Jennifer Boyle

Different people have different perspectives. For me, SL is a hobby. Compared with many, even at the new premium membership rate, it isn't expensive. For comparison, if someone played 18 holes of golf every weekend at a local public course, it would cost $988 per year. A year of Netflix costs $183. So, I don't have a problem with an increase to $99 per year. Even at that rate, I'll still make money by having a premium membership instead of a free one, because the total value of the stipend and the land tier, which I would otherwise rent for L$0.25 per sq m per week, is $115. Your stipend alone is worth $104 per year, so, even if nothing else that comes with a premium membership is worth anything to you, you'll still come out $5 per year better with it.

I own a group that owns multiple parcels in the same mainland region. If it makes any difference, most are contiguous. It would be a great convenience to be able to manage the ban lists of all of them together. On the rare occasion when someone needs to be banned, I have to add them to each parcel's ban list, one at a time. Is there any way to streamline this? If it can't be done directly, could it be done by a script? Is such a script available. Thanks.

Thanks for the replies.

Is there any way, other than rezzing them and looking at them, to find out if two things in inventory are the same or different? I am thinking both when two items have the same name, but are different, and when two items have different names, but are identical.

I was misinformed. Thanks for educating me.

I know that. I didn't say they did, but my understanding is that, after a month or so, they do.

I can't read all of this thread, but I'm hoping that Lindens do, so I'll add a few thoughts. First, my point of view. I have been in SL since 2007 with no long absences. It is a hobby for me, and I have no desire to do anything commercial. I make a few basic things out of prims for my own and friends' use, tweak my shape, and occasionally do some very basic scripting, but beyond that, I buy what I need. I don't mind spending money; SL is cheaper than a lot of other hobbies. In short, I am a consumer, like probably most residents. I have no problem with increasing the price of premium accounts, which has been the same as long as I've had one. I think it would have been wiser to increase it incrementally over years instead of waiting until now and increasing it by almost 40 percent, but that's water under the bridge. The technical issue that I would most like to have addressed is slow rezzing when I logon or land in a region. Often, maybe usually, I have to wait, and wait, and wait for things to rez, even when I'm in one of the two sims where I spend most of my time, even though my cache is the largest permitted size and is on an SSD, and even though I have a powerful computer and a fast connection. There is at least one forum thread about this issue. Some recent developments are great, like animesh, and really add something to my experience. Others, like pathfinding and experiences, which I still don't understand, do nothing AFAIK to improve my SL, and I wonder why LL put resources into them. The feature that I would most like to see added is the ability to use a VR headset. It could be a paid add-on feature. I have been a premium member for many years. My reasons are that, first, it's been essentially free when the land allowance and stipend are taken into account and it's paid annually, so, why not? The features that have value for me are the better support, which I haven't needed recently but has been a lifesaver in the past, and the increased limits on groups and offline IMs. I care nothing for the premium gifts; I've never seen one I wanted. I looked at the premium destinations today; there were none that interested me; they didn't seem to interest others, either, as no one was at any of them. So, again, from my point of view, LL is wasting resources on things that have no value. I have alts with premium accounts; the attraction for them is Linden homes, and nothing else. The major shortcoming of premium accounts is that content can get deleted if the bill isn't paid. (Yes, I saw Patch Linden's post saying that there was a grace period.) It has always seemed strange to me that someone could pay for years, then miss payments and get content deleted, while someone with the same content who never paid anything could keep the content indefinitely for free. Why not just turn the unpaid premium account into a basic account, leaving the inventory intact and returning inworld content from land with unpaid tier? Fix this, and premium accounts will be more attractive. If groups are resource hogs, then LL should look for ways to decrease the number. It would be a good start to delete groups that have no owners---I know that there are groups the owners of which have closed accounts. Second, charge a weekly fee for keeping a group. It could be small enough to not be a barrier to anyone with a reason for maintaining one and still get rid of a lot of groups, especially ones whose owners have no further use for them but no incentive to delete them. Perhaps there should be limits on the number of members that can be increased by paying more, or maybe the group fee could be something like L$0.10 per member per week. That would be more palatable if group owners could charge members a small weekly fee for membership. We need multiple levels of membership. I agree with others that free accounts should not be able to cash out. We need a very basic free account for new members who are trying out SL. These accounts could have a lower number of groups, like 20, and no stored offline IMs (They could still have them sent to email.), perhaps a limit of 12,000 or so for inventory, and a VERY CAREFULLY SELECTED simplified feature set. ). The problem with the basic viewer setting when it was tried before was that the feature set was so limited that one could not experience SL with it, so the first thing newcomers did was to look for a way to turn it off.) Could these accounts have a time limit, like six months or a year, after which they had to be upgraded or get cancelled? We need a really low-priced basic account, something like $2 per month or $20 per year, almost a token amount, with abilities like the current basic account. We need at least two levels above that. Should all accounts be allowed to have unlimited inventory? Perhaps there should be a size limit that increases with the level of account. Perhaps friends lists should work that way, too. Could higher level accounts have more attachment points? It would be nice if we could have some kind of a la carte choices about limits, because one size doesn't fit all. Something like extra group slots for a few Linden dollars a week. Extra offline IMs for a small fee. Extra land capacity for a fee. Maybe charge separately for some features, like voice? Etc. Finally, as I said in another post, I think LL would be wise to use focus groups of residents, a LOT, and the cost of doing focus groups inworld is almost nothing.

