Suella Ember

Adults built most of the internet too and yet teens are welcome there (with relevant controls in place to limit their access to adult material, as is now the case for SL). The sooner 'adults' stop seeing SL as somehow different from the rest of the internet, the sooner we can move forward constructively and be done with all the 'angst'. No, I'm sorry but that isn't the case with SL. They are letting teens IM whomever they please and letting whomever IM teens as they please. That is not a controlled environment So I'll ask again then. What makes SL so different form all the other Instant Messaging programs out there (Google Talk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Chat) and all the other forums and methods of communication over the internet? Do they all prevent adults and teens communicating with one another? (or rather 16 and 17 year olds - we keep saying 'teens' as if its all teens, but its not) I'll stake my case for the final time then I'll leave you guys to it - - The issue should not be about treating 16 and 17 year olds as some sort of disease who need to be kept totally out of contact with adults. People should stop using 'for their own protection' as a defence. 16 and 17 year olds are not the problem, the few adults who may try to cause problems for those teens are the problem, and people should be concentrating more on how to deal with those swiftly and harshly. For people desperately worried about getting into 'adult' chat with 16 or 17 year olds then simply apply some common sense when talking to someone. If it's someone on PG (General) land or someone who IM'd out-of-the blue then there is a chance its someone who is 16 or 17 so act accordingly. If it's someone on mature or adult land, or someone you know is in an adult group it should be an adult, so feel free to be as perverted as you like with them (as long as they are reciprocating - "wanna do teh secks?" is annoying as heck to many adults too! )

1. all G rated land is going to be taken over by the teens. Only 16 and 17 year olds can access G rated land. All younger teens are restricted to privately owned land form hoisting institutions. SO G rated land may be 'taken over' by 16 and 17 year olds, although I think 'taken over' is a little dramatic as If its some sort of invasion! 2. All Mature rated land is going to be taken over by 16-17 years old (no one knows they're not 18 yet on mature land - age verification is only required on adult rated land) 16 and 17 year olds cannot access Mature (Moderate) land (unless they lie about their age at sign up and create an adult account - that's a problem that exists now though, of course and has little to do with these changes). This simply means the following: 3. adults are forced to live their sl life on adult rated sims only As above. I'll be perfectly happy 'living my life' on a Mature (Moderate) rated sim thanks In that respect it will be absolutely no different to how it is now.

Adults built this world, love them or loathe them, it's an adult world, it's no place for teens and until Linden Lab realise this, we're in for a whole lot of angst. Adults built most of the internet too and yet teens are welcome there (with relevant controls in place to limit their access to adult material, as is now the case for SL). The sooner 'adults' stop seeing SL as somehow different from the rest of the internet, the sooner we can move forward constructively and be done with all the 'angst'.

You do realise that it's not illegal for 16 and 17 year olds to speak to adults right?! Some of the stuff I see here under the pretence of 'protecting the teens' really saddens me! I think it's great that LL are treating this with a sensible balance between protection and giving the teens a bit of freedom. I've said it before and I'll say it again - people should stop trying to lock the teens up under the false idea that it's 'for their own protection' and should be concentrating more on thinking about how to deal with the few problem adults who may attempt to get involved in dangerous chat with teens (and, to be honest, I suspect any adult who tries that will get AR'd and banned soon enough anyway). And to those who are worried about unwittingly getting into adult chat with a teen because you can't see that they are a teen from their profile I say this: 1. You could only have seen them on PG land to strike up a conversation with them. If you are wandering around PG land and getting into 'adult' chat I'd respectfully suggest you probably ought to reconsider! 2. You could have completely IM'd them out of the blue after profile surfing or something. If you did that I would also respectfully suggest you might want to reconsider profile surfing and getting straight into adult chat. If you want to have 'adult' chat, keep it to mature and adult rated land or do so via people you know from 'adult' groups. And if you are really concerned about someone's age - politely ask them. If the answer doesn't satisfy your concerns or you are unsure, move on. There's plenty more people in SL! Of course I'm aware 16 and 17 year olds are allowed to chat with adults. As for points two and three. It's not up to the adults to be paranoid. People come to SL for their own branch of fun and enjoyment If you have to be paranoid about everything you say to a person you don't know it's not really fun anymore. H ow are you supposed to meet new people that way? Isn't what they are doing now with some of this conversation being paranoid? What I'm calling for as a little common sense not paranoia! Walking up to someone on PG / General land or someone you have just profile surfed and jumping straight into "Wanna do teh secks" (or something more extreme!) is not common sense. Simply restrict that to adult / mature land or to adult groups and paranoia doesn't even have to come in to it because no teens will be there (or at least, no more so than the current situation where a teen could create a fake adult account). Heck, it might even stop people from jumping straight into "wanna do teh secks" altogether, and I think we can all agree that's a good thing can't we .... right?! Incidentally, can anyone enlighten me as to why Second Life IM is so different to all the other IM program out there (MSN Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo Chat etc), or to the millions of forums and community sites out there? How do all those locations go about controlling how teens and adults talk with one another? Once again I say locking teens up in a box 'for their own protection' is not the answer. Working to deal swiftly and harshly with any adult who would willing try to get sexually involved with a teen is the answer. And for those innocent adults worried about getting duped, paranoia and putting a big "TEEN" target on the teens is not the answer either when all that is required is a little common sense. As someone else already pointed out - if you are that concerned, ask to TP the person you are talking to onto mature or adult land and if they won't or can't you have your answer.

