Persephone Emerald

"It's like the mesh IP quiz tho - everyone passes." Yay!. I was afraid if I failed I might have to repeat reading all of that stuff. I have a B.S. & I'll spend hours reading articles & forums online, but I'm lazy when it comes to technical directions & terms of agreement. I figure if common sense doesn't cover it, being a circumspect & little lucky will.

If I'm taking this quiz without it being open-book, I'll say # 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 & 8 are all stated within the SL TOS, but I'm not sure where # 4 & 6 come from. I know I agreed to the TOS, but I don't know if I agreed to that other document. How did I do, since I obviously got at least 2 questions wrong. Did I still get a passing grade? (Edit to add) Oh, oh. It looks like I got less than 50%, so then I failed. :smileysad:

"That's an interesting idea, but I personally like the SL options the way they are. I've always felt that Second Life is a mirror of real life. I grant you I don't look very masculine in Second Life but I am still a male. True transsexuals (a discussion I had with Dagmar earlier in this thread relates to that) can actually with a single click become female, or become 'post-op'. People like me, who are usually classed as 'transgendered', can exist in SL almost as they would in RL overlooking the obvious fact that we tend to have avatars that look WAY more feminine than we do in RL at our best. I like having that information 'known'. It means that when I interact with someone they know exactly who/what I am." I don't personally require a third gender option nor would most people, but I can think of a couple instances when someone might want a gender-neutral option. One is when the player doesn't want to define their gender at all in SL. They might want to play a robot, vehicle, alien or animal avatar, without having to act as any particular gender. The new animal avatars SL provides don't show an obvious gender if one doesn't wish to show one, but they still have a choice of "male animal" or "female animal". Do the robots & vehicles do the same? Wouldn't that actually be rather anthropomorphic & silly? What if a person wants to portray an alien that's a hermaphrodite or has a third or fourth gender? Then why should they have to choose either "male alien" or "female alien"? Another possibility is that the player might actually be intersexed in RL. While this is a rare condition, I have two online contacts who were born intersexed & who had their parents & doctor decide for them that they would be sexually reassigned as female without them having any say in the matter. Such a person might like to be able to play in SL as a true hermaphrodite, rather than having to pick a virtual sex & then bend it so as to look as they wish.

Considering absolutes, when each of us chooses an avatar or body shape in SL, are we not also asked if we are to be male or female? Well, of course, you might say, what else could we be? The Victorian Steampunk styled, text-based, turn-based game Echo Bazaar has a third option however. You may be a Lady, a Gentleman, or "A Person of Indeterminate Gender". Couldn't Second Life also offer an option of Other?

What is considered socially & sexually attractive often varies between different cultures. What is considered masculine also varies. A Maassi warrior would be considered very masculine in his culture, even though he wears make-up & jewelry. A bishie boy in Japan would be considered attractive to both straight women & gay men in Japan. Even in Western culture, young women have often favored the softer, younger look over the more rugged, older look. I think it's true that women are inclined to pick a man who looks like he'll protect & support her, but in a society in which intelligence is often a greater indicator of future wealth than physical strength is, maybe a computer geek is a better choice than captain of the football team.

This is copied from a notecard I made a few months ago, a list of sandboxes I like & some low-rent housing. You need a place to call home, to change clothes, to visit with friends, & perhaps to build, but you don't have to pay alot of money for these things. As newbies we usually learn to use public sandboxes for rezzing items & buildings. You can even rez a small house to use as a changing room. Below is a list of public sandboxes you might like. Most of them are PG/G rated, so teen residents can use them too. Champlain College Sandbox(180, 195,26) (G) College of NW London Sandbox, CNWL (71, 171, 26) (G) Whitmyre Island Sandbox - 6 Hour, Whitmyre (180, 105, 22) Skidz Isle Store & Sandbox - Too, Skidz Isle (70, 71, 22) The Meadow-South, Wildefleur (179, 133, 25) SANDBOX-FREEBIES, Zuma Beach (25, 135, 21) Sandbox on Little Blue Island, Teal Island (30, 40, 23) PUBLIC SANDBOX (PG), Mauve (105, 90, 33) (G) PUBLIC SANDBOX - Shelman Sandbox Mythos Sandbox & Free Sound Library, Mythos (120, 160, 496) If you want a place to live & call home, but you don't want to spend much money, I've included a list of a few rental places that are very reasonably priced. Artisticed Out Motel, Torch (35, 90, 87) (M) (This is a creepy haunted hotel near a quiet beach. Rent is only $L 50 / week.) Cheap Rent! Quaint Row Houses, Hippystamp (92, 150, 33) (M) (Great place, but the landlady isn't on much, so be patient.) Fourmile Castle Rentals and Shop, Fourmile Castle (M) (Great place with a whole castle to explore & sea views.) Ravenglass Rentals $150 Pharos, Ross (150, 132, 23) (G) (Great with ocean-side appartments & private balconies.) Ravenglass Rentals Warmouth Office, Warmouth (109, 149, 102) (G) Skid Row, Songnisan (80, 50, 83) (G) (A quiet skid row environment with a nice little bar.) Some shops also include dressing rooms or rez areas where you can unpack your packages & try on clothing. One of my favorites is DV8. Everyone's taste is different, though, so when you find a shop you like with dressing rooms & not too much lag, keep a landmark for it. Even if you own land, it's good to have a few places saved where you can change clothes if your region is down. My own shop allows visitors to rez a box, but it's a PG region, so please change your clothing inside & upstairs. Castle Briar Rose http://slurl.com/secondlife/Varean/123/60/86 Loft Bedroom hthttp://slurl.com/secondlife/Varean/135/67/93 (Edit to add info)

