How do you move or transfer virtual land without throwing real money away by tiering-up?

I recently jump through some serious hoops wanting to tier-up and discovered that even after four-years on the Second Life (SL) grid I still have much to learn. Among all the things you can do and create in SL, among the most nerve-wracking and apprehension-inducing is land-management. This primarily has to do with the fear of accidentally owing Linden Lab more real life legal tender than you are willing or desire to pay.

The first article in this little series I am presenting is on how to read and use your land-management control panel on your Second Life account page - which you can review here.

In my last post here, I covered the "Land management" area of your SL account page in detail. So now it's time to show you how to save some real money when flipping, transferring, trading or otherwise moving your land holdings around.

A little qualifying here: Private estates and private regions are a completely different monster as far as "land tier" goes, so this information applies strictly to "Linden Mainland" parcels and ownership, which has its well-known drawbacks as compared to estates, but also has many serious benefits over and above estates. I personally choose the latter and thus own twice as many full regions on the mainland as I could private regions in an estate.

To help you better understand the concepts I am about to explain, we will use a few simple scenarios. However, to keep things simple, we will assume the following:

• You are a premium account holder.
• You own 2048 square meters (M2) of mainland parcel (ignore the tier-free 512 M2 for this exercise - we'll assume you have a Linden Home or something).
• You have a nice little retail shop on your existing 2048 M2 parcel that makes enough money that helps you with your current tier, but not enough to cover the next tier level.
• You pay the requisite $15 U.S. for the 2048 parcel you have now and even one more square meter will bump you up to the next tier level ($25) per month.

Now, let us get started, shall we?

As is always the case, you find your nice plot of virtual land and decide it suits wonderfully. Over time, for one reason or another, you decide it's time to move. But this causes a problem. How do you transfer to a new parcel, often in another sim entirely, without tiering-up?

The problem is that Linden Lab charges your account tier based on the peak number of square meters you have owned at any single moment. If my tier payment is due on the first of each month and I own 2048 M2, that payment is $15 on the first of each month. So if I pay my $15 on january 1st and purchase another single square meter (impossible on the grid, so for example only) and I then own 2049 M2 - my February bill will become $25 - as I have just "tiered-up". This also is a major waste of money, which we will cover in the next posting about land management on the grid.

Even if I immediately sell that one square meter in the next 60-seconds. The rules state that for that one minute, I owned 2049 M2 - for which the tier falls into the 4096 category and is $25 per month.

So this puts me into a predicament: I already have 2048 M2, which I will call "parcel A" - and I have looked around and I see a nice 2048 M2 in another region where I would like to move to, which I will call "parcel B".

However, all my stuff...my retail store, demonstration items, vendors, home are all set-out on parcel A. I can approach this in a couple of ways:

• I can set parcel A for sale and go ahead an purchase Parcel B if I am willing to tier-up to $25 for one month.
• I can sell parcel A and not purchase parcel B until after the sale - tiering down to zero (0) dollars per month temporarily until I purchase parcel B.
• I can abandon parcel A and purchase Parcel B immediately without tiering up.

Let us look at each of these scenarios in turn...

Scenario one: tiering-up temporarily. I can set parcel A for sale, purchase Parcel B, and get started to setting B up with my store and home. Once that is done I will set a "we've moved" sign and landmark giver to my new store location.

The best way to handle this in a way to get the biggest "bang" for your extra buck is to do so as close as possible to your tier-billing day. If you are billed by Linden Lab for your tier on the 1st of each month, do this on the 2nd. This way you maximize the time you have to get that parcel A sold at a higher price and you can take your sweet time in setting-up parcel B. Set parcel A for sale at as high a price as you think you can get. If it doesn't sell in a week, lower the price a couple L$ per M2. Repeat if it doesn't sell in the second week and so on.

If parcel A doesn't sell by the 25th or 26th of the month (since billing day is the 1st of the following month) - drop the price to a ridiculously low level. If it doesn't sell by the afternoon of the last day in the current billing period: hit the abandon button.

In this scenario you are willing to pay the extra $10 for the month in the hope to make a little something back on the land sale and also to have the time to transfer everything in a more leisurely timeline. If you end-up abandoning parcel A, then think of the extra tier money as the cost for having a full month to move things around.

Scenario two: sell before purchase. This method allows me to move without tiering-up and paying extra money to Linden Lab for the month. However, it poses a couple of real problems I will be concerned with:

• If my existing parcel A does not sell quickly, will the new parcel B I want still be available when A finally does sell?
• When parcel A sells, all my stuff will be auto-returned to me and end-up in my lost and found folder in coalesced form - I won't know what is what!
• I cannot start rebuilding my store and home on parcel B until I actually own it - which will be after parcel A sells.
• My store will be gone as soon as parcel A sells and I will not have a store to sell from until I get it rebuilt on parcel B - which could be a rather stressful time as I rush to get the transfer of my store completed!

