Uallas Borgin

Yup sad, specially if it is a talented builder. Viral marketing is the way to go now: Average Joes and Jills talking about your stuff on the social media or in this case writing reviews on the marketplace. But, somewhere in our brain there is a primate who knows by instinct that survival is garanteed by being part of a group. It pushes us to conform and go with the general opinion. It also pushes us to find likeminded people and band together. Applied here this means that customers are less inclined to buy stuff without reviews, not because they doubt the quality but because it is less hip or cool.-> No reviews = no big awesome tribe to join where I can be safe. Once there are some reviews and they are good, it is harder to write a bad review. All reviewers say this product is great but I feel it sucks -> I do not conform to the tribe, if I show it they may kick me out into that dangerous world again. What that merchant is doing is seeding his review tab. Writing the first positive review to hopefully attract some happy customers who feel confident to write a positive review. After he gains a critical mass his marketing goes all by itself. It's just the same as the "happy customers" in RL situations who happen all to be professional copywriters. When we read reviews, we hope to get the opinion people like us who already bought the item or if we are lucky someone with technical savvy who gives his honest opinion. But what we really see is the voice of conformity speaking.

A private region costs $ 1000 to set up and $ 295 in monthly tiers. If you find 99 others who are interested in your idea, each person pays about the price of a video game from the bargain bin to set up and the price of two coffees for monthly tiers. But I would not count on the generosity of strangers. I know a lot of groups that have 100+ members and still struggle to pay the tiers. Lots and lots of people pay good money to Linden Lab to have a piece of land where they can do what they like. Why should battling fans get special favors?

I would like to help you, but you mentioned a goth club. My favorite artists would be too vanilla according to your tastes.

When I created my avatar I was heavily into paganism and druidry. I wanted a Celtic sounding name so I did a search on some websites with baby names. That's how I found "Uallas" , I scrolled down the surname list and stopped at Borgin, partially because I was bored going trough the list, partly because it sounded a bit mysterious. Later I discoverd that Borgin was a character in the Harry Potter novels.

You are lucky it was just in your house, sitting on the floor or somewhere. It happened to me a few times that I made an error moving an object and had objects embedded in a floor or wall with no bits sticking out to select it. Also when jewelry is too small, it is worn on the inside of your avatar instead of the outside. Good luck then editing it to the right size.

Male Fashion? Who or what is that? Is that a the codename of a new viewer? The Spanish word for slave collar? A well known griefer? Prokofy's alt? Gosh, just when I thought I understood how to play SL, they trhow in something new like "male fashion". I'm so confused now, I think I will just play Real Life, that's way easier.

For most people Second Life is a place to leave their worries behind for a few hours and do something they like or express themselves in a different way then their professionnal, social or family life. It would be an error to think of Second Life as a source of income or a second life where we can correct the mistakes of the first one. It is a hobby. It costs money to play Second Life, but a lot of hobbies and leisure do. If I want to have a pint of Guinness in a typical Irish pub here, I have to pay approx. 5 euros, that's almost 2000 L$. When I buy 2000 l$ I make the implicit decision of spending 5 euro on fun ingame instead of fun in a pub. Travel, fishing trips, aerobic classes, the use of a tennis court they all cost money. Second Life costs money, but the amount a hobbyist should put into it should never exeed the money he or she would spend on other entertainment if SL would not exist. Running a venue costs money, true. But the example was meant to talk about different talents and not income.

We learned it the same way we learned to walk, talk, ride a bike, type, do math... . :matte-motes-big-grin: By trying and learning from our errors, watching others do it and imitating them, trying to figure things out for ourselves and experimenting. I know how to move in mouselook well enough to do swordfighting, can build a decent home and know what a script looks like. But there is still so much I don't know, I wonder at buildings that reflect great real life architecture and scripts that do complicated things. There's always so many things you don't know. My advise would be to find something you like and learn in that field. All talents, be they people skills, artistic, literary, organising or selling are needed in SL. It's not only builders and scripters. A lot of people don't script or create objects but offer us invaluable services like opening up and maintaining venues where we can hear music, host and organize events, sing or play an instrument, invent scenarios and quests for our role play.

