lucagrabacr

It's not only that they're very probably very faraway from each other, but there are many factors too which each multiplies the improbability that two advanced civilization would meet one another; There aren't that many planets which has the capability to support life. Then a life-form on each of said planets need to evolve enough to become an intelligent life-form, intelligence being not always necessary for survival compared to brute strength, so evolution might not always favor this. Then that intelligent, advanced life-form need to create and maintain a civilization which allows for space-faring, interstellar technologies to exist. Then that intelligent, advanced civilization which has the technologies to do interstellar space travel needs to have the desire to do so, or to meet other advanced civilizations, which might not always be the case considering it might actually be an existential threat for an advanced civilization to meet another one. Then their technologies need to be used in a way that don't end up in them destroying themselves, which is even more probable to happen the more advanced your civilization is and technologies are. Then after so long, they will need to still have the will or desire to continue existing after so long, since it's also possible that a civilization or society collectively decided or concluded that life or existence brings more pain than joy and decided to end their own existence. And then there are other factors such as; whether or not such advanced civilization would remain expansive, or maybe they even decided that existing virtually is much more energy-efficient and decided to do so, being able to slow their perception of time millions of times over, allowing them to live a very, very long life or existence in a short amount of time according to our standards - leaving the physical world's needs to maintain their energy source to automatons. Then finally there's time, if such an advanced civilization which has passed the aforementioned "filters" (how futurists like to call them) existed, it's very possible that they might have been long gone or extincted, or is still in the process of becoming an interstellar civilization. So yeah, I agree with the fermi paradox and the great filters theories, but it's much more than just a matter of great distance.

So sometimes ago in a video, Philip Rosedale mentioned how looking back, Second Life could use a bit of gamification. On principle I disagreed, and still do. But thinking of it now, what makes the physical world interesting is the "gamified" nature of it - where people are not gods (think of it, if you have complete control of, can conjure and do anything you want in the physical world like a god, it would get boring pretty fast). Of course the fundamental appeal of "gamification" is a sense of objectives, things to look forward to and achieve. And we as humans in part measure our sense of fulfillment through comparative reasoning, either towards nature or other people - for example, the way most of us live today are many folds better than people who live in the bronze age, but we're probably not that much happier, because we measure our success and sense of fulfillment by comparing the relative state of others and the world through comparative reasoning, while if people who lived in the bronze age see how we live today, they would probably be clueless to how we can be unhappy with everything we have. Think of Minecraft, people who play it feel fulfilled and happy for surviving and building things. In part it's because the base state of the game is "it's the wilderness, if you don't do anything you die of starvation or killed by monsters" - so when they manage to survive and build things that help them survive, it gives them a sense of fulfillment because it's way better than the base or default state, surviving is better than dying and civilization is better than the wilderness. Now, one might think that it's impossible to create such a sense in Second Life that is innate or inherent to Second Life itself (not a game within it), because everyone already can do, become and create anything right? But there are things outside those things, meta elements that people can achieve or excel in and be better at compared to others who might not specialize in those things, in Second Life. Things that are not simply given or granted to you the moment you enter Second Life, that you can do, work towards and be better at. To many Residents these things might simply be things that they can buy - lands, homes, bodies, heads, etc. To creators and business owners these things might be the quality of their creations, the success of their businesses. To people who run a community or an organization these things might be how many people are active in, or join their community, or follow their cause. There are so many of these (which LL themselves have promoted through their videos) so maybe that's why LL probably haven't emphasize these too much in the new user experience, but these are the meat and bread of Second Life so why not put more of them in new user areas so new people can be less confused and "don't know what to do"? So what if new user areas, an element of the UI, or the onboarding welcome experience emphasize these meta aspects with curated examples? Or if not examples (so that there won't appear to be any favoritism), maybe promotional posters or banners? Without gamifying Second Life, we can create or cultivate a first impression environment where people are imbued with the idea and understanding that these things exist, happened, can be achieved and can be done in Second Life. To communicate the sense (and truth) that, "Hey, if you dedicate yourself and put your heart to it, you can achieve or do great things here" - which a lot of Residents know, but most new people don't. As of now, as far as I know, the only thing that does this in new user areas is the "get your own home / land / friends / relationship / things" billboards which are usually coupled with the "click here to buy L$" stand - which are fine and are certainly doing SL a lot of good, otherwise LL would have not put them in those places. I understand that LL probably don't want to overwhelm new users with too much information and I'm sure their reasoning is scientific and solid, but I just think there isn't enough of these. What do you guys think? Is LL too reserved or holding back too much in this regard?

