Prokofy Neva

A person who keeps virtue-signalling and keeps arguing against an obvious point that really required no comment at all is not someone who is "not heckling" nor someone wishing me well. Wishing someone well happens when you don't answer an obvious and doable suggestion with vicious and nasty replies. I don't expect people to become able to see themselves, but now might be a good time to start. Bye!

Of course there are sellers that have rent-to-own. I'm not one of them simply because it means yet another layer of record-keeping and management as exposure to the vast population of unscrupulous users who far outnumber the population of unscruplous land dealers -- but I know perfectly respectable and trustworthy dealers like LIFE Properties from whom I myself have done rent-to-own for years. Land barons put high prices on land, especially prime waterfront and sailing land on Blake because they can, it's an open market. They can afford to put what seems like a ridiculous price on it which is more than you will pay and wait months and months because the cost of tier is not greater than what they will make when the sale goes through. It's no uncommon to see land sit there for 9 months or more because a land baron who buys in bulk can afford to do this. If enough people can't pay their prices, eventually they come down. I've known a few others who did rent-to-buy but they simply got out of the business or left SL because it's not a business you're going to get rich at, it has very small margins and high exposure. The Lindens were right to get rid of the shady bankers and stock market founders but rent-to-buy isn't exactly a "mortgage" because the land dealer didn't loan you any money at an interest. He just let you pay for land he himself bought at his own expense over time. That's a different kind of financial arrangement, not a bank or loan, and therefore the Lindens have no reason to stop it, as it is a user-to-user transaction. From his perspective, you're more likely to be the risk than he is, because you could bail at any time after a few weeks rent and then he doesn't have the sale he thought he did. To prevent that sort of all-to-common occurrence, the dealers do this: they remain an officer of the land group. So that way they retain control of land that THEY *paid for up front* and NOT YOU, if you bail. That's why this claim by animats who has never done this and doesn't understand it is false: "Rent-to-own implies that you are building up a credit with a landowner to be used later. There's no way to make the landowner turn over the land when you're paid up." Um, that's not how it works. It's not about the land-owner having "seized your land and made you pay" because obviously...it's HIS land HE PAID FOR AND YOU DIDN'T. Why would you get to have land you did not pay for turned over to you in full?! Many people fail to grasp this simple lesson of land in SL: you have to pay an upfront cost, either to the Lindens, or to another resident -- the purchase price. After that, you still have to pay the tier to hold it, per square meter -- as you would pay a maintenance fee on a condo. I don't know of a single rent-to-own dealer in the history of SL who would let a user give him only installments -- rent -- on land he didn't control, trusting he, the land dealer, will be paid in full in the end. This isn't about "building up credit" obviously. Let's say the dealer purchased on the auction or from another buyer a nice piece of waterfront that costs $50,000, even if only a 1024. It might be on the Blake Sea. He owns the land. You rent from him and pay $1000 a week or whatever he charges, and at the end of 50 weeks or whatever the math is, he turns it over to you. If you were renting, you would just see that rent sunk each week with no equity. If you sign the arrangement to own it, you will keep paying the installments over time that eventually lead to you taking over the land, and him leaving the group. So it isn't a mortgage at all; it's literally rent-to-buy as an installment plan because you couldn't afford to pay the $50,000 up front. If you don't trust him to turn the land over, then don't enter the arrangement, but there are dealers like LIFE who have built up the representation over the years and have no reason to screw somebody over because their continued land business depends on a good reputation. If you don't trust a company to turn over the land to you after your installments, you're not required to do this. It exists for people without capital. You can always raise the $50,000 yourself, perhaps saving it over time in a business, then buy the land outright. The default to always hate and loathe the supposed land shark is misplaced, when the dealer offering rent-to-buy is way more exposed by people who don't follow through than vice-versa.

As I said, " I do buy public domain from people even for that much. It's a skill to get it framed and lighted properly and looking good in SL and I value that. But sometimes my own $10 upload will do." I don't see that there is any "massive slash" across this item other than it is old and has those kinds of lines in it -- sometimes you destroy the nature of an artwork by "repairing" it. This version of it which I found and uploaded for $10 is perfectly fine for anybody who wants to save $225, and I do. Of course everybody's Google is different, maybe you didn't find it. I pointed out that your store doesn't have landmark givers for anyone confused or curious about this. So the few notecards you passed out to your friends don't count, and um, yeah, I can tell the difference. When someone like you who has heckled me for years in the forums says "Have a nice day," I know how to read it. Once again, let's remember what this is about: 1) Concern that nice areas the Lindens made disappeared for some reason -- but they didn't 2) Appreciation of the Linden areas but exasperation that THEY ARE ALL NAMED EXACTLY THE SAME 3) The suggestion that if the Lindens would rename these on the fly as they are doing them especially to make them more memorable with terms like "castle" or "docks" they would get more use, more sharing, and more appreciation 4) The absolutely insane, inexplicable resistance this simple, normal notion gets from people who are Linden fanboyz even beyond the Lindens own take on themselves, and who will rage and rant for days against anything I say, even something obvious which others agree about. No one should have to rename thousands of places named "Coastal Waterway" when Lindens could not only name them at the get-go -- a bright intern could be sent out to finish this in a day and forever leave their mark on SL with all kinds of fun names. Who wouldn't find that a resume-builder.

