Bichin Doobie

Hey, thanks for that timely and uplifting message. I feel less like a jerk now!

All right, that covers DJs and their "hosts". And strip clubs, which I don't visit much any more. At least you could pay for a decent conversation. I'm more interested in crowded live music venues. Often the performer interacts with the crowd more than the host. Yet the performers remind us to "tip the venue, tip your host". Meanwhile the "host" is saying "tip your artist". All roads do a U-turn and head straight back to the "feed all our piggybanks" M.O. Others have told me the same. Don't tip simply because they say hello. I suppose in some cases, these "hosts" have agreed the house gets a percentage of their tips. Which drags me unwillingly into their money extraction process. Or they are "working" for tips only. I keep trying to find the name of the club owner or the land owner so I can tip them directly. Often a futile search. Maybe that explains the scarcity of venue tip jars in such venues. Who would one ask? And could one believe the answer? It will likely be an answer that supports the status quo.

I suppose it IS frowned upon, because I'm not cooperating with this psychological money extraction method. I do understand that SL runs on money. I characterize it as "stealing my fun and selling it back to me". Before, I'd show up at a venue, and IMMEDIATELY get singled out of the crowd--- heaven forbid I should just arrive and blend in . ALL I want to do is a) tip the venue b) tip the artist c) get the stream url into my media player. I observe that once the "host" says hello and I do that knee-jerk tip, I am never spoken to again until NEXT TIME I arrive. Before, after I'd gotten the stream going, I'd leave and come back several times in a row. It's pretty obvious when these "hosts" are watching some "host app" or just reading the chat spam of the visitor counter and responding automatically, often with some canned greeting, a carriage return and my avatar's first name in CAPs . And now we are seeing "greeters", avatars who do the "greeting" for the "host"?? I even saw a "performer host" expecting a tip just for hanging around near the performer. And avatars not working for the venue, arriving with a Host tag above their names. Too many piggy banks to feed. None of the other patrons say anything interesting in local. They try to outdo each other with applause gestures. Therefore it seems to me that playing along with the whole business is agreeing to be manipulated for profit. I do respect the artists, and tip them IF I listen to their stream. I look for Venue Tip Jars (none look the same or are in a predictable locations!). Would we have SL artists performing without venues? We'll probably never know. It's locked in now. Proposal -- Do Away with tip jars. Let the avatars arrive at a venue, give them 5 minutes to decide if they want to stay and listen. Then they can pay a "cover charge", good for a fixed period of time, or they can't continue listening, and get returned to their Home location. All that can be automated via LSL script. No need to have "hosts" at all. Let the performers pay some venue worker for getting their stream set up at the venue.

Just to see what can happen, I've used debug settings to increase my block list limit from the default 1.000 to 7.000 , then to 10,000 and now 12,000. Currently I have 10,000+ objects and agents blocked. I find that it makes my SL much less like a maze full of treat dispensers and random distractions. Looking for some hard upper limit, I read a comment in the SL Wiki about a ceiling of "around 10,000" for the maximum number of entries in the block list. The individual block lists of all users are stored on the server, not in the client app. It would be cool to download a copy of my own block list. Maybe there's a local temp file of it. There is a noticeable delay in accessing said large block list On login, in the People>Blocked window I see (at first) "0 Blocked". About a minute later, my complete list appears. Teleporting to crowded places takes a bit longer as my browser decides how many of them are to be grayed out (muted / blocked).

Thank you for articulating this so well. Anyone who believes "everything's just fine" will always dis(miss | respect) those who disagree. And these pathological "positive thinking only" types...they're a big part of the reason why we find ourselves where we are now. So easy to simply ignore what you can't or won't accept.

I beg to differ. They Power Elite are grinding down individualism and promoting FASCISM 100% Yes, The 1%ers are busily REMOVING all avenues of escape from the enslavement the masses . As well as the notion of "owning" your own life. Your Life is there for THEM to take. I'd say wake up, but it's already TOO LATE. Our Leaders led us HERE! Riding on our backs with a whip in their hand. Of course, they'll be the last to go down the drain but eventually they will. When there are no more worker bees to sustain their power.

I have decided to block all the chat spamming objects and "hosts" with tip jars that I encounter in SL. It's not only a distraction, it's SL's attempt at behavior modification..for profit. Welcome Mats, Visitor Counters, Tip Jars, you name it. If it chat spams, I block it. I also block host people at clubs. They are superfluous. And another dang tip jar to feed. They say hello, I tip them, and they never speak to me after. They're busy watching their "host apps" and sending canned greetings to new arrivals! why? to get that TIP. What a racket. Trouble is, sometimes there is no "venue tip jar". I'm tired of constantly asking WHERE these things are located, since they aren't similar or even obvious. I've decided that if they can't put it in a conspicuous spot, readily identifiable as a Venue Tip Jar, I will simply not tip. My attempt at behavior modification. And then there's all that Applause Spam. Everyone seems to be trying to outdo each other with length and complexity of "their" applause. So I block most people at clubs too. IF anyone said something interesting, it scrolls by too fast to read. I've found that if you tip a blocked host/hostess, they become UNblocked. Another reason to not feed the pig. Also I tip performers in SL directly, NOT using the tip jar. My block list currently 4900+ entries long. I'm gonna see if I can mute 90% of SL.

Hey I figured it out myself! Preferences, General tab. checkbox, send stream title to nearby chat. easy! unchecked it and voila!