SueWorthly

Yup. And if those screenshots are authentic, they are indeed old: they show avatars wearing a very popular adult HUD and the version shown was released in 2016 and updated in 2018 (likely mid 2018). In that case, these images are from 6-8 years ago. Lucia Nightfire wrote about those modified viewers in 2018: "Sadly, illegal tpv's CAN see what HUD's you are wearing and have modal's that list them along with details such as name, desc and attach point with right click options such as export to xml, copy keys or touch." In the same thread, she also wrote of a direct experience: "Someone once ripped one of my prim HUDs in front of me and then proceeded to make fun of it because it wasn't mesh and it had no style. It was one of those clunky combat HUD styles from a decade ago. I still wear it and retrofit it though." So it's indeed possible that the images might be real. Also it's possible that the author of the "article" received the images from someone else. Anyways, those images don't portray the accused people, but random avatars - the author of the "article" was talking about the general situation there - but the presence of this kind of people in SL is not new since at least 2007 (which does NOT mean it's ok, though, it's just not a big revelation). Same thing for the "family friendly" places that aren't exactly that (this doesn't meant they they are all like that, though). Note that if some claims are true, that doesn't necessarily mean that everything else is also true. For example, someone could (1) start with a few "known" things or things that are easy to check - like the marketplace, in this case, or you may have the accused shop in your teleport history and see it was where it's claimed it was - and add other more-or-less plausible elements to gain some credibility; but then (2) they proceeds building a house of cards on top of that and forcing conclusions (this is also how some propaganda works, BTW). Here, with these allegations, a few things appear true, but we "community members" don't have enough info for the rest. I think there are various degrees of confidence for each claim, not absolute confidence that the whole thing is true or, vice-versa, 100% a pile of stuff to dismiss. So I'm glad that the chairman has "initiated a thorough investigation, both internally and with external partners, to review whether or not there have been any violations of our company and community policies by employees, contractors, or community members".

As for the Firestorm Wiki saying 'A “broken” bridge can also affect movement', the bridge ( https://wiki.firestormviewer.org/fs_bridge ) affects your movement with the optional flight assist (it makes you avatar fly faster) and the movement lock (e.g. if trolls tries to push you, they can't). It can also listen for collar commands to turn off the built-in AO, but it don't think it controls or affects the built-in AO animations. Edit: I'd add that once I had a broken bridge, with the movement lock engaged, so I was more or less stuck in place until I recreated the bridge. I think this is what they meant with the "broken" bridge that can affect your movement wrongly.

A pity that they missed Drivers of SL in the video. There was a big announcement in the group. And we just had a wonderful and memorable winter camp in the week-end with two regions full of people. The exhibit was right at the entrance, the one with the blue globe. They only walked past it, heading to Boystown instead. However I see it has the same colors of the background building (blue/cyan and white), so I wonder if Strawberry took it as a sort of decoration? 😅 Anyways, I like the idea of showing some of the possibilities that SL offers. DSL can be pretty fun, it also shows new places and other things in SL. And even if SL it's not as good as a driving sim game, DSL it is one of the most lively things in Second Life, if you do that with the group or with friends (it's fine also by your own). I'm not sure how exactly good it could be for newbies, as the drives can be long and region crossing can still be an issue sometimes, but you get also a reward at the end (often a car).

They use their own map, that is only partially similar to the original map, so if you use a classic skin it won't fit perfectly either. Still your point stands: new skins and makeup are released for EvoX now. And I agree that you can still get the old releases for the not longer supported products (you can still find stuff for the classic avatar here and there), unless you want the new things, take advantage of the current sales or have more availability in general.

That's true. It would be useful to have a similar tool that also checks textures. Once the textures are loaded, they may be fine, but if they are many and large, they take longer to load (i.e. your objects stay gray longer) and use more memory, eventually resulting in blurred textures or crashes.

Another pro is that, unlike many, they are mod 🤩, which opens more customization possibilities.

