Marianne Little

I remember I had very little money left. I think I was on the last 100 from the first purchase. I thought 2500 L was enough and that I did not need to buy more money when I had one good pair of heels and one pair of boots, a decent skin and a few things more. Like I should never buy more full priced stuff. 🤣 So I was searching stores for freebies and dollarbies, and in one store they were on a wall with ordinary priced things. I was like "Nooooo!" when accidentally I bought a belt for 75 L or something like that. It took most of the money I had left. 😢 So I can relate to people asking for cheap and free items. It did not take long before I bought more Lindens, and I do not dare to think how much I have spent... But I do not spend much on other things in RL, so this is my entertainment money.

That article is arguing two different points of view: A: "SL has been a salvation for many people. It’s their only thing that takes them away from looking around where they are and finally escaping." B: "They own a business and I’ve watched them reduce their prices to pennies just to get one sale a year. If you don’t know that billions of us on this earth lead lives of quiet desperation, you don’t know what the hell is going on with Second Life." So what is it, a salvation or a place where people lives in quiet desperation? To top it, the article is illustrated by a mesh house in a new developed Linden Homes region, while the article is about "I know a tiny shop hovering on a small parcel on one of the first regions, and it’s owned by a severely disabled woman who has had the 512 parcel since 2003 with her shop. It has the year 2003-2004 block furniture, block bed, some particle things, one of those red pins used for landmarks. It’s her pride and joy that she could make this while almost blind, with parts of her body missing while she is in a wheelchair." Why not use this as an illustration? Maybe I remember it wrong, but I heard that some of the very, very new users of Second Life got a parcel for life. Forgive me if I remember wrong. The stipend back from the early days, has paid the annual premium and still does, because it is higher than today's 300 L. (500 L) Even after the cost of Premium increased, the stipend cover that. Why pity those who has land in Second Life for free, they get back enough stipend to pay for Premium? Are they not a privileged class instead? If they still use SL, and it is their pride and joy, nothing better than that. Unless they do not log in anymore, and they are billed because they have forgotten SL. But in that case, they have enough so they do not notice it. With the latest free mesh avatar gifts, anyone can own a mesh body if they want. But why should they do it, when they are satisfied with a system body? Does not that make them powerful because they have self-confidence and does not care about outer beauty? That is what I have heard, not that people with ten - fifteen year old avatars are humble. Compare that to any other business who also has no sales, and has spent many thousands of §L on a brand new mesh build, vendors and landscaping around. And their land is not free. They pay and pay, until they are forced to close business. It is enough of them. I do not like articles like this one, in my brain they come out as just shy of cloying.

I am 100% sure that the title is a misleading. The original poster says: Emphasis mine.

I have the oldest Bento head, Simone, and it is updated to BoM. I am going to update to the new Evolution head as soon as Lelutka has a head that I like. Their Evolution heads are so far very, very different from Simone. I already see that there is no new makeup in events for other than Evolution heads, so I plan to update. I use the makeups that is pre Evolution for LeLutka, so I can wait until there is a head I really like.

This is why I buy secondhand gacha. Let us say I want to take a picture with my alts in Halloween costumes. I can send items back and forth. Gacha mesh clothing and accessories 1-3 years old can have great quality and very low prices. I think the majority want copy, in case they lose the clothes by mistake (deleting) or inventory loss. Every time we have gacha threads, the demand for copy is very strong. Especially when it is modifiable items. It is easy to tint and maybe mess with the texture box. I buy cheap gacha because I can afford to lose it.

It was both fun and sad to look at the Marketplace. I found things I have lost or deleted, and got a redelivery. But also so many things I do not have and the store is gone. I can guess very accurate what a "titanium rapier" had to be, but other things I have no idea what it was, and I will never know.

