Phil Deakins

I know, but I was on my first cup of tea of the day, and there was nothing of interest in my Unread Content, so I thought I'd pass a bit of time with this thread. I'm on my first coffee of the day now

I didn't think I'd bother with this thread since its such a regular topic here. But I've nothing better to do right now so... Whilst SL may be a game in some people's minds, it isn't actually a game, because, in itself, it has nothing of what a game actually has. A game has objectives and game rules. SL doesn't have either of those. Board games are games. Football and other field games are games. There are card games as well as many other types of game, including little games that people invent on the spot for themselves, but SL, in itself, isn't even remotely similar to any of them in terms of objectives and rules on how to play it, simply because it doesn't have any. SL is an online 3D place to be. And that's all it is. The only similarity SL has to some actual games is that it's a 3D world. But that's it. Nothing more. Imagine SL as a brand new creation and open for the very first time. As chance would have it, you are the very first person to log in. What would you find? You'd probably look around to try and learn how to play this game, but you wouldn't find anything, because there isn't anything, except move around the place. There's nothing to actually do. You wouldn't find an objective to achieve, so you wouldn't find any rules about achieving it. Perhaps you'd think that it needs more than one player, so you wait until some more people log in, and you discuss what you need to be doing to play this game, but you come up with nothing, because there isn't anything. SL is a place, and that's all it is. Nothing more and nothing less. It's just a place. Some people do make games for themselves within SL, but that's just people being creative. It's not SL itself. In a similar way, people could invent little games for themselves in a closed RL room, perhaps with a coin, just to pass the time. Some people think of SL as a game, because it looks a lot like some games they know, but that's just the way some people choose to think. It doesn't turn SL into a game. SL is nothing more than an online 3D place in which to be. And that's all it is. What people make of it is entirely up to them. It allows people to create things, including games, and some people do that. Even LL did that (sort of) in more recent times. It allows people to run businesses, and some people do that. It allows people to race and fly, and all sorts of things, and some people do those. And so on. All of that is extra to SL itself, which remains nothing more than an online 3D place in which to be. It's people who come up with things to do in the SL place. It isn't SL itself. Imagine coming into SL for the very first time, and you ask people, "How do I play this game?" or "What do I have to do here?" or "Are there levels I have to achieve?" and so on. Simply imagining asking those and similar questions, will show that SL is not an actual game. Does anyone ever think, "I'm going to play SL now"? I doubt it. Instead we think, "I'm going to log in to SL now", or "I'm going to play <some game> in SL now", which are quite different.

Like bird-watching?

Aaah. Thank you, Theresa. So Dakota got it wrong and I didn't read on.

Not according to Dakota's post that LittleMe linked to. In fact, I posted about it in a reply to Dakota.

It's a standard SL setting. If a parcel is set to not allow others to see avatars on the parcel, camming in can't see them. They might see the undulating matress, but not the avatars on it

What does what do? The security system, or the camera system?

I remember it now. Thank you. If Dakota is correct, and that's not guaranteed, then the way that last-name-changes is planned to be done is ridiculous. In fact it's bl**dy stupid. Bringing last names back is good, but not having the ability to change or modify first names is idiotic, bcause new accounts will still have to come up with a unique first name to go with the Resident last name, such as Phil123765, and it can't be changed. If they do it the way that Dakota wrote, what started as a good idea will become a real pig's ear.

You wrote that the 2 big bits north of Mexico both speak the King's english. The only two big bits I know are the U.S. and Canada, Canada being by far the biggest of the two. So I pointed to the fact that Canada (the biggest bit) still has Queen Elizabeth II as their queen, and therefore speaks the Queen's english..

I have an unfinished security system that I've spent a lot of time on. It's the bees knees of security systems, but there came a time not many weeks ago when I got a bit bored of doing it, so it remains unfinished. I was only creating it for the enjoyment in doing it, so it doesn't matter that it didn't (yet) get finished. I know that there's another project from quite recently that also didn't get finished, but I can't remember what it is lol. ETA: I logged in to see if I could find a clue about what it is. It's a camera system.