That's right. To be fair, in the first hours the vendor didn't work that way: if you left-clicked on it, you would get the pay icon and the pay interaction. The vendor was knocked out already, though. Not a big issue for just 1L$, but Emma Krokus was right when she said "I suggest you don't try to get Noelle right now". The region was crowded and at first full and the vendor not working. Later the vendor worked, and in the way you described. 🙂

Another difference is the breast. LaraX maintains a natural shape even when set at 100 and with more gravity.

The blinking technique should help to highlight the differences. I'm using the same shape for both Lara and LaraX. Improved wrists: Hips and groin: Full body comparison. Notice the improved shoulders. Despite the name, Lara and LaraX are different bodies. Tight clothing for Lara won't fit LaraX. However, the feet and the hands remain the same; most of the leg seem the same too, so even the old over-knee boots for Lara are compatible as long as they aren't thigh-high.

That's a good reason. Add to this that Genus Strong, according to Lucia Nightifire's today stats, is only 7.2% of the heads (females and males) and the sum of all the Genus heads is < 10%, while the sum of all the Lelutka heads is definitively more, about 44% (the rest is 13% Catwa and a bunch of various, less popular, brands: Akeruka, Logo, Vista, etc). Still, they aren't few, also Lelutka has an Evo-mode too, that's somewhat compatible with other old skins; but costumers would likely buy skins and makeups for their new heads. Another example is the female Meshbody Classic (that's basically Legacy with a different shape and it's free): according to Lucia's stats, it is the 4th most popular female body, it's not so far from the female Meshbody Legacy, and yet almost nobody makes outfits for it, but few: #1 : Maitreya - Lara : 149834 : 31.3% #2 : Signature - Gianni : 33286 : 6.9% #3 : Belleza - Jake : 26618 : 5.5% #4 : eBODY - Reborn : 24538 : 5.1% #5 : MeshBody - Legacy (Female) : 23408 : 4.9% #6 : MeshBody - Classic (Female) : 18132 : 3.7% #7 : MeshBody - Legacy (Athletic Male) : 16066 : 3.3% #8 : MeshBody - Legacy (Male) : 14530 : 3.0% #9 : Inithium - Kupra : 14053 : 2.9% #10 : LucyBody - Atenea : 12451 : 2.6% #11 : MeshBody - Classic (Male) : 11244 : 2.3% #12 : MeshBody - Legacy Perky : 9492 : 1.9% #13 : Niramyth - Aesthetic Mesh Body : 7515 : 1.5% #14 : Belleza - Freya : 6992 : 1.4% To be fair, though, Lara X for free is going to be delivered to whom purchased Maitreya Lara (as a free "update"), so they aren't necessarily people who only look for freebies.

As for the activities / groups that facilitate a better life for me and those around me, aside for traveling together with friends and sharing the experiences, I've been in meditation places, where I also volunteered for a while. They are usually small communities though, and some of them eventually close down.

It's like Leeward Cruising Club cruises, but topless. Usually, you get a Tom-Tom like HUD that tells you the direction to take to the next way-point. WP to WP, you sail with many other people and boats, until you eventually reach the destination and have a party. In the notices of their group (Topless Cruisers) you can get a notecard with the map, a list of the waypoints and instructions.

I've never seen an official LL event and each year there are only few events (and stores) in SL that celebrate the IWD. My understanding is that the IWD on March 8th isn't so much a thing in the USA, and other countries as well, were a bunch of SL residents come from, but there are countries that celebrate it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women's_Day#Around_the_world As an Italian, I celebrate it every year in SL too, with our traditional mimosa flowers. This year there was a big party also at Artsville, though. I'd like an International Women's Day officially supported by Linden Lab for sure.

