Jennifer Boyle

Charolotte, have you got a new forum avatar, or did I only just notice? You look absolutely stunning.

That's not my experience. The one time I was being griefed with self-replicating objects, I went on chat support and, within a few minutes, a Linden came to my house to solve the problem. I couldn't have expected anything better. That was a couple of years or more ago.

I have myriad posts by merchants about how bad MP is. Let me tell you that it is terrible from a consumer's point of view, as well. Yesterday I was helping a friend outfit his avatar. What we were buying was inexpensive, and the easiest way to get it done efficiently was for me to buy the no transfer things he needed as gifts. There was no in-store option for buying as a gift, so I used MP. ALL of the g0dd@mned deliveries failed. We wasted a lot of time waiting. Today I re-purchased the same items. Again, all of the deliveries failed, and we wasted more time waiting, and didn't get to use the things we wanted to use. Can someone tell me how a company that controls ALL of the software involved in these transactions and employs professional software developers could produce something that works this poorly? It seems like they would have to be trying to make something that wouldn't work. Why can't they make their own two products talk to each other?

I have a house that is located on adult mainland that is owned by a group that another avatar and I own. I have had a house on this land since the summer of 2009, when Zindra opened, although I have had the current house only a couple of months. During the last three days I have been having two problems that I have never had before. One is that I fall through the floor. This occurs in only certain places, but the locations seem to stay the same. It is just as if the prims making up the floor were phantom, but they are not. Since it started it seems to be constant. The other problem is that I cannot walk in certain areas. It is just as if there were an invisible prim there that is stopping me, but there is none. This seems to always occur in the same areas and it has been constant since it started. Can anyone offer and explanation and suggest a cure/ Thanks for any help.

It just struck me yesterday that I am experiencing virtually no lag lately. It does take a little while for everything to rez when I TP to some place with a lot of avatars or textures, but I am just not having anything like the lag we used to have. The change was gradual enough that I didn't really notice. Could it be because less people are in world now?

I have not seen them, but, if I did, I would be suspicious that the creator was infringing Nike's trademark. Just as I was writing the above sentence, a question came into my mind about trademarks. Trademarks are registered for specific uses. For example, if I registered "Boyle's Best" as a trademark to be used for fresh produce, anyone who wanted to could register it for a line of clothing. What I just started wondering about is if Nike's, and most other RL trademarks, cover virtual goods. If the registered their name and the swoosh for athletic clothing, does that really cover its use in virtual clothing that has no physical existence? After all, the purpose of granting exclusive rights to trademark holders is to keep others from using the mark on goods that are similar to what they sell, misleading consumers about their origin. No one would ever confuse virtual shoes with real shoes. Just wondering.

You are absolutely right. The issue raised, caused me to want to ask a not-too-closely-related question that I have been wondering about. I recently noticed an IP Replacement in my inventory. As far as I could tell, there was no way for me to know what had been replaced. As I understand DMCA procedures, something was removed because someone had filed a DMCA notification, and my recourse, if I did have the right to possess the item, would be to file a counter-notification, which would result in restoration of the item. If I can't tell what was removed, how can I make an intelligent decision about how confident I am that I have the right to possess it? Further, how can anyone in SL know that she has the rights to anything that she didn't create herself? There is no way I can know with certainty that a person who sells or gives something to me has the necessary rights. Therefore, I can never legitimately file a counter-notification because it will always be doubtful that I had the right to have the item. It also occurred to me that there is a ready avenue for major griefing. Someone could create an item, sell it or give it away to many people, and then file a DMCA notification. It would be really effective if it were something that many people would incorporate into their own creations. Think megaprims. Even if a victim could produce a transaction history that documented her purchase of the item, she could not prove that she had received the right to use it as she was using it, or to sell it. Absent a license on a no-mod notecard, she could never prove what rights she had. And, anyway, in order to exercise her rights, she would have to let her physical address be released to a potential psycho. These are just some thoughts I had. What do others think?

