Getting a 'First Generation' Linden Home

Jeremy Linden has written an excellent article on getting a Linden Home. I don't see any reason to repeat everything that he has written, but below is some additional information on 'First Generation' homes that you might call "Things the Lindens Didn't Tell You"

"First Generation" Homes

The "First Generation" Homes are on the four original Premium Home Continents. These continents have no connection to the Mainland or to each other, so you can only get to them by teleporting. The Eastern Premium Home Continent was originally called Nascera, or Nacera, but now is usually referred to as the Eastern Premium Continent. The Eastern Premium Home Continent is also accessible from Orville and some other LDPW Regions on the west. The Eastern Premium Home Continent also has the most interesting areas to explore, like Cape Ekim. The three southern continents are called Premium South 1, 2, and 3.
Premium Home Continents


The Premium Home Continents are almost duplicates of each other, for example, you will find a Meadowbrook Infohub on each continent.
Premium Continents Compared (Map, 12-28-2019).




Finding a Place to Hang Your Virtual Hat

After you've spent a little time in Second Life you may find that you want to have a permanent home - a place where you can put out furniture, change clothes in private, keep a virtual pet, or have friends over, for example.

You have many options.

Squatting:

For the truly broke, you might be able to persuade someone to let you squat on their land and give you permission to rezz articles. It is also possible to squat on someone's land without permission, but this is not ethical and the only people who will think you are being clever to do this are other scum.

Renting:

You can rent many nice plots and parcels for less than the cost of a fast-food meal. Some landlords will even offer you a choice of free houses.  Renting is probably a good choice for someone who is just learning the ropes. A good landlord can also answer questions and help with problems like "I bought this house and took it out of the box but now it is upside down!"*

The downside of renting is that sometimes landlords go "poof" and you may come back and find that your 'home' is no longer there and all of your personal property has been returned to inventory.

Being a landlord in Second Life is a hard job and many people try it and give up. Look for a landlord who has been in the business for a while and who has a wide variety of properties.

Buying Land:

See my article on "How Not to Buy Land in Second Life".

You have to be a Premium Member to buy land.

Buying a Parcel directly:

When you see a spot on the map for sale, you can buy the land by going to the 'World' tab and pulling up "Parcel Details" which has a spot where you can buy the land. Do not click on a cube marked "Buy this Land". When you buy land by using the 'Parcel Details' option you will also get a message that tells you how much your monthly tier will be. (Remember that Premium Members are allowed to have a 1024 plot without tier, and Premium Members in a group may have a higher allotment).

Buying Abandoned Land:

If you see a nice plot of land that has been abandoned you can request that Linden Lab put the land for sale to you. They have the option of setting the land to sell to you directly (There is a greater chance of this option if the land is next to land you already own.) or to set the land for auction.

Buying Land at Auction:

Go to the Second Life Land Auction Page to get more information and see what is currently on offer.

Getting a free home by becoming a Premium Member:

When you are a Premium Member you have the option of holding a 1024 parcel tier-free, or getting one of the new Bellisserean homes. Right now there are four types of home: Houseboat, Camper**, Traditional, or Victorian and each type has four variations. Other styles and variations are expected to be offered in future.

More on this in future articles.

*Do not ask how I know this.
**Campers are on a 512 parcel, so you could also have a 512 parcel on Mainland. The others are on a 1024 plot.

Setting a Home Location

If you log into Second Life without having set a home location, each time you log in you will usually land in a random spot. You will probably end up at one of the Info Hubs, or you may land in a community that is known to be newcomer friendly. If you want to end up in the same place every time, it is a good idea to set a location as "home".

There are several ways to do this:

If you look at the toolbars of your viewer, you will see a heading "World" and under this is the option to "Set this place as home." You can 'set home' to an Info Hub, to land that you own, to a place you are renting, and sometimes to land that is owned by one of your groups.

Even if you can't set a place as 'home' you can return to the same place each time by ending your visit at the same location and then setting "last location" as your destination when you log in again.

You can also save a location as a landmark by going to the same "World" heading and marking "Landmark this place" and/or "Save to Favorites". This will put the location in your 'Landmarks' folder and/or your Favorites bar. You can also save this location in your Profile Picks.

Your 'home' will show as an icon on the Second Life map.

(If you have visited a location you like and forgot to set a landmark, you might be able to find it again in your Teleport History.)





Second Life Geography - An Overview

Pull the map slider all the way to the left, and you will get a satellite view of Second Life.

World Map 07-28-2019

What you are seeing is sometimes called "The Grid", which is a spatial representation of all the land, water, and void ocean in Second Life.

Some definitions:

Region - an area 256 by 256 meters.
Agni - another word for The Grid. The testing grid is called Aditi*.
Void Ocean - the 'big nothing' between places. You cannot move through it - you will have to teleport over it.
Land - a place with a physical surface.
Water - a physical surface, but covered with water.
Sky - the accessible area over land or water. A lot of people build and live there in what are called "skyboxes".
Continent - usually refers to a mass of 30 or more regions connected to each other in such a way that you can move between the regions without teleporting.
Subcontinent - is part of a larger continent that has its own name. An example are Nautilus and                       Satori. You can get from Nautilus to Satori now without teleporting, but in the past they were separated by Void Ocean. As more and more continents become connected (Thank you, Moles) subcontinents will probably become more common.
'Microcontinents', 'sim clusters', and 'sim groups' are just smaller groups of regions - but I'm not going into counting the regions of each one. 
'Isolated' or 'unassociated sims' are regions that cannot be grouped into other structures.



Question: This is boring, and why should I care?
Answer:  I'm guessing that when you go on vacation, you don't just sit in the airport after you get to your destination. In my opinion, too many new residents just hang around the first place they land in after they have finished minimal basic training, and then complain that there is nothing to do.  If you want to explore, you need to know where you can go and what you can do there. Most continents are public access, but a lot of the smaller structures are not.
(more later).

*You can't see it here, because it is in another dimension.


New Resident Information - 'Choose an Avatar' - Part Three - Vampires and Other Monsters

Although this section of 'Choose Your Avatar' is labelled 'Vampires' it is actually a dozen different monsters. I noticed that many of the avatars have 'invisible body' alphas, so that they can disappear entirely.

Curtis the Vampire

You can remove his jacket, pants, and shoes (with their alphas). If he wears his 'invisible' alpha you could attach the pet bat from Illiana and make it look like he's turned into a bat. When he is visible, though, his face is always going to be showing those open fangs.


























Curtis, invisible, wearing Iliana's bat

New Resident Information - 'Choose an Avatar' - Part Two - Fantasy Avatars

Most of the fantasy avatars have clothing and accessories that can come off without too much trouble, as long as you remember to take off the corresponding 'alphas' and 'foot shapers'. Most of the 'toppers' (halos, horns, cute hats, etc...) are attached to the hair so when you take them off you may end up with an avatar with just a hair 'tattoo'.


