Rufferta

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.

In Inara Pey's blog post of March 15th, on Linden Homes, she indicates that as occupancy in the new Linden Homes goes up, the old Linden Homes (and the continents they are on) will be removed, and those who are still in the old Linden Homes will be encouraged to move (I hope before they remove the continents). I'm wondering if people who are currently occupying the old Linden Homes will be given priority for the new Linden Homes? I'm also worried that some of the nicer features of the old Linden Homes Communities might not be retained or transferred (things like the lovely Stone Dragon, or The Temple to the Mole Gods).

I I believe part of the blame here is that in some places LL sold parcels right up to the edge of The Void Ocean (the Great Nothing). Real Estate agents took advantage of this, and put faux land on it and advertised it as having "unobstructed ocean view". I have hopes that LL may be adding water passage around some of those clogs.

I had an idea. How about Second Life take some of the abandoned sims on Mainland, hire ChinRey to landscape them and put roads on them, and then put some of the 'Linden Homes for Premium Members' on them? They would have to leave 'wildlife corridors' and such in place, but I'm sure it would improve the Mainland. I'm no techy, I'm sure there must be numerous reasons why the Lindens have to put their Premium suburbs on big pieces of separate land or they would have thought of this themselves already, but I thought I'd mention it.

I realize this is probably passive-aggressive behavior, but if I'm ejected by a security orb in less than ten seconds, I just add the name of the owner to my 'block' lists. I have a pathetic hope that one day one of these owners will try to walk across my lawn (otherwise left public) and get blocked. I used to send polite notes like 'hey, did you know your security orb has a trigger finger?' but that didn't seem to change behavior. I never intentionally try to enter private space, usually I get zapped when I'm exploring Mainland and click to teleport on what I think is public land. Last time this happened was when I tried to land on a road outside of a property I had sold, wanting to see what had been done with it. I was instantly ejected, so I have no idea how far off the target I landed. I think I'll add a note to my property descriptions "If you've been blocked from entering this space, it's because you have a security orb which zaps without warning."

I remember chatting with a male avatar and then noticed on his profile an entry "Women I have had."

My first house, in Green. It was just a half-cylinder with walls at each end. I couldn't figure out how to make the door work so I made the walls walk-through. I was so proud of it.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Demorgan/239/149/51 Turns out that in my haste to put Tourist Information Centers on every Second Life Continent I ended up with two parcels on Route 7 in Corsica. This one is on the road, catty-cornered from a Pod Depot.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Tethys/160/125/87 I bought more land in another sim to consolidate parcels to make them easier to manage. This parcel is an isolated one I had a lot of fun landscaping but never had time to perfect. I left objects in place to give prospective buyers an idea of what might work (and what doesn't work). I think I would skip the waterfalls if I did it again. Never did figure out how to make the zipline run uphill.... Road and pod route at top of slope. Pod route also runs through the rapids. i've also seen SLGI vehicles pass overhead. Land has steep slope down to the river with a view of the rapids and Enceledus sim across the way. The river rapids are not really navigatable, but downriver there is a place you can get a free innertube. Public Land Preserve parcels across the way. Some of my neighbors had political signs out but I permanently derendered them so don't know if they are still there.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gumtree/187/3/25 - This is an odd-shaped parcel. I can cut off the "tail" to make it only 512 for 1536 if you prefer. As stated, this is on a pod route, and Squall Beach (a Magellan crash site) is next door. Helfell Infohub and Fuerte de San Phillipe are one sim over, although I confess that many newbies do not seem to find their way out of the infohub. I had a tourist information office here, but I am moving it across the road so that I could offer water access.

I read the article, and watched the video, but it is not clear if these new parcels are zoned "Residential Only". I checked Auction Parcel #5 and there is no covenant. Does anyone know? I know that the "Linden suburbs" are "resident only" but places like Nautilus also seem to have commercial builds. Does anyone know if I could put up a "Tourist Information Office" up in the new area?

I like the new residential areas, but I'm glad to hear that you can put up your own house if you don't like what is already there. The roads are nice, and the fact that the residential area surrounds a quest area may draw more customers. I'll be interested to see how the auctions go.

I've seen some nice 512's come up for auction - become a Premium member and if you buy a yearly membership with automatic renewals you will never have to check in again. You would have to pay for the 512, of course, but after that you would not have monthly tier payments and you could build exactly what you want!

Thank you, Nicci Pond and Prokofy Neva, for your replies. I guess I had better put that notecard in the "Ancient History" section along with things like "Last Names."

Inspired by Ferd Frederix's "How to Find and Get Linden Bears in Second Life" on www.outworldz.com I followed his clues. I got Nichol Linden's prototype bear at the corner office in Linden Estate Services. I found the Lottie, Elle, and Concierge Linden Bears in the 1-World Village in Meiji West. I found the Scottie Bear by Lynx Linden in Pooley. I followed the clues from the white bear on the railing of Simon Linden's house in Denby and got a Simon Linden Bear (eventually). Having run out of Ferd's clues I kept looking. I found bears from Kelly, Kyle, Dakota, Alexa and Brooke Linden on the Marketplace. In Rizal I played a "Claw" game and got a stuffed Mole toy and a shoulder teddy, and then at Pyri I clicked on some of the game booths and got a Pyri Bear/Mermaid but after that I ran out of places to look. For example, one blog said that Harmony Linden had set out a bear on her parcel in Linden Village but I couldnt find the parcel. There don't seem to be very many Lindens inworld at all, in fact. I pulled up search and put in %Linden and profile after profile was completely blank - no profile picture, no picks, nada. I think it was one of the few full profiles that said "If you want my bear, look on the Marketplace." I guess they get tired of getting IM's saying "send me a bear". Anyone have any information about any Linden Bears that might be available without having to trespass or IM? I'm looking for information for a short notecard tour for my Tourist Information Office. The notecard will also include a short paragraph on "How to Identify a Linden Inworld". (My understanding is that they will be called _________Linden, their profile will say "Linden Lab Employee" and their chat text will be blue...any other clues?) Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

I sent a notecard with some landmarks that can be used within Second Life. I was going to paste them here, but it didn't work! 1.Skiiing/snowboarding/ice skating - The area around Chalet Linden has some free snow sports. You can also visit Chamonix City. 2.motorbiking - see notecard 3.biking in forests: I'm not familiar with the area another forumite referenced, but - in Rizal, in a shop named "Bikes" you can get a free bike and helmet and bike across the bridge towards Perry through a small wooded area. There are many interesting sims around, including the community of Luskwood around Lusk, places to explore near Ahern welcome area, and further south there are many sims set up for vehicle testing. 4.kayaking,canoing - on Kenosaki in the Coastal Waterway you can get a free kayak. 5.cafes/restaurants - the Juice Bar in Brownlee is just one of many places 6.bike/skate parks - there is an iceskating rink in Neverland - one of many 7.car racing - look in the area south of Rizal to see the large vehicle testing area. Also, in Natoma, near the Ivory Tower of Primitives, there is a vehicle track. 8.state parks - I've mentioned the Virtual Land Preserve, but there are many beautiful parks and scenic areas in Second Life like the Second Life Botanical Park. 9.zip lining - - the zip line is only one of many wonderful options in Whimsy.