Sonya Bigboots

Lori, That must be so frustrating. It sounds like you have done most of the common sense things to try and solve this. I had a period when my avatar had real trouble loading and I was always getting the white cloud of doom while logging in and occasionally Ruthed, then suddenly it just stoped being a problem - it occasionally happens now at peak load times. You could try searching through your inventory using the recent tab -- that seems to force SL to refresh you inventory info sometimes so helping with subsequent loading.How many items are in your inventory - have you so many that the server can't find the items you are wearing quickly? If you have a lot you could try deleting the junk you haven't even looked at in years, you will be surprised how much you can get rid of without noticing it's gone. Box outfits you want to keep but rare use ( or archive them onto note cards) to take up less space in your inventory.If you are running the pheonix and SL2 viewer on the same computer... have you set each viewer up in a totally different folder so that one viewer isn't overwriting files the other viewer will want to use later?Has your firewall decided it doesn't like some updated viewer files and is refusing to give them access to the internet? Most firewalls will list anything they have decided to block. Be careful though before you disable any firewall security - it might be blocking something for a good reason.I don't really approve of alts generally, but have you tried setting up an alt to test if it is a problem with your computer &/or viewer, or if it is just a problem with your main avatar or that main avatar's excessively large inventory?Removing absolutely everything - all clothing. attachments and huds from your avatar (even skin and shape - replace them with blank new ones), logging out then logging back in again? If things work fine while "naked" try adding items one at a time and logging out and back in again until you find the problem item (normally an attachment) that is causing the problems while loading.Hoping something I have said helps (though I suspect you may have already tried much of this) Sonya.

I assume that Linden Labs itself doesn't have a problem with "helping" merchants or assume everybody that makes a mistake once when listing an item is lazy with the ambition to get even lazier. Sorry Rya, but that gross generalisation was uncalled for. There is a world of difference between somebody making a mistake once, and someone who habitually lists everything as general without even thinking about a maturity rating. It is being de-listed without being told why in detail that annoys people. That's not being lazy - that's wanting the information you need to not repeat the same mistake again. I am sure the people at Linden Labs are smart enough to realise they need to encourage and empower creators, because it is the user-created content that is SL's unique selling point.

In retrospect, I think I posted in haste - I've taken out the references to "unfair" out of the initial post- it would have been more accurate to say I did not understand why it was delisted when similar and much more explicit items are listed as general in the marketplace.

The wrong catergory thing has happended to me too, But some form of policing the categories is required as otherwise things could be listed here there and everywhere. What would be useful though is a brief note telling you what the correct category is, as sometimes if you do not know a category exists it can be hard to find. I wonder if there is a list of all the available categories somewhere?

Well, I suppose it something that supposedly things like this are looked at by a Linden. I guess they are busy and don't have time to look at things in detail. But most of us have busy real lives, and don't have time to time to fill out support tickets if they get it wrong... I never have used a support ticket and probably only would if something fairly major cropped up. But having items delisted makes you wonder what is the point in taking time to create things? Then it takes time to amend the item and relist it. Wouldn't it make more sense to simply change an items to adult content rather than delisting it, notify the creator of the change in rating, and give them chance to appeal if they thought the decision was unjust?

I have just had an item delisted from the marketplace. So what experience have other traders of making mistakes when listing items, so I don't make them too as having to relist items just wastes everybody's time - mine included. -------------------- I edited this as I posted in haste initially. I've regained my saint-like equalibrium now :) 

Price would depend largely on what you want, the level of detail and features you want, and the time it took to create. Maybe you should post some reference pictures here showing exactly what you want. I had never heard of Khan the Betrayer, but a quick 2 second search on Google suggests he is a armored soldier from Warhammer games. But the range of different images suggests that different people envisage this character looking different, with different colour schemes. That sort of thing shouldn't be too difficult, but it also depends what other features and level of detailing you want. For example, it is fairly easy to build prim weapons, but if you wanted them scripted then you should expect to pay more for for the avatar. If you wanted a dedicated AO provided, then that would be quite a lot of work and again would bump up the price. Or you could ask different people to do different parts of the work. For example, one person built the gun, and then somebody else wrote the scripts for it. If you wanted to use this avatar on some Warhammer sims (I think there are a few in SL) they may have their own dedicated scripts that would have to be put into any weapons you wanted to use there and they may not supply these, preferring you to buy weapons directly from them. If you want the avatar to be exclusive you may have to pay a lot more than if the creator retains the right to sell unlimited copies of the avatar to other people. If you want you can contact me in world, and once I know what it is you want we could talk about a price. I would ask for a small retainer up front (150L to cover the cost of uploading textures and some of my time), but I would show you the avatar worn once completed and if you didn't like it you didn't have to buy it, or we could discuss any modifications you wanted. I would be wary of anybody that insisted on full payment up front for an item that hadn't been created yet. Why should you pay for something if you don't like it. Also, I would not want to script items or offer support for scripted items so if you wanted functional weapons you would need to hire a scripter or import DSC of CSC scripts yourself.