Anna is an angel. You can remove her wings, and her halberd, but you can't take off her halo without taking off her hair.

New Resident Information - 'Choose an Avatar' - Part One - The "New" Avatars

When you first become a resident of Second Life you may choose a new avatar, or you may be randomly assigned one. I know that the last time I rolled up a new alt, I ended up as a 'Bitsy', as did the avatar in front of me, and the one behind. After you finish orientation you have a choice of at least fifty "Off the Rack" avatars - you can find them under the 'Avatar' tab where it says "Choose an Avatar." There are also an assortment of older avatars in your "Library" folder in Inventory.

One of the reasons I am adding these pages is that I could not find good full view pictures of the available avatars. On my selection bar it only shows the avatars from the waist up, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I did not realize that two of the fantasy avatars came with horses.

Some of them are also wearing items of clothing or animations you can scavenge to mix and match later. As you try on each avatar, I suggest you click on the t-shirt icon. Look for the tab that says "Wearing" and save the entire outfit, avatar and all.

There are four categories of avatar under the 'Choose an Avatar" tab -- "New", "Fantasy", "Vampire", and "Classic". I am going to discuss each category in a separate entry.


All of the female avatars come with a female avatar animation over rider (AO), and the males come with a male AO. Basically this means that when you are walking, you won't "Walk like a duck". (more on this later).

All of them are wearing alphas to cover parts of their body, so that if you take off some of their clothing you will just see blank spots. The alphas are there to cover body parts that might show through the clothing.

These avatars came out in January, 2019.  See Inara Pey's blog. 

Bitsy: This avatar comes with a tablet in one hand and a bag with a Chihuahua in the other. You can detach the bag, the tablet, and the jacket, but if you take off the hat you will also take off her hair.

New Resident Information: Opening Boxes, Changing Clothes

Disclaimer: I am the last person to be trying to explain about fashion, since my preferred avatar is a little cat who does not wear clothes, but after I wrote an article on "Freebies for New Residents" I realized some new residents might need a little information about getting dressed in Second Life.

The first thing to remember is that a box icon in your inventory can either represent a container, or an individual unboxed item. It is very easy to click a box and select 'wear' and end up wearing the box.
(More information about boxes in another article.)


Common error - 'wearing the box'.
This is how I (usually) avoid doing this. I am trying to show the easiest way. You can learn keyboard commands that make things faster.

New Resident Information: Teleporting and Map Reading in Second Life

If you are outside of Second Life you can teleport to an inworld location by clicking on a 'slurl' (Second Life URL).

Example of a slurl:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ukanipo/78/77/28

Read this as 'Ukanipo' is the Region, and 78/77/28 are the coordinates in the Region.

In Second Life, teleport locations can also be shown as landmarks.

Examples of landmarks 
Showing this teleport location on a map:

Reading the above map. I have marked the Region of Ukanipo with a white line. Notice that the Region name, Ukanipo, is in the lower left corner. The legends on the upper right of the map show what some of the symbols on the map mean. The coordinates show exactly where I was when I made the screen shots. If you clicked on the "Unofficial Tourist Information" landmark shown above you would land at the location shown. Notice that the location coordinates are not just for longitude and latitude, but also for altitude. You can see rivers and water features, roads and rivers, and....yes...a volcano. If I had clicked the 'show land for sale' the sale parcels would show as yellow patches.

The map does not show Second Life in real time. That is why we can never find the Giant Squid.

Art in Second Life

What is art? One definition is that a 'piece of art' is a human creation that evokes an emotional response or shows beauty.

There are many artists in Second Life, and their creativity is expressed in many forms: painting, photography, sculpture, dance, machinima, fashion, music, architecture, created experiences, writing, etc.... I also consider fashioning the environment, (land and weather), to be an art. Certainly avatar appearance and fashion can be an art, as is interior decorating. I have even read that one of your first acts when entering Second Life, choosing a name, can be an art in itself.

Some second life artists create mirror images of the real world as art - they take a picture of a real life work and digitally recreate it, but other Second Life artists are not hindered by the realities of gravity, entropy, a shortage of raw materials, or even logic.

I remember the impact of the first 'out of the box' art I encountered in Second Life. It was an installation called "Kolor Fall" by Patrick Faith. I can still remember how amazing it was to fly through an immense landscape of floating shapes as they swirled and changed color.  The region is no longer active, and Patrick Faith has moved on, but you can still see some examples of his work on https://www.youtube.com/user/patrickfaithart/featured. You can also watch a short machinima "Clouds and Remembrance"which includes music and dance.

For what is here, in Second Life, now, I found myself floundering to sort out 'the best' from a list too long to put on one page. I have already blogged about Patrick Moya and Earl Dinkins in previous posts.

 Bryn Oh is an important Second Life artist, and Cica Ghost is another. See photos of her work on flicker. Be sure to visit their installations when they are open.
Bryn Oh's "Skybox" is in the lobby of her current installation. You can walk on all the surfaces.

About Gatchas (Updated August 2021)

Gatchapon in Japan
Note: As of August 31, 2021, Linden Lab will no longer allow traditional gacha machines in Second Life.

This now becomes 'history'.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sure you have seen one of the many 'gatcha' machines here. Although they resemble some of the capsule toy machines you see in the U.S., they differ in many ways.

The principle of the basic gatcha machine is simple - you pay a fixed amount and you get a random item from those pictured on the outside of the machine. Usually they are no-copy and no-modify, but can be transferred.

This being Second Life, what you get usually wouldn't fit inside a capsule - you might get things like a wiggling puppy or an entire castle.You can find the primary gatcha machines in inworld shops, or at special events. Sometimes the gatcha machines will contain items that are a variation of one item (like the same popcorn maker, but in different colors) or it will have items that are part of a defined group (like a coffee shop and all the accessories).The odds of getting 'commons' or 'rares' is set by the machine, with a high ratio of 'commons', to 'rares', and you will usually have to try more than once to get what you want. Some residents pay large sums to get the rare items. Since there are more commons than rares, they usually end up with a lot of duplicates, which has led to a large secondary market reselling gatcha.

The secondary gatcha market can consist of informal exchanges between residents, yard sales, and entire regions set up as shopping districts. You can also find secondary gatchas on the Marketplace. Sometimes they are listed as 'gatcha' or as 'used'.

Pros and Cons of Gatchas:

Cons: You can't pick what you want. I usually look at a gatcha and think "Do I need this?" and "Can I buy it somewhere else?" I've heard a number of residents say that if they really want something in a gatcha they will wait for it to be on the secondary market. Some residents complain that playing gatcha machines is a form of gambling. One of my complaints is that there are some designers whose majority of products are only available from a gatcha machine. If you want that particular Japanese city house or that very adorable kitty, you will either have to play the gatcha machine that has it until you've won it or gone broke, or you will have to look for it on the secondary market.

