Prokofy Neva

I imagine the workd of the auction involves having to deal with all those cheating, manipulative land dealers. They deliberately bid high on some pieces to drive the price up in general and drive others out of the market. Then they have a "story" about why they can't take the auction win. Then the next lowest bidder has to be found. There was a simple way to deter this: have public lists of all those who take part in each auction, so that through public pressure on manipulators, the practice would cease or at least be mitigated. *The old auctions used to do this, and it was indeed a factor that prompted better behaviour*. The Lindens refused to change the ebay code they got to publish the auction winners and failed bids.

If the viewer enables sale of land set to Anybody or Somebody, I'm simply failing to see what is so complicated about coding a routine that does this: Day 1 set to agent with largest holdings Day 4 set to agent with second largest holdings Day 7 set to agent with third largest holdings or Day 1 set to 1 of randomly-generated list of X agents Day 4 set to 2 of randomly-generated list of X agents minus 1 etc.

Sling, You are likely right -- the problem with Mainland for people with large parcels in particular is the cost of tier. Quite a few of the abandoned do say "abandoned for Zindra". People were forced to move to Zindra, couldn't get their land sold at a time when everyone else was doing the same thing, so they dumped it. So you're right, what could likely happen is this: o abandoned land at choice location sells for $1/meter to bots o the bot owner jacks up the price to $7/m or more o the people in the sim now face a new expense -- more than $100 US to buy a 4096 m2, and then add $25 tier or more -- possibly putting them into the in-between bracket where they are forced to tier up way more o so they can't add that $125 initial cost plus renewing $25 or $40 cost or whatever each month, so they don't buy o a new buyer comes into a lovely residential neighbourhood whose view he loves, and creates a club or store and puts traffic generators and junk all over it. People who love the view other people have created in sims seldom think about what they've just done to impact the view. o Faced with either land with spinning signs and junk inducing a sale to "buy back the view," or a club that won't leave or also puts the land to sale to "buy back the view" people simply abandon their land. They may or may not move to another sim -- more likely this is the point where they will go and rent on an island instead. So while the Lindens get an initial big sink in the $1 sales that increases L$ commissions for them, and they get an initial big pump-up of tier of the bot owners and some sim owners who manage to grab the dollar land, they will then face another round of abandonments in 3-6-9 months. I would predict summer of 2011, just like summer of 2005, which was one of our worst summers in SL when the land market cratered after a wrenching tilt to the islands and cornering of the market by some big land dealers, and a glut of abandoned land that sold for $1/m automatically in those days, as it will soon now.

What the hell are LL playing at? Is this some sort of sick experiment to see just how angry they can make tier-paying resisents? It's often commented that Lindens don't have the slightest clue about in-world. This has got to be one of the most perverse moves by LL in recent history. Indeed. I couldn't agree more. I don't think it's a sick experiment, exactly, as that would imply conscious will and planning; it's more like allowing coders who think only in terms of start 0/1 alternatives and who have absolutely no interest in the world, it's economy, what happens to it because of their code, etc. -- and letting. It's what I call "insect politics" as in that movie "The Fly". Remember when he was still half-man he tried to think, should he eat his girlfriend or not? The exigencies of one creature take over the whole world because there is nothing to stop it. Some of the coding Lindens are extreme Stallmanites, anti-copyright/'anti-property/free open source blah blah types and the land market only irritates them.

Pretending this issue is merely a server code issue is really, really myopic. It will have a detrimental effect on the whole Mainland land market that is already struggling. Indeed the question is who gave the order to make this a priority -- a priority over other things that these self-same Andrew and Kelly Linden are working on. Why is it good if decisions are being made when they are bad decisions?! No doubt Rodvik himself gave the order because he simply looked at it like land in the Sims. It should all be one price and not a market.

Not people, but bots, which are the automatic concretization of the will of just a few people who will have the resources to grab this.

