Czari Zenovka

Conifer Dada wrote: Six Igaly wrote: Pussycat Catnap wrote: Abandoned land in the past showed as owned land when viewed from the map. Now it shows as for sale land. - In effect, there is actually a lot -LESS- resident owned land for sale now than there used to be. It shows for sale now because when land gets abandoned it is dumped on the market for L$ 1/m very quick. Before, abandoned land just stayed abandoned for months. I'm not sure if it makes any difference if the available land is resident owned or LL owned. If none of it will be sold it is just as useless, regardless who tries to sell it. That's true, but it eventually it used to end up being auctioned at prices in line with the bottom end of land market at the time. Looking round, with so much LL land on offer at L$1 per sq m, I see some land offered for sale by residents at less than L$ 1 per sq m - I even saw L$ 0.5 on one plot! This collapse in land prices doesn't seem to have hit waterfront mainland yet - I haven't found any waterfront that's abandoned and L$ 1 yet. That's soemthing to watch out for. Check out my post above. Land was abandoned on the waterfront on my mainland sim. Someone did purchase it immediately at 1L/sqm, cut it into 512 parcels, and has it back for sale at 3.5L/sqm. There is a 512 waterfront parcel on an adjoining sim that has been for sale for at least a year, at 23L/sqm. Good luck with that one...lol. Also, in my sim-hopping and checking out the maps...I see other waterfront mainland abandoned.

Snickers Snook wrote: LL could start by making tier steps smaller and giving away the first 1024 to premium. You can't do much of anything on a 512. You hit the nail on the head, Snickers. It's not the land price but tier that has historically kept more people from owning land, or deciding to keep it.

Millennium Sands wrote: Looks like Satori to me. Well, when you look at a whole continent, a view like that with lots of parcels for sale isn't that surprising. I think it was always like that. What I'm noticing now is a bit different than the past - instead of parcels for sale, every mainland region I've gone to in the last month (on a hunt and I have the habit of pulling up the map to check parcel prices) has a TON - sometimes the majority of the sim - with abandoned land. In over 5 years I have never seen so much land abandoned. It actually used to be fairly rare as most people would just keep lowering the price until a landbot grabbed it instead of walking away. I have lived on the same mainland sim for most of my 5+ years in SL. It is a nicely situated water sim bordered on two sides by Linden ocean. (Where I live now is, imo, the prime spot in the sim as it is on the corner, thus surrounded on two sides by the ocean. I gave up my Premium account and rent this land that was purchased by my landlord for mega-bucks many years ago...but I digress...) People have moved in and out of the sim over the years, but at any given time, there were always quite a few parcels for sale. For the last 6 months or so there have been absolutely no parcels on the sim for sale...but yet...I'm usually the only one there at any given time. I found this rather curious. Then I looked at the map a few days ago and WHOA!!! 3/4 of the sim was yellow with, yep, abandoned land for 1L per sqm. If the tier costs weren't so high, I could own practically the entire sim...lol. I noticed the next day the waterfront parcels had been purchased, cut up into 512 sqm parcels and are now for sale for 3.5L sqm (years ago they traditionally sold for at least 13L per sqm) but so far nothing has sold.

MoiselleErin Teardrop wrote: On any forum or SL or FB whatever, why would one need followers? If you know who your friends are, the real ones - just communicate with them. It doesn't have to be set in digital stone that you are friends Totally agree.

Storm Clarence wrote: Czari Zenovka wrote: Storm Clarence wrote: Your friends automatically follow you, unless they have their feed locked. You can unfollow a friend or you can remove the friend from your list. Friends do not 'count' as followers, but they get to read what you post to your board ergo following. What board??? my.secondlife.com PS Board should read as *wall* in FB nomenclature I guess. Geez...guess I need to go check that site out more closely. I didn't even know THAT existed until friend who told me how to get rid of follower clued me in.

Sassy Romano wrote: There is no need to use Viewer 3 to upload to DD. Cool VL also has the merchant outbox although this does require SSE functions in the processor so won't necessarily run on an older PC anyway (this is what i'm told, I haven't personally tried). This is what is stated on Cool VL's website: http://sldev.free.fr/ Pertinent snippet is: What operating systems and what hardware are supported? You will find Linux and Windoze builds on this site, and MacOS X builds can be found in the Latest MacOS X Releases section of the forum (they have been built by Hyang Zhao in the past, and Guru Coyote is now providing builds: thanks and kudos must go to them for their contribution). As for the hardware, the Cool VL Viewer uses SSE2 (because the Mesh code requires it); it won't work on CPUs without SSE2 (Pentium 3 or Athlon XP, for example). The supported video cards are the same as for the official Second Life viewers (i.e. OpenGL v2 capable and better graphic cards, with Nvidia or ATI chipsets). Some Intel chipsets might fail to pass the requirements and are known to be too slow, most of the time. To MP shoppers - Most merchants (I know I do!!!) want to know if their customers are having difficulty getting their merchandise. I would highly recommend contacting the merchant before attempting more purchases of the item. As stated above, sometimes merchants see "failed delivery" notices in their MP transactions, other times nothing is noted.