I certainly do not recommend this method of land transfer unless of course you are simply moving a home or whatever else you have that people aren't going to actually be looking for and throwing money at you for whatever is there. However, if you have a retail store or club or any other "destination" location, this scenario leaves too much outside your control to really be a wise business decision.

The answer, believe it or not, is scenario three!

Linden Lab may not like (or may not even care) what I am about to advise you on here, but it really is the best way to go about this from a money-saving business sense. Before you do anything, create the sign you will post - something to the effect of "We've moved! Click here for a landmark." - that landmark of course goes to the new parcel B you are about to purchase.

Next, go into edit-mode (CTRL-3 or Command-3 on Mac) - be sure to stand in the very middle of your store, select everything. Right-click and choose "More" then "Take a copy". You now have all your stuff, ready to rezz in a single drop.

Be sure your store is on the ground as teleporters may not work after abandoning the parcel. Go into land options and set things as desired. I recommend: allowing scripts, object creation, object entry, teleporting anywhere for everyone. In the objects tab, set autoreturn to about 10-minutes. Test your landmark giver and use the LM it gives you to be sure it works as intended.

Abandon the parcel.

Go to your Land Manager web page on your account to verify you are now tiered-down to $0 (it will not save your change to 0$ if you are not actually tiered-down - it might take a couple minutes for the web site to recognize you have actually done so).

Once verified that you are now tiered-down, go to parcel B and purchase it. Unfortunately the shape of parcel B is likely different from parcel A (which you have just abandoned). Go back into Edit mode (CTRL-3/Command-3) so the edit tools widget is showing. Also be sure in the View menu you have "Show property lines" turned on so you can see your parcel borders.

Remember that copy of all your stuff you took into inventory? Rezz it - when dragging from your inventory, put your mouse pointer at the absolute center of your new parcel. If any of your stuff goes outside your borders, they should stay put as long as you have the whole bundle selected.

Holding the SHIFT key, begin selecting those parts of your stuff that are clearly inside your border so they become unselected, leaving the other stuff outside your border selected.

Now, slide the remaining stuff into your border and again, shift-click to deselect. Continue this until all your stuff is now inside your border. At this point it's just a matter of cleaning-up and rearranging things.

Because parcel A was abandoned, your store and other stuff you left there will remain until a surname Linden comes along to return it all to you, which could be as little as an hour but more often a week or two. This allows people still teleporting into there to continue purchasing from you and more importantly: able to get that forwarding landmark to your new location while you get the new location all set-up over the next couple days.

Why abandon? Because it is a stress-free way to make the move without tiering-up. Additionally, it is unlikely parcel A would have sold very quickly unless your asking price is ridiculously low - in which case, the amount you would have made is most probably considerably less than the extra $10 in tier fee you would have to pay in the tiered-up level.

Consider the loss of a potential land sale to simply be the cost of the move. Sure, this scenario is counter intuitive, but as good business-sense goes: brilliant as you are saving a lot of real money.

Linden Lab finally released their "Linden Homes" to public consumption yesterday. A Linden Home is being provided to all premium account holders as an option, where the existing tier-free allotment of land ownership can be applied here - and receive a themed house to go along with it.

It comes with 117 prims. And this is the important part to pay attention to, as when you pay tiers, this is what you are really paying for: the number of prims you may use.

Many will complain that 117 prims is useless because one cannot properly furnish these homes. I beg to differ as we (Zodiac House) have been working the last few weeks to prepare complete home furnishings for these Linden Homes allowing you to furnish every room: Livving, Bed, Kitchen and Bath in about 100 prims - leaving some for whatever else you want to add. These will be released for sale this weekend.

But I digress...

The reason I bring-up the Linden Homes is there was a comment on the LL blog where someone had mentioned they owned some land already, then took a Linden Home and it caused them to "tier-up". Had that person used the Land Manager on their account page, they would have clearly understood this would happen long before their error.

Among all the things you can learn to do and manage in Second Life, by far the most confusing and even tricky is: land ownership and how it affects your tier - the real money you pay to Linden Lab for the privilege. This is a primer on that.

First, what I speak on here has nothing to do with Estate Regions - private islands that sit in the middle of the ocean. Rather, this little lesson is on any virtual land you own where you pay your tier fees directly to Linden Lab - which I personally feel is the best and safest arrangement for any long term land ownership.

Linden Lab will never evict you for any reason other than your account going too far into arrears. Beyond that you are free to do with as you choose on your virtual property within the confines of the Terms of Service and Community Standards. Linden Lab will let you be for as long as you want.

The tricky thing is understanding tier...the monthly fees you pay to Linden Lab for the privilege (you must be a premium account holder or manager of a group authorized to purchase land for the group).

