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Torley Linden

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  1. Torley Linden
    Awhile ago when we changed from the older-style "First and last name" at registration to "Single-word username" system as part of display names improvements, single-username Residents could view, but couldn't post to the forums and blogs here at blogs.secondlife.com.
    After much tussling, we've fixed it as shown here, so go ahead and make your voice heard! I know it was terribly frustrating from the many messages I got. Our apologies it took so long, seeing as how important it is that you can ask for help from your fellow  Residents in Second Life Answers... and I'm guessing you have a lot to say. Single-username logins also work at the Bug Tracker.
    Related, single-username logins to the Second Life Wiki still don't work, meaning newer Residents can view, but can't edit the wiki help pages. We're still working on this and if it seems like we've gone strangely silent on giving updates, just ping me and I'll check with our tech experts to see what's going on. I promise.
  2. Torley Linden
    As a Second Life Resident, you have a profile that you can customize to share more about yourself. It's opt-in and can be a lot of fun to fill out. Why bother? Many fellow Residents surf profiles, and if you're open to making new friends, a completed profile makes you a much more fascinating person to get in touch with.
    As you may know from Q Linden's post announcing Viewer 2.5, this new version of Second Life has profiles stored on the web. The following video chock full o' tips will help you learn what's changed as Linden Lab continues to evolve how you express your virtual identity.
     
    If you want text instructions and more info,
    Check out the "Web profile" wiki help page
    Feel free to edit and update it to make it awesomer! Remember, we're moving to a new community platform so this may get ported over as-requested.
    Also, you know how much I love followup and to set expectations so you understand what our intentions and plans are at Linden Lab. I'm constantly asking our company gurus for goodies I can share with you. After all, I live and breathe SL; the same stuff that bothers you bothers me too. I've read some comments to the tune of,
    "Is that it for web profiles?"
    No! Since this is only the first instance of web profiles, there's usability stuff in a sort of "in-between" state that Linden Lab hopes to improve in the future. For example:
    Web profiles tend to load slower than old-style sidebar profiles, so there's room for performance increases. Some stuff hasn't been migrated to the web profile yet — like you can't edit a classified in the web profile yet, so the behavior of hopping back and forth is confusing. But plans are hatching for better integration. Having both a web profile and the sidebar open at the same time takes a lot of screen space, and that could be tightened up too. And the odd moments of quirkiness shown in the video. Again, I emphasize: this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for improvements, but right here, right now (like
    ), the above tips should help you get the most out of web profiles today.On a misc. fashion note,
    "Where did you get your eyeshadow, Torley?"
    Some of you have also asked this, as featured in my recent videos! I had been looking all over Second Life for eyeshadow in my fave pink + green colors, and this is "Fruity Fresh" by Miasnow Myriam. It can be bought on Twomoons Island:

    Check out the Destination Guide for more rad Second Life places and send your suggestions to our Editorial Team (which I'm on)!
    ...
    Finally — for now, the ending of one chapter and the beginning of the next — this is my last blog post on this Jive system before moving to the new community platform.
    I'm giving a gracious thankyou to each and all of you lovely Residents who've benefited from these Tips & Tricks, and hope you'll join me in TnT's next incarnation. (I also need to figure out how I'm going to preserve and promote the still-useful archives.) See ya on the flipside after the read-only freeze!  
    In the meantime, stay awesome in Second Life and I look forward to meeting you in-avatar...
  3. Torley Linden
    Whether you're in a corporate environment or have a few computers connected at home, your network likely includes firewalls, which prevent security intrusions and other kinds of unauthorized access. If you're trying to connect to Second Life behind firewalls that are too restrictive, you may be blocked unless you open ports and otherwise allow the necesary traffic through. If this has happened to you and you don't know which ports to configure, check out:
    Configuring your firewall to allow access to Second Life
    Obligatory disclaimer: don't "play" SL at work unless it's on company business (like me, hah!).
    Thanks to Kyle Linden who recently provided me with updated details. Speaking of, I should also emphasize: over time, firewall details change, so if you've used the guide to connect successfully, you'll surely want to bookmark it if something breaks in the future.
    Please let us know your feedback in the comments!
  4. Torley Linden
    I hope you've been finding community.secondlife.com's search to be a great improvement over the previous system. In my own raw usage of digging stuff up, I've found the autocomplete (also called "auto-suggest") to be a lovely friction-reducer in finding answers fast. As you get more comfortable with search, here are handy things to know:
    The search box is on almost every page
    Ain't that convenient? Just about everywhere you go on community.secondlife.com, you'll see the familiar search box in the upper-right.

