Not very observant...

Three days ago I finally noticed something that had probably been there since...well, possibly a week earlier.

And this something should have been obvious: a fair portion of the as-yet-unbuild Linden Road had been 'flooded', effectively joining my land on both sides of the road. The west side has my ocean access, and I had (when I first acquired it) made channels of that lovely Real Water come up around the buildings I have there. The east side has the waterfall-with-stream I made from prims; it ends up in a pond that is mostly prims, but that has the trickle of Real Water at the bottom, that I was able to get by lowering the land as far as it would go.

I'd lavished a certain amount of care on all this (and had gotten a compliment from another sim resident, which was very nice to receive).

So I'd kind of like to believe this scenario: when a Linden responded to my August 20 Abuse Report about the ad-farm-extorter (which is detailed in another entry of this blog), that person saw the water-on-both-sides-of-the-road set-up, noted that these installations were owned by one Resident, and so decided to put a sort of stamp of approval on the whole thing by extending the Real Water across the Road. (By lowering that bit of land, of course.)

Of course this might not be what happened. Or it might have happened, but not for the reason I'm imagining.

It might be some....I don't know, random act of kindness?

In any case, I was quite happy when I saw it. I mean, I know I can't count on it staying that way---when they finally get around to building the Linden Road in that sim, they certainly won't leave the road flooded that way.

But for now it looks cool---the people who designed the water in Second Life have a lot to be proud of, as it is gorgeous---and I really enjoy it. (Plus, surprises are fun!)

Promote?

By coincidence, the well-known Second Life blog New World Notes was soliciting people's news about their own blogs, about a month after I started this one.

So I went ahead and submitted the information.

But other than that, I haven't promoted this. I believe that there's a place to do it on the SL Forum, and maybe elsewhere on the official SL site.

I don't know---when I got into SL and realized I really wanted to commit to it, I thought I'd be getting a shop up and running as soon as I could---and that when that day arrived, would be the time to promote the blog, which would, in turn, promote the shop.

But I got distracted by other interests---the trading in land, the creation of graphics, the Forums themselves.....

I do still plan to open a shop----as the weeks go by I do end up creating more Objects that would be suitable for sale. I'm just not creating them quickly enough to fill a shop, since the time I have to devote to SL is limited, and I do have all these other interests.

Also, when I get around to promoting the blog, I'd like it to be a little more systematically filled with information useful to newbies (a major impetus for my doing the blogging, at all).

Well, time will keep on slipping past---so I'd better prioritize this.....

As Good As Their Word

The Linden Lab people, of course: They responded to complaints about falling land prices by saying they'd restrict the supply, and so they have.

It's interesting to watch auction parcels that were selling for around L$5/m---water ones---now going for twice that. (There are still a number of landlocked parcels-surrounded-by-floating-ads that are receiving no bids at all. That won't change unless that's ALL that's on offer, probably....)

It's interesting to watch. Especially for economics students, one would think: if professors aren't adding Second Life to their syllabi, they are missing a great teaching tool.

Skybox Spy

...I don't set out to be a Skybox Spy.

But as I've posted here, I'm very irritated with the all-too-frequent experience of calling up a sim's name on the Map, then using the Teleport button--and ending up trapped inside a shop.

And the shop isn't always in the center of the sim, either, which has raised my suspicions that the Fix is In in some way (either the shop owner has paid a fee to have their shop be the default teleport spot for the sim, or the shop owner is a friend of a Linden).

I could very well be wrong about that---but it happens so often that I can't help wondering.

I should say that the reason I might be typing a sim's name into the World Map and teleporting, is the very minor trading in land that I've been using to pay my tier. I'm not just spying around for the sake of it....

...But I end UP spying when I do what I've been doing, so as to avoid the Trapped Inside Shop factor: I double-click at random at some other place (other than the center) of the sim. If there's water in the sim, generally I choose that to double-click on.

And a surprising percentage of the time, I've been landing in skyboxes.

I don't look around, even if there's no one there. Am I too much of a Goody Two-Shoes for words? Very possibly. But the fact is, I don't feel comfortable looking around, so I don't.

But in spite of the good karma this disinclination to snoop should be buying me, frequently I have just as much trouble getting out of the skybox as I'd have getting out of a shop.