So here is your first lesson with regard to mainland parcel ownership.

The first thing you must understand are the tier levels. And they can be a bit misleading at first. But having a clear understanding will actually save you a lot of money and allow you maximum number of prims for the least cost. Since non-premium account holders can technically buy land for a group, it should be made clear this tutorial does not involve them. Take this information as a personal instruction for personal land-ownership.

You can view the land tier structure from your account page at Second Life.com. Go to SecondLife.com and in the left-hand rail menu, choose "Land Manager"->"Land Use Fees". It is important to understand that though this is called a "land manager" - it is more or less for informational purposes only. You cannot actually "tier-up" or "tier down" solely from here. It works in-conjunction with your activities in-world.

In this "level 101" of my land tutorial, we'll cover what this page is, does and how it helps you understand what is going on with your virtual land ownership responsibilities as it pertains to real costs to you. Upon selecting this page, you will be presented with the "Land Management" page:

Here you can see what you have, what you can buy without adding to your costs and what the costs will be if you add more than your "tier level".

It is highly important to understand: Any changes you make here does not affect the amount of money you owe to Linden Lab each month or the amount of land you own in-world. It is simply an informational calculator for the purpose of giving you an overview of your virtual land holdings and helps you to plan your land-ownership transactions. There are two sections to this manager, let us look at each in-turn.

The first section is the actual tier calculator. The purpose is to show you what you have and owe now, and "what-if" scenarios:

Let us look at this section line-by-line and what each means and can do for you. First, the headers along the top are misleading. "Current Fees" and "Estimated Fees" only apply to the last line of the table. These headers should really only state "Current" and "Estimated" without the word "Fees".

• Line 1: Square Meters Owned.
  In the "Current" column, this is what you actually own in-world. Looking to the last line in the table you can see clearly what your cost obligation is to Linden Lab. This cost is only for actual, currently-owned land. You must be careful as this is not the actual monthly billing amount.
  
  This is the amount you will owe on your next billing date, not the billing date coming due. If you enter a number of square meters in the "Estimated" field and click the "Calculate" button at the bottom of the section, you can see what your new cost obligation will be. It is important to understand that your first 512 square meters (M2) is tier-free. It costs you zero because it is included with your premium membership.
  
  Example: You own 512 and are thinking of purchasing a 1024. Enter this into the Estimated field and click the calculate button. You will see the cost obligation. However, if you plan to purchase a 1024 M2 in addition to your 512, then you should enter 1536 in the estimated field (512+1024).
  
  
• Line 2: Square Meters Donated.
  Rather than owning land outright, you can donate tier to a group. Groups cannot own land or pay tiers, so members of a group must donate the tier "responsibility" so that the land can be deeded to the group. Then all members of the group "share" ownership of that parcel, each obligating themselves to cover the tiers required through their "donation".
  
  If you have any donations to groups which own land, the Current will show it. If you are thinking of donating M2 to a group - the Estimated will show you any new obligations. If you are thinking to deed land you own to a group, you must donate tier shares to the group at the same time. Enter that amount here.
  
  Note: groups receive a 10% land bonus. Meaning an additional 10% of the donated shares can be owned (deeded) to the group tier-free. We will cover group-shares and donations in another post.
  
  
• Line 3: Premium Bonus in Square Meters.
  This always will show as 512, unless Linden Lab changes or revokes it (or you are not a premium account holder). It is presented here to help with your calculations.
  
  
• Line 4: Paid Tier Level.
  This is the total of M2 that you own and are obligated to pay tier on. The estimated column forecasts the new level upon which you would be obligated should you sell-off or purchase new virtual land. Note that this number is the sum of "Owned" plus "Donated" minus "Bonus".
  
  Thus, if you own 1024 M2 of land that is deeded to a group and you own a Linden Home, the current column might look like from the top-down: 512, 1024, 512, 1024. meaning that even though you technically own 1536 M2, you are only responsible for paying tier on 1024.
  
  
• Line 5: Available Square Meters.
  Probably the most important line in the entire table, next to the bottom line. If you have M2 donated to groups, you get a "land bonus" - ability to own additional land tier-free. The real purpose of this line is to help you maximize the amount of land you can own based on the money you are paying to Linden Lab.
  
  If you own 600 square meters, you are paying tier for more land than you own. It is a waste of real money. This field shows you how much more land you can buy without bumping-up to the next tier level, thereby maximizing the amount of land you can own for the same money you already are paying.
  
  The key here is this line shows how much more land you can own before you are obligated to bump-up to the next higher tier level. You can purchase this much more land and your monthly tier bill will stay the same. Of course, more land give you more prims (if it is in the same region). Had the member I mentioned above who requested a Linden Home and "accidentally" tiered-up looked at this line on his account page, he would have clearly seen that additional land would cost him more money.
  
