Phil Deakins
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Posts posted by Phil Deakins
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Dresden Ceriano wrote:Is this a theory of yours or do you know this for fact?
It's not a theory. It's facts.
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The reason why LL introduced display names, even though they didn't actually want them, was to attract people from Facebook. Facebook has a "real names" rule and Facebook accounts using SL names aren't allowed because they aren't real names. So people couldn't "link" their facebook accounts with their SL names. LL wanted people to be able to do that and, hopefully, attract people from Facebook, so they came up with display names, so that SL accounts would be SL names but people's real names can be displayed.
I don't know for sure that it slowed the rate of decline - which was already slow. What I do know is that display names did produce a load of sign-ups after it was launched, and it looked like the idea was working. It's now quite a while since the launch and I see concurrency at the trough end of the day only about 1k lower than it was before display names. The rate of decline was already slow but not slow enough that it would only have dropped ~1k in the display names period. So it follows (to me) that display names either stopped the decline or slowed it down even more. What display names haven't done is increase concurrency - so the idea failed.
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That type of system (either prizes or, more usually, money) was common back when Picks were links to parcel (place) pages, and those links were extremely powerful for rankings. Links were *the* most powerful ranking factor. But links from Picks haven't existed for some time now, so Picks are no good at all for rankings. They are still good for advertising to people who browse profiles though.
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Claireschen Hesten wrote:there used to be a referral program if the person you referred took a premium membership you would get a reward they don't have it now but you can join the affiliate program advertise SL on your website and get rewarded for everyone that joins SL by clicking the ad on your siteedit: the link to the affiliate program is at the bottom of the page
They still operate the affiliate programme? That's odd because I advertised SL on one of my sites and I used to get paid because of it. But the payments stopped ages ago, without LL saying anything about it stopping. When I eventually realised that LL wasn't paying any more, and were actually stealing from me, I removed the ad.
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The pink messages are common. For me they tell me that they've corrected some html, which the forum itself messed up. I'd guess that your "flooding" message is because the clicked the Post button and it looked like nothing was happening so, after a short time, you clicked it again. That's just a guess though.
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Georgina Mornington wrote:Thank you for the link hun!Im really sorry but am i requesting a Region Rollback?Cheers again
No. Just a restart. A rollback restarts it in the same condition that it was previously but people may have rezzed no-copy items in the meantime, which would be permanently gone.
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You can get a sim restart by using live help. That's how I've always done it, including not long ago, when non-Lindens manned the pumps.
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Yes. Use a good viewer instead. Any V1 viewer is much better.
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It depends on whether or not the newbie finds SL to be a desirable hobby/passtime. That's what SL is - a hobby/passtime. It doesn't include any gameplay so it can't be compared with systems like World of Warcraft. If an SL-like hobby or passtime is desireable, then SL is the best place to do it.
SL usership slowly declined over a lengthy period of time until the low end of the day was only getting 33k simultaneous users - it was previously much higher than that. Once in a while it would drop to 32k. These days (since the "display names" were introduced), that number always drops to 32k. I usually see it down to just over 32k so it may even drop to 31k occasionally but I haven't seen that. That's what I meant by "display names" stopping or slowing the rate of decline, which was already slow, even though they did attract a load of extra sign-ups when they were launched. The purpose of "display names", which most Lindens didn't want, has failed, or it has merely slowed/slopped the rate of decline. What it hasn't done is build usership up from Facebook users, which was it's purpose.
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The benefit that profile Picks had for search rankings was in the links they provided to the place's page, but that benefit was removed quite a long time ago. The only benefit left is as advertising - when people look at other people's profiles.
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Imo:-
Yes, a newbie should commit to this grid rather than others that are based on this grid, because the others simpy haven't taken off and will always lag behind SL because LL continues to create new features while others are reliant on merely copying LL's creations.
No, SL will not be around in 30 or 40 years time - at least not as we know it now. But 30 or 40 years is a very long time and the idea of SL folding in 5 or 10 years time shouldn't prevent anyone from committing to it now.
I wouldn't expect SL to grow though. It stopped growing a couple of years ago and, although "display names" was successful in getting many more sign-ups, those sign-ups didn't increase the "using" population. All it did was prevent the slow decline to some extent.