There are no safeguards. 16 and 17 year olds will be able to talk to whomever they please that is my understanding from the plan. Irresponsible? Absolutely. Will the residents have any actual say in the matter? I don't think so not real say anyway. You do realise that it's not illegal for 16 and 17 year olds to speak to adults right?! Some of the stuff I see here under the pretence of 'protecting the teens' really saddens me! I think it's great that LL are treating this with a sensible balance between protection and giving the teens a bit of freedom. I've said it before and I'll say it again - people should stop trying to lock the teens up under the false idea that it's 'for their own protection' and should be concentrating more on thinking about how to deal with the few problem adults who may attempt to get involved in dangerous chat with teens (and, to be honest, I suspect any adult who tries that will get AR'd and banned soon enough anyway). And to those who are worried about unwittingly getting into adult chat with a teen because you can't see that they are a teen from their profile I say this: 1. You could only have seen them on PG land to strike up a conversation with them. If you are wandering around PG land and getting into 'adult' chat I'd respectfully suggest you probably ought to reconsider! 2. You could have completely IM'd them out of the blue after profile surfing or something. If you did that I would also respectfully suggest you might want to reconsider profile surfing and getting straight into adult chat. If you want to have 'adult' chat, keep it to mature and adult rated land or do so via people you know from 'adult' groups. And if you are really concerned about someone's age - politely ask them. If the answer doesn't satisfy your concerns or you are unsure, move on. There's plenty more people in SL!

Excellent and much needed tutorial. Great for pointing newbies towards What other essential product types should all Residents know about? 1. I'm tempted to say a flight assist because it is a really useful tool, although I guess it can also be used to gain access to places where one normally wouldn't have access! 2. How about pose stands? Very useful for editing clothing and attachments. 3. Or an emoter for cool facial expressions? (Although a lot of AOs do now come with facial emotes anyway). (P.S. Great to see Lady Torley having an outing or two just lately! )

I find it a little odd that having to wait 2 minutes is aggravating people so much! I mean - I count myself as a reasonably fast typist but, even if I were to write a post directly after having just done one, it would still probably take at least 2 minutes! I've only bumped into that message once so far, and that was because I happened to go straight to answering another question with a very short answer right after having just written a post. Guess what I did? I waited about 30 seconds, tried again and the post went through. How aggravating! If it helps in some small way to combat the spam problems then I can cope with it. Btw Bearic - just so you know. You may also at some point hit a message saying you have to wait for your post to be moderated before it will show. Panic yee not - this is just another spam combating method. You'll likely have just innocently used a word that the spammers are using which they are now filtering. As soon as they check and see its not spam it will get posted

Take a peek at Ella's helpful answer here: http://blogs.secondlife.com/message/484275#484275

No way!!! I never knew you could do that either. Every time I upload a texture to apply to something I go through the process of closing it, OK'ing the dialog, and then dragging it from my inventory to the object, and I didn't have to! Still - I love the fact that I still manage to discover cool new tips in SL every day even though I thought I knew it all!

