Czari Zenovka

Tamara Artis wrote: My intention was to see if any of you tried other virtual worlds and how it is there, your experiences and so on, not because I'm lazy to try it myslef but because there are many and I like to hear other people's experiences. But now, it looks like the whole discussion went in other direction; is SL dying? I don't know but if it is then I'm sure some other will replace it. In direct answer to your question, I have tried out two other virtual worlds. One is very similar to SL, but does not have a physics engine in place yet, pose balls are still the only method to sit or be animated, scripts are "iffy," etc. Many SL merchants/content-creators went to that VW two years ago when LL made a very unpopular new rule that affected content creators. Some left SL entirely and others set up shop there as well as keeping their SL businesses in case something happened to SL. The population is still largely comprised of merchants for that reason. I initially had a small shop there while still remaining largely in SL...but that VW is pretty much "owned" by one person and if you get on her bad side, it's not pretty. I did so by trying to point out in their forums that by bashing SL constantly, they could keep interested people from SL from giving their vw a try and said that many people enjoyed both worlds. One resident in particular loved to post "Hate SL" threads. When I responded to him, civilly and politely, that continuing to hate on SL could have the opposite effect of what he wanted (getting others to go there) he told me, "If you like SL so much, then leave here." I later sent an IM to him saying, "You know what, I think I'll take your advice." I was promptly IM'd by the world's "owner" accusing me of "harrassment." It was then that I realized the wisdom of LL not getting involved in resident-to-resident disputes. I will not inhabit that virtual world because I don't like one person having the ultimate "power" over its residents. The role play group that I initially came to SL with over 5 years ago have now relocated to OSGrid because they could have as many sims as they want (they now have 13 for their rp area) instead of paying expensive tier for land in SL. OSGrid also resembles SL but there is no monetary system so everything has to either be created by each resident, or by finding content creators who offer their items for free. If SL folds, this is where I will likely go as I can build pretty much everything I would "need" in the way of housing and furnishings and know enough about creating clothing that I could hone my skills in that area. I have heard others speak of IMVU as appealing largely to the younger set. The avatars are anime-looking and there is what sounds like a complicated system to selling anything there. However, I have no interest in IMVU so have never been there personally.

Curious Hazelnut wrote: In response to someone else, I don't know anyone who doesn't have a bandwidth cap (in the 80GB to 300GB a month range). This bandwidth cap is apparently dependent on the internet provider. I live in the US and my provider does not have a bandwidth cap; however, I've read on the forums of many other people in the US with internet providers that do have caps. I pray my provider does not go that route.

WolfBaginski Bearsfoot wrote: Is SL dying? There is a downward trend on many things, and while I can see how such things as Mesh and Pathfinding can make a difference, they haven't been well done. It's not quite three years for me, and I admit, Jo, I'm not the same sort of user that you are. With the way things are going, I am more and more inclined to give up my Premium status. I paid, and I hoped for some technical problems to improve. I paid, and they didn't improve. Some of them get worse. What, I wonder, do I really get for that little patch of land I get? What do I use it for? What I get from SL are the social interactions, the people I hang out with. I'd be happy without Mesh, without Pathfinding, . I'd be happy if they'd spent time and effort fixing the old problems, which they seem to have not fixed in three years, and which seem worse than I have ever experienced. We're stuck with decisions that were taken a decade ago. SL may have some advantages still, but somebody else might take the idea, and write their own code, and not be tied down by those old choices. SL might be the Visicalc of virtual worlds. (Emphasis mine) I've been in SL 5+ years and I can personally say that this past year has been disastrous in many ways as compared to the past 4. The Merchant Forums, although perhaps not interesting to those who do not have SL businesses, are comprised of people, many of whom make their full-time or good part-time income within SL, and thus stay aware of trends that could impact their businesses. In a related thread to this one: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Merchants/Stunned/td-p/1661335 ...it is noted, as it has been at various times on those forums, that 1800 sims (I'm assuming estate sims) were abandoned last year and it is reported that 800 more have been given up in the last 2 months. Anyone can travel around mainland and see that many, if not most, of the individual sims have huge portions for sale, many being sold by LL for 1.0L sqm - previously abandoned land. I'm not saying this is the death knell of SL, but with people giving up their sims, merchants closing down businesses (and thus giving up sims) which is part of the lifeblood of LL's income (selling land and lindens so people can buy stuff) - SL *is* shrinking. Two years ago LL laid off 30% of their staff, approximately 100 people. The issue is how long can LL as a corporation stay profitable. Rodvik came from a gaming background and it has been very evident that he has been moving SL toward more of a "gaming" type platform - examples being Linden Realms, pathfinding, and offering MMORPG type "exclusive items" for becoming a Premium member. SL may survive, but it may be a very different SL from when I and many began years ago.