I am registered 5.Aug, but I do not save much from then. The oldest items I have is from Aug. 16 and 18. It is lingerie ~J~ Calliope from Szentasha Salome. The first snapshot and I had it as profile picture from Aug 18, 2007. And animations bow/curtsy made by Virrginia Tombola from Caledon Oxbridge. I had a poofy dress with lots of prims and walked around and curtsied to everyone. Sad that it is lost. I had camped to pay for the picture. It was easy to find camping chairs then. And the lingerie was a free under 30 days gift. Funny thing is that the store is still in Second Life, and still offer a gift to new residents. The store looks just the same. It is a walk back in time to what was expensive lingerie. It was one of the best freebies I got when I was new. I had bought Lindens in October the same year and bought black pumps from Shiny Things, because it was impossible to find shoes without bling, Cape and bonnet from Neferia Abel, some jewelry from Skye Qi, an updo from Miriel and a skin I have lost. I used hazel eyes from Miriel at least 1 year, maybe 2. The first Marketplace purchases is from July 2010. I have deleted all, but then comes Halloween decor, like the Big Red Barn in this picture: Bought October 9 2010. So I have the pictures to remember this purchase by. I have always liked to set up home in SL. I had deleted it, but I can have this redelivered from the Marketplace!

That neck fit makes me think.... It would look much better if mesh bodies was sold with 2 different necks. One for male heads, one for female heads. Both female and male bodies should have that. Too bad only one mesh head creator (Catwa) offer this. Her male fit neck has a strange cut in there under the chin. But I don't fault Catwa, she at least tries to do something about the "male body must use male head" and "female body must use female head". Like, why? And 2 neck fits on the bodies would look better, instead of having the head's neck widen unnaturally to meet the body.

The video is wrong on one point, that if you add a tattoo layer and it comes on top, you have to take off all the other tattoo layers and add them again to get them in the right order. You can click yourself and "Edit outfit" and click the wrench symbol. Then click on all layers up or down. If you have a layer wrong, you just click it until it comes in the right place.

He looks like a buff guy. Is it even possible to give him a lean look?

How important is the wardrobe? Signature Gianni* and Belleza Jake has most content made for them. But, Legacy male is upcoming in the clothes department. I will say that Legacy is a body that can be slimmer than the others. Gianni and Jake have big muscle built in that can not be really reduced by moving the muscle slider down. The muscles is smaller, but the mesh topography is what it was made as. Slink Physique male can also be slimmer. If Legacy male is upcoming, Slink is going down in the amount of clothing made for it. It is still enough to keep a male avatar, who has no special interest in a large wardrobe, happy. Not every vendor will have Slink or Legacy sizes, but it is still others. I would say that the look of the body is what matters. Unless you are a male Flickr model, or a blogger, who makes new outfits every week, you will find enough for these four. For the head, I will also suggest to take what brand you bought for yourself. It is easier to help if you only have to learn one type of HUD. At least if it is LeLutka or Catwa. They have the majority of male skin "faces" made for them. *Signature Geralt has not been picked up by many, and you have problems finding sizes for that body.

Do not buy it before you have tried "The P" The Physics C***. Or Birth with items like Mr. Smooth and Zeus. In my opinion, Aeros is yesterdays big thing (no pun intended).

After a heck of trial and error, I got it almost as I wanted. I have seen so many young looks, but I wanted a mature look. Do you use the Freya head and will show it? I am satisfied, the look is good enough for me. In another thread, we discussed buying shapes versus making your own. I can say that I have struggled so much with this head and the sliders, so spending 50 L on a shape was so worth it! https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/NBJun-Shape-For-CATWA-Gift-Head-Freya/19525183 I have made the eye opening smaller and the mouth thinner. The body is also very nice, short and slim. All I had to do was making the arms a bit longer, and larger hands and feet. Since this is a body where the foot slider really change the feet size, it came with small feet since it's made for a shape with fixed feet. I skipped the included stylecard since its for a young Asian male, but I can say that it is good. Kudos to this creator, he put together a fine look. Since I'm on a budget, I used 7 Deadly s{K}ins - SPLINTER skin, that is the group gift for May. Izzie's - Face Wrinkles - All Wrinkles 65% Izzie's - Face Wrinkles - Age Spots 65%, Izzie's - Catwa - Under Eye Lashes Concealer 08. Make sure the Under eye lashes concealer is under the wrinkles and age spots. Izzie sell many different packs of wrinkles, I used these, but try on all the other packs with wrinkles if you will age an avatar. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Izzies-Face-Wrinkles-Appliers/9778612 These Izzie fixers cost some, but I can use them on other skins, so it is an investment. Most skins in SL is young looking. This male skin is poreless ans smooth as porcelain. I also used the skin in browless and added >> Aeros Avatar Kitai << Enhancer :: brows :: low. At the Aeros store, fly up and look for the old skins, up in a tree there is a small store. On the floor is many packs with free brows on tattoo layer. I didn't need to change brows, but I like it.

