Civic Regulation

A friend of mine bought some land in Zindra recently and one lot was an attractive beach front piece. With a good ground texture plus access to the ocean and a Linden road this seemed like a really good place to buy. However it suffers from Mainland diversity. Sure, I'm a champion of Mainland and the craziness which it generates, but I have to admit that my land is surrounded by nice neighbors with good taste in what they put on their land. Not so with the land heretofore mentioned.

On one side, as pictured above, is a sex club (Zindra, remember) with excessively large Full Bright signs, some in neon. The structure itself is fairly tasteful. The interior is very poorly put together, but you don't have to go look. If I drop my draw distance from 128m to 64m most of the building would disappear from this vantage point, but that's not a solution. It gets worse to the south.

That land across the road is a series of unfinished sky platforms and terrible fireworks 24/7 regardless of the day cycle. The latter I could live with. Not the sky platforms. They are more disruptive to the experience than are the bright signs on the other lot.

Mainland needs some regulation and I strongly feel that this would improve the Resident experience and possibly save Mainland, bringing in more revenue for The Lab. It has been done before. That his how Zindra was created. The Lab came along and told people "If you have adult activities such as sex clubs, shops with pornographic images, or other such content, you need to move to this new continent." To aid the mandatory move, The Lab swapped out land anywhere in SL with new land in Zindra. Early adopters and volunteers to go first got some favorable swaps. Others were simply forced.

A similar move could be done to separate residential and commercial land. I don't want my home next to a huge department store and I sure don't want my scenic landscaping next to Full Bright signs advertising boobs. Mind you, I like boobs, but sometimes it is better to conceal to reveal. To paraphrase the real estate mantra, "Atmosphere! Atmosphere! Atmosphere!" Harmonious districting of land would let those who wish to have attractive homes cluster together and set all the commercial properties together so shoppers and clubbers wouldn't have to wander all over for their needs.

Harbinger Haven Sandbox Closed

Clichés about loss are running through my mind but this is not a time for platitudes. The Harbinger Haven Sandbox (SLurl) is closed. Another Second Life institution is gone. In a note card dated 11 July 2014 at almost half-past 11 PM SLT, the owners made the announcement. Visiting a little more than 12 hours later, most of the land has been cleared and given some attractive landscaping. 32,064m² for L$250,000 (L$7.8/m²), well beyond what I can afford up front and in tier costs. 

I would have left it exactly as it was last seen, right down to the last prim.

Here's the announcement:

Greetings Harbinger Haven Builders,

It is not without some sadness that we must announce that Bell & I will be selling the property that has hosted Harbinger's Haven Builder's Sandbox for so many years. There are a number of reasons we have decided to do this, but I'm not going to discuss those here. Things change and everything must come to an end sometime and HH's time has come.

It has been a great pleasure for both Bell and I to have provided a safe and educational place for Second Life residents to build or just hang out. We have met a lot of wonderful people and made some enduring friends. We have always thought of our builders as part of a big family and so it is not easy to move on, but we must.

It is my hope (dream) that whoever buys the property will carry on our tradition of altruism for the sake of a better SL for all, but there is no guarantee of that and it's probably quite unlikely. However, if any one or group of you would like to buy the land and assume its tier to keep it a sandbox or other altruistic endeavor, then I would love to discuss a deal with you in which I will offer a discounted price on the property. The tier I can do nothing about unfortunately. Please contact me vie IM as soon as possible if such a deal interests you.

Meanwhile, you will no doubt notice as things start to be removed from the parcels in the coming weeks (we're not sure how long the process will take). Please feel free to come here to build right up until the property is sold. Once the property is sold the Harbinger's Haven Builder's Sandbox and Harbinger's Haven Mavens groups will be dissolved, which may involve ejecting members who have not left voluntarily at that point. If you have questions, please direct them toward Adrian and he will attempt to reply as promptly as he can.