Darrius Gothly wrote: Pamela Galli wrote: I don't know how to back up my builds, tho, Darrius. I think only the criminals get to do that. I am just glad I am doing mesh now, I guess. Guess it's time to look up into the Cloud. I don't know either Pamela. I'm sure there are some enterprising types out there that have a way .. short of Copybotting your own stuff. (Which of course I am not recommending .. cuz that's against TOS to copy your own creations. ??) But I've seen devices that make mini-replicas of builds and I know there used to be a way to export a build that was entirely your own creation so .. there's gotta be a way. I'm just glad I've been keeping off-world copies of all my scripts. Second Inventory (which I think changed their name to Stored Inventory two years ago after LL made another decision that sent many merchants to another Virtual World) was one commercial way to do it. Every single piece of the build has to be created by the one uploading it, meaning no full perm textures, sculpts, animations, etc. - everything in the uploaded build has to be 100% created by the uploader. Prior to the change two years ago, entire builds could be uploaded, including full perm items. I've also heard people saying the Imprudence Viewer is good for backing up things.

Melita Magic wrote: Yes it has been closed about three weeks now. (I left a few friends on the access list.) Thank you JeanneAnne for the kind words. I read your profile in world last night after posting. We all need breaks from time to time and you definitely deserve one with lots of pampering. Changing Rooms was such a labor of love; I'd like to personally wring the necks of the people who abused it.

Brenda Archer wrote: It's impossible to have an online business that is also a community and not have some grumpy customers. Often, with good reason. There's no good way to get out of working with your user community, that is if you want to still have one... (Emphasis mine) I'm not sure they do.

EnCore Mayne wrote: is it normal for anyone else to have to log in numerous times to the forum? this time it only sent me to the login page twice. sometimes it's upwards of swearing a blue streak. i make sure i click the checkbox to "Remember" and sometimes it works and other times i'm sent to https://support.secondlife.com/. is someone trying to tell me something underhanded, behind my back, against our trust? i'm innocent i tells ya! I've been having the same issue for *thinks*... a long time, over several months I'd say and yes it is annoying. Prior to this I had "Remember me on this computer" checked and never had to sign in. Now I check it and pretty much each time I leave the forum page and return I have to sign in. Even that's not consistent, though. Sometimes I can go for most of the day without having to log in. Very odd indeed.

I'm still unashamedly using my Magic Box. *Smiles* Those from the forums who have taken the time to know me understand why. I'm in the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" camp and was fortunately one who never had failed deliveries. OTOH, I still have 4 mixed listings on my MP store that seem to be taking prominence and switching to DD won't help that.

Melita Magic wrote: Having fun with RL people as they see SL for the first time. Exploring with them. Unfortunately I do'nt get to do that very often. I used to think it was the creativity and landscaping but lately, the level of professionalism has left me feeling I will never catch up, so it might as well be a professional video game. I'm impressed but not heartwarmed as I used to be. So lately it's either RL people, or my meeroos. Trite, but true. Those give back to me the most at the moment. Honestly I thought I and my place meant more, but when I closed it, I got ONE message saying the person missed hte place...and when I posted here about my birthday - well. One person I knew and two I didn't know, but thanks to those people. It does put it all into perspective. SL is no replacement, at least for me, for RL is what I've learned this year. Wait...you closed down Changing Rooms? Oh gosh...I didn't hear anything about that. :matte-motes-agape:

I highly recommend one of the products by Darrius Gothly. His blog is located at http://www.dgp4sl.com/wp/ To the right of his blog entry is a column that lists his in world locations, MP location and info on his products. I have his teleporter that connects two locations in my store and home and LOVE them. I'm pretty sure he has teleporters that connect to multiple locations within a sim. :

MoiselleErin Teardrop wrote: Probably cause you are maybe new? Once you get old and crusty like me and my girls, vamps don't even bother. Even if they did, I would just arm up with one of my fine weapons and go to town on them. "But Erin that would be griefing!" Yep, it sure would When the Bloodlines vamp thing got really annoying years ago a friend who is an animator created a silver stake (I think she got vampire/werewolf lore mixed up..or combined). It could be worn in visible or invisible state. How it works is you send a bite or hug request (trying to recall now) to a vamp rp'er. They get the same drop down request box as their bite requests send. If the person says yes, the person wearing the stake drives it into their heart and the victim goes underground temporarily. Really a cool little gadget. I tried it out on a friend and it surprised us both when he went underground. So the one time I land in a nest of Bloodline types (my home sim was unavailable when I logged in) and got the vampire spam I quickly put on my stake and each vampire that sent a bite request to me, I declined and sent a request to them. Not one of about 15 people accepted my "request." Even stranger, they began moving away from me. I was really disappointed I didn't get a chance to use my nifty vampire killer. When I arrived back home and looked at my avatar I realized I had been wearing the stake in visible mode. Ooopppsss!

