First Time Land Shopping

My friend Alix posted about her experience finding some virtual land on which to place a skybox. This is her first foray into virtual land ownership.

It was enlightening to try explaining tier pricing, membership, group deeding and that 10% bonus, and the differences between mainland and island plot ownership. (She wanted to own, so we didn't have to discuss rental situations.) The whole process is far more complicated than it needs to be. The Linden Home program does make this easier for a first time buyer, but if you aren't attracted to the homes...

I purchased my first plot back in 2006 with the First Land program (when you could purchase your first 512m2 for 512 lindens.) I remember taking a class at NCI to understand the process. It's depressing to see that the process remains cryptic for first time buyers.

Transfer perms req for deeding to group

What I learned today:

When making something that needs to be able to be deeded to group, Transfer is the required permission.

It seems rumors abound about what is or isn't required, so a friend and I experimented to find out.

Change. It happens.

I could talk about the openspace sims price change, but eh. There's plenty of that already.

Bleached SL Birthday Bash

Hey LL? Sell to your strengths.

The SL birthday celebrations are often a source of blogging drama, but this year LL has gone to new lengths. Now offerings from SL kids, and "adult themed" communities like the Gorean ones aren't welcome. Purely aside from the community effects, this is just plain stupid on the Lab's part. SL's biggest selling point is that you can make pretty much anything - no "vetting" process, no waiting months for someone to approve your content. To deliberately hide that makes SL no more interesting than Sony's Home. There's plenty of bleached pre-fab corporately cleansed worlds out there for people who want them. Not so many where you can make and share almost anything you can dream up.

And... you've got all sorts of nice shiny new "safe" areas to send reporters. How many more of these do you need to keep recreating? Has it occured to you to look and see how many older Linden builds are falling apart? Doing the same thing over and over when you don't like the results isn't smart.

Prettying up the Grid

The success of Second Life requires convincing more people to try it, persuading them to stick around, and persuading them to invest in the grid.

Showcase

While positive and negative press both mean more newcomers to the grid, negative PR brings with it real world complications. Terrorism, sexual ageplay and age verification, banking, gambling, money laundering, copyright issues... it has all flowed through the mainstream media and gathered political attentions, as such things are wont to do.

If newcomers stick through orientation, they arrive on the mainland with a burning question. "What's there to do here?" That's what the new Showcase tab does; gives the tourists somewhere to go. Well, that and keep journalists from finding dens of perversion within half an hour of downloading the client.

The traffic metric was originally intended as an automated way to do this. Human nature being what it is, the metric is gamed (campers, bots) and often leads to places you wouldn't want to take the general public. A number of places benefit from the way traffic currently works - newbies brings $L, and those translate into real world money. Moving the newbie stream risks hitting the current beneficiaries in the wallet. Accusations of favoritism have plagued the Lab for years, and stating that the places appearing in the Showcase are going to be handpicked hasn't helped. If you want to benefit directly from the newbie stream, I suggest you look into advertising at places that'll be featured regularly. I think this will prove to be a far more effective way to encourage entertaining non-commercial builds than paying dwell ever did, with the side benefit of increasing retention. More money flowing, more content (both static and live). It'll also be good for Linden Lab's bottom line, in $L fees, land, and possibly memberships.

The Mainland

There's a growing effort to clean up the image of the mainland. The ability to own mainland parcels is one of the few benefits of membership, and with the percentage and number of residents with membership declining it makes sense to look at the reasons people give for not wanting to own a piece of Linden Lab's continents.

The new rules surrounding adfarms, and the creation of the LDPW look to be direct action relating to this. Individual residents have been interested in the overall feel of the mainland for a long time. Ask Marianne McCann about getting some of the public Linden builds back in good repair. There's been regular talk by vehicle fans in the forums about improving the road system on the mainland.

Many sim owners who rent space on their sims use the lack of things like laggy clubs and ad farms to attract business. Themed builds and active communities are also draws. Adding roads and other features to the mainland doesn't offer them much competition, but themed residential areas like the new Bay City might.

Personally I suspect they don't have much to worry about, unless LL decides to outsource the oversight of their planned communities. Successful themed sims require human oversight, and Linden Lab has shown a very strong preference for automation, conflict avoidance, and a hands-off approach. I expect that they're planning to use peer pressure and the AR system to enforce Bay City's theme, a combination that hasn't been particularly effective in the past. Building and maintaining communities takes time and effort, as anyone who's tried running a venue in SL can vouch for. Once a community has reached its critical mass it sustains itself, but organizing events and solving conflicts takes time and effort.

Our New Fab CEO needs help!

M Linden has been spotted on the grid and it struck me that he needs a little help customizing his avatar. As residents of The Grid(TM) we NEED ... DEMAND ... CRY OUT FOR (yeah that's it!) our Linden Lab CEOs to look distinctive.

So... If you make wearable things, have a serious sense of style and a bunch of transferrable outfits, or just have some cool transferrable avatars or hair around... let's send them his way. Don't send him junk. Send him stuff you'd send to a RL friend you've just talked into signing up.

And for the grid's sake, box it if you're sending more than a single item.

Unicorns, Trademarks, and other ramblings

As some denizens of the grid have already discovered, I've got some new unicorn ( or horse or pegasus ) avatars up for sale. They're the first quad I've ever made. I used them in another "making an avatar" article for Avatar Toolbox. I have to go through AT and check it for trademark stuff, and I want to update it with some new links (and some links to a couple of Torley's new videos, especially the advanced attachments video.)

Still fussing around with the motorcycle. Did some clothes shopping. Visited a couple people I hadn't seen in a while. Had to go to sleep before Veyron's party, but I gave her a party favor the day before. Timezones suck. :P

I'm wondering why Linden Lab doesn't have some sort of official contact for the blogging community, and one for businesses on the grid. The concierge group just doesn't cut it - some issues overlap but many don't. It would have been a simple thing to have a channel (blog, forum, mailing list) where they could put up a discussion about "How the new trademark rules affect you" and clear up all the confusion and upset. A wee comment buried in a long blog post is not good communication.

And I'm very curious to see how they're going to handle domain and business name cases like SLExchange or the Second Life Herald. The old trademarks page said "You agree to refrain from using any domain name that closely mimics our proprietary domains, including secondlife.com and lindenlab.com." I don't know if that would have had additional meaning in lawyer's english, but in typical usage it didn't suggest that you needed two nouns in your name if you included SL as a reference to Second Life.

The new inSL logo makes me wonder what was being smoked in the Lab - when the eye-hand image has such recognition, why would you rip it out and replace it with something that no one recognizes and (I know I'm being catty) is so unappealing? Were they playing off of the SLGrid icon, or thinking of your basic plywood cube? If you're going to dump the recognizable, at least give us something with style!

Time and Place

I've been playing a bit of WoW with some friends. WoW's world has a 24 hour day, so since we play in the evenings, I've been always seeing their world at sunset.

Part of a sense of place is how it changes over time. Days and nights, weather, seasons, the changing positions of the sun and moon. Growth, erosion, repairs and construction.

WoW's world has weather - rain, snow, sandstorms. Their time is tied to the real world; days last 24 hours, and a year is the same in either world. The moon is always full. The leaves never turn, and the snow never melts. There's an inn that's been being repaired for years, yet it never changes. There are annual holidays tied to the realworld calendar, and certain fish can be caught at different times of year. There's also a monthly fair that appears on the same date every month. Shadows are a strange mix; world objects have shadows that move in relation to the sun's position, while those of avatars and npcs are small circles directly underneath.

Time in SL moves at breakneck speed. Six days there to one in the real world. There's no seasons or weather or shadowing, although any particular area may have some if the current tenants wish it. If they're still there - neighborhoods change ownership and style in the blink of an eye. The wind changes force and direction. The moon is always full. There's a faint sense of year in the recurrence of Burning Life, The Relay for Life, and the track of the sun in the sky. You can also stop the movement of the sun in the sky in your own viewer, and even move the sun around in the sky. Island owners can stop the sun entirely - it is never noon in Midnight City.

For a quick visit or two, a place's cycles don't matter. A visitor won't notice them. The 2D/3D design, the usability flow, the sounds and colors are what they'll remember. But in the long term, those cycles are part of what defines a place. They're what we notice when we've come back after being away, they're part of how we mark time.

Rezzing conspiracy theories!

Sometimes, when I don't have enough to think about, I like to make up conspiracy theories. They're fun, they're stimulating, and I like to watch people pull them apart or add to them.

The mystery of Rezzable, their identities and business plan. Me musing about how bulk business needs larger advertising channels than are currently available in SL. Ansche is a major investor in SLX, owns one of the banking licenses in Entropia, a lot of the land in SL...

So... anyone wondering if maybe Ansche Chung is funding Rezzable?

*sigh*

Dear Fellow Grid Inhabitants,

Please understand that making your avatar completely invisible is in dubious taste. There also is no known way to consistently hide your name tag from another's view.

If you're doing it so that special someone doesn't know you're there, it is called stalking. Stalking is considered a form of griefing and is forbidden by the ToS.

Yes, I host a page about invisiprims. Yes, I offer some for free. Yes, I sell the Invisible Man Avatar - notice that he's outlined. No, I'm not going to make you entirely invisible.

Ansche-Mart

The freebie market has been getting steadily stronger the last year. It isn't surprising that someone wants to be the Walmart of SL (cheap goods at cheap prices.) Ansche is strong enough to make it happen.

It is happening. Arguing over whether it is fair is a waste of time. The current rules allow for it, and if Ansche doesn't do it someone else will. Use your time, words, and $L where they will be most effective.

Here's what I'm expecting to see with the introduction of a Walmart to SL.

• Goods offered by independent and small group creators will dramatically go up in quality. They need to differenciate themselves from Ansche-mart, and keep their $L per hour rate up. Niches, branding, and image will become very important.


• New advertising modes for these creators will appear. Fast. If you have an idea for a new advertising service, NOW is the time. Watch the channels Ansche-mart uses; that business model requires large numbers of purchases and that requires being seen and heard. She's already started this in Dreamland, remember the 16M ad plots on her sims?


• The newbie and casual creator end of the market will suffer. Newbies often make a handful of lindens by learning how to create and sell. They're new to it, so the goods they make are usually low quality and involve a high time investment. Cheap goods discourage people from learning to make their own, so long term there'll be a lower percentage of newbies who become high-quality creators.


• Assuming LL ever gets their billing problems fixed, there will be more people buying lindens. Newbies can't easily sell their creations, but they want $L, so they'll have to buy them. Meaning more money flowing thru the linden economy. Long term, this will be a good thing for everyone involved with the economy.


• Cheap and free goods will encourage people who are trying out SL to stay. Cheap goods encourage them to start buying items, getting people over the concept of buying virtual goods.

As an aside, I wonder if the reason furniture was released first is to encourage land buyers and renters? Most avatars have no land, and so no use for furniture. The goods are using animations from someone else so I wonder if there's no skilled animators on staff yet. Quality control is also an issue - the furniture line was first released with full perms accidently on those animations.

How Not To Run A Public Venue

Ran into Marianne McCann interviewing Lynne Singh (of the band Keltish) about a rotten experience. Lynne's avatar looks very much like she does in RL, and she's not seven feet tall. She shows up at a club looking to find out who IMed her about a show, gets harassed for being short, called a child, mocked as a "mutie" because her mike wasn't working, and thrown out.

The avatar on the right doesn't look like a child to me. But even if she was one, there's more classy ways to let someone know their choice of avatar isn't appropriate or welcome. IM them. If you've got unusual "dress" requirements, offer them an appropriate freebie outfit or avatar. RL black tie restaurants always have a few jackets and ties available for loan.

If you're running a public venue and you have voice enabled, make sure you can hear how it is being used. Spare yourself the shame of being in charge and allowing your employees or guests to humiliate themselves.

Philosophical ramblings

Prok writes some interesting stuff when the tinfoil hat comes off. Reminds me how our personal paradigms and beliefs shape our experiences.

My beliefs are very much about living consciously and personal responsibility; understanding the effects of my choices and accepting responsibility for them allows me to create what I want. Seeing patterns and reactions that aren't conscious choices allows me to change them. I've no interest in a better world; I believe we're constantly creating the world we're in now.

The grid is a mirror; the reflections of our choices and actions are so much easier for us to recognize here.

Do you believe that people treat you a particular way because you're male, female, black, young, old, fat, ugly? All those things can be changed in SL. Do you dare change them and find out if it is about your appearance instead of your behavior? What do your appearances say to the people around you? What do your appearances say to you? Do you behave differently if you look different? What won't you look like, and why?

What are you doing that attracts the same dramas to you over and over? Relationships of all kinds grow amazingly fast on the grid. Patterns that might take you years to see in RL are obvious in merely a month. What biases do you hold that you aren't conscious of? And why? Do you mock people who are X when you're feeling a little weak in the self esteem? How does it change your impression of someone you know on the grid when they tell you that they're X?

What do you do with your freedom? Build communities? Enjoy music? Share your creations? Learn new skills? Explore your sexuality? Teach? Surround yourself with symbols of material success or tranquility? Perceived risk and costs are much lower on the grid. All of the SL careers are yours for trying (with the exception of casino-operator.) And if you do well at them, there's rewards - everything from the satisfaction of a job well done to community acclaim and fame to real world cash.

Windlight - How do you want your skies?

If you've got dreams about sharing our skies, give Torley a comment!

I want a unique icon for them as an inventory type. I want to be able to copy, mod, trade, sell, store them in prims, and imbed them in notecards.

I want a big SAVE button on the sky configuration dialog. I want a selection box in that dialog, one that lets me choose from the sky settings I have in my inventory.

I want to be able to change your sky using LSL. I want "widescreen" HUDs with stunning views. I want scripted camera setups including sky options. I want to see the HUDS for role-play systems including the chosen sky setting for the sim - think of how that will set the mood!

Define "broadly offensive content" please.

I'm very curious to see how this plays out. Is it just verbal grandstanding? Or are all the Gor groups about to move elsewhere? The safety comments strike me as a load of crap; you can always TP or log out. I've wondered if that is part of why BDSM on the grid is so common.

The vagueness of "broadly offensive content" concerns me. Is homosexuality broadly offensive? What about furries? Running around in lingerie? Fat avatars? Transsexual avatars? Gambling? Child avatars - and as "news of the painfully stupid" I've been hearing about people harassed for having short avatars lately.

If you want to engage in kinks or violence that I find offensive, but you put it where I won't accidently come across it, why should I care? I guess I don't see the why of this - we've got age verification coming to SL, so soon there'll be no need to worry about protecting unsupervised children. If I go seeking things I find offensive, why should that become anyone else's problem?

The grid's a tiny place.

One of the stranger things about the grid is how socially accessible everyone is. In the real world, I can mail or email strangers and be confident that they'll never see my words - an assistant or the trash bin might. On the grid, I can drop a notecard and be relatively sure they'll notice it. With the current ToS, there's no guarantee they'll be the one to see it, but most non-corporate avatars are run by one person. Have questions about someone's projects or products? Just ask. Heck, the grid's small enough that most people read their own email. More often than not, they answer it.

There's a lot more possibilities when the noise-to-signal ratio is low.

Links

An article by Gwyneth Llewelyn looking over SL's future. Long, and worth the time.

LL has officially forbidden sexual ageplay on the grid.

Another collection of tutorials.

Laugh or Cry?

There must be something funny in the air. I found a transcript of the Office Hour I was talking about. In it Robin says several times that the transcript will be posted on the wiki in office hours.

Rant about information, organization, access.

If people can't FIND information, they certainly won't be influenced by it.

Try finding things in the SL Wiki. I dare you. Easy browsing and categories are confused and erratic. I just spent some time adding category info to pages to soothe my frustration. The Search function is a load of crap; it picks and chooses which categories to search, and I couldn't simply find his user page (in the next paragraph) by searching on Zero Linden. Even with the User box checked. But type Zero Linden into Google? First listed. When your Search function stinks, use another. At least the wiki is accessable by unverified accounts - unlike the official forums.

Information given during office hours. This Word-of-Mouth crap doesn't work in a world of tens of thousands of people. More age verification info recorded by Tao Takashi. Hey Lindens! Take a hint from Zero Linden and share transcripts of your office hours.

Are you 18?

Well, for better or worse, Age and Identity Verification are coming to the grid.

They're using a third party to do the verifications, and yes, there will be an associated cost.

EDIT: Unofficial word is that they're looking at Aristotle's Integrity.