Not reading the other posts, but just answering the original OP. Attacking another person's spelling, grammar or typos in a forum debate is like attacking how they're dressed in a live debate. It is a very poor tactic & usually is used as a fall-back when the other person can't think of a better come back. On the other hand, if you were debating on TV or in front of a live audience, you'd be a fool not to pay attention to how you look. People judge you by how you look. On a forum, how you write takes the place of both how you sound & how you look. If you consistently use bad spelling, poor grammar & inadequate punctuation you will be judge as stupid, ignorant or careless, whether that judgment is fair or not. When you have a spell-check feature at your fingertips, use it, especially if you're in the middle of a debate with someone. But again, I've seen it time & again that a person who doesn't have a good response to an online argument will throw in a comment or two about bad spelling or some such triviality. Unless the original discussion was about spelling & grammar, it's the red-herring response at its worst. It's like saying, "Yeah, well you're ugly" in a political debate.

"Should the development of Second Life's look and feel be stopped until all people can afford to buy faster computers which are able to to render all the present and future new features?" No, of course not. Second Life should be made as detailed & feature-filled as possible for those who can afford the better computers. But there should also be options for users who can't afford the higher-end computers. If 90% of users can see SL in all it's beautifully detailed meshy glory, the 10 % who can't should be able to play along, seeing odd boxes, spheres & donuts along with the rest of the regular prim world.

I thought this was the coolest article (with pictures) I've read all year & wanted to share it. http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/_Mysterious-paper-sculptures/blog/4991767/126249.html

I thought this was the coolest article (with pictures) I've read all year & wanted to share it. http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/_Mysterious-paper-sculptures/blog/4991767/126249.html

"New sign-ups don't have nearly the freedom in choosing their usernames that we did with our SL names, meaning a lot of people are going to be stuck with usernames they really don't want as an avatar name, hence they set their avatar name using the feature designed percisely for that purpose." This isn't exactly true. When we older users signed up, we were free to create our first name, but had to choose from a list of last names. New users can now set up their user name as something like FairyWings instead of Fairy Wings (if Wings had been one of the last names on our initial sign-up list). Their problem isn't that new users have fewer choices, but that many of them don't think their user name is going to matter to anyone, themselves included. Your user name is in fact your official SL name, whether you like it or not. No matter what display name you choose to display, your user name is what rental systems & many other interactive objects respond to. I rent out a couple of parcels using a HippoRent system that only recognizes my tenants by their user name. I have a virtual pet that only recognizes user names as well. I choose to use Phoenix & Firestorm viewers, which allow me to choose whether I see user names, display names or both. I choose to see both, so I have a better idea of who is actually who. In the end, the problem with the new naming system comes down to choice & perception. We should be able to choose whatever available names we want as our user name & to display it clearly if we wish to do so. However, other people will see both our user name and our display name, whether we want them to or not. If a user of SL doesn't like his or her display name, it's easy to change. If one doesn't like their user name, the only sure way to change it is to sign up with a new account. To the OP, If you really hate the user name you picked, sign up for a new account ASAP, so you'll have a better chance of getting a name you like. If you can live with it as it is, then just change your display name & don't worry about your user name.

It's really not fair or economically sensible for Linden Lab to disable old viewers just so people with better computers will be happy. Many people can not afford to upgrade to a newer computer or better video card. And any tactic that forces people who want to use Second Life out of it would be suicide for Linden Lab.

It sounds like the OP is going to address the matter with Linden lab as soon as he or she gets home from work. I don't think you can reasonably expect people to act any faster than that.

If a user is under 18 years old & their avatar is in a Moderate (Mature) or Adult region, they are still underage as per the TOS because 16 & 17 year olds are supposed to remain in General (PG) regions. If on the other hand, you were engaging in simulated intimate activity in a General (PG) region, then you would both be at fault for that, no matter what age you are in RL. Definitely report the other account, as no one is supposed to be sharing their account, let alone with a minor.

I took some pictures of two of my avatars wearing one of the better mesh demo dresses on SL Marketplace. The feeling I have about mesh clothing is that it's more like RL clothing in a couple of ways. One is that it can move with your avatar's body better than system or prim clothing can. Another is that you have to try it on to be sure it will fit your particular body shape. If you're thinking of buying mesh clothing, be sure to try on the demo outfits first. Alycia wearing a model-sized dress without & with the appropriate alpha layer: Alycia wearing the same dress in the average & curvy size. Persephone wearing the same dress in curvy-size without & with the appropriate alpha layer.