  Remember: it is your first 512 M2 that is tier-free. Not the last.
  
  
• Line 6: Monthly Cost.
  This is the actual dollar amount that applies to Line 4. Note that tier levels are fixed levels. Meaning if you own 1024 M2, purchasing 10 square meters will bump you to the next level - as though you owned 2046 M2 - even if you own that last 10 square meters for 10-seconds. We will go into detail on this concept in a future post.

The important thing is to understand why the calculator is here, why you might want to use it and how to use it to more easily manage your tier obligation to Linden Lab as you consider purchasing or selling virtual land in Second Life.

The second section of the Land Manager page is simply a reference:

These are the different tier levels available. Selecting a higher tier level does nothing but more or less show you what you have "budgeted" for yourself. Other than that, it apparently does nothing at all. You cannot select a lesser tier level than what you are responsible for, based on your actual land-holdings and donations in-world. However, if you own 1024 M2 and select 8192 M2 on this chart - nothing will happen.

Linden Lab will only bill you for what you actually own, based on your peak-ownership level for the previous month. It is simply (more or less) a reference. At least, in all my years in SL, I've not found it to affect anything one way or the other - other than to be a simple reference for my own budgeting needs.

Next article: How to buy and sell land in a way to save the most real money with regard to tiering-up or tiering-down and not get nabbed by a mistake that could cost you huge sums of real money.

Whew am I rusty.

Got my hands dirty in the CSS blog theme and template design again. I forgot how much I enjoy it. It's a strange mixture of creativity (where a creative's mind is a wild, untamed thing wanting to always be free) and the hard, logical 1+1 always must equal 2 disciplined routine.

Linden Lab had it right:

"We'll do the non-flexible world-container coding side of things and let you be the creative types to build the world."

I think I'll offer blog-theme design as a "product" in SL. I'm thinking L$5K for a custom theme.

Muahahahah!

When I set my draw distance out 10 years and envision Second Life then, here is what I see:

Everyone has an avatar. Avatars have the ability to travel across virtual worlds, maintaining their unique identity (and inventory) as they go. Some are stunningly vivid fantasy avatars and others are hyper-real. You express yourselves through your avatar using interfaces we weren't able to imagine in 2010.

Second Life is galactic. With a massive influx of new Residents, Second Life becomes a collection of interconnected (and independent) worlds' some terrestrial, some extra-terrestrial. In terrestrial terms, Second Life grows 10x from being the 170th largest country in the world to the 134th (as measured by landmass) right between Denmark and Switzerland.

True. Just as in the universe there are a bazillion galaxies. all on their own, worlds unto themselves, disconnected in any way. Sure. the SL grid might connect to Open grid and so on. But until SL grid can connect to IMVU and Habbo Hotel and Barbie World and all the rest - uh-uh. It's partly about the technology being able to mesh, but it's also partly to do with who controls what, intellectual properties, licensing and in the end: money. Though I get what you mean.

SLHD blurs the distinction between real and virtual. New tools and capabilities for content creation and animation together with enhanced graphics and multi-sensory rendering enable SLHD (Second Life in High Definition) to blur the distinction between real and virtual. You pet a chicken and feel the smooth texture of its feathers. You bend down to smell a rose and, well, you smell a rose.

I get that now. At least: visually. Though I think I get the gist of what you are saying here. But this is true for all computer technologies, not just SL.

We are able to explore the edge of possibility. Combining SLHD with innovations in display technology gives us powerful and flexible new augmented- and mixed-reality environments that enable us to explore the edge of possibility that fascinating edge between virtual and real. Walls in your office become portals to the metaverse. Imagine the possibilities for information visualization.

The walls come down early in the second decade. Second Life quickly spreads beyond the walled garden of 2009. APIs connect it to commonly-used social utilities. It's available on mobile devices. It's part of real life experiences. All together, this makes Second Life a natural, practical extension and enhancement of everyday life. Imagine you are out shopping one day. You see a great dining table in a real life store and scan it with your mobile device. Moments later it appears in the dining room of your Second Life home visible on your mobile device, projectable on the wall of the store.

You see it in context but you're still not sure it's right so you check your friend list to see who might be available to offer a second opinion. You send an invite and your best friend pops in, looks at it and gives you two thumbs up. You still have reservations. Later in the evening, you visit your Second Life home again to see how the table looks. You love it. With a few clicks, you purchase it and arrange for delivery to your real life home.

The Second Life economy becomes meaningful among real world economies. The Second Life economy -- powered by a robust marketplace, a stable Linden Dollar and superb tools for content creation, management, protection, sharing and consumption continues its high double-digit growth -- and zooms from number 175 to number 150 among world economies (as measured by GDP). The availability of a robust and secure global marketplace gives people in emerging economies education and income-earning opportunities they don't have domestically.

