Czari Zenovka

Hoppimike wrote: Just still odd that even the projected search popularity for SL still drops. I know it doesn't entirely reflect actual user numbers, but... if they ARE dropping, I still don't get where they're actually going instead In some cases it doesn't mean that the people are "going" anywhere else, except maybe spending time back in their "first" or "real" lives. I've spent a LOT of time over the past 20+ years in various online venues, primarily IRC, EverQuest, a bit of time in WoW, and SecondLife and now just pop into SL every now and then but spend way more time now offline. Maybe I'm getting old.

2007 (and also the year I began SL) is generally referred to as one of or *the* peak year for SL. There are likely a number of reasons 2007 was a peak year; a few I can think of offhand: *SL was still a relative novelty *Many/most of the first people who joined SL back in the day were creative types who were interested in building this new virtual world, literally pretty much from scratch. Some remained in SL and began businesses of various types. Which leads to the next reason... *When I was first in SL (joined May 2007) - one forum post topic that was seen VERY often then was: "Ok, I'm here. How do I make the big money?" This was likely largely due to a SL resident, Anshe Chung , becoming the first millionaire to have made her fortune in SL which was picked up by various publications. You can see the date on this particular article is November 26, 2006. Over the years I have seen different reasons for people joining SL being posted on the forums, but I rarely see the "How do I make the big money" posts these days. *I *think* it was also in 2007 that the TV show "CSI:NY" incorporated SL into either a few of its shows or one season, with its ads inviting people to join SL to help "crack the case." This brought in a wave of new residents and, iirc, there was a CSI sim at the time. After about 2008, population/interest began to decline; it's anyone's guess as to why but it could be due to a lack of advertising/reaching out to the public on the part of LL - they are notorious for not really advertising SL very much. In 2011 there was a bit of an exodus, mainly of content creators/business owners, when LL made a change to its TOS. Prior to this change any item that one had 100% permission rights to could be exported out of SL and backed up. This would include not only a content creator's own work but any full-perm textures, animations, etc. that were purchased as part of a creation. The new TOS permitted only items that were 100% created by a person to be exported. There was a mad dash by many creators to back up their work before the new TOS went into effect. Many of these creators did not agree with this new TOS and moved to InWorldz*; some leaving SL entirely, others setting up secondary businesses in IW as a hedge against something happening to their businesses in SL. Over time any virtual world or MMO/game will gradually lose some members to "the new shiny" - before discovering SL I played EQ for seven years and recall while I was still playing that there was a big server merge because the EQ population was dwindling and instead of having less people on more servers, servers were combined to have more people on fewer servers. Now many people, especially those newer to SL, are interested in using phones and tablets to access online venues and since SL at this time is not really conducive to those types of devices, this may discourage some people to check it out. (Realizing there are text-only SL viewers and some programs that will run SL on smaller devices, but to really experience SL these are still not optimal.) Just my take on some of the reasons the SL population has appeared to decline (I have no idea if it has significantly declined in actual residents or just due to the absence of bots, etc. as pointed out by other posters) since 2007. *ETA - The OP mentions IMVU as the only real competition for SL. InWorldz was created by a former SL resident and is probably the virtual world that most resembles SL. The majority of its "influx" was in 2011 due to the issue mentioned above and, although it has a loyal following, the population has never grown very much. As another poster mentioned, all the Open Grids are also what I would consider competition, per se, for SL rather than IMVU. Edit: clarification

First @Tiffy - I'm with you and agree 100%. Just because it's been here for months (has it gotten to a year yet? sure seems like it) doesn't make it any less annoying. As far as LL fixing it "eventually" - why do I not have great faith in that? Abbey Wingtips wrote: Have reported as inappropriate content to moderator, the spammers. maybe if we all do so, this might help? It would be great if our reporting would help; this angle has been discussed over the past months with several forumites commenting that this shouldn't be our responsibility. Some/many of us did flag the spam when it first started but over time either decided it wasn't our responsibility or just got tired of playing "Whack-a-Mole" with this spam. Also, and I could be wrong on this, from what I understand from reading about this issue over the months - unlike the old forums where the moderators were residents who volunteered and with whom we also interacted on the forums - the current moderators are employees from a third-party company LL has contracted and are paid to moderate the forums. If I am incorrect on this, someone please correct me.