Both Bell and I are grateful for the time we operated Harbinger's Haven Builder's Sandbox and will always remember it and you with great fondness.

Very Best Regards,
Adrian Harbinger & Bellissa Dion
Owners Harbinger Haven Builder's Sandbox

Got Tier?

A number of years ago when I spent almost all my time on the Isle of Lesbos I had actually given up my Premium member perk of owning land so my allotment of free tier was wasted until a friend came up with an idea ... give it to him! Did you know that you can donate your allotment to any group to which you belong? This allowed him to expand a friendly little community that did good in Our World. After a couple  years I needed it back and I'm still using it today, but I was rather pleased to see my friend Dakota Schwade post a request along these lines on her MySL feed here. I contacted her about it and asked if I could blog about it since I don't have any spare tier at the moment and it is for such a worthy group. So here goes ...

 _______________________

NCI / New Citizens Incorporated Tier Donation

NCI has had to rely upon a few large tier donors in recent years. The problem inherent with that situation is that if one of the donors has to remove their tier donation, the land associated with the group may be placed into jeopardy.

And that is what has happened recently. A donor removed 6,000 square meters of tier donation (6,600 square meters which includes the 10% bonus given to tier donated to a group).

Ideally, NCI (and perhaps other groups as well) would prefer to rely upon a larger group of smaller tier donors, so that the loss of one or two donors has a reduced impact.

With that goal in mind, NCI is trying to secure tier donations from Premium Account members who (1) are not using their 512 square meters at all, (2) are perhaps not interested in using their Linden Home anymore and would consider abandoning it, or (3) have a fragment of tier remaining that they could donate.

 _______________________

So how do I go about this? Check out this NCI Wiki page for details.

Wherein I Question The Lab's Efficiency

Flying around today I came upon the Former Site of Campus SL (SLurl), a prime-location region simply sitting about with no particular use at this time. It is attractively landscaped with rolling hills and the old school yet still miraculous Linden plants (just one prim? really?). Near by are two Help Island Public regions and an Orientation Island Public plus plenty of other Linden land.

With many Second Life-themed blogs decrying the decrease in Resident landholders, the economic down-spiral this means for The Lab, and other virtually apocalyptic news, a more-or-less empty region like Campus makes me wonder how efficiently The Lab manages its own lands. Yes, yes, yes, I've written about this before (notably here and here) so the concern is not new. But with Second Life 10th Birthday (SL10B) celebrations cranking up, I wonder how much money The Lab is spending on regions that lay fallow such as this one. Surely, moving this one to lend it out for a month to the SL10B organizers isn't practical (there'd be a void where it was, for one), but if the cost of simply leaving it there is neglibile, why can't The Lab donate regions for the celebration's use or for charitable events such as Relay For Life?

Sorry, but going there wasn't really my intent. If you are a writer, you know how thoughts get away from you. The first thought that occurred to me as I explored this region was more like "How could The Lab let Residents use this rather than leave it empty?" I guess it is nearly the same thought, but less specific.

Certainly, there are many, many regions that have been set aside by The Lab for recreational purposes. The Coastal Waterway (read several of my posts about it here) and the Blake Sea among them, plus a host of special places created by the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW) almost litter The Grid. Just walk around Bay City sometime and you'll stub your toe one one in just minutes.

And I'm not going to get into the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) regions. I don't know enough and there is just too much behind the scenes for mere mortals like me to understand. I refer you to Honour McMillan (and her blog) for that.

Campus and similar regions strike me as special cases, however. They were once important to The Lab but for one reason or another no longer serve as originally intended. Simply abandoning them is rather inefficient, I imagine. So what can The Lab do, particularly to enhance revenue?

As I mentioned, many of these lands are in prime locations. Sell them. There are still land barons in-world that covet well-travelled land near population centers. Set up guidelines such as successful "governed" communities such as Bay City, Nova Albion, and the Blake Sea have and sell them.