I'm not sure if there is art to be fixed. Some item isn't just an item. And with a photo you can just plainly shows something, or it can be art. A SL "photo", too, and your profile picture can be a form of art, if they have a meaning, communicate something or an emotion. Else they simply are just screenshots. My own profile picture isn't a photo-ID or a look at me, for example, but it's the humble attempt to share an emotion and joy that I feel, that probably my fellow aviators and blue skies lovers understands better, immersed inside this amazing virtual world and its freedom, under a serene blue sky. Some computer game can be a form of art, too, and be quite emotionally involving, because of the story (those that have one) or the scenes. Some are also artistic in their own style and gameplay. So art doesn't depends on the medium or the tools. Nor the style from others: after Caravaggio, there have been several caravaggisti, producing art in the style of Caravaggio, and they were absolutely stunning, amazing artists. AI is just another tool, for now. You can quickly produce a not so meaningful pretty postcard, or you can spend hours fine-tuning the prompt until it produces something close to the evocative, artistic idea that you, the artist, have in mind. They are still primitive and messy and they can't even draw hands properly, but you get the idea. Here is something I tried to do:

What vanettda Lassard wrote is true (and I added my like too). I won't call SL exactly a game either (if you have a classic game in mind), but rather a sort of shared lucid-dream. However, I must admit that the definition of game is no longer Super Mario. It has became a lot blurred and games have became something more. Flight Simulator is a game that has no narrative, no programed events that moves the story along and you can play it with other real breathing and feeling people. You enter the world and you ask yourself "where I'm going to fly today?" There is no winning and losing or defeating a boss level. The point of Flight Simulator is you choosing what, where and when to fly. You fly, you enjoy flying. That's it. There are optional mini games inside, though, as there are inside SL. Also a lot of people in SL roleplay, casually or in dedicated regions, sometimes even with a story-teller with a story through events, combat, monsters, zombies, etc. Even Drivers of SL has bot NPCs. Minecraft is used for education as well and educational games do exist (mammals learn by playing, actually). As other people told, there is who uses online games and MMORPGs as hanging out places or as a chat with a game around it. They know they are with other people, that can become friends, sometimes real life friends (or even lovers). SL, however, is a creative platform where you can do, make and create anything. Fun things and serious things. Dress up your avatar and taking pictures in various places, as many do now, can be creative too. You can also visit virtual museums or you can even go to a guided meditation. Other platforms offer similar things too. However, unlike other platforms, when you fly with your airplane in SL, it's not a single isolated space/room/experience: there are also other people sailing beneath you. Or mermaids. And neko girls and furries (you can express yourself in any possible way). And other people doing their own entirely different business. It feels more like a world. And the plane, the boats, the avatars, the virtual dance clubs and almost everything else has been made by other users like you. SL slogan used to be "your world, your imagination". Indeed, it's true the escapism too, which was also mentioned in the old website home page: "Escape to the Internet's largest user-created, 3D virtual world community". And it's also true (aside the aforementioned furry, anime, mermaid avatars, etc) that almost "everyone appears 19 and athletic in SL", like a top model, and maybe with a fabulous villa and a private yacht, or a castle. Because in SL you can dream to be super pretty, still in your 20s; or not disabled; or to be the woman you are, if you are a trans woman (or vice-versa if you are a trans man); or to be among a bunch of people from all over the world, when in real life you live in a small, remote town; and so on. Or even dance in the sky with your airplane as I do sometimes. LOL. Or when there were the lock-downs because of the pandemic, you could still go out in the virtual world with your SL friends, in a beach or the Mt. Everest or in Venice, anywhere. SL can help you feel better in many ways. So, in a way, you can kind of make your dreams "true" and live them in a second life. That's why I say it's a sort of virtual dream that we share it with other people. You can enjoy SL in so many different ways.