Second Life becomes a standard in business, education and government. All sizes of companies use Second Life as their preferred collaboration, simulation and learning tool to connect with customers, suppliers and employees all over the world. Universities funnel expansion funds into the virtual world, eschewing expensive real world building projects in favor of Second Life. Essential government services are delivered virtually."

I subscribe to a lot of blogs and news sites, most of which are Second Life-related and one thing I've noted over the last couple years is how people will start a blog and then kind of fade away posting less and less often, allowing that blog to sooner or later fizzle-out. It was started in excitement, for the fun of it and eventually the fun turns into a chore and it eventually withers.

I started this and several other blogs for the same purposes and yes, it has definitely at times turned from fun into a chore. But I've tried to keep at it, especially with this one and my other, not-so-SL-related blog that I ironically call "Blackthorne inSL".

Common Sensible is officially more than two-years-old now. In the beginning I had no idea what I was doing and I tried to emulate others, such as Hamlet Au (by just finding news and reblogging it) - which to me didn't really feel "genuine". I never considered my own experience on the grid that interesting to others so I never approached it from the "personal journal" aspect, but rather from a "big picture" aspect like what New World Notes (even though it is 90% reblogging other stuff) and Massively and Dusan Writer and those guys do. But this is difficult because the "news" comes in wild spurts with a dozen today and none for a week or two and often it is the ridiculous reactions by the vitriolic loud minority that makes it "news" to begin with. It also is hard to "sand-bag" stories of any kind of time-sensitive nature and no one is interested in "old news".

But I stuck with it.

I have a lot of other blogs, too. Most are just kind of sitting in the wings until I decide what to do with them, but I have always had at least two going at once and for the last month or so: three. The third being where I am head to now as I have "plumped it up" for the last month or so.

As I have witnessed so many personal blogs about Second Life just kind of slip away quietly I figured I'd do the same with this one. After all that's a pretty common thing, right? I've been thinking about this over the last three or four months or so and it's crossed my mind even earlier in the year. Primarily because I'm not so sure my own perspective on things is really shared by a lot of others in the "big picture" aspect. But more so because even though it's all a labor of love, it's still labor.

Then "Not Possible In Real Life" (NPRL) Blog did what the television show "M*A*S*H" did in 1982 that was utterly unheard-of at the time: ended the series while they were still "on top" in the ratings, rather than allowing the show to simply "fade away" or continue until practically all interest was lost in it and canceled by the network.

Hence the "series-finale" phenomenon which is pretty common these days with popular televisions shows.

I don't have a lot of readers. Well, I do, but I don't. Either way, I certainly am under no illusion of being "on top" of anything. There are many who subscribe to the RSS feed and many who come to this web site - a lot more than I ever expected. I don't advertise, it's not about raising any money or anything like that. It's about simply voicing and sharing my opinions and perspectives on things and I suppose that's interesting enough for some.

To those of you who have and still follow me here: thank you.

Really, thank you. So rather than just "fading away", I am going to call this the "series finale" of Common Sensible and focus on my other SL-related bog which will be handled with more of a personal perspective of the world closer around me in SL and not the bigger picture as much - more to the "personal journal" style. I also will continue my own bizarre, twisted humor at Blackthorne inSL - more or less mostly non-SL-related. (Ironic, huh?) So if you choose to follow me there, be forewarned; you'll likely discover what a weird one I am in first life!

If you want to follow only my SL-related stuff, please follow me to Socially Mundane. Or if you want to follow everything I aver - SL-related and FL-related, then I dare you to come-on over to my Blackthorne inSL blog at AriBlackthorne.com. When I post to SM (snickers) blog, it will be noted with a link on the inSL blog, so that would be the only one you need to follow.

As for all the posts and comments here at Common Sensible: it's not going anywhere. For a while, at least as I don't know what Blogger does with inactive blogs after a time...if they are allowed to just sit forever (I think so) or are eventually deleted. So, to be safe I also will import all the previous posts and comments (if I am able) from this blog into the SM blog - for posterity and archival sake.

So, to those of you who actually did follow me on a regular basis (whose cats have obviously gotten your tongues as you rarely, if ever, commented on my diatribe)... thank you. I hope you will follow me to AriBlackthorne.com, or if not that, then SociallyMundane.com.

So, here we are at 11:59;59 - the very last second before the brand new decade, I stand, turn about and wave.

