Pussycat Catnap

EVERYTHING in SL is AR-able. I have yet to find anything in SL that there was not a way to include in an AR somehow. This is the covenant on Horizons: Screenshot:

Long before the parcel privacy feature existed I realized it was very easy to have privacy by simply creating two distinct builds on my land. At ground you build an 'attractive nuissance' plot (that's a term in the law for property that attracts trespassers - coined as a result of places that children would wander onto to 'explore' and then get injured). Basically you build something nice to look at, that lightly invites people to take a look around for a short while, and then move on. In the sky you rez your actual 'home' spot for doing all your stuff and being alone or whatever. And by sky I mean somewhere above 2000 or even above 3000m. Way up there where nobody will be unless they are intentionally going to see you. It dramatically cuts down unwanted intrusions. They have something more interesting down at the ground - that you yourself can also go down an enjoy at your leisure (ideally set it up to be good for entertaining casual guests). In the skybox... put it inside a solid wall, put a 0-second no warning security orb up there set to be sized just a little bit smaller than the wall (so no one ever hits it by accident), and then set the parcel privacy. (I use a single mesh cube as my wall. It can be invisible or not - what it does is prevent people on vehicles from being accidentally hit by my security orb. They just bounce off the wall harmlessly. In my case on the outside I put a texture so they know it's there, and from the inside it's invisible so I can see out. If I had a skybox near other people, I would leave the outside invisible to avoid harming their view... but I always intentionally put my skyboxes more than 500m away from anyone else. If people later move close to them, that's their problem.) Leave banlines OFF... putting them on actually invites people to be offended by you, and then bother you - because banlines cause so many disruptions to different things in SL... and they only work for the first 40m above ground... so even if you live at ground, you will end up with an army of outraged people floating 41m above your head... Leaving them OFF makes you look 'harmless and ignorable'... - People wander into the spot at ground, and rarely ever bother you up there in the sky.

While obviously I was speaking in exaggeration, that is a good question. Back in the day you could just log right in... and so, I strongly suspect bots were doing so in absurd numbers. To back this theory up... we did used to have serious problems with those same "might be bots" spamming these forums. Bit account creation is a massive problem on every single online platform without 'account creation checks' that admits it... And SL has the lowest level of account verification of almost any service I have seen save for the forum I used to manage before I took it over... It has always baffled me why they don't just have a simple "click all the pictures that include a road sign" or "spell out the letters in these two images" captcha system on account creation. Then again... I partly know the reason. After I managed to cut new accounts down from the hundreds of thousands to a few per day... the owner of that book company asked why we weren't getting the usual volume of new customers... he wasn't sophisticated enough to understand the concept that they were spammers and not customers... Engineers here have had to work, in the past, under some pretty 'thick in the head' CEOs... so maybe they just 'hid the ball' from them...

True. But one of the big headaches of land is that land barons sell it in divisions of 512m, when tier is actually in divisions of 560m (or more correctly; 1.1(512*X) - that 10% bonus). So I'm often looking around for some tiny plots after I buy a spot...

I've paid as much as 15L /sqm for land like that. Cliffside is a rare and precious thing. And protected roads are great. It actually sounds IDEAL for avoiding having one of those neighbors that rezzes a single giant flat structure blighting the region.

Why do people rez 'prim land' and put buildings on water land where there is so much actual land out there? I had one of these about 2 years ago - perfectly good plot in the middle of the water. Neighbor puts up prim land and a series of buildings. I put a 20m tall brick wall between us. Put the water back or talk to the wall. A few months later the person abandoned their plot. I got water back. The 16m plot is 'prim land' to give you more prims, so they're not fully incorrect there - just worded oddly.