Or rent them. The Lab has had a little-known program to lend out retail space in Luna's Luna Oaks Galleria Mall (SLurl) to Residents via lottery, though based on forum posts, I doubt the program is active (but if you visit you'll see active shops though most vendors date to 2008 .... this is something I'm investigating). Why not renew this idea but for pay? A merchant can pay another Resident for shopping mall space or they can pay The Lab. Tie it into the Second Life Marketplace somehow. I'm not the only one thinking about this (see here). Rent space to retailers, big corporations, or just Residents, but rent out the land.

Give away the land. At least for a short period. Reward active Forum users or prominent community members or simply by random chance, lend out the land someone. This could be a great Premium Membership perk ... a chance to have some free land for a fixed period (a month, six months, a year?) just because you pay an annual membership fee. Give every new Resident, Premium or not, a small plot of land to call home for a fortnight on a sim that has a tutorial-based infrastructure. Teaching Residents to use Second Life and helping them start out and retention might be higher.

The land can always be deleted. It's just electrons, after all. Kill the sim, move others around to fill the gaps if need be, and free up that server space. Or move Residents from the hinterlands to these unused Linden lands, much as the big move to Zindra was accomplished. Remember that? Owners of adult-themed businesses such as strip clubs and such were moved from parcels that were about to be zoned as safe for folks under 18-years of age to lands where visitors needed to prove they were of adult age. Then the newly empty lands could be deleted.

Any of these options would be far more efficient than just letting the land lay fallow, though I do admit that it is rather pleasant to see a well-landscaped region in the chaos that often rules the Mainland. Perhaps there is a value after all.

Vick's Wish List

Too often end-of-the-year retrospectives are planned and published well before the end of the year. For example, I was watching a television news piece about celebrities and notables who died in 2012 when news hit that another famous person died just that day. And then each subsequent day saw a notable death. Why can't reviews created when the year is over? Instead, I like previews and wish lists and resolutions. Quite a few bloggers from Second Life have published these but the wish list from Vick Forcella stuck out (see the original here). Here's my annotated look at what Vick would like to see in 2013:

This spot needed a pic and has
nothing to do with the post.

80 people in a mainland sim
No. Sorry, Vick, but avatars cause lag. I don't want to see more avatars on Mainland, especially in areas with roads. Someone who needs to have a high avatar account should consider owning parcels on sim lines and spreading the content/avatar load like they do for big official Linden events. Long ago when my brother and I owned about 3/4 of Nangrim a Brazillian casino opened on much of the remaining land and kept the "agent limit" maxed most of the time. On the rare instances when we could enter our property, the lag was so bad from well across the region, we could barely function. Raising the limit may have seemed like a good idea, but from a functionality standpoint, it would not have worked.

Distribution quota so that each parcel (>255sqm >2) on the mainland is always accessible.
This would work, especially for the situation mentioned above. There is a club in part of Bay City that often uses the full agent limit of the region but they have only 1024 sqm of land. That is an abuse of region resources, but it not a ToS offense (many have tried filing and failed).

Tier reduction
This might work. The Lab certainly has quite a bit of unused land laying about in unsold and abandoned spaces so I see that if tier fees are reduced, folks might buy up more land.

my.secondlife.com moderation tools
Yes,  please. A lawyer would be needed, though, to decide if this would be legal or not. An abusive comment is free speech, at least to a point. MySL is public to view, like comments on news/blog posts and can be moderated by the thread originator by deleting comments (again, just like other public forums). MySL might have to be taken private to enable a more expansive tool selection.

my.secondlife.com moderation based on TOS
Again ... Yes, please! I further suggest that MySL users be required to take a mini-tutorial and comprehension quiz to be able to access the microblogging service. Come to think of it, the same should be true for access to any part of Second Life. Violators should be required to retake the course after a to-be-determined number of offenses, too.

Linden Lab unmuted
No idea what Vick means here. Really, Vick? Did the whole Lab mute you?