And as was said in the book "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Earth's second most intelligent species, the dolphins, to Earth's third most intelligent species, the humans, just before they left the planet due to its inevitable destruction to make way for the galactic super-highway:

Everyone in Second Life is cheating on First Life (SL) and each other. No, I am not speaking on pixelsexxx. But rather the way SL allows us all to actually cheat life itself - at least the "pleasures" and trials of life anyway. Think on this: we don't have to walk to get anywhere. We can fly and if really impatient: teleport and poof - you're there. Anywhere you want to be. Look about everywhere you go: Gigantic castles and mansions, five-hundred-foot yachts, royal palaces, private helicopters and jets, massive household "estates" and all that.

Nothing wrong with this at all of course. SL empowers us to have and do what we simply cannot have and do in first life and that is the draw to the platform. It's a wonderful thing!

I spent the first-half of my life on Maui, and my family were not all that well-off financially. So I grew-up with a practical mind-set. Perhaps this is why I don't keep a house in SL at all or go for the "dream"...whatever: house, car, any of it. I just don't see the use in it and view it as a waste of money. Growing-up in Hawai'i (quick lesson: pronounced Hah-vai. Eee LOL) exposed me to the ocean all the time. For swimming, not sailing. That kind of thing just wasn't in the budget.

In Lahaina there always was as long as I could remember a tall ship berthed there called the Carthaginian. It was an original restored 18th century tall ship, not a replica. I was nine-years-old the day it ended-up sinking and shrugged it off. They then made a replica and brought it in, calling it Carthaginian II, but nothing was ever the same, even for me, a nine-year-old kid who couldn't really appreciate what had really happened.


Now that I am older and wiser (some may disagree to the latter) I find it kind of saddening that such priceless history was lost. Perhaps it was growing-up around the original Carthaginian without giving it much thought has now, later in life influenced my "fandom" of tall ships.

And SL allows me to own a fleet of them. Though SL sailing (not driving like a car or plane or other vehicle, but real simulated sailing using the SL wind system) has been around and I have known of it a long time, I never really participated. All I ever saw were the modern-looking "yuppy richman toys" that are all technologically advanced to gain the fastest speed and easiest control (replicas of first life sailboats) - which to me are rather ugly and ungainly-looking with 200-foot tall sails over a 30-foot hull (intentional exaggeration). In SL or FL, to me they are rather unsightly and silly-looking.

Allow me to be clear here and now: in this article I am referring my "distaste" specifically to those "modern-day technological marvels" such as those style of boats used to race for the America's Cup (mostly in first life, but Second Life as well,) not the average sail boat you can go out and buy today. But even those to some degree with regard to the technological-ease of sailing these days is kind of a "technology cheat". And yes, it is only my own personal taste.

Technology to allow them to slip through water as though sliding on a greased flat of teflon at the slightest whisper of breeze. Of course the SL replicas do the same.

Technology itself is a cheat. We use technology to replace skill. In first life anyone can quickly learn to sail a modern sail boat. But take the best mariners of today (Americas Cup class) and put them onto a tall ship? Now that would be a sight to see because a tall ship can barely get under way with ten or less people whereas a modern sail boat slides along with as little as 5 people, depending on the boat of course. To set a tall ship to sail, even a small one like a brig or sloop like the Lady Washington (which I've had the extreme pleasure of sailing with for a day)... now that takes skill.

The wonder of SL allows me to not only own a fleet of tall ships, but to be able to sail them all by my little lonesome at the push of a few buttons on my keyboard. Is that a cheat? Well, not really as I am simulating via a computer and the primary interface of a computer is the keyboard. The SL grid is the great equalizer in this regard.

However, in real life: the technology of modern sail boats we use to replace the skill required to make-way in a tall ship... yeah, that's a cheat. It's not a bad cheat. But it's still a cheat. Like bow hunters who use those fancy carbonate teflon composite bows with 30 pulleys on them and titanium arrows to down a deer. Grab a switch from a tree and whittle your own arrows and see what it's really like. The technology is a cheat and it replaces the skill required. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Life moves-on, that's all.

Besides, modern sailboats (and to be clear: I am more referring to the racing boats and those ugly-assed high-tech boats where the sails are twice or three-times as tall as the hull is long) are funny-looking. Though tall ships were built and designed for functionality with the latest technology of the day, today to me they are a work of art. Of course it's more appreciation for the complexity and functionality of those things.

For me, "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies featured Johnny Depp, but the real star was the Black Pearl itself. Though "Master and Commander" wasn't all that great of a movie in it's own right, I ate it up because it was all about the tall ships themselves. I am now reading Michael Crichton's last novel "Pirate Latitudes" which is in preproduction and I am anticipating that movie for it's real star (to me) the sloop called "Cassandra".

Do I wish I lived in the 17th or 18th centuries for such purpose as to be a true sailor? Hell no. I might be stupid but I'm not dumb. Oh, and to me a "sailor" is one of a number of crew as those on such a tall ship or other large navy vessel that can't function in full-form without at least a dozen or more. All you mariners on your cute, yuppy-looking computer-design sail-racers (in the real world I mean) - you are not sailors. You are all wanna-bes. I know it's still hard work and all that. But the skills required are where the differences lay.