Back in 2012 and for a few years thereafter, every mesh outfit you purchased for the classic avatar included an alpha layer. That was the norm. Now I'm seeing alphas being packed again in the new outfit boxes to support Kupra. In 2021 Kupra was the 3rd most popular female body after Maitreya and Legacy. See also Lucia Nightfire's stats: Slink popularity was waning since a while when BOM came out in 2019, only few brands were still supporting Physique (I still use it, though): Maitreya Lara became and remained super dominant in the market and Physique was competing in the same product range. Same happened to Belleza Isis and Venus. Slink Hourglass and Freya, instead, lasted a little longer because they were in a different product range: the curvier bodies. Also SLink still kept the alpha-cuts version available. Considering that and that Kupra bloomed instead, is likely their problem is elsewhere: for Legacy there has been a serious marketing campaign, someone also likes the anatomy of that body better than Slink HG and Legacy has options to wear Maitreya outfits too; Kupra may be liked better if you want a super curvy body, and so on. Then, as new curvy bodies have been made and became more popular, the support for HG has been dropped, same it is happening to Belleza Freya now. It was everything Maitreya, Belleza and SLink for ages. It looks like BOM helped other brands to emerge. Of course everyone is different, with different tastes, nothing is perfect and there are pros and cons. There are many advantages with BOM and alphas that other people covered already. I'm happy to not have to fiddle with the many cuts in the HUDs, nor cuts that cannot be saved in your outfits or to make extra copies of my body as a workaround, or auto-alpha scripts that sometimes fail when you switch to another saved outfit. Another advantage is for creators: with alpha layers you aren't limited to the specific cuts: you can draw the alpha however you like and so make your outfits. More freedom and creativity. The situation isn't the same for every body. #1. If you have a body that is meant to be without alpha cuts since the very beginning (e.g. Kupra) then the clothes for it are made with that in mind: they are either made to fit without alphas or the alpha layer is provided already when you buy the clothing. Unless the provided alpha layer isn't well made, usually you won't have too many issues here. Same if including an alpha layer in the boxes would become the norm again (I'm not counting on it, but it would be nice). But what about those peculiar cases when having alpha cuts would help? You can have them, with this: #2. If you have a body that was meant to use alpha-cuts, then outfits for it were likely made with alpha cuts in mind instead. You can still use alpha layers and mostly forget about alpha-cuts, but you can expect some caveat here. I personally no longer use alpha-cuts and I never uploaded any alpha so far even if I have literally hundreds of outfits, including those meant for alpha-cuts, but: except for a few extra alphas provided by SLink, I had a load of alphas already from the old days - they don't have to be so precise: covering the parts that would glitch is fine, e.g. just the elbows - also my inventory is well organized (e.g. my capri pants are in the pants / capri sub-folder, same for open jackets, etc), so I know where to look at. Else it would be less easy. Still, sometimes it can be a little complicated (e.g. you need to add 2-3 alphas together). When the alpha is provided it's easier, but in general it's pretty doable. There are only a few edge cases that require alpha-cuts, but for those there are the old versions of the bodies. I'd gladly welcome an optional BOM-ready Maitreya Lara without alpha-cuts. I think is the costumer who should decide what's good for themselves, not the merchant to impose anything: if you have all the options available it's better. ~ o ~ As for the alternatives, it's difficult to compete with Maitreya Lara directly, so there isn't so much around AFAIK. However, RuthToo RC3 is somewhat compatible with Maitreya (set the bum size between 28-30 and boobs to 50 for better results, also change the alpha mode to masking). It's free, mod and very lightweight. MP: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/RuthTooRC3-Bakes-On-Mesh-Female-Body/18174055 Inworld: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blumfield/106/167/27 (there are extras there too). There is also a v4, that looks a little more polished, but it's less compatible. It's not the ideal, though, and it's better if you are okay with editing (so you can set the materials too), but I use Ruth sometimes when the outfit is covering enough parts of the body anyway and you would hardly notice that it's not Maitreya. And if the only visible thing is the neck and little more around it, I use just the torso (you can unlink if from the body).

I could be wrong, but more than not wanting because they are this and that, what she wrote sounds like not wanting to be upset / hurt again and again (a "certain behavior" from folks taking "themselves too seriously" and thus being judgemental to you). Therefore not so much about people that judge in general, but rather being you their target. I mean, you say you had Stalinists and Neo-Nazi friends; maybe you don't care whatever they say, drunk or not, or some joke they throw at you. But if you are seriously the target of a Neo-Nazi's toxic or abusive behavior, and they discriminate, harass and blame you just because you are you, they deny your culture or identity, at the same time they want it to sound like you are the baddie, while bragging how great they are, and telling you are trash, a petty, despicable being that shouldn't even exist in first place, and wanting you erased from existence... I'm not sure if that's the relationship everyone wants. Letting alone Stalin, Nazi, narcissists and whatever, it's still pretty understandable wishing better interactions, than someone a bit too full of themselves, always ready to point a finger at you with an arrogant judgemental attitude.