Linden Lab finding a single platform for communicating with residents
Excellent suggestion. Several different blogs, status report pages, Dashboards, and in-world announcements that lag (I'll change viewers, for example, and see notifications in the second viewer that never showed in the first one).

Pro-active griefer reduction by Linden Lab, policing
This would require more tools or better tools in the hands of the Residents because even with GOD powers, the Lindens can't be everywhere at all times. And when you do see a Linden, they are often "back office" staff that may not be as familiar with Governance as we'd think they would be.

What should be implemented is a form of limited access for "free" accounts, the types that are often used by griefers. For example, limited resource sandboxes or tiered-rights to resources as an account "ages" –– this assumes that many griefers are just noobs that don't understand now things work but also rewards learning and loyalty.

A Jira that gathers errors instead of covering them up
My opinion of the JIRA is well known. I almost believe it should be suspended until it can actually become useful. C'mon, now ... why should ANY Resident be able to close my JIRA without Lab review just because they think they are smarter than me? And JIRAs can go years without being looked at ... ask my brother.

A Jira that welcomes improvement suggestions
Not gonna happen. JIRA is too broken.

A new policy for the Linden Memorial Park and re-opening
Hear, hear. I whole-heartedly agree. What the LMP needs is a caretaker. Make it a fee to place a memorial if you have to, but please open the LMP.

Clean up of micro parcels
This would require a complete rethink of how land is marketed and sold. Then thousands of parcels would need to be claimed under Eminent Domain for redistribution.

Clean up of abandoned parcels
I agree, but The Lab doesn't see an economic issue here otherwise they would have done it by now. If a Resident wants to buy an abandoned parcel, there are tools available here.

Clean up of parcels owned by inactive residents, plenty of oceans
Same as above ... not seen as an economic imperative.

De-activation of new (*) accounts that do not enter world in two days
Yes and no. If The Lab wasn't trying as half-hard as it was to be a social network, I can see this being viable. As it is, people are encouraged to have accounts whether they come in-world or not because they can still use MySL.

From the game Lili, available for iOS devices here.

Noob micro learning continent where noobs are forced to remain for one week 
The current new Resident experience is bloody awful. I had more of a tutorial from an iPad game I downloaded the other day than new Residents get now. The tutorial in Lili (see a a review here) is not only more intensive, but it is brilliantly implemented. The lessons are progressive in that they "pop up" as a skill is needed. If The Lab wants Second Life to be a gaming platform, it could create a day-long game each new Resident would be required to complete before accessing the full world and during which they would learn all the skills and conventions of Second Life.

A forum that is no longer Béta
What? The forums are still relevant? Any time I look the are filled with trolls and 'experts' that never seem to be in-world. Rather they seem to enjoy being big fish in the little pond of forum-life.

my.secondlife.com that is out of Béta 
My Second Life (MySL) is a wonderful tool that has been officially abandoned. I've been told that except for basic maintenance, no more development will be done.

Webcontent more tablet friendly 
Amen. Flash is dead but some of the world just doesn't know it. Heck, my iPad has a faster, more powerful processor and more RAM than did the first computer I used to access the Web on "back in the day." There is NO reason Second Life itself couldn't run on a tablet or even a more mobile device. Scalability is the key. Oh, and effort. And caring.

Scalable sims: Optional more/less residents/prims = higher/lower price
But this would require work on the part of someone. The Lab no longer has a focus on developing the Second Life infrastructure.

Linden Lab Gaming Viewer (LLGV)
Huh? Sounds like it would be a second world. Third Life?

Resident created games for LLGV
The Moles are very clever and have a ton of game/experience content in Second Life even as I write this but it isn't promoted. Let's get people using the world they have before luring them away to yet another world.

Second Life doesn't need to be a game. It is a way to have a life that isn't possible in Meatspace. No way in heck you'd catch me dressing like this iRL and laying on a boat. Not that I haven't, but you wouldn't see it. You should see what I've done on boats.