    One notable exception is directly under the Answers tab, because here, a simple search is contained within the "Ask a Question" widget to reduce confusion. But when viewing a particular Answers thread, your private messages, and more — there's the search box!
    You can make search results more useful
    Community participation — YES, YOU — helps good things float to the top. How?
    For example, if you ask a question in Answers and get a helpful answer, make sure to mark it with Accept as Solution. This highlights it so others who have the same question after you can see it easier. It should also rise up in search results.
    Also, if you're generally browsing Answers and see a helpful answer, click the Kudos button, available in certain places. It's an easy way to thank the answer-giver and help others focus on what's useful. Kudos are part of our ranking system, which makes it easier to see who extremely helpful Residents are.

    (If you're wondering: "I didn't notice that before!" you'd be right, because we didn't have Kudos when we initially launched community.secondlife.com. But it was added last week.)
    For more on where you can give Kudos — or revoking them if you made a mistake — see this Community Help page.
    Various Lindens, including myself, are also watching for threads that our Residents deem especially worthwhile. In rare cases when a thread is so broadly useful that IT MUST BE SEEN BY EVERYONE (OMG!), we can also float (sticky) a thread to the top of a forum, like this:

    For your own personal view (that doesn't affect anyone else), you can choose Topic Options > Float this Topic to the Top when viewing a thread, making it easier to find on future visits:

    Search for a specific Resident
    Are you looking for someone's profile? Here's how:
    In the search box's dropdown menu, select Users. Enter their name (or your closest guess) and wait for it to autocomplete, or click Search.
    Note: There's a weird bug. If you go back a page after viewing results and do another search, it may incorrectly show "0 matches". I've reported it.
    Bookmark power search if you use it often
    Starting your search with the simple mode should work fine for most, but if you regularly find yourself narrowing down options, you can bookmark the power search page. If you want to keep track of search results over time because there are keywords you're watching for — like a type of land you want to buy — then you can Subscribe to RSS Feed for this Search, too.
    If you're accustomed to Boolean operators and want even more options, click the Advanced Search... link to get super-granular. As we say here, the world's your prim oyster.

    What does that "Highlight" thing do in the Forums?
    When clicking Options in the upper-right of a forum post, this appears:

    I asked community guru Lexie Linden and she clued me in: turns out it's the same as it's similar to "Permalink", which puts a specific URL for that post in your browser's address bar, which can be useful within a huge thread.
    UPDATE: As Cerise Sorbet clarifies in the comments: "The highlight function should literally highlight posts in a different background color, but the graphical backgrounds used here have been covering up the effect." Oh boy, we need to fix that!
    Of course, the name is confusing — I was expecting the post to glow or something. So I've made a request to rename Highlight to Permalink like we already use elsewhere on the site, like at the bottom of a blog comment.
    Use Google to search all of secondlife.com
    What if you want to search not just community.secondlife.com, but all of secondlife.com? Or a specific subdomain? Google offers a popular workaround:
    Just go to Google.com and search for "site:secondlife.com keyword", like "site:secondlife.com avatar" or "site:secondlife.com avatar attachments". If you want to limit it to a subdomain, try something like "site:community.secondlife.com avatar attachments". If you find yourself doing this frequently, you could create a Google Custom Search to save time. As those 80s NES days used to say: NOW YOU'RE PLAYING WITH POWER!
    For more info on how to search community.secondlife.com, see Community Help - Searching.
    Got a compelling search tip you wanna share? Let's hear it!
  5. Torley Linden
    There's an amazing array of events in Second Life. Many of them have "real world" analogues... with a twist! For example, first life concerts aren't inundated with nearly as many ASCII art audience reactions.   Whether you want to attend a crowded party that packs the hizzouse or are more into relaxing art shows, all that's missing is HOW TO FIND THOSE EVENTS, ARRRR.
    Well fear not! I've been compiling a
    Guide to Finding Events
    which, as the name apparently suggests, is exactly about that. It covers the default secondlife.com and in-Viewer events search, as well as manual methods, and Resident-created callouts. Try 'em all out and see what's most comfortable for you, because your interests are an extrusion of your unique personality! I happen to enjoy the serendipitous spontaneity of flashmobbing. I used to drop in on gameshows a lot because I'm trivia crazy. And I ♥ seeing many awesome avatars in the same place at once, 'cuz having a remarkable avatar is a key conversation-starter.
    But I'm sure stuff is missing from this guide, which is where you come in.
    Let me know your favorite ways to find events in this forum thread,
    such as... hunting the green dots, those "poker chip stacks"!
     