Love the photo! When the Bloodlines craze was getting out of hand a couple of years ago, ie. constant spamming of blue drop-down boxes for bites resulting in many venues posting "No Bloodlines" signs, constant forum discussions, etc. an enterprising animator and regular forumite created a "response." It was an animation with which one targeted an avatar, resulting in a blue drop-down box requesting a hug; when the person clicked ok, instead of a hug the initiating avatar pulled out a previously invisible stake, drove it into the other avatar's heart, resulting in said avatar literally going underground momentarily. (Note: This was given out to friends and acquaintances of the creator; I don't believe it was ever sold.) One day when I logged into SL I got the "Your home location is not available. You have been moved to the nearest location" message. Apparently a lot of people had been moved to this location as I landed at some hub, right in a virtual nest of Bloodline types. (What always amused me about most Bloodline peeps I encountered was that they didn't even rp or dress the part...just went about spamming for bites.) Sure enough, I immediately began getting numerous bite "offers." Ah-HA!!! Time to use my new toy. I quickly equipped my stake and each person that spammed me for a bite, I clicked no then offered the person a "hug." No one took me up on my hug and this back and forth "offering" went on with various people. I noticed the Bloodline avatars walking away from the area (TPs still weren't working). I said, "What's the matter? You big bad Bloodline vampires afraid of a hug?" More avatars walked away from me and the bite requests stopped. I was disappointed I didn't have a chance to use my new stake. Finally I was able to tp home and cammed in on myself to change clothes to see.....that the stake (which has an invisible as well as visible mode while wearing) was apparently set to "visible" as the default. Oppppsssieesssss! Hint - next time one goes out vampire hunting, make sure your stake is hidden. :matte-motes-big-grin-wink:

Woot!!! Thanks, Snickers! I'm STILL miffed about losing the old forums, especially the "Advice for Merchants" thread that I think was ongoing for over a year before the plug got pulled. Heading for that nostalgic reminder now!!

Pussycat Catnap wrote: lucagrabacr wrote: I do think you really should buy a new PC or upgrade it if your current PC can't run V3, and it's not like you do it only for running SL, go get some other games which your old PC can't run and have fun with them. This. All technology is always going --------------------> that way. If you stop and go -| - everything will stop working right over time. Not just SL. Computers aren't really built to last more than 3-4 years these days... I always tell people to avoid the top end, and the very bottom. Get a good brand's lower end. So that it wont' break, and you can afford to replace or upgrade it every few years. And then I went and bought a Mac... which is basically the opposite of all that... Overall good advice except in some cases, me being one, a person simply cannot purchase a new PC due to my RL situations. I used to teach application software at a Jr. College so if I could, I'm geeky enough to want to update regularly. It is very frustrating not to be able to do so to begin with, then have a couple of things hit at once on SL (MP direct delivery plus mesh - both of which require use of the new viewers which cannot be done on my PC) just ices the cake. Someone mentioned other games needed better computers. Well, yes and no. I spoke to a man who owns a computer repair shop the other day and was talking about having increasing difficulty using my PC for SL but that it runs WoW beautifully. I was intrigued to hear (according to this man) that WoW learned lessons from one of its predecessors (EQ) and was designed to be able to run well on low end machines. I can still run EQ fairly well, but I do notice WoW runs the best of all three. Re: mesh. I agree with the OP - seems there's always some new thing. I honestly still don't like "most" sculpties. Many people purchase sculpty maps, then have no clue how to texture them and the item just screams "I am a sculpty" - and not in a good way. I have seen some done well, but the majority just have a certain "look" to them I don't care for. As for mesh - it will be interesting to see where it goes, but considering my PC situation I can't see it at all so it's a moot point. I told a friend the other day that I will never buy any mesh-built object/clothes just as a matter of principle - due to my current aggravation with SL over several issues. @Deja - there is a thread on here re: Cloud Party which is apparently Facebook's new 3D community so apparently they are attempting to compete with SL, attempting likely being the operative word.

rebound wrote: Lol for me its worse lots of lag and lots of crashing. gr rebound I'm not crashing but I've noticed way more lag than usual (for me) in the past several weeks.

