Indigo Mertel

This is what I get from Milan, Italy to Dallas at 6 PM with a 100 Mbps fiber-optic connection: And this is San Francisco:

Have you guys seen this post by Will Burns (aka Darian Knight): http://bit.ly/Lj28Nc ? Quoting from his blog: "When it comes to these virtual worlds in a browser implementations, I always have a moment of immediate ennui that hits me. I’ve been in the industry for a long time, and my first thought whenever somebody tells me about a new browser based virtual environment is “This will be underwhelming at best.” He then goes into details. I pretty much agree with him. Being able to enter a virtual world in seconds without installing a viewer is a great advantage but it also comes at the price of having limited control on how all the browsers out there will deal with your system, as all web developers know too well. I was in Cloud Party when one of the devs mentioned that a certain combination of keys caused havok with some browsers. WebGL is still cutting edge technology and not all browsers have caught up with it. As they grow I think they'll run into a number of issues.

Does anyone know if there is a way to display parcel borders on a SL map obtained from the SL Map Api? What I'd like to do is to create a dynamic map of our community based on the parcels owned by the community members, so that we don't need to graphically redraw the map every time a parcel is bought or sold.

>> Not a lot of modeling freedom there compared to modeling with outworld modelers Dilbert, you should take into account that Mesh Studio creates a .dae file that can be imported into Blender or other modelling tools and can be modified so to add more details. The main reason I find this tool interesting is that I can model an object inworld so to adapt it to the environment where it is needed and export the mesh in RL to add details. Say, I want to build a wall that must match the land where it will be located, Mesh Studio allows me to build a rough shape inworld and modify the exported mesh in Blender.

Thank you for sharing your video, Marlen. I am very interested in using MeshStudio and your video helped getting an idea of how it works. It was informative and your accent is cute... I have shared your post on some social networks.

Nice article, Penny. I have shared it on Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Plurk and also sent a tweet to Rodvik.

The "gun toting" remark was tongue in cheek, not addressed to you... This picture of Muirhead Village taken by Letitia Coronet is more recent and much better than I one I took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/77084517@N03/6984367053/

Thank you for your kind words, Vesper. And I agree that a community, a federation of groups or a land trust, however people want to call it (see my other post about this bit) still leaves room to accomodate special needs. In our case, maintaining a cohesive environment is a fundamental need, but we can still accomodate specific needs. Thus, we do exactly what you suggest and allow sky boxes at an altitude so that they are not an eye-sore.

>> While it might not be everyone's cup of tea to be governed or have such a closely-knit feeling << Very true, Marigold. In fact, I don't think there should be a "one model fit all" solution, nor I think the model I suggest would be the solution of all problems for Mainland.There will always be areas which will remain chaotic and poorly maintained. Just consider the vast amount of land owners who are just out of the loop, with very little involvement in SL. That's fine, some residents appreciate the chaotic nature of Mainland, so there is space for that as well. However, by offering benefits in joining a community many land owners are given a reason to join one, or get some people together and start a new one. This would give a spin to a positive trend that may have good results. Our community is proof of what benefits our model brought to our area. You should have seen how the regions in our district looked like 5 - 6 years ago, total chaos. Our model works because our members are encouraged to take pride of all the work they put into their land and being part of a common project, we share resources and support each other and the benefits are visible. And, note that I said their land, because our charter says that each group or individual remains the sole owner of the land. Our members are not forced to submit their land to a common group, they keep full control of it. This is why it is a federative model. In my opinion, the model I suggest is what would bring the most benefits without forcing everyone to adapt. LL should encourage people to form self-governing communities, not forcing them to adopt it. Those who don't want it should not be forced to be part of it. And, by being self-governing bodies it would be up to their members to decide the level of involvement they want to have, or how close-knit they want to be. Some don't like the idea of being part of a community? Fine, call it a land trust, the result is the same. :matte-motes-asleep-2: The only things that should be a requirement are some basic rules with the purpose of improving Mainland. Thus, offering benefits in exchange of better land management.

I really liked your post on Mainland versus Estate. Interesting and thought provoking. I shared the link on my stream yesterday with a recommendation to read it.