No, you're not representative of land owners. No, it is not a positive change to introduce a huge and sudden glut of land into an already devalued land marked -- this is communism, whereas Second Life is supposed to have a capitalist free market simulation. No, it's not necessary to dump all this land into the market just to solve the problem you're worried about (and most people): junk on the land. They could have a routine that reverts all land to 1 autoreturn that would make sure only the original owners builds stayed, or even a routine that just dumped all prims, period. That should have been done years ago. But it's not necessary to dump it all into the market.

I thought Hidden Lakes stretched down further on the original Linden map I have of these regions. I'm going to see if I can compare.

In addition to Carl Metropolitan's maps, which are easy to see, there was another guy who made huge what he called "satellite" maps. I can't recall his name, maybe someone will remember. He used to run a big map store in Moraine on the riverbank there (it's gone now).

I like the idea that the Lindens are finally doing something. But why isn't it being discussed openly in office hour/group meetings but being announced as a fait accompli in what is essentially a scripters' group, not a landlords' group such as Jack Linden's office hour used to be? I'm glad they are finally accepting that they must dump off all the prims after a short grace period -- that has always been are biggest problem, the ugly builds, the spinning and glowing stuff, the garbage and the Torley Friendly Greetings griefer noisemakers, etc. that literally sit there for months on end -- I recently dealt with a parcel like that where the group had stopped paying a year ago and I had to have that garbage and noise preventing the use of my land and the rental of my land for a solid year, despite numerous abuse reports, concierge tickets -- and finally I just asked a Linden live if they would just get it done because I couldn't stand losing the income anymore from the parcel. And it finally got done. So I'm totally for action; I'm totally for grace periods and dumping of prims (although they have a coalesce problem). But now we are reverting to the old days of the Weedy Herbst and Nolan Nash land grabbing businesses (they are both now long gone). On the one hand, this made a nice business for people with time to spend scouring the grid manually and with bots, tidying up land, making it look nice, and reselling it. I'm all for having such a business appear on the grid again. On the other hand, this became a racket for some to extort from those desperate for prims who were already owners and residents in sims, and enabled outsiders to capitalize on their misery -- and these outsiders often put up ugly builds to help you "buy back the view".

Here's what I wrote on that wiki: Question: Is the reason the option of not having neighbours be the ones allowed to have first crack at abandoned land on a sim a problem of scripting or resources or impossibility to do or...what? It seems to me doable to be able to have a series of events that ensue when land reaches the end of the grace period, that only those agents who are already shown as owners of land on that sim are in the possible list to buy it. Currently, land can be manually set to be sold only to one person, so would it be hard to have code that sets up automatically a list of all owners on that sim, and the option for any one of them to be the one who could buy the land. Or a moving through that list one at a time, with each one coming up for 3 days, then moving to the next. The problem is that once again we will be faced with the problem of the old days when you had this, which was that bots and speculators will grab the cheap land and try to extort high prices for it from the people who are already living on that sim. I'd also like to know why this issue is being talked about in this group which is basically Andrew Linden's office hour with the same set of scripters concerned with narrow scripting issues, and not a group of land dealers or rentals agents or those who actually have to cope with this constant problem of abandoned land and how to prevent it from becoming an eyesoar or being purchased by flippers. While the general population of SL is concerned with this issue in the abstract, and the subset of those interested in coding issues might also include the occasional person interested in purchase of abandoned land, the real constituency for this issue -- land dealers and sim owners with residences and businesses including rental businesses -- are not being consulted. Why isn't there a Linden blog post about this? Finally, I'd like to hear the definition and scope of what "Simulator User" actually means. Because it sounds like Andrew's office hours are now turning into Jack's old office hours if they are going to discuss the land market.

The difference is that the lease of an island is really more expensive. You have to pay the purchase price on many islands, and then the tier, and these are higher than mainland, because the owners have $295 month tier instead of $195 tier. So you will simply have less cost even paying tier directly to Linden Lab for mainland -- if you get a mainland rental you will have the lowest cost of all. But with land so dirt cheap now there are good deals for far less than the full island price that are still nice. Islands are isolated. If you can't expect to be found in search, it doesn't hurt to get near other people especially a shopping area, but it depends on the goals.