Personally, I'm not happy with the 'no mod, no copy' part of it because, for example, if I 'win' a pink chair that doesn't match my teal color scheme I can't re-texture it. The photos of the items shown on the outside of the gatcha also are taken under optimum conditions and may not look the same on everyone's viewer. I have been heartbroken after getting an armchair from a gatcha machine and finding that the chair just showed up as a blob until I was practically sitting on it, another time I got a small building that looked like a pile of potato chips from 10 meters away. The worst item I've gotten so far was a pile of snow sized to fit around the base of only one building (a 'rare' in the same gatcha). Who knows what I am going to do with that - I'm certainly not going back to play that machine in a hurry.

If you possibly can, try to view items like large buildings in person if you can. Click on the object and choose inspect to find out how many textures, vertices, etc....it has. The most beautiful building in Second Life is no bargain if it takes fifteen minutes to rezz because it hasn't been optimized.

Pros: People who like gatchas say that using the gatcha machines isn't gambling, because you always get something. If you are lucky you might get that special rare item for a lot less than it would be sold for. If you just need something like a rowboat, and all the gatcha items are rowboats with variations and you don't care what your rowboat looks like, then the gatcha is your friend. I have also found that it is fun to visit the gatcha re-sellers areas to search for specific items I need (use 'Search') and then comparison shop.

Mad World in Second Life, and a Bit About MadPea Games

MadPea is a lot of things:

They create games:
  • Immersive games like Spellbound where your character moves through virtual scenes looking for clues to achieve a goal. Mad Pea's Ghost Town, free to play, is a good introduction to gameplay as you use your camera controls to hunt down the ghosts of murdered residents to free them from their earthly bonds. 
  • "Escape Room" games that have a smaller landscape where your time is limited
  • Boxed games that contain stories and puzzles
  • Hunts where players compete to collect objects like misfit cupids to win prizes
  • Social games you play in company
MadPea has two isolated regions - part amusement park and part main store.

The amusement park, MadWorld, has become part of the main Made area. Part of it is bright pastel colors with a traditional ferris wheel, teacup ride, bumper cars, and shooting galleries. There are unicorns and rainbows. The other side of the amusement park is dark and dingy with derelict buildings and things like The Witch Hunter. I prefer the dark side.

The store is in the same region. 

Mad pea used to produce Gacha games that contained a story that could be solved by collecting the right pieces of the puzzle. They no longer sell gachas, and former gachas are being sold in complete sets.

 I am always amazed by the variety, ingenuity, and quality of their items. They are also generous in giving prizes for completing games or contests.

MadPea also has a social element.  Members discuss the games, and a million other things, in chat.

Greenies, and the Second Life Primative Museum

Greenies were large 'little green men' sculptures. They were displayed in settings that resembled giant's houses. If you teleported into one of the settings, you would feel as if you had shrunk to mouse-size.
My first Greenie sighting - One is removing the cap from a bottle of Coke. Saucer in the background.

I came to Second Life too late to see the original Greenie regions, but I saw the first Greenie sculpture at Simple's Zoo. He had several sculptures on display. Simple's Zoo is no more, but you can see several Greenies on display at the Primitive Museum in Ritchie.

Apparently the Greenies were the creation of a group called Rezzable, which I read at one point had 40 regions (sims) in Second Life. They had one region which simulated a giant kitchen, and next to it a region which represented the adjacent back yard. Avatars who visited felt they had been shrunk in size. In this giant environment the Greenie sculptures depicted the Greenies in various pursuits.  Some people got a Greenie avatar and joined in.

In June 2010 Rezzable pulled up roots and moved to OpenSim, but I have been unable to find any further information about them. Their old blog has either been taken over by a new company, or else they expunged any mention of Greenies in a rebranding. The OpenSim log lists their place in OpenSim as inactive.

I found several blog entries and YouTube videos about the Greenies, just google "Greenies, Second Life".





The Second Life Primative Museum also has a display showing one of the original teleport hubs, information about Yadni Monde, early Second Life controversies, and much more!

I also found this interesting comment about a product Rezzable produced called 'Builderbot'. Apparently the idea created quite a bit of controversy. I think the idea of the utility was that you could copy everything on your entire region and keep it in storage or transfer it to another virtual world platform. The problem was, it didn't check permissions, and a lot of people were afraid it would be used for illegal purposes.

Currently Lankarian Lock is currently offering copies of a dozen of Light Waves' Greenie sculptures on the Marketplace for free. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Greenies-Collection-by-Light-Waves/2810153.  Remember, these are BIG - open them in a sandbox!

Current Second Generation Premium Linden Homes (Updated March 31, 2021)

To get a Second Generation Premium Home:

1. You have to be a premium member, and
2. You have to have 512 (for campers) or 1024 (for all others) free tier available.

On your account dashboard go to Premium membership - there will be a screen showing the choices available, and a place to "Claim your new home." You are assigned a place at random, and if you don't like the first pick you can abandon it and try for a new one for a limit of five tries in a 24-hour period.

Houseboats:

One of several houseboat styles "The Wallower"


View from the top deck


Additional information for those unfamiliar with Second Life: 

For years Second Life has been offering a free home to those who signed up for Premium accounts. Most of these homes are in huge subdivisions located on continents that were separated from the Mainland. There were neighborhoods with different styles of architecture and with themed surroundings and community areas. Although many of the surroundings were beautiful and interesting, the houses themselves were becoming outdated. They also were on small 512 plots (new rules give Premium members a 1024 allotment) and there weren't roads or access to other Continents without teleporting.

The new Premium home continent, Belliseria, has been in the works for some time. Residents first noticed the continent on the map back in August 2018, and interest has been high. The first residences were two types - traditional house or houseboat, and each of these types had four variations. They expect new types to be offered in the future.

The new homes offer quite a bit of improvement over the old homes.
  1. - larger parcels (although I understand there may be some 512 plots offered in future - maybe                trailer parks?)
  2. - more prims to decorate. The prims in the structure itself don't count.
  3. - ability to add a skybox if you want privacy.
  4. - a choice of four styles of structure within the type you chose - You can change the style of  your traditional house at the mailbox, or the style of your houseboat at the life ring on the dock.
  5. - more roads within the suburban areas, and more community areas like swimming pools.
  6. - the structures themselves are better engineered.
  7. - Best of all, yesterday we were told that they would be eliminating the ability to set up ban lines* in Bellisseria and supplying residents with a free improved security orb** 

*'ban lines' are a privacy device set up by the homeowner that keep other people out. In my opinion they are unsightly, and they are traffic hazards when they are too close to public roads and skyspace. Sometimes vehicles get stuck on them.
**'security orbs' are another privacy device that have sometimes been set up with 'zero' warning. If you inadvertently find yourself in an area controlled by one of these orbs, you may be summarily kicked back home without warning. The new security systems being given out to residents of Bellisseria are supposed to be more passerby friendly.

Update 7-23-19. After some time spent decorating, I decided that I needed to go back to being a tourist, so I changed the houseboat to a different style, and set it up as a small art gallery to try to contribute something to the community. My 'home' there is a sky platform, but anyone is welcome to visit the Art Gallery. Just go to Echo Cove and look for the sign.


Notecard with landmarks at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Maryport/243/17/22

How to Find Free Textures in Second Life

After
This is a summary of a notecard. The notecard (available in the Tourist Information Center) has the inworld teleport links. 

The newcomer to Second Life usually starts their building practice using prims (short for 'primitives'). Their default texture is plywood, and most things you make look nicer after having some other texture applied.

A good texture can improve even a mediocre build or object. You can also use textures on some clothing so that what you are wearing is unique. This guide is for the person who would like to try playing with textures, but isn't sure where to start.

Look in your inventory first: You already have a lot of free textures there. Just scroll down to "Library" and then go to the different texture folders. The terrain textures, which match the ground in different parts of Second Life,  are particularly useful for camouflage. If you have a parcel on the Mainland, you can click on the 'World' tab, then 'Region Details', then 'Terrain' and you can see what terrain textures will match your ground.

Each of the First Generation Linden Communities also has a small kiosk in their welcome area where you can pick up copies of the textures that were used in that particular neighborhood. (Since these First Generation Linden Communities are supposed to be closed in the future, they may be gone soon.)
  • The texture dispenser for Tahoe Infohub is at Tahoe Springs.  You will land inside the building. The dispenser is outside on the porch overlooking the larger lake.
  • The texture dispenser for Elderglen infohub is in Elderglen. This time you'll land outside the main building. Go upstairs and to the right to find the dispenser on the left. Also, check out Silent Mole's outhouses (for use of Tahoe residents only).
  • The texture dispenser for Shareta Osumai infohub is in Shareta Osumai but you can't teleport directly. Walk uphill and after you've gone past the Temple of the Mole Gods you will find the dispenser on the porch of the next building. It's a nice walk
  • The texture dispenser for Meadowbrook infohub is not in Meadowbrook, it is in Bucksnort.  For once, you should land right next to it if you teleport.
The Second Generation Linden Communities (Bellisseria) provide a few textures as part of the housing pack, but you have to claim a premium home to get the pack. That is, if you want the texture pack and accessories for a Victorian home, you would have to claim a Victorian home.


The DPW (Department of Public Works) has also placed free items used in their building in other places.

  • In Zindra (The "Adult" continent) I found a dispenser that has modern textures, landscaping items, and some futuristic houses at the Port of Kama City. Go up the stairs and you will see the kiosk on your left.  
  • A good resource for textures used by the Linden Department of Public Works is the Mole Mart at Leafminer. There are road textures here, and objects that you might find along roads, like lampposts and hedges.
  • There are three places in Bay City to pick up textures, houses, and other items.  These are the Airport, the Train Station, and the Community Center.  The Bay City Textures are in fushia containers.  You may want to pick up some other freebies.
  • Half-Hitch Island - This is a location that seems to have only one landing point. You will land on the pier. You will have to walk towards the land, then through the tunnel to a boathouse. You will find the textures in a crate marked "Slop Bucket"
  • Nautilus. 

Resident-Made Textures

Many residents have donated their own textures to the community, and boxes of these textures can be found at different freeby sites.

Torley is an amazing person who has created hundreds of free textures. You can find his textures in several places, but I recommend getting them at Torley Island.

One of the most venerable resources for free textures used to be Yadni's Junkyard. Alas, it is no more. I just put a collection of Myst/Riven textures I got at Yadni's in my Marketplace store (Look for "My favorite freebies")

Worth a look: Freebie Galaxy has Fifteen floors of freebies, but no textures that I could see outside of the paintings on the fourteenth floor. Still, it is worth going to see at least once. Look out for griefers.

The Nix Bazaar at Stillman. Stillman has an interesting collection of freebies which include items that used to be in the old library. I found several boxes of freebie textures on the second floor on the west side.

Newcomer Island: Free textures are now located near the Building Tutorials.

Dreams has some free textures in boxes near the Northwest Corner.

USC Lucky Dip
If you want to see what the leading-edge texture artists are doing, and want to familiarize yourself with the wonderful texture resources there are in Second Life,  I would recommend joining a few "texture hunts" where you will have the opportunity to visit different shops that sell textures.. Since dates and locations change, try looking at someplace like USC Textures. Outside the larger USC building there are other, smaller, texture stores.

Arcadia Asylum made thousands of free objects that she gave away while she was in Second Life. Her fans have set up a freebie site on the Marketplace called "Aley Mart" - after you find the Marketplace shop, look for 'textures'. Note that 'search' in Marketplace is wonky, so try putting in different key words if you don't find the textures right away.
Mieville Pond is a great place to go ito see many of the wonderful things Aley made and to learn more about her..


NCI: More textures are on their freeby board.

I know I've left out some great sites, but I hope this is enough to get you started.

Please note, even the best-curated sites may inadvertently include a "freebie" texture that the original creator meant to be for sale. If you are not sure about a texture you want to use, you can IM the person who is listed as making it to make sure it is all right to use.

Now, before you go out and try to texture everything in sight here are some suggestions -



Example of free texture organizer
First - go to the Marketplace and pick up a free texture organizer to help you manage your inventory. Today I found two free organizers on the Marketplace. The one I had been using was from Rayne Keynes and came with the disclaimer "If you paid even 1L$ for this you were ripped off." I notice there are some not-free texture organizers on the Marketplace that look remarkably similar to the free one I have. Makes you cynical.

Second - Once you've tried out a few free textures, you will probably want to learn more. There is a GREAT course on textures at the The Texture Tutorial building.
Texture Learning Center
There is also a building nearby that sells some of Robin Sojourner Wood's excellent books on how to make and deal with different kinds of textures. She also sells textures and instructions on the Marketplace, and has some excellent on-line tutorials.

Some basic rules for texturing.

1. Don't use a large texture when a smaller texture will do. (512 rather than 1024).

2. Don't texture what you or others can't see.

3. Try to use Library textures before you purchase or make exotic unique textures. Yes, sometimes you have to have a special texture, but don't overdo it. Multiple large and/or unusual textures can cause 'texture lag'.


See the SL Wiki on Texture Usage for more information.


Have fun texturing the castle!

Note: Sometimes when you buy a texture, you will find it has 'diff', 'normal', and 'spec' versions. See Jeremy Linden's excellent explanation of how to use these when texturing. 







Changes in Second Life







If you haven't been to Second Life lately, here are some of the changes I've noticed since the last time I was here.

New Bento Project for avatars means that they've added 106 new 'bones' to the avatar frame to expand rigging and animation support, and 15 new attachment points. Most of the 'bones' seem to be in the fingers and face, but there are also bones for wings, hind legs, tail and ....groin.  If you have the right animations you will be able to move more realistically, and clothes made for the new avatars will fit better. Your old clothes and animations might not work so well with the new bodies
The old attachment points from a poster in Caledon.