I'll just add a few more data points and then since not very many people want to discuss these larger system-wide issues, I will try to find time for my blog. By and large, my tenants do not ask for handouts because either they know they already have a very good deal and are grateful, or they know I do a lot for them, or they grasp even if they never heard of me or have no idea what rental market prices are, what they have is pretty nice. Not a single one has asked me for a handout. I'm proud of them. Some have left their rentals as well they should, don't pay for entertainment when you need food. Some left small rentals to go to larger ones simply because they are spending more time here because they sadly have more time being either sent home from work or out of work -- yet the few dollars that an SL rental represents a month is not a pinch for them. Some downsized, because the difference between $10 and $5 is significant now. It always has been for me. $25 was the minimum I could spend per day to feed a family of 3 that was sometimes 4. In NYC. Where prices are higher. Where I worked multiple jobs and couldn't always buy things and cook them -- and where buying in bulk is not possible, as there are no Costcos for 50 miles. But I am seeing bad behaviour or just the typical thoughtless behaviour which I am used to, because it's not personal, it's not RL. o A tenant who broke up with her boyfriend refunded her rental weeks ago -- before all this virus stuff (for most people -- it's now day 22 of self-quarantine for me). I always ask people if they had problems -- sometimes I can fix them and they came back. This person went off to cry about her lost virtual love, but then came back and answered my IM. She asked me if she could use my land as a sandbox now. I guess that boyfriend paid. I said no. Because you can't use my land as a sandbox, as I said elsewhere. Not when I have actual sandboxes. And actual free places to hang out in. o A neighbour pulled a huge rage fit in the land preserve group because a tenant had put a build on her land and put out an aggressive orb that sent her away from her own land. We had noticed that encroachment but thought the tenant was in the same land group -- only someone who already owned the land next to my rental would so boldly spread a build across it right -- and one that didn't return, right? I don't allow orbs on the ground, but sometimes tenants put me AND my alts and son in the list so we won't notice -- although we always do eventually. The main thing to grasp is that this situation takes literally five seconds to fix. This neighbour raged for 15 minutes before she would tell me WHERE it was; I went and eliminated the problem in the five seconds required -- ultimately I had to send the whole house and build back because it was rooted, and the orb was built into the house -- that really is a problem because few people bother to adjust those to the perimeter only of the house but leave it at 96. I knew doing that would mean the tenant refunded -- they always do, even though it is entirely their fault their build was returned. The neighbour kept raging -- why, that tenant must be Latinx; why, she got to be racist because she was Latinx herself; why, they are the worst blah blah. She raged at me for having free land available to poor people (this was actually a paid rental even if in the land preserve, but whatever). She raged at me for renting to people of her kind because they always create problems. I have no idea what ethnicity that tenant is because I didn't study her profile and you can't always tell and more importantly, it doesn't matter. I rent to everyone who follows my rules. Finally I had to block this rage machine. She kept raging to my other tenant who was nearby. Why, I must need psychotherapy. Why, I must not have any children. Because I instantly removed a nuisance after she disrupted my group with insanity LOL? No. It's because she thought that if I gave free land to poor people (as she imagined) and they or I somehow profited from this, that orbs should not be allowed. Well, they aren't allowed anyway in my rentals? And it was a paid rental, not free. I have children; I have a daughter-in-law who is from Latin America. Etc. So whatever, many people rage and rage for no logical reason and then they imagine I'm the problem. BTW, I've found the following to be true: People from Texas, Brazil, Australia and Russia sometimes overprim and encroach on others' lands. People from Portugal, UK, Estonia, and Rhode Island don't. Even though they share the same language and cultural heritage in some cases. Something about the hugeness of their country/state versus the tininess or island status of their country/state, and how they fit themselves in it gives them a sense of themselves, like it or not. A social scientist could study this; I'm not a social scientist but just commenting on my experience. But like viruses, overprimming and encroaching are not behaviors that are inherent in one race or ethnicity, because even a Texan can keep to the limit and even a Japanese can overprim. o Remember how I told you I took this area that was losing me US $15 a month (all empty 512s plus some pathway) and recouping me US $4 from 2 x 512s that cost $2.75 total in tier - not very great margins (The US $1.25 profit you make from two parcels is not enough to cover the others that are empty that together cost you US $15). They aren't used. Partly they aren't used is because people don't like living so close together. Or because I have rules -- no orbs, no fences, no building smack on the property line -- to enable people to live cheaply in close spaces -- but they don't like those rules. I have offered those kind of areas that stay half empty for years, but now I have much less of them. It's crazy to keep them open. People don't want such small spaces AND they don't want to follow rules, even if it means 16 of them could have a nice SL for $2 US a month only, without a premium. That's the reality. o So I moved the two long-term faithfuls to other sims -- one took a slightly larger lot, the other had to quit SL due to the fires in Australia. BTW, I kept his rental available for him, unpaid, for weeks on end, he came in and paid once and told me about the fires, I kept them some more after his box expired, then he came one day and said sorry, he had to leave completely). I wrapped up all those 512s into one giant lot of 6000 plus or whatever. It stood there two days, and today it was rented by someone who didn't mind paying $1750/wk for a big lot. That lot costs me US $16.66 in tier every month. I will now collect US $23.62 for it. So now I have a $6.96 "profit" from this parcel -- if it stays rented, but occupancy is low on the mainland. I no longer have to put any content or time into it -- it has a big build/store on it now. My "profit" will get eaten up paying for the next sim's occupancy or even the camp sites that are only $50 and subsidized. But it stops the hemorrhage. It does NOT pay me back for all those years (15) I ran that newbie community at a loss. Another data point: the person who rented that big lot was on another sim with a fairly big build and lot and was there for years and years paying her rent more or less on time. I considered her one of the greatest customers who has a pretty build AND pays her rent. Can't ask for more than that! One day she disappeared abruptly. I never did find out why. It was unlike her, and she was missing for weeks. I kept her build because it was so elaborate, and had been built up over time with little intricacies, and because I knew that land wouldn't rent instantly. So if someone wanted it, they could pay the box -- but I left the build. That's what I do. Months went by. I saw in another group that she logged in. She didn't think to come and either pay for her rent, pick up her build or explain anything. Nor is she required to. I returned her build and lowered the land because by making a flatter area it rents better. Half of it rented nearby; I never did rent most of her land, even cutting it in half. It just happened to work out that way. So now she appeared out of nowhere to rent this newly-created profit-making former newbie patch. I greeted her and simply told her that while I had kept her build actually 3 months last time thinking she was sick or something, I couldn't do that again. What happens when you look at cases individually and try to be kind and just; what happens when you figure, well, why not leave their stuff until it's rented, you are merely taken advantage of. You are a chump. I have learned that anew in the last 6 months as I turned two formerly low-cost starter areas or theme areas for those who are supposedly creative (another big lie of SL, no one needs this) into larger lots that pay for themselves at least, or make a profit because otherwise, how can you pay the bills of a thing like this, and your own RL bills, to boot? So when people go on and on and ON about heartless landlords who won't cut them a break even during a pandemic, I have to say -- I cut breaks -- during 9/11, the London terror, the Japanese tsumani, the Chinese earthquake, the Australian fires, you name it. I cut people breaks because they were new, or didn't speak English, or had trouble learning SL. I cut them breaks because I knew they really were ill in RL, or faced challenges. And there is little sense in this. It *might* be that someone who remembers you kept their prims for them for 3 months will come back and rent again; but they might not.