Storm Clarence wrote: Your friends automatically follow you, unless they have their feed locked. You can unfollow a friend or you can remove the friend from your list. Friends do not 'count' as followers, but they get to read what you post to your board ergo following. What board???

Ceera Murakami wrote: They changed it so you have to explicitly choose to follow someone. Many people did not like the idea of everyone on their friend list becoming an instant cyber-stalker. So they won't be following you unless they choose to follow you. Also, lots of people in SL are less than enthusiastic about the Facebook-style follow and feeds, and disable that feature in their own profile. This^^ I didn't even know this "feature" existed until several months ago I got an email from SL saying some avatar I'd never met and whom I'd never friended was "following me." That kind of creeped me out. Turns out the "follower" was someone to whom I'd responded with help on one of the forums...1 post...and then I'm followed. Asked a friend about that and when I found it I turned that off so fast!!!

Domsson Lean wrote: Deja, that's awesome! <snip> So, what I'm trying to say here: your tool looks extremely nice and helpful, maybe you should share. I was going to make the same suggestion, except that Deja sell that script to merchants - I would SO buy one, not being a coder at all. (In my defense, I have probably taken 10 various types of LSL scripting classes in SL and know just enough to tinker with written ones...a little. I am in awe of you coder types!!!)

Hi Deja Speaking from a customer point of view - and only my opinion, of course - I really don't like or use catalogs I have received. The ones with which I am familiar are all from clothing stores but, for me, it's just something that clutters my inventory and I ditch them. The first one I ever saw was a novelty (for me - this is years ago) so I accepted it from the auto giver when I arrived at the destination with the intention of looking at it soon. I came across it months later, attached it as a HUD, and the novelty wore off after the first couple of pages. I'm not a "window shopper" - SL or RL - so my SL shopping experience consists of: Looking for a specific type of item - check out the MP - narrow my selections - check out the stores in world - make purchase. I am interested in how catalogs have worked for other merchants and/or if other shoppers utilize them.

Sassy Romano wrote: My answer would be "ask them". Just what is it about this organisation that it repeatedly fails to communicate with it's expected user base? Here's a key question being asked on a 3rd party forum, why not here in the first place? I was thinking the same thing. Why is the CEO of a company not asking this question on the company's website? Afraid of the answers he might get? Clueless as to how to run a corporation? Spent too much time in gaming communites that have little crossover to SL? Got me. I think it is a slap in the face to SL residents that the CEO has thus far given an answer on Twitter instead of answering it where it was being asked on a regular basis (ie. Merchant's forum) and now conversing on SLU, which in part was created and/or became more populated because of many older residents not agreeing with the previous forums being closed down and hiring a third-party company to run the current ones. Ironic, eh? I've got a question for ya Rod - since you don't seem to want to engage those of us who have helped to make SL what it is, instead of trying to keep fly-bys, why should I remain in SL? Sassy Romano wrote: Corporate? Nope, tried that, corps just don't need SL, hardware requirements too much, functionality isn't there. At least my PC hardware fits in with those of the corporate world. *grins* (Thought you might get a kick out of that, Sassy ) Sassy Romano wrote: People who just want to socialise? Other platforms provide that in simpler forms. Interesting you should mention this. Until last night I had not seriously considered leaving SL. I then received an email on an unrelated matter from a member of the group with whom I originally migrated from IRC to SL for the purposing of continuing our social/rp theme. We had been together 15 years when we arrived on SL 5 years ago. I discovered other interests on SL over time and gradually drifted away from this group. About a year ago I heard that they had moved to another grid and were really enjoying it. Since I had no interest in even checking out another grid I continued on in SL. In the last 4 months or so I have become very disenchanted with some decisions LL has made, particularly as it pertains to merchants, but also steadily increasing graphics requirements that make even being in SL painful these days. (Waiting 10 minutes for an area to rez in and/or before I can move and even then not be able to move depending on how texture/script-heavy an area is...is no fun.) Then I received the aforementioned email last that sent me into some nostalgic thinking and how much I had enjoyed that group over the years. This one sentence quoted above provided a "lightbulb moment" for me. Instead of continuing to bash my head against the proverbial brick wall in SL with a situation that, at present, will not change for me, I could instead go join my friends elsewhere and resume what I initially came with them to SL for - fun. So Rod...while asking how to make new residents stay, you might want to give a few moment's thought on why are "oldie" SL residents leaving and what could have been done to encourage them to stay?

