Those Little Questions

Here’s another post in my Those Little Questions series. All of these questions come from the search terms that lead people to this blog, and you can find all previous questions posts by using the tag at the end of the post or in the sidebar.

Can you leave a note at someones house in Second Life?

Unless they have some form of mailbox or dropbox (which only business owners tend to make use of) then no. What you can do if you want to get in touch with the owner of a house, is to right-click on it and select Edit. Look under the General tab and you’ll see buttons for Creator and Owner. Click the Owner button and you’ll be sent to the profile of the person who owns the house. BE WARNED: This may not be the person who is living on the land! Often, rented land will come complete with an empty home (which will be ‘owned’ by the landlord), so I suggest you also use your camera to look inside and go into edit mode on a piece of placed furniture and check the owner of that, to make sure you’re not going to contact a landlord. Then, either send them an IM or write out a notecard and drag it onto their profile. Do please read their profile quickly first, as some people prefer to be contacted one way instead of another.

Are group chats logged in Second Life?

Yes. If you’re a member of a group in Second Life, and your client is configured to save conversations then all group chats that pop up on your screen will be saved with the rest of your logs. Everyone else in the group with those same settings will also have the chats saved.

How to change shape fast in sl

Have more than one shape in your inventory. Then, when you need to change your shape quickly, wear the new shape. It will immediately replace the old one.

How do you defeat red ban lines on sl?

If you’re not meant to be on that land, then you shouldn’t even be trying! However, general bans (eg: no public access or limited to group members only) tend to only go up to 50m, so flying above that height will get you past them if you simply want to fly over the land. You won’t be able to drop down onto the land once you’re over the ‘wall’ of banlines, though. It’s not a wall; it’s a box, and if you try to drop down then you’ll just end up bouncing on the top of that ‘box’. If, however, you are on a named banlist (ie: the land owner has banned you by name) then you’ll have to fly above 768m to get over the banlines.

What is a foot shaper?

A foot shaper is something you must wear with your shoes. It will squeeze your avatar’s feet into a peculiar shape so that their pixels won’t poke out through your shoes. In recent years, shoemakers in Second Life have used invisiprims (prims scripted to obliterate avatar ‘flesh’) to stop this from happening as well (although you still need to wear the foot shaper they provide). A big disadvantage of invisiprims comes when you’re standing on anything with an alpha (transparent or partially-transparent) layer, such as a fringed rug or Second Life’s natural water: the shape of the invisiprim will also obliterate the texture beneath it. A newer advance is the avatar Alpha Layer, which is kind of like a sock that does the same thing without that alpha glitch. It’s currently only effective while using the official Second Life Viewer 2. Other third party viewers are implementing it, but at the time of writing this there are still a few glitches in third party versions.

SL difference between skin and shape

A shape is a set of slider settings that will change the overall shape of your avatar, from the size of their feet to the tilt of their nose. You can access this by right-clicking on yourself and selecting Edit Appearance (note: if you are currently wearing a No Modify shape then you won’t be able to change it). A skin is the layer that goes over the top of your shape, kind of like a tattoo that contains all of your features.

Those little questions

Every day I glance at the search engine terms that bring people to this blog, and sometimes I see questions that, when put together, would make an interesting blogpost: a kind of random Q&A. So that’s exactly what I did.

Here is the first set of questions from the past week (my stats cut the final parts of most questions off, but they’re usually fairly obvious). Every time I get enough new questions I’ll make another post like this one.

How to check if friend has removed you from their friends list?
Simple: their name will no longer show up on your friends list.

Where are skin files located in Second Life?
In the Body Parts folder of your inventory. However, if you have bought a skin (even if it’s a freebie) it may appear in its own folder underneath all the main folders in your inventory (and the folder could have any name). It’s a good habit, at the beginning of your Second Life, to organise your inventory as you go along, so moving that skin folder into your Body Parts folder would make sense ;)

How do I sit on a chair to win in Second Life?
This is called a Lucky Chair. Lucky Chairs (there are also Lucky Boards) have a prize (or prizes) loaded into them, and they display a letter of the alphabet (sometimes a number, or a question mark). The chair/board will display this random letter/number/question mark for a set length of time and then (assuming nobody wins) will change to a new one. Most chairs and boards will show how many minutes remain before the letter changes. You win if your first name begins with the same letter that’s on the chair/board. If the chair/board is displaying a question mark then it’s a ‘wildcard’ round and anyone can sit/click and win. Right-click on the chair and select ‘sit’, or left-click on the board, and you will win the prize. The chair/board will then change to a new letter. More info on lucky chairs, lucky boards, and also on Midnight Mania can be found here.

How do I retire my avatar in Second Life?
Log into secondlife.com using your avatar name and password, and go to your Account page (click the arrow to the right of ‘Account’ in the left-hand sidebar to expand it). From there, click Cancel Account.

Are all money trees for newbies only?
In the main, yes. I’ve not seen or heard of any that pay out to older accounts.