Although the use of mesh has transformed a lot of things, not everyone is using it, or using it well, and there are people still using sculpts and prims.

Lowered land-use fees. If you pay tier directly to Linden Labs, you should be getting more for your money. The prim limits have also been raised about 150%.
If you choose to be a premium member, you can claim a new Linden home (the new ones look much improved) or if you want to buy a parcel, you can have a plot of up to 1024square meters (the old allowance was 512square meters) without having to pay tier. If you choose the Linden home the lot comes with it, but if you want to live on the Mainland you will have to find and pay for a lot. 

The new Linden Houseboats, with docks.
If you are renting from a second party, they should pass those savings onto you.
One of the new Linden Homes

For 30L a week you can have a place page set up for your region or parcel so that you are easier to find in search. Previously you could only choose "find in search".


You may be able to set more environmental controls for individual parcels, such as setting 24-hour days and different windlight settings.


Mainlanders can now use the Linden Land Auction to sell their own property.


Second Life has started putting video travelogues on their main page.


My brief week's experience has shown me that, even though I have the same old computer, lag seems to be less (I'm using Firestorm).


Some of the mole-managed landscapes seem to have improved, although I'm still seeing the old stock trees and plants in places.

The performance of NPC animals and avatars has become more realistic.


We're supposed to be able to get last names "pretty soon now".


Yavanna Llanfair's free transportation system is still running. I took a pod ride on Route 4 yesterday, and it was a good opportunity to see what the new landscape looks like.  The increased land allotment for Premium members, and the increased prim allowance, seems to have resulted in a few more big ugly buildings, although there are still many 'homelike' structures.


As for Sansar, it seems to be live and active; however, I don't have the computer resources to visit yet. A lot of people thought that Sansar would bleed residents from Second Life, but so far that doesn't seem to have happened much, although Pfaffendahl 1867 did leave.


Ana Imfinity's SLGI transportation system is gone, as are AnneMarie's self-crashing buses and other vehicles. 


A lot of my favorite old places still seem to be there, although some of them haven't updated their content. 



Premium users will have a longer transaction history on their account, and be able to have increased inbox message storage.

Infrastructure is supposed to be moving to the Cloud, which is alleged to improve performance.

There seem to be more sites offering "Skilled Gaming".



The site of the old Tourist Information Office



Sidenote: At first I had been undecided about setting up another Unofficial Tourst Information site. 

Then I went looking at other Tourist Information places and found that my old group, RiverRun Real Estate and Renovation still owns the parcel in Cecropia.

Most of the site is water, but I will try to work with it, and see if this time I don't get carried away.

Art in Second Life: Resident Earl Dinkin (Revised March 2021)



Earl Dinkin's Art, Poetry, and Sculpture

Unfortunately, Earl Dinkin sold all his properties in Second Life in 2021 because of expenses. I will miss visiting his art galleries and his art. 

You can see a lot of his art online, though, at:


http://www.epicdewfall.ca/faq.shtml
https://www.artblr.com/epicdewfall

among other places

-----------------------------------what follows is now, sadly, outdated---------------------------------------
(Used with permission of the Artist)

"What is art?" has many answers from "I don't know about art, but I know what I like" to "Art is what affects you by its beauty or emotional impact."

In Second Life we are surrounded by art.  A build or a landscape can be a work of art. An avatar who carefully puts together a body, attachments, and animations can be a work of art. Art can be region-wide interactive installations, public performances, or machinima.

And there is the art that you know is "Art" because it is put into an Art Gallery.

I read that at one count there were over a thousand art galleries in Second Life. I've been to a lot of them and many just contain reproductions taken from 'real life'. They don't take advantage of Second Life's unique environment. 

I especially like the galleries of Earl Dinkin. Although the majority of his work is in pastels that look the same in real life as in Second Life, the way he has displayed the art differs tremendously. Each gallery is architecturally distinct.
I found the first gallery by accident. I  noticed sculptures on a lawn next to the road.  Further from the road, by the water, was the building with the flooded basement that gave the gallery its name.

The Flooded Basement Gallery


Yes, that's a washing machine on the left

Later I was to visit more of Earl Dinkin's galleries in Second Life. Each one is different, but they all display some of the hundreds of pastel drawings that the artist has created using his lucid dreaming technique. 

When you visit them be sure to read the text over each painting. Note how the art is placed in the gallery and the way the gallery is set up. I don't recommend trying to visit all of the galleries in one go, you can get museum fatigue.

The True Gallery Called Remember: (No longer there.)


The True Gallery Called Remember


This Galley had some of my favorites pastel paintings like "The Cat saying we could Never be Friends Explaining its Paw over the Barrier demonstrates its Political Views are too Radical fo Me."

Eveything for the Complete Space Traveler:

Paintings on display under the observation window


 This gallery hangs in the sky over Miffen Shade.

The Deep Art Deep Gallery:

Deep Art Deep Gallery

Far under water the paintings float in a submerged living room. A dolphin seems to be inspecting one. 


The Gallery that Will Never Thrill:

The Gallery That Will Never Thrill


 A black circular building. A dark hallway surrounds an open center with....a circular pen with a grazing sheep.


The If Work Art Gallery. 


The outside of the house is all glass.

The Gallery of Undecided Sun: 

From above, outside the Gallery.

Galley of some paintings and sculpture inside a modern house on the water. Outside is the "Home Hydrogen Generator"

As of today's update there are at least ten Earl Dinkin galleries in Second Life. The best way to get up-to-date landmarks is to check the inworld artist's profile, or pick up the latest notecard at the Tourist Information Office in Maryport.

About the Artist:


Earl Dinkin in Second Life is a Canadian artist whose pseudonym is "Epic Dewfall". Check the web for current articles. 

His paintings are done in pastels in real life and transferred to Second Life. He has also started to do digital art. His sculptures are unique to Second Life.

The Poetry:  

Most of his poetry is in the form of quatrains. Here is one I like:


Rank  #1800  


That is the strongest shield.
When anger sounds like don't.
Nothing can hurt the warmth of self.
When a kitten's hidden in your coat.

Several of his galleries have "Quatrain columns" that you can buy, and they will emit random quatrains in the same way that some creators make structures that emit butterflies.

The Sculpture:

There is not as much sculpture as there are paintings and poetry.

The Eagle Sculpture


(Revised 3-12-22)

Update 6-5-2023 - 

There is a new gallery of his work at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rowling/202/181/72_, called "Rowling Gallery" . It is owned and operated by a resident called Buddercup Bellambi - it is not clear what their relationship is to the artist, except that they are a member of the Society of Lucid Dreamers.