    But do heed this gem from Veritable Quandry in response:
    Wise words. And this being Second Life, it's not limited to two dots, either.
  6. Torley Linden
    Not long ago, I was going to eat sushi with friends. (I'm so fond of sushi I named a cat after it.) But before I did, I took many pictures of the impending feast. One of my chums asked me why, and I candidly replied:

    "This meal will be gone soon, but the memories will remain."
    So it is with inworld photography, one of the most popular hobbies inside Second Life — and getting started is as easy as clicking a single button. Years ago, I started a snapshot help page that has since helped thousands of Residents discover the joy of SL photography firsthand. As time passed though, I received hundreds of requests to update the guide to reflect the newest Viewer versions. I have!
    Curious and short on time? Aren't we all. This less-than-three (not to be confused with "<3", although I love teaching this stuff) minute video gets you started:

    What's next?
    For text instructions and more info, go to to the "Taking snapshots" wiki help page. If you want some ultra-gorgeous places to gorgeous, they're just a click away with Brett Linden's post, "Ten Photogenic Spots in Second Life". Why not post your creations in our Art and Photography forum? It's natural to feel shy at first, but passion for capturing what you see is what counts, and as you continue to develop your craft, you'll understand that success is a continuous journey! Happy snapping and see you 'round community.secondlife.com and in Second Life!
  7. Torley Linden
    What's a HUD?
    In Second Life, objects can be worn on one of the eight HUD (short for heads-up display) attachment points. HUDs are essential to understand, since every SL Resident eventually comes across them sooner or later.
    A HUD typically consists of a control panel with different buttons you can click on to do context-specific stuff. Some HUDs are "passive" and only meant to be looked at, not touched.
    While general attachments appear on your avatar's body and other Residents can see them, HUDs are only visible to you and have a fixed viewpoint, similar to how they're used in video games and apps. However, the scripted effects of a HUD, like emitted chat, can be visible to other Residents and objects.
    HUDs are an evolution of user interaction in SL: before HUDs, Residents were limited to typing commands in chat or touch dialogs (pop-up windows with choices to click on). These methods are still used — sometimes in tandem with HUDs — but HUDs are often more visually attractive and user-friendly, making them approachable.
    Objects specifically designed to be used like that may have "HUD" in their name to tell you where they'll appear, or they may have "(wear me)" in their name.
    This video quickly gets you started on the basics:
    ;  
    Yes, HUDs are mighty fine for games in Second Life too. Wanna learn more?
    Check out our guide to HUDs
    ... and share your fave HUDs and tips & tricks for all things HUD-related in the comments!
  8. Torley Linden
    Spring is in full swing, and that goes hand-in-hand with spring cleaning — which includes your Second Life inventory! Wait, what's that? You dread opening up those dusty folders with hundreds, even thousands of items that you've never used. I bet that rings a bell.

    Have no fear. While the psychological burden may initially seem like a mountain, taking small steps is the key. Cleaning your inventory isn't exciting compared to hanging out with friends in cool places, but each of these tips only takes minutes, and when combined, will help you feel sooo much better after decluttering! Plus, did you know a smaller inventory loads faster and uses less resources? It's not the same as going green in the physical world, but it helps. Let's get started with this video tutorial, then I've got written tips that expand on what I show, along with direct links to those sections of the video:

    Get Your Total Item Count


    For fun (or abject horror), start typing something — anything — in the Filter Inventory field. Your item count will rise above, until it's done loading. You can compare this to what it is when you're all done.
    Don't be hard on yourself, though: this count includes Library items which you can hide, since they're not actually yours.
    Make a "Temporary" Folder for Sorting


    Right-click the My Inventory folder and select New Folder. Name this folder "Temp", or if you want it to stand out, something loud like "~*~ TEMP ~*~". Drag items that you're not sure of into here, so you can sort them out. This prevents them from clogging up casual folder browsing.
    You can extend this concept more specifically. For example, create a "Temp" folder in each main folder like Objects.
    Sort the "Temp" Folder