Linden Lab Communicator Client (IM/Voice/Groups without in-world avatar)
Sooooo .... like MySL? They could just buy Plurk and be done with it.

Pro-active copybot policing (used client, use of proxies)
I don't think that The Lab sees any economic advantage to this. At least none to them.

UDP(*) type implemented for SL (i.e. SLDP, blocking of SL ISP side)
Sound like a good idea, but I don't know enough about it to make a cogent observation.

Life membership reward if premium >5 years
This idea works for me and I can think of lots of rewards.

Tier-free 1024 sqm when Life Member
Like this one. This is a good idea. Or even double-prims on any land a Life Member owns.

LL attaches it’s hired developers with a life maintenance contract
Not sure I understand what this is. Could you explain more?

Easier ticket escalation towards Linden Lab
I've told you twice now .. JIRA IS DEAD. Take its wallet and walk away.

Return of the quarterly Linden Lab report, more in depth
Yes, please. Not gonna happen, but yes, please.

Linden Lab that treats it’s residents for what they are. Owners and creators
That is done, but selectively. Look around. There is a cadre of Residents that is regularly hired as "outside contractors" to do work for The Lab ... not to mention the beloved LDPW Moles.

Linden Lab that acts as a trusted provider
Again, I'm lost. Reason #9087 why folks just shouldn't listen to me at all.

A TOS that protects the residents
Ideally, the ToS does that now, but the way it is implemented is lacking.

World peace!
Still wraping my head around whirled peas. I'll have to get back to  you on this.

MORE RESIDENTS THAT STAY
Alas, therein lies the rub.

ETA: Flying over parcels that are Full
Allowance does need to be made for occupied vehicles to cross land that has reached its agent limit and its prim allotment. Too often I've crashed or had my vehicle returned or bot just because I'm travelling.

 * This is the Usenet Death Penalty (see here).

Interesting list, Vick. Thanks for sharing. I can't add anything, really, as I'm pretty happy with Second Life overall or I'm rather accepting of the status quo. If I had to pick one item, it would be Web/mobile access to Our World. It is possible and shouldn't be too much work. Maybe Google needs to buy The Lab. I've suggested it before.

Strategy Revealed

Whats yellow, has four wheels, and sleeps six? An LDPW pickup truck!
That joke usually applies to the highway departments of any American state, but it really can't be said about the Linden Department of Public Works. These folks work very hard so we can have lots of wonderful places to visit.

Last September, I wrote about The Lab's Land Use Strategy noting that there is quite a bit of land owned by The Lab that serve little or no purpose. In particular, the regions of Atroth (SLurl), Nysray (SLurl), Unttan (SLurl), and Saminekim (SLurl) seemed to be merely well-landscaped regions whose sole purpose was to host four Premium Member gifts sites. Since then, I've visited a few times and once found Governor Linden hanging about and another time the regions hosted the portals for the beta release of Linden Realms. Today I visited and found that the regions have been turned into a giant train layout, much like most of us played with as children.

Clockwise from bottom left is Unttan, Atroth, Nysray, Saminekim, the latter one being the home of a train rez zone and a build area near the four corners area. A non-functional zip line extends from the Premium Gift plinth in Nysray to near the open build area. One such gift area is marked with the SL hand in the pic above.

A classic oval with siding stubs, a passing section, and an inner loop has been laid out across the four regions. If you take the inner loop spur in Unttan, though, it gets to be a bit more fun than your average home model train set.

Be careful on the little used inner loop tracks in Unttan ... the bridge is out!! Build up lots of speed and you should be able to shoot right over to the other side. That's something everyone tries with their model trains but you can only do in SL.