Charolotte Caxton wrote: Ugg, looks like the scenery is already getting uglified by skydomes. I'll try to pretend they are like litte planets, or moons. Plus side, I discovered shadows! Does Cloud Pary not have forums yet? lol

Qie Niangao wrote:Yeah, a few folks will cling to their SL inventories for a while, but with creators able to migrate their every Mesh item from SL to CP at the push of a button, and with ten or a hundred times as many potential users on CP, those SL inventories could get very dusty, very fast. Realizing this isn't going to be a very popular comment, I'm going to say it anyway: Mesh could totally leave the SL grid and I would be MUCH happier. Take mesh and go to Cloud-whatever with my blessings.

WADE1 Jya wrote: However, the big reason I hate a facebook world is I don't want to be anywhere with Zuckerberg's heavy breathing over my shoulder, watching my ever move. I know I can login with 'anonymous' account but then I'm a second class citizen, and its still placing me inside a facebook property. Don't trust facebook & want nothing to do with 'em. Facebook is just too creepy. Makes me wanna :matte-motes-sick: Ditto. I researched Zuckerface in some depth and he has a rather shady past including hacking into Harvard's database of sororities and posting sorority girls' photos (without permission obviously) on a "Hot or Not" website which was what then led to his idea for FB. When FB went "big time" and began making some money, he shafted his initial college business partners, who then sued him. Let's not forget the recent stock debacle which is now being investigated. Then there's the recent change of FB's privacy policy which is now that they *will* sell or do whatever with one's info. Just a sampling of tidbits I found when digging into Zucker's past. I agree, Wade...I don't want Zucker near my online life.

Coby Foden wrote: JohnMiddlefield wrote: Qwalyphi Korpov wrote: ... Although the reason given for dropping the reports was that 'some of the residents said they were useless.' Which suggests the Lindens respond to the requests of their users. (just kidding) LOL! Well, I am sure the Lab does respond to their users when convenient. (not kidding) It is amazing how Linden Lab sometimes respond to our input. A handful of residents don't like something and complain about it. If Linden Lab does not like that same thing either, they kill it. Then if thousands of people ask for something and if for some reason the Lab does not like it they will turn a deaf ear and do nothing. They might comment "as we cannot please ALL we will not do it", for example. :smileytongue: (not kidding either) Or...LL geeks will come up with some "new shiny techno-whatever" that excites said geeks, post a poll or hold office hours to see how many residents like this idea (or at least they did in the past), majority of residents vote/say they don't like it and TA-DA - LL releases it "because a majority of the residents asked for it." /facepalms These days, I think LL just makes changes without bothering to ask the user base, but if they ever do again, my theory is to all vote/say, "Oh yes!!! We really want this" and hopefully then LL will not release it. Gah - having to use reverse psychology with a supposed professional business entity.

Jo Yardley wrote: As part of my lifestyle I live like someone from the 1930s, besides my computer I have nothing modern in my home. And I love it, am not missing out on anything. <Snip> We have so much rubbish and useless stuff today, we're being spoiled rotten. Taking a few steps back wouldn't bother me at all. I admire you for living as you do as described in the first paragraph I quoted and totally agree with the second. To be able to make ends meet I discontinued cable TV about 6 months ago. I had intended on getting an indoor antennae to bring in at least local stations and "maybe" Netflix later on, but I found to my surprise I am not missing TV in the slightest so those ideas are now on indefinite "hold." I had a simple cell phone for years on an inexpensive plan, but cut that out as well to economize. Even when I had the cell phone it was just to be able to call for aid if my car broke down (my job involved a lot of traveling) and for outgoing calls if needed. I didn't even know my own cell phone number as I only turned it on to make calls, not receive them. I met a woman in my apt. complex recently and we exchanged phone numbers. I KNOW I told her I did not have a cell phone. A few days later I get a call from her and she says, "Your cell phone isn't working - I just tried to text you and got an error message." Me: Ummmm, I don't have a cell phone, just this land line which you apparently tried to text." Her: Stunned silence. I've never been overly materialistic but stumbled upon an intriguing blog about a year ago re: minimalist living. It really jived with me as I enjoy clean, uncluttered living spaces so I have been gradually getting rid of excess "stuff." I do need to do more in the way of emergency preparations, though, since I live in the land of hurricanes and we got hit with 4 successive ones a number of years ago that knocked out electricity for weeks for hundreds, if not thousands, of people. In addition to natural disasters, in this age of terrorism, *anything* could happen. "Be prepared" is a good motto. I am a SL time-traveler (stated in my profile *grins*). Definitely need to re-visit 1920s Berlin. I visited a few times several years ago and loved it, but was partnered at the time. Partners can be very time-consuming...lol.

