Polenth Yue

Stilts and fantasy both appeared after the event was open to the public. The new theme is on the map in the final location. Pessimist I may be, but when something is literally there, it's not about hope and stuff. It exists. Once a theme gets to that point, it's not long until the final release. Opening speeches are just that. Most big announcements and details come at the later talk events. It's really weird that people are acting like the opening speech is the only time things can be announced, so clearly that's it. No more announcements. They're just going to leave the ready-to-release theme until next year. This is just not very likely.

I've spent sixteen years spreading spores around, so it's hard to miss them at this point! Anyone who doesn't go misses the chance to get the very first sculpty mushroom I ever made. It's terrible, which is why nobody has seen it before, but it could be your very own!

The opening was just a brief opening thing. It doesn't mean that's everything they're going to announce during the event. It'd be pretty weird for them not to mention the new theme area they're building at some point. We can see it on the map. They've got to admit it eventually.

The casino just isn't popular from what I've seen. Which is good news for people worried it'd fuel someone's gambling addiction, but I hope they consider other things. You could roll in the park idea with having a little quest game for people. Give them a pet as a prize when they finish it. Half the battle here is giving people a good first experience, so they'll know there's more stuff like that out there.

I'm curious about how the shopping region will be managed. Will they swap out the shops at intervals? There's some merit in that, as it'll avoid ending up with inactive shops and encourage people to check back sometimes. Also thinking more on it, what's missing from this one is a general freebies area, where many creators could leave something. A modern Stillman type of place.

I know some people were worried about the casino, but people only seem to play a few games as a novelty and then leave. There's no way to cash out and you'd be noticed by the mentors if you're always there.

It's long past time for my free pony.

It's nice that it connects with the rest of Second Life without needing to figure out teleporting or know places. Though I hope the train station will get a train rezzer, as newbies won't have trains or likely know how to use the marketplace yet. The little activities, like firing yourself out of a cannon, are things people can do before they know anybody. It makes it more interesting for people. The shopping area is a real shopping area and has some gifts for those with no money. No more teleporting newbies under the stairs in that ancient mall. It's a pity that Motown doesn't have a regular music stream. The hud can have issues and it means everyone hears different music.

So, I ran around, and the welcome hub is connected now to the logs. In-progress ocean regions at the moment, but there's the start of a coast and it looks like the log rail will connect to the station in the welcome hub area. Those who really wanted that coast, it's begun and you can stop holding your breath! The skill games are on freeplay, so I don't think it's an official skill games region. Just showing you how the games work. The shops are real brands and there are gifts in the shops. You can fire yourself out of cannons. There are giant tentacles. I think that answers the main questions people had. Overall, looks a lot nicer and more useful than previous new player experiences I've been through.

I don't think we ever thought they were going to be Linden Home regions, but they're close and might end up connected, so it's still relevant to people living in the homes. Much like the Galaxy isn't, but is attached.

That's how you'd usually do it, but if the landlord understood that, they'd have done it that way from the start. My suggestion was aimed at a landlord who understands how to check/uncheck boxes on the land, but isn't very good with setting up group roles. Though it likely would be even easier to just rent from someone else.

One thing to keep in mind is the neighbour likely didn't know that they had terraforming permission on your land and might not have seen what happened as they were focusing on their land. My usual assumption when terraforming on the mainland is that I only have rights to my own land. I've never had a neighbour give that right to everyone (including the rentals near me... it's just not typical). Best thing would be to get it how you want it and ask the landlord to turn it off once you're done. Then the neighbour can do their own terraforming without any accidents.

The number of dots makes me wonder if they're training the first mentors. They're not moving the way builders usually do either. But could also just be a stress test to make sure it runs with a bunch of people running around clicking all the things.

The rule is only about breedables and similar scripted farm systems. The rule is not based on whether something looks like an animal or not. A breedable cube would count under the breedables rule. An animated decor cat does not. That said, animesh is high land impact, so that will restrict how many you can place. It'd be prudent to do the herd of cows with static animals, so you can have a decent number. In theory, you might place enough of anything scripted to cause issues, but it's fairly unlikely. Someone decorating to look nice will limit how many of one thing they put out. The difference with breedables is people try to stuff as many as possible into the available land impact. We didn't have the rule until people started filling homes with breedable horses. You're just not going to do that with decor animals. I love decor pets and have lots out, but it's peanuts compared to the horse houses.