ONE SIMPLE SEARCH FTW. Absolutely! I have a sneaking suspicion that 90% of questions LL get sent by support ticket are already answered somewhere. The problem is that its not always easy to find - it could be in the Wiki, in SL Answers, or in some other sub-forum. If there were 'one simple search' it could well reduce the support ticket load. I'll take a stab at this one as I think I know what Cybin is getting at: @Cybin That's on my to-do list to advocate for, then. Thanks! UPDATE: I'm not seeing that link, have a pic? I think what Cybin is referring to is the link to live chat that we currently only see from the 'submit a case' page here: I think Cybin is saying it would be good to have it somewhere on the help menu here: I'm not sure if it's only premium members who actually see that link? If so I guess it might be an issue making sure that the 'live chat' menu option only appears on the menu for premium members. Please correct me if I've got any of this wrong thouh Cybin ETA: Pics are too large! Clicking on them pops them out to see what I mean though (as I'm sure you know Torley!)

Great work Torley (as ever!) I can't think of any threads that deserve to be 'sticky' off the top of my head, but If I do think of any i'll be sure to let you know. One thing that does come to mind though is that there are certain questions that I see asked regularly in SL Answers and I wonder if it would be possible to have a 'Answers to commonly asked questions' somewhere on the SL Answers main page? It could perhaps link to a wiki page with the answers to the top 10 most asked questions. Off the top of my head, the questions I see asked the most are: 1. Why does it continually say I can't log in until xxxx time? (The 'ghosting' issue on which Marigold is the expert: http://blogs.secondlife.com/message/424221) 2. How do I use search on the blogs and forums? 3. How do I list items for sale on the marketplace? 4. How do I shop on the marketplace? 5. Why did I not get my premium sign-up bonus? (I'm going to write a macro that pastes the answer "45 days!" it gets asked so often! ) 6. What is the policy on sharing IMs? (Causes a fair bit of drama and debate this one!) 7. Will my graphics card handle SL? 8. how can I reduce lag? 9. How do I access adult content? and ummmmm .... 10. How do I get pregnant?! (or, Help! I got pregnant and didn't mean to!) P.S. I still haven't forgot my promise to do my part and get involved with wiki editing and I will get to it, I promise (again! ). I've just been pre-occupied with some clever new ideas i'm working on in-world (but that's a secret ... for now!)

The box needs to remain rezzed somewhere in-world. This may well change in the not-too-distant future though, as they are looking to replace the magic boxes with a system that will just use our inventories. Anyway, to list your items you need to do the following: - Go to the new marketplace. - Click 'My Marketplace' from the black bar at the top (when logged in) - Choose 'Merchant Home' - Choose 'Manage Inventory' from the menu on the left - Now click the button to the right that says "Sync Marketplace with Magic Boxes' - Wait a couple of minutes, then refresh the page. All items in your magic box should now have a corresponding entry there in your inventory page. You should have a 'Create' option nest to new items to create the listing for it. Note - if you haven't already created a store I think you get a 'create store' link. Once you have done that the 'Merchant Home' option will appear. There's also lots of helpful info on the Wiki here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Marketplace/Selling

Hmmm - I don't have a definite answer as I exclusively use Chrome now. However, one thing that might be worth trying is to clear your browser cache (tools - internet options - then the delete button under 'browsing history') I'd probably clear temporary internet files and possibly cookies too and see if that works.) Heck - 'clear cache' is the standard answer for SL viewer issues, so it might work for the browser too!

Nyll Bergbahn wrote: Hi Becca, As the others said about your browser's back button. However, how I shop in Marketplace and before in Xstreet is to open new tabs for items I find on the main pages, i.e. right click on the item and select Open in New Tab. When finished close that tab and you're back on your main page tab without having to reload any pages with back buttons. Nyll Actually yes - this is an excellent piece of advice and the way I tend to shop on the marketplace too! You can scroll away through search results, right-clicking the ones you like the look of and choose 'open in new tab'. It's quite a neat way to compare items too (open a few in separate tabs and you can quickly flick through the tabs to compare similar items!)

Ummm ... yeah .... the solution is to use your browser's back button!