Peggy Paperdoll wrote: I live on a sky platform and I spend a lot of time there making stuff (mostly I delete it after doing it since I have too much stuff anyway). A couple weeks ago I TP'd down to ground level on my plot. I thought I had TP'd to some place other than my land but the address bar said it was my land. There was a brand new train station right next to my land that the SLRR folks had built on the Linden Land that runs along side my land. It was really quite quaint and nice...........and that all happened almost over night (it wasn't there a week before and there was no indication that anything was going to be built there either). It's that's kind of stuff that continues to amaze me......a surprise around every bend. Many things in SL are sort of old hat..........like clubbing. But some things are new every time I log in. I can relate, Peggy. I've lived in a sky home pretty much my entire time in SL and the vast majority of that on the same sim. There are a handful of us who are long-time residents of the sim, with the rest of it alternating between new people and being for sale. I went down to land level on my parcel for the first time in months and WHOA!!!! The parcel behind me had a new neighbor on it with some nice builds. (I need to get out of the house more often...lol.) I'm like you, most of my time these days in SL I'm either in my skyhouse, on my building platform, or in my shop...all on the same parcel. My first couple of years in SL were such fun and my eyes were wide with wonder. I wish I could recapture that feeling. I'm still impressed when I see particularly nice builds, but I'm usually "editing linked parts" to see how they built that. The hazard of getting interested in building...lol.

Ed Palletier wrote: Why does the new resident who dont know about SL have to be the one that needs to wear the neckles? They dont know this yet. It would be so much better if all resident already had a neckles on when they create an account. And then they would need to deacitave the neckles to join the vampires. It seems a better way to go. No more bite spam this way. And less problums for the vampires. IMO the garlic neckles is set up backwards. But you know what, nothing will happend, and vampires will always be not like by the residents of SL. Maybe thats part of the game. * Also if you were a Bloodlines Player at one point this necklace will take your name off their website ( Like Opt-out ) and shows you as name removed, and when someone scans you with their systems it won't give them any info, just shows that you are wearing the garlic necklace and they shouldn't disturb you There hud say that they should"nt disturb you. They still can send bite. This is what I was told by a vampire. You've been given the instructions several times as to how not to be further spammed by the Bloodlines players. I don't mean to be harsh, but it seems as if you just want to complain. As far as "There hud say that they should"nt disturb you. They still can send bite. This is what I was told by a vampire" then I believe the "vampire" who informed you of this is mistaken. I have a friend who has been in Bloodlines for years and he said after wearing/touching the garlic necklace one is "invisible" or somehow says one is "protected." At any rate he cannot send a bite request to me and apparently if someone does I don't see it. Re: all residents being given necklaces when they start an account, Bloodlines is a game within SL, just as various other games. They are user-created, therefore, unless there is some huge issue, LL will not and should not, imo, "step in" so to speak. There *was* a huge brewhaha about Bloodlines bite spam several years ago, to which I previously alluded, which resulted in the Bloodlines creator providing the garlic necklace. Issue handled. Along the same line, I wouldn't advise venturing into a Gorean sim just yet (if ever); same for D/s, BDSM sims. If someone gives a free object to you and a huge yellow drop-down sign asks permission to take funds from you, DON'T click yes. Let's see....probably not wise to go to Zindra for now. (Trying to think of other areas you should have been "warned" about.) Glad I could help.

Kampu Oyen wrote: http://tribes.tribe.net/secondlifemarketplaceproductsearch/thread/2ddce358-ef5a-4dfa-8022-061e9f36cd44 My reading of that didn't assume that the word "prim" was the keyword spam. Of course I have no idea what keywords you used, but the only listing of the word "prim" in that letter was within the name of your product.

Happy Birthday, Melita!! (and everyone else born in September) Getting ready for mine in December - the 24th to be exact if anyone wants to start shopping. :matte-motes-tongue:

Ed Palletier wrote: I do hang out at newbie areas sometimes when I am bored. Thats where it happends most of the time. Even if you do wear the neckles they can still send you a bite request if they want to. Unless something has changed with Bloodlines, and I doubt it...per my last post (a) you don't just "wear" the necklace, you put it on once, touch it, take it off (mine is archived somewhere), at which point (b) you do not show up on the HUD the Bloodlines players are wearing. This became a nuisance some years ago which prompted the Bloodlines creator to...well, create...the garlic necklace. Prior to doing the above I was moved to an info hub once when I logged in and my home region was available and was immediately spammed by a bunch of bite requests. Now, I never get any.

Griffin Ceawlin wrote: Ed Palletier wrote: ... I refuse to wear the garlic neckles! Why not? You only have to wear it once, not forever. Wear it and be done with them. This^^ The last time there was a flurry of these posts...about 3 years ago or so...I got the garlic necklace, wore it and, iirc, touch it once. A message is seen in local that says something like you will no longer receive bite requests but if you want to play Bloodlines again you wear it again and touch it. A friend of mine who is in Bloodlines said that after doing that the person will no longer show up on the Bloodlines HUD.