Yes, Singularity has the environmental settings but are likely located in a different place than you are used to in FS. You can find it on the bottom right of your screen. It is located next to your sound controls and is the up arrow to the right of the sound controls. When you click that last arrow...the environmental editor (with all the windlight settings) opens up: As for a "good bright daylight land setting" - I would say test out some of the settings that say "daylight" on them as what looks good to me may not be what you prefer. In fact, 99.9% of the time I use the setting for my skin which I also like for daytime. Hope that helps. Edit: spelling

Hi Blu Don't know if you're still having this issue but my suggestion is to try the Singularity Viewer. Its interface is very similar to the "Old School" 1.x viewers (which is one reason I LOVE it!) or, more recently, it is almost identical to the original Phoenix viewer (which I also loved before it was discontinued). The reason I recommend giving this a try is that it is a "lighter" viewer in terms of the demands it puts on your PC; also, I have had friends who were having crashing problems and other issues with Firestorm and did not have the same issues with Singularity. If you can use this viewer, then you will at least have ruled out anything wrong with your PC/files, etc. If this viewer won't run either then it's something much deeper. I hope you're either back in SL by now, or will be real soon!

Antumbra wrote: When I try to change my item it doesn't work. The list is empty. I have tried to click sync with magic boxes but it didn't do anything. What is a magic box anyways? Do I need one? how can i switch out the objects? This is a Magic Box. It was the method used to sell items on the MP before Direct Delivery was instituted. (Items for sale were placed into the Magic Box; the Magic Box had to be rezzed in world at all times to operate.) Magic Boxes are still used for certain no-copy/unique items such as breedables due to Direct Delivery not being able to handle them on the MP.

Sassy Romano wrote: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-5044 I got this when I tried to access the link:

Madelaine McMasters wrote: Antumbra wrote: Instead of telling me you don't like what I do and calling me annoying and stuff how about just telling me what I SHOULD do. Again please excuse me for the way I have been advertising. I just don't really know much about how to advertise in secondlife. Ask around in the merchant forums, or read the various SL marketing guides (I found a few by googling "second life marketing". I'm sure there are more affordable ways to get your message in front of people who are looking for the kinds of things you sell, either by populating your product descriptions with the proper keywords, renting ad space at popular destinations, participating in merchant fairs, etc. Your display name is difficult to read and virtually unsearchable. Consider dropping the unicode and using your account name as your display name, or adopting the name of your store. In answer to the OP in the post quoted above and tagging onto Maddy's post - I have a few practical suggestions for the OP if she is still reading: *From what I can tell, you have a Marketplace-only store. Nothing at all wrong with that (although some of my fellow merchants may disagree *grins*); I used to have an in-world store for 5+ years but for the last year decided to discontinue it for various reasons. The point being I can relate to the OP with a MP store. Selling strictly from a MP store *can* have a few disadvantages where marketing is concerned, ie. cannot participate in events such as hunts, etc EDIT - Alrighty then...apparently the OP does have an inworld store, and a nice-looking one at that. When I first looked at the profile, all it had was the MP URL. I just thought to double-check the MP store and saw a store listed so I went in world to check it out and..... That makes using every avenue you can to market very valuable and the first place to start is - your profile. Unless it has been updated in the last 24 hours, when I checked your profile it only had your store's MP url link in the SL profile and the rest of your profile was blank - except for the RL photo. I had no idea what type of item/s you sold. The profile has been updated since I first posted this...well done! Especially since, based on your OP, you get out and about a lot and talk to people, your profile is a major marketing avenue. Many, many people enjoy reading profiles, in fact there are a number of "I Read Profiles-Type" of groups. I do it myself when I find myself in a venue with a lot of people. So, here is the free opportunity to promote your shop, your items, etc. You can use the Picks section very creatively; perhaps put your newest designs in there or designs you have marked down. Tell about how you chose to become a creator in SL, tell a bit about you, the person behind the designs. ANYTHING but a blank profile. Some long-time SL residents will pass over a person with a blank profile (to chat with, ask to dance, etc.), so *especially* if you have a product to sell, consider your profile your "calling card." *As Maddy mentioned, Googling "SL Marketing" or related terms will bring up a wealth of info. On the Merchant Home page on your MP, on the left hand side at the bottom there is a "Help Resources" link. Underneath is a "Merchant Help Wiki" link that takes you to a page called Selling in the Marketplace. On that page is a How to market your products link. Additionally, there are entire SL blogs written on the topic. Most of the ones I found over the years (some are now gone, new ones arise) I discovered from reading the forums and noting the blogs listed within signatures, etc. Sometimes I heard of a SL blogger on a subject of interest (in this case SL marketing) from reading comments of other residents *about* a blogger such as "Oh, <so-and-so> just blogged about that." Instead of running from the forums after one experience, I highly recommend reading the forums, even if you don't post, and even just skimming them weekly, to stay current with what's happening in SL, much of which will affect merchants. Although only a tiny percentage of SL residents read the forums and a lot less likely post, those who do post have a LOT of combined knowledge to share. *I agree with Maddy, right or wrong unicodes in names annoy some people. I know, I know...but the fact is they do so again, especially if you want your name to be remembered/connected with your business, I would advise dropping those as well. I wish you success with your business! edit: spelling, clarification Updated edit - To reflect an error on my part and updates since my last post.