You're a good use case to prove my point. You do an enormous amount of exploring as I know from chatting with you as you have come to my land preserve areas. If you didn't realize you have to rename them, how much more the average schmo who is just flying around trying to enjoy SL. I am very savvy about making and renaming land-marks, because I run 3-4 servers with interesting places I update constantly with landmarks I sometimes rename because the Lindens named them all the same in the Coastal Areas and because people rename things or re-parcel. It's not a problem for me to do this. But I recognize IT IS A PROBLEM THAT THE LINDENS CAN FIX EASILY AND NOT MAKE ANNOYANCE FOR OTHERS. More to the point, fix and get A LOT MORE USE OF THEIR LAND. That there are two forums regulars who regularly snipe and hate on me who can't grasp this, and have to rant and rage about how it is easy to do, or I should do it or else I'm a moron, is never surprising. As I said, Lindens, even Lindens who might close this thread, are so much better than forums regs who behave like this. They get it. They will rename their parcels -- watch them. Yes I saw that region too. Was that Linden? Well, whatever. Let's hope not. The Lindens can easily ensure that THOUSANDS of their special locations ARE NOT ALL NAMED EXACTLY THE SAME, COASTAL WATERWAY. They may not have reflected on this. They make the places, then go to the next and don't worry about how to get use out of them; how to share them. They may figure if it says the sim name when you click and use "show on map," that's enough. But the average clueless SL travelers, casual or experience, doesn't first check the map. they just go. They make a landmark. And now have a mess. The end.