So yeah: thanks for SL as it allows me to "cheat" first life by allowing me the enjoyment of sailing (and captaining) a whole fleet of tall ships. Something I couldn't do in first life no matter how financially well-off I were.

Note: these are Second Life pictures above, but they are examples of what I am talking about, so understand I am referring to real counterparts in first life when I say these are techno-yuppy-butt-fugly cheats that require no skill whatsoever compared to a real "sailing" boat, which my SL counterparts follow below (and I hope it is obvious I am referring to the real life counterparts of these.)

Nyuk nyuk.


My new unnamed Schooner. Awaiting a customized refit and naming.


The Calypso's Rage, a Xebec in Corsair configuration.


The Poseidon's Lust, my current favorite: a speedy 10-gun Dhow.


The Calypso's Curse, a reliable and worthy Brig.


The uncreatively-named "Black Swan", who heels wildly in the wind.

And my 16-gun battle fortress the Hades' Strumpet.


And my newest acquisition, a one-gun "gunboat" I have christened the "Black Dream" (which is 17th century vernacular for "death" for those of you who don't contemplate such things.)

This is a ridiculously maneuverable little boat that is actually a bit difficult to control in tight spaces as she just wants to go and go very fast.

The SL model is stunning, loaded with astounding detail and authentic nuance such as a working anchor (animated and all, doesn't really hold the boat in place) a signal (fog) bell and wonderful role-play accouterments such as the supplies loaded-up in the forecastle and such. Okay, not really a forecastle as that cupboard isn't below deck and though you could stuff a human body in there, it's really for storage of supplies. Meh.

I plan to show it off in detail on my next post. (Hey, it's MY blog and so I will show-off whatever I want!)

Did it. Done it. Loved it. LAG: minimal at worst.

How HUDS Hobble:

So, how can you achieve the same result of minimal LAG consistently? Well, that's an industry secret. Muahahaha! Okay, okay, I'll tell. But you have to shush-up about it. Too many people figure this out and we won't have a corner on the market of LAG-free SL experience any more.

For anyone who cares (and I already know, you don't) I've been bouncing around all over the Second Life grid looking for any parcel of land next to a decent body of water where I can rez my tall ship so I can go sight-seeing from the water.


Hades' Strumpet spanks an unsuspecting Privateer.

If you've driven around in a car, plane, or just flying around the grid (dragon avatar or not, heheheh) - you know very well the chances of crossing sim borders is incredibly high. If you think crossing sim borders can become frustrating while walking, you should try it while sailing (not "driving" like an SL car, but "real" sailing where you are at the mercy of the SL wind.)

Since I actually understand that 80% of all LAG in SL is actually at my end and not Linden Lab's end, I work to do whatever I can to minimize as much LAG as possible, LAG of course being the umbrella term we all use to describe moving through mud anywhere on the grid. LAG is massively frustrating, disorienting and downright annoying when we try to cross sim borders and it takes forever, sometimes (often for some people) even disconnecting us from the world... a forced relog if you will.

The answer to your woes is simple: de-script yourself.

And for all you attachment creators who sell your crap as no-modify and include "modify scripts" - damned you to SL hell, I hope you die. You are a major part of the LAG problem a lot of people suffer through.

De-scripting yourself cuts-down on LAG enormously. No, I am not saying you de-scripting yourself will make it better for everyone else around you all the time. But it will make it better for you. And everyone else around who can see you when you cross sim borders.

Part of de-scripting yourself is removing unnecessary HUDs. Yes, really! That Mystitool, Wishmaster, Vista AO, Bonehead's Free Radar, OOC Textiness Garbage, and whatever else you are wearing for HUDs is actually killing your SL experience.

Try this:

Go to Exchange Island [SLURL] as it is public access and has three other sims attached. Wait for the place to rez completely (don't move around). Wear everything you "usually" wear, especially your HUDs. Press CTRL-R to go into "running" mode. Now, start from at least 20-meters from one of the sim borders and run across that border to go into the other sim. Do not let-go of the forward button - keep it pressed, keep running until you finally "pop-in" to the other side.

Take note of how long it takes before you finally "pop-in," and where you have ended-up. Now, repeat: run back to the same place you started from. Did it take longer? Shorter?

Now do this: Remove all scripted items from your avatar, especially all HUDs - absolutely nothing is attached. Count to 30 slowly - give the sim a few seconds to catch-up to you - to be sure it knows you are not wearing any scripts. Now, repeat the exact same process, running over the same border in the same direction.

Now run back to where you started.

How did that border crossing go?