I was agreeing with you that this whole thing just sounds bizarre per my comment: What I don't understand from this whole thing is *why* the OP is being banned to begin with, realizing that the OP himself has contacted the sim owner to find out as well. From the info provided the OP is simply purchasing Gacha items from a yard sale area and out of the blue got banned; there is no indication that the OP was doing anything at all wrong. Even if he returned with alts from the same IP to purchase items why the ban?

I really did have one of those as a child, except in my case the films were of Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, and the like. By the types of scenes you saw, you apparently got hold of one of those new-fangled ones. The one I owned was black and looked like these. As to why I didn't tell you about it? Well, umm *thinks hard* - OH! It never came up in any of our conversations. *Preens at answer*

This is to the discussion as a whole, just tagged onto your last post, Qie. What I don't understand from this whole thing is *why* the OP is being banned to begin with, realizing that the OP himself has contacted the sim owner to find out as well. From the info provided the OP is simply purchasing Gacha items from a yard sale area and out of the blue got banned; there is no indication that the OP was doing anything at all wrong. Even if he returned with alts from the same IP to purchase items why the ban? Maybe I'm missing something here and I do realize a parcel/estate/sim owner can ban for any or no reason, but this whole situation just sounds wierd. This falls under my - "Errrr...HUH???" category.

I wondered when you began the post if you were talking about a View-Master. I had one of those when I was a child; they provided hours of entertainment and I loved the clicking sound when I advanced a frame. Ahhh, wonderful memories.

*Waves to Couldbe* Did your mixed listing items ever get taken out of your MP store? Mine are still there....errrr...two years and counting. They have become akin to pets at this point.

Thank you, Darrius, for further explaining this issue - I'd been hearing about it on the news but wasn't sure if I needed to change my passwords; and thank you so much, Tex, for providing the website to check which sites need password changes. That was extremely helpful.

I've never purchased listing enhancements but this was an ongoing issue for quite awhile last Fall/Winter apparently...here is one related link I found, but there were many other complaints during this time. I *thought* this bug had been fixed but sounds like it's back.

Etiq Praga wrote: - I did hit the button "Sync Marketplace with Magicboxes" with no effect - BTW this button should be removed because magic boxes are no longer supported. Magic boxes have to be used by people who sell unique/no copy items such as breedables and used items since direct delivery still cannot handle these deliveries.

Dillon Levenque wrote: I was responding directly to your comment regarding 'walking into' an establishment means you'd 'better be served'. An example off the top of my head: In the summer of 2011 there was a very high profile trial that gained national/international attention. As a compromise to the motion from the defense to have the trial moved out of the county of the defendant (and where the events took place), the judge instead brought in a jury from another county approximately two hours away. The jury was sequestered for the long trial. The jury returned a verdict that stunned most people who had closely followed the events precipitating the trial and/or the trial itself. For the jury's protection the judge sealed their names, not to be released for 3 or 6 months (now I don't recall exactly but one of those two). What does this have to do with the discussion of refusing service to potential customers? The owner of a restaurant chain in the county where the jurors lived posted a sign refusing service to the jurors. The restaurant owner said that he basically just wanted to state his personal objection to the verdict, admitting he wouldn't be able to identify any of the jurors if they did enter his restaurant; even though the entire trial was televised, none of the jurors were ever shown on camera. I recall the news attention over this when it happened. Just an interesting anecdote where one business owner had an unusual reason to state he would decline service.