Eventually you get back to where you started, a peaceful little shack which has a free copy of the Premium Gift Railroad Hand Car released May 8th if you don't get one at the gift kiosks. Hopefully it will still be there when the next gift is available for future Premium account Residents. And it would be very nice if some of the small ponds in these regions are stocked with fish (like the rivers in the Wilderness areas). Maybe more plans are afoot. Near the hand car shack are some ball field bleachers and some Drzdok Goal Posts, whatever they are (can you tell us, Michael Linden? You made them!).

Not a Premium Resident? Click Here to join up and if they ask who referred you, my name is Uccello Poultry!

Random SL Thoughts

While watching the new Mupppet movie (Web) I thought I'd grab my iPad and add some random SL thoughts to my blog:

It was nice to see how many people dressed appropriately for the setting while visiting the new Premium Wilderness regions. My outfit was from my collection of tropical BINA Tende cloth sets. Many folks were in khaki with pith helmets, medieval garb, or even military camo.

While zipping about with my temporary alt Yclept, the one I used to visit the new Destination Islands, my avatar was taken to a different Infohub each time each time I hit the Home button, up to about 10 or so total.

There seems to be a fan group for Linden Moles in-world but it looks to be "dead" and I want to start my own anyway. After all, I am a member of the Molly Linden fan club. I should look to see if Michael Linden has a fan club.

Not all the Infohubs were labeled as such, such as Korea1 and Korea3. These two regions made me think that a shrinking world population might be best accompanied by a shrinking land area. Almost all the buildings were hollow, though ready to accept stores or apartment dwellers. With so many empty spaces on Mainland and all the emptiness like I saw in the Koreas, it might be more efficient and more economical to condense spaces and bring people together. The World can always expand later.

The other night my wife and I were exploring an Estate region that appeared to have had no visitors in quite some time despite the startling beauty we found. I'll feature it in a post sometime this week because anyone interested in abstract architecture and amazing — buildscapes, for lack of a better word — and a mystery/quest that I need to explore further. I wonder how folks can afford a region that generates no income. I guess having an RL income helps. It sucks to be poor.

I've been trying for a couple days to get Shared Media on a prim to work without any success. There was a time I could get it to work and even successfully used it at a Second Life Birthday exhibit.

When the heck are they going to announce a theme for the next Birthday anyway? I wanna build! NOW!

Here is a random SL pic from my archives since I can't really make a blog post without a picture (I'm just that way, I guess):

You aren't seeing double. Angela (right) and I are trying the same demo hair. She's much cuter, of course.

Today, my brother found that the Hatton-Jergans Trench (SLurl) is 80m below sea level, possibly making it the deepest submerged point in Second Life. Take that, James Cameron! Well, it is possible to go deeper, actually, but neither of us have see it that we can recall.

CC also found an amazing number (12?) of identical avatars simply standing around on the sea bed in several of the surrounding sims. What do folks us bots for these days?

The Lab's Land Use Strategy

When The Lab introduced gifts and sandboxes for Premium subscribers (Web) it was a no-brainer that a whole region would be set aside for the latter benefit.

The Premium Sandboxes are really nice and some have Premium Gift Kiosks

What surprised me is that there are more sandboxes than the 16 shown in the Destination Guide as extra regions have been added to some of the sandboxes for vehicle testing (see pic above). But it makes sense that the gift kiosks would be located in the sandboxes. I mean, who would waste a whole region just for such a limited use.

The Lab, apparently. Atroth, Nysray, Unttan, and Saminekim are in a four-region cluster and each has some nice landscaping with a gift kiosk each, but nothing else. I haven't checked all of the gift sites listed in the Destination Guide, but seeing these four regions was enough to make me ask "Why?" That seems rather wasteful to me. A whole server (four regions to a server, I understand) for just the gifts?

Premium Zone: Nysray (SLurl)

The idea of empty regions for little purpose is not new to The Lab. It has four regions landscaped in the Elderglen theme (Elderglen Party 1 at SLurl, for example) that were used for one Linden-sponsored party. A few Lindens had planned regular events and even had set out a fine selection of Linden bears for explorers to find. There is no public access at this time, but for some time after those staffers left The Lab anyone could roam freely.

