Faithless Babii

I dont often get time to browse, Im always on a mission...so when I do find some spare minutes to shop for myself and not for the blog..I love the whole "experience". I find the japanese sims to be very appealing and also functional. Beautifully built and arranged , simple but gorgeously landscaped. I will often leave a store if its overly large and Im not landing by a teleport system...if your store is huge...please land me someplace I can tp to the dept Im after. I will tolerate lag & slow to rez areas IF I know what I want is there..I do research a little on the market place and then go visit the store..if Im merely browsing or window shopping and its a lag fest & grey..I will leave. Yes, for me what the store looks like really matters. It doesnt have to be fancy or plush..but nicely laid out..brightly lit..and well executed. Like others have mentioned before,if the store doesnt look well cared for / maintained, are the items any good? Overly photoshopped photos of the items dont lure me..I just wonder what your hiding with the blur & glow on high. I do like to see clothing on live models...I dont like my entrance broadcast ...or feel I need to respond to a welcome when Im having a little "me time".

Myra Wildmist wrote: I bought some land on the mainland a few months ago and for a long time it was just fine. I put up a skybox and never saw anyone in the sky around me. All was SL bliss. In the last month or so everything has changed. Now, there are people on platforms less than 150m from me (Suspicious since my skybox is high in the air at an uncommon height.), I seem to have breeders on either side of me, and there's no doubt things have gotten laggier. So my partner and I are thinking about moving. We like to build and have a little privacy. Are islands the best option? Any suggestions on where we should look? How much should we expect to pay? We currently own 3396m w/ 900 prims in a land group and would want something similar in size and prims. Thanks for any help. (Updated to add info about land group size.) A 4096sqm Parcel on a private estate would cost you approx 7000L per month, best option is rent a parcel with a good and ENFORCED covenant that lists some of the items you wish for ie: no breedables permitted. Do a little homework and search for a good landlord with longevity...good luck hope you find what youre looking for :matte-motes-asleep-2:

I will reply firstly as a creator. I have very few items on the market place, just things that survived the transition phase , I havent added a thing since the MP begun. Its too long winded for my liking and I just dont have the time. Having said that, the few freebies I have on the MP do get taken and people come inworld to my store. So I can see it usefulness. as a shopper.. I will buy a few items on the MP but mostly shop inworld. Because search is flakey I locate what im looking for on the MP and then go to look. I enjoy the whole shopping experience, and usually once in a region with stores will look around the whole place not just where I was headed too. If its menu driven stuff or animations naturally I will only buy inworld..same with clothing that isnt free/cheap. I want to see the designers store, it says a lot about them ! It saddens me that so many stores are leaving their inworld pitches, but I can understand the economics. Without inworld stores...it would be just like the Sims no? I joined for the 3D not web browsing.

Am I the only person who thinks this sounds terribly creepy? The Mafia are not one big "rollin together happenin family",they are gangsters involved in drugs & the tragic cases of human trafficking,and more. To replicate a mafia in SL would be distasteful no matter what "piece" of it you only wanted to "play".

MoiselleErin Teardrop wrote: Bad enough I let landlords stick it to me with renting virtual land. MAybe I am a sucker too. Hmm...how do Landlords *stick it to you*? They pay cash to have a sim to LL..they ask you to pay rent for using space & prims on that sim...no one forces you to rent...your SL isnt dependant on renting a piece of land or a home...your av wont perish if you remain homeless... ?

Venus Petrov wrote: I was inworld about an hour after you posted your last one, Faith, and all was well on my sim. Good luck! Thanks Venus It was weird..for about an hour..then magically everything was ok...I was wondering with all the inventory fiddling if it might have set something off...who knows..:smileywink:

Darrius Gothly wrote: Are you sure it's not some sort of internet connection issue? Do all the usuals .. like resetting your modem, router, switch, hub ... making sure the puppy hasn't chewed your network cable, etc. lol,thanks for the advice ! No my puppy hadnt chewed anything or my kitten.and it was effecting everyone not just me..alls well now though..I sent in a ticket and voila! sorted

Pauline Darkfury wrote: Speaking as a landlord here, I personally think the Linden Homes are approx neutral on eating into the rental market long term. The short term impact was almost certainly greater, but long term they give people a safe and easy gateway to get a taste of land ownership/rental, and I think encourage folks towards wanting bigger land in due course. As for limiting them to the first 6 months only, not really sure that's such a great idea as long as they are the current 512s with fixed choice of building. Some of us with plenty of land elsewhere still keep our Linden Home as just a random personal point on the grid (I'm a multi-region owner now, but still have mine just for the hell of it). As far as a commercial variation of it, hmm, not entirely sure if I like that idea or not. I'm not totally against it if it's done in a similar way to Linden Homes, i.e. relatively fixed build, max 512 sq.m. If such a thing were to be offered, I don't really see any reason why someone couldn't have both a Linden Home and a Linden Shop, as long as they were charged an extra 512 of tier to have both. As long as the Linden offerings are small and limited choice of building, there's still plenty of scope for rental landlords to provide larger and more varied offerings, plus that personal service and advice that LL will never be able to provide to their tenants on starter property. Just my personal view — new stuff will likely have a short term impact, but if limited, we should be able to compete reasonably with it on the longer term. Hey Pauline speaking as a landlord also , and more specifically providing starter homes on private estates, I can assure you Linden homes have definately impacted greatly on my business. Who would go from premium and having a 512 to renting on a private estate? Surely they will just tier up for more land. I dont see it as a short term effect at all and I have had to change my business plan completely, which hasnt been easy or a short thing to do.Couple that impact with those renting out homesteads in cut up parcels now, private estate home rentals have suffered big time, and in my opinion will continue to do so.I do agree that the customer service will never be equalled by LL for renters, but if they snag them straight away at their start up..how do they know any better? If they have issues they come here to the forums and we all act as unpaid landlords for LL by answering their residents questions for them.

Hi peewee ! thanks for the reply...my inventory is loaded up good & proper..but i keep getting those *cant upload item* messages and I still cant tp or fly into my next door sim,neither can anyone else have sent in a coupla tickets..see when the LL's wake up it might get sorted...at some...time.....

OK who broke the inventorys? Im getting all sorts of messages this morning, if I touch a button to change texture on a hat for example I get a blue system message "failed to load object". Uf i try to change hair "failed to find object". If I try to move from sim to sim "failed capabilities* (I know thats not inventory but hey I thought id toss it in) somethings up! added: group notices arent working, estate messages arent working and Im still getting *failed to find object* messages 15 mins later *sigh*

Lizard Howl wrote: Allaria Reich wrote: On March 10th of this year, I helped a club owner that I work for with land rent, paying L$8,000 ...My question is, how can I go about 'contacting a linden' to get this resolved?... You will want to file an Abuse Report against whoever stole your Ls. Depending on what viewer you use it should be an option from Help -> Report Abuse. Then detail to LL what happened. They will not be able to really do anything to help you but they do take notice of Abuse Reports and take actions against people who are chronic abusers. Good luck! Lizard Howl Segarra Estates Owner are you completely insane? No one *stole* her money. She gave it to help out a friend make tier...and now expects the landlord to repay her? I never *lend* what I cant afford or wish ot lose..theres a big lesson learnt in this story I think:smileywink:

FJ Linden wrote: During the last few days, we have heard many concerns regarding some issues with our billing system. We are currently beta testing a new system that will ultimate make it easier, and less expensive, for customers to shop and conduct business in Second Life. As is true with any large-scale beta, we have run into a few bugs and system issues. The most important of which has been that some customers have tried to pay us (to keep their account current) and they were unable to complete the transaction. If you’ve encountered this problem, please accept our apologies. Some are concerned that their accounts will go delinquent and that they will lose their membership and/or their property. Rest assured that everyone who was not able to provide payments, due to this system issue, are having their accounts manually restored as we work to fix the larger issue. Those accounts are still in good standing and these customers will not lose their status or land as a consequence. We will soon publish a blog post that provides additional detail about this program and what to expect going forward. Thanks to everyone for your patience as we roll out updated billing systems. Hello FJ thanks for posting some info on this. I was caught up in the whole fandango with this months tier payment. My complaint isnt so much that you appear to have had issues with the payment & collection methods that I have utilised over the last 3 years but that none of LL support staff knew of it? I was pushed from pillar to post, each LL employee telling me something different..ranging from "well LL have been busy with server roll backs and havent got around to taking your cash yet" to "youre a non US resident we can no longer help you"..I believe it is an essential part of any company, to keep your staff informed and up to date..this whole scenario kept me worried and in limbo for days. If only one employee explained the situation to me, it couldve been resolved with so much less stress & heartache.