What strikes me is how ludicrous it is that anyone has to be concerned (I am not belittling anyone for being concerned; the concern strikes me as prudent.) about getting into trouble for making a child avatar that is as faithful a representation as possible of a child. It is just crazy that there should even be a question about it

About six months ago I logged onto Gmail, and a notice popped up telling me that someone had logged onto it from Indonesia. I am in the US. I don't know how it happened, but I am certain that I do not have a keylogger, that the password had never been written down, that it would not be easy to guess (It was two unrelated words separated by two numerals.), and that I had divulged it to no one. I was alarmed because it was obvious from the email that I had a SL account, and I was using the same password for it as for gmaiL. I changed both passwords immediately. No harm that I could detect was done. This illustrates that there must be some non-obvious way to hack passwords.

Qie Niangao wrote: Let's face it: we all know that if he posted here, he'd get a ton of crackpot and wildly hostile responses from every lunatic and all their alts -- not at all the sort of responses actually in this thread, where he did not post. And if he made a habit of posting here, it would be much worse. Any signal such as that now in this thread would be buried in useless noise -- or it would be a moderation nightmare. You are absolutely right.

Charolotte Caxton wrote: 1. Give everyone a home 2. Let everyone choose any name they want 3. Give them a starting allowance I agree, but I would add a few things. First, I want to comment on what you said. All three of these are very good ideas, and I think that they would help a lot. The name issue is particularly irksome. I don't think any residents like usernames, particularly since all the reasonable ones were long since exhausted. There has been an enormous, continuous outpouring of user dissatisfaction with the current name situation, which LL continues to ignore. I can't understand why LL continues to do something that is so unpopular when there would be no ongoing cost to change it, only a one-time development cost. I'm not going to go on any more about this here, since there are hundreds of pages of resident complaints and suggested solutions available already. Suffice it to say that going through a frustrating experience of trying variou s usernames, finally giving up and choosing one like 123rstvq10, and only later finding out that it is displayed over one's head and that it can never be changed does not make for the most pleasant introduction to SL. Free introductory accounts are essential; I would have never tried SL if I had had to pay to sample it. What about giving people a premium account for free for the first couple of months? Access to chat support would really ease their introduction, and it includes two of Charolotte's suggestions. What I think the biggest issue are is decreasing as much as possible how much people have to learn to have a good experience and making it easy for them to learn what they need. Having the now defunct basic and advanced viewer modes was an attempt to address this. It was a good idea, but the execution was abysmal. It seemed to me as though it was developed by people who did not understand SL. The problem was that basic mode was so limited that one could not use it and have a good experience. For example, one of the first things many new residents want to do is change the appearance of their avatar, but that was not possible with basic mode. Another problem with it was that there were only two modes, and at least three are needed: basic, allowing access to the simplest combination of menus that will yield a good experience; standard, displaying menus that will allow most people to do most things they want to (LL could determine this by recording what features are used by most people); and advanced, with access to everything. Finally, it should not be necessary to log off to change modes. Here is a perfect example of what is not right: It's a common problem for an avatar to fail to rez and remain a cloud. The quickest, surest cure is "character test," which is accessed by drilling down through multiple levels of the Develop menu, which is not even visible by default. Everyone needs this, yet it's buried in a place where it's hard to find and labeled in a way that would lead no one to suspect that it is the fix for a common problem. It should be on the Me menu, with a label like, "Rez Avatar," or something similar. A real effort should be made to decrease the level of technical sophistication needed to enjoy SL. I suspect than most longtime residents are, at least, at a level such that their friends and relatives go to them for answers to questions about computing. There is a huge number of people who would enjoy SL that do not have the level of technical competence needed as it currently stands. Having multiple viewer modes is part of the answer to this. Also, if I were in Rodvik's place, I would be looking hard at how I could simplify some of the things people need to do to improve their experience. For example, the program does not do a good job of setting graphics preferences, and some of the settings are incomprehensible to most people. Surely it could do better. It could even have an automatic mode in which it changes them on the fly according to conditions. There must be a huge number of arty, creative, non-technical people who would enjoy SL if it were less technically demanding. Another example that I have encountered recently is the need to make alpha masks. With Lighting and Shadows, which are needed for the best visual experience, on, invisiprims, upon which many shoes rely not to have an ugly, distorted foot sticking through, are broken. If one wants to wear those shoes and look good, one must make (Generic ones don't usually work well.) alpha masks. Often, the alpha masks, which are so necessary with mesh clothing, that makers of mesh clothing supply have problems, so one needs to make one's own. What percentage of the population has or can easily acquire the skills and software necessary to make them? As others have said, access to mentoring can really smooth the first few hours, days, and weeks in SL. Could LL be much more active in promoting mentoring? Could people be recognized and rewarded for it? Could LL promote good mentoring venues, informing new residents about them? Could LL subsidize mentoring venues, perhaps letting selected ones have reduced or free tier? Finally, the TOS. I doubt that it's responsible for losing many recruits because they all just click through without reading it, but its complexity and length are symptomatic. The last time I looked, a year or two ago, it was twenty or so single-spaced pages. For most users, SL is recreation---it had better be because somebody must buy Lindens with RL money in order for the minority of users for whom it is business to take RL money out. Twenty pages of legalese just does not fit anywhere within my definition of recreation. In summary, Rodvik, make it easier for people to enjoy SL, and either listen to residents or have developers who actually use SL.