Years ago, there was a journalist that had a female avatar in SL. She went around interviewing people, and had a blog where she reported the interviews. There were also some videos or graphic novels online in one of which she came out of the monitor into RL. Does anyone remember her name?

Exactly. I have been in SL over 12 years, and I still struggle with the complexity, particularly the complexity of newly-introduced features, and I am not some computer-illiterate technophobe; I am the person that my relatives and social friends seek out to solve their problems with their computers and devices. Many of the developments are wonderful. Fitmesh cloths are what I dreamed of for years. Mesh bodies are a definite improvement. Outfits make my life so much better. The stability of the servers has improved by an enormous amount. Etc. I have often thought that, if I first tried SL today, I might well have left for good after a few days because I would have despaired of ever understanding it well enough to have fun. LL really needs to give attention to how they can make the new user experience better by making it less challenging. Here are a few ideas: Since mesh avatars are the state of the art, stop offering classic avatars to new residents. That would simplify things for them. We really need multiple levels of complexity of the viewer. LL tried that a few years ago. They mistakenly made the basic level so limited that nobody wanted to use it. They need multiple levels, but they need to think more carefully about what and how many levels they need and what abilities the levels need. Focus groups would be useful for figuring this out, and it would be dirt cheap to use them inside SL. Come to think of it, within-SL focus groups could help SL a lot with decision-making regarding how they could use available resources in ways that residents most value. I had not thought of this until read the quoted post: Could LL promulgate standards for avatars analogous to the standards in the computer industry? For example, if I buy a mesh body, mesh head, mesh hands and feet (if they didn't come with the body). hair, clothing, etc. that are "Linden Lab Standard 2019-23A-compatible, they will all work well together. It's a challenge for me to make it all work together. It must be a nightmare for a new resident. Or, even better, can LL dictate standards for creators? We don't want to limit creativity, so they should be free to create whatever they want, but shouldn't there be a standard they can meet and advertise meeting?

LMAO!

This is offered FWIW. I don't know if it will solve your problem, but it's easy to do and might work. If it doesn't, it isn't a setting. There is a folder [on Windows 10 computers] in C:\Users\Username\Appdata\Roaming that has a name like your viewer. Copy the one from one of the desktops to the same location on your laptop, replacing any existing files with the copied ones. Then your settings on the laptop will be exactly the same as on the desktop.

With a small number of exceptions for women, attached genitalia need to be manually hidden or removed when mesh clothes are worn so they won't extend through the clothing. Some genitalia packages even include a script that can be added to clothing to automatically hide them when the item is donned and unhide them when it is removed, but it's mostly useless because most clothes are no-mod. One would think that cooperating with each other to provide this functionality out of the box would give both genitalia and clothing makers a marketing advantage that they could have at almost no cost. Why are they not doing it? Or, are some doing it, and I just don't know about them?

I agree. I have tried a number, and I currently use (with Maitreya Lara) the ones that come with the VAW rigged mesh girly part. There are multiple choices of styles and colors. The only shortcoming for me is that there are no corresponding appliers, which would be nice to have to wear with sheer panties.

That is exactly my story, except I've never had a prolonged absence. I spend a few hours trying demos and get really tired of it and give up until next time. I'm wondering if there is a consultant that I could pay to find the right mesh head for me. It is important to me that I keep looking like me; I'd just like a better version, not a different face.

Maitreya gives away a kit with which you can make an applier if you have a tattoo texture. It is simple. I don't know if Slink has something similar.

What I do is this: Create a subfolder within the "Maitreya Mesh Body - Lara" named "Feet" Create three subfolders within the "Feet" subfolder named "High," "Medium," and "Flat." Copy the feet into each of the subfolders. Wear each of the copied feet one at a time, and use the HUD to choose the position that corresponds to the name of the subfolder. When composing an outfit, wear whichever of the feet works with it. When you save the outfit, the link in it will point to the copy of the feet that you saved with the correct position.

