Ekim*, or the Quest for the Prim of Life at Pyri Peaks. *and the Dragon....

One thing to watch out for - I have had property returned in a lump. It will usually be named after something in the lump. In this case "Wall" I took this lump to a sandbox to unpack it and found that it was a skyplatform and build. I took it back piece by piece so that I could find the separate parts, but I still had the 'lump' named "Wall" if I wanted to put it back the same way. At least, now I know what the coalesced object was. Just something to remember if a strange lump shows up in your inventory.

Pyri does seem a bit daunting to look at from that angle, but I would rather the Moles did a little landscaping (plant a few trees?) and preserve the island. I don't think it should be removed because it interferes with a few folks' views. Pyri was here first.

"Void water" looks just like real water. One easy way to tell the difference is to use the 'Advanced' settings and de-render water. (from my article "How Not to Buy Real Estate in Second Life") Don't confuse "water land" with "The Great Nothing". The Mainland Continents are bordered by varying amounts of sailable water. In some areas (Like the Blake Sea) there are many sailing sims, in other area the land may just be cut off at the edge of what I call "The Great Nothing" (others call it "The Void Ocean"). Both sailable water and The Great Nothing are colored blue on the map, so you need to check to make sure. It sure looks like water. With the water derendered On of my pet peeves is that in early days the Linden sold water parcels around continent edges, and the new owners built on these parcels and made it impossible to sail past. Watch out for weasel words in real estate listings like "waterfront" or "water view". True waterfront parcels on 'sailable' waters are usually more expensive than more inland parcels. Although you have more freedom owning Mainland parcels, an option might be to use your Premium membership option to claim a houseboat in Bellisserea.

I recently ordered something on the Marketplace, but when I got the package it had a notecard instructing me to pick up the item at another location - which no longer existed. When I went back to give feedback the listing was no longer there - either LL had removed the listing, or the seller had taken it down. I have hopes of eventually getting the item, since the seller was a respected merchant and her IM's weren't capped yet. Remember, you may leave Second Life for a while, but your listings may stay on the Marketplace for a long time afterwards. You don't want to return to face an angry mob.