How Not to Buy Real Estate in Second Life

(This entry was originally posted July 25, 2016 and has been updated)

An English teacher once told me "Write what you know about" so I figure I'm probably an expert on "How not to buy land"

I started out renting on part of a large island estate, and then rented a lot in a themed community. I bought my first Mainland in Green, and didn't realize at the time that being able to dig a hole down to the water line wasn't something you could do everywhere in Second Life.

Later I tried to make money in virtual real estate by buying small parcels, fixing them up, and reselling them for a profit. This is called 'flipping'. Along the way I made every mistake in the book. I eventually realized that I wasn't going to get rich that way, but  I had a lot of fun and did eventually learn to avoid some mistakes.

First, don't ignore free in-world advice.

Resident Lindal Kidd used to give lectures on real estate at Oxbridge in Caledon  I learned a lot from her. She also used to have a lot of good information on her website that was expressed much more elegantly and clearly than mine. Unfortunately, this information is no longer available. 

Don't confuse 'virtual' with 'real' land. 

With virtual real estate you are buying the right to use a parcel as long as you are willing to pay the monthly fees, and as long as the servers hold out.

Try renting before you buy.  

Are you ready to stay for the long term? If you are not ready to become a Premium member you can rent a variety of properties from estate managers or land managers. Once you've become Premium you may choose a Linden home or you can purchase a parcel on the Mainland (I won't be talking about buying whole islands or sims - By the time you're ready for that you won't need this article - I hope.)

Don't confuse renting with paying tier


When you rent you are paying an estate manager or property owner who is in turn paying tier to Linden Lab. If you buy a small parcel on Mainland you will pay tier directly to Linden Lab after you have paid the former owner (or the Auction House) for the property.  I won't go into the ongoing debate about "rent or buy" - just know that the land owner may be able to charge you less for rent than you would be paying in tier if you purchased the same-sized property on the Mainland. Big property owners get volume discounts.




Note that the first 1024 square meters is "bonus tier" that Premium members will not be charged for. If you click "buy land" you will get a message telling you what your new tier level will be. You can also add "what if's" to the tier chart to get an idea of what your new tier would be in case you might press the "Buy" button by mistake, but be sure to change everything back when you are through, so that the Lindens don't charge you more. Be sure that the circled checked marks your actual tier level. With the increased prim allowance, you can put a decent house on that size parcel.

Note that there is no sliding scale - you buy one square meter over your level and you are in the next tier level. (This is why you will find little parcel slivers all over Second Life made when someone realized "I'm not using all my prim allowance, so why don't I hack off the back 40 and reduce my tier?") Also note that you are charged for the most land you own at any time during the tier period, so don't think you can buy that humongous piece of property and re-sell it before tier time and not have to pay tier on it. The rates for large "islands" or sims separated from the Mainland are different, and I'm not going into that there. There are also some discounts for land held by groups.

Don't forget that you don't actually 'buy' land from anyone but Linden Lab, what is sometimes listed as a "buying" charge for a rental is actually more of a security deposit.


Don't forget to read all the rules and covenants before you rent.

If you buy land on the Mainland there aren't a lot of rules and that can be a mixed blessing. That means that you can practise building and not worry about some home-owner's association sending you a nasty letter, but it also means your neighbor can build anything he wants to as well.
Rental land usually has more rules or covenants, so read the rules before you rent.

Don't forget to find out more about the person you are paying for the land - is he or she actually listed as the owner, or did he just put a box down on some vacant land?


Don't think "Property values are sure to go up." 

Supply and demand determines the market and unfortunately, there is currently a drop in the demand for the less desirable virtual real estate. This means that if you just want a parcel to place a skybox, you can probably find property for less than 1L per meter. Here are some of my ideas on why that may be: 
  • There just aren't as many residents as there used to be in the boom years when Linden Labs was making new continents like crazy - some former residents have moved on to the next big thing . When Second Life started there were few competitors, but now, according to  Hypergrid Business, there were 277 OpenSim grids alone, and a few of them offer free land or other benefits in order to get customers. (I did rent a parcel in Inworldz for a while - but it just wasn't the same as Second Life).
  • The advent of sculpted prims and mesh means you need less land because you don't need as many prims to build.
  • Many merchants who used to have stores inworld have moved to "Marketplace Only" to save expense and effort.
  • Talk about "Sansar" has left a lot of people uneasy about the future of Second Life.

Good land, in a desirable location, still commands high prices.


Don't be too reluctant to buy a higher-priced property. 

A bargain parcel is no bargain if you end up hating it, but paying a little extra for something you love is certainly worth it.  Property prices change, but the same-sized parcel will affect your tier the same way no matter where it is on the Mainland. That landlocked 1024 surrounded by neighbors with ban line, security orbs, and strange political views is going to cost you the same tier as a 1024 on a protected-view beach with nice neighbors.

Don't think "I can fix this terrain with a little terraforming" 

The odds are good that you won't be able to terraform very much, if at all.

From the Wiki:  "Most mainland can be raised/lowered by 4 meters (+/-)

Land in Bay City, Boardman, Brown, De Haro, Kama City regions, Nautilus City regions, Nova Albion regions, and Shermerville regions cannot be terraformed at all, nor can land around Linden Homes.

A few very old mainland regions like Da Boom have a terraform range of 40 meters (+/-) but even that has its limits (more on that in another article.)

Estate Owners/Managers on private islands may set terraform ability to a maximum of 100 meters (+/-) but most of them limit what their tenants can do."

All of the above are the reasons that terrain prostheses are so popular. (In my opinion, a lot of them are very ugly.)

Don't think: "Well, the terrain is a little dull, I'll just plant a little grass"....

Trust me, don't choose terrain you can't live with, because you probably can't change it. If you are an estate owner you can choose your terrain textures, but most of us are stuck with what we have.  You may be able to alter things a bit with some minimal terraforming, (see above) but you are limited by terrain. Each region was originally created with four textures, but the heights at which one terrain changes to another vary so that the whole place doesn't look like a layer cake. 

These were my terrain options on a parcel in Chartreuse. Using Firestorm, I went to World, Region / Region Details/ Terrain. Most of the options are blacked out because I'm not an estate owner or manager, but you can see that water height on this parcel is 20 meters. You also see the four default textures for the region and with a short search you should be able to find these same textures in your Library in case you want to do match an object with the terrain (Like make a camouflaged roof for an underground room.)


Terrain chart for land that can be terraformed a bit






Texture on terrain dropdown, and same texture in Library.


If you really want a lawn - there are at least two solutions: there are gadgets that allow you to make sculpties that can be textured to cover your land, or you can just do the "rezz a big prim and texture the top" thing.  I happen to like JVTEK LandMap, for sale on the Marketplace. It works best on smooth flat surfaces.




Don't buy a parcel without checking to make sure that the seller hasn't put a small square of land in the middle that he is saving to sell to you later - at a higher price.





Don't buy a parcel just because you've fallen in love with the house and the landscaping. 