Premium, paid for annually, costs $72 per year. You get a L$300 per week stipend. At $L250 per dollar, a year's stipends are worth $62.40, so the net cost of the premium membership is less than $10 per year. The benefits are easily worth that. I rent most of my land tier for L$0.25 per square meter per week, so the 1024 m that comes with premium is worth L$256 per week, or L$13,312 per year, equivalent to $53.25. I come out $43.65 per year ahead with premium. It's certainly worth while for me in that I save over $40 per year that I can spend on other things. In addition, the enhanced tech support can be valuable. I have not needed it in several years, but the few times I needed it, it was extremely good to have. The extra groups are nice, too. I don't use any of the other premium features.

Let me add a few thoughts. First, I do not understand the thinking of people who do things that make other people's lives worse without making their own better, and I never will. I have a pretty nice house: You are welcome to visit: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Danim/95/116/57 I routinely leave it open to everyone in contrast to my RL practice of always locking my doors. In SL, people can't do any real damage. I ban people who persistently litter and those who behave badly toward others. Such people are rare. The ban list has 85 names, and I have owned the land almost 10 years. I am glad for other people to enjoy my house when I can't, which is most of the time. Occasionally someone installs a skybox. I periodically look to see who has objects on my land, and, if someone I don't know has some, I return the objects, and ban the owner if they had more than a few. I spend less than 5 minutes a month on that. I just don't understand why anyone is so selfish as not want to share when it costs nothing to do it. I also (try to) enjoy flying, and I particularly like to take off from my house and fly to some other place, which seems natural to me, so flying only in a "flying sim" wouldn't cut it. Again, I just don't understand why so many people want to make it hard to enjoy flying when it doesn't help them in any way. The only people it could help are people who get joy from making others' lives less enjoyable. One reason people think they should be able to fly over others' land in SL is that they can in RL. Helicopters fly low over my RL house all the time. Another thing I don't understand is why people set such short delays on security orbs, unless their intent is malicious. Why would they not allow enough time for inadvertent trespassers to see a warning and leave? Finally, as multiple people have pointed out, people are within their rights to use ban lines and security orbs with little or no delay, but there are many rights that people have in RL and in SL that nice people choose not to exercise.

I have a Bueno Fox jacket that I really like because it layers well over a lot of my fitmesh clothing.

Thanks, everyone!

Is there any clothing line that includes fitmesh that layers really well? Like sweaters and jackets that fit over shirts, shirts with tails tucked in or left out that work with skirts and pants, etc. It seems like a creator could make clothes that layer well with their other clothes.

It surprised me that no one has already said anything here about the reason I don't like no-mod mesh clothing. I wear a Maitreya Lara body. Maitreya has made available an auto-hider script that, when placed in an object, automatically hides the areas that need to be hidden when the object is worn, and unhides them when it is removed. This is a great convenience. With no-mod items, I have to place the script in a prim and wear the prim in addition the clothing item. Sometimes, I'm wearing multiple prims. I can't even link the prims to the clothing. There was a previous version of the auto-hider script that was not as good. I have no-mod clothing items that came with that version in them; I can't replace it with the current version. I also have a few items that came with the script in them, but the hidden areas are not exactly the ones I need to hide, and I can't fix them. It would cost the creator nothing to let me have this functionality by making their clothing modifiable. It certainly feels like they don't care whether they inconvenience their customers or not. I am always on the lookout for good-quality modifiable mesh clothing. As creators' skills at making fitmesh have improved, I have less need to use the auto-hider, so this may be an issue that goes away in time. "I don't want people shifting around the colour because that's going to make the final product look like garbage and would reflect poorly on me and my ability to make clothes." If an item is modifiable, how can its appearance after it has left the creator's control reflect on the ability of the creator? Isn't it obvious that a modifiable item could have been modified by someone else?

I logged onto the forums with the intention of posting a question about this issue, but I found this thread. I agree that this is a recent issue, an something outside my control has changed. I spend 90+ percent of my time on one or the other of two sims, and my cache is the maximum allowed size and is on an SSD. I have been observing the statistics bar. When I logon to one of the sims where I spend a lot of time, during the first several seconds, the cache hit rate may drop below 10%, but then it gradually rises to 100% . After it gets to 100%, I'm still looking at blurry or gray things for some time, which seems strange. My computer is plenty powerful (Ryzen Threadripper 2950X, GTX 2080Ti), so it isn't the problem. I just hope LL fixes this soon.

My Facebook account was closed several years ago because I was not a real person. I know that many other accounts that obviously belonged to SL avatars were left alone then, and many others were, like mine, closed. I have no idea why mine was targeted. But, no, FB doesn't want us.

I don't know about other bodies, but with Maitreya, just make an applier with a transparent texture, and apply it to the same layer you want to remove. Why would you need to remove one instead of just turning the layer off?