Please add the link to your Jira here so we can all vote on it & add comments.

It sounds like you're talking about a Linden Home. If you look on your map, you can see green dots representing all the avatars in your region, if you have more than 40 green dots in a Linden Homes region, you're probably going to have terrible lag. If you're planning a wedding with a dozen guests or more, you might want to look for others places that are more spacious & better suited to that type of event. If you're only going to have a few guests, then it should be fine. Worn prims never count toward your prim usage limits, but scripted prims can contribute to lag whether they're rezzed or worn. Just having avatars moving around contributes to lag too. Accepting money as a gift does not constitute a having a business, so don't worry about that. If you had a shop in your house with advertising & things for sale, then that would be a business.

I've just started trying on some mesh clothes & as a whole I like them. As with any process, it's going to take creators a while to get used to it & learn how to do it well. But a mesh dress or skirt can look so much more realistic than a prim one. Just look at the difference between sitting in a typical prim skirt vs. a mesh one or between walking in a typical long system skirt vs. a mesh one. I think creators need to make mesh clothing in at least 3 sizes & include corresponding alpha layers. "Small", "medium" & "large" work ok, but I found one outfit with "curvy", "average" & "model" size designation, which I thought were more descriptive.

I don't know how long this has been true, but I've been sailing on Linden water & had my boat poofed when I sailed onto a region that was full. It might have been privately owned water land or Linden land that had items moved onto it, but I got the parcel full message & found myself standing at the bottom of the sea.

^ This. Too many people seek to control their own discomfort by controling other people's actions instead of their own.

@ Brigitta Age-play as the LL terms of service describe it is using a child avatar to engage in sexual activity. You can read the Terms of Service for a slightly more precise definition. If anyone uses a child avatar or one that others perceive as a child avatar, there's nothing wrong with that as long as they are not behaving in a sexual way. Linden Lab has to specifically prohibit this behavior because of accusations in the media that they were allowing it. Some people overreact to child avatars & child-like avatars because they're afraid of getting in trouble with Linden Lab or because of their own feelings about child avatars. But it is not against the rules to have a child avatar or child-like avatar.

I've read in the comments under the LL post about this offer that you only get 50% off for the first quarter. After that the rate goes back to normal.

Because of all the scale issues in SL & because both human & non-human avatars may be smaller than average human even as an adult, size is irrelevant, IMO Clothing styles would also be irrelevant to me. If someone wants to play as a child or as a child-like adult, I really don't care. The main indicators for me are how they speak & what they put in their profile. If they talk in baby-talk or talk about mommy or daddy, they're playing a child avatar. If they say in their profile that they are a child, they're playing a child avatar. If they then engage in sexual talk or behavior (which includes being in an area where simulated sex or adult activity is taking place), they're engaging in age-play which is prohibited by the TOS. Personally, I think what consenting adults do in private is their own business, even if that means pretending to be a child & engaging in sexual behavior, but I won't encourage it & won't risk getting in trouble by allowing it on my land. If I suspect a tenant is doing that, but don't have any evidence, I can look the other way, but if they flaunt it in my face, they'll be evicted.

"I just don't get these people who have issues with alts. They seem to have really limited minds." I agree. Second Life is supposed to be a place where you can be anything & do pretty much anything you can imagine. So why do we still have people acting like we're weird for wanting to play a non-human, a different gender or race, or multiple characters? It's just as bad, IMO, when people don't understand why someone would want to look less than "perfect" or look like their real self. People in SL are free to express their creativity & individuality in any way they wish (with only a few limitations). This is the best part of SL. If we just wanted any virtual world, we could play The Sims. Here we can create our avatar & our world, while also interacting with other people who are doing the same thing. Often being just one kind of character isn't enough. Creating alts gives us more versatility. (Edit to correct spelling typo.)

@ Bfanglfn Button Any Premium member can either have a Linden Home or 512 m of "free" land. The 512m are "free" because you don't have to pay tier on it, but you still have to buy the land & pay for your premium membership. If you want a Linden Home instead, your 512 m goes toward that. I'm all in favor of Linden Labs getting creative with the perks they offer to Premium members. I understand that they can't run a business for free & that Premium membership is the only substantial income they get from users. So listen to what the premium members want. 1. Better tech support 2. Cheaper Tier. - Linden Lab can't lower tier & still make money, though. So how about giving us 1024m for our Premium payments instead of just 512 m? They have enough unused mainland that they'e not making money on anyway. This would be one perk that would benefit both newbies & longtime land owners. 3. Offer some inexpensive Real World goodies that also advertise Second Life. Even if we have to buy them, many long-time users would like things like mugs, T-shirts, caps or toys. A company like LL can have bumper stickers & promotional gifts made pretty cheaply, so maybe give the annual Premium members a bumper sticker that says something like "My other life is in Second Life"? (Edit to correct spelling typos)