Yes. It was in effect the second time I joined as well. But if it was there the first time I didn't notice it. Original avatar 2006 Rejoined in 2009. They retired that program in 2010 or 2011... I think 2010... The LLs of the time said it was not effective at retention of first time sign-ins. I have always believed they are looking at the data wrongly. From managing the social community of a book publisher some years back, I noticed sign-in and drop-off rates just as if not more extreme than SLs. So I put a lot of time into figuring them out. The answer was actually extremely easy to find... Any time you put up something online with free account creation to a social community, bots will join it in massive numbers. My case was a small book publisher with 2-4 million in annual sales, we were getting about 300,000 forum account creations PER DAY. A simple set of filters for IP addresses by regions, and a captcha system... cut that to under 100. A few more measures and I was under 10 per day... but all of them were people that then participated in our forum, and not with 'Call CANDY at 1-900-xxx-xxxx' or 'meet ladies from [insert country here]' ads that were getting flooded with before... (well... we also had a few thousand eBay cross-post ads a day too). Linden Labs has always assumed 7-billion people a day make an account here, and then all but 5 of them decide SL sucks and never return. I would instead say that 6,999,999,993 of them were actually bots... 2 gave up, and 5 stayed...

If I put a 'sybian' that has a visible 'rideable dildo' on the front lawn of an 'M' plot by the roadside... I suspect there would be issues with that. What confuses me on the wiki, that seems new, is this line: Allow only a group or specific individuals access to the parcel. If it is group-access only, the group must not be freely open to join. So, does this mean that if someone has a sexbed in their private home skybox at 4000m up, the land must have banlines? If so... that is a change from past years.

Yep. Now consider how the land barons pays that tier... The answer is that often they do not. They run 'donate your tier' groups. People donate them a LOT of tier. If you want to dry up land barons... find a way to convince people to stop donating tier to them. As for 'adjust accordingly'... many of these pricey lots sit unsold for years. The land baron isn't paying for the tier... so they have no motive to sell. Some of them even believe they are doing us a service by 'keeping the riff raff out'... (go talk to some of them, they believe they act for a noble cause to maintain quality - they are not wholly wrong... before land barons moved into Zindra it was full of 'easy online business kit' plots that looks mighty ugly... they just take it too far).

Horizons is seen as ultra-high value land. Curious because it sat for ages with most of the plots unused and in the hands of land barons. Of course that is also part of the problem as you so rightly note. I got lucky... I only needed a single 1024, and I bought about 2 months before the tier change, so "nobody else" in SL was competing with me. I bought one of two 20,000L plots on my sim. The day after, the seller doubled the price of the other plot. And it too sold right around the time of the tier change (and when I bought, there were about 5-7 plots on Horizons that were cheaper than the one I bought). I'm now seeing people finally realize that Horizons is up here beyond the far northen wasts of Zindra, where the 'here there be dragons' signs used to be... But yeah... LLs knows we all want land here, so it's only "fair" they auction it... it's just sad that land flippers are 'speculating' the place right out of availability for the actual residents that would make it a thriving community... I can see this from two points of view though: I would prefer 'other people' get the other plots rather than the same people buying up a whole sim. Fill the place with lots of different people. But I would also prefer those 'other people' to be actual residents that occupy their spots.

That's what I thought of the first set of 3 "lesbians" I ran into in SL. They were neighbors on my first plot of land. Then I learned they were 3 straight married women 'playing around'... It got super awkward when the RL husband of one joined SL to see what his wife was 'up to' and she rapidly sold her land and tried to hide from him in SL... I'm somewhat thankful that they helped me realize very early on that I did not want to do any SL relationships... the potential drama is just not worth it when you can get your 'pixel porn' fix so easily without it and then just move on... Saying you're a 'lesbian' is actually a way of attracting men to hit on you... in my experience... It was one tactic I tried back when I was trying for a 'G-rated SL'... Oh an yes... I had more people bug me for 'the sexxy time' back when I was a 'fully G rated SLer' than now... the vast majority of them where on avatars of women with a 'lower male attachment'... I don't know why that crowd has a fixation on me... Marketing studies have been showing that the majority of buyers and players of video games are actually women over 30. The myth that 'all gamers are teenage boys' really needs to die... It is also worth noting that SL may be a safe space for people who lack that in RL. I'm thinking of how an NPR show I heard yesterday was noting that 'facetime' or some other social media app, was becoming very popular for gay men along the India / Pakistan border - who could not ever meet in RL, so they date online.