Hover your mouse over the Cornfield Noobs at the fire for a laugh.

The four Cornfields are still accessible (SLurl). There was a time that misbehaving Residents would be banished to the Cornfield with no teleport, script, or build rights until their "sentences" were served. A few years ago the Cornfields were decorated and used for an official Halloween celebration. I seem to recall the fun Lindens behind the Elderglen party were the same ones behind the Halloween fun (you are missed, Mia and Molly!).

Then there is Space Base Mos Ainsley (SLurl), an example of one of the several Themed private islands you can buy from The Lab (Web). This isn't the one set up as an sample (SLurl) for prospective buyers, but one that is just sitting about and empty except when I or someone I know goes there (Web).

Island Examples from Linden Estate Services (SLurl).
For a laugh, check out the movie posters in the Theater region (SLurl).

I suppose the island examples make economic sense. You want someone to buy an island then you should be prepared to show them one. That's a lot of money ($1,029 USD setup; $295USD/Month) to give up sight unseen. But what about all the other under-utilized land that The Lab has laying about for no purpose? You'd think they could lend it out for large community events such as Burn2.

Land for Sale

My two parcels of land in Shouldice have been reduced in price from L$2700 each to L$2500 each. Both are a full 512m² with 117 prims. The neighbors are quiet and the area is very peaceful. Ideal for residences. The lot on the left is at SLurl and the lot on the right is at SLurl.

Update: No, the terrain really isn't that color.

The Beauty of Adult Content

For some reason The Lab felt it was important to feature how attractive the infrastructure of the new Adult Content Continent (AKA, Pornsylvania) in yesterday's announcement (Web) of further developments of the bifurcation of the World. Admittedly, it is very attractive and doesn't take a lot of imagination to see the architectural innuendo, but the information was surprisingly informative and vague at the same time. Once again we are directed to the forums for discussions but an actual time frame was given:

When Viewer 1.23 is final and ready to become the main Viewer (again, estimated to be by the end of June), the full implementation process will begin - all regions will need to be maturity-rated, search will be filtered for everyone, Adult content on the mainland will need to move to the new continent, and access to Adult regions and search results will be limited to Residents with verified accounts.

Having once had an adult content business -- I operated an adult motel in Nangrim and sold porn next to someone else's strip club and a Brazilian casino -- my interest in this issue is a bit more than passing. The idea of having to move from land that I owned and on which I paid tier to a completely new location where competition is a quick walk away is disconcerting. If I have time I'll pop by the forum (Web) and try to wade through the chaff but if anyone knows of a good summary, please post a comment. If The Lab has taken as much care with this move as they seem to have with the pictured infrastructure then this could be an example of come beautiful logistics and a far cry from the Age Verification process (Web) to date.

Land Rentals for Women

The Isle of Lesbos is proud to present Whispering Big Pines, land rentals exclusively for women (SLurl).

In order to rent on the Whispering Big Pines region you must:

① Be female.
② Buy the land then pay the rental box for the amount of time you wish.
③ Read the sim Covenant (while standing on Whispering Big Pines, right-click on the ground and choose About Land... then click on the Covenant tab).
④ Do not delete the rental boxes.

To join the land group so you can build, for information, or if you have questions or a problem contact: Threshin Barnett, Uccello Poultry, or janeforyou Barbara

Rental Prices (always check the rental boxes for updates):
1024 square meters with 260 prims is 600L$ a week
1536 square meters with 350 prims is 900l$ a week
4096 square meters with 900 prims is 1,950L$ a week

Sale Prices (always check About Land ... for updates):
1024 square meters is 2,000L$
1536 square meters is 2,750L$
4096 square meters is 3,200L$

Land Cutting in my 'hood

On 28 January 2009, Linden Labs published a blog post about Land Cutting (AKA, Micro Parcels) (see Web; with an update on 12 February Web) a process in which land is cut into tiny lots, once popular for Ad Farms (Web). Prior to that I bought a 512m² parcel in Shouldice for just over L$2,000 and thought about a slightly smaller connected piece for nearly the same cost per square meter. I wish I had bought it then, or better yet, at the deeply discounted price it eventually fell to a few days later.

