Galaxy Littlepaws

Smartbots has been logging and bridging group chats for many years as part of the Group Chat section of their services. With WebTalk for example, they allow you to put the group chat anywhere, even a public website for messaging back and forth and viewing. If you think chat bridging between Second Life group chat and elsewhere is a concern, you may want to look at that as well.

Thank you so much for responding. One last question set, do we still have to fill out this application form just to have access to the SDK? Is there a way to have the application *not* require an existing in-world store? It is unclear why that is needed, and what it is about an in-world store that would be used for consideration just to access the devkit.

Now my questions are: 1 - Is all of this in order to be able to create anything at all for this new starter avatar? 2 - Or, is it to create things only for the new "avatar creation onboarding experience"? 3- Is this meant to be an avatar used for a little while and then tossed as soon as possible rather than any long-term use and investment? I feel there may be some miscommunication going on here as to the purpose of this. At face value, it really comes across as "you need to jump through hoops to make anything at all for this starter avatar, even if you're a newb who just wants to try to make yourself a cool t-shirt", which seems antithetical to the SL experience.

This is why I've only made things for non-human mesh avatars, ones that do just let you get access to the kit without filling out application forms. There are a few human avatars that don't do that, but they're either not seen as very good compared to what's out there, or there's some sort of drama with them, which is why I will not name any brands. I would like a response from Linden Lab about my concerns. I'm not trying to debate anyone because I don't want to get too off-topic (if I did I have many words on my feelings), just discuss my concerns and surprise to LL regarding how they are handling this, on here and the Discord. I will wait for them to read and do their internal discussions or the like and say something to us all. I can't think of much else to say to them about it at this point. But I am confused and would like answers from the Lab, please?

The key here thing in what I'm complaining about is "apply for the devkit". And the application wants so many things like a slurl to an in-world store. You were free to download the UVs and the like from any website that had them hosted, you didn't need to jump through hoops. A newbie should be free to create things for the avatar they are given when they rezz in for the first time. That's what I've always loved about SL, the freedom to be and do what you like, and to create things as long as you had the skill and determination. The extremely low barrier of entry for creation and customization. This will just push newbies into thinking they have to spend a lot of money to even make basic things. How are they going to have an in-world store? What will they even fill it with, much less anything LL may be looking for to judge if they're worthy of a devkit? I'm confused about why we need to apply in the first place. I'm confused about what LL is even looking for exactly. Would I be able to get a devkit if I have 0 items for any human avatars in my store? I've always avoided making things for humans because nearly all of them have these requirements. I just wanted to get started with this new avatar, and make stuff for the newbies so they wouldn't have to spend so much to look nice.

One of the big appeals of SL back in the day was that you could just make a shirt or pants or the like for the default avatar if you wanted to and had the skill, and maybe a few lindens you fished up or won. This pretty much takes that option away for those people, who may be wanting to learn how to create content for themselves at little-to-no cost, or to open up a store. They would have to hunt for some other body that's less restrictive with their dev kits and doesn't cost a lot, but at that point why would they even bother with making things for the new default avi they got for free?

Why do we have to apply for the dev kit? I assumed it would work similarly to the previous system avatar in regards to creating content. Having to apply for dev kits is annoying and hinders new creators or people who just want to play around. I like being able to just download something and get started after purchasing/obtaining an avatar.

You can use the Compare feature. This is the exact one that shows what changes were done between the 30th and 3rd: https://wiki.secondlife.com/w/index.php?title=Linden_Lab_Official%3AScripted_Agent_Policy&type=revision&diff=1213838&oldid=1213822 It is commented with "Removed a confusing reference to bots and traffic", which was indeed confusing people.

You can check the page history on the History tab, and compare. It's transparent which I am glad for. https://wiki.secondlife.com/w/index.php?title=Linden_Lab_Official:Scripted_Agent_Policy&action=history

I was curious and checked the Jira ticket regarding being able to check the "scripted agent" flag with LSL. It was accepted in February. So once that is implemented we should be able to gather that data and use it how we see fit. https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-233274

I know the CasperTech security system does this. I've been wondering how that may be affected by the new policy.

Ah okay, you were talking to Paul Hexem in that post, so I assumed you were and commented based on what I quoted specifically. I do still wish it could be bypassed or set on the parcel level if that's what a person wants, but I can't test if that's possible anywhere else, and from what I'm seeing others say it may not be.

I checked last night to see if I could add a bot to the parcel access list on Belli for curiousity's sake, it seems that's blocked out as well as all but the "block list" options on that tab there. So, due to not even being an option nobody can whitelist any avatars on the parcel level on Belli.

I use a security system for that, and I haven't found a way to check if the profile belongs to a bot or not using LSL. If I could then I could solve the issue in a more creative way. I may ask on the proper forum to be 100% certain. I use a scripted agent myself that sits on my land and I just wish to be able to choose not to have any others coming and going at all hours without filling my ban list for no good reason. As the owner of the land, I feel that it's me right to allow or deny avatars as I see fit. I'm not calling for a ban everywhere, I just think people should be able to choose.

This is an excellent option for estate owners, and I'm glad to see the clarification of the scripted agent policy. When may this appear as an option on Mainland, as someone who owns a mainland region? The enter/leave spam is rather annoying when I'm sitting and working on something and keeping an eye out for newcomers who may have questions or need help with something.

Awesome, feel free to message me here and send me the mesh object and textures! I'll do my best to re-create it for you.

Hi, do you still need this done? I might be able to do it.

thanks, I hate it

I actually want to study Digital Humanities now that I know it's a field. It sounds very interesting, thank you.