I am a proud owner of a legacy name or a 2 named resident as you call it. I did not bother with the first life tab either. But when friends in SL started putting in their RL picture (and I mean friends, not contacts) I did the same. My avatar is basically a better version of myself, more muscular and less chubby. As far as character and behaviour go, I am the same in SL as in RL. I never thought that RL and SL should remain separate for ever. On the other hand, I prefer not to give out too much private information on the internet or a virtual world. I find Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn tedious and don't bother with them. So I am somewhere in the middle, I share some RL info but not too much. I think it is more a matter of personal style then generations of SL users. It's only natural for Linden Lab to want to use the power of the social media. If they would not use it, it would be running for office and only using newspaper ads while your opponent is on national television.

Same as in real life, men do the courting and women do the choosing, lol. When looking for a date, women can be their charming self and just wait for men to find an excuse to start a conversation. They women can then decide show interest of not in the men wanting to talk to them. The only exception to this rule are men like George Cloony or Bradd Pit. Like said before, in Second Life, there is no risk of a slap in the face. Communication is in text assysted with some crude gestures, nothing like the "ewwww", "yuck" or "not in your life" facial expressions men can encounter in real life. I guess a lot of men see SL as a safe environment to practice their chatting up skills before trying them in the real world.

You wouldn't believe the number of times I tried to click on a object in my backyard and have the menu of my apple tree show up.

I currently have a hall with a line of torches on both sides. The flames are particle effects. I have made some campfires using animated textures. I am wondering if it is worth the effort to make a torch with animated texture fire and replace the existing torches, will there be a difference in lag?

Ah the eternal newbie - oldbie dialogue: newbie: so where can I go, what can I do? oldbie: what would you like to do, what are your interests? newbie: euh, no idea oldbie: sorry can't help you. Advices: Look for stuff you would like to do, hang out and participate, get to know people in that kind of context. Second Life has everything from philosopy classes to gorean master and slave play, including sky diving, live music, sailing and sword fighting. Think it would be cool to play a samurai, build your own house, design your own clothes? Check out different places and groups that enable you to do so. It's just like when meeting people when traveling . You start chatting about some monument, the food or the weather and before you know it, the subject has changed to your respective jobs, kids, hometown, .... Profiles are there for strangers to look at. Just hang out somewhere you like, be it breathtaking landscape, a live venue, some event and check peoples profiles. You'll find info on their groups, a description of themselves and their favorite places. Empty profiles usuall denote an alt and those using it at that time want to enjoy SL without their custumors/tenants/staff bothering them. Don't bother them. Feel free to strike up a conversation with others whenever their profile looks interesting. Offer friendships and accept friendships only after a close look at the others profile. This can spare embarassing moments later ( a captivating experience has a very different meaning for a domme then for an art critic). If you don't contact others based on their profile you can always check out the groups and places they mention in their profile. Each time you check a profile, you have a chance of getting to know 42 groups. You can even check profiles of people that are not online. If you find a nice object somewhere, you can check the owners profile and the creator's profile. Make your own profile interesting. You don't have to be a member of lots of groups or have a lot of inworld skills. Just tell a bit about yourself, your strengths and favorite things. Follow your instincts and then let things take their natural course. I regurlary went to a venue and heard a beautiful voice singing there. I decided follow that artist and got to know sveral other venues. Two years later, the artist in question hardly comes to SL any more and I don't visit the places I used to visit in the beginning, (they are laggy). But in the meantime, I got to know four other musicians and discovered other venues. My group list now is very different from what it was after six months or even one year in SL. But I would not have found out about the groups I am in now, if I had not been part of the groups I was in in the beginning.

I would also say certain role play sims or themed sims. There are a lot of activities in role play sims that attract a regular crowds, the role play itself, tournaments, raids, lessons etc. But you can have moments too when you are walking trough deserted streets or an abandonned castle. There's also more interaction in sims where all residents are the same kind of avatar, be it pirates, mermaids, fae or furries. Basically Second Life is like the big city where neighbours know very litle of each other and social contacts pass trough work and after-work activities.

A bit like going to listen live music on a weekend on SL: 2 cups of organically grown talent 250 ml of fun and good times (yes I am on metric) a pinch of annoying gestures and a slight hint of lag

The literal translation of soupçon is suspicision. In the case of cooking it would be better translated by a "a hint of"; meaning just enough to leave someone who tastes your recepy doubting wether or not you put in that ingredient.