Essentially, you allowed to sell anything as long as it has transfer permissions and the original seller didn't expressly state that you could not sell the item on. Such items will likely be transfer \ no copy and will be sold as a limited quantity item. Once it sells the item will no longer be available. However, you cannot sell full permission items (such as builder's sculpts and textures etc) that you purchased under licence as full perms. It is also pretty unethical to sell on freebies that are freely available. Essentially, what the 'Used Items' category on the marketplace is for is selling on single items that you no longer need or want, much like selling on at a flea market or second hand store. As long as you do that and don't sell things that are full perms you should be fine

Thanks for the imteresting update I'm sure the group increase will make many people very happy Related to this I have a couple of comments for your consideration: 1) Under the recent announcement about Avatar's United closing it was stated that parts of its technology would be ported over to SL. Has it been considered how the 'Groups' functionality could be used. It would be fantastic if you guys come somehow develop 'offline' groups functionality in a similar manner to what some third-parties offer that would allow for management of groups both 'offline' and from within the viewer. Perhaps this may even give opportunities for removal of group limits altogether? 2) I have notced some interesting 'lag' issues recently when opening groups with a large number of members. As the viewer struggles to populate the large members list my frame rate plummets to near zero and SL becomes temporarily unusable until the members list has populated. As soon as the list has fully populated my FPS climbs right back up to its normal 60+FPS and all is well again. Is this related to the group chat lag issue, or is it something else that needs to be looked at?

Faubio.Alter wrote: ????????? Are you using both Windows XP and 95? If just 95 it may not work. See the requirements here: http://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements/ (Wow, Windows 95, I haven't seen anyone reference that OS in a loooooong time. Geez, that came out 15 years ago. Congratulation for keeping it going this long. Well done.) The OP doesn't have Windows 95. They merely tried running SL on Windows XP in 95 compatibility mode (which is unnecessary). @ the OP: SL should run on XP normal mode just fine. However, looking at your system specs you are running at the bare minimum specs with 512mb RAM which could be the problem, especially if you have other programs using memory too when you try to run SL. I just logged into SL now and, at it's peak, the login process used 370mb. In your case you would only need 142mb of memory being used by other programs to hit problems (which could easily be the case - the operating system components alone probably use more than 142mb memory). As Nyll suggests, let us know exactly what is happening when you try to log on. Do you get a particular error message? This might help someone identify the exact problem I suspect whatever the problem is you are going to need more memory to be able to run SL effectively though.

At the moment, you can't turn email notifications off. However, Brodesky Linden has identified this and offered an approach to fixing with various email opt in/out options in this JIRA: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-2399 On a side note, you may also want to consider setting up rules in your email inbox. I like getting sale notifications etc as it is a useful added level of record keeping should there be a problem with delivery etc. I set mine up so that all emails from the marketplace (no-reply@marketplace.secondlife.com) go straight to a specific folder in my email inbox. I can then quickly scan through them separately from my main emails and refer back to them if needed.

Destiny.Dagostino wrote: Id really like to know how you recognize something that is copybotted. when you click an item you get in my viewer (emergence) only able to see the creators profile and a couple other things to go by. most if not all legit creators have a store in their profile. I have noticed that on one particular person i know of that does not have full profiles on some items he is wearing, has the creator with nothing in the profile at all..its blank, and inded one of these so called creators is in fact his alt. problem really is how do you track down the original maker? i kind of recognize the style of clothing but for proof how easy is it to find out?..and if indeed i should try and find the original creator or AR him or just let him do what he wants. part of me wants to get some justice for the original creator but another part just says mind your own business. There isn't really a 100% foolproof way to know if something is copybotted. Most of it is discovered by people recognising an item and seeing that the creator is not the person they know to be the creator, like you indicated. If you do discover something like this, my advice would be to always contact who you know to be the original creator giving them as much detail (with screenshots) as you can. This will help them to file the relevant DMCA notices. If you are unsure who the original creator is, or are unsure if it is an illegal copy or not, my advice would be to just leave it. It's admirable to want to help in getting the right justice (I do too!) but I also don't want to go around making accusations that i'm not 100% sure of. However, it should also be noted that if you see evidence of someone using copybotting tools you should then AR them (with supporting evidence - chat logs, screenshots etc) For example - if you see someone openly admit to illegal copying you should AR them with the chatlogs, or if you see someone standing next to an avatar and miraculously copying everything from them (skin, clothes etc) onto themselves.

That was a really great read Boroondas, and I wholeheartedly agree with the suggestions of making potential customers want to buy with you as opposed to getting something free and/or illegally. That's the key to good business. Provide quality products, a great shopping experience and good customer service and you will always get customers. That's why all the big popular merchants in SL continue to get lots of customers even though some of their items are copied and freely distributed. There really are a majority of honest people in SL willing to pay for quality. It's unfortunate that a few prefer to copy and steal, but we just need to keep striving for honesty and quality and keep them in the minority.