There are several virtual worlds on Steam. The most popular one is VRChat and the reviews are very positive. So they can work on Steam. Second Life was on Steam briefly and you can still see that on the database: https://steamdb.info/app/209930/ However, the plans then "hit some complications and so were put on hold" Second Life can run on potato computers with a 10 years old Intel Graphic card that would die with any modern game, but SL doesn't take so much advantage of modern hardware and most user-made content in SL isn't very optimized, so even with modern hardware you can get low framerates sometimes.

That's right, but while you and others are correctly talking also about the cultural aspect, someone else just put it as a skin color issue, "where to find the white", which also sounds logical, except if you feed a correct logic with insufficient or wrong info, you still get wrong results. I don't believe Alwin does that in bad faith, but note that this is one of those points of confusion that the alt-right uses to exploit and take advantage of, so it's better to be clear about it. Dutch people have in common a language and a culture. It's pretty normal to wish to meet someone coming from your same place and/or people who talk your same language, and thus to have a Dutch (or French or Italian, etc) community. Or a Sudanese, Nigerian, etc. community. Or communities that share the same interest or have to deal with similar issues, like the LGBT+ community. But what if people asked where to find a blond or brunette community? Or... a pale-skin people community? Would they talk about suntan lotions for white people? 😆 There isn't much else in common (wait, and white supremacy communities? Nope, those are neo-nazi communities, not a generic community for people with a pale skin). Thus we end up with suntan lotion, fun, but indeed silly. This is where Alwin would have a point, except... Now you could do the same thing with dark-skin people, and thinking it would make little sense as well, right? After all, their identity comes from several different countries and languages: they would rather ask were to find Ethiopian, Senegalese (or in the US, maybe Afro-American) places, right? Maybe, and note that Raysa did exactly that, explicitly said "African American", not just black. African-American still share an heritage, that's already a point, but even not counting cultures, ethnicity, and ancestry (we are in SL, people come from all over the world), it's not the only one: in predominantly white countries, people with a black skin, whatever they ethnicity, culture and ancestry, they are subject to the same discrimination (not by everyone, of course). Thus it isn't the same thing: asking where you could find places for white folks isn't the same as asking for places for black folks in this case. If you want to make it somewhat comparable, to understand how does it feel, you should at least have a predominantly black country with a small and discriminated white minority (let alone a memory of colonialism, slavery etc.). In SL, too, African-American is a minority. Nothing strange if you want to meet people that live similar experiences and can understand you better.

My country, Italy, is under national-lock down since a while now. Yesterday we had about 800 deaths in a single day, today they report 651. Still a bunch, but after 2 weeks of lock-downs, that sounds like good news, if confirmed, but time will tell. It's neither to panic over it, nor to laugh and think it's just another flu (it is not, hospital beds get filled up way quicker). It's a serious thing and everyone should act responsibly caring for others too. If I was thinking only about myself, I'm not an elderly person, so I shouldn't be too much afraid of it, although I don't want to get sick, badly sick or to end up in ICU: even when it doesn't kill you, viral bronchitis or pneumonia sux. Also it's true that those deaths are mostly elderly people with underlying health conditions - lots of them were in their 80s - but in the past days there were also people in their 40s who died, with no underlying health conditions, like a carabiniere (a military police man), a GP doctor, a supermarket cashier woman... However, I'm afraid. I don't want that my parent catch the virus. They get vaccinated for seasonal flu, but there is no vaccine yet for covid-19 and there won't be one for quite a while. I don't want catch it and to spread it over and contribute to elderly deaths. I don't want that hospitals get even more overwhelmed: the amount of beds in intensive care aren't infinite, then they have to choose who to save and that's terrible. Meanwhile another thing that concerns me seriously is jobs and the economy, of course. That's going to suffer, let alone tourism and all the jobs that revolve around it indirectly... it doesn't look good at all. Yet I prefer that than 200k+ funerals. So I stay at home etc. Second Life helps. Now in real life you can't even walk alone on the beach in winter, as beaches have been locked down as well. In SL I can enter in mouselook / 1st person view and, even if it's virtual, I can immerse myself there and it feels nice, in beaches or other natural places. Events too. I'm not a clubber, but I love amusement and I always loved the events made by "Townies" and others for Christmas, Valentine, Carnevale/Mardi Gras, St. Patrick, Easter... I couldn't go the the last ones in RL this year, so SL helps to feel better.

