Amethyst Starlight

I rescaled the test image to 1024 pixels (wide) and again uploaded it to my web profile on my.secondlife.com, and the image is still cropped and then stretched when viewing the profile in the other format (Legacy?). Could it be a conflict between the two profile systems? The pictures are not getting squashed, as you can see from how the brown bands at either side of the test image are removed to show only the blue square in the center. That blue square is then stretched to 4:3 in the other profile system. http://world.secondlife.com/resident/f43cae8e-7fa4-4912-83e2-754c590d3587 I should mention I do not upload profile pictures inworld to my inventory and then make that my profile image. I upload my profile pictures directly to my.secondlife.com by editing my profile. I attached the original profile image I uploaded to my.secondlife so you can compare

I noticed my Second Life profile picture can appear stretched, depending on how I view the profile. To test this, I created a 4:3 aspect ratio picture of a blue square on a brown rectangle. I uploaded this image to my webprofile on my.secondlife.com. The image is cropped to produce a square thumbnail (the blue square). Clicking on the blue square shows the full 4:3 image with the two brown bands at either side. That's fine. That works as expected. The original 4:3 image: The generated 1:1 aspect ratio thumbnail: However, if I view my profile via this link http://world.secondlife.com/resident/f43cae8e-7fa4-4912-83e2-754c590d3587 ... you can see the uploaded image has been cropped to show only the blue square, which has then been stretched to 4:3. The lack of the two brown stripes either side indicates the servers are forcing the cropped square image to 4:3 rather than using the image I actually uploaded. Is this a known issue? Edit: I am unable to upload images to the forum for some strange reason, so I have provided links instead.

Why? Second Life has lots of communities. The adult community is just one. In comparison, I think Second Life is like going to the mall or walking down a shopping street - there's some places that are strictly 'adults' only so I do not enter. Does that mean children and teens should be banned from going to the mall or just going outside too? Of course some try and get in 18+ places - such as bars, etc, but most are caught on the door. I've read some of your other posts, and you seem to hang out in Adult regions and do adult things. That's your choice. That's your Second Life. I choose to avoid those areas. There are a lot activities in Second Life that do not revolve around cyber sex. Not wanting anyone under 18 in Second Life is your opinion. I just have to disagree. I can understand why you wouldn't want under 18s in adult content regions, but there's no reason to ban them from Second Life completely. As already mentioned - most under 18s are not interested in Second Life anyway. I'm probably one of a small percentage that did join and stayed - because I had a reason for joining.

I think this says it all. You sound like a grumpy old man yelling at us kids to get off your lawn... Or maybe you've just been living in a basement all your life. Second Life is not a dating site. You never know who is behind the avatar! I joined Second Life when I was under 18, and I have no interest in online dating or the adult genre. Most under 18s still in second life do not have an interest in that kind of thing. But there's really not many around. Most of my friends have since got bored and left. I was also restricted to General rated regions until I turned 18. And even then, I had to write a support ticket stating that I am now over 18 and would like access to moderate rated regions. I block adult content by choice. Yes, people lie about their age - but that's not just restricted to virtual communities. If any under 18s are taking part in the 'adult' activity, then they're probably yucky boys looking for pixel porn. Yes, this is true. Facebook is for olds. Second Life is for the older-olds. I have to admit I hadn't even heard of Second Life until I saw a video about Fennux on YouTube. I joined Second Life because I was interested in Fennux and 3D art. That gave me a reason to stay. I keep very much to myself on my own land now though, and tend to stick to regions I know and trust. I'm just not interested in most of the other activities that go on in Second Life. If there was no breedable pets like Fennux, I'd probably just leave Second Life too.

Thank you for all your replies and suggestions. I think I will submit an abuse report as the merchant still has not responded, so I can only assume this is some sort of scam. Looks like others have experienced the same balagan too - so I'm not alone. You are probably right in that I should buy gatcha items from inworld bazaars, but I do not always get the chance. I tend to stick to General and some Moderate rated regions, and often these events are not running when I'm on SL. I block adult rated regions and items completely. This is partly because when I first joined Second Life, I was restricted to General regions, and also because I have a 10-11 year old child avatar. So I'm selective on where I hang out, and prefer venturing to regions I know and trust. If I do go exploring, it's to places that suit my interests - such as art, educational and breedable pet regions (I actually joined Second Life after seeing Fennux on YouTube). Marketplace has usually been easier for me because of convenience, and because sometimes the inworld store is on a region I cannot teleport to. (Such as items listed as 'General' on marketplace being on an Adult rated region inworld!). That though is a different subject completely. I like shopping for hair. It's a lot of fun trying out all the demos just to see how I look with that particular style. It also helps me find modern 'child appropriate' hairstyles. Especially with long hair where breast curves are a problem. Styling huds are great for that because I can select the behind shoulder options. And sometimes I stumble upon rare gatcha items of a hairstyle that I MUST have, so I will buy it.

A couple of days ago I purchased a rare Gatcha hair from Marketplace, and unfortunately only received an empty box! I tried contacting the store owner by notecard and as yet they have not replied. I'm trying to give the store the benefit of doubt and assume it was just a mistake, but their lack of response has made me ponder whether this was a deliberate scam. This is the first time I've experienced anything like that, so I was a little surprised. I examined the contacts of the box I received and it is definitely empty. However I did notice the box had been created by a different avatar - which I assume is the same person as the store owner. Messages on their profile indicate I'm not the first to experience this issue. The box is just a wooden cube that anyone can create. The Gatcha item is still listed in their Marketplace store, despite being a no copy one-off rare item. When I've purchased similar limited quantity items before, the item disappears from Marketplace right away. Not so with this one. I've flagged the item, but there's no clarity in what option to select. There's nothing in the drop down menus to indicate what happened, and there's no text box to include additional information. So I just guessed and hoped Linden Labs would look into it. I think it would be great if Linden Labs can include these options in their marketplace flagging system. I chose 'Item Not as Advertised' for the first option, but had to totally guess the second. If this is a deliberate scam by the merchant, they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. Now I will not purchase Gatcha items from Marketplace any more in fear it might happen again. I think others will feel that way too - which is a shame because it ruins things for the vast majority of decent merchants out there. Is there anything else you think I should do?

I have to admit, I told myself I would never change my SL name unless we had 'Starlight' as a last name option. It's like Linden Labs knew my plans, because now it is available. So of course I just had to go ahead! Ironic that Amethyst is also a last name option - seeing as that's my first name. I was previously Amethyst98 Resident!