I've been in business on the Mainland for six years with a rentals and content business, and I love it. But mainland isn't for the faint of heart. No land purchase in Second Life is "an investment". It is like a boat: a hole in the Internet into which you pour money. Or, it's a business expense -- really costly server rental. You don't say whether you want to put up a rentals or a store or what. If you find the right sim -- a pretty sim where the view is fairly stable -- you might get some nice rentals going but you can't charge island prices. I think starting a business is better on the mainland because you have the additional factor of fly-bys and serendipity and also working with neighbours to make things work that you don't get on an island. The rolling restarts happen just about every other day. If the sim seems to lag out you can call Concierge if you own 1.5 or more sims and ask for a restart. Or even as a premium customer try putting in a ticket. I think mainland gives you more flexibility. You can buy smaller sizes and you can sell it at least for something, although not what you paid, if you are done. Islands are big and you have to deal with all or nothing.

It doesn't just violate the spirit of the rule against ad farms, it violates the letter of two rules: o you can't sell on Linden Land o you can't have more than X number of ad signs on one sim -- and these are each mobile ad signs. The Lindens who are backing these because of some beloved stress testing or something need to weigh this alleged boon against the harassment and diminishment of Second Life for other people. If the Lindens need a stress test, they could script their own vehicles better and be willing to have them not go on certain sims.

I believe it doesn't exist anymore. It was a project run for awhile and then perhaps the people got busy or couldn't pay tier, not sure. I used to have it in my list of landmarks for the U.S. at the International Bazaar, but I found the same thing you did, I teleported there and it was gone. If you go there in Ross at the infohub there, into the building with all the tables and displays you can pick up the landmarks card and see a few other sites, but I think several others now are also defunct including virtual Harlem.

Everyone should AR them: o they are selling products on Linden Land -- the cars are for sale and have a scripted popup that tells you to buy them -- that's not allowed, selling on Linden Land o they use up region resources -- dozens of them carom across sims all day long o they crash into avatars -- this is bumping, and is against the TOS o they go on other people's property and often crash and stay there -- this is encroachment and trespassing o they are about one resident using public resources intended for all, to the detriment of the enjoyment of SL by others So they involve many offenses, and the Lindens who may be permitting this under the notion that this gives them free stress-testing on sim seams or something should take a step back and ask why they are inflicting this on the population who pay them tier.

Mainland is for everybody. That's what's great about it. It is open to the public. There are no ban lines on the Linden roads and byways through the water, although it can get rough with the security orbs. Even so, there is a basic openness and geographical contiguity.

I like the Linden dams of course: o Sutherland o Ganymede o Barton (are there any others? I don't think so). Also like Linden bridges, i.e. the one going from Maryport. Lately I have to say my favourite hangout are the icebergs on Ice Bay (Kara, next to Refugio). Of course, all the Nautilus, Pyri, etc. Linden builds are great. Nautilus is just great to stroll through on a Sunday afternoon. Still like all the crystal gardens, etc. -- and that drill-bore sort of site in Nautilus that is one of the Magellan sites. The one place I never get tired of is the Iris Moth Temple. I tend the infohub next to that built by Jessica Ornitz which is in the SL Public Land Preserve. Really, all the Mainland places have a unique special feel to them. I haven't had as much time lately to see the newer ones out in the new continents (and to me "new" is anything that is newer than what I used to call "the new continent" which is Heteroetcetera or whatever it's called, which I always call "The Atoll Continent"). I've been staring mournfully at Salazar's abandoned land lately, the areas that lost the builds in some kind of tidal wave.

