Those Little Questions: All About Skyboxes

Here’s another in my series of questions and answers inspired by the search terms that bring people to this blog. I’ve been pasting all of the questions into a file so that once I have enough I can write up a post, and I noticed that a great many of the search queries concern skyboxes, so that’s what this post is all about.

Hop behind the cut to learn all about skyboxes, including:

What is a skybox?
Where do I get a skybox?
How do I make a skybox?
How do I place/rez a skybox?
How high can I put a skybox?
Where can I get land to place my skybox?
Is a skybox private?
How do I get inside a skybox? There’s no door in mine!

Edited to add new skybox questions:

Can a skybox home be placed on the ground?
How do I get access to my friend’s skybox?
How do I get music in my skybox only?
Can I have a skybox if I own a Linden Home?
Can any house be used as a skybox?
Can I remove furniture from a fully-furnished skybox?
Can I build my skybox on someone else’s land, or on land that’s been abandoned?
Does my landlord own my sky box?

PSA: Group Invites

It’s happened to us all (or, if you’re brand new to Second Life, it will happen to you soon enough). We land in a new region or store, and from the top-right of our viewer, down slides the ubiquitous ‘blue flag’ of a group invite. Just like this one:

Blahblah Avatarname has invited you to join a group…

Well, let’s just say it’s a store you’ve seen featured on a blog. You loved the style of the clothes in the store, and you know the store owner gives out regular freebies. You want to know when those freebies will be available, so joining the store’s group seems to be the best way, since that’s how most store owners let their customers know about new things (and freebies) they’ve made.

So there’s the group invite. “Yay!” you think. “I don’t have to hunt around for a group join thingy to click!” Your cursor hovers over the ‘join’ button, you’re about to tap the mouse, when suddenly Mar looms up behind you and hollers in your ear:

WHOA THERE, COWBOY/GIRL!

Wait a cotton-pickin’ minute. Hold up with the click-happy finger!

Read that group invite again. Sure, you’ve seen them a hundred times before, but actually read it. I’ll wait…

…

…

Uh-huh. Did you spot that first time around? The 1000L$ join fee? Chances are that you probably did this time around, because you’re reading a blog post. But when you’re in-world and you’re buying stuff and grabbing freebies, clicking on that blue window repeatedly starts to lead you into SL’s version of Motorway Blindness. Click… click… click, and before you know it you’ve paid 250L$ for something you thought was a freebie, or you’ve accepted a TP offer to a packed-out party when you’re naked and trying on demo skins (it’ll happen one day; trust me!)

The moral of this post is to remind all of you reading this one thing: pay attention to those blue flags. Don’t just glance at them, especially when you’ve just logged in-world and you’re clicking away all the inventory offers, Midnight Mania gifts and all the other stuff we get bombarded with when we first rez in SL for the day.

Reminder

Free-to-join group invite:

Pay-to-join group invite:

Treasure Hunt Etiquette

Over the course of the two days it took me to complete the Twisted Hunt I met some great people, enjoyed some hilarious chat in the hunt group, and found some fabulous prizes. But also over the course of those two days I saw and heard about some pretty shoddy behaviour, and it’s that behaviour which has prompted me to write this post.

Most of this should be common sense, but it seems that a few people are lacking in common sense. Or, to put it a tad more bluntly: they’re rude. So this post is a short “Do’s and Don’ts” for treasure hunting. There are also lots of hints and tips for getting the best out of a hunt. I hope it helps some of you :)

Hop behind the cut.

Be fair to the boys

The (group-only) lucky chair at Silent Sparrow is a little bit different this month. It’s not giving out the whole suite of clothing for guys and girls; instead it’s giving out either the girls’ version or the boys’ version. (You can still buy the whole suite from the board right beside the chair, if you can’t wait or if your letter just never comes up.)

The great thing about hya’s clothes is that, even in the mens’ sets, she includes things such as cuffs and collars and coat tails fitted for female avatars as well as the men. But ladies, although we can comfortably wear the guys’ versions, they can’t quite comfortably wear the girls’ version! So if a male avatar is hovering around the chair with the same initial as you, and the chair comes up with that initial on the guys’ outfit? Be nice and let him hop on. You get much more choice than he does.

And if you’re the only one when your initial comes up on the guys’ outfit? Go for it, because it looks awesome on the girls, too.

Oh honey no: Professional begging

When I made my post about 30 things every newbie should know before starting Second Life, number 22 on the list was:

Don’t beg. It’s lame. There are few quicker ways to getting banned from groups and muted by large amounts of people, as asking them for “just 10L$ so I can upload a profile picture”.

The same person (not a newbie account) just popped up repeatedly in three large groups that I’m in, asking the same question each time. Now, I’ve not named-and-shamed since my money tree-hopping days, when I saw oldbie avatars taking money from glitchy trees: money that should have gone to newbies who needed it. But I’m going to do so now, and at the same time I’m going to warn you all about the Second Life Professional Panhandler.

Ravenglass Rentals Group (membership 630) – [2009/02/01 9:11]  Jordynn Bade: hey guys can anyone lend me 10l it would really help

Kurotsubaki Update Group (membership 1297) – [2009/02/01 9:28]  Jordynn Bade: hey guys can anyone lend me 10l it would really help

Ivalde, Embla & Ask Update Group (membership 4977) – [2009/02/01 9:29]  Jordynn Bade: hey guys can anyone lend me 10l it would really help

This avatar is a professional Second Life panhandler. The avi was created on July 18th 2007, so this is not a case of some poor newbie who really does need a few L$. Reloading her profile continually shows her with membership in different groups, and groups she was previously a member of just minutes before she is no longer a member of. The professional panhandler avatar joins several open-join groups (the larger the better) and asks for “just 10L” and says it’ll really help, or that they need to upload a photo for their profile.