Knowl, what you suggest involves management and resources from the Lab. Saying that AR would be sufficient is wishful thinking. As Qie rightly points out, Lindens do not follow through even on their own set rules, such as the ban on micro parcels, let alone when land scams are reported to them. And how long did it take for the Lab to come to the conclusion that micro parcels had to be banned, after years of complaints from residents? And even when the Lindens do take action, does it really resolve the problem? No, because what they leave behind is a mass of abandoned land that in most cases nobody claims and merge into larger parcels. Now, take the case of our community and see how we deal with it. We actively pursue every opportunity to claim and aggregate land in our area because we have a vested interest in keeping our area cohesive and clean. We either purchase land from people who want to sell or file a ticket to the Lab to claim abandoned land. Neighbors know what we do, so they often offer their land for sale because they appreciate our work. We don't force people to leave based on some zoning rules set by the Lab or by us. We self-regulate by applying what we consider the best solution for our needs in the area we control, period. Zoning has the disadvantage of creating uniform areas, while some good mixing is the best way to go. I agree with what someone said in this thread, residential areas with some light commerce makes a more interesting area, and that is what we do. It's called community. When you say "all the Residents who want Pink buildings, search each other out, form groups, make notices and place AD's in order to get their own Region" is not that far from what I suggest. Let people decide what is best for them and offer incentives to form communities. There are many examples of themed and not-themed communities on Mainland and they all are positive examples of cohesive self-regulated land management. What I suggest is not forcing one model on everyone. I believe that forcing a zoning model or a community model on a reality as vast as Mainland would be really disruptive and counter-productive.Equally bad is having zoning in one continent rather than others because it would create an uneven land market. What I suggest is to offer good reasons to people so that joining a community is an advantage to them. Want to have land in a Gorean community? Join one. Want to be part of a commercial district? Join one. Are you the gun toting keep-out-of-my-backyard type? Then, don't join anyone and stay on your own. Our community started with less than one region, it expanded to about 6 regions and it's still expanding. Land has value in our area, chaos starts at our borders. :matte-motes-grin:

Elected officials? This is not what I suggest, iSkye. I suggest self-regulated communities, thus it is up to the people who get together to form a community to decide what model of governance they want to adopt. In our case we have no elected officials, all those who own at least 4,096 sqm of land can be members of our steering committee and all members have equal rights despite the amount of land they own. Our model is made so to keep the red tape low and avoid possible conflicts, and elections would add a level of complexity we don't wish to have. In our case, it's working. However, each community should be free to set its own governing rules.

I am one of those people who actively worked to clean up and beautify the corner of Mainland where I live. For the past 4+ years I have worked hard and spent tons of money to consolidate land, remove ugly builds, merge micro-parcels. I have been following this thread with interest because I have invested a lot into Mainland. IMO, though zoning could bring some apparent benefits I don't think it's a viable solution. I'd like to suggest a different solution. April 28th 2008, founding day of the East River Community. We started with 1/2 a region. In 2008, I and a few friends founded the East River Community. I believe our community is based on a model that may work on a larger scale to improve Mainland. Today the ERC is a federation of groups with a common charter and a steering committee. Candidates (groups or individuals) who want to be part of the federation must comply to some requirements set in the charter. Our goal is to create a positive, friendly environment and a cohesive ambient, preserving our area from the uglyness so diffused on Mainland. We have a set of rules to regulate the relations of land owners but our charter is also made as to keep the red tape as low as possible. Though we don't actively pursue affiliations of new members (but we welcome new ones), our model is working pretty well and those who know our community agree it is one of those gems that can be occasionally found on Mainland. Map of the ERC, August 2010. The community is a lot larger now, spanning about 6 regions... but our cartographer is a bit lazy... :matte-motes-asleep-2: In my opinion this is a model that Linden Lab should encourage. Rather than forcing zoning on everyone and forcing lots of people to adapt -- while at the same time forcing Linden Lab to police zoned areas -- I believe it would be more productive to encourage people to form self-regulated communities. Linden Lab should only set some basic rules (land preservation being one) and offer incentives to encourage people to aggregate (say, a discount on land tier, better land management tools, etc.). Communities such as ERC offer a good environment, better land value and automatic zoning. They are autonomous, self-regulated and run by enthusiast people who invest work and money into the community. Committed people who take the wealth of the community at heart. Muirhead Village at night. Anything forced from above on a reality as complex as Mainland, and Second Life in general, is bound to fail and make lots of people angry. The best solution, imo, is to encourage people to aggregate and form self-regulated communities based on some common values.