If you are new to Secondlife, it can be sometimes difficult to find somewhere to rez and unpack boxes. Sometimes a shop will have a dedicated "rezzing" zone for your purchases, or you can use a public sandbox. Just rez the box on the ground, then the products within it can be extracted. Some items will be "no-copy" so can only be taken from the box one time, and others set up so copies can be taken as many times as you want. Some boxes will be set up to automatically unpack if you click on them, and others you will have to click on and unpack 'manually'. If you don't have access to land where you can rez items - no problem. Some people new to SL don't realise that if you wear the box you can then click to "edit" it, and then go to the contents tab. You can then drag items directly from the box you are wearing into your inventory without having had to rez it on land. This works on about 90% of boxes, but some you will still have to rez on the ground to unpack. Also, it is useful to make sure you set up some clearly named folders and subfolders in your inventory, so you can find things easily when you want to use them. It is surprising how quickly you amass items in your inventory and it can become very disorganised very quickly. It is worth mentioning that not all freebie items are legal. Some are prirated illegal copies, and if the Lindens find you wearing illegal copies or storing illegal items in you inventory they are within their rights to shut down your account. So it it allways better to buy freebies from legitimate sources, which will often be the original creator.

Hi Kal, The tiny avatars I've seen aren't done with scripts - I think they are done with a minimised body shape and deformer animations that shrink the body below it's normal minimum size, then fold it in on itself, so that the arm and legs would be folded in two so halfing their length, the body's folded in two and the head hidden inside the torso. A prim body is then worn over the top of this. Just try picking up a freebie "tiny" avatar and they normally come with the body shapes and AO you need to make them work. I'm not sure there is a way of taking a "normal" undeformed and properly proportioned human avatar body and just making it smaller scale than normal using scripts, but I'd love to be proved wrong.

Deffinitely looks like that cat is plotting to kill somebody....

What a full answer... take a Gold star! Lots of good info there Sion... no big surprises but it nice to hear other people think the same as me. I'll have to re-read this again when I'm designing outfuts rather than working on base layers. Subtelty and not being visible to the naked eye is the balancing act I am debating at the moment with myself... when you get something just barely visible in your own viewer, you wonder how it will look to other people using different viewers and graphics options. At the end of the day I will have to make stuff i like, and hope it pleases some other people too. And glad to see that at least one other person wants to be able to "cover up" when they want, without ruining the look of an outfit. Do the rest of you folks agree with Sion?

Seems the general concensus is "Hyper-real"! Judging from your photo's you like subtle highlights too Sion, I much prefer the subtle highlights to the great big white marks covering most cheap SL latex. But are there people with a chalk fetish out there that really like that look? Somebody must be buying that stuff. What other brands do people like, and why? I hadn't come accross Elixir before, so I'll have to check out their stuff. And importantly for me... what do people want, but just can't find anywhere to buy in SL? What features do people want, or don't want, in their latex clothes? Do people want "street legal" and "risque" versions of the same outfit in the same box, or are they no bothered because they won't be wearing latex in PG sims? Do people want versions with and without the highlights, or do they just want the creator to make that decision for them? What little gripes do you have about latex outfits you already have that you'd like fixing? Does an item of clothing being no-mod put you off buying it? Any replies will probably feed into the work I am doing right now as I create some latex greyscale master templates before creating specific clothes, so any info appreciated.

Thanks Wildcat.... but being a perfectionist I might be a little while. At the moments I am having a bit of a rethink...I had got very realistic baselayer greyscales done, if you like the textured fabric to cut and sew actual outfits from.... but I think in the light of what people have been saying I need to "dumb" them down a bit to a more stylised look people expect. After all, a lot of people in SL have never even seen latex worn in RL, just in photo's using flash photography. And then last night I realised how to modify the basic clothing templates to get around a problem that slows down all latex clothing creators.... that will take a few days and may or may not work, but having thought of the idea I can't not try, even though it means rebuilding from scratch.

Lovely outfit Wildcat, And also quite simplistic and minimal. I did have a quick look at the Graves shop, and it seems nice stuff, stylised with a bit of a sci-fi twist, if a little tame. More Fashion than Fetish... maybe's there's a seedy back room I haven't found, nestling furtively in a virtual soho alleyway... ----------------- ...and my cats adore me. ...at least, they better adore me if they still want to get their Whiskas and free access to "Mr Squeeky" their rubber mouse toy - see, they even have the same interest in rubber slaves as me!