Yeah but... If people want to make social venues in SL and charge for access to them... whatever. I doubt many will go - but if they do... then maybe the OP will end up being proven right. If not... nobody will notice when the venue fades away. That said... I am in two 'paid to access' groups that are gateways for social clubs. One was $500L to join, the other was about $2000L - both are highly successful venues. So... done right, the idea of a charge for access venue in SL can work. In my two examples, one was done to help with tier but has since becomes a gateway to keep out 'hassling voyeurs'. The other went from free to extremely pricey to stop griefers and voyeurs... An alt of mine is in a third group that has a free group for access, but which you need an invite to join - you basically have to apply. I've not been to the place in years though because I lost interest in the theme (a genre of music). Plus I retired that alt because she didn't have anything unique about her... But it's been very successful for them. I won't say most venues that charge are doomed or not... I really don't know. The only examples I know of, I only know of because they succeeded at it... I have no idea if others tried and failed. Charging for access isn't itself 'doomed from the outset'. The question becomes: what are you providing in exchange for that fee, and can you attract a clientèle that agrees with your logic?

If my post bothers you, if you can't grasp the way I make my point, it proves it: This place is not like California, and especially not like the San Francisco Bay Area. (The posters actual question almost makes the point - referring to San Francisco, and not San Francisco Bay Area - thus revealing not knowing what the culture here actually is. That's no fault of theirs - it just further upholds my point that this place, is not 'our scene'). Even the way I make my point, would make sense to people of the plurality of diverse yet also integrated (two radically different things) cultures here. Ethnocentric or mono-ethnic environments terrify us - and we're hard pressed to find examples of them as extreme as here. What you may see as a 'diverse range of people', we would see as a 'range of people all immersed in the same cultural norms of a norm not familiar to us'. Some people come here for a short span of years because we have the most vibrant economy on the planet - and they come and go with every boom/bust cycle or even shorter, but people who stay for the decades or generations do so for the vibrant sense of integration. So if my commentary style shocks you - it makes my point. We're not like "you" of SL.

SL is too conservative and too white to be at all 'California' and even moreso, not anything at all like San Francisco or the Bay Area. As a native of San Francisco, SL freaks me out sometimes with how ultra white and conservative it is. I am constantly going into 'culture shock' here and constantly getting into issues with SLers over their ethnocentric privilege. I couldn't find a higher percentage of white people and white identity culture even at a Klan rally. At least that would have Kayne West, Ben Carson, and George Zimmerman... Linden Lab might be in San Francisco, but the community that has adopted it's product is NOTHING like us. I expect many of you will roll your eyes of click the 'laugh' option, 'confused' option, etc on this post - but that basically proves my point. You all think I'm nuts - which just shows exactly how much SL's community is radically 'white ethnic' and NOT like San Francisco and the Bay Area.

Added note: A few relogs fixes it on the iMac... So maybe this is a system issue... going to keep paying attention across machines. The iMac is approaching ancient. The Macbook is too at this point...

Ancient necro-post because I was noticing this today, went to look and see who might have reported it before... and found out it was me... Anyway... the Radeon 6700M machine that has very "stiff" physics (dials almost all maxed out, but see almost no bounce) - is showing me 18.5 fps. The nVidea GT 650M with very active physics, is at 15.9 fps. But of course... the Radeon is a 2011 GPU on an iMac, the nVidea is a 2013 GPU on a Macbook Pro. Curiously... today... they are flipped from what I reported 2 years ago. Today it is the Macbook with good motion and the iMac that is bad... I was thinking recently.... "this is why when I finally build my own PC, I will have to remember to get an nVidia card", but I now see that 2 years ago the issue here was flipped, on the same machines... That just means I am totally baffled as to the cause...

