MoiraKathleen

I haven't read anything about the refresh limits being changed. I do remember reading something that suggested the first display of the page (the first time you go to it) does count as one of the 'refreshes'. Some people wait 60 or 70 seconds after the first display of the page before the refreshing, and various people have had luck with refresh rates from 60 to 75 seconds. You might want to take a look at some of the hints about refreshing in this thread:

While you wait for support, if you have entered a support ticket, you might want to take a look at https://wiki.firestormviewer.org/fs_media which is the Firestorm viewer's troubleshooting tips page for media and sound issues. Some parts of it are non-viewer specific, and other sections you could probably figure out the corresponding Linden Lab viewer controls. "Game audio" is a bit broad, so it's hard to suggest specific sections for you to check.

The only premium benefit that is immediately lost when you start the downgrade process is the ability to own a linden home or own land on mainland - you won't be able to start the downgrade until you have abandoned/otherwise released or sold any linden home or mainland parcel or tier donation. Other than that, the other benefits (weekly stipend, larger number of groups, live chat, etc) remain in place until your premium membership expiration date. Once you start the downgrade process, if you change your mind before the actual expiration date, you will need to contact Live Chat to remove the pending downgrade. After your premium membership expires, you can just use the normal process through the web dashboard to become premium again. The part about "benefits that are in effect at the time" just means that if the premium benefit offering changes between when you downgrade or stop your premium membership and the time that you become premium again, the benefits that you will receive will be the benefits in effect at the time you return to premium status.

I often wear the Slink Physique body, so I got a redelivery and tried out the Redux version. I thought it was very cool. I recently bought a new skin which did come with a system version, so the skin part wasn't an issue for me. I also have a lot of clothing where standard sizes and an alpha were included in the package, and for many I've saved those (or I can re-unpack or get a re-delivery). For many of the appliers I have for extra coverage under skimpy clothes, system layers were included as well, so I don't think that I have a lot of appliers that will no longer work. I didn't have much time in world to try on clothing, but the few clothing items that I did try on worked really well with the alpha that had come with them, so I am looking forward to being able to try this out more fully later on this evening. I am excited so far - for me, I like the thought of going back to wearing an alpha rather than having to fiddle with alpha cuts on a HUD. I don't think I will be wearing the Redux version with BOM out and about though until the FS viewer has updated for BOM, and more people are likely to be using viewers that are BOM capable.

I think I may have de-rendered maybe 3 objects in all my time in SL. It's not a solution that pops into my mind very often. I have temporarily turned off rendering water sometimes while terraforming along a waterway, but I don't consider that the same as de-rendering other people's things that I don't want to see. I was actually surprised, when reading various Bellisseria related threads, by how many things people said that they were de-rendering. I suppose that I like to see the world warts and all . If nothing else, it gives me something to wonder about when I see some of the really odd things. I do set the number for jelly dolls down pretty low at crowded events, but I haven't ever de-rendered other avatars. I would be afraid that I would be bumping into them. It's bad enough trying to walk through half-rezzed body parts to get away from the landing point at events. I generally try to avoid crowded times at popular events, and there are many events I don't go to at all unless I've received a notice from a store about something they have at an event, which I decided is something I like.

I don't use voice with the exception of when I am at a meeting or event where the presenter is speaking in voice, and then I just turn voice on in order to listen. I don't have a mic for my PC, and even if I did, I doubt that I would use it. I'm not much of a conversationalist. When I do happen to be conversing with a friend, we may not always in the same region. I would also worry about background noises being as that I have a small house and the TV, and grand-kids (some weekdays) are all in the same room as my desk and PC. I also feel that text conversations are more time-forgiving. I don't have to be sitting at my PC for the entire conversation. With text, I can send my reply and then get up and take care of something quickly - make a snack, or find a toy, or change the little one's diaper... and then come back and read the latest response without any large noticeable delay, and without missing anything. I don't do dating or intimate relationships in SL, so I don't have any need to prove my RL gender to anyone. I also imagine others as how they present themselves with their avatar, so I would find it jarring to hear a female avatar speaking with a male voice, for example. I would rather keep the illusion that the person is the gender they present themselves as. Even if they had told me otherwise, I would still find it jarring because it would contradict with what I visually see on the screen.