I usually just welcome them c= there were even some trolls once or twice

VRChat and its weird alien cultures, and practices must be stopped from corrupting our civilization.

Look down, look at what we own - the paved ground of our civilization on which we stand, its reflections so grand - of men, his riches and the heavens. But now, look around the world, past the city walls, all the way to the horizon - even common virtues are nowhere to be found, all but lands of vultures. So know that neither the gods nor the common sense of man will judge poorly the character of those who then choose to wield a shield and gladius.

A short tutorial to make hairs cast shadow on your face on Second Life using Firestorm, just like how it would be on Black Dragon c= Especially useful if you have non-brushed-back hairs or have a long bang.

Most things will probably go back to normal but most people, governments and companies will be more ready for a situation like this.

I agree with this

Last night's (or afternoon, depending on where you are) Virtual Shift Chat, where I was talking about Second Life and other virtual worlds that use blockchain and cryptocurrency as their taglines or main selling point, while most people who use virtual worlds don't see those things as a reason to join a virtual world. Was also talking about why a reputation system for a virtual world might sound good on paper, but a bad idea in practice.

I'm definitely sympathetic with how some sim owners might be having a hard time paying their tier during this pandemic, if it had caused them to temporarily lose their job / income. But at the same time, if we go by the numbers, it would make more sense financially for LL to keep the current tier; If they reduce the price by let's say, 50%, then that means sims that are having trouble staying up would last twice as long, but it would still give LL the same amount of money while doubling the operating cost (because they'll stay twice as long for the same amount of money). Maybe LL can have some sort of program where they do an "offline preservation" of sims that can't be paid for by their owners during the pandemic, and restore them once the sim owners can pay for them again, but I don't see them lowering the price / tier for lands.

Have you tried logging in into a different region? Or maybe it's on your ISP's end, my friend had a similar issue and he had to use a VPN, try contacting your ISP. Could also be your firewall but that's unlikely.

I needed that laugh lol, thanks for the thread c=

It is hard, SL appeals to very specific kinds of people. I've been trying to get my gaming friends into SL for years and those who stay are usually the ones who like to build or who can't truly express themselves in the physical world as much as they can in a virtual world (furries)

Let's tell the world guys! \ o /

I've read that a few days ago. Basically both the husband and wife were no longer in love with each other and the breakup was mutual. The "pole dancer" was just a new user / non-regular user who got on the pole for the fun of it, he wasn't a professional pole dancer on SL. The article was very sensationalized out of proportion

Thanks for the response and kind words everyone That is true Marigold, I was talking about the dream of the virtual world in general, but a dream I recently had was actually one of the things that inspired me to post this. I thought it would be too much to post it in the original post, so I didn't, but in the dream I was able to express myself in the physical world as much as I could in the virtual world, and I was able to really connect with my grandmother, being with her while showing how I really am inside without the usual facade caused by the limitations of the physical world. I'm not bitter about how I am in the physical world, but it was really nice to be able to feel that I'm truly connecting with a figure who's very dear to me. When I woke up, it reinforces my belief in how important the thing I do and fight for truly is for me - the ability for one to truly express themselves without any limitations, and my lingering doubts just went away with the clarity.