Tiffy Vella wrote: Gahhhh I'm very much a target for this. It's part of my basic introductory sentence that I use on the MP. I state that my jewellery is made of prims. This is an old-fashioned thingo I did from the start as ages back, many did jewellery which was merely a texture layer, so I wanted everyone to be sure I wasn't cheating, but making my own. From prims. Gaaaaaah we can't win!!!! I'm in the same boat. Due to many of my products being 1 prim and the rest low prim, I use those (1x each - not spamming) in my keyword description. I'd like to see where this communication came from as well please, Josh.

PurpleSnow Huntress wrote: Anyone else having the issue of all MagicBox items being unlisted or is it just me? :matte-motes-bashful-cute-2: Thanks!~Snow I was adding items to my Magic Boxes earlier today and all was well. Just now checked my Marketplace Home and all products are showing as active. However, I have heard in the last week or so a couple of people saying they don't "see" their items on the Marketplace. I think there was a question about that issue on this forum maybe a week ago. But your issue sounds like your items are showing for you, just unlisted. Just took a look at your MP store - I see 4 items listed and able to be purchased.

Tiffy Vella wrote: Heheh...that's quite a nice problem to have, actually Was thinking the same thing, Tiffy. I get excited each time I see a MP notice in my email.

Amethyst Jetaime wrote: Personally I would stay far away from business in a box things as a lot of them contain copybotted content or items that violate IP rights such as those "nike' shoes. If not that, most of the stuff in them is junk or outdated stuff . Why would you want to give such things away or even charge for them? You'd be much better off giving a couple of high quality items that are clearly legal content away than hundreds of freebie junk IMO. Even newbs eventually learn what is junk and what is good and having junk given to them is not a way to bring them back to your mall when they are ready to buy, However giving them good quality things gives you a much better chance of luring them back. This^^ I received a huge selection of BIAB dresses (3 boxes) from someone who was trying to be helpful when I first began SL over 5 years ago. I tried each one on and thought they were junk even before I knew much at all about SL merchandise.

Ceka Cianci wrote: Czari Zenovka wrote: Ceka Cianci wrote: Czari Zenovka wrote: Storm Clarence wrote: If that's not the stupidest ban ever...gah. I heard on the news good ole Blumberg now wants to ban baby formula in hospitals to basically force women to breastfeed. Talk about trampling on women's rights. they are doing it in chicago as well..or something like it..and baby formula.. well there is no reason for 6 month old children to be obese.. fructose is what they are going after.. so much salt is added to sodas that they use so much fructose to hide the salt..which really ends up being nothing more than drinking salt that will just keep making you thirstly.. a can of soda does about the same thing to the body as a can of beer does... mainly because of the fructose in it.. that's also in baby formula.. that's probably why they are going after baby formula.. fructose is nothing but poison to the body.. it will be interesting to see if they do ban it or not from hospitals.. Not debating how bad fructose is for a person, just that this whole issue begins eroding freedom of choice and that's not a road I wish to go down. oh i understand..and really i'm not debating it either.. people are going to get that from just about every food product they eat.. it's even in bread.. i just think it is going to get interesting when they start up these bans.. i mean it's not really going to even help the issue or get close to solving the problem.. to me it just sounds like some political hand washing more than actually trying to solve anything.. if they want to get something actually done..they need to start making people aware of the dangers of it rather than taking some things away.. it's just something to make those places look like they give a crap without actually having to give a crap.. hehehe (Emphasis mine) Exactly! Kind of like...prohibition. How did that work out for them (the politicians). Speakeasies flourished.

Hi Qie! My mainland parcel is in the NE section of the sim (whew) so the new lag I'm experiencing apparently isn't due to the above issues. I'll keep an eye on it over the next week. We've had bad storms in my area last week so info coming through my modem could have been slowed down, if that is possible.

Kenbro Utu wrote: The "spamming of messages" being referred to is not something you will see unless you are monitoring your bandwidth usage. They are not messages to you, but rather repeated information being sent to the viewer from the sims. It can be so bad as to run people with bandwidth caps out of their monthly alottment in a matter of days. Ahh ok, thanks Kenbro. Fortunately my ISP has not put a cap on bandwidth yet (keeps fingers crossed) so I would not have noticed that.

Thank you for the responses. I pretty much figured pathfinding was sim wide, which means that no one on a mainland sim has any control over this since mainland sims are owned by LL. My parcel is on the corner of the sim...will have to check which direction. I haven't been getting any spamming, and a good hunk of the sim is for sale, thus vacant. This weird lagging just began several days ago. :matte-motes-confused: