grief-free sandbox suggestion

Okay, so this might have some obvious reason why it won't work but I don't have anything else to do this morning so here's a suggestion...

Sandboxes are relatively impossible to build in now, especially on the ground. They are a nightmare of idiots and other griefers and crash on a regular basis due to teenagers playing with scripting, physics, guns and vehicles.

The only public sandbox that is any help at all in this regard is Newcomb because it is "no script." Serious new people who don't have anywhere to build, or builders that don't have enough land for the size of their build, *attempt* to build here every day.

I know because I am one of them.

The problem is even though it's no scripts allowed, some scripts still work and it seems if you leave the area your scripts will kick in and then you can come back and use them on people. So even though it's "no script," vehicles work, and weapons work, and physics work. IMO this kind of gets rid of about 90% of the advantage of having a "no script" building sim in the first place.

So my suggestion is ... since the large majority of people building in Newcomb are there because they don't need scripts and are mostly building sculptures, houses, etc., how about we turn off all the other crap as well?

- How about no physics? So the sim won't crash every ten minutes when the teenagers try to roll giant spheres down giant funnels (as if no one has ever thought of *that* before).

- How about some way of disabling vehicles for the sim? So your build won't be littered with crappy freebie jets, cars, dune-buggies etc. by asshole teens that then take off for the day?

- How about no sounds? So the asshole teenager with the Uzi can't make you jump a hundred feet by firing at the back of your head while your building, and so the giant explosions they set off all around you are minor annoyances instead of build-ending events?

A single sandbox that had all these features turned off (and was therefore actually for serious building), would no longer be an attraction for the large majority of the idiot/teenager population. The only reason people get bothered in Newcomb now is because they are quiet serious folk and therefore easy pickings considering the fact that you can practically do anything there that you can do anywhere if you try hard enough.

I like this especially, plus the "fix no scripts". I have a sim idea but it could be very prone to abuse by errant physical objects. It's starting to look like my sim will be designed to have almost everything turned off heh, but it will be necessary I think to keep it safe and fun.
Not sure how good it will be to implement though, as every object will need to be checked when rezzed so that the physical flag can be switched off or ignored. And any function that can turn physical on will be ignored.
This would cover the no vehicles aspect though, since vehicles are physical objects. Best not to actually change their settings then perhaps, but ignore it. Problem with vehicles though is that if you are flying over a parcel with this set, you'd just suddenly stop which isn't all that fun. Maybe have it effect only up to a certain height above the parcel so planes/balloons can fly past, but cars on the land itself are stopped?

I knew the problem was those rotten teen-agers!

Get off my lawn!!

In Second Life though, it's not prejudicial to finger teenagers as the source of the problem (they are indeed the source of the problem), as no one can tell your RL age.

"Teenagers" as a category in SL, consists of anyone (RL age 0 - 100), who act like damn teenagers!

So you can replace my "teenager" shorthand, with:

- "middle-aged dufus acting like teenager."
- "wannabe teenager."
- "childish and/or selfish avatar."
- "avatar obsessed with juvenile humour."

etc. etc.

The (few) RL teenagers that are undetectable as such are in this definition, not actually teenagers in the SL sense of the word.

Scripts that are attached to a control still work in "no script" zones, and this has to continue, otherwise flight would become impossible as the control scripts for your plane turned on and off as you flew over different parcels.

It would be much simpler for LL to create a "no script" sandbox on an island, so people couldn't walk overthe border and rez a vehicle, than try to figure out all the special cases they'd need to disable vehicle and flight scripts *only* when you "really mean it".

Hey problem solved.

Sandbox Island is currently just a big waste of space. Just make it a "no script" sandbox and put a Linden on a tall chair in the centre 24/7 and we would finally have a useable sandbox region.

Think of it! Actual building in a sandbox!

Actually the best solution so far is to find a friend that have an island or buy an island/parcel make it private and build your stuff there. Serious builders would chose this option because it is easier to get rid of intruders and griefers, also block anyone at will, less crash and autoreturn as wished. (I like to hang around public sandboxes sometimes because it seems to me that there is more newbs at sandboxes than at the Help Island.) It is disturbing to know that as soon as they discover the map feature they leave OI and fall into the grid.

Blocking actual sandboxes would bring the 'Secondlife experience' down for some even if it is a griefing experience for teens.

Or... you could use one of the already existing private sandboxes which use restricted access to combat griefers.

For example, the sim 'Sex' hosts a place called "Sandbox. Verified Users Only ,Good Builds Encouraged". Anyone not in the "Sex Estate Management" group is confined to a very small telehub area which is set no build no script and no push. To get to the sandbox, you have to either pay 50L$ per 15mins of access, or you have to get an invite to the builders' group from the management.

I know someone who'se joined there and they say it's great... the owners are really helpful, and contrary to the name, there is no actual sex involved, just building.

In short : if the public sandboxes suck, then why not just switch to using the private ones?

This and the previous suggestion of a private island are the only real solutions we have right now, but that was the point of my post.

Currently THERE ARE NO PUBLIC SANDBOXES that a "normal" non-griefer builder can rely on for building in. The current public sandboxes are just areas for new users to show off, shoot guns and race around in dune buggies while trying to crash the sim with physical objects.

My question basically (and I wish an actual Linden would explain this to me), is given that public sandboxes exist, why not do something about them so they are useable? Why not take just a couple of them and fix it so people can actually build there and leave the other half for the teens and so forth?

I think the real (secret) reason is that sandboxes are not really for building at all, but are a sort of "pressure release valve" for griefing!

If LL actually made it so that the majority of the sandboxes were of no interest to griefers, then all that stuff would happen all over the grid and the residents would get upset. The Lindens are happy to pretend that sandboxes are still useful building areas knowing that it takes the pressure off the rest of the grid.

This is the only thing that makes sense to me.

It also explains the existence of the very unwelcoming "Welcome Area" if you think about it.

(think of that sticky fly-paper)

I stumbled across a novel solution to griefing in sandboxes.

The owner of my favorite sandbox just hangs around, keeps track of regular users, then gives trusted users ban and kick priveleges.

In short, his sandbox has a core group of trusted users. There's usually at least one or two of us there...and if someone starts griefing, they get banned. It's that simple.

Of course, this system is open to abuse, but it's one of the few sandboxes I've ever used in Sl that has little or no griefing problems.

Moving all the sandboxes so that they are private islands would also be nice since there is no way to set an object to die when returned.

The "Sandbox" flag should also be more useful. It is too restrictive and therefore it is not used. 64m and "keep physical" would be better.

How very IRC! That usually does work, though.

Ops plz??