When you are in your new home, you need to set the new location as your "home" location in the browser when you are standing in the new house. (It's an option on the 'world' menu - "Set Home to Here")

There is a resident-ran newspaper which has a listing of LM's, for rez zones and other places of interest, on their website https://thebellisserian.wixsite.com/news/landmarks

If I remember correctly, Patch had said that the initial release of the campers/trailers would be a large release (instead of just a single region release). I imagine that after the initial large release, future releases will be more like the traditional/houseboat single region at a time.

I've had that message come up a few times before. It's been a long time since I've seen that, so I don't remember exactly what is was about my system that had changed. However, just typing in my username and password was all that I needed to do. (I typically do not store my username or password anyway, so for me it really wasn't an issue to enter them).

My experience of buying non-abandoned land has been that the auto-return setting is initially 0 (off) and that the no-transfer items remain on the land until I set the auto-return setting to a different value or otherwise manually return the items to the item owner. I can't remember when I haven't had to do something to return items left by the previous land owner.

Hope that things start looking up for you soon. You've made it further than I did with the online Blender course, so kudos for that

Working on setting up a little Farmer's Market on my mainland parcel. I was inspired by seeing (and picking up) the market bus at Dust Bunny this morning, and remembered I had some other farmer market stuff already in inventory. Still a work in progress. Business was a little slow...

Very relaxed... up by the top of Hither Falls

I usually have a combination of mainland, linden home and a parcel on a small estate, so the only thing I gave up to get a new LH home was my old LH. I have subsequently abandoned my new LH houseboat and expanded my mainland holdings by 1024 sqm.

I'm outside Canada and got an email about upcoming policy changes from PayPal. For U.S. customers, the upcoming changes (effective 9/3/19) have to do with increasing the currency conversion spread percentage.

Regarding the time delay, whenever I transfer money from my checking account to my PayPal cash balance, it always takes 3 to 5 days for the money to become available for my use in PayPal, so I do not think a wait time is unexpected or unusual.

Usually what we've seen in the forums are people unable to downgrade because they don't know they need to release all their land (or group land donations) first, and once they find out they need to that first, they are fine. If I was downgrading early it would be because I would be afraid that I would not remember to downgrade next May 13 so that my account would not automatically renew on May 14. If I did that and was allowed to keep my LH or mainland, it is very unlikely that I would remember next May 13 that I need to pick up all my things from my LH or mainland parcel, and I would be very upset to log in on May 14 and find all my stuff returned and my mainland parcel no longer mine. My point being that if I was certain I would remember to pick my things up next May 13, then remembering to downgrade on May 13 instead of now should not be a problem.

and one more... with a little help from a little nefarious one...

Visiting at The Far Away. Glad that @Madelaine McMasters posted the LM again in another thread. I remember I had been here before, when I danced on top of the locomotive, but it'd been awhile.

The only thing that is removed is the ability to own mainland or a Lnden Home. If you own mainland or a LH at the time you decide you want to downgrade, you are not able to do the downgrade until you either sell/abandon your mainland parcel, or you abandon your LH. As to why, can you imagine the posts we'd see here in the forums if they didn't have that requirement and behavior? What if someone owned 8192 sqm of mainland, was able to keep it when they downgraded, but forgot to sell or abandon it before their downgraded premium membership ran out. If the day after their downgraded premium membership expired, LL returned all their items from the land and took the land back from them, people would be upset and calling it unfair that they didn't have a chance to sell the land or pick their things up for some 'grace period' after the downgraded premium expired. However, if one downgrades and then wished to own land or a LH after all, it's just a call to Live Chat or a support ticket to get the pending downgrade removed and full premium reinstated. If you use Live Chat during the hours they are available, it's only takes a couple of minutes to change back. It just seems clearer all the way around, in my opinion, to have the land relinquished before you can downgrade, and have all the other benefits for the remainder of the paid term.

Sometimes just exploring and finding the things and places that interest you will lead to you meeting others that share the same interests as yourself. You can use the Destination Guide as a way to find different types of places and/or search "Groups" for the types of things that you are interested in and then use the group info to either visit the location and/or join the group. Some groups are chattier than others. If it's the type of group that may have events, joining the group will keep you apprised of when events will be occurring.

Congratulations!