Well, in my time I've seen a lot of impossible looking latex stuff in Rl..... Seems that people are wanting the impression of real latex - not the heartache when the damned stuff rips, the zip snarls or the talcum powder all over the bedroom carpet when you are squeezing into something very tight. You don't want to find your favorite latex SL dress has perished with age. White highlights have been giving me some grief Marianne... without any the latex looks flat and unshiny... too much and it looks like you have got Talc on you and you haven't bothered to the buff the latex. And also they will look slightly different on each persons viewer, monitor set up, and body shape. I was experimenting with true-colour highlights and shadows... but as you say we are used to photoshopped images of latex taken using flash photography... and those flashes create bright white highlights. At the end of the day I will create what I like, and probably do some stuff that is realistic, and some that is very stylised and outlandish. But it sounds like I would be wasting my time trying to get zips visible and latex stretch marks showing - people don't want that, they want the idealised version with a few details to sell the beautiful illusion.

Yes, the graves stuff is good... probably a bit overpriced, but nice. More an impression of real latex than realistic. By saying you like the sci-fi do you mean you like latex in SL that does things that physical limitations won't allow in RL, or just that you would like to see Princess Leia in a Rubber toga?

I quite agree Dana.. Latex is SL is the easiest material to do badly... and one of the hardest to do realistically.

Thanks Rolig, good general advice as always, but its the vehicle not derezzing when I stand up that is the key bit I need some help with. Maybe I should have stated the vehicle might be roaming the SL skies, and not just staying on my own land. Is 'the vehicle not derezzing when you stand up and the vehicle is no longer on your own land' part of the vehicle script, or something done by another script? I know it can be done, just not how.

I want to make a zeppelin, (or alternatively a spaceship, plane or boat).. Something I can rez, fly around but which will not just derez as soon as I stand up form the pilots seat and will allow me to wander around the zeppelin and talk to guests without the floor disappearing from beneath my feet. Ideally it would derez when I logged out (I don't want to be a litter bug) but otherwise stay rezzed while I was onboard, and be compatible with mega prims. Any public domain scripts or resources out there that could help? I am really bad at scripting so I need some help on this folks.

I'm taking a straw poll about latex as I am working on some new items. I've never been really happy with the latex gear available on SL, but maybe that's because I know what its like in RL whereas a lot of SL residents may have never known what RL latex is really like to touch and wear. I don't want to put a lot of work on features there is no demand for, or for added realism to be seen as flaws. So... What sort of Latex outfits do people want in secondlife, but can't find?(Keep it clean.. kids may be viewing the forums...Any suggestions that can't be posted on the public forums could be sent to me prvately in world) Also what do you prefer... A- realistic latex (with a few creases, bubbles and variance in colour)B-classic SL cartoon latex (with a smooth background colour and some white highlights)C- a mixture of the two.Thanks for any input and requests

Many thanks, that will be really useful Wildcat. I don't think there's any way to give you a "Correct Answer" setting on this new forum is there? But you have my thanks. ...Although now I have to worry about what my cats are planning!

Well, a friend of mine created a lovely sim, and turned off flying to force people to use and explore all the interesting areas she had made. I repected the flying ban even though I knew how to easily fy if I wanted to.. It forced you to look around and notice things. But I'm funny like that, I tend to walk while shopping anyway - it gives the images time to rez and stops me smacking my head into walls But she got so much grief from lazy people wanting to be able to fly in the end she gave up and let people fly wherever they wanted. I don't think it had much affect on weekly sales figures, just made the whole sim laggy so people would get fed up and leave. I think its best to give people on shopping trips the option of rezzing in the actual shopping area, and role players to rez somewhere else. A good teleport network to specific shopping areas is a good idea too, so if I want women's shoes I can just TP there by clicking on a signpost rather than having to search for them. If you can teleport close to where you want to be I don't see the need to fly. Most people fly when shopping because steps have been badly designed so can't be used easily by taller avatars, they are frustrated becasue the shopping area is badly laid out, or they can't figure out how to get to different levels. From personal experinence if I have to resort to using the map, I will probably give up and go somewhere else to shop, as lets face it, the map doesn't work very well for most people.

Hi, Does anybody know where I can acess a Linden to British pound exchange rate calculator? It is a bit long winded to have to do the maths to convert Linden's to Dollars, and then convert the result to British pounds. And I imagine people based in other countries would like to know about links to info that converted Linden's to their own home currency as well. I also seem to remember something about plans to be able to change your default currency from dollars... did anything ever come of that?

Personally, I've completed all the Second Life levels and I'm playing it all again in Hard Mode. That's the one where the Money Trees never have any cash left in them. Seriously though, everybody who plays SL is different. Most people new to the game are curtious and polite, and grateful for any help. We shouldn't let a few bad apples spoil things for the majority of new residents. But you have to be on my access list to get into my home.

I agree with Irene - I think this is your freind's using display names. If you click on the profiles for further info it should show their permanent name as well as the display name they are currently using.