[Is this new round of mentors a good idea?]

Back in the day I was a mentor (on another avatar though) and I spent hours on the old help islands and new resident tutorials that existed then. In those days believe it or not things were easier as you did not have to worry about mesh bodies or even clothing attachments beyond shoes really. However it still was really confusing for a new resident.

Wind on almost two decades and the confusion that a new resident has when they appear in world for the first time must be huge. They have no comprehension of what mesh bodies mean let alone are. An animation overrider sounds like something you want to avoid instead of want.

My first steps in SL were on that introductory island and I spent days there before I ventured into the worlds outside. I tried to learn the basics before anything else - like the old adage "learn to walk before you try to run".

This new program will be much more complicated than the previous one as the complexity of SL has increased so much. However the tools and support routes have also increased and that will help a lot.

Will it be perfect? I have no idea but if it helps people to be less confused, feel as if someone is there to help them if needed then that can only be a good thing. That will result in people staying longer - trying that little but more to overcome the obstacles that they had and maybe they discover that SL is a place that they can actually put down some roots and enjoy.

[Calling this a Forum, is like Calling the Local Morning News Program, News]

The forums are great for feedback both positive and negative.

The problem is that many people have not yet grasped the concept of constructive criticism.

[How Many Avatars are associated with my Main character?]

There are no alts and there are no mains - there are only accounts. Accounts are not linked to other accounts in any way apart from in our own heads.

[I can't change my Membership or Upgrade to Premium to get land!]

Firstly if you are using any adblockers try disabling them for the membership change process. You might also wish to disable any VPN you might have active during the same process.

If you do not have any adblockers or VPN running then I'd suggest trying an alternative browser.

If that does not work then try posting the precise step by step process you are following so people are aware at what point you are getting the error message.

[Profile 1st life & 2nd life tabs]

Profiles that are cut off mid sentence are a result of the profile posters not bothering to look at their own profile after they updated it.

Web profiles are gone - whilst they can still be viewed on the web there is no ability to edit or update them from the web interface now.

[And yet another set of last names and yet again not really for general use.]

24 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I would really like the ability to switch between previously purchased names with no charge or penalty.

^^^^^^ This is a great idea!  When you pay for a name it gets assigned to your AV. There should be a way to get that name back without having to pay for another name change (as we all know it really does not cost that much cause it's all automated). In order to avoid abuse only allow a "reversion name change" each seven days just like display names.

[Second Life Barbie People - Opportunity To Show Second Life Spirit and Become A Barbie or Ken!]

Not sure this AI thing is accurate  

 

 

[Anything to limit number of avatars at one time on land?]

Avatar limits are set at sim level not parcel level - the estate manager can set the maximum number of avatars permitted on the sim.

Parcels have no way to limit the number of avatars on them as far as I am aware.

This is always as issue for "popular" venues as they end up hogging all the resources and other parcel renters are either unable to access their rental or suffer from extreme sim lag as a result.

You could consider renting a homestead sim.

[New Feature: Scripted Agent Estate Access Discussion]

Parcel level tools for bot access will not work.

A scripted agent simply needs to be anywhere on the sim to perform the tasks it does so someone having the ability to deny scripted agent access to their parcel on that sim will not deny said scripted agent from gathering data on every item and person in their parcel.

Granted it can be used to prevent them from accessing the parcel itself but it will not stop their - other - activities.

This is a huge issue for anyone who owns land on the mainland. Many want the same privacy as has been made available to those on private islands and linden homes but many businesses based on the mainland use bots and should not be punished.

I do not foresee scripted agents being banned from the mainland unless LL gives notice of that happening and relocates established businesses who use scripted agents (greeter bots, models etc.) to alternative scripted agent friendly locations at no additional cost to the customer.

[First Linden Home after all those years]

The current Linden homes are worlds apart from the original offerings. Don't get me wrong the original Linden homes were great - at the time. They became very dated in style and layout (the word ghetto has been used) as mesh buildings appeared and private land owners deigned community housing layouts with streets etc. LL took their merry time before releasing the new homes but that shows they payed attention. They did a great job - and continue to do so.

Like you I await details on the mythical 2048 linden home - I am also hoping that it will not be some giant building as some of us like the outside land more that the inside building. Personally I'd love a 2048 plot with an option of buildings the size of the 512 Newbrooke offerings.

[Unnecessarily scary message from SL]

Back in the old days everyone in the group got sent a message when someone was ejected from the group - thank god that does not happen now!

[Viewer & Mac M1 / M2 CPUs]

I can only give my own experience. I used to use a Mac Pro (trashcan) with 1GB SDD, 16GB RAM and two GPU's. SL ran ok as far as I was aware - it got lower FPS in crowded places but that's SL for you.

As the Mac Pro was relegated to not being worthy of the update to Ventura I decided it was time for an "upgrade" - though my personal financial situation is far from what it was when I could afford a Mac Pro.

I got a Mac mini M1 with 8GB Ram and to be honest it handles SL far better than the Mac Pro did. There are still issues with low fps in busy places but that is never going to go away.

If you are considering taking the plunge it may be worthwhile waiting a little bit. I suspect that the prices are going to come down with newer hardware releases so you might be able to get an M2 later on for quite a bit less.