I have been hoping for a "Stay at Home" premium offer. 👩‍⚕️ Like a quarter to reduced price. It would give all the new accounts a cheaper way to experience Premium. And also for people who return to SL after a long break. Yes, for all of us who may jump on a special offer. But it has not happened. In 2019 we could also pay another year for the old price, when they increased the Premium price. So that was 2 specials in one year.

The Bellisseria homes are popular, it is now posted frequent how many homes available. 1-2 times a week? So, if you decide if you will be Premium because you will have one of these homes, you may have to refresh the homes page a lot. Especially for the Houseboats and the Victorians. There are planned more themes of homes (it is super secret what the next themes will be) and also to build more of the ones already made. But it takes time. If you want a popular home now, you must refresh or set up an Auto-refresh system and hope that someone abandon it. It is not impossible, I have seen so many posts of people coming in the forum and ask for advice, and they get a home in 1-2 days.

If we use BOM, we does not risk to lose skins. The thing that is most risky, is if the store is closed and we have deleted the original container from our inventory. If there is no way to get redelivery, we can still rez new bodies from the original container. Sometimes HUDs go crazy in SL and I unpack a new body. I have done it maybe 2 or 3 times with Maitreya during all the time I had it. So don't delete it. The HUD can stop working, maybe. Possibly? The body will still work with alpha layers and BOM. I got the free Classic one on an alt, and I am using it only with BOM.

Disagreement is not targeting. Or posting laugh reactions to posts. It is an ignore function, but it is not a law that says you should ignore posters you disagree with. A discussion forum is for discussions. To demand you shut up if you don't agree = North Korea.

Yes, it is best to use clothes that fit, or simply don't buy. Send a polite notecard to the designer and say you tried on demos, but could not buy because it was no Legacy sizes. When people do that, some creators adapt. Also, with BoM, it is easy to add modesty patches that cover the nipples. So in case you still want to use loose tops, there are no visible nipples. 😉 So many stores have Legacy sizes now, it is not a problem. It is easier to find Legacy then Slink Physique, I found out. One of my alts has the free Classic Meshbody, and I found out that she can use tops for the Legacy well. Almost everything sit loose around the hips, like low jeans and bikinis. Shoes for Legacy fit like a dream. It is annoying that TMP is using so generic words like Meshbody, Legacy and Classic. I think it is so they show up first in search for "meshbody" when people search for a generic meshbody, not Meshbody brand.

I did not see that you posted in another thread before making your own. So I link to my reply instead of writing all over again. You also got another reply in that thread that I recommend. https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/454060-female-mesh-body/?do=findComment&comment=2111111 If you want to keep your skin and your face but still use all the new, modern clothes, get a meshbody that can use Bakes on Mesh. Now you probably get more confused, what is this BoM? As I wrote in my first reply, mesh bodies are attachments worn over the hidden default second life body - the one you have now. This also made all layers on the default body invisible, so skin creators sold appliers, that applied the skin on the mesh body. You could have whatever skin under the mesh body, it was not visible. The same had to be done with tattoos and clothing layers. LL made a change called Bakes on Mesh, BoM for short. This suddenly makes the things like skin, tattoos and clothes layers visible again, and show up on the mesh body. Now you can use your Redgrave skin, and it will be baked on any mesh body IF it is BoM or can be used with a BoM relay. I don't know if you were in SL after we got tattoo layers and alpha layers, so I try to explain what they are. Forgive me if you already know this. When we started SL, we had to buy all the makeups we wanted as skins. Our tattoos came on clothing layers, most common were underwear layers. We used invisiprims to hide the ugly misshaped feet, so we could wear prettier shoes. Tattoo layers changed how skins were sold. A tattoo layer cover the whole body. Head, hands and feet included. A new brand of creators used this to sell makeup only. It became oldfashioned to sell full makeup skins. Creators sold bare skins and makeup packs. It was a revolution in avatar appearance, since LL also let us use more than one layer. We could use a skin and layer as much makeup as we want, from different creators. Tattoo layers are very versatile and are used for everything, makeup, tattoos, hairbases, scars, freckles and also as clothing layers. To wear a full body suit, you had to wear several clothing parts before. Now, the whole suit goes on a tattoo layer, click and add it as one. This also meant that "add" replaced "wear" if you will use more than 1 layer. Wear replaces it, add adds a new layer. Alpha layers replaced the old invisiprims - that it totally removed from SL. You can wear them but they are not doing anything. Here you can also add invisiprims, to hide your feet in boots, your shirt, your jacket and so on. Meshbodies gave us beautiful bodies, but they represented a step back since all these layers became hidden under the new body. Creators adapted and started to sell appliers. Same for mesh heads, there had to be new appliers for them as well. Now we are in the position that we can choose to wear appliers on mesh bodies or let the layers show up instead. We can even do both, wear a skin as the base, and wear both layers and appliers over. All this has made avatar customization more complicated, but if you choose to use BoM, you do not have to think about appliers. You add and take off your layers from the inventory, as you are used to. You can wear your old tattoos like Garden of Ku, or buy new ones. Just make sure new ones are marked "BoM" or "Bakes on Mesh". Under is an example. My oldest parts is the tattoos worn on underwear layers, then new and old tattoo layers.

