Dorie Bernstein

This winter I lost a dear friend. She helped out a lot at Dreams, so her presence will be missed greatly inworld and out. This snow dragon is created in her honor, guarding treasure in the crook of her tail. This picture is taken on Dreams East, part of the Dreams estate founded by The Sojourner of blessed memory. May all of the loved ones we've lost remain bright memories! ❤️

You forgot "startled to hearing your avatar's 1st name in public." Afer being Dorie for enough years, I've startled to it in a store. Someone yelled a name that sounded so close to "Dorie" that I very nearly answered them!

Nearly 15 years ago I read a short article about a place called Brigadoon. It was an island in the world of Second Life, inhabited by autistics. Pathfinder Lester (Linden in that era) had created a small community for people I could relate to. I got into Second Life by fits and starts, since my computer at first rez was about to die anyways. Once in a couple months later, I tried to enter Brigadoon. I never made it, but found Brigadoon Explorers and Dream Travelers founded by The Sojourner, aka "Soj", of blessed memory. With her encouragement, and the help of many, I began to build and find a place of my own in that community. I didn't need to go to Brigadoon. Soj passed on. The estate and groups were passed to Golda Stein. And now I help keep the place running. I've met so many amazing people. I even earned some RL US$ designing an island for Divers Alert Network in the early days of the nonprofit rush to explore this new world. I have been Dorie so long that I even startle to the name in RL, if someone calls it to get their friend's attention. What a wondrous place! A chance to explore new ways, new art, new skills, new thoughts, new ways of being. I am grateful beyond belief to Pathfinder and Soj for bringing me in all those years ago.

It didn't take long for me to become a wolf in SL. So, I chose my decade challenge pic based on that choice. When I got my first wolf av, I was amazed at its quality. Then the update to mesh, and bento. And I am HOOKED! (TWI does an amazing job with avatars, gotta say.)

Thank you for bringing me back to my senses. Playing keyboard warrior in this forum spat is one of the dumber ways I spent time yesterday, given that there was zero chance my words would make an ounce of difference in the grander scheme of things. Off I go to enjoy my weekend, which features a quiet house and a warm cup of chai latte. Be well, everyone, and see you on the rails!

In the end, I figure those billboards fall under the category of things not within my purview to have some say in. If that is how someone wishes to use their land, there really isn't much I can do about it. People will do their thing. As with most things in SL, nothing is forever.

I couldn't begin to care less if your view is blighted. Your neighbors are not obliged to please your aesthetic desires. If a neighbor wishes to build a warehouse to stack freight containers, hold a dance, or throw up some monstrous skull, that is their right. They are not breaking the covenant, no matter how hard you dislike their builds. I've traveled the rails and have seen so much. There's change, always. There are areas designed to look run down, a hobo encampment that has been around for so many years. Wooden structures, cattle lots from an old west movie, typical rail stations from the US, Britain, Australia, France. And even two identical stations on neighboring parcels that differ only in the color of bricks. Towns have grown up in some areas, A mining shaft ends in scupty mountain from a user who is apparently paying tier for years on end and not completing builds. A tower that had a prostitute on duty for a time. Linden-owned stations encroached by someone with strong political ideologies. One station is built of marble in a nod to the original Penn Station of NYC. Rez zones for the rail community to use, complete with train rezzers. It's the beauty of not deciding that billboards conform to a specific format, buildings of a certain design, limits on what types can be used to avoid over-burdening the passer-by with one too many concrete platforms or steel buildings. You're not required to see it all. But you are not the arbiter of good taste. We are not required to change our behavior just to make you happy. 112 sq meters isn't quite the micro plot I was taught to consider...16 or 32 sq meters is more like the micro-parcels I see with the full-bright advertisements for free this or that, or rentals and "FREE FREE FREE!!!" A single billboard as might be seen in so many communities in the real world is hardly an ad farm. I rather doubt the Lindens will consider it an ad farm. If a game is growing due to excitement by its users and new users, I think that is a good thing. It's sparking creativity in folks looking for a new way to interact with the world. And that is to be treasured. Here's my ad: Visit Gou Shi Cave State Park in Ginsberg. Explore the caves, and enjoy the irreverant use of stone.

Prok, I just don't share your worldview. I'm associated with GTFO. A good friend of mine is on their ops team. That friend is friends with Vega. And quite frankly, land purchases, land decisions, game mechanics, etc. have never been skewed in a way to overtly or covertly frustrate your plans for the grid's future. Some hub owners are just playing the game. Some landowners are more invested in the game. This is not a corporation by any stretch of the imagination. The name of the game is even tongue-in-cheek, playing with the more common meaning of the abbreviation. The game is merely another way to interact and explore in SL. There were warehouses, steel, and concrete before GTFO came along. Much of the concrete in SL isn't even affiliated with GTFO. There is a community aspect to GTFO, and some of those playing developed new frindships. And in none of this, have you been mentioned as a target for anything. I doubt you were mentioned much at all before this thread blew up. There is no conspiracy. A lot of us on the mainland don't have any desire to be on the manicured sims you so highly praise. We enjoy the free-form nature of the mainland. Communities form, grow, fade as they do even in meatspace. I just can't understand why you are unwilling to have a more flexible view of things. There are plenty of highly structured regions out there. Those folks are happy with their choices. Why try to push the free-form areas into conforming with the manicured planned gated communities? 15 years of fighting against those of us embracing the fluid nature of SL hasn't taught you that we aren't eager to fall in line? Control your own land and ignore the rest of us. We're just as happy to remain in control of our lands without your persistent brow-beating.

GTFO has been around over 30 days, so set the clock for that five year arc you mention. Meanwhile, the rest of us will go about our lives and forget to worry if it will upset or annoy aged members on the next lawn. I never claimed you forced your views on us. I merely suggested that the path to joy and a beautiful view would be easier to find in removing yourself from the giant sources of frustration you find around you. Mine, is a giant rainbow particle bridge that arcs over the railroad in the Xanthorhoe/Malacosoma area. It doesn't fall within my preferences, but it makes them happy. So, I steam on. May you find a path to joy soon!

If your personal preferences weren't an issue, then don't qualify your adoration of the industrial look "in its place." That qualification means that your preferences have dictated how much is appropriate and where it is appropriate. If you want tighter control over your views in Second Life, buy private regions and leave the mainland to the rest of us peasants who are seeking to have some harmless fun. Then you won't have to get upset when we step on your toes in our zeal to create our world.

I've visited a fair amount of GTFO hubs. And while there are a fair number of warehouses in the mix, there are also things like diners, gas stations, a strip mall, airports, marinas, mixed use areas, even a "State Park." It's sad that your preferences of warehouse to housing ratios are driving your view of a harmless game. I suppose I'll never understand. Blacklist the billboards and find joy somewhere.

So, it's a bad thing that people are wanting to have fun with a group you don't like for some reason? Anyone who wants to participate by having a hub the game can link to is allowed to. Most of those folks do more than just GTFO, so I have no idea why you're nitpicking things with who owns what and puts up whatever thing you're annoyed with at the time. The mainland doesn't have the strong gated community and homeowner's associations that would govern whether a billboard or land use is done to fit your particular views of things. If you're not happy with your neighbors, you are free to leave that area. You are also free to blacklist the objects that offend you and restore a flat green unused tranquility to your view. Anyone is able to do such things. I just don't understand why you're spending energy getting so upset with a group that is having fun and using the mainland rather than let it go to weeds and giant tracks of unused territory.

Check out the group called Linden Road Community ... They're fairly active and promoting the mainland. And they don't have ties to blood feuds, that I'm aware of.

The first picture in Prok's post proving the hub is in an entirely different region on an entirely different branch of the line. Here is that actual hub's SLURL: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Xanthorhoe/46/48/51 For more details on this hub, go to this SLRR spreadsheet maintained by DeNasty Tigerpaw. Look on the North Coast tab, and "Saintly" Railway Company for full information on the hub: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1irvSYj-YyKnLQbsi9FvBirmBFnDLegH-Hq26sH6DvsI/edit?usp=sharing