Frank's (ballroom/jazz) and Junkyard Blues (blues/eclectic) seem to be busy pretty much 24/7. Junkyard Blues requires being in their group due to a past major issue with griefing, but all you need to do is bring up Junkyard Blues in the Places search tab, tp there and, if you're not already in the group, you will land in an area with photos of managers who can invite you to the group. The photos indicate if they are online or not; just IM one online and he/she will add you to the group.

You're welcome; I'm glad it helped.

Illuminatra wrote: To expand on this... are we allowed to sell items that are not listed on the Marketplace already? I tried setting up a Magic Box, but because the items were not listed on the Marketplace already I did not see them in my Magic Box Inventory on the Marketplace. Did I do something wrong? If I am understanding your question correctly, it appears that you did not create a listing for your items but rather thought that if they were already listed on the MP (presumably by the creator) then your listing would just appear. If I read your question incorrectly and that is not the case I apologize. In the past I have sold used items, even prior to my becoming a merchant. I placed the items in my Magic Box, which has to be rezzed in world at all times to function, then created listings for the items, including photos that I took of each. On the current MP software, you then need to synch the listing with the MP website. The button to do this is at the top right of the Manage Listings Page in your MP store or listings.

Rama Rakosi wrote: How long does the support team take to fix an issue relating to listing marketplace items. Example.. subscription for a hompage listing billing you 4 times rather then once. It's going on two-ish years and my mixed listings bug on the MP still exists. Granted my mixed listings no longer show another merchant's product (or vice versa) but I still have four null listings that show the "blank photo" ie. the blue gift box which default to the MP home page although we were told it was fixed awhile back. edit: clarification

Kelley Wonder wrote: I use Singularity and love it. It's a light viewer and I don't get the glitches I had in Firestorm. If you look on the bottom right of the viewer, there is an up arrow, to quickly change draw distance, etc. And you can change your settings easily in preferences for water, etc. Everyone has their own preference in viewers as to what works best for them. I don't think one can say any viewer is "bad", just not for you. (Bolding mine) QFT! As an addendum, "point of reference" enters into this conversation as well. This is not meant as a single "one-size-fits-all" statement, but many of us who enjoy Singularity, Cool Viewer, or other viewers that have the 1.2x interface are sometimes "older" SL residents (as in number of years in SL, not chronological age) and are just more comfortable with that type of UI. I think for many people the viewer one first uses in SL (or the UI first used in MMO's) often becomes the preferred style.

Sassy Romano wrote: Bottom line though, until LL can figure out who their present and future target markets are and why then things won't change and they've already tried education, corporate, teens... ...as well as trying to turn SL into Facetwit or an MMO. Totally agree with you, Sassy. BTW...anyone seen Ebbe on the forums lately? I'm curious what direction he will take.

Tiffy Vella wrote: Like you, I love my old AKK horse, and would recommend them, but went to see if anything wonderful had been created since mesh became possible. Sad that there are no updates. And I was sad to see that AKK have had to pare their 4 sims down to one. I still don't know of a better rideable horse however. I felt sad as well, Tiffy...and I didn't even think to look at the map and see that the sims had been pared down. :matte-motes-frown:

Amethyst Jetaime wrote: A good riding horse isn't cheap. If you are just looking for recomendations that's fine but if you want someone to buy or give you one, don't hold your breath. After all you shouldn't expect anyone to pay for your SL. If a recommendation is what you want, I would suggest you look at AKK horses. I began this thread after going to AKK (my all-time favorite designer of SL horses) recently to discover the latest release was in 2009. I own a 2008 version and was hoping to update my horse since AKK had done a wonderful job in the past with the features added in each update, plus I was hoping to see if more realism had been added with mesh. It was also really sad to tp into their sim that, in the past, was always very busy...but I see this happening with more and more of my old favorite places, but anyway... I've been continuing to look for riding horses but thus far the two brands I've found recently are one that is more realistic looking but has a very confusing HUD that involves having to wear a pre-determined avatar shape or one that has a very simple method of controlling the horse, but doesn't look significantly different in appearance to my 2008 AKK. The search continues...