I am concerned about the suggestion of creating a new continent. With all the unused land and its value down to pennies, do we really need a new continent? Even worse is having a new continent with different rules (say, zoning) than the rest of Mainland, which would devalue the existing continents even more. And, while I welcome initiatives to revamp Mainland, I hope Linden Lab won't disrupt the several communities which have been working to preserve parts of Mainland for years.

Very interesting post and great tips, Maeve. Thanks for sharing. It would be awesome if tips shared in this thread were added to the mesh wiki.

We have some vacancies in the community. To date, we have 5 houses, 2 tree pods and 2 stores available for rent. Two of the houses are barnd new and located on a small island and a lovely setting. If you are looking for a house to rent or know someone who does, please visit or invite to visit our Rental Vacancies page at this web address: http://bit.ly/rt2hJx

Absolutely! Thank you for this post, Rusalka. A big thank you to all the Lindens involved, including Qarl who worked hard in the beginning of the project and passionately supported it, from me and the East River Community!

We have some vacancies in the East River Community. If you are looking for a house or a store to rent or know someone who does, please check our blog for further information. For any inquiry, please send an IM to Indigo Mertel.

Chelsea, a lot can be done with external tools already, true. And that is what I do, in fact. For our community I run 3 blogs plus 3 more for other needs, 1 wiki, 7 accounts on social networks plus a few more for other needs, 1 Flickr account. As I explained in my post, this helps somehow for "community branding" but it is not very effective for traffic or event promotion, exactly for the reasons you point out. I am not sure if people hate to have to visit a web site, but it is for sure one step too far. In our experience, not many of our community residents visit our blog on a regular basis. In fact, all our web and socnet activity mainly attracts attention of all those SL users who are active on the web and socnets. This is why I am suggesting to have a better integration with web and social tools through groups. My suggestion is to reduce that distance. Think of the advantages, people no longer have to visit an external web site through a link provided in a card or in chat. What I suggest is to have all those resources within the viewer: - forums where to have asynchronous discussions, great for work teams - info repositories, no more cards lost in your inventory. Open a group and find a wiki page with all the info you need and with proper formatting and pictures. - reduce strain on chat etc, etc... the advantages are huge.

This is the copy of a post I made on my blog. It's a suggestion on why LL should revamp groups and how. I'd be interested in knowing your opinion about it. Not sure if this is the right forum but I couldn't find a better match. Social networks are often a heated topic among Second Life users. Many take issue with Facebook for its policy on real names and subsequent bannings. More recently Google stirred the pot with the launch of Google Plus, its new social network still in beta. Many Second Life users, including me, welcomed Google Plus as a good alternative to Facebook for its sleek interface, followers grouping and its open policy about identity. Or, so we thought. It took only a few days for the Second Life community on Google Plus to get a cold shower when the first accounts were suspended for using "fake names". In the meantime, Linden Lab is beta testing its own social features with new web profiles and has sent emails to its users with friend recommendations. A number of bloggers have commented on this coming feature with mixed feelings. Some like Tateru Nino aren't particurarly enthused. Others, like Pussycat Catnap, think it's a good idea that needs refinement. I stand in the camp of those not particurarly impressed. Do I really need friend recommendations? Or, another social stream to take care for? As far as I can tell, there is no way to aggregate all your friends' streams. What's the point of posting on someone's else profile other than an occasional comment? Why would this be more convenient than a regular IM? It may be too early to judge on this feature, perhaps this may appeal to the more social users of the grid, but my first impression is that it doesn't really add much to the way I use Second Life. My friend list in Second Life is not like having followers on Twitter or Google Plus. I don't take random friendship requests, as a matter of fact I discourage them. My friend list is strictly made of real friends, work contacts or people I need to keep in touch with. Anything more than that would make my list unmanageable. In my opinion, the reason why most of the people who work, build and create in Second Life, those whose main activity is not socialization, won't find much value in these social streams is that they fall short to their needs. That said, I can imagine this feature to have some appeal to those users who enjoy Second Life to socialize and meet new friends, though the lack of stream aggregation seems to be a major shortcoming. Groups, the best social toolI believe my profile as a Second Life user is a fairly common case. Like most people who need to promote events or products I need an efficient way to communicate to a vast audience. To promote our community I run blogs (different ones, focused on different needs) and have accounts in all the social networks where there is a consistent number of Second Life users. This is on top of the usual promotional activities inworld, of course.Many businesses and communities have web sites, forums, wikis, a presence in social networks to cover their needs. These are a lot of resources to manage, with lots of duplication and little integration. While this web presence helps for our "community branding" and as an easily accessible and maintainable information repository, it is not very effective as a promotional tool and requires a considerable work to replicate information both inworld and on the web. In our experience our web promotion brings modest results in terms of traffic. A couple of months ago I offered my opinion on how Linden Lab could improve event promotion in Second Life by extending groups with a web interface in this post. But, groups could be extended even more and be one of the most effective social tools with great benefit for Linden Lab and its users, both in and out Second Life. Are Lindens aware of this potentiality? Maybe, likely, but to date there is no sign of any plan to re-evaluate and improve groups. This is why I consider groups an undervalued, hidden gem and a powerful social tool Linden Lab apparently is not aware of. Until evidence to the contrary. How could groups be an effective social tool? Well, why not integrating all the resources Second Life people use on the web into groups? How about this: A web page as a front-end with some degree of customization for group presentation.A blog for group notices. Social networks should be integrated in it so that all notices can be automatically broadcasted. Of course, all new notices should be automatically delivered to group members as notices do today, but I would consider a subscription system for people who wants to receive automatic updates without being members.A wiki to store information, images, files.A forum with public and private sections. Having sections would be ideal to cover different needs in the same group, such as a private section for group officers. This could also be organized as an information stream the way Facebook or Google Plus work.Group owners should have the ability to make the group visible on the web.Think of the advantages: revamped groups could be excellent, more effective promotional and social tools, not only inworld but also on the web. There are literally thousands of groups in Second Life covering all kind of topics which could attract new prospective users and better promote the myriads of activities carried on in Second Life. Could there be a better way to show what Second Life is and how people use it than opening this massive amount of information to the web? The wiki and forum (or info stream) could also relieve group chats by part of the load stress they suffer today. There are a number of details to consider, of course. Not everyone appreciates the migration of user profile to a web interface due to the increased load time, for instance. Storage and bandwidth could be other issues. However, I think the advantages easily outdo the disadvantages and in my opinion this would be a very welcome improvement. What is your opinion? Feel free to post your comments, and if you like this suggestion please support it by spreading the word.