Pinky or Pinky's

Ah, but my name is Deakins, not Deakin. Maybe it became the family name because generations of the family were deakins Horses are nice

"almost"? The definition of a phrase is decided by the words in the phrase, not technology. So you need to examine the 2 words in 'video game', especially the word 'game'

You see, the problem with that explanation is that it appeared that you quoted the Linden notes to show that other things need fixing that are more important than all those little fixes in the groups system. They appeared to be comparisons. I.e. not those - these. If you'd said that there are more important things in the group box that need fixing, then it would have been clear. But you didn't, so what you went on to say about search wasn't "obviously about search inside the group" - except in your mind as you wrote it, of course. We are not mind-readers here. Sorry, but your post simply wasn't clear, and it could easily have been. And don't forget that Whirly asked you if you meant searching in the group box, when she wrote "Do you mean ... ?". So she didn't understand it perfectly at all. She felt that she needed to ask. It was unclear to everyone. A simple 'Sorry. I meant searching in the group box' was all the reply you need have given, instead of all this arguing that you wrote it so that it was perfectly obvious. It hasn't all been in vain though because it has reminded me never again to even think of lifting a finger or engaging a brain cell to provide any information that might be useful to you, and I'm grateful for that.

Then I don't suggest forgetting it

How would you build a building or staircase? Prims or mesh? If it's prims, I suggest forgetting it.

You can't. Not a normal SL group, that is. There may be other ways that are not a normal part of SL. If there are, no doubt others will post about them.

We were told that because they didn't want to do it, and it was more than a case of just flicking a flag. Now they actually want to do it, so it's not prohibitively difficult any more. The perception of difficulty is a matter of desire.

We can, but it's not the future we'd be whining about

I totally agree. It's no good complaining about a future after it has happened, because it's no longer a future, so there would be nothing to complain about

That's very true. Callum posted the actual reason for not being able to create your own last name.

Don't forget that the reason for the return of last names is not because users want them. It's to make some money from name changes. It's part of the process of balancing out what LL makes money from, and that's good. I mention it because, since it's not something that's being done just for the users' benefit, there is no great incentive to make big changes to the way that last names were done in the past. I imagine that the necessary code for it still exists, if not in the active system, then in old backups, and restoring the last names system to how it was done before will be considerably easier than starting from scratch. That's my thinking, anyway.

Is there any suggestion or information to say that name changes will only be for premium account?

Unintentional post.

Even though it's your original post, I'll correct you as to what it was about. Regardless of what you intended it to be about, this is what it was about as far as readers are concerned:- First the title of the thread. It says, "Fixing Minor Things Instead of the Main Things". That has nothing to do with groups. Then there's the lower section of content, which includes the part that I quoted and replied to - in a helpful way, I might add. This is it. The first short paragraph is a general introduction to what follows. The second one tells us that there are 'things' that need fixing. Neither of those gives any indication that we should be thinking 'group floater'. The third describes one thing that needs fixing - "ejection or ban grom a group". The next four describe another problem (a different one) - "the search box". The first of them indicates the search box. The next two refer simply to search, and we all know what that means. It's used often enough in the forum and we know that it doesn't mean searching within the group floater. The second and third describe what the problem with search is. Only in the the fourth does anything to do with the group floater get mentioned but, by that time, our understanding has been set and, if you're a helpful person, or if you just want to check it because you haven't come across it yourself, you've already gone off to check if the stated problem really does exist. Now, if you'd written the post much more clearly, instead of omitting an important part, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Accuracy is your friend in the forum You are incorrect that I have a grudge against you. I dislike you a lot, and I have very negative opinions of you that you've earned over the years, and still continue to earn, but I don't hold any grudges against you. You're not a significant enough person for grudges. That is shown by the fact that I was particularly helpful, by taking time to log into SL and do several tests of the problem you first described, including logging in a second avatar in for the local chat copy-paste test. And then by posting my findings for you in a very helpful way. If there is any grudge between us, it is within you, presumably because I greatly embarrassed you many years ago, by conclusively proving, in your own blog and in front of your readers, that you were completely wrong in what you claimed when you tried to embarrass me. That's memory - not a grudge