I stand by everything I've written here because it's true. And I'll repaste what I said because it's true, again: I think you and Tari Landar have never visited these Linden places so you can't understand what I'm talking about, but that's common. Anyone who explores a lot in SL and enjoys the Linden places get this, but you don't because you don't. 1. I surmised -- "I think" that you must NOT have have visited these places. Because you denied that this was an issue -- and still do. And I have to conclude that no, you still have not visited the Coastal Waterway issues because you are still huffing and puffing. 2. Those who explore the *Linden* places as distinct from any other place of which there are zillions knows this is a frustration especially when sharing something. I encountered this in my Mainland Appreciation Group with me and others having a bunch of "Coastal Waterways" and not knowing what they hooked up to FROM INVENTORY until we tested on the map - one more chore. 3. I'll say it again: you must not go to Linden docks which are nothing special with no markings, and get COASTAL WATERWAY and get frustrated. I have no doubt that your inventory does not contain COASTAL WATERWAY now -- and you'd admit that if you were writing in good faith here -- and it's not because you went and re-named them on the fly. Nothing you've said or Tari said proves that you go to these places because if you did, you'd at least get the problem -- and you don't. When people response to a statement of fact with "You are slandering me," I can often conclude that they understood something is true, but can't admit it. Re: "But I do sometimes make things to travel about on and include a notecard with some of my favourite scenic Linden locations and nearby rez areas (always Linden because they're stable and reliable No doubt these aren't COASTAL WATERWAY as you would have had this problem so many times you would have joined me in asking the Lindens to fix this. Old Linden places do have labels. These new ones do NOT. If you have these in a giver at your store, great, but they may not have Coastal -- and I bet you do NOT have them. Because if you DID, by now, customers would be saying , "Hey, these things are all named the same." Another thing I can understand about it is that instead of serving the public, serving people and preventing their confusion, it's more important to you to rage about being "slandered". (By the way, "libel" is the correct legal term for *written* speech). These Linden areas are all named the same which means landmarking them is pointless and cuts down on their visits and sharing. It's hard to keep re-naming lots of landmarks as you fly around and it's easier for the Lindens to give unique names to parcels they make as they parcel them. After all, they want use of their free places. It's not a big deal for anybody to rename a landmark BUT THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE TO. Many people landmarking these nice places DO NOT REALIZE THEY ARE ALL NAMED EXACTLY THE SAME and will have trouble sorting them and returning them and - yes, renaming them. I guess you don't have that many customers so you don't think first of what is a problem for YOUR CUSTOMERS, then a problem for you as the manager of a small boutique business. I do. If you log in and travel, that's great, but since so many of the mainly anonymous and unaccountable people on these forums do NOT, and make avatars with zero activity to post on the forums, it's a safe assumption. Most people who are ordinary and not on the forums and not special and not in with the Moles find it difficult to do this. Some don't even know you *can* do this. Some can't make landmarks. You are not thinking of this because you don't deal with the masses; you deal with a small sub-sett of the SL population who buy old mosaics for their walls. bTW that includes me, who has a) bought your products for years b) won a design contest in your house, giving you enormous amounts of publicity. It's easier to keep sniping and raging and imagining that things you do are the norm though, isn't it? Well, don't. PPS I stopped by your store. I didn't see any landmark givers of interesting places to explore, but that's ok, it's not required, people can just be hobbyists and just collect places and sometimes share them. Let's recall how you greeted my point about this problem: Landmark names can be edited. A friend drops LMs on me when he finds somewhere he thinks I'd like and I always add a FROM GEORGE on the end so I can find it again The LM name comes from the parcel. The owner of the parcel gives it the name. Are you complaining about this in general or because the Lindens didn't name things to your specifications in their parcels? So before you rant and rage some more about "slander," consider that your nasty, vicious, stupid, vitriolic comments to me about things that we both know I know and are obvious -- and aren't the point -- just to be "clever" -- they get a pushback from me. You then focus on that pushback and not your behaviour as if you are flying around in a white robe like one of your art pieces. PPPS I considered buying the Pompei Bouillabase which is nice but I knew you had copied it from the Internet -- it's in the public domain after all -- and I could pay $10 and upload it -- after lightening it in Paint -- rather than $225. I do buy public domain from people even for that much. It's a skill to get it framed and lighted properly and looking good in SL and I value that. But sometimes my own $10 upload will do.

I have them here in Refugio, with attached skyboxes.

Or they don't use automated systems that make all their business information available to one big vendor, and make them utterly dependent on that vendor -- plus lag up the sim and create more work having to check web sites. I use an open source script that can be fixed and updated any time. I'm not a fan of open source culture. It's dictatorial and cruel to the extreme. It has a deep disdain to copyright which I do not share at all. Some open source scripts are helpful. I pay my scripters. It might seem like a lot of work to make manual updates but in fact, it's always good to be in touch with your land and what is happening on it, not to mention the people who live on it, instead of running it like a giant Walmart as an absentee landlord.

Does anyone have more on this? I heard something about it in office hours, that there will be a new sort of premium that is more granulated to do various things. I understood that it had something to do with animesh or something. But when you go to upload a texture now, it has some wording on the interface about taking you to another form of premium account, which if I understood correctly, would then mean you could pay a higher premium, but then upload textures for less. As anyone knows this gets really expensive really fast even if you aren't some star creator, just in making signs and texturing this and that. However, it isn't hooked up yet because when you click on it, it goes nowhere, or does for me.

If you are complaining about having to pay VAT for Second Life like any other good or service, then don't brag about your free health care service and free education which you have in your European country BECAUSE of VAT, which Americans don't have, ok? And I'm not entirely sure that the socialism many idealize is achievable in America in the way they imagine, anyway. It does better in small countries and not big ones like Russia. Taxes vary all over here -- these are sales taxes, and not VAT exactly -- and some of us shop in New Jersey from New York to try to get better deals, although the transportation back with all those groceries then has to be added in. Some Internet businesses like Amazon charge you your state's sales tax because states require they do that. Linden Lab does not charge a sales tax but essentially, they build it into their price because they have to pay taxes in their state like everyone else To answer the question: I'm not in the homestead business and don't want to be; I have only one homestead and its full with long-term tenants. It's $79 at the grandfathered price, so I want to make sure that I get at least that $79 (previously $95), or divided into 3 as in my case. I have to, because I have to pay tier. And facturing in content costs and occupancy, many would have to charge more than tier to break even.

Yes, I couldn't charge that for my homestead and charge at least enough to cover the $95.

Like Rey, I would charge anywhere from US $22 for a bare platform in the sky (if I had use of the ground below) to $40 or more if it were a landscaped, furnished house on the ground. It depends also on whether it is waterfront or forest or flat or whatever. I don't think you will find that big a range because all of us have the same fixed cost of tier to pay; some have grandfathered sims or have mainland versus newer private islands, but the range is not that huge. You don't need an island to have a very full SL. Get a 4096 first which will be much cheaper. While owning land does mean you have to pay the premium cost as well, not completely offset by the stipends, you have full control that way. It's a buyer's market.

