ZenWarrior Fuosing

You might wish to read about the differences between hard-linking and soft-linking. You are describing soft-linking regarding your boat.

Is this the only thing a Linden has to do when there are so many problems which arose just yesterday? No, not any newer ones really but her time would be far better spent fixing things in need of fixes today than pulling out 7-month old postings and keeping the populace entirely confused as to the reason they're popping up now, or again. Somebody fire her before she hurts herself! (Maybe this is covering for the fallout from disbanding the SL Mentor program, and the easy questions once answered by them now need to be addressed by LL itself. After all, clearly LL doesn't know people don't read and having new residents go outworld to a web page for answers is proving problematic. If people didn't mind reading, all the old VCRs in this world would not have been flashing 12:00 from the day they were bought until new technology replaced them.)

I'm very confused by this posting. Is this actually a real Linden so abjectly clueless (okay, not really so surprising) and why is the date from 7 months ago? (Maybe I awoke too early for this to make any sense.)

Anyone who pens anything which either leaves their hard drive or never resided on it in the first place, and thinks it won't forever be somewhere on the net, is very naive. Santa knows if you've been naughty or nice, but Google knows everything.

I've seen only the usual lag which LL feels contributes to a wonderful SL experience. What is the viewer's lag meter indicating as its origin (i.e., server, network, or client)? What graphics settings are you using? Have you altered the default settings by using the custom graphics settings? But last, you may well be experiencing more lag due to everyone wanting particle snowfall everywhere you go inworld right now. Turn it off.

No.

Do not be surprised if your landlord is not willing to sell. Land is very cheap right now and s/he'll likely not get the original purchase price unless initially bought very cheaply. Also, if it's part of a single larger parcel, s/he may not wish to subdivide and create a less desirable overall large parcel afterward. But worry not, land is very cheap in SL right now. Either look through Land search or just pull up the map and look at prices. TP to any potentially attractive location, see if it meets your aesthetic criteria, learn to read the statistics bar and check sim performance, and you'll certainly find something you like at a very attractive price right now. (BTW, you'll find huge variance in land prices. Shop with care.) And last, have a look through Education search for at least one class currently being offered every week or two on land ownership where you may pick up a few tips.

Remember, it's not reality.

Many of you are entirely missing the point. I'm willing to bet any amount of L$ that no small number of residents in SL would prefer to remain more (or even completely) anonymous regarding their activities when inworld than when shopping online or using Facebook. I don't care that Proctor & Gamble has my IP address, but I do care if a mentally disturbed ex-girlfriend from SL has it.

Please read more carefully. I have admitted to not connecting the dots about streaming music violating the resident-LL only relationship. I then asked if there were other possible ways of which people might be unaware or which are less obvious. My concern about privacy is only with regard to having the erroneous thought that I was dealing only with data between myself and LL. I have also admitted that my concern about privacy is so little that I have revealed to some inworld who and what I am. So again, not realizing that I was sharing data outworld when listening to music streams, I wondered how someone would know my IP address. Clear enough now? What this thread has done is assured me that my personal information is not shared with anyone by LL. I need only be more thoughtful of the data's path. That said, by visiting a private sim and listening to music, I am potentially sharing my information with other SL residents to whom it had not been consciously given or given without my explicit consent. I repeat: Clear enough now?

Thanks, Ellla and Unklebob, but filing an abuse report is like closing the door to the chicken house after the fox has eaten all the chickens and made his escape.

Yes, but in such cases I am making the conscious decision to share that information. I was not making so conscious a decision when deciding to listen to live music at a venue in SL. And let me repeat my real question as not to have it lost: What parties outside of LL has access to residents' IP addresses--assigned by their ISPs--if all communications between parties/residents are only inworld? (Please note the "only inworld" part which I clearly didn't recognize was being violated by listening to a music stream.)

My concern is not a breach into my computer system. My concern is anonymity. Just because you don't look doesn't mean someone with ill intent would not. Also, my IP address is indeed static and most certainly can easily reveal my residence--and from that, my identity. (And even a dynamic IP address can remain the same long enough to provide location information.) How do I know? I've done it myself to prove to people how by knowing their IP address I can easily get to within at least 2 blocks of their login location/residence/workplace, and sometimes closer. The vast majority of people in SL expect RL anonymity, but what is being said via this thread is that belief is merely an illusion in SL as long as an IP address can be associated with a given person. You admit that is possible, even if you do not do it yourself. It takes only a small bit of additional research to narrow that list down to the likely or sought person or persons. I don't care if LL knows my IP address (and they do), but I do care if anyone who buys a sim and then shares that information with anyone else knows. And let's face the fact that many, if not most, music venues are on private sims. (And when has the TOS definitely stopped someone from doing something?) Again, I myself have used IP addresses to find people. It's as easy as pie to do. That is why I always recommend people not use e-mail or outworld IM for communication unless they trust the other party. Each will provide a trackable IP address. In SL, that address and anonymity between communications is protected by LL's servers. And in fact, I have shared my RL information with some people in SL and have nothing to hide, but still don't like the idea of anyone who knows someone with access to the proper logs violating my anonymity without my provision or knowledge. Thanks, but I'll do without music via SL streams from this point on (and warn others of the threat), and until a technical solution is found and provided.

Thank you, Ellla. Your quick response is very appreciated. Effective today, that ends the streaming of most music into SL via the viewer--and especially means the end of any live music for me in SL. That said, and although in the Knowledge Base no one reads, shouldn't LL consider this a more important privacy issue than it apparently does? Surely there must be a technical solution to residents unwittingly and potentially revealing their identities, and LL should not be turning a blind eye to them. And if not that, maybe this is information which should be far more widely disseminated. I hate to say it, but maybe each place streaming music should somehow very visibly announce that opening the stream through the viewer will reveal information which could be used to identify them? And, maybe it should be in a warning alongside the media entry area in the viewer. And yes, I can imagine the effect that might have on the music scene in SL, but what does LL place first--entertainment of residents or protecting residents' supposed (and typically desired) anonymity when assuming other identities as avatars when inworld? At the very least, revealing their IP addresses should be a conscious choice clearly made by residents instead of information I'm willing to bet is unknown by 99% of them. I've actually read the Knowledge Base "cover-to-cover" but never connected those dots. If I had, I'd have been streaming Pandora outside SL for at least a year now. Oh, and are there any other ways IP addresses are revealed of which residents should be aware? (Your "one way" didn't escape my attention. )

What parties outside of LL has access to residents' IP addresses--assigned by their ISPs--if all communications between parties/residents are only inworld?  Specifically, do private sim owners have access to that information and/or is it provided to them by LL?  If yes, why wouldn't any problem simply be reported to LL to be resolved by it and without revealing to other residents information very helpful in ascertaining RL identities, or at least locales of residence? (This issue arose when someone, not even private sim owners but one of their employees, did in fact seem to know my IP address.)