[Why is PIOF for parcel/region entry a thing?]

Payment info on file restrictions were greatly needed in the early days when the majority of them were (in my experience) griefers (and we are talking about the really early days here).

It is of course the land owners right to restrict entry to whomever they wish but like many I agree that restricting entry on such an arbitrary thing is akin to orbs teleporting home avatars under the age of 30 days from stores (loss of sales) or upon height.

Removing a landowners control over who can (or cannot) access their land is never going to go down well with said landowners and they are the ones who pay the big $$$ 

[Sharing links with alts.]

SL accounts are not linked. It's not like an mmorpg where you can have multiple characters and a shared bank or storage. One SL characters purchases cannot be shared with another SL account (unless they are copy & transfer enabled).

Items in SL can be "shared" by sending them to other characters via right click and share (though the object needs to be the correct permissions to allow this).

If it is place locations you want to share the best idea would be to use something like a text editor and simply copy the SLURL to that and save the file somewhere on your computer.

 

[I need 3 restarts until SecondLifeViewer works properly]

First of all - stop clearing the cache as it needs to build up for a reason (that's why after the restart you see no textures and it just takes longer to do things). Clearing cache should be a last resort not a first resort.

Log in to low lag "safe" area like http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hippo Hollow/128/128/2

Wait for inventory, the world and people to load before you try doing anything.

If this happens each time then you need to review what your avatar has attached to their body or HUDs as that may be causing an issue (some worn scripted objects can cause issues at logon). Try removing any HUDs and other scripted wearables you have on and see if that resolves the issue. If it does then add a scripted object - relog - see if there are issues. Through a process of elimination you may work out which item is the culprit.

If removing scripted items does not resolve then you should raise a support ticket with LL if you are using the official LL viewer of with the support team for the 3rd party viewer (as appropriate).

[Crashing only in one sim]

As a test try using the official LL viewer and see if it also crashes with the same error. If so then raise a JIRA with LL. If the LL viewer does not crash then the issue will be (probably) with FS and rase a JIRA with them.

Also, if you are not needing to use in world media on a prim try disabling that and see if it stops you crashing.

((many people think that clearing your cache will solve all sorts of problems - they are mostly wrong))

[Scripts Won't Load, Nothing Works]

Could be useful to post the details of the viewer that you are using as it has to be one other than the official LL supported one. If there is an issue with RLV then it needs to be brought to the attention of those that code for and support RLV.

[nobody is serious anymore]

36 minutes ago, GC0CKY Cyberstar said:

i have heard its by a certain number of suspension and i have heard it is by crashing sims or doing lewd ***** .. all sorts of things i am just curious as to how you would lose your account, or even wind up like some of these greifers i see that always come back with a new account saying they are ip banned

Certain people say all sorts of things - most of it is less than accurate.

Discussing how to get banned from SL is not really something that needs to be discussed as it generally means you have to be a complete and utter idiot, full of malice and generally not the sort of person anyone with a shred of decency would wish to associate with. If you are hanging around places where people claim to have been banned then maybe you need to find new places.

["Opting out" seems to be a moot point.]

Indeed the interweb is spread full of data from these forums as well as anywhere else people post to - Flickr and so on. It's your information however your avatar's name and information is not (under legal terms) personal data. So people need to stop getting worked up about it so much.

["Opting out" seems to be a moot point.]

I do agree with the idea that the access to search features on https://search.secondlife.com/ should be restricted whilst not logged in with a second life account. I will to a trawl on the JIRA and see if that is a bug or needs a feature request.

["Opting out" seems to be a moot point.]

10 minutes ago, KrystalKandy said:

I never agreed to some third party website deciding for me, what they can display about me.

The thing is that https://search.secondlife.com/ is not a third party website at all - it is simply linked to from a third party website. The search site is totally under the control of LL.

["Opting out" seems to be a moot point.]

The search https://search.secondlife.com/ has been on the interweb for years - accessible to anyone. However as many have said the amount of information displayed if you are not logged in to a Second Life account is very limited. If people are really that concerned about this information (which has been available to the public for years) being displayed then they should use the option to hide their profile from searches within the viewer options - that of course comes with a major downside insofar as you are hidden from all SL searches so not ideal for anyone running a business or wanting to be sociable.

[Interests tab in profile no longer exist]

1 hour ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Avatar ratings were linked to stipend and we gamed the fire out of them.

Ah right! - It was so long ago. Makes even more sense now that it resulted in an in-world financial gain.

[Interests tab in profile no longer exist]

I seem to recall that in the very distant past there was more on the interests tab where you could rate the avatar and their profile. That was obviously removed once it was seen to be a tool to abuse others.

[Interests tab in profile no longer exist]

I'm pretty sure (and I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong) but the interests tab was actually dropped by LL in their viewer when web profiles replaced the "legacy" profiles. When they reverted back to the "legacy" profiles from the standpoint of LL it made perfect sense not to add back in the interests tab as it had not been in their viewers profiles for many years. Granted it was still in a great many 3rd party viewer profiles and it's still within the database so those 3rd party viewers that think it adds value can still support it.