@Dano Sealeposted a good video here, but it may be directed to those who already know the terms about mesh avatars. If you need to break it down further, don't be afraid to ask. Because Linden Lab did not upgrade the basic avatar we have had for years, years and years, residents decided to make it invisible and wear custom made mesh bodies over. The first was hands and feet, maybe you remember them? I don't know how many years you were away. Also add-on breasts (Lola's Tangos the best known) and then someone made butt and legs to avoid the butt going flat when bending over and the knees misshaped. Finally someone put all this together in one and the mesh body was born. Please notice that the majority of bodies is neck and down, not including the head. This because people wanted to keep their faces, and the first mesh heads were few and did not respond to sliders. Several designers makes meshbodies, and when you see an ad say "Maitreya" they mean the meshbody Maitreya Lara, that is often only called just Maitreya. Same goes for all other brands, if a dress is only marked "For Maitreya and Hourglass" the designer of the dress promise it will fit those bodies. Others will not fit. But there are some cheap knock-offs that has the same body measurements as the big brand, so it is trial and error for the customer. You will see that Maitreya has very much content made for it, but those who wear Ebody say that Maitreya sizes fit it so... I am tempted to test for myself. Heads are different, there are not lots of heads and they respond to (almost all) head sliders, meaning you can try to make it look individual. I would recommend you to pick up all the freebies in the video over, follow it and see the result. Then you can decide if you will take off the mesh head and use only the body, and keep the head you are used to. The body is the important thing to change, because it is almost impossible to find new clothes and shoes without a mesh body. NB: It is demos for heads, bodies and clothes. TRY DEMOS FIRST!!! Unless it is a freebie or gift, you can get it just to see how it looks.

Have you tried AK heads yet? They even have a 1 L mesh Bento head. But it is a group gift, and the group is 150 L to join.

You use a system skin, right? You can try the free eye fix that @Maitimohas made? https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Gubbinz-Catwa-Eye-Fix-BOM/19516955

The trouble you get there, is that the Freya head have a long nose. There are no slider for nose length, so Freya's nose can never duplicate the nose on the older mesh head. Many things can be edited on Bento mesh heads, like eyes, mouth, chin and nose width/bulbous/bridge. But nose length? It does not move, unless you make the head very short, but then all proportions of the head is squashed. Shopping for a demo is looking for the nose length, and then start to work on the other parts. I am super happy for the generosity by giving out the free Freya head, and got it for my avatars, but it is not going to be used by me.

It is not very easy to adjust, it fits a woman better. The beard is as it is and is rigged so it can't be adjusted. I have 7 full priced Bento heads among my avatars, this was just a fun and not very serious experiment without using more money. Your opinion is noted.

I am posting the new free Catwa head here too, since it is maybe no one who see it in another thread. To avoid making a huge post, I set credits behind spoiler.