This was a wonderfully landscaped little island with a cute
cottage that was for sale. 
I derendered the water, the house, and the landscaping to
see what I would get if I bought it "Objects not included". 
The red lines are property lines - I enhanced them to make
them easier to see. 

If the "About Land" reads "objects not included" then all you are getting is the land.  If you've ever gone real estate shopping in real life you know that sellers 'stage' houses by doing things like picking up clutter, putting an apple pie in the oven, and setting up the furniture so the place looks like it should be in a magazine. When you buy the property in real life you won't get the apple pie or the fancy furniture, but you probably will get the house and the landscaping. In Second Life, if the property is for sale "Objects not included" you just get the land, and you need to try to imagine the property as you will get it. Take advantage of the seller's expertise and take photos and write down the name of the objects and their creators so that you can duplicate what you see. Some of those 'stagers' are geniuses.

Note that if you are considering rental, you need to be clear on what will be included with the rental. Some landlords may offer you a choice of homes and furnishings, others just make everything disappear once they have gotten your payment. Always check with the landlord first, and don't make assumptions.

If you are buying or renting a parcel that says "Objects included" make sure that all objects are set to transfer and are transferred to you before you set up auto return. Check twice, buy once.


Don't buy a parcel with "house included" without checking the house first. 


I may be the only person in Second Life who has ever done this, but I once bought a piece of land that came with a nice house that ended up disappearing.  I wasn't there a lot but when I was I kept seeing an odd text message in one part of the living room. Finally I tracked down the cause - the house had been set down but hadn't been completely rezzed! When I finally completed the rezz I tried to modify the house and parts started to disappear. By that time the name of the seller on my transaction history had timed-off & I was too embarrassed to ask Linden Lab for help.  I guess the next "Don't" would be

Don't forget to write down the name of the person and/or group you are buying the property from.

Oh, and if this is your only property be sure to set "Home"; if this is one of several properties be sure to make a landmark so you can remember where it is...(You can look in your Account Information if you forget). Also, go through the permissions carefully and be sure to set some kind of auto-return time after you are listed as owner of any "Objects included". Check "allow public access" unless you only want access for members of your group - otherwise everyone else will see banlines and new friends may consider you rude if they decide to stop by.


Don't forget to check out the traffic in the neighborhood 



While it is nice to be in a popular area you don't want so much traffic that you can't get in to the sim when it is too crowded.  A lot of traffic may be good if you want to open a store, but in a place where most people teleport the term 'foot traffic' is meaningless. Here is a screen shot of a 'for sale' parcel next to a popular establishment. Search statistics indicate that the place next door has traffic of 15142.  What I find interesting is that the little 512 plot is going for 25,000 when it is landlocked and the only way to get there is through teleporting or by flying.  The land entrance to the popular establishment is also on the other side of the sim and there is no way to get there unless you go around by the road. The odds of someone going to the popular establishment and then seeing the little shop behind it are probably very slim.



Property for sale next to popular establishment.



Don't forget to check the property around the parcel. It is also a good idea to just sit on the parcel for a while until everything nearby has had a chance to rezz. Also, what looks like a vacant lot may turn out to just be land under "Zaza's BoomBoom Skyroom."

If the parcel infromation tab tells you that most of the nearby parcels were recently claimed, then that might be an indication that someone bought a larger piece of land and split it to sell it. I've seen large parcels of oceanfront split into multiple 512 parcels that made me think of a miser cutting cake. 

Buying land near parcels that have been set with "0" auto return can be a problem because griefers and squatters look for parcels set with "0" return. They even have gadgets that tell them how to find "rezz land". Linden Lab has been very good lately about setting empty land to zero, but private property owners sometimes forget.



Land near Metaphysical Bridge that was left with 0 
return. Someone not the property owner has put up a
wall of animated monkeys, and someone who is not
the owner either has tried to cover the animated
monkeys with a sheet of plywood. Yes, I notified the
owner some time ago about this. Perhaps she likes
monkeys.  



Land near Infohubs may or may not be good, but if you plan to build on ground level you should be prepared for occasional visits by newbies.  I also tend to steer clear of properties where the neighbor has banlines and/or security orbs. I would like the neighbors to get to know me before they ban me. You can make banlines visible by clicking 'show banlines' under 'World' settings.


Don't forget to check "Advanced", Highlighting and Visibility, and Highlight Transparent to check out the neighborhood. Also, derender water (Under Advanced/Rendering Type/Water - be careful when you do this) is a good tool for seeing underwater terrain (and for finding interesting things the Moles have hidden on the sea bottom). 


Here we see that what looked like clear sailing included an 8000+ parcel of private land with a ten-second security orb.  Checking further, I found that there is a only one small clear channel through which you could sail through several sims until you reached some protected water , but you would have to be a good navigator. I tried following the channel by using the world map, but ran into quite a few ban lines and two 10-second security orbs.
Looks like clear sailing from here!



Here I derendered water to show the property lines -
The property owner on the right has an 8000+ parcel
with a ten-second security orb. 


Here is where you find "Highlight Transparent"






After "Highlight Transparent" (fortunately the spheres are phantom).

Don't buy or rent property from any company that has put a large "sky sign" over the map, or from a company that has large domes hovering so close to the ground that they show up on the map.

In my opinion these are people who have absolutely no aesthetic sense and who don't love Second Life - otherwise they wouldn't ugly up the map with their signs and objects. A lot of them also have ban lines and security orbs around their parcels so that the large graphic has no purpose, because someone who was not already renting from them who tried to teleport there would be promptly booted. I guess it is just their way of marking territory. Also, if you buy land near a large dome that is hovering less than 300 feet from the ground, you may get shadows on the ground, and then of course you have to look at their builds....


How sweet, a giant heart

Underwater view from an abandoned parcel next door to one
of those ugly skysores* - the base is a mishmash - 
what looks like an old piece of privacy screen(we're underwater
here, folks), some giant rocks, and otherwise shoddy construction.
Above water isn't much better - just a big "privacy screen". - some "Heart"

*you find a lot of abandoned parcels near this kind of thing...
















Here's an ugly dome on map view. 
Up close - you can see some of the base pad sticking out -
what this person has done is put up a stack of mega-domes
so that each renter can have "a whole sim". 





If you lived below this ugly thing, this is what you would
have to look at. 

You can guess that I hate flying domes.

Don't forget to find out whether you are buying land or water.



You may prefer to live on or under water, but you should check anyway. I have this funny thing about wanting to put my virtual feet on the virtual ground. 
From below, you can see that most of the 'land' is just above water.








From above it looks like a sandy plot.
































Don't forget to check the shape of the parcel


Sometimes it is hard to see the property lines, so you can go to "World", "Show More" and then "Show Land Owners". Land for sale will show up as a bilious yellow, land that is not for sale will show up as red, parcels you own will show up as bright green, land that is up for auction will show up as purple, and SL Public Land Preserve Land will show up as a sort of blue/green. I have actually travelled around with this setting turned on, but after a while my computer starts showing me some interesting patterns, so I don't recommend doing it for too long. Also note that it takes a while for the landmaps to change color, so you may arrive at what looks like a yellow or purple parcel only to find it has already been sold.