Peggy Paperdoll wrote: I'm an American and I am concerned with value and quality for anything I put money into. But I also have never seen SL as any sort of investment........none. I pay a quarterly fee for my premium membership and have done so without a single month missed for over 6 years. I view SL as entertainment. The money, effort, and time I've "invested" in SL was for the sole purpose of furthering my (my personal) entertainment. And SL has come through for me without fail superbly. If you came to SL with the thinking that it's an investment in anything other than what you are prepared to loose on then you are setting yourself up for some big, big disappointments. SL was created as an experiment by Philip Rosedale over 10 years ago.........if's still an experiment. Some people really need to think about what they are "investing" and just how risky that investment can be. SL go belly-up tomorrow, I'll be disappointed. But I would not feel I've lost anything except a fun entertainment past time that I've enjoyed or 6 plus years. I will survive........and have 6 years worth for fond (and pleasant) memories. This ^^ Not sure where people are garnering their ideas of how people in the USA think, which is EXTREMELY varied - no way to really broadbrush an entire country as I'm sure onen would not wish to be pigeonholed into a one-dimensional view of their country, eh. As for what I'm "overly concerned" with - at this point it is the health and well-being of my elderly parents, my step-sister who has now been in the hospital for over 3 months after a vehicle accident with a wound in her leg that won't heal and has had an operation weekly during that 3 months (which increases the stress of my parents), while my step-sister has been in the hospital, her husband was found dead in their home of an apparent heart-attack (further increasing the stress on my step-sister and parents), trying to make ends meet in my own current financial situation, and taking the time to smell the RL roses. I've been in SL for now over 5 years, enjoy it immensely, and have amassed quite an inventory, but as Peggy said, I view any financial "investment" in it the same way as I do "WoW" - (not at all saying I consider SL a "game" - far from it - just a realistic comparison to how I may choose to spend entertainment dollars. At the moment I can't afford "investing" in any entertainment, but I can still enter SL and have a great time and not put any USD into it.

Perrie Juran wrote: Charolotte Caxton wrote: Ha, here are eleven of me http://its.cloudpartytime.com Agent Smith would like to have a date with you. I am so ROFL!!!!

Charolotte Caxton wrote: Coby Foden wrote: Charolotte Caxton wrote: Lol, I customized my self Wow! Amazing job Charolotte. So cute. :heart: :smileywink: Thanks! We think so :smileylol: Ok, that's just scary. Kind of like looking in one of those fun house mirrors where you see a crowd of yourself. :smileysurprised:

MizDeMeanor Morpork wrote: I think you've made the most viable point of all this. The intrusiveness of facebook and programs like it. <snip> Please excuse my rant, as I rarely make sense to anyone but myself. I just feel its all so intrusive, and yes facebook..If I had wanted to speak to someone I hadn't seen in ten years; you would be the last people I would use to contact that person. Facebook is the epitome of self-centered indulgence harboring on Andy Warhal's 15 minutes of fame idea. I like how you think as well, MizDeMeanor. And I didn't think you rambled at all!

Dresden Ceriano wrote: The simple fact that in order to gain full use of it's features you have to sign up through Facebook is enough to keep me away. Dresden Ceriano is the persona I use for all my online social activities for a reason. The last thing I want is to be able to be looked up and bombarded by old friends and family members, then have to spend all my time telling them about my boring life... my online time is for me to get away from all of that. Plus, I simply have no interest in getting in touch with people from my RL whom I've stopped talking to ages ago... I stopped talking to them for a reason. I like how you think, Dresden One of the things that soured me on FB was being constantly bombarded with "you may know these people" - and I'm talking pages of them. Some of these people "I may know" included: my estranged bio-dad (estranged for a reason), a woman I knew in college who chased my then-fiance and was upset he wasn't engaged to her (yeah, I really wanted to be reminded of her again), two people who couldn't take the time to answer emails I sent but who were among the first to want to "friend" me on FB, a cousin's husband who, since the death of my cousin I really have no inclination to continue any relationship with, etc. WHY does FB want to push these people in my face, with the ones I mentioned bringing up some bad memories?