    Here's a basic process that I've refined over time:
    Put on some mood music to get you in the zone. (I usually bliss out to ambient, but there was that one time I rocked out to  in an aggro loop... yes, there's an emo Torley... sort of.) Teleport to a clean surface, like a white skybox or a public sandbox. I have a flat platform which is set to Full Bright (neutral lighting), and makes it easiest to see what I'm placing. Drag and drop objects from your "Temp" folder inworld, so they rez and you can see what they really are. This is useful if you have a lot of generically- or identically-named stuff (like lots of objects named "Object"). "No copy" objects are removed from your inventory after being rezzed, so take them back from inworld if you want to keep them. Otherwise, you can delete the inworld instance. Move objects you want to keep to another folder. You may have an existing sorting scheme. I have "Archive" folders for objects dated by month, because I often have memories attached to objects of how I got 'em. Depending on the land, you should either clean up after yourself or let auto-return take care of it. In the latter case, multiple objects returned to your inventory simultaneously appear in your Lost And Found folder as coalesced objects. Like the Trash, you can easily and permanently delete its contents by right-clicking it and selecting Empty Lost And Found.


    Continue Onto Other Item Types
    Objects are just one inventory item type; you surely have clothing, notecards, textures, and so on. For each item type, I like to go through them as a batch. These tricks make it easier:
    For animations, gestures, notecards, scripts, sounds, and textures (including those in your Photo Album): hold Shift key while clicking to select a range of items, or hold Ctrl while clicking various un-adjacent items in a list, then right-click and select Open to open all those items in a single window. This makes it easier to browse each item and decide if you really want to keep it. For clothes and other wearables, it can be a good idea to have a minimal, "neutral" avatar so you can easily see what's added upon wearing. While an ideal one isn't provided off the bat, I suggest making a nude/underwear outfit of your fave avatar. This also accurately reflects your bodily proportions, which matters because just like the physical world, wearables look awful at the wrong size. If you want to save a texture to your local hard drive but no longer need it in your inventory: double-click the texture and click the Save As button, which saves it as a TGA file which can be opened or converted by an image editor like FastStone Viewer. (This only works if the texture is fully-permissive, like in-Viewer pics you take that end up in the Photo Album.) Eliminate Useless Redundancy by Deleting Duplicates


    You don't need more than a single copy of an item in your inventory if it's copyable, so after you've checked goods out, select dupes and hit that Delete key. But before you do, be aware:
    Items with the same name aren't necessarily the same. For example, if you work on an object inworld and take it back into your inventory, it keeps the same name. This is confusing if you also keep older versions of it. You can click the little gear icon at the bottom and choose Sort by Most Recent. Also, learn from many great content creators: append a version/revision number to the item name. I sometimes type the date in the name as a self-reminder.
    Landmarks are one of the most notorious types of dupes. Here's why: many, many stores give a landmark in each product box. While this is initially useful to find your way back if you want to buy more, as shown in the video, the WORLD MAP dropdown shows landmarks from every folder in your inventory — and isn't smart enough to hide dupes. If you don't use that dropdown, this doesn't matter to you, but otherwise, you can filter (search) your inventory for those dupes by name, then delete them.
    Furthermore, I don't keep many landmarks: since any landmark can be converted to a standard web link known as a SLurl, I save SLurls on the web instead, like in my Flickr exploration albums which have the advantage of loading quicker and giving me higher-resolution visuals.
    Delete original boxes — MAYBE. There are two schools of thought: some Residents prefer to keep original boxes of copyable items because they're a backup if things go awry, while other Resis feel secure not having them around, after expanding the contents into a folder. My recommendation? It really does depend on the specific items. Boxes for non-copyable objects can probably be tossed away because they're just empty shells — unless you like the box design itself. Also, a growing number of merchants offer automated delivery if you lose something, so take that into consideration.
    Ye Olde Art of Cube-Stuffing