How to tell if a ‘female’ avatar is really a man?
I’m afraid you can’t. Voice-changing software is readily-availably and extremely convincing. In addition, many people portray a different gender in SL than their RL gender, and for many reasons. Insisting that someone ‘voices’ with you is no guarantee that what you hear is genuinely them, and insisting on webcam (which, since SL currently has no webcam facility, would need to be via an external application) may cause offence.

How to buy a money tree in Second Life?
Go to the Wolfhaven Money Tree Headquarters in Silla: secondlife://Silla/176/37/74

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:

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.

Newbie Notes: No place like Home

Second Life is a fabulous place, and you can spend hours getting lost and wandering from place to place. Some people love the nomadic life, but others kind of yearn for a place to call Home.

At the New Citizens Inc Home Spot in Kuula, you can have a place to call Home. Search Groups for “New Citizens Inc.” and join the group (it’s free, and it’s the one with several thousand members). Then, head to the NCI Home Spot at their Kuula location, and while wearing your NCI group tag, navigate the menus in your SL viewer: World > Set Home to Here. You should see a blue popup flag in the lower-right of your viewer, telling you “Home position set”.

Edit: Now you can set your Home spot at any of the NCI campuses. Just look for the Home Spot ‘stone’ that you see in the image below.

Now, whenever you either open up your Map and click the ‘Home’ button, or use the hotkey combination [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+H you’ll teleport directly to your new Home location.

Here’s a pic of Roxie standing on the Home Spot (it’s actually a little bigger than that; you don’t have to stand directly on the stone) –

To check if you’re in the Home Spot, look at the top of your viewer, and you should see this:

NOTE: The NCI group is a very active one. As a newbie, you will find their many tutorials and classes very useful, but they send out a LOT of group notices. Your Home location will remain set at NCI, even if you leave the group, but if you want to remain in the group and opt out of receiving group notices then you can. Just click the group name in your Communicate > Contacts tab, click the ‘info’ button and uncheck the box at the bottom of the window that says ‘Receive group notices’. You can still check for anything you might miss that way by using the Notices tab on that same window.

NCI is a great place for newbies, so take some time to check it all out one day :)

The basics – 03 – How to fill out your profile

The basics – 03 – How to fill out your profile

This post is the third in a series aimed at newbies in Second Life. In the series, I hope to be able to answer all those questions that newbies have in-world and yet might not want to ask of anyone around them, for fear of appearing silly or noobish. There are no silly questions here; we all wondered these things when we first appeared in-world. *g*

In Second Life, we have two distinct advantages over Real Life. Firstly, we need never remember someone’s name, because it’s hovering above their head all the time. Secondly, we can read their profile and learn things about them, things they like to do, places they like to go, people they care for, languages they speak, and lots of other things. Imagine going to a Real Life party with the benefit of profiles! You’d never be at a loss for conversation…

Many newbies don’t even realise they have a profile, but we all have them. In this post, I’m going to go through each tab on the Edit Profile option, explaining what each bit is and means, and giving you ideas of what to do.

Hop behind the cut for more info.

The Basics – 02 – Inventory icons explained

UPDATE (June 1st 2010) – Scroll down to the bottom of this post for a quick visual of all the new icons being used in the new Second Life Viewer 2.

The Basics – 02 – Inventory icons explained

This post is one of a series aimed at newbies in Second Life. In the series, I hope to be able to answer all those questions that newbies have in-world and yet might not want to ask of anyone around them, for fear of appearing silly or noobish. There are no silly questions here; we all wondered these things when we first appeared in-world. *g*

This time we’re heading into the first of several posts about your inventory. This first post will explain the icons you’ll see in there, and the various items they are used for. All is not as obvious as it sometimes may seem!

Hop behind the cut to find out more.

Edit: Once again, WordPress ate the formatting of this post. *sigh* I think I’ve found a crafty workaround, though…

The basics – 01 – Getting stuff out of boxes

The basics – 01 – Getting stuff out of boxes

This post is the first in a series aimed at newbies in Second Life. In the series, I hope to be able to answer all those questions that newbies have in-world and yet might not want to ask of anyone around them, for fear of appearing silly or noobish. There are no silly questions here; we all wondered these things when we first appeared in-world. *g*

We begin with boxes. Some of the questions you might have about them are:

* I’m in a store and it has stuff that’s free and in boxes. How do I get it?
* Someone told me I need to ‘rez’ my stuff. What does that mean?
* I got this stuff, but it’s in a box. How do I get it out of the box so I can wear it?
* Why can’t I unpack my boxes here? I keep being told I don’t have permission.
* I tried to wear these clothes I got, but I’m wearing a box. What went wrong?
* I opened the box, but do I choose ‘Copy to inventory’ or ‘Copy and wear’?
* I opened the box, but what’s this about ‘you have selected no-copy items’?
* I opened the box and got the stuff out. Where did it go? How do I find it again?
* What do I do with the box once I’ve got the stuff out of it?

If you’re new, and you have any other questions about boxes, please do feel free to ask them in a comment here, and I will add to the post. I’ve tried to think of all the questions that might be asked, but there’s bound to be something that I’ve missed! Likewise, if you’re an older avatar and notice something that I’ve missed out, please let me know in a comment.

Hop behind the cut for answers to the questions listed above.