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lol. Very nice, Magnus
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In that case, my answer to your question, "your opinion on this charity day idea, fun or not fun?" is not fun. I can't see any idea that merely needs individuals to do something nice, privately on a specific day each month, as taking off or as being "fun".
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I agree with you. If I were listing such things, and I saw Home & Garden>Decor, I wouldn't look any further. That category exactly matches the items, as does Dakota's suggested category. So, imo, those items should be listed in the catgeory that the seller chose.
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Claireschen Hesten wrote:just recently the Lindens did a special charity Linden bear to raise money for the Japan earth quake
And that was a mess. I tried to buy the most expensive bear for that cause but LL haven't yet managed to create a working marketplace and the purchase failed in some way. I didn't try again because, since it's LL's system, I could have ended up with more bears/donations than I intended. I wasn't the only one either - there were a number threads saying the same thing..
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I'd understood your post as meaning that money would be collected each month into a central coffer, and distributed to avatars that needed it. It's that distribution to avatars that could be abused. Which avatars? And how is it known that they actually need it rather just just fancy a bit of free money?
From my experience in giving free money away via (legal) camping earlier this year, I know that people abuse such things by having multiple avatars, some of which are very new. At one time, one person was occupying 5 of the 8 chairs, and he would have occupied more if other people hadn't been on them.
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These things are only difficult to grasp and understand when we haven't yet understood them. When we've got it, they are really very simple
The method I use really is very simple.:-
If a menu button is pressed, the listen handler simply changes the value of the "curmenu" variable to the requested menu - the main menu or a submenu. If a non-menu button is pressed, the listen handler does what it needs to do for the button and leaves the "curmenu" variable alone. At the end of the listen handler, the menu() routine is called. The menu() routine simply sets up the buttons string according to the "curmenu" value.
I use the text on the menu buttons for the "curmenu" value. You're using an integer value (0 for the main menu). My way needs fewer lines because I also use the button/"curmenu" name/value in the dialog's text an the menu's name
The difficulty with using a "Back" button in the way that Qie described, is keeping tabs on where you are when submenus have submenus and so on, and each with a "Back" button. I did it with Back buttons once, and it wasn't anywhere near as simple as my usual method. Qie is a top scripter, btw, and he does know what he's writing about.
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I explain what I do in SL the same way to everyone - relatives and non-relatives:-
I make and sell virtual furniture to virtual people for their virtual homes, and they pay me with virtual money which I convert into real money.
That's the short but full description that I often use.
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Count me out. It sounds like an idea for some people to take unjust advantage of.
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The method I use is to have a "curmenu" (current menu) string variable that defaults to "Main Menu". The values are exactly what's on the buttons. So when the "Sub-menu 1" button is clicked, the Listen handler treats it just like any other menu button. It sets the "curmenu" variable's value to the button text (the message) and calls the menu() routine. The menu routine decides which set of buttons to display according to the value of curmenu..
menu(){
if(curmenu == "Main Menu"){
// set up the buttons string for the "Main Menu"
}else if(curmenu == "Sub-menu 1"){
// set up the buttons string for "Sub-menu 1"
}else if
....
}
llDialog(....);
}
listen(...............){
if((message == "Main Menu") || (message == "Sub-menu 1") || (message == "Sub-menu 2")){
curmenu = message;
}else if(..........){
// handlers for non-menu buttons
}
menu();
}
Something like that. The listen handler can test the curmenu variable so that buttons with identical names can be used in different menus.
You can get rid of a few "if...else" lines but I don't think you can get rid of many. For instance, you could have the button strings in a list - one list element for each menu - and use "curmenu" as an integer/index to the list. But, if the text on one or more buttons is set according to something else (e.g. an on/off toggle) then it's easier to do the if...else if checks.
On the other hand, the MLP system uses someone's menu system that does it completely differently.
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Yes, the ability to completely change the land would be a huge plus but, for me, not worth the extra US$100 a month - not even when combined with a surrounding ocean view.