The birthday has adult regions this year, so there will be official regions with sex. One reason why I wondered a bit at the timing of this thread, because this is the year they gave people the adult regions they requested. It doesn't look like they were overwhelmed with applications for the adult area though.

There have been dots working in the new area, which we're guessing is the new houses from all the cows. All looks normal for a release. The casino extension looks like the thing they were working on in the CH regions, which have also had a lot of activity leading up to the birthday. This was something I'd marked as a possible thing they were going to reveal. I'd thought it might be a full resort with the casino as one activity, which the region names suggest is the case... though with a focus on activities for new people. I'd assume the thought of putting it there is that if new people just start wandering (if it's an island that will end up connected to everything else) they'll end up in the Linden Homes, which is a generally nicer area to wander. Also, Linden Homes were intended as starter houses, so having resources for newer people fits. On the casino itself, the chips can't be cashed out, so it's not a skill gaming region as far as I'm aware. The skill gaming hub might be, but it also might just be somewhere that explains how it works. I'm more surprised that activity is still popular in Second Life, as the only times I've been to those regions on hunts, they've been completely dead.

Glitter rainbow cows!

BananaN is another one.

There shouldn't be any need to avoid moderate regions if someone is avoiding public sexual content. It's not allowed on moderate land (private yes, but not public). There are also so many not-adult stores on adult land that restricting search is not the best filter. The land description works better. However, if you actually have public sexual content, people will want to know in the description, some will avoid it and you should be on adult land. I guess it comes down to how important it is for you to let people have sex in the park.

I hope you're all getting your cows ready for decorating.

It wasn't clear from the first post that the thing you wanted was advice on getting your products back up in search. So yes, it's a known thing that removing words you don't need from the title can help. Just don't do it to an extreme that leaves the customer confused (like all your products having an identical name). Also add the relevant keywords to your product features section. That's much more important with the new search algorithm. Your description and features can have as many keywords as you want, so work in as many relevant words as you can. Try to write them as real sentences or phrases, rather than just listing words. It needs to make sense to a customer as well.

For previous recent events, there was no sign of them working on things that might be a reveal. This time, there are multiple areas of covered regions where they've been working. Some of these are clearly for the birthday (based on names and placement). A house reveal seems likely, though I wouldn't be surprised if they have some other stuff too.

It's what it says, but it's not how it goes down for real. Newbies will tend to IM the mentor who first helped them. Telling them no because it's not work hours is not how it goes down. People who want to help will keep helping, even when they're burning out because they never get a break. A group is more casual and people tend to come back to ask the group instead, which is going to work better for people who can't guarantee they're free to mentor all the time and who can't guarantee a set two hours a week. Every question asked there is also one that won't be IMed to a mentor who is supposed to be taking a break. An additional issue is that people who dedicate most of their time to helping can end up cut off from everything else in Second Life. They start to feel like there's no community, everyone is unfriendly, there aren't events like the past... simply because they never get out to experience any of it. I've helped a reasonable number of newbies who had been helped with the basic technical stuff, but had also picked up on this from the person who helped them. I pointed them to communities and events. A group won't solve all, but it it will mix it up a bit.

I think a lot of us help on this basis. When we're available and we see someone needs help, we do. Whereas the mentor program as listed is only for people who want to help as a full time job. That cuts out most people in Second Life who are involved in other things, such as doing events, running a business, running a group or anything that might take up time. This isn't to say it's a bad thing to find the people who want the job, but it's missing out on a lot of people who could help. One possibility is a help group that the Lindens moderate. It'd mean people could help in odd moments when they're doing other things. It'd also mean newbies could be walked through the process of joining and using a group, which opens up a lot of stuff. Though some people will inevitably try to cause issues and get banned from the group, it's at least in the open where you can what's happening.

It's often the same names derailing the threads every time and they never quite go over the line enough to get a ban. So I'd be more surprised if such a thread was actually nice. Not due to the intended topic, but due to the way it always goes on the forum. Second Pride has started though, which would be a better place than the forum if you're looking for pride stuff.