Every country is different, but in the US, I don't see that either the federal government or the state government is going to bail out virtual land or content businesses. Interestingly, for the first time this year, I saw a little box that could be checked or not on the IRS return form that says "Do you own virtual currency?" This is a reference to bitcoin. I don't own any bitcoin, and from everything I read, Lindens are not virtual currency in this definition. They are a token to be used inworld for goods and services, something like a movie ticket or a Disneyworld ticket. I report the small amount of income I make in SL merely as freelance income like any other freelance income that comes on PayPal of any kind for a good or service, a translation or a sale of a used couch. No one is going to pay your SL land bill, so don't ask them to. Lock down your RL first and secure those needs first. If you are facing a big bill in SL, tier down, reduce your exposure, be prudent just like you would be if you ran a pizzeria in Bayonne, NJ now that had to close and whose takeout service is threatened due to supply chain issues. You are not in a magical unicorn realm.

You can read my inworld newsletters and the thread on General. Answer: 1. No, I haven't given up my land business yet, but I have always tried to make it pay for itself. When it can't, it goes. 2. RL is way more important and if you are facing food insecurity then you don't spend $100 in SL. 3. LL should not be asked to reduce tier or give handouts because they have fixed costs, too. 4. I'm at ground zero for the virus in Manhattan, immune compromised, 21 days in quarantine, difficulty in getting medicines and food.

I'm sad to sea Second Norway go because I liked to visit it, and I love RL sims in SL and track them, they're great. I have some friends there, and it's sad. $3/prim isn't what I charge, and may seem excessive, but it's not unreasonable. If you rent a sim, you have to pay the tier, which is a fixed cost where no one cuts you a break -- nor should they, as I've explained in the General Discussion thread where people are demanding the Lindens to convert from a business with costs of their own and payroll to a charity giving you a handout. There is no need for that. You also have to pay for content which constantly has to be refreshed and it would be nice to pay for your time, too, you know? It can be exasperating when rentals sit empty and the agent keeps the price high, but he's doing that for valid economic reasons, which is that in a world of low occupancy which we all share and which will increase, those willing to pay more for a nice sim will carry it. You can debate whether $3 or 0.75/prim is the proper way to run a business, but you aren't the one running it and your opinion, if you have not paid its tier or helped create its value, is not really relevant. A free market depends on merchants being able to chose their level of investment and exposure. There are huge varieties in SL and you can choose another rental that is much cheaper if you want. Bellisseria did cut into the rentals businesses' of the user base, that's for sure. Not everyone has the flexibility to adjust to that and compensate for that. I don't feel it threatens my business as much as I see my tenants come and go to it -- they got tired of prim limits and lack of choice and come back to my rentals or others. This could change, and they could all flock out of my rentals and my colleagues' rentals to Bellissaria, and that would be sad but then the Lindens lose my tier when they do it because I can't afford to keep open empty rentals. At the end of the day, if the Lindens have to decide between what is good for their bottom line -- premium accounts with recurring payments -- or the ability of their user base to rent sims and re-rent them -- guess what they will chose. Hopefully, they watch the indicators and balance things out, and slow their Bellissaria if they see attrition among their large island tier payers who constitute the bulk of the rentals industry. Bellissaria is more of a threat to Mainland rentals agents like me with small parcels of that size, than it is to islands with more customized and beautiful environment. Yet I don't think it's that much of a threat. Anything that brings more people to SL and creates more premium accounts is a tide that raises all boats.

No, it's not about naming anything to my specifications, that's silly. It's about hundreds of Linden locations having THE EXACT SAME NAME SO YOU CAN'T TELL THEM APART IN INVENTORY UNLESS YOU MANAGED TO RENAME THEM. I think you and Tari Landar have never visited these Linden places so you can't understand what I'm talking about, but that's common. Anyone who explores a lot in SL and enjoys the Linden places get this, but you don't because you don't. It's a chore to have to re-name LMs especially when you deal with thousands of them constantly because you run rentals and a land preserve where they are constantly needed and updated and when you put them on servers to be issued every day. But that's not an experience you have, either, so never mind. They don't function like every other LM. Here's a good example. The label on the land parcel is "Coastal Waterway" -- like a zillion other Linden parcels. this one is actually an entire sim. Here it is: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gilpatric/148/248/22 Yes, once you pull up the map after clicking on it, you see "oh, it's that one in Gilpatric". Er, what continent was that on again? There are 5000 sims and you can't always remember. Yes, you can use the continent locator. Here's another nice location near the beach I first posted -- this is a nice dock. But if you click on it, it makes a landmark that is called....wait for it...Coastal Waterway. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gilpatric/14/218/25 Once you pull up the map, you see, yeah, it's in Gilpatrick, and yeah, it's not in the same location as the beach. But in your inventory, with thousands of other landmarks, it's joining a collection called COASTAL WATERWAY of which there are jillions. The dock isn't on its own parcel, although it could be, which might increase its use as people can get to it precisely easier -- if it has its own landing point and -- wait for it -- distinct name. Lindens take the time to build these things, but they sit unused often. Taking the time to parcel them and name them distinctly, even "Gilpatric Dock on Coastal Waterway" just makes it easier to find again in inventory and share around, "Here's this great Linden dock I found". It's hard to share a thing that says "Coastal Waterway" that joins a zillion other "Coastal Waterways" in inventory. The Lindens are really brilliant at naming, very creative. But on these areas, they just didn't take the time. And while I realize they are busy, I'm suggesting that WHEN they can find time to 1) name distinctly 2) parcel 3) create separate landings which really only takes a few seconds they will see more usage because people can identify it readily without clicking on dozens of landmarks in their inventory, all of which say the same thing. If you think it's just a problem of these particular sims I stumbled across, no, it's not. Here's another one. And another one And another one And another one All of them, all over the grid -- and I could give you scads more -- all have the label COASTAL WATERWAY in my inventory. If you're having trouble grasping that they all have the same name because when you click on the forums, they show a SLURL with numbers and a sim name, go there, make yourself a landmark, and see how it looks in your inventory which is...wait for it...COASTAL WATERWAY. Yeah, some of them I re-labelled on the fly because that's easy enough to do and I'm not stupid. But now I have an LM that says "Skradski". What is Skradski again? Skradski actually isn't a "coastal waterway" per se, and not a beach and not a dock. It's a little island with a castle on it which is pretty cool. So while I could name it "Pretty cool little Linden island with castle on it," quite frankly, so could the Moles as they build them. They will get this, even if you won't, so that's why once again, on the forums, I walk around the robots.