(Okay, it IS funny......)

Too Much Message-Boarding

I guess I should think about why I've wanted to be on the Forums a lot in the past few days, and deal with it. I mean, I was brought there by my search for information on various practical topics. (And I'm grateful for the help I've gotten.)

But yesterday I got into a thread about depictions of 'sexual age-play'---the OP was in favor. And several others (well, ostensibly they are several others---they could all be the same person, using alt accounts!) have chimed in to support this position.

Personally I think LL did the only right thing, in banning it. It was bad for business, as well as being ethically very, very icky (yes, even if everyone involved is an adult).

So the thread's point is actually moot. The OP is just scolding LL for having taken the action they did.

Anyway, the better path would probably have been to just read and not post, since getting into a position of disagreement with some posters was inevitable.

But, what the heck. I do hold the opinion that this practice is morally unattractive, and might as well say so. (Those who support the practice would hardly be shocked at learning that some people disagree with them!)

Another Danger of Being Away

I wasn't away all that long--about 2 1/2 days, this last time. But someone had bought one of my parcels (Great!) but had had trouble with an object left on it, and had IMed me, and didn't get a response for over 2 days (NOT Great).

I'm still somewhat mystified about that, as in the past, when people have bought parcels from me---even parcels in which I've clicked the Include Objects in Sale option---all the objects have come back to my Inventory. (I need to find out: what's the point of that option, if the objects just come back automatically anyway?)

Anyway, in this one particular case---one of the VERY few periods since I registered with Second Life that I've gone more than 24 hours without logging in---the person was plagued with a wave that they couldn't edit (to make Phantom) or remove. So they'd both IM'ed me and sent me a notecard, frustrated, no doubt, with my non-response.

I'm embarrassed about that, but, luckily, the person was nice about it when I explained (and of course, removed the offending wave).

This is another item for the list of Things I Want To Find Out About: why was this one particular object different from all other objects I've left on parcels up for sale?

As far as guaranteeing I'll never again be gone for as much as 2 1/2 days---no, I can't do that. So another thing I should find out is: is there a way to leave an "Away For A Few Days" message? Maybe on my profile, some way?

Gotta check on that.

Results!

I had several days more away from home--so no blogging, and no Second Life.

But on my return I was happy to see that the Group-owned 16m parcel's extortionist sign had been taken down.

I believe this all happened when I had only very limited time on the computer; the last I'd mentioned was that the parcel in back of my pond (which had been four 1024's originally, I think) had been cut up into 512s-minus-16m's. And these are not along a road (though a road was nearby).

I still think I shouldn't have sent that first Abuse Report, because the giant green neon sign wasn't up, yet, on the L$62/m parcel.

But when I next came inworld, there it was!

And the obvious nature of the extortion attempt was that the same group owns several of the 16m parcels made from the 4096m-or-so original parcel----but ONLY the one that directly backs on my build had the thirty-foot-plus-tall neon-green For Sale sign on it.

So apparently the Linden who looked at my second Abuse Report (with snapshot of the sign) agreed that the person was not, er, conducting legitmate business.

But, you know, there must be quite a number of people who spend their entire time in SL doing this: looking for not-too-expensive parcels next door to parcels with builds that would be impacted by Giant Neon Green Signs; buying and carving up those parcels; changing the per-meter price from L$5/m to L$60/m or L$80/m or such, and then sitting back and collecting the nuisance-payments.

After all, a lot of parcel owners probably DO just pay the five bucks (US) or so, just to have it over and done with.

And since the ad farmer paid only the equivalent of about a quarter-dollar (US) or so for that parcel, it could add up.

Really nasty. How do they justify it, in their own minds? I mean, if someone has a computer and high-speed Internet connection---and how could they be in Second Life otherwise?---then they're not Starving, or Needing to Feed Their Starving Children. So THAT can't be the justification.

I just can't imagine the mindset that would find this sort of thing to be fun. But clearly such minds ARE present in SL.

Anyway, the whole ad-farm phenomenon has been hashed out ad (!) nauseum wherever SL residents gather to post, but I did find it interesting both that the ad-farm-extortion attempts do continue to take place, and that Linden Lab is responding to reports about it. And I'm very grateful for the latter.