MoiraKathleen

I think that we need to be careful when talking about non-premium members as those "that don't pay". In particular, there may be people who are not premium - because they don't need the premium benefits - who are region owners and pay a lot more to LL each month than the cost of a premium membership. To think that many non-premium members do not pay money into the system one way or another is incorrect.

I know you said you checked Lost and Found, but did you double-check to make sure you didn't have any new coalesced objects in your inventory? (with a multiple box symbol). When things get returned they may returned as one group object with the name of the last object added to the group, so sometimes it's hard to recognize what they actually area in your inventory. You might switch to the "recent" tab in your inventory window and adjust the filters to show new items since just before the sim became unavailable - if any non-copy items were returned, they should show up in the "recent" tab.

I picked up an abandoned Continental a week or so ago, it is a version 2.0 and it does not have those color options. It is also in one of the older regions that was originally released before the Victorians came out. Just curious as to whether yours is in one of the newer traditional areas?

I'm going to pass that bit of trivia on to my daughter (born in the 80's, and one who likes odd trivia like that, as well). Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

Also, the Linden Road Community hubs and the Explorer Info hubs both have the maps of the continents with the roads marked on them, and you can generally click on the map to get a copy of it (or there will be a boxed set of maps). The relatively recent Forest Friendship Rest area http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Menophra/104/82/39 along Route 1 on Heterocera has both a Linden Road Community building and an Explorer Info building located close to the rest area and car park. When I travel along the roads, I make a LM at each rez area I see, so that in case something unexpected happens with your vehicle, or if you stop and leave your vehicle to check something out and need to re-rez, you have a LM to the closest rez area. Many times there will be rez areas if not every sim, then at least at every couple of sims, just right before or right after a sim crossing.

I haven't seen that message before either. If you're still getting that message tomorrow, I'd suggest contacting "Live Chat" between 6 a.m. - 3 p.m. SLT (pacific time zone). You can find a link to Live Chat at https://lindenlab.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/31000131009-contact-support (about half way down, under 'Alternatives to Phone Support'). If you don't have 1024 sqm of tier available, as Karynmaria mentioned, the message is similar looking to the one you received, but does state in the message text that the problem is not having enough available tier. It wouldn't hurt to check under "Land Manager" on your dashboard, though, to make sure you do have the tier available.

For the majority of my clothes, I either had alphas because they came with standard sizes as well as mesh-specific sizes, or I was able to find an alpha that would work from the two sets available through SLink or from ones I had with existing clothes. I have maybe a handful of clothes where I couldn't find a ready-made alpha that would work for them. Often you don't need an alpha that covers everything that a piece of clothing does - often you just need one for specific areas of the body, so sometimes a specific alpha will work with multiple clothing items, and I copy and paste the alpha layer into all the applicable clothing folders that it works with. Perhaps I've just been lucky with the types of clothing that I wear. I am also thrilled to be easily able to wear a system layer shirt under a mesh jacket, or system layer leggings under a mesh tunic - I prefer this to having to use appliers for a layered look and to having to use an alpha HUD.

In addition to providing an assortment of alphas, Slink also included some info on making alphas with the Redux body and on the BOM faq on their web page, and made video tutorials (one using Photoshop and one using Gimp) showing how to make alphas. My prior experience with Gimp was limited to just being able to resize a picture, so I was really excited that I was able to follow her tutorial and be successful in creating and uploading an alpha layer I needed for one of my shirts that I couldn't use other existing alphas for.

Ready, Set

Happy 3rd Rez Day

spilled milk

I agree. I have Lara as well as Slink Physique, but Slink has been my preferred body, and after Redux came out, I boxed up Lara and all the Lara specific stuff I had.

Wily Suggestion

Peryda, I remember the Exploratorium region - it was one of the first places I visited when I was new In SL, having been to the San Francisco Exploratorium many times over the years in real life. However, I do not think that Linden Lab has an obligation to keep science or other education regions alive in-world, beyond the region cost discount that they provide for non-profits. If in fact they did host the sims for a number of months without requiring payment, than to me it sounds as if Linden Lab was working with the organizations and giving them time to work out future funding sources. Your open letter might be better sent to the Board of Directors of the organizations behind the Exploratorium regions and the SciLands regions. Perhaps there are reasons why they are deciding not to continue with funding the SL regions? I would imagine that there are more internal expenses involved than just the monthly tier cost to Linden Lab - I'm thinking internal staff costs for planning/running the projects, builds, presentations, etc., on the SL regions. I imagine those expenses might be bigger monthly costs than the region tier. Do we know how much of a priority these regions are for the overall mission of the organizations? Are the regions still meeting the goals that they had when they created the regions? Have you reached out to their Board of Directors to let them know how much you value the regions being in SL, and your wish to have them remain there?

Garden Gnome

Over there is mayhem everywhere CHAOS

Lacking Subtlety

I wear alphas that came with some of the older mesh outfits on Slink's version of the BOM body. I also went with one of Slink's new bento/BOM heads. I am more than pleased with the reduced number of scripts I'm wearing, the lower complexity readings and just the ease of dressing due to no longer having to worry about alpha cuts and appliers.

Just curious if this is the first time that you have tried to get one of the new Linden homes. There were plentiful Victorians available all the time for the first 5 days that they were released earlier this month. Also, that same release also included traditionals and house boats and was the first time that I can remember that all types of the new homes were available pretty much every day. Right now, there are available traditionals, house boats and campers - that was not something that was seen prior to the major December release. New Linden homes have never been as available as they are right now. The best locations that I've personally come across have been locations someone else had abandoned. In earlier releases (prior to this month) I always kept the first location I got because there was so much demand that they did not stay readily available for a week or two like they did this month. This time, I did abandon and then retry on this single account for maybe 6 or 7 times, and al most of the retries were better locations that the first Victorian I had received. I ended up back at with Traditionals because I decided I like them better than the Victorians, and ended up with a wonderful parcel there after a couple of retries. The conversation over alts being used to get new Linden homes, as well as who should have first choice on the new Linden homes (new accounts, old accounts, those with old Linden homes, those without old Linden homes, etc., etc. ) were common in the forums here all the time when the first homes were released and almost immediately sold out last Spring.

I'd say my bliss is walking - when I'm not in a rush to get to a particular place. It doesn't matter if it's around town or out at a park, though I do walk far more around town than outside of town. I like to listen to the sounds of where ever I'm walking, so I don't listen to music or books on headphones. When the grandsons were small enough to still be pushed in a stroller, walking was my fall-back when they needed a nap or we all just needed a break from chaos. I'm a little sad now that only one of them is still small/young enough for stroller rides. This month has been hard for getting walks in between rain, shorter hours of daylight and grandchild watching schedules. I think that's partly why I haven't been feeling quite up to par lately.

Putting words on pictures seems like a difficult task for me most of the time, but I've been forcing myself to practice a bit more

Last minute holiday baking...

Wishing everyone a joyous holiday and best wishes for the coming New Year.