Well, I give y ou a quote from none other than the founder and first CEO of Second Life, Philip Rosedale: "I'd say, stay on the mainland: the idea of clustering and the magic spell of working with your neighbors is just a great appeal." Philip Linden 7-7-06 Town Hall

If you don't find the things batched into a bunch in your inventory, i.e. sort by latest and pull out the last few objects, they can be clustered together, then go to view/preferences/ and general page and clear cache the relog and wait patiently while everything loads again, it might flush back in.

You have to go into view/preferences/graphics check off "custom" and then add the shadows.

This is definitely, definitely caused by Viewer 2.x Many people will argue with you about it; take my word for it, it is most definitely the cause. Switch to viewer 1.23 on the downloads page, or get a third-party viewer.

I believe it's your anti-virus program. That often interferes with SL. You may have to disabled the AV program temporarily in order to log on to SL.

I wonder first of all about the technicalities. Is the friendship list a thing that is "a load" on the database? Are calls to it "expensive"? that is, does merely loading its long dead tail each time I log on creating lag for me or the whole system? If so, then I'd be happy to be mandated to prune it. I used to try to put things in folders -- events, customers, builders, actual friends, etc. But it got hopeless and I gave up. So many people friend me because they are worried that they might need something in their rentals and can't tell if I'm online or not that they friend me for that reason alone. I always tell them not to fret, IMs in fact *don't* cap if in fact you tie them to offline email so they shouldn't needlessly friend. Even so, I let anyone who wants to friend, wny not? The result, however is hundreds of cards, quite a few useless. And of course people who tend to abuse the cards to force-TP you to clubs and mall openings. As for "actual friends" I just can't see removing them on some time schedule or some "activity" basis. For example, recently an old friend returned to SL after a 4-year hiatus. I was able to see she suddenly logged on and visit her. And that's a great thing to keep -- why not? It's like an old-fashioned telephone book where you have written in your friend's numbers. You wouldn't have gone through and crossed out the friend or torn out the page merely because you didn't hear from them for awhile. Why this urge to delete online, in the pixel version? So unless someone tells me that it is somehow "healthy" for SL to prune this list, I won't!

Good reporting job. And good that you didn't zoom in on some of the pictures as they were obscene and gross and that would get your film removed from here. But it's important to keep documenting this. Don't be fooled by the fake "Stop Racism" hippie-style sign you see spewing -- other pictures this griefer spewed are indeed racist and of course obscene and broadly offensive. Among the many broadly-offensive memes spewed is my real-life picture : ) It's pretty creepy being summoned by tenants agitated by a grief attack only to be greeted by a giant RL picture of yourself flashing over a sim. Not for the first time, but it's always a shock. There's a tendency to view these attacks as just random, just bored young kids. That's not the case. They're from Anonymous, and they are very concerted, organized and there are perfectly grown men behind them. Their purpose is to control the Internet, so it is only used as they feel it should be used, and not in any other way. It really is a case of "they hate our freedom" when it comes to the creativity of virtual worlds that can be used for socializing, education and business. These pictures are assembled by very definite groups in SL, LL knows who they are, there are very definite texture UUIDs, there are very specific vaults of these textures and scripts used in attacks which are held by a number of main accounts for whom these are the alts, there are very specific groups on the alts --even the alt names all help identify them. The Lindens are swift for the most part in removing them. But we all know that there are certain groups/sims they don't remove which are the root of this. I personally find it helpful to remind the Huffington Post's Ken Lerer, an investor, and now Ron Conway, noted early Google investor, that their investment in Canvas by Moot is part of what enables this sort of Anonymous attack to continue. Moot is the owner of the 4chan.org site (made an advisor in Lerer's company), and 4chan.org is the source and repository -- and incitement and coordination zone -- for a lot of these attacks in SL and elsewhere. The support by Silicon Valley investors of these goons' "creativity" and the ensuing whitewashing of their reputation enables them to go on harassing others under the radar and harming other people's businesses. If every business harmed by these sorts of Anonymous attacks wrote to Ken Lerer and Ron Conway about their unwise investment decisions, we might see some change. Little else would work. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/technology/internet/14poole.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Ken%20Lerer&st=cse