Nep Faulkes of ToppMart and me were casually talking about the ToppMart community, the younger people in Second Life and why they use Second Life instead of other virtual worlds or social 3D platforms like VRChat. Nep joined Second Life when she was 12-13 before getting banned for being underage and getting back as an adult, then also got her old account unbanned. ToppMart is a very active anime / gaming community within Second Life. Didn't realize my voice was THAT bassy when I was doing the livestream until after I watched the replay, so I might be harder to hear but Nep was pretty clear. There were some F words and Nep was generally unfiltered in how she voiced her opinions about things, so just a heads up if that's something that might put you off, but she's a nice person overall and didn't mean any harm Timestamps: 0:00 - Has the stream started already? 0:58 - Actual Start & Intro 1:52 - About ToppMart 2:42 - The People of ToppMart 3:40 - Do you guys play games together other than SL? 5:20 - Are you guys friends before ToppMart? 6:12 - How did the sim or community get started? 8:10 - I think you need to make ToppMart an educational sim for it to be eligible for that (bailout/discount) 8:49 - Do you think it's important for Second Life to appeal to the younger audience? (18-30y/os) 11:16 - I was talking about people like 18 years old when I said younger 12:36 - What thing? (that you guys get into, she was talking about GTFO) 14:30 - Do the GTFO people still go to your sim? 15:30 - Why do you think the younger people of SL use SL instead of like VRChat, for example? 17:33 - How long has Toppmart been around (for) now? 17:46 - Do you guys have any plan to expand the place? 18:40 - How big is Toppmart right now? As in the land size 19:16 - Have you guys ever think of like applying to be in the Second Life destinations guide? 21:51 - Wait, was that a cough? 22:32 - He (James Wagner of NWN) basically says the main problem with Second Life is the new user experience, do you agree with that? 24:51 - So how was your new user experience when you first joined Second Life? 29:07 - So, we're almost done with stream right now, do you want to tell people where ToppMart is? Virtual Shift Project is a community initiative to show to people out there, especially younger people, the Second Life of today. Virtual Shift Project website: https://virtualshift.net ToppMart SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Onatopp/148/34/46

We dream, hope, of things that we know are true. Things that we know drive us, things that just feel right without a single trace of doubt. Yet we fear, afraid that we might fail, afraid to be made fun of, to not be understood and seen differently from how we see ourselves, afraid of the pain. So we became afraid of our very own hopes and dreams. They became things that we know and measure, we wake up knowing almost exactly what to do, what's gonna happen and all of today's possibilities. We know them but we're scared to be one with them, I'm scared too. But the dream refuse to stay away. Whenever I hide behind what I think is reason, it shatters that illusion and show me that it's just my fears. Because the dream is true and kind.

Oo that would be interesting to watch because of the mention of Second Life and Neil de Grasse Tyson. How I see it personally, theoretically it's more probable that our universe is a simulation because it's possible, but sentience is sentience and meaning, and purpose remain subjective constructs of their beholders so whether or not our universe is a computer simulation, is a trivial matter imo c= but of course it would be nice to figure out the nature of our universe just for the sake of it

On 4096m2 you'll get 1400 prims and on 8196m2 you'll get 2800 prims, if you donate your land tier to a group you own and use it as your land group you'll get 10% bonus tier

@Draxtor Despres just helped LL with recording some sample conference venues for businesses / organizations to see and use, actually. They can be seen on this page; https://www.connect.secondlife.com/explore I know because I was going to be in one of them as an extra but couldn't keep myself awake due to the timing and sudden notice, and fell asleep waiting 🤦‍♀️ The business venue samples look really nice too! The ampitheater is obviously from LL's Townhall Meetings, the Horizon from the Horizon sims and the Lodge is from one of the public spots on Bellisseria (afaik, not sure if it has been used somewhere else) Edit: But yeah, would be nice to see them have a special login that directs them directly to those venues

Most of my good friends are people I met on SL and games because people are more of themselves when they don't have to bear the expected pretenses of the physical world c=

There are decent hospital and clinic buildings on the marketplace (https://marketplace.secondlife.com), if they have a demo you can see and check if they fit your needs. You can also repurpose other buildings which might have the necessary amount of rooms and use them as a hospital / clinic. Of course you can also make those yourself if you have the resource to do it. I'm not sure if the tools you mentioned are required for decorative / instructional purposes only or not, but if they aren't (as in if they need to work like the real things), then you'd also need a scripter to script the codes necessary for them to run the way you want them to run. And yeah for regions you can check the link Whirly posted or contact LL to see if you're eligible for the discount or not as she mentioned.

A summary and tips on how to get the best performance for Second Life with the least PC building / upgrade budget in 2020, also a suggestion of what parts to get to build / buy the best budget PC for Second Life that can run it in Ultra settings with a decent performance. Thought I should make this video in the theme and spirit of showing the more modern side or aspects of SL c=

I have, but whatever mean things people say to me is their prerogative and I take them as such. I often find that when people are being excessively mean without the intention of trolling, they do that to deal with their insecurities for whatever reason, and sometimes when we don't take the mean things they say to heart and just treat it like a normal social situation they'll start to open up and we'll see the person behind the mean words The best way to get over people's mean words is to not let them affect you, if you have low tolerance to insults you can block or mute them but learning how to not let them affect you in the first place is the best thing you can do.