I'll explain looking at it from a different angle. I am very interested in virtual worlds and trying out new stuff. However, I don't have a lot of money (like most people). I do not currently have a VR headet (also like most people), but plan to purchase one sometime this year. I have been using SL for a long while now, and before then tried offerings like There. I've also tried Sansar, High Fidelity (that one was great while it lasted), and VR chat. When I try to use Sandbox this is what it was like: The avatars are extremely limited in regards to customization. The shapes are all the same humanoid voxel style. The colors are something you pick from whatever the devs think is good. I can't relate to these options but I'm forced to pick something anyway. LAND is prohibitively expensive. At the moment, the least-costly option is $9,225.81 USD worth of ETH, not counting the gas fees. The website at the very top is suggesting buying LAND is the top thing to do. I don't know many people who can afford to buy that. That's over six thousand taco bell tacos at $1.50, or you'd be eating about 16 tacos a day for a year to spend that much, maybe. Fuzzy maths. After making my avatar and seeing that I'll never be able to justify buying LAND (or even afford it), it's not clear to me how to get in and explore. I'm looking at the map and it's like SL's but blockier and the custom images are smoother. But I still don't see how to jump in. Creation, one of the things I love to do the most. I see I need to download and install a "Game Maker Alpha" program, which is available for Windows and Mac is coming. People using Linux seem to be out of luck, but thankfully I have Windows installed. It installs fine. Game Maker Alpha is loading. I see more voxel stuff. Are we completely limited to voxels? I don't want to be trapped in a voxel world. It runs and it says "Create new experience". This feels not unlike minecraft but with drag and drop. I look at stuff to toss in and it feels more like making a video game level, and apparently that's what I'm doing. I see no option for making objects or assets anywhere in this program. I look at the website again and see tabs for "VoxEdit" and "Avatar". VoxEdit seems to be what I want. Windows and Mac downloads are available. I run VoxEdit. More voxels. I'm frustrated and exit out of the program because I don't want to invest my time into learning this tool for creating voxel models. I look and I apparently can't even upload my models unless I'm one of the first thousand people accepted into this "Creator Fund Grant", so any time I took to try to make something would be wasted anyway. it looks like a job application, and when I click to see the form it's closed. Complete opposite of SL. All in all, I am not a fan of Sandbox and I can't seem to do anything I'm interested in. I can't use it. I can't make things. I think it's a closed video game and not an open virtual world platform. Now I will try to use Decentraland. Here is what it's like for me. It already looks nicer than Sandbox and the models are smoother. It has an easy "let's get started" thing. Sweet, as soon as I make my account it loads up in the browser. Avatars still seem limited to two human shapes, and even more limited skin tones. I have no idea why the avatar is making sounds and saying things while I'm customizing it, but I can manage the annoyance. Hair color is also limited. It tosses me in the world without any issues. I'm still in my browser. It's jerky camera movement until I get used to it, but there's this cute robot guide! Voice seems to be on in this starter location for some reason but the feature isn't being abused, so far. The robot guide explains how to move, use the chat, use voice and all that. Exploring isn't that hard. Stuff seems laggy and low poly but I can manage. Land seems to cost more here than it even did in Sandbox. The current cheapest listing is being bid for $10,912.48 USD, and apparently the reserve price hasn't been met yet. Yikes! Creating stuff, my favorite thing. Apparently you can't build unless you own land. Boo! So for Decentraland, it's not that bad if you want to explore and look at stuff, but bad for creators who want to start from the ground up in regards to funding. You are also stuck being a limited variety of human. Now, someone else may be able to point out some stuff I've missed or clarify things that confused me, but this is what it was like for me as a Second Life resident trying to get into those platforms and use them like I do Second Life. I think I'll stick to Second Life over those options, where the barrier of entry is a lot lower and I can do and be what I like. I can be a human, I can be a dragon, I can be a cat made out of star dust and magic. Land is also much more affordable! And I can make things even if I don't own land and can upload and make whatever I like (within ToS, of course). I hope this is helpful to you. Others in this thread have also pointed out good things to consider.

I'm not sure if the ATC is still doing the classes in-world (I used to go for a few years), but here is their SL location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sacred Cauldron/196/141/43 Check out their website for information on the theological seminary. At the very least you can still learn remotely and attend their in-world rituals and events.

You already can sync a group chat you own with a discord channel using a Corrade bot and another program they developed. It's handy for certain things like user support for a product without having to use one of those website embeds for the chat that I have seen some services like what Casper offers with their bot rentals. You just have to have the technical know-how, and I recommend you run both the bot and the program on the same server (can be your main PC) to make it easiest. And note that you'll get the standard "You're all by yourself" error message chatting in the discord channel from SL if the bot is the only one in the group chat on SL side. https://grimore.org/secondlife/scripted_agents/corrade/projects/external_services/synchronize_group_chat_and_discord

That is perfect.

Hey all, I'm working on finishing up the main code of a major project of mine that talks back and forth with a PHP and MySQL server, a virtual breedable pet. I am concerned a user may attempt to rename their pet something that would wind up bricking the object due to the server not accepting the name update request because of an "illegal" character, or more malicious attempts of breaking things through renaming the pet. What is the best way to have the LSL check against a list of accepted characters before accepting a rename request? Here is the code that manages it so far: if(m != "GenName" && m != "Godmother"){ // "m" here is the name request sent to the LSL m = llStringTrim(m,STRING_TRIM); llWhisper(0,"My new name is "+m); name = m; //This actually changes the name updateURL(petid); //This fires the URL to the server where it's then changed in the SQL database updateTEXT(); }else{ llWhisper(0,"You can't pick that name, sorry."); }

Someone had to explain the context to me, I just assumed you meant in general. I did not realize the text in the floater was part of an image. That is bad design and I hope they change that soon, I'm sure they will though.