Scylla Rhiadra

Lovely to see you back, Hippie, if only briefly! I hope all is well with you and LadySue. 🙂

We all know of bugs and issues that certainly need to be addressed, and we can cavil reasonably about the priorities that LL has set. On the whole, though, I'm impressed by how much they have been delivering of late. And while I'm not entirely convinced that this plan is going to be easily workable, or even necessarily beneficial, I think it targets something important that we've all long identified: problems with the new user experience, and particularly the difficulty many seem to experience in finding "something to do," or people with whom to connect, when they first arrive. If this works, that'll be a very good thing, and might make a measurable impact on retention. As for how to do this, and in particular what sorts of communities get targeted -- some of those will be fairly obvious: role play, LGBTQ+, avatar customization, new user communities, etc. And while I take Prok's point that we wouldn't want to see these, and the places such hubs point to, being determined through favouritism, backroom dealing, and so forth, I think that paid billboards, etc., is an even more awful idea. It just replaces a notional "FIC" with a sort of plutocracy, and ensures that we're directing noobs not to places likely to appeal to them, but rather to places where they will be almost certainly be pressured to spend money. It shouldn't, surely, be that difficult to produce a list of themes for these hubs that actually corresponds to what people might be looking for?

Wait, that's not an SL screenshot???? 😲

(In case the title wasn't clear, this is an invitation for everyone to post their holiday greetings and/or cards here!)

Happy Holidays, everyone. Give us peace. 🙂

I like the look on the left, myself. (Except you forgot to do up your jeans 😏) Either is cute, though!

Given that the mods are obviously prepared at this point to let this thread stand, it's probably unnecessary to keep taking shots at them? And it's really not in the spirit of this thread, which is about giving! So let's just enjoy it?

A fashion shot of me looking waaaaaaaaaay cooler than I actually am in my new Xmas present from @Eva Knoller

I'm not sure if this second attempt at necroposting will fare better than the first, but here we go . . . I received my prezzie from Ms. Anonymoose, who apparently raised the funds by docking her husband's wages. He sounds like a thoroughly disreputable sort, and I am now highly suspicious of anyone who received a present from him. Thank you to Christmas Mooses everywhere!

So, I got "moosed" yesterday (as @BelindaN memorably put it), and got this lovely dress, so I thought I'd make a pic. Thank you @MsAnonyMoose!

Versions of this pic (nicer ones!) by others have already been posted on the Friendship thread, so I'm going to post this here. For a third year in a row, we've taken this Christmas pic together, the (now) seven women who make up pretty much the most important community I have in SL. We've lived together for a while, we do collabs, we gossip and share tips on sales and clothing, and chatter at each other every day on Discord. These women are home for me. @Eva Knoller, @Saskia Rieko, (me), @SukiWinters, @Laurel Aurelia , @BelindaN, and @TatianaNikolay

I can't be completely sure what you're asking, but . . . Unlinking and editing objects, including structures, is pretty simple, fortunately. "Edit" the building, calling up the Build/Edit dialog box, and then click on the "Edit linked" radio button. (Alternately, you can choose the "Edit linked" button before clicking on the structure.) You can then use the small arrow keys that should be next to the "Link" button to "scroll" through the parts of the building until the part you want to edit is highlighted -- or click directly on that part. You should now (assuming that the build is modifiable) be able to edit that one part separately. If you want to unlink it from the rest, then click the "Unlink" button. Once unlinked from the structure, you can delete it without impacting the rest of the object. Needless to say, be careful that you're doing this with a copy of the building. And be aware that it may well end up looking odd, depending upon how it's been constructed -- for instance, the edges of walls may not have "faces," meaning that once they are exposed by removing something, they will be transparent. Here are the options at the top of the build/edit dialog; the ones in red are the ones I've mentioned above. This is from Firestorm, but it looks much the same in the LL viewer.

I did create a Mastodon account, but put it on a weird server, and can't figure out how to change that, or how to follow anyone for that matter. There's something I have to enable in the UI, maybe?

Thanks Sandor. Part of the point of the exhibit is that the most important message of Christmas -- the redemptive force of Love, represented by Christ's incarnation and eventual sacrifice -- is in the long term the only real hope for the world. I'm not attacking Christmas: I'm endorsing what it means -- a message too often overlooked amongst the showers of tinsel and presents. "Courage, Love," posted above, is one of the images in the exhibit that tries to make that clear.

This is why I couldn't do what you do, even knowing that my main contribution was to save lives. The worst public breakdown I've ever had was when I had to have my first pet, a cat I adored, put down. Worse than when my father died, even (which is not a reflection of my feelings for him, which were and remain very deep). The vet gave me a moment to say "goodbye" before he administered the needle, and I just sobbed noisily and uncontrollably in his office for . . . 5 minutes? He died in my arms. I've never been through something like that before.

Thanks, Ags, it went pretty well! Although, interestingly, my curator/host, Hermes, heard from a few people who professed to be "uncomfortable" about at least a few of my images, and at least one who was outright offended because they thought (I assume) that I was attacking Christianity. (I am not, as a thoughtful view of all of the images should suggest, and as should also have been clear from my notecard for the exhibition.) I am not too upset about people being made "uncomfortable": that was, in fact, one of the points of the exhibition. I am sorry if anyone thought I was attacking their beliefs, however.

I think this is kinda big, potentially. Have they ever tasked a manager solely with overseeing development of "the user experience" before? And insisted upon someone willing to embed themselves in the community in order to gauge what is needed, and what will work? It's also important, surely, because it's more evidence that LL wants not merely to keep this platform alive, but to grow it. Companies holding on to a dying asset with a view to merely wringing every last drop of profit from it don't create positions like this. This isn't just a "holding action": it's an attempt to be forward thinking. And finally . . . it'll be interesting to see if this means that LL intends to be more "hands-on" in terms of the continued evolution of SL over the next while. The tendency, as we all know, has been for the company to leave, for all intents and purposes, the actual experience of SL up to resident creators, community-builders, and so on. Does this signal a slight shift in that paradigm? And what are the ramifications of that?

Clearly we should be keeping you far away from any architectural treasures of international importance. 😏 Lovely news, Cinn. And lovely pic.

I have one or two styles that have very small flexi prims mixed in with the mesh. They're not long enough to disappear inside anything, and just prominent enough that they give a slight sense of movement to your hair when you are dancing, walking, or something. I think it can be done quite well, actually, and, although it obviously wouldn't work with all styles, I wish more creators would try this.

"Courage, Love." I literally waited over a month to take this shot. I knew I wanted to take it at Walsh County, one of my favourite regions, but the owner, Randonee Noel, hadn't "winterized" it yet. I was getting nervous, because I wanted the pic for my exhibition, which opens tomorrow. THEN, at last, this weekend, it SNOWED at Walsh County! So I sent a notecard to the Randonee asking permission to use it -- because although the region has open rez perms, I felt a bit uncomfortable about plonking down a small armoured brigade without her permission. And she was lovely, and very graciously said yes. And so. Merry Christmas, and Peace on Earth. Courage. And Love. Walsh County: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Campton/54/54/22

This is an astonishingly impressive shot. Everything about it. Really lovely! (In a mildly terrifying sort of way.)

This is an extremely adorable pic.

This is going to maybe sound odd . . . but that's a really good look for you! And a lovely image!

Actually, this happened to me for the first time last night on Firestorm. Generally, for me, it's a Black Dragon issue.

/me slowly backs out of the thread . . . 😳