An animation overrider should be fine. But that Magic HUD, Radar HUD, Mystitool (and other likewise) HUD should really only be worn when you need them. Keeping yourself as 'clean' as possible (where scripts are concerned) will limit any LAG you experience to the natural hiccups caused by your computer trying to draw bazillions of facets in those "prim-heavy" locations, or all those other avatars in crowded spaces, or the massive texture downloads in those malls because most merchants couldn't make a proper vendor texture to save their lives and so on.


The map above shows the non-stop, no-crash journey of the Hades' Strumpet from the Victorian-themed sims (St Barts) all the way through to the location of my store in Neobelow. More than 100 sims. The only scripts I wore were the "sails" script on my boat, the scripts in the boat itself and my AO. Each and every single sim-crossing took about 0.5 seconds. The laggier ones took about 1 full second (I know: ZOMG-shock!). Even in the middle of the prim-heavy mainland area I traveled through on my way home.

So, LAG got you down? Take-off those HUDs and kill any creators who sold you "modify-scripted no-modify" attachments. They are biachtards2 one and all!

Internet
1. Gwyneth Llewelyn. Anatamy of Lag. June 22. 2009. Web Blog: Ana Lutetia. December 23, 2009.
More information about LAG and what causes it: http://analutetia.com/2009/06/22/anatomy-of-lag/ 
2. Biachtard [bee-ah-ch-tard], (noun): neutral gender insult; A "slam" on anyone you without reference to sex.

Eternus Soulstar commented on the Linden Lab blog topic of "Copy/No-Trans, Ethics &TOS" - a reply to another user in a very long thread. After reading her comment and thinking on it, the more I actually like the idea.


A quick reprise summary: regarding the ethics and how it fits with Second Life Terms of Service: what does it mean if someone where to buy a copyable item, then create a business of advertising these items "for rent" or, rezzing these items all over the grid for friends?

Here is Eternus' comment (abridged by me):

"...i was addressing the OP concern about someone making a 'service' of, say, buying one of your starships [another comment by a creator who sells copyable starships] and renting/leasing them, in effect competing against you with your own product, and pointing out why i didn't think such a service would be viable, and therefore probably nothing to worry much about, which is pretty much all the same reasons rezzing for friends doesn't really impact sales negatively in my opinion. one of which was mentioned in another post and you touched on here, locking some options to the owner.

to mention briefly the issues raised in a couple of other posts, a landlord rezzing a bunch of houses after having only bought one is a point to discuss i suppose but if a landlord is dishonest to start with the no-copy won't prevent that anyway nor will the fact that the illegal copies don't have scripts, so setting no-copy on a house because of that concern is futile.

I very much concur with Eternus!

And, because I am so proud of my reply there, I wanted to repeat here LOL

@Eternus:
Very good point. It would certainly be "uncouth" to set-up a "rental" business based on items you have purchased that are copyable. And I certainly can see how this could and would ruffle a lot of creator feathers.

However - and I speak solely for myself here - I would say go for it with my creations. Granted, I would really, really appreciate your asking permission (personally, I'd say 'yes") or at the very least let me know your intent, but we all know that wouldn't happen because the person who does it already would know it's unethical at best (without asking permission) and outright wrong at worst.

The reason I would agree to it is the same as I have mentioned far earlier in this thread: visibility for me. The grid is way too large and full of warm bodies (even after you subtract the bots and alts, you still have at least 1/3 the count of concurrency and that's still a lot)  LOL

The point is competition is far more difficult in SL than in FL: and it starts with getting "the word out there" that your creations even exist. I would view such a scenario as those items I have created that are used for "rentals" (or even friends rezzing for friends) as complimentary advertising models. The more people who see them and play with them the better - it might spark an interest in my product especially when the very genre of my product wasn't even on their mind. Even if it brings only one new sale a month: it's worth it [as any, even a partial sale is better than none at all]. Especially when it doesn't cost me anything at all the throw my creations around at anyone and everyone.

I don't pay for materials or manufacture costs. So why not? How would it harm me (or anyone else for that matter?) The one doing it has paid for a copyable item. The ones using it who don't own it are getting a first-hand experience with it... "shopping" without shopping. I am confident enough in my own products that I would actually invite this process. In fact, I might even prepare a notecard inviting the idea.

We all have seen something in-world and thought "hey, that's nice" - right-click to learn who created it, make a note to visit their in-world shop or pop-over to XSL to see what they have. The more opportunity for people to do this on my stuff, the better.

And I reiterate: obviously I am speaking for myself only, and I am not trying to convince anyone else to see my way of it. Just explaining why I see this scenario as a good thing rather than a bad thing. And besides, it's a lot less stress to look for and find the good in things that happen rather than the bad, as all scenarios include both.

(Via Second Life Blogs: Copy/No-Trans, Ethics & TOS.)