Instead, it was bought by someone that also acquired other lots in the area and started to make micro parcels (click picture at left for larger image) as did other area land owners. My thought is that this practice effectively reduces the value of my land because who really wants to own next to micro parcels? Fortunately, I'm not about to sell. My land isn't really residential, the airship there is mostly for use by friends and it mostly serves as a memorial (Web) And I might simply turn it into a warehouse for inventory.

Not entirely sure my point behind this post, but I find the sudden appearance of all these property line patterns rather amusing. Maybe the Lab will give me 256m² from these 'land barons' gratis for being so nice :::smiles angelically:::

New Memorial Park

When my brother, CC Columbo, started his Second Life^® one of his activities was building a parkland with a memorial for his daughter. At one point he owned most of the mainland region called Nangrim and when I came from the Teen Grid I added to it, helping to form a sprawling landscape where people could relax in a "natural" setting. Over time it had many forms but it always featured a focus point about my niece, usually pictures and an info signboard. Eventually we sold some land when CC minimized his time in-world and then sold the balance when a pre-gambling ban casino kept the sim full, completely locking us out.

Not too long ago I used nearly the last of my Christmas gift money to get a premium account for my regular Alt and then had her buy a 512m² plot of land (SLurl) to use as a home and to re-create -- if only in part -- the Memorial Park. Since then I sometimes wander by the computer while CC is using it for something and spot the SL viewer, open and showing his avie sitting at the grave.

If you visit, please click the stone for information about the disease that took little Lydia's life.

The Homestead

Word is that my home will :::poof::: in less than a month. Nothing is permanent, but I guess this is as good as it gets. Every time I think of tweaking or remodeling I stop, thinking "this is perfect." At most I'll upgrade a texture or replace one plant with a better one. Some of the best plants are from the basic Linden inventory, especially the grasses. I use them in all my builds. And I like a touch of whimsy. That boulder over the falls is a re-textured Luskwood cat head. I sit on my tire swing for long stretches, watching the fishies in the pond and soaking in the mountain air.

A bit closer in shows my giant frog from Wynx Whiplash and my cuddle raft. Mystical lights appear over the pond at night and the butterflies come out with a glow. Most of my pictures of my land are from this angle. The only structure is a fabulous gazebo filled with pillows and snuggles. I'm not big on houses, but if you were to fly up from here you'd find my airship. It has a living area, bed, and more. There is an empty lot next to mine and a few days after these pictures were taken I added a castle from the same company that made the gazebo. Just for fun. No furniture inside. It just looks right. Maybe I'll post pix of it later.

Go West, young woman. And you'll find the sim edge. Filling the void with water is probably most economical means for Linden Labs to make the Grid but it is very unnatural. Okies, okies ... we live in a virtual world. I love my beach, but on the other two or three sides I'd like to see more land. Don't ask me to change this view, though. This is a great place to swim and dive (I have a coral reef) and just plain relax.

My wife/partner and I are building a sim that will be just as beautiful, but in ways very different from my home. "My home." Sorry, Angela. I know we have a skybox in Dreams that is Home and the new sim is Home, too, but you understand what this place means to me. Remember your land in Novi?

WB (Welcome Back)

Welcome back to me! It did take nearly two weeks for my computer to return from the shop and I missed my Second Life^® the whole time. But I'm glad I can wish all of you a Happy Halloween! Here is one of the many holiday outfits I banked up and never got to use but maybe I can flit about in them for a few days.

Look for more posts coming soon. I'm catching up on all the news I missed including the price increases on Open Space sims (Web), fun for bloggers (Web), and issues upon issues (Web).