Land Zoning

The problem with that is that it limits the size of a cohesive community to the size of an island or zone, which isn't anywhere near to being enough for creating a peaceful suburbia or countryside environment.

The suggestion is a good one though if new additional islands or zones can be shuffled around to become an extension of an earlier one. Not sure how one could achieve that though, since zone placement seems to be static.

Eggy darn you for pointing that out. The truth being that LL doesn't want to be the police. It's an ugly and hairy business. Having had first had experience with group <-> LL politics isn't fun at all. Part of the problem is the ability for groups to enforce rules. For an island that is simple but for a main land sim thats very difficult. While many are against all forms of government in SL, it in some form is a necessary evil. We need to design a system that allows for creation of governments and the over throwing of them. The group system needs to be fleshed out. Sims need to be able to be locked to a group. Where group rule controls the buying and selling of the land. With a simple script interface on how the rules for such work (not talking about LSL, maybe Linden Government Scripting Language, LGSL).

I am sure you're familiar with the Neualtenburg effort, that seems to be doing well enough and I don't think it was a whole sim...could be wrong about that. If it is running into problems that would be very disappointing, as it was an interesting idea. Darkwood has been fairly strife-ridden but interesting, there are other similar areas in SL. As has been mentioned, peaceful suburbia was attempted in Boardman and now it is, well, very peaceful.

A sim can easily be designed to create a small but immersive countryside environment. Fill it with clever low-level landscaping, surround it with raised land, hedgerows or treeline, and make the whole place nofly. An isolated island could work wonders, and that slice of timeless peace could be The Village twice over (q.v.: The Village (2004), The Prisoner (1967)). I lived for quite a while in a planned community. The "peaceful suburban" feel was (has been) maintained for over thirty years by careful concealment, not endless stretches of countryside. Suburban development eventually spread to and surrounded the once-rural community, but in most neighborhoods "peace" is preserved. A lot of planning went into the layout, and community standards are strictly maintained. That's the proper method, not endless stretches of sim land.

I think private sims can be joined together if the sim owners want it that way.

A solution is coming soon!

i hold no grudge against darkwood. Have things been working out nicely as of late? What happend was the end to a nasty situation that had been brewing for months. Sorry it went so badly. If you see Soren tell him i hold no grudge against him or the group. I'm glad to see Darkwood weathered that storm without falling to total ruin.

Oh, so am I! And I will if I remember. But I've no connection to DW, just have watched its development over time and read about it here in the forums. Conflict happens. I love the themed areas of SL in general, which make the world more interesting and, really, are why this thread is so relevant.

Not being mean, really.

Things are going smashingly in Neualtenburg. We are exactly on schedule with our build, having had our kick-off and Oktoberfest party this weekend (stop by Neualtenburg in the sim of Anzere to pick up your official Chicken Hat). If things continue to progress at this rate we should be ready to hand the city over to a democratically elected council sometime around the first of the year. After completion we hope to grow the city not only in population and area but in number, creating additional autonomous cities which share a common interest.

I feel that the creation of a formalized society will bring to users basic infrastructure and services which they currently do not have access to, thus freeing them to focus on that which they have interest. (How many of you have free access to a vendor that instantly updates online sales information?) We hope to provide to our citizens as a service that which is provided drop at a time by those in game who currently control most of the resources (land, vendor technology, scripts, money). I seek a solution to mall owners, who parasitically earn money from individual artisans by charging them to display their work in a difficult-to-navigate, laggy mall. Instead I wish to form a cooperative which gives artisans control of their own infrastructure (homes, shops, and community) by allowing them to elect representatives and direct resources as needed.

*whew* Don't get me started.

~Ulrika~

I recently sold my mature 512 First Land due to being tired of looking at snow and dealing with lag from the shop next door. Now I am on the hunt for a grassy, warm 512. I was warned by another SL resident when joining the SL community to not buy PG rated land because of the restrictions. My question is, what exactly ARE the restrictions? The TOS gives a very vague explanation in Global Community Standards, but no exact information. For example, in my case, I am not one to participate in any mature "activities"; however, I do tend to say a few four letter words in chat sometimes. So, my question is, if I buy a PG plot of land, am I going to be punished if I slip up and say a curse word in conversation with my friend?