It would be a win-win if Linden Lab could preserve and promote the finest examples of what's possible in SL. HL is incredible. Not only for the art and the awe inspiring complex and grandiose city, but even on a tech stand point and how it's built: just the ingenious room on the ground level, with its amazing reflections inspired Loki Eliot the past year, when he made his amazing Mirror, and it's a place that I use to point out to show what SL can be (as long as you have advanced lighting enabled). Hagar Liquides can be found under the Sci-Fi category of the Destiantion Guide, but the place could go under Cyber too and other categories. However, not everyone knows about the guide, and not everyone knows about those wondrous places. Moreover, HL is not yet another nice place, it's really an example to point at when you would like to show what it's possible in SL. I know there are the Editor's picks, but those are temporary. I wish Linden Lab could make a "best of SL" category too. Or a 7 wonders committee that could work on promoting the best of SL in this and other ways too. Make big signs inworld featuring these wonders of SL, make tours, whatever. These things should be shown and promoted, as well as shown to who enters in Second Life for the very first time. Let everyone know better about what SL is and what could be done and made here.

To be fair, they gave a free bento hands update a month ago or so, if you had the old "deluxe" body. However, it's likely it's no longer available now: you had to use their shop HUD for a redelivery to get the bento hands, but the old shop HUD no longer works, since it has been replaced by the experience keys. Besides the bosom and the shape, TMP has fitmesh feet that you can resize, unlike almost everyone else. So if they started to sold the updated old body at a low and competitive price, maybe it would have been interesting to someone. But if you have the old deluxe body and you have to spend further 2500 for this update, it's more likely you will spend the same amount to definitively switch to Maitreya. As for the new body, oddly called "Legacy", it has some refinement (yup, even "below"), but as it is, it's not even compatible with the old TMP body clothing. I don't know what the deformer would do, though. Also while the HUD has been improved, the text is quite small and almost unreadable on laptop screens and in some place it's even white on a silver background, which doesn't help. The styles part requires the Media on a prim now (which has pros and cons...) it looks like it's still server side. They surely worked quite a bit on all this, but they can't ignore the competition, especially when they don't have a great reputation already, and at those prices I'm not sure what sales they would expect.

The OP was talking about people that are offended by being even laughed at, after "something "horrible" happened to them inworld" (the OP's example). It's not exactly about disagreeing, and they aren't offended by an emoji, they are offended by what is communicated with it: scorn and laughter at their distressful experiences. Honestly that's pretty understandable. If you attach a laughing sticker on a 9/11 memorial isn't that people are immature and offended by "a freaking damn sticker", but by having their horrible experience ridiculed and labeled with a laugh. Sure, this is just the forum of a virtual world and these are just messages. Yet people inworld can still have bad experiences, suffer and "cry their heart out" writing about them. Isn't that surprising if they aren't happy if you stick a laughing face on those. On the other hand, maybe someone overreacts and there can be misunderstandings too, e.g. someone thinking it was a funny anecdote. Understanding should go in both the ways. But if someone else is insensitive, lacks empathy and puts a laughs on other people's sufferings on purpose, this just shows what kind of person that one is, in front of everyone. I don't think that a moderator has to intervene though, unless perhaps if it's part of a constant harassment or similar circumstances. And I agree that it could be far worse than an emoji reaction. And now folks you can vent out adding your laughing emoji here 😁.