On the first plot of land I ever had in SL, I got my 512 and made a group. That bumped me another 51, for 563. but 3x16 = 48. So... I could own 3 more 'squares' of land. And it turned out a neighbor had a weird cut and wanted to shed some tier. So it wasn't worthless. I ended up with 560m of land. That group bonus has always been worth it. It is MORE worth it now. That said... Land Barons usually cut land in 512m chunks, when they should be cutting in 560m chunks. Getting one to give you your missing 48m is not always an option, but quite often there is some left over land somewhere on the sim that you can get out of them or someone else and use to get more prims.

Yes I am fully aware that I 'must have been doing something' or they wouldn't have judged me so... But I still ain't leaving this Starbucks...

Years ago I included a screenshot of the chat someone had sent me in an abuse report. The responding Linden told me I was violating the ToS by doing so... - Of course that is usually the response 'folks of a lighter shade' make in response to racism or 'folks of a masculine anatomy' in response to sexism, they blame the victim for daring to report or speak out... And find some technicality upon which to base that flipping of things... But... it is something to consider when filing an AR...

Often I just use the 'firstworld' part for added text. But I do put a tiny bit of RL in there... sort of a 'no I am not a naked neko in RL' (you'd be surprised how many guys and some women on nudist sims get wound up over that very point). As annoyed as I get about people that don't read my profile, I am guilty of it as well many times. Often in reading profiles I start to wish I didn't... But it is also very illuminated to see the different kinds of things people put in their profiles. Seems to follow some common trends: 'love notes' to people they are fond of - basically using the profile as a private response to their social group. "I remember when I first met you, how magical it was, you are my special sister, blah blah blah" 'Business junk' - contact me here, send a notecard or bug off, don't do private commissions, here's my MP, etc... These people often have no personality in that profile. I've been surprised a few times to realize it was NOT a business alt - they socialized on that account. Name, rank, and serial number. Check the first life tab for a RL pic of me and my dog. Or if this is an adult venue... me and my "dog". - the TMI folks who put no wall between Sl and RL. Even as they sit in a XXX club asking for some wank-time. The 'dark lord voldermort who is also Detective Jones' types... the entire profile is a RP card. Hi, I'm Candy and I like to meet people - followed by 12 unmodified Picks to sex clubs and 'free stuff' shops. "Professional noobs" - because this profile looks like it belongs on a 2 day old account, but is often found on a 12 year old account as well... - Many profiles are amazingly repetitive within these themes.

I dunno... the first time I actually encountered people who acted like this in RL... it was two women. Granted I had found myself at a Dungeons and Dragons convention... so maybe that was it... but it was women. In RL... the guys are only too happy to provide some rather long and detailed 'lines'...

Take it from me. I'm pretty sure most of the regular know that I happen to get my foot in drama often enough around here... Usually it ends when I or the other party/parties step away. Things end when one side simply has the wisdom (or has calmed down enough) to disengage. Side thought: Sometimes I think the best feature for these communities would not so much be a block, but a timed block. 1, 2, and 4 week options. You'd have to use a total of 12 to gain access to permanent... because most of the time there is some 'stupid' going on and you just need to give yourself a time out. The best solution to drama is to walk away. Usually one realizes that 2 steps too late... but even late is better than never. This belief that there is an army of alts out there stalking everyone... Well I grew up with a couple of friends that believed they, their parents, and everyone they got close to was being wiretapped by the FBI. Today we call that Facebook... But back in the 70s and 80s there were people who "believed" they were being spied on. We'd indulge them or not... but I'm fairly certain none of them were actually being watched. It takes a lot of work to that... It takes a lot of work to sit there 24/7 on an army of alts and think to yourself "today my evil minions, we will wait at all the places Pussycat likes to go and if she shows up... put on furries and chase after her for the sexxy time..." ... It's just not... logical... Now if they'd put on some hot guy avatars and do that... I might go for it...

I don't think the "problem" exists anymore than assorted other fantasies about "those strange people from somewhere else" or "those people keeping secrets" and so on... There are problem individuals... and those are individuals... Wildly casting doubt and hysteria about others only helps fabricate further problems.