Owning a whole mainland sim alleviates almost all of the mainland problems, and the extras you get with a private sim, although very desirable, aren't worth US$100 a month to me. US$100 a month is significant money. For les than that, Virgin Media provides me with 50 meg broadband, the top range of TV channels, the TiVo system AND the V+ box (same as Sky+), mobile (cell) phone with calls and texts, and land line with calls. The extra private sim features don't hold a candle to that lot.
Yesterday, someone advertised (in the forum) almost a whole mainland sim for a mere 25,000L. If I were in the market for a sim, I'd have been up for that one.
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Faubio Alter wrote:FireFox. Avoid IE at all costs, it's crapware.
First: that's nonsense.
Second: explain why you think that, please.
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Suella Ember wrote:It might be clear to you, but it isn't to me. 100 people could group AR someone, but LL should still check relevant facts, chat logs (which they have access to theoriginalsof) etc. No-one should be removed from the grid without sufficient evidence and, despite many claims, I've yet to see any hard evidence of this actually happening. Sure, I bet the occassional mistake is made, but I've never seen hard evidence of widespread banning without reason.
I'm not in agreement with the OP but I thought I'd chime in on the above paragraph. You said that "LL should still check the relevant facts", which is true. But (a) they *don't* always check the relevant facts and (b) they *do* act solely on the say-so of the person who filed the AR - at least sometimes.
Soon after the adult continent was launched, someone ARed 4 of the demo models (bots) in my store (mature land). The bots were on sex bed poseballs (standing), behind a wall and out of plain sight. They were clothed and, if that weren't enough, the beds had been modified so that no animation could last more than 30 seconds, at which time, the models were stood up again, so they couldn't be left "at it" and nobody could use them to get their jollies. They were over and above full compliance with the rules for Mature land, as publically stated in the forum by a Linden who was prominent in the adult/mature "Linden forum" discussion concerning what could and could not occur on Mature land.
I was summarily issued with an official warning, purely on the strength of the AR, and *without* the Linden who dealt with it ever going to see for him/herself. If s/he had looked, s/he would have seen the situation and, more than that, s/he would have logged the models out. But they were still there.
I removed the models and appealed against the warning, offering facts etc., but the appeal quickly failed. I thought that the Linden who dealt with the appeal was quite possibly the same one who issued the warning, which would have been very wrong. I knew that the decision was wrong and I kept at it.
I sent a notecard to Harry Linden, who was the boss of the AR team at the time. He was the only of them who actually used his brain and considered the facts. He lifted the warning with an apology, and said that he would remove it from my record. The models were fine but the Linden(s) who dealt with the AR didn't bother to check.
That's the problem. Perhaps because they get snowed under with ARs, the AR team DOES make decisions solely on the strength of ARs, and without checking facts. Whether or not they would suspend or ban an account without checking, I don't know, but I do know that it is (or was) in their minds to make decsisions, including the issue of warnings, without checking. Personally, I have no doubt that the same shoddy practises would suspend accounts for a short time without checking. I hope they wouldn't actually ban accounts though, but I don't have confidence that they wouldn't.
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Mayalily wrote:It could be there are other browers because Microsoft had so many monopoly issues. I'm not really sure?
To some extent, yes. Netscape was *the* browser before Microsoft grasped the internet, and then there were two main ones. There were probably one or two minor ones but they didn't matter to website designers - like Opera never mattered. It could be said that Microsoft was the interloper who wanted to corner the market but, since the internet was taking hold and Microsoft abandoned their idea of creating their own internet (MSN - MicroSort Network), it would have been silly not to bundle a browser with Windows.
Netscape folded because they were down to a very small piece of the market. They'd tried to recapture some market share by shooting off at an angle with NS4 but it didn't work. They just made it worse so they folded. Then Firefox came along as an open source project - possibly, as you suggested, to try and break IE's massive market share, and it did cut into it a lot. Then Google created their Chrome browser *because* (imo) they want to monopolise the web. They are trying to be to the web what Microsoft is to the computer - imo.
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Avination vs Secondlife Is there a Difference
in General Discussion Forum
Posted
That says everything about the desirability of using Avination. There's no way in the world that I would knowlingly run a programme that he's involved with on my computer.