Ariel Vuissent

Adding in Pink Fuel, and possibly Glam Affair - I was there a month ago and they still had some. Maybe Deetalez, too, but to be honest, that's one I haven't changed at all.

Lowering torso length to minimum can do this as well. The sliders aren't really meant to be either maximized or minimized; most of them sit comfortably in the middle ranges. Some do well very low, but not high, or vice versa, but many deform at extreme sizes. Women tend to notice this with the breast size slider: above 75 or 80 (even a bit lower) they go blocky and square, while below 35 or so they flatten and swing sideways. That being said, if it's refusing to go away using other, unmodified shapes, and you've cleared cache, reset skeleton, and done a clean reinstall, it sounds like support ticket time to me.

You may be able to fiddle with it, if it's modifiable. I wouldn't, unless it's also copy-able, since if it's not and you make a mistake, it could easily become unwearable. If it's both, rez a copy on the ground, preferably in the style you prefer - the updo - if possible. ctrl+alt+t, I believe, will show transparent prims and whatnot. Edit, check the "Edit Linked" box, and choose one of those invisible prims. Unlink and delete it. Repeat until all unnecessary prims are gone. You can also rip out the scripts by going to the Contents tab and deleting them, although you'll have to isolate the script or scripts that affect the style change vs any other scripts that may be in the hair, including possible resizing scripts, if you still need them. The latter may not affect rendering cost, but can still affect the amount of lag you cause to yourself and others. You can also post an image of the hair here, and see if anyone can suggest similar styles that you may not have found. Older hair is not necessarily bad, but a number of things have improved in the last ten years...

Tons, starting with the marketplace. It would help if you could tell us what you want to look like. What kind of furry, to start. If you're trying to recreate a particular fursona, a picture would also held, or, barring that, a very detailed description. Utilizator lemon is very popular, easy to mod, with numerous mods already created for it. Downside, it looks very young, and maybe banned from many adult venues. I know there are LOTS more, but don't know them by name, myself. Again, marketplace is a great place to start.

Nope. It's someone trying to milk everything they can from selling a no longer available gacha item. I doubt it'll sell at that price, but kudos to them for trying, I guess...

Look for LOGO skins, as well as Omega. Most, if not all, LOGO skins are Omega. They may be labeled as one but not the other.

Venus head appliers only affect the head. You need a matching applier for whatever body you wear, from the same vendor.

It would help if you could post an image of what you're talking about..."go funny" isn't very descriptive.

Swing!

Have you tried female skins on male heads? Skell posted about this, a while back, if I recall correctly. Maybe he'll chime in here, as well; his advice on head-type subjects is very good, or you could try his blog. You have a very strong square jaw, which can be found on male heads, but other features that remind me of some female skins. Try head creators that make both male and female heads, and then try on some female skins. Deetalez makes some good ones that sort of reminds me of something similar to your photos. Catwa, for the head, maybe. But shop around. Not all appliers made for female heads will map correctly on male ones, but some actually look surprisingly decent. ETA: I stand corrected! I do think you may find some features you like in female skins, and that some may work with a male head to give you the look you want; but Skell has certainly provided better options! I knew he'd know. ?

At a guess I'd say new heads will be released with new tones and new skins will in the new tones only, but old heads will keep only the old tones. It would make sense; if you want the new ones, you can buy other Glam Affair skins in the new tones. It would be more efficient and more beneficial for them to do it that way, especially since Maitreya will have both old and new tones in the new HUD (when it's finally released!). They keep their main selling point that way - heads will still match the Maitreya body, old or new, without them having to update every old head. I'm no official spokesperson, though, and have no inside information. These are just my thoughts. That being said...it would sure be nice if they did new tones for the old heads without us having to buy new skins!

Not in SL, no. A shape is a required part of any avatar. You can't take it off, but you can edit it inworld using sliders, which you access by right clicking your avatar and choosing "appearance > edit shape" or by finding the shape you're wearing in your inventory, right clicking, abs choosing "edit." We all have free access to the same shape sliders. Every shape you see was made using them. A body, or mesh body, is an item you wear on top of your shape. They're generally made to work with the same shape sliders, and be influenced more or less the same way. The default system avatar has some issues. There are weirdly pointy area, or blocky areas, and some that deform depending on the underlying shape. (Breasts, for instance, get blocky-looking at higher numbers. So do muscles.) Mesh bodies smooth that out some. Each mesh body has its own basic frame, though: like dolls. The bodies are, by default, somewhat different from each other even if you wear the same shape underneath. You can see this particularly well if you demo Belleza bodies. They make three: Venus, Isis, and Freya. Each of them is a mesh body, with a standard shape underneath of your choosing. But each of them looks different: thicker legs, larger hips and bust. Freya has a bit of a belly. By editing your SHAPE, you can change certain features on the BODY, but its basic frame remains. This is why there's more than one mesh body in existence. In short: shape is the edit-able thing you ALWAYS wear. BODY is an optional outer "shell."

The mesh body addicts survey from early this year had Hourglass at 5% of users (out of 4,000+), and Physique at 2%. (Maitreya was at 42%, Belleza Freya at 15%, Isis just under at 8%, and Venus behind at 3%.) So yes, HG is the more popular of the two Slink bodies. Makes sense that creators are choosing one of the two, keeping Slink in the game but focusing on the one more people say they're using. I hadn't noticed personally, but honestly, I don't use either Slink body (although I own Hourglass, the shape is a bit extremefor daily use, for me) ...so I don't really pay attention if those sizes are included. Kinda curious now, though! Belleza Venus and Slink Physique, along with others like Tonic fine and ebody, all fit the same general mold of Maitreya: slim, petite, and generally "average." Modelesque, the type of slender, Victoria's Secret body society tends to praise. Of those, Maitreya has more users by far. Going by the numbers, it makes a lot of sense that creators would choose Maitreya, and then a couple of the curvier bodies for variety. Not saying it's fair, or anything, but it does make sense. (Of course, then it's a circle: Maitreya is more popular, so more people make clothes for it, so more people buy it because there are more clothes for it, so more creators make clothes for it often exclusively to save time...etc. But that's another rant.)

You say you're new, but we don't know how far you've gotten. Do you have a mesh head? (If you're not sure, you probably don't; you'd have had to purchase it separately.) If you have or want to buy a mesh head, the answers will be different, but a marketplace search is a good start. Beware of anything that says "appliers" or lists a brand name like Catwa, Lelutka, or even Omega, because those may only work with mesh heads. If you don't have one, you need system layers. (May also be listed as tattoo layer.) Sadly, I'm not sure who still has or makes system makeup anymore, but it's for sure still out there! P.S. Some skins include makeup options, as well; I used to use what came with my skin almost exclusively.

The Belleza body comes with their skins preinstalled. If the free skins are older system skins, which sounds likely, they're still marvelous for those who use a system body, and plenty still do! If you're using a system head, those freebies may still come in handy: they should show on the system head, and assuming the skin tones match what's in the body (i.e. that they aren't old, retired tones), it gives you some great options for different faces, free! If you use a mesh head as well as a mesh body, however, then yes, those skins are useless to you. But not to everyone, so it's still pretty nice of them to offer them free.

It's all just pixels, so no, not really. Can you GET special stuff? Sure. Certainly bumping pixels with a male avatar looks mildly more realistic if he gets... special stuff, since male avis don't come "equipped." Things in that region are generally painted on, for the ladies, so it's not really necessary, though some buy things to enhance the look or experience. But all "intimate relations" really are in SL is roleplay, and all you need for that is your keyboard.

Interesting...I hadn't heard this, though I can see it, for sure. I knew it had become a problem with loot boxes, but hadn't thought about it for boxes like Luxe Box and Powder Pack, since everyone pays the same flat rate for the same exact items. If anything would be closer to gambling, it would be gachas...

Technically, this was a few days ago, but I did like the outfit enough to save it!

Lelutka, LAQ, Catwa, Akeruka, Genesis Labs, Ga.Eg (I think?), Vista, LOGO, various others I can't go of right now. All at different price points, with different features. Most have their own store; they're not really considered into a mall or shopping center. TP over to each and demo, demo, demo! Unlike most demo shapes, the demo shapes for most heads are MOD. The selling point is the head, not the shape, so the provided base shape can be modified. Do it. When you demo, wear and manipulate that shadow to see if you can get the features close to what you want. Will the lips go small/big enough? Are the eyes able to slant or unslant enough? Will the nose tip narrow or widen the way you prefer? I usually do this in broad motions - if I max out "narrow" on the lip slider and they're still too thick, it's not the right head for me. Then, once you've found one you can work with and purchased, you can fine tune.

There are SO MANY skins out there. So many. While annually matching a pair of third-party ears to your head skin (as in the case of elf ears) can be a pain, it's not as bad as some other areas because of the shading. I recommend that once you find a head you like with hideable ears, and a skin you like, you look for a set of ears with a default skin close to yours and then fine tune manually. Just make sure the ears are tintable. As for head prices, check out the groups of popular creators. Vista just recently had a promo on their heads for those who bought their newest female AO. LAQ offered their newest head at a lower price for a short time after release, Catwa *occasionally* offers a lower price on new releases or at events - I got one of mine at half price in the first 24 hours (I think?) Deals are out there if you look, and sometimes wait, for them. Join groups to get notifications of those deals. Each brand often releases this information in their individual groups. (The Mesh Body Addicts inworld group also often release notifications for this.) For a particularly low price option, demo Utilizator's Normie head; although i don't know if the ears can be hidden.

Look for modify permissions, or "tintable." Either of those should let you record the tail enough to match, say, your hair color, though it won't be a custom texture.

There's a free male mesh body... somewhere. I'm sure you can find references to it in recent forum posts; I can't search at the moment, myself. It's limited in function, but nice. Barring that, if you're going without a mesh body for more than a month or two, Slink feet (and maybe hands, but certainly feet) may be a worthwhile investment. System feet, regardless of skin, are just plain ugly. Slink is reasonable - especially for men, since you needn't worry about different foot heights - and there are tons of shoes and skin appliers available for them. If you're just saving up for a mesh body, though, I'd just deal with the ugly feet for a while. Personally. Skin-wise, I sadly have no advice, except that the skin you like may do appliers for Slink feet with actual toes and such.

Alts aren't against the rules. In fact, you'll find people here on the forums admitting to having, or being, one pretty regularly. People can suspect, or even know, you have one and report it all they want, but nothing bad will happen to you from LL just for having an alt. What matters are your actions. If you've done something wrong on one account, and LL knows or is made aware you have more than one, you could face some trouble on all accounts you have. If you have an account that has been banned and LL learns you've created a mew account, it will be banned. Review the terms of service. If you haven't broken any of them on any account, you're not in any trouble at all. As for those harassing you, report them, then block them and move on.