LittleMe.Jewell wrote: Sonya Bigboots wrote: I think I agree with everything you have said Suella. I don't like it myself when you buy an outfit but can't modify the prim accessories to fit your own body shape. I myself am less likely to buy no-mod items becasue I know they will probably not fit me right. I even want modify ability on the system clothing - especially on the glitch pants to a skirt. That's a very good point LittleMe. People might legitimately want to change the length of glitch pants, for example. The way I look at it, a person has every right to modify one of my items of clothing I sell, just like in RL they have every right to get out the needle and thread to alter clothing. I think some merchants get a little over-protective of their items. I mean, to be honest, I'd get a wee bit upset if someone applied all new textures to one of my clothing designs. I put my ego aside though because it is absolutely their right to do that if they so wish. Once they have bought it, it should be theirs to do as they wish with as a single item (not as an item they can copy and distribute freely unless I specify it as such). (I'm concentrating on clothing here because that's my forte!)

Sonya Bigboots wrote: So seriously, some creators say it is better to make items copy/no mod/no transfer. And others say it is better to make its no copy/no mod/ transfer. Which setting will deter the copybotter for slightly longer, and why? Or does it really not make much differnce as long as your items can't be modified? It doesn't make a huge amount of difference. Personally, I make all my items modify/copy/no transfer. I'd rather offer good customer service by giving them the ability to modify to meet their needs and to copy to take a backup in inventory if necessary. I offer a gifting service too so that peopel can give my items to others as a gift in the absence of transfer permissions. I honestly believe the people who sell their items "no modify" under the mistaken assumption it offers them any real protection against theft are doing their customers a disservice. There are many legitimate reasons for someone to want to modify a product for size, colour, texture etc and I have no problem with people modifying my items. Ok - so you could offer a range of modifying options via script, and I do occassionally offer that too, but I'll still make the items modify just for convenience. The only thing I would say is to be very careful to check, double-check and triple check that you never accidentally make anything full perms. Also, when setting perms for prim objects, do so while they are rezzed in-world and not from your inventory. There have been know issues with permissions not sticking correctly when done from inventory (it is ok to set perms on clothing from inventory because obviously you cannot rez the in-world) Also be sure to check that you have set the right permissions on any items within an objects contents (scripts, animations etc) rather than just on the actual object itself. ETA: Of course, there are those shoppers who prefer Transfer rather than Copy permissions too, should they get bored of the product and wish to give it to someone else, which I can understand. It can be a bit of a no-win situation for merchants. I prefer the Copy approach to give the buyer a safeguard so they can have a backup copy though. If you can afford the prims to double up on all your vendors, one solution is to offer both Copy (No Transfer) and Transfer (No Copy) versions. Ideally though, what we need is a change in the permissions system to offer Copy plus Transfer ONCE! This would mean a shopper can copy the item for backup but, should they then wish to give it to someone else they can do so ONCE but all copies are then purged from their inventory. I imagine that would not be easy to code though!

BoyTiny Aironaut wrote: Why LL can block Emerald and older SL viewers but can't block copybot or ripper viewers is an interesting problem, which needs dealing with. They can and do, where they are made aware of such copybot viewers. However, there are still ways for copybot viewers to circumvent such things by spoofing an 'approved' viewer and, more to the point, there are ways for the thieves to steal content even without using a viewer. (Nope - i'm not going to go into details!) Fact of the matter is though, that LL are fighting a bit of a tough battle. There is only really one way to curb digital theft, and that tends to be quite dramatic too (See RIAA and legal action against lone parents etc! )

As others have said, there is nothing you can do really to 100% protect your creations, just as there is little LL can do to offer 100% protection. Content theft is a problem on the internet in general sadly. Thankfully, you are protected by the law and should make yourself aware of the DMCA process should you ever need to use it: http://secondlife.com/corporate/dmca.php Also note that, despite the drama you may sometimes see, content theft isn't quite as rampant as it is made out to be. Sadly, there are some of the major creators in SL who have had a lot of their content ripped over time but, as a small merchant starting out, the thieves are highly unlikely to target you (and I don't mean that in a rude way. It's just that the thieves are much more likely to target major creators!)