Yeah I know. I've been in SL 16 years. Again, when you take these landmarks, they are generic and don't help you remember where they are. If you are flying around and taking landmarks, and not stopping to edit them. Now, why is this? It seems to me the Lindens could make them work better so that no one has to edit them. Yes, if you click on them, you go back to that place, but again, there is nothing to make it have a unique name like every other place in SL.

The best thing about these sims, really, was the names. I go visit them mainly once a year. I guess because "jungle" isn't what I want so much as "northwest". I've been going to these docks and rez areas and beaches not even so much around Bellissaria but the other continents. One problem with them is that when you take their landmarks, you are left with a generic name that doesn't help you remember what it was.

I was once fortunate enough to go and hear the great poet William Stafford speak in real life in a university where I was taking a course, and where he talked about writing and also read his poetry. And he said a great thing I have remembered many times since: "To get started, I will accept anything that occurs to me." Too often writers censor themselves, become convulsed about what other people think, or try to be relevant or try to be popular. Just write what occurs to you and take it from there. Also, don't worry about how many people see your blog or if they write nasty comments, just keep writing. Another great artist I know says about how children should be encouraged in art: it doesn't have to be good; it has to be a lot. That is, rather than forcing them to learn some arcane and difficult techniques at an early age, it's more important that they just keep sketching and painting happily and making a lot of works. Skell's tutorial is excellent and could be put up on a knowledge archive somewhere to be used. I personally cannot do all the things he recommends, like take excellent pictures, but if you are doing fashion, this is important and worth studying and learning.

I learned something from what you outlined here, but I still can't get used to people who speak of themselves in the third person and also render commentary about their actions in italics as if they are in a novel. It's odd. I also don't know how they do it.

Um, no, because you prefaced it by saying "there are a lot of reasons not to rent from Prokofy". Whereas if I happened to be searching for some gadget and the search engine turned up your product and it had good reviews, I'd see no reason why I shouldn't buy it. I think it's good when marketplaces are like that. Of course, there are extreme times when people behave very badly inworld, or when their product is very destructive in some way, then you might conclude it should be avoided. But to not buy somebody's house or gadget or hair just seems silly to me. That brings me to another point not quite on topic here so I won't dwell on it but there are people who that if you don't like what someone's political profile is, or what they say on the forums, or you don't like their blog, you should boycott their products or business inworld. And some go so far even to block me from buying their products; their vendor enables them to do that, which I think is a pernicious feature introduced into the Metaverse that ultimately can have devastating consequences, as oligarchs ban whole swathes of people they don't like -- people of colour, people with positive virus test status -- whatever. If you don't think that isn't coming some day, think again, and think about your own role in setting the groundwork for it. BTW this is the same vending company that put me in all of their teleporters as an "example name" for a griefer you would ban -- which then had the effect of banning me from many shopping malls or stores, as merchants who didn't necessarily want to target me or even knew me, put out teleporters that I was banned from. This isn't because I am a griefer who spews particles or crashes sims, someone deserving of a ban in a teleporter. But because I have a critical blog. There's one resident who apparently has carried a grudge for 10 years since the time I once wrote a blog post about how his wares were featured on the Linden's front page not just once, but twice, and even in three places. Some people get lucky that way. I was telling the truth about a situation, but maybe this merchant thought no one would notice his coddled status. Another one has locked me from purchases -- as well as my alts, which means she is using the kind of technology which is supposed to be banned from SL. Yet a third has me blocked on the marketplace as well. Once there was a merchant who actually rented a store from me for years. She moved on and I maintained friendly relations and bought many of her nice wares. Over and over, I posted tweets or other social media praising her products. One day I expressed frustration with trying to texture a full-perm product of hers. The context was clear that this tweet was about my amateur building skills, not the merchant, who tried to provide tutorials in her product and groups. But through some sort of thin skin, she took umbrage and blocked me from buying her wares. When I wrote to her she finally climbed down when she grasped that this wasn't an insult. So she took me off ban inworld and at fairs but kept me banned on the MP, which is of course an inconvenience, because then I have to sort through vendors endlessly. I personally think that the whole point of a free marketplace is to enable people to trade with others who are strangers, or whom they don't like. This is the ancient heart of human society -- the marketplace. The liberal democratic society depends on the idea that goods are traded freely without having to have access to the king or a royal status.