    If you've spent any amount of time with veteran Residents, you may have caught wind of "cube-stuffing" lore. Cube-stuffing is exactly what it sounds like: archiving a bunch of items in a cube and lowering your inventory item count. This works because object contents aren't tallied up in the total. You can cube-stuff items you want to backup and preserve items you seldom use, yet don't want to throw away.
    Right-click and select Build on a parcel of land you have build permissions on. The build tools open. Click the parcel to rez a cube. In the build tools window, click the Content tab. Drag inventory items you want to archive into the Contents folder pane. (Advanced usage: You can drag items directly onto the cube itself, but there's a subtle exception: Dragging a texture onto a prim applies it to a prim's face, unless you hold the Ctrl key while doing so.) Once you've stuffed the cube, click the General tab to give it a meaningful name and date so you remember what's inside later. Limitations:
    While there's not a strict upper limit for how much you stuff in a cube, note that loading the item list can be extremely slow once you get into the hundreds of items. Also, there are no sub-folders: dragging nested folders breaks their hierarchy, so cube-stuffing isn't that useful for original outfits. Unfortunately, you can't search the contents of an object as you can with your inventory. Some Residents keep stuffed cubes out on land where it won't be autoreturned, so they have backups in case of inventory loss — since the cube isn't in your inventory, it won't be affected. However, it will be affected by land changes, so be sure if you're going to do this, rez the cube somewhere stable. This information is provided so you're aware of the possibilities. I don't really cube-stuff anymore and have grown more forgiving of letting my inventory count (it's at 13,362 right now) grow over the years, with the tradeoff that I'm more aggressive about deleting clutter. In first life, there was an insightful Lifehacker post on this titled "Rethink Your Stuff: What to Splurge On, What to Toss". While we avatars don't need beds and our shoes aren't going to wear out, sentimental stories attached to an object still matter to many of us!
    Remember to Empty the Trash!


    It's garbage day! After all the above, right-click your Trash "folder" and select Empty Trash. Then check your total item count and congratulate yourself — your future self will say thank-you too, when they find something you couldn't.
    Explore Resident-Created Inventory Organizers
    While the above has mainly focused on trimming your existing inventory, this is closely related to ongoing organization. Searching the Second Life Marketplace yields dozens of "inventory organizer" matches that are designed to overcome system limitations, and further automate the above steps. For example, texture organizers can make it easier to browse through visual previews instead of muddling around in folders.
    In case you're wondering, I don't currently use a specialized inventory organizer, but am discovering many cool tools as I rebuild Torley island.
    Further Learnin'
    You can see general inventory management tips in our Knowledge Base — note some of that info is stale and I haven't gotten to updating the videos.
    Have an inventory-cleaning tip that leaves you feeling like sunshine? Let us know in the comments!
     
  9. Torley Linden
    Ah, skyboxes, a special part of Second Life culture alongside other product types like animation overrides and terrain extenders. Not only can our avatars defy gravity, our buildings can, too. That's right, you can rez (create) something in the air and it'll just stick there. Somewhat self-explanatory skyboxes have been with us since near the beginning of Second Life, and if you're new, you're bound to run across them sooner or later, even if you don't realize it (by checking your height coordinate).
    But what do you need to know, and how are skyboxes relevant to you? And hey, how do you get up there, anyway?
     
    Whether you're looking to make your castle in the clouds or purely want to explore that extravagant third dimension, there's more help in...
    The Guide o' Skyboxes

    As always, let me know what's missing from this guide that could make it awesomer, or go ahead and edit the wiki help page (
    ). Your suggestions will help spread cultural knowledge that future generations of Residents shall benefit from!
  10. Torley Linden
    There's so much to learn in Second Life that it can totally, understandably be overwhelming at first! Instead of "drinking the ocean" all at once, it helps to KNOW THE BASICS quickly, so you can feel more confident to carry on learning at your own pace. You know what they say: we were all new at one time, and one thing leads to another.
    That's why we've added a special "LEARN THE BASICS - Get started with Second Life" part to our sidebar, elegantly brought to you by Experience Design (aka , lol) at Linden Lab! Click the Second Life eye-in-hand logo, then scroll down. As shown here:
     
    Indeed, embracing the rich diversity of learning styles we have here, I've also done a video to show you the same steps. Whether you're a new Resident (friendly greetings to you!) or a veteran who wants to (1) help a friend or (2) get re-acquainted with skillz, this resource is available!
     