Perrie Juran wrote: It is very shaky ground for a business person to be on when their supplier is also their competitor. The offer of the Linden Home should have been a time limited offer. Your first six months you get a home. I'd think more than enough time for a person to settle into SL. Then let the free market compete for them. It really should have been LL teaching new folks how to navigate in this world but it is we the residents who seem to do all the work. Yes, SL needed to smooth out the new user experience. But not at the expense of the people who have built SL into what it is. As often is, there isn't always a perfect solution, but we should always be seeking out the best alternatives. My thoughts exactly..it is shaky ground to compete with the very people who pay you. Unless of course LL dont want any small private Landlords in the picture, or perhaps they just want the landlords who own over 50 sims or are in the atlas project etc? All new residents go to their sterile LL home, on their little pitch like everyone else..and only those who want to buy a whole sim for their private use get one. Everyone shops in uniform LL stores or from the market place... It all seems a bit like The Sims really *sigh*

Marianne McCann wrote: Luk Wilber wrote: Thanks for the comments. Really is very necessary to discuss the topic before, to not cause losses to anyone. Just to clarify: the premium resident could choose only one option -> Home OR store. So I think the impact would not be greater than that already caused by linden homes. But why have a store front anyway? THe Marketplace is attempting to all but kill inworld storefront as it is. Soon you won't even need land to hold your "Magic Box," as the product will go straight out of your inventory. There's your free store, and it doesn't even require a premium account or any land. Personally I dont like to buy from creators with no inworld store..I like to go and see things first before buying. Thats a big reason it pays to have a store over just tossing everything on the market place.

PeterCanessa Oh wrote: I should perhaps add that by the time someone has the skills and experience required to run any business in SL they also would have those required to rent/buy their own shop, so wouldn't need it "on a plate" from Linden Lab. Anyone coming to SL should spend a couple of months just exploring, looking around, meeting people and finding out how the world works. Personally, I believe they should do that before even considering making any sort of commitment, like becoming premium or otherwise 'owning' a home. Some will take to it quicker than others, of course but without at least a knowledge of how and where things are sold, how to create things, how transactions work, etc. a shop would be no use to anyone anyway. For the simple trouble people have with Linden homes look at all the questions asking "how do I find my home", "how do I decorate my home", "how do I create/texture/change/move things in my home", "why does it say 'parcel full', I have plenty of room", etc. etc. Those are the sorts of things people should learn BEFORE getting a home. Now imagine all the additional questions that would come up from people trying to make and sell things without knowing the first thing about how SL works, or even what it does. Good point ! I suppose theyd come here and we'd do the mentor role for the new enterprise like we did for the homes...unpaid landlord- no thanks :smileymad:

Ive been a landlord in SL for 4 years now..not a big huge affair..but providing starter to larger homes for rental and land rental also. Ive seen my business eroded by Linden Homes terribly. Linden Stores? No thanks, Id hate to see the amazing shopping malls & sims struggle even more than they do..each week more and more designers ditch their inworld prescence and only sell on the market place..I think thats sad,part of the joy (for me) of SL is shopping ,wandering around amazingly beautiful shopping sims, visiting cities with stores..Id very much miss that and would loathe to go to some utilitarian samey samey LL build.