Yeah, it's not a grasping one-way transaction with me, either. Because unlike nearly all rental agencies, I don't have automatic processes. When a rental box expires, it now turns into a "grace period" state for 2 days with the "Remain Calm" meme on it. When it expires after that, I contact the tenant to find out what's up. Sometimes they are dealing with the chronic problem with Europeans -- buying Lindens. Sometimes they have some other situation. I do not hasten to return their prims, but in most cases, leave them. If someone else comes along by that point -- this is now 3 days after expiration -- they can rent the place and the other person's prims will be returned -- unless my judgement of the situation is as follows: that a long time tenant who has been there for 5 years, and normally pays on time, would only be replaced by someone who isn't intending to stay for a week, or who I know from past rentals doesn't pay on time or leaves early. It's a human judgement, not a robot. That's why I have many long-term tenants. I have some that pay way ahead; some who have been years; but also some who are new and casual. One new tenant refunded. Whenever someone refunds, I IM them and ask them if they had any problems. Sometimes people don't understand they have to join a group. They can join a group and you explain that they now have the power to set a landing point or paste in a stream, and they can't grasp that, often due to the fact that English is not their first language. I explain these things and sometimes then they can overcome their frustration. I return them the cancellation fee, and they start over, now armed with the knowledge that they can have music -- which they didn't understand. The single greatest problem I find in rentals is the belief by people that if they come and pay a rental box where the previous tenant's items are still there, that now they should be able to return them. You can't do that in any rental in SL anywhere (that I'm aware of) -- join an OPEN group, then return prims. Perhaps if a bot sends you an invite to a CLOSED group and has awarded you the power to return group prims -- because you will not make your OWN group on a parcel set to sale to you on an island to "buy," that can happen, but honestly, I don't see that use case play out much. But in an OPEN group on the MAINLAND, that expectation -- that you paid and now you can return someone else's prims -- oh, and the rental box too LOL -- is misplaced, sorry. This particular renter explained to me two days ago that she refunded because she broke up with her boyfriend. A sad story that happens all too often. Sometimes this might mean TWO rentals for me if they split up and each takes a separate rental -- and sometimes they do -- but often it means a refund and NO rental because often that partner was paying the rent. So this former tenant asked if she could use the parcel she was renting as a sandbox now. I said no, because you can't use my rentals as a sandbox. Especially when I provide a sandbox on one sim, and have all these free hangouts. Your rental you can't pay for anymore has to be opened up to the next person who will rent. It might not rent, but it still has to remain open, without you using it as a sandbox. The idea that you should get to use a rental as a "sandbox" -- that you are no longer paying for, or that your boyfriend is no longer paying for, because you had a hardship which involved a break-up, is an example of the grasping entitlement psychology that actually dominates the rental field way, way, way more than any grasping land baron.

Fortunately my customers don't think as you do, and the reason not to rent from Prokofy is generally that they prefer to pay more and have lockdowns where they can have orbs on the ground and/or as many breedables as they like put out on a sim whether it lags it or not. Most normal people -- and there are way more normal people inworld than on the forums -- don't care what someone's blog says, or what their political beliefs are, or even bother to check them. They care whether a rental is cheap and whether there is good customer service. That's why I've had customers for 16 years in some cases -- truly that long. That's why there are many as long as 5-10 years, imagine. Many long term customers because they aren't like you, they are not on the forums. Some might read my blogs or not -- it doesn't matter. Some tip me for my blog, imagine. The rest of the world outside the forums is not your world. To be sure, there are always a few that are prima donnas, special snowflakes, just selfish, etc. that become wildly crazy or something like your return of their overprimming, or your refusal to let them have an aggressive orb on their property when these are not allowed on the ground level, only the sky, or your statement to them that no, they cannot put their house in a certain area that requires houses to be "in theme" of a certain type -- because their set-up looks like a Texas fish camp. Now, I cried a little, too, the first time a casual visitor told me that what I thought was a beautiful fairy grove in my land preserve in Carlisle (and still do) looks like a Texas fish camp. I wasn't even sure what a Texas fish camp *was*, since the fish camps in Canada and upstate New York where we have fished are not quite as...how should I say...fish campy as in Texas. I really don't mind the Texas fish camp look and even have deliberately put it in some places where people want it. If it drives away other neighbours, if it makes everybody refund all around because it doesn't look like Martha's Vineyard, the theme on that particular place, then too bad. Refund, move on, get over it. SL is a big place. The iron law of SL -- and I mean absolutely iron, unimpeachable, without exception -- is that those in the cheapest, most subsidized places, who have had the most extra help are the ones that complain the most, although they should complain the least. It's amazing how those in rentals just a tad bit more expensive, with perhaps a tad more difficulty like no English even as a second language, complain a lot less. It's a marvel. And that's why you learn that you do not set your degree of customer service to always endlessly serve someone complaining who is in the cheapest rental which actually had more help than others; you do a certain amount, and then you say that if they are unhappy with their SELF-SERVICE, and can't learn how to switch a title in a group, and can't learn how to join a group on their own and will not get an invitation, then they are unhappy with THEMSELVES. They can go pay more where a rental agent has time to hold their hand, send them invitations, and generally be a chump. I have not sent an invitation since 2005 and I don't plan to because it's amazing how many of them get lost or ignored by the people who just asked for them and then go AFK. Anyone can join a group by clicking and finding a link in chat or using search/groups. They do that for their shopping and hunt groups without complaint. They can do it in a cheap rentals. The end. I've watched various newbie helpers, low-cost or subsidized rentals or themed communities over the years, where one very dedicated person, usually a middle-aged woman, often with a partner and children or elderly relatives to take care of, utterly burns themselves out by endlessly sacrificing for others in SL to the point of loss of their own income at the worst, or loss of their time and sanity and the best. They mount incredible feats, with beautiful sims and content which they pay for themselves, reaping perhaps only a tip now and then or some return from low-cost rentals. They utterly subject themselves to the needs and wants of others. Then they burn out, quit, and leave SL in the end or shrink to some completely small thing or go on an alt. I've seen certain people in SL, who spent years wearing themselves to a nub in the welcome areas helping, who spent years making free content and so on and generally trying to give to the community, utterly flame out, and turn to RL politics in their country which is really less frustrating than SL in terms of "giving" as hard as it may be. I frankly don't see the point of that "giving back to the community" -- the community that never gave anything in the first place -- in SL, and those demanding it out of this insane idea of the need for altruism from others -- while they get to be as selfish and crazy and high maintenance need to get a pushback. And there are just far too many of them in SL. I do my part to create a culture of community where one person doesn't have to heroically shoulder the burden while others endlessly drink from the well. I like group rentals on the Mainland because they help you do that. You learn you can't put out 1000 extra prims because you can't take them from other. You learn that your desire to make your little 1024 parcel a bunker with aggressive orbs means the people in the little 1024s next to you have a miserable life and can't fly back and forth to their homes from the road or waterfront. Etc. If you can't deal with these restraints in order to have a cheap rental, then go on the islands and pay more, they will give you your own group and lock you down on a separate little flat, white pancake on an island.

