Parcel next to Hangout: Community service ideas?

There's a parcel across the sim border from the Forum Cartel Hangout beach, at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dallows/225/224/35, that I was renting out until recently, but now I'd like to put it to some use that benefits the SL community. So I'm soliciting ideas for what to do with 4064 sq.m. and 930 prims.

At the moment it's vaguely park-like (well... it has trees anyway ) but there are lots of empty parks in SL.

It's adjacent to the Hangout, so at one point I thought it might be useful for Cartel-sponsored events larger than can be comfortably hosted in Allana (especially given that it's on the sim corner, and a third sim touching that corner is Corra, a water sim). Or a free performance space for live music (perhaps somehow related to Crap Mariner's great "Tunes inSL" project)--but are live performers even interested in a tips-only venue? Whether for music or other gatherings, I'm just not sure there's a pressing unmet need for public venues that can accommodate lots of avatars (is there?).

Long ago I discussed with Nika and others the idea of a rent-free marketplace with stall space available to original creators for a limited time, on rotation. Perhaps to determine stall holders, this might fit with a "show and tell" event, either a new one hosted at this site or an existing one such as Barney and Flo's Lummerland show. But is there a need for any of this, or would the stalls just stand empty?

I'd be happy to just give the land to a reputable community service outfit such as NCI or The Shelter, or if tier is a problem, just letting them use the land. But it's not like the Hangout is an InfoHub, and I don't know whether such organizations would consider another location to be advancing their mission.

So... reactions? suggestions? pie?

this question seems to be asked so often that i have run out of ideas. i haven't yet seen a park type setting dedicated to particles (which i love) or light shows, or things that are made of glass.....

How about a full sim of it:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Saucier/143/206/27

Pie. Definitely pie.

Wait - there's an idea... an entire build centering around pie. Pie benches and pie buildings, edible pie and throwable pie and particle pie.

Ok, that's just silly.

Sandbox! Sandbox! Sandbox!

seriously? all of that?

i'm so there! thanks!

Purchase it. Then completely empty teh ground level to what it first looked like. Leave it as open space as we have done with much of our own land. People will thank you.

Make it a cornfield.

Missing your old haunts?

Yeah, it's just like Norm walking into Cheers. Everybody knows my name.

How about a new freebie store, where all of the Items are selected from only the best free stuff available, displayed clearly and individually, similar to a normal SL shop, specialised to a particular product, such as clothing outfits for instance.

Maybe original creators of the free items could also provide a link to any store of their own, perhaps this would be something of great use, helping new users, find creators of products they like quicly and easily.


I remember my inventory being filled with freebies found in mixed boxes, this took