Like Ciaran said, you can use Gimp to create a picture with text and put that texture on a prim. It all depends what you want to achieve. What do you want to communicate with your sign? Is it the equivalent of a signe on a door somewhere in RL like "out of order", "enter here".. in which case it takes a few minutes in Gimp to make. If you are thinking of the equivalent of a poster or a billboard ad, it will take some time and expertise, just like RL ads do. You might want to ask help then someone who is into this kind of work.

llDetectedType was the function I was looking for, thanks a lot.

I am tired of getting blue notes at my archery range on mainland whenever an arrow strays into a neighbours land. I would like to place an invisible wall that lets avi move freely but stops all objects. What I am looking for is a way to detect if a collision is done by an avatar or an object. Can anyone help me on this?

You could create a first and last name by using upper and lowercase in your username, eg BobHope. Viewers that are not based on viewer 2 code, like Phoenix or Imprudence require a lastname. New residents have to put "Resident" as a last name in that field when logging in. These viewers also display "Resident" as a last name. So BobHope becomes BobHope Resident. BobHope could of course decide to choose Oprah Winfrey as display name. There was a lot of controversy around the display names and a lot of seasoned residents stay with the account names. The two major reasons some people don't accept display names are: 1 They can be changed weekly, so they could be a tool for anonymous griefing. There is not always time to check out the account name. 2 There are very few limits on which display name to choose (no celebreties I think and no names with Linden in it). Basically anyone could use as a display name the name of another resident. People who put years building up an online identity and reputation can see their name used by a total stranger. So many residents stay with the account names as the only names that matter. Therefore choose your account name wisely. People will adress you with that name and have to be able to type it fast and remember it;. There is a tendency in SL to shorten names, take that into account when choosing a name.

I would say to newbies that behind every avatar is a real life person. Don't do anything in sl that you would not do in real life, like going into peoples homes, being rude or use bad grammar and spelling. I like to practice the sword and archery in SL.. AO's conflict with the animations in these weapons so I have to turn them off, even detach them to have less scripts running. I often forget to re-attach them and have grown accustomed to the newbie waddle and stands. I have a high end ao but sometimes I get nervous just by watching my avatar gesticulating without any reason. A very respected friend of mine never had an ao and has a newbie skin and hair. He is into role play and I never saw him in anything else then chainmail and surcoat. He gets his respect from being a gentleman, a great scripter, builder and designer of mazes. My advice to newbie would be that your character and the effort you put into learning new skills far outweigh any skin, clothes or ao. As far as appearance go, I would suggest being original. Any one can buy the body, skin and clothes of a top model. People expressing their own character or the character of the avatar they want to create are harder to come by. If anything distinguishes a noob from an experienced resident it is that the experienced resident expresses his personality while the noob tries to look good. If all else fails try to create a better you: same face, hair, general shape but with the things you like less corrected the way you want it.

I am no scripter but it seems to me splodders already do something like that, what you get is usually different then what you put in. So a splodder script should be a good base to start from.

Re: So, what is so great about the mainland? [ New ] 04-08-2011 05:36 AM On mainland I pay tier directly to Linden Lab, when they decide to close shop, it is game over for everyone. I have seen friends move several times because the landowner decided to cut his or her losses. This did not only affect the people that had land on the private sim, but also the community that was starting to grow on those sims. I have an almost total freedom to build on mainland. I find that if I respect my neighbours, they respect me and my view is quite good. There are some ugly buildings in my line of sight to the sea, but nothing a row or two of trees can't solve. I have a pet that moves freely in the house and some animated birds. Things that are cringed about by sim owner bc of the lag they are supposed to create. None of my neighbours complained so I can keep them on mainland. My time in SL is devided into a lot of things, I tend to time travel a lot in SL, RP-ing and fighting in sims that have a fantasy, medieaval and antiquity theme. I also listen to music both in settings with formal and informal dress codes. My mainland home is outside of all these. It is a place where I am plain old me and not a squire, ancient warrior or dandy gentleman. If I had to look for a home in one of the places I visit reguraly I would to have to adapt my style to the style of the sim I am in and stay in character much longer. The sims that are only about landownership are too much like suburbia to my feeling.