If you create a group and deed the land to it you can take advantage of a 10% land bonus. Check this blog post for more details: How to buy land for your group without bumping tier - MetaLibrary

Featured on MetaLibrary http://bit.ly/ijUN9P :matte-motes-bashful-cute-2:

For another source of information, you may want to take a look at MetaLibrary. The blog offers a selection of tutorials and useful information available on the web for SL residents.

Spike, when you deed your land to a group you also get a 10% bonus. It won't be much with the amount of land you have, but it is good to know should you decide to bump your tier to the next level. You can find more details on the group bonus here: http://metalibrary.posterous.com/how-to-buy-land-to-your-group-without-bumping

Don't jump to conclusion too fast, Void. I am perfectly aware that letting images display in an email is a way to track the existance of an email account. Anyone using MS Outlook is familiar with the warning the program gives when opening an email with embedded images. Outlook requires a confirmation from the user when an email has images when coming from an untrusted source, so there are ways to open an email without loading the images in it. In this specific case it was a deliberate choice after taking some countermeasures. As for the WHOIS info being sold or the registrar being insecure, I have had a number of domains registered under the same registrar for 12 years. Contact information is protected and several checks I have periodically done with WHOIS shows that no contact information is revealed. Even if that info was leaked or sold, it would have no relation with the domain I use with SL as those contact emails are under a different domain. Because of all I do to protect my accounts, the amount of spam I receive is very small. When it happens it's usually addressed to an email alias I have used to register to a web site, so it's easy for me to block the compromised address. Incidentally, I rarely use the account receiving spam to send email, as I prefer to send IMs inworld or other communication tools. That account is there mainly to receive email. In the rare event that I send an email through that account, I merely select it in Outlook from the list of accounts I have, so a key logger is out of question. I suppose the comment about MS Essentials is not addressed to me as I have never mentioned that program. However, for the record, I regurarly scan my computers and use 3 different security programs. I have no certainty that there was a leak and I have no reason to believe LL has leaked data. If data was leaked I am more inclined to think that the outsourced payment provider LL relies on may be at fault. There are a number of reasons to think that something has happened. My intent is to provide information that may help to understand what happened, not to point finger at LL.