Definition of "Mainland" and advice regarding land please.

Thanks, Tyche! So, Ravenglass et.al. are included as "Linden owned", I stand corrected!

Thanks for the clarification, Tyche.

Thank you, Nika! I was actually looking for the link to those maps earlier today when I wanted to figure out what continent my parcel is on.

I am on Satori, and my last two parcels were on Nautilus.

I've got the maps bookmarked now.

Thanks Osprey,

Salazar Jack, Hmmm, I'll have to wander over to the great forest and seek him out. There aren't any flying monkeys there, are there? I hate flying monkeys!

The rest of this thread makes me think that I'll never be able to read the SL map. Oh well.

Sure you will. Just looking around on Google I found a couple of maps that might help. These are a little out of date, but will give you a general sense of mapped mainland continents vs the overall grid.

This is a map (by Carl Matropolitian) of the mainland pointed out earlier by Nika.
http://blog.nci-sl.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/linden-lab-mainland-continents0101091.png

And this is another of the entire grid, by Infrared Wind.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ila_pVDV6Eo/SUsGtWP8vnI/AAAAAAAACuU/dsgNS1MP778/s1600-h/SLMapDec08.jpg

You can compare the images, so that you can pick out the continents shown in the first relative to the entire grid in the second, for an overall sense of where things are.

Of course, understanding SL via maps is a fun hobby, but it isn't essential to getting around the grid, nor will it be a particular help in finding a specific kind of land. Landmarks, referrals, search, exploring, and teleporting are your friends.

You won't regret it. Kahruvel crosses many sims including Rodeo, Stinson, Cowell, Noyo, Davenport, Bodega, and others. The big green "K" on the map of Cowell is for Kahruvel.

There's ruins, mysterious humming stones, a reconstructed fishing village (quite spectacular), and lots of other things. It's a lovely place to ramble on foot, ride a horse in, or fly over in an airship.

Okay thanks. But how many of those are PRIVATE - i.e. null and void for her question since she cannot access them? Private often does mean private.

I did mention that some have shops and such. And I'd think renting an island is beyond what she is budgeting at the moment. Far as I know she hasn't any Lindens.

But thanks for the stats. I didn't know that.

10 Months ago following a random sampling of 1000 private estates I estimated that 17% of private estates were completely closed to public access . As to how many are availble for rent I have no figures . The number of private estates at that time was 22365 regions - quite close to the current size.

EDIT: There were also about another 5% who had secruity orbs set to eject so probably also could be considered private .

Hi Clarissa,

I was just logging off when you logged on this morning, I hit quit just as your IM popped up. I logged back in and no IM or you. I must have deleted your IM accidentally. I've logged off for coffee, that should help a bit.

We need to coordinate in world time I think, for a nice get together.

I was up late last night, couldn't sleep, so I wandered through the old forest in the land of the big K. Where there were trees and no development there were a lot of boulders. Not very Shire like, but I did check out Salazar's picks. A fascinating verity of settlement types. I have an open mind, still, I think the land is too developed for me.

I did find this beautiful Hobbit reserve that seem perfect for what I have in mind. I'll post a link in a bit, but it's nature reserve and has rentals. I'll be checking it out today sometime if your free to join me. I'll be back with a link to the area. Its so nice I may go native, Ah...Hobbit...I mean.

This is the place: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Natura%20Suprema%202/160/232/21

Thanks for this. Now I know where the Mainland is. Until next week, no doubt.

True words.

For example, it looks like Zindra, the new Adult Continent, is going to be the largest single landmass in SL. It's already close, and they're adding more to it as I write this.

SL is a very odd world, geographically speaking, and while maps are fun, they can be misleading.

There are the six (I think six) "Mainland" continents. The land here is owned by Linden Lab. Terraforming limits are generally +/-4 meters. There are no covenants or zoning restrictions, other than the parcel maturity ratings. Residents generally buy this land either from another resident, or sometimes at an LL land auction. A premium membership is needed to own Mainland, and tier is paid directly to LL in $US monthly.

The mainland continents are the easiest to see on the map. But if you zoom in a bit, all that empty ocean begins to look like some sort of pointillist artwork...there are thousands and thousands of little rectangular islands. When you add them all up, in fact, there is a lot more island land than mainland.

Sometimes these islands are in clusters, and some of those clusters are quite large (Dreamland, Cape Cod, Caledon, the Fruit Islands, the FairChangs, etc.) Whether there's only one island by itself, or a huge archipelago, these are all Private Estates.

You can buy your own estate direct from LL, for $1,000 US, and a $295 per month maintenance fee...and then rent out pieces of them to other residents. Shazam, you are an instant Land Baron!

You don't need a Premium membership to rent this land. You DO need to read the covenant carefully, and check out the reputation of the land baron who owns the place, because you are relying on his or her honesty. You generally pay rent to the owner in $L and the arrangement may be weekly or monthly.

There's another feature of the map...all that solid blue ocean between the continents and the islands. If you click on it, it says, "Invalid Location". This stuff looks like ocean on the map, and it looks like ocean when you stand on the shore and gaze at it. But is isn't...it's Void. You cannot go there, it doesn't really exist. What that means is that most of those private islands cannot be reached by boat or aircraft...only by direct teleport.

The ocean you CAN sail on is colored differently, a lighter, mottled blue, and the ocean regions have names, just like the land regions.

We explorers would really like to see some sort of feature that eliminates Void. Maybe not the brute force approach of thousands of OpenSpace sims...perhaps some kind of "simulated sim" that would allow one to *apparently* sail across empty ocean for a time and then reach one's destination.

" For the World is Digital and I Have Sailed the Grid."

It's like an inverted and evolving Dyson's Sphere. Well, that's a stretch but I can imagine the Lindens working below fighting to keep order amidst the chaos.

To quote John Denver: Far out!

to create chaos of order is more truthful!

No, that was from the previous day. IMs pop up when you log in, that have stacked up while you were offline.

Well you've said you were busy twice when we've both been on so the ball is in your court next time. Lol.

I can understand why some estate owners would want the Lab to maintain the uncrossable Void around their private regions. The extra privacy is valued, not to mention the protection it affords from those wishing to invade territories. But being so isolated comes with its' own dangers. The Void is an unpredictable beast as evidenced by its' recent flaring:

/327/a2/326817/1.html

When the Grid goes down and the Lab closes region borders we Mainlanders all might as well be on private estates. It's impossible to cross region borders during those times. Still, being able to navigate the Void would come in very handy if teleports were down for an extended period. Unfortunately, the only person I know of who has successfully traversed the Void is Magellan Linden. And only he (and the Moles) seem to know how that is possible:

http://tinyurl.com/moletank