It’s pretty much guaranteed that in such big groups, at least several people will fall for this. If the professional panhandler asks in enough groups with large memberships, they could easily ‘earn’ a couple of thousand L$ in a few minutes.

Easier than camping, non?

Don’t fall for it.

30 (and more) things every newbie should know before starting Second Life

Edit: OK, the number is increasing now. Scroll to the bottom for additional suggestions, credited to those that suggested them :)

Just a list, as the items have come to me. No doubt the number of items will increase (got something you think should be on the list? Leave a comment!)

Hop behind the cut, for 30+ things every newbie should know before starting Second Life.

There IS such a thing as ‘too close’

We all love a lucky chair (especially when it comes up with our letter!) and the best lucky chairs are the ones with ‘?’ in them (which anyone can sit on and win the prize for), and that change regularly.

Some of the best lucky chairs in that respect are the ones at Sn@tch. Ivey is incredibly generous to her customers, and sometimes the area around those chairs gets packed out. (When it does, check out the riot vendor right next to them, btw. I got a fab outfit there for just 50L$ yesterday, because there were so many people in the store!)

BUT. Yes, there’s a but. Ladies (and gents) please adhere to a couple of simple unspoken ‘Lucky Chair Etiquette’ rules.

1 – When you’ve won, move away from the chair as soon as you can.

2 – DON’T stand so close to the darn chair that you might as well be sitting in it anyway. In many cases (not by any means all of them), people do this in the mistaken belief they’ll be the first to jump on a wildcard round, but I’ve seen people leap from the other side of the room to get those, so don’t think that by standing with your shins banging against the chair you’ll be the first to get the prize. It’s also not going to ‘block’ the chair for other people.

This?

That’s way too close.

Yes, it could have been a mistake, or a simple case of a newbie not knowing what to do. But if you’re so close that you can smell the upholstery cleaner, then you’re too close.

Newbie Notes: Don’t get ripped-off #1 – Full-Perm/Resell/Businesses in a Box

Newbie Notes: Don’t get ripped-off #1 – Full-Perm/Resell/Businesses in a Box

OK, here’s yet another new series for the newbies here, and it’s called Newbie Notes. This series will, like all my other newbie ones, be collected together in a links list at the top of the blog: just look for the ‘Newbie? Start here’ tab :)

Newbie Notes is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while, and I intend it to be like an information area. I won’t be posting too frequently in this section, as my planned Newbie Q&A should hopefully deal with the “How can I…?” and “What does XXXX mean…?” questions newbies might have. Newbie Notes is more of an alert service, and thus we begin with a BIG alert:

Don’t get ripped-off!

As it happens in Real Life, so it happens in Second Life. SL is a fabulous place, full of wonderful things, but there are scammers waiting to con you out of your hard-earned L$ here, just as they sit in your email inbox, tell you to call expensive phone numbers to claim your mystery prize, and try to swindle you by every means possible in RL. It’s a fact of human existence that where there is money, there is greed, and virtual worlds are no exception.

So what ways can you be ripped-off in Second Life? I’m afraid that, as a clueless newbie, there are many ways you can get conned, and they’re not all instantly obvious.

The list that I’ll be compiling in the first part of this series is by no means a comprehensive one; it’s just the ways that I’ve come across and spotted in-world since I’ve been in Second Life. If any experienced readers have found other ways, I’d be very grateful for comments, especially if they include links to blog or forum posts about it, and hints and tips to help newbies avoid the pitfalls. I’ll amend this post accordingly, with credit for the authors of those comments/posts, etc.

Hop behind the cut, and we’ll get started with the first way you can be ripped-off: Businesses in a Box, Resell, Full-Perm and Stolen Content.

WARNING: The image immediately behind this cut is NSFW (Not Safe For Work)

OMG, please kill the lights n’ bling!

Hi, guys. No, I haven’t forgotten you. My in-world time has been severely limited lately. So when I do manage to finally log in so I can write a post that I’ve been wanting to make for weeks, the last thing I needed was to be blinded.

Some of you may have already read my old When is a facelight not a facelight? post. This one continues from that (and don’t worry; the freebie post I was at this place to make will follow shortly) and it’s a plea to everyone, in simple words: DON’T OVERDO IT!

So, someone landed close to me (not a newbie; this avatar was over a year old), and out of the corner of my eye, I saw sparklies:

These were no ordinary sparklies, though. For one thing, they were vicious. Not for this glitter-lovin’ lady the gentle *bling* *bling* or the subtle *plink* of occasional glimmerybits. Nope. This was full-on, eyeball-assaulting *WHAM!* *BAM!* with each bling script set to repeat as fast as possible. Ever tried to take a screenshot of someone wearing bling items, and ended up having to take several pics before the screenshot didn’t capture the bling every time? No such problems here; it was that continual.

But it gets worse…

Don’t fall for it

I’ve been sent an IM containing what looks like a scam hoping to pull in newbies with the promise of stupid amounts of free L$. The IM (which seems to have been sent to a LOT of people at random) reads thus:

[0:35] Gilchrist Kwassmann: Want some free lindens? we got a new system for you to make fast lindens upto $L5000/day, just go to ******************** <- check it out

I have, of course, excised the web address from the IM.

Newbies, if you get this IM, or any other like it, don’t fall for it. If it seems too good to be true (and this is too good to be true) then there’s a high chance it’s a scam.

(Yes, I searched for the avatar’s name, too. It doesn’t exist.)