Thanks to you both. ETA: Can they delete them? For a group owner, what is the difference between deeding and sharing without deeding?

I think I understand well what happens when I deed an object to a group. What happens if I share it but don't deed it, by checking the box on the General tab?

You might consider posting a description of your knowledge, skills, abilities, and desired work.

I pay for my annual premium membership and for my linden dollars with my verified PayPal account. It works whether or not I have a balance in my PayPal account. I have not paid enough attention to know what the temporal relationship is between the payment to LL and the debit to my bank account.

I'll try that, Coby. ETA: I did try it, and the love handles worked as described, but the area affected was well above the area I needed to change.

Thanks, Sassy. Now, I understand.

Thanks, Amethyst. I know how to solve the problem with an alpha mask, and, in fairness, must say that one came with it. However, I am trying to understand why when my breast sticks through I can make it smaller and fix the problem, but when my hip sticks through, that won't work. The reason I chose the size, XS, was that the top fits in back; anything larger leaves an unsightly gap between the back of the dress and my back.

I bought a lovely mesh dress. I liked it so much that I was willing to change my mind about never changing my shape to fit clothing. There was no way the top was going to look right with just an alpha mask[ if it was going to fit, I needed to alter my shape, which I did, and I was pleased with the result. Since there was only a little hip showing through on each side, I decided that, having already made a special shape for ther dress, I may as well alter my hips to fit it. Surprise! I could not do it. Heere is what it looked like before I changed anything: Here is what it looked like when I reduced hip width to 0: And here it is with hip width set at 100: Can someone expalin why adjusting the hip shape did not work while adjusting the breast shape did? Thanks.

Thanks for the very informative answers. ETA: The contents were in the root prim, which I had trouble finding because it had a transparent texture (so that it would not be visible with alt-ctrl-T), was 0.01 x 0.01 x 0.01, and was located inside another prim. Here's how I finally found it: I knew the name of the root prim had to be the same as the name of the linkset. One by one, I unlinked and deleted a number of empty prims named object until there were only two prims left in the linkset. I had a general idea where the root prim was from the location of the center of the linkset a meter or so away from the one remaining visible prim, but I still could not see it. I stretched the linkset severalfold, changed the texture to blank, and changed the color to red. I could finally see the root prim.

Thanks for the informative replies. Could the necessary computation be done on the client? If so, it might be feasible as an option.

As I have said before, they should allow the user name to be changed. Not often, not, quickly, and not without cost, but still make it changeable. After all, RL names can be changed with some delay and some cost. Why shouldn't SL names be able to be changed, too? Actually, if I were LL, I would allow one change for free between one and two months after signup, so people could pick a new user name after they understand what it is. IMHO, not bringing back surnames is the dumbest thing LL ever did, and doing away with them if the first place is the second dumbest.

Just curious.

I have a copy-mod object made up of a number of linked prims. First, lest anyone think that I'm up to no god, let me say that I presume that the seller expected purchasers to make copies and modify them when it was sold. I rezzed a copy, edited it, and looked at the contents, which consisted of many scripts, animations, an object, etc. Then I unlinked it. Then I looked at the contents of every prim; none contained anything. Can someone explain how a linkset can have contents while no prim that makes it up does? Thanks.

I forgot to say this earlier: Contact the other landowners in the sim; they are the people most likely to want more land there, and they may not have noticed that it's for sale.