    Extending help
    If you know of more "Learn more" links that'd be handy to include on the wiki help pages as shown in the first video above, feel free to add them (
    ) to these pages:Walking & Flying Chatting & Adding a friend Appearance Inventory Totally gratuitous header
    Sidenote which at first glance seems unrelated but actually is quite relevant: I'm currently addicted to Mass Effect 2, and in playing the demo (it's free on Steam), I was wowed at how integral, immersive, and hands-on their basics tutorial is. After a cinematic intro, they bring throw you into the tense heat of battle, and I've long been fascinated with how stressful experiences (both positive and negative, even simulated ones) become imprinted on your mind. Later on, ME2 shows advanced combat training video tutorials, which taught me how to execute biotics on several targets simultaneously.
    My point here is: have you been wowed by any introductory tutorials out there, from games to webapps to kitchen products? I believe education should be vivid and passionate (not eyes-bleed-boring as is the case with so much "technical documentation", blah), and always like learning what's possible outside of SL, then applying it inworld. SO — please share what you enjoy.
  11. Torley Linden
    Curious about the history of Second Life scripting? This is for you!
    Preserving our history is essential to understand the progress of earlier generations that in turn, informs our future decisions and prevents us from making the same mistakes they worked through, so we don't have to. Hopefully.
    As one of the lead Lindens working on wiki.secondlife.com, I love seeing exceptional contributions to the help pages, and I wanted to highlight Cerise Sorbet's
    Old forum Scripting Library index
    Contains links to templates, examples, and more you can use in your creations. Shows that one Resident can make such an overarching, positive difference! Not only does it have sortable tables and brief descriptions to quickly summarize what's in each thread, older threads are colorfully catalogued (as "Museum" and "Attic"), making their historical status clear. In turns, this builds upon the previous, venerable curation by Nada Epoch, whose scripting forum moderation was already esteemed when I joined Second Life in 2004.
    Forums as a tool have their uses for thriving discussion, but the wiki is often a more effective medium for collaboratively upgrading a single source, including the LSL Portal. But I've found using both are quite complementary, since (1) wiki talk pages can be awkward for newcomers to chat in and (2) vibrant forum discussions often lead to wiki help pages, as I've done and seen across 1,000s of edits. Resis who are wiki-shy often team up with the more experienced to learn and communicate changes. Further behind-the-scenes on how I apply this to help you and fellow Residents of Second Life can be found on Rapid Knowledge Iteration.
    To discuss the Scripting Library index with Cerise and others,
    jump into the matching forum thread
     
    And...
    Curious about editing the wiki yourself? Learn more!
    Often, I've found editing the wiki stems from a personal perspective, passion about a topic, where you not only wish something could be better, you act on it — whether it's correcting a typo, adding a key fact, leading all the way up to writing whole guides and indexes. What you spend a few minutes on could save many hours for yourself and others in the future.
  12. Torley Linden
    This is another one of those "Mmm subtle" kinda tips. You may already know that with Viewer 2.x, we've superbly integrated SLurls (web-compatible links that teleport you to a specific Second Life place, as used in the Destination Guide), and that pasting a SLurl into chat shows it in brief.
    Side tip: Pasting a SLurl can be a quicker way of broadcasting it to nearby friends while traveling as a group, instead of having to drag a landmark on each person or send individual teleport requests.
    Did you also know that SLurl-pasting works the same way in your profile? Watch this video to see how you can easily include a favorite SLurl or more in your profile, so others can come visit.
     
    What's your fave creative use for SLurls that more Residents should know about?
  14. Torley Linden
    Bustin' a move on the virtual dancefloor and losing control is all fun and games — until you try to stop and yet your avatar just keeps on doing the electric boogaloo. When you find yourself in such a socially awkward situation:
    Go to Me menu > Movement > Stop Animating Me  
    FREEZE. This applies to all animations, not just dances: if you teleport and find yourself magically-yet-uncomfortably sitting in midair, that's another opportune time to use Stop Animating Me. (Although I see that less than I used to, let me know what your experiences have been.)
    Context:
    Normally, you can click a Stop button in an animation window or command an inworld object (like a dance ball) to cease. If all else fails, you have Stop Animating Me. This feature has moved various places over time, but in 2.4, Linden Lab decided it was useful enough to bring out from the confines of the Advanced menu, so here you are. Then, get back to intentionally dancing.