Jacki Silverfall wrote: Does anyone know the name of those skirts that bounce and spring all over? They're like wearing a rubber band and I'd like to avoid them! Nothing worse then buying a dress only to find it bouncing out of control when you walk. Also I'm running into them more often. /me hopes this isn't a new trend.:smileymad: Jacki Just goes to show we all have different tastes ! Personally I adore those springy skirts..especially when a designer has gone out of their way to ensure its a no knicker flasher..springy skirts make me smile:smileyhappy:

Darrius Gothly wrote: Faithless Babii wrote: Darrius Gothly wrote: /me likes barefoot women. *grin* "presumably pregnant and chained to the sink"..*winks* Oh HECK no! Ropes are fine. *wink* :smileysurprised:

Darrius Gothly wrote: /me likes barefoot women. *grin* "presumably pregnant and chained to the sink"..*winks*

Roche Runo wrote: Sounds like a call center somewhere. And the call center may not have access to non-american areas if in a country like the phillipines. This could be local in that the UK user base is not high enough to warrent the cost of hiring a call center, or could be goverment regulation somewhere. And of course you know, you wont get discount. You will probably have to deal with it through filing a ticket now. Sadly business decisions usually cause consumer outrage One thing try calling the number during off hours perhaps the call center was closed and the calls automatically rerouted to the amercian call answering actually thats a really good point-the time of day..both times I called I got an american sounding person on the UK number...thanks I will bear that in mind :smileyhappy:

Ai Velde wrote: Good grief! I knew Linden Lab support was bad but this is extremely, extremely worrisome. It doesn't affect me, but I'm completely shocked by this. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but this level of negligence is not something I would expect from LL even on their worst days. I am not one to scream the sky is falling, but your post raises so many concerns about using any real money on or relating to SL. So sorry this happened to you. That's got to be stressful and quite frankly, I'd be pissed off. I don't want to sit and yell how bad LL is - I'm not a cheerleader but I'm not anti. But something like this would be enough for me to downgrade entirely. I'm glad I don't have a paid account, or have any mainland. The horror stories I've heard are just wow. Concierge level, owning mainland, and having paid accounts causes more grief and stress for people. I honestly don't think I've ever heard a single good thing about any of these services, just horrible horror stories of extremely bad encounters and situations. O_o thanks for reading & commenting.. However, I must say that in the years I have owned private estates with LL, this is really my first experience of anything thats really made me want to tear my hair out. Up till now Ive always had good support, fast & efficient and courteous...but this wasnt good at all and yes...I wasnt happy. Hopefully this is a one off...I will wait and see what happens next month..unsettling though for sure.

Cabbage Acanthus wrote: Hi Faithless! (waves happily) Glad to see you about. Wow... I'm glad that I dumped my land and downgraded my account to free awhile back. What a mess! yes a right royal mess ! *squidges you* good to see you too!

Ciaran Laval wrote: Hmm I've got a billing issue too, I'm wondering now if it's this new system or whether my card info just needs to be re-entered, in the past I've just had an email telling me I've been billed, one time accounting did contact me via email to tell me a payment had failed. At this point Im unsure if it will be like this each month, or its a one off due to the local payment issues they had. No one seemed to know who I spoke to/emailed. I decided to re-enter my credit card..and then it was totally different from usual. I had to actually *pay* the amount, rather like when you buy something online? I had an email this morning from billing support saying they would look into it as a matter of urgency (but Ive sorted it myself) I replied and did ask if this was always to be the method of payment. Id prefer it wasnt, as if Im travelling or on vacation, Id rather not have the bother of logging in to the web site to do it, much better when it was automated.

Ciaran Laval wrote: Faithless, are your bills usually in US dollars? I wonder if they're moving us all over to local payments, which the wiki suggests they are. Hi Ciaran ! I get an email when tier is collected showing both sterling & us dollars, the account history on my dashboard shows US dollars. Im still rather annoyed about this scenario with no support and the lack of communication of the new system :smileysad:

Peewee Musytari wrote: What UK billing number did you call? Was it 0800.048.4646 initially yes, they said they couldnt support a non USA resident though and gave me the duff number to try there.