Most land descriptions are accurate -  but if you are planning on sailing from your front dock be wary of lots that seem to be on the water but are described as "Beautiful sunset view". Which leads me to my next topic...


Don't confuse "water land" with "The Great Nothing".

The Mainland Continents are bordered by varying amounts of sailable water. In some areas (Like the Blake Sea) there are many sailing sims, in other area the land may just be cut off at the edge of what I call "The Great Nothing" (others call it "The Void Ocean"). Both sailable water and The Great Nothing are colored blue on the map, so you need to check to make sure.
It sure looks like water.
With water derendered, the Void Ocean shows up
as black.



When true water is de-rendered, you will see one of the landscape textures.





Standing at the edge of The Great Nothing

Don't get confused by "Off-Sim" objects.  A few talented builders have managed to figure out ways to project the image of things like rocks and waves past the edge of the sim, but it takes skill. Always wade out to make sure.

Even if you determine it is sailable water, check to see if there is a clear path to sail.

Don't be afraid to buy land through the Second Life Auctions.  

Any Premium member can bid on land, and there are usually a few 512 and 1024 parcels up for bid. Also, if you find an abandoned piece of land that you really think you like, you can ask Linden Lab to put it up for auction and you can bid on it when it comes on the list.

The auctions are now also offering "Person to Person" auctions on their Auction Site. You may also find listings in the land section of the SL Forums, the Marketplace, and in 'the classifieds'. Note that some of the land listings in the Marketplace that say '0' Lindens, are just referring you to their main land office. There is no free lunch. I have also found that if you have your map in 'Search' mode and click on a sim you can get a listing of what is for sale there.

Don't go shopping for land when you are hungry or sleep-deprived

Don't ask me what parcel I bought while researching this article. Maybe I can raise mountain goats on it.  

Don't automatically avoid odd-shaped or vertical parcels. 

Building on the side of a mountain or on an odd-shaped lot can be challenging, but there may be advantages. I saw a parcel in Mimas where the owner had a sliver of land on one side that was just wide enough to put a stairway to the nearby road.

Vertical land can also have its advantages. A build on the side of a mountain may give you a nice view. The property shown was only 1168 square meters, so I'm guessing that land in Second Life is determined "as if" the land were flat, just like in real life. Time to be creative!
On the map.

Viewed inworld with "Show Property 
Owners" viewer option. Photoshopped
to show edges more clearly. 
Here is the view from that lot - very nice!
Don't not buy a property because one of the neighbors has rezzed something you don't like. 

"De-render" is your friend. If you can derend it temporarily, you can blacklist it permanently. Now, I wasn't able to de-render that big blue dome thing, but I was able to permanently de-render a political poster on one of my neighbor's builds. (Don't do this too much, or you will be bumping into things.)(3-27-19: I've been trying to de-render my neighbor's ugly cube, but de-render doesn't seem to be working today. Worth a try, though.)


Added 7-28-16, thanks to information from a SL forum member:

Don't forget to check the number of avatars allowed on the Region if you are planning on having parties or hosting events.  

Contribution by Aethelwine:


"One additional problem you might want to mention land buyers look out for if they are wanting to have parties are the numbers of avatars allowed on the Region. Homesteads have 20, Estate managers on private estates can set an avatar limit that will often be 100 or reduced to 60. Mainland the avatar limit is generally 40 people, but some sims have the setting reduced to 30 for whatever reason and that can be a nasty surprise you find out after purchase and when you are wondering why your guests can't get in to your party it is a bit too late."

Some useful terms:

Double prim - On Mainland Bay City and some areas near the Welcome Area have double the prim allotment. These lots are usually more expensive. On private estates managers can also set land up so that renters have more prims than they would on a normal lot of the same size.

Protected - this usually means that you have a road, or a piece of protected land on one or all sides. Being next to a piece of abandoned land is not 'protected' because the land could be put up for
auction. Being next to Linden 'Maintenance' land is more safe.

From Prokofy Neva:


"I would add a few other basics:
-Take off "water" on the "Advanced" menu while also checking off "see property owners" and "land borders" under "world". This way you can see what is hidden under water instantly without worrying about "transparent".
 - Don't buy near sim seams. This can cause havoc at times when you rez things that might temporarily may need to go beyond the border of your property. Ditto Linden protected land. While Linden land adds value and helps the view it can also be a problem sometimes.
- Take off "volume" on the "Advanced" menu -- unscrupulous land dealers often put strange builds or boards on the land that might hide the fact that a 16 m or 32 m parcel is still owned by them after the sale of the bulk of the parcel which they may then try to extort a price from you for to "save the view". Have had this happen EVEN WHEN I took off volume so look with "midnight" on to see the parcel borders carefully.
- Check all your neighbours' claim dates. Neighbours with claim dates for years or even just a year are a sign of happiness with that area, whereas if they are all new, you can be in an infestation of land flippers or a place that has some hidden problem like a club in the sky where 40 avatars take up all the slots every night.
- Yes, look in the sky -- go to world/map, type in the number 4096 in the coordinates and then "fall" through the sky to see what is above you -- it might be in the view or be a club or some problem
- Don't buy land with nearby problems that you think you will get a neighbour to "fix". They almost never do, and asking them may inspire them to make it worse."


Thank you to everyone who contributed. 

How I Bought My Most Recent Parcel

When I came back to Second Life I chose to become a Premium member. I wanted a base, and I considered choosing a Linden home, renting, or buying a parcel on the Mainland. I checked listings in various places, and I cammed and teleported around the edges of several continents. In the end I chose a 1024 parcel on the east coast of Satori, with an unobstructed ocean view, and some maintenance and abandoned land on three sides. It's not perfect, but it could have been worse. (More on this later).

Here's a nightmare further south:
The yellow squares represent land for sale.


















I went to investigate the 1536 parcel on one edge. It was advertised as "Unblockable view", and that, of course, was correct, because it was on the edge of The Great Nothing. I checked several of the other plots that were for sale and found that most of them had been purchased by one company on March 4th of this year. Apparently a large parcel had been acquired and then split up for sale. All the parcels on the right two-thirds of are actually on plats above water. This is one of my pet peeves, because not only do the folks who thought they had 'waterfront' land not have access to sailing water, no one else can sail past because the Lindens sold parcels right up to the edge of The Great Nothing.

The new passages on the north of Jeogeot give me hope that they may be realizing that it is a good thing to provide lots of places for residents to sail.

End of rant.

Added: I found a good video on "How to Buy Land in Second Life" by Mangrovejane. 





































Nostalgia by Cica Ghost in Second Life

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mysterious%20Isle/112/113/27 At the exhibit you can get a free ventilator hat almost like Cica's B...