  15. Torley Linden
    Jack Linden recently announced "Viewer 2.3 Beta Available Today With Display Names and More"! In response to hot Resident requests, we made a bunch of design upgrades so that it's simple to do some everyday things you'll be using often.
    Question: "How can I grab a complicated display name made out of characters I can't even type?"
    Answer: We've added an easy Copy To Clipboard button. All you need to do is open a Resident's profile, which is is accessible in many places via an inspector (green circle icon with an "i").
    Just click Copy To Clipboard, then Ctrl-V (Cmd-V on Mac) to paste both the display name and unchangeable username in any standard text field, including outside of Second Life. This video shows you how in action:
     
    Remember, this is currently only available in the Viewer 2.3 Beta, so be sure to get the special Viewer and go to a supported region like this:
    Learn more about display names in our help pages!
    ^ I was writing these but have been transitioning them into the care of Bea Linden, feel free to comment and let us know your suggestions.
  16. Torley Linden
    No matter how much changes here, some things are still around. Among them, classic clouds.
    Do you turn classic clouds on or off (or switch depending on context), and why?
    Also relevant: if you didn't know you could turn them off — maybe you're a new Resident — you should try and decide for yourself!
    After my last post on skyboxes, classic clouds is a natural followup topic: the ground, water, and clouds are so much of what you see in Second Life, so changing their appearance (or entirely removing them from view) can have a massive effect on your inworld experience. Think about the real-world and how even hearing rain results in, uh, a certain urge.
    I show you how classic clouds affect performance here:
     
    And there's...
    More on the "Classic clouds" help page
  17. Torley Linden
    Skip if you already know this — apparently it's been around for awhile and I had no clue.
    You can drag an open texture preview onto any applicable surface, whether it's a prim face or a profile picture.
     
    This may be a quick shortcut if you've already got a texture open and were under the assumption (like me) that you had to drag it from the PICK: TEXTURE window or from your inventory.
    What's a Second Life trick that you wish you discovered earlier, because it seems totally obvious in hindsight?
    (Don't be shy, there's always something new to discover in Second Life, and I encourage this curiosity! The only wrong answer is not learning.)
  18. Torley Linden
    What if I told you that
    you can get less lag in seconds, with a few simple clicks?
    No, this ain't a scam, but like some infomercials, it's completely risk-free. Y'see, I love "smart" defaults because they help give us a better experience out of the box, whether we're new to Second Life or doing a fresh install. But I keep coming across Resis who, despite having a fat broadband connection, feel "laggy" because they didn't know they could up their Maximum Bandwidth.
    GOOD GOSH. SPREAD THE WORD:
    One of the not-so-bright defaults, as I griped about with you guys some time ago (the Internet never forgets), is the default Maximum Bandwidth setting. It defaults to 500 kbps, which makes no sense because HELLO WE'RE NOT ON DIAL-UP ANYMORE.
    But srsly, like Geordi La Forge said on Reading Rainbow, you don't have to take my word for it. Try it yourself.
    Go to Me menu > Preferences. In PREFERENCES window, click Setup tab. Move Maximum bandwidth slider all the way to the right... yeah, crank that baby! (Supposedly years ago, setting your Max. Bandwidth too high would result in bad packet loss and overall decreased performance, but tell me if you still notice that. It may not even be true anymore.)
     
    Links to followup on:
    How to open the Advanced menu (so you can see the STATISTICS BAR in the video) "Default Bandwidth Setting Too Low bug - VWR-21872, which you should vote for if you care... and see my comment in there, more history
  19. Torley Linden
    Hot question answered up ahead!
    Some of you have been wondering how to switch your forum — and in general, discussion — view to threaded view, which is commonly used on other systems so you can track branched conversations. It's easy!
    When logged in, click My Settings. Click the Preferences tab. Click the Display tab underneath that. Select Show all posts in a topic. Scroll down and Save Changes. This video shows you precisely how:

    Like I mentioned in the video, I recommend having a web browser with two tabs open, so you can easily flip between making changes and seeing what effect they have. Many are self-explanatory but some require experimentation and giving yourself time to get used to changes. Learning by doing will help you grow more confident with community.secondlife.com!
    Our Community Platform team is busy scouring your early feedback and responding, so stay tuned for more need-to-know tidbits.
    What other hot tips about using our community platform would you like to see?
  21. Torley Linden
    Running multiple Viewers has become more accessible thanks to an easy checkbox in Viewer 2.4 Beta.
    If you run multiple Viewers (what are the official Viewers?) — for example, you prefer building in 1.23 but want 2.3's communication enhancements, and are also testing the Mesh project viewer — certain aspects can conflict, especially if you're running them at the same time.
    For example, each Viewer refers to a cache folder which stores info about inventory, textures, sounds, and other previously-accessed data for quicker retrieval. Having a bunch of Viewers using the same cache folder is like a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos™* — they clash for resources OM NOM NOM and oddities like perceived inventory loss (never fun) and corrupt textures (that sucks too) may result.
    However, you can change your cache location for each Viewer.
    On the Viewer's login screen, choose Me menu > Preferences. (In Viewer 1.23, it's Edit menu > Preferences.) In the PREFERENCES window, click Setup tab. (In Viewer 1.23, it's Network tab.) Click the Browse button. (In Viewer 1.23, it's the Set button.) Use the file browser to choose a different folder, or create a new one. Then choose it. Quit the Viewer (as changes won't happen until you restart it), then repeat the above for each Viewer.
    Thanks to cheery Sylvan Mole of our Linden Department of Public Works for suggesting this tip!
    What tips do you have for using multiple Viewers?
    * The hippo analogy is even more funny when you realize hippos are SL's unofficial mascot.
  22. Torley Linden
    I, Torley Linden, am not currently blogging because my work focuses have shifted elsewhere... but you can get in touch with me on my profile page!
    --
    In the Advanced mode of the Second Life Viewer, subtle-yet-powerful new Preferences get added — and overlooked — leaving them less used than they could be, which makes me sad unless I do something about it. I love to champion this stuff because I know how much enjoyment it can add to your Second Life.
    One bit I'd like to call out is the ability to double-click and teleport just about anywhere you see. I'm voracious about sightseeing in Second Life, and that means not having to put up with walls when I want to get somewhere. Fast. Why put up with hassle when you can 'port in the blink of an eye?'
    You can turn it on in just a few clicks:
    Select Me menu > Preferences. In the PREFERENCES window, click Move & View tab. Check Double-Click to and click either Teleport or Auto-pilot (which makes you walk somewhere instead of teleport). Click OK. This video shows how it looks in action:

    I've heard from many fans of this feature from Third-Party Viewers, so I'm glad it's come to the SL Viewer.
    Oh, and if you prefer to use Basic mode, this combined functionality is already on: single-click auto-pilots, double-click teleports! The difference is a small dot to indicate your destination. Which makes me curious: if you prefer Advanced mode, do you want this feature on by default? (Click to discuss in the forums.)
     
  23. Torley Linden
    One of the new features we've introduced with Viewer 2.3 Beta are "hints", little text bubbles that come up and tell you more about a feature when appropriate. You may be familiar with this convention in other apps. For example, if someone types to you, you get a prompt on how to text chat. And there's one for the new display names feature too.

    You can click the "X" to hide a hint, but if you'd rather globally turn them off, just disable Help menu > Enable Hints

  24. Torley Linden
    Do you want to have Second Life instant messages forwarded to your email address when you're not logged in? Or do you get many IMs and find them spammy? Whatever your choice, you can
    toggle offline instant messages (IMs)
    ^ As that help page explains, you can do it from Account > Contact Information in your secondlife.com Dashboard, which is handy if you're somewhere you can't login to Second Life, or would rather not bother logging in. (I love convenience, don't you?)
    While you're at it, you can also change your email address on the same page.

  25. Torley Linden
    Residents asking if the Second Life Viewer is compatible with Windows 7 is a very hot! question in the forums.
    The answer is YES, the Second Life Viewer is supported on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7.
    Long story short: the current System Requirements page is confusing because it says "Windows 7 (32-bit only)". That refers to the Viewer being a 32-bit executable, not that "Second Life only works with 32-bit Windows 7".
    A SysReq update is pending, but since this is often a time-sensitive question that affects the next operating system and computer you choose (and what a pain it is to change that once you've installed), I've chopped the slop and put up a wiki help page (which can be updated in seconds) to clarify this, with more details. Special thanks to Q and Esbee Linden for confirmation. Bookmark and share with your friends:
    Windows 7 compatibility help page
    Move lively context found in this forum thread which you can comment on, thanks to Irene Muni for encouraging more visibility.
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