I think that works for some people. I find that if my avatar is standing for a long time, my RL leg that was injured begins to hurt. Funny, eh? It's psychological. I have had customers who are wheelchair bound or housebound in bed with hospital tables with their computers. I know what that is like as several times in my life I have had to be utterly bound to bedrest with only that tilted hospital table which is hard to see a laptop on but tolerable. Some of those customers chose to represent themselves in SL in a wheelchair, too. It makes them feel normal, and it is part of other people accepting them as they are fully, in the way they wish to represent themselves. Others who are wheelchair bound prefer not to put that representation into real life. So there have been some times when I have found customers who told me they had been in a wheelchair for years, and had met a partner in SL that made their life meaningful and had spent many happy years, that it came as a surprise because I would see them flying or jet-skiing or whatever and never knew. So I'm glad I could be part of that. I've had customers who told me they were ill and dying. There have been a few cases when people told me that were lying, and after 16 years of SL experience I have gotten pretty good at telling when people do that -- if someone says they are dying and can't pay their rent, and I see that person a year later dancing in a disco, I know that they've lied. Mostly the people who told me they were dying did die; some I could check with RL obituaries. I find that the people really dying in RL don't ask you to pay for their US $1.50 per month rental, you know? Because it's not necessary. I treasure some of the things they made inworld or their thank-you notes to me which they sent before really dying. In some cases people dying want to log into SL to the very end -- you hear of people texting until minutes before death. Others have other things that they need to do urgently and log off. Some die suddenly, like a good friend I had starting in the Sims Online, and continuing to here. His girlfriend and he in SL had finally made the decision to live together in RL. She went to his city, and he didn't meet her at the airport. She was bewildered and texting people and we couldn't find out what happened. We didn't think he got cold feet. Eventually the brother answered his RL email to say that he had died in his sleep in RL of a heart attack. This was checkable with a RL obituary for some of us. Very sad. But that's just it. SL is connected to RL in the most intimate way and it cannot overcome sickness, plagues, death.

Then don't? If you can't pay for an SL rental, then don't pay for it, the end. That's very easy to do: you stop. You can move to a free account. There are so many free places to hangout and explore in SL that you can still enjoy SL to a large extent. Why you should expect someone now to pay for you in a global endemic everyone suffers from is beyond me. And SL is a big place. Go and find another agency where maybe someone is wealthy enough to let you have a rental space for free. I can't. I run a small rental business -- I'm not a land baron and not wealthy in real life but a non-profit worker. I'm someone who is in midtown Manhattan with a rare immune disease who has already been in quarantine for 20 days and had trouble getting medicines and food. Even before this, I couldn't afford to subsidize someone else's Second Life, and generally didn't, although I do subsidize some "newbie" areas and free areas which I think is the right thing to do for any landlord. I can't turn my entire rentals into a freebie for everyone. Why would I pay thousands of dollars in tier to keep other people's Second Life when I don't have that money in real life? The systems has to pay for itself. This kind of psychology is what I'm trying to battle, because it's insane, it's totally lacking in awareness of what the numerous rental agencies in SL are really about. They aren't remote, wealthy slumlords who are on their yachts somewhere. Maybe there are a few like that. But most of the rentals agencies -- even very large ones -- are run by dedicated people who work night and day and already sacrifice enormously for their customers. I know a guy in SL who has some of the most expensive Blake Sea rentals who hasn't had a vacation or a weekend off in years and makes a tolerable RL income but can't be expected now to pay for you to have a second life if he can't feed his family during the pandemic. Yes, the point of this post is GLOBAL PANDEMIC. Which is ESPECIALLY BAD in San Francisco and New York, like it or not, whether you think these people are rich, undeserving white people in the First World. GLOBAL PANDEMIC WHERE THEY ARE AT THE EPICENTER. So why should Linden Lab or me or anyone in SL business pay for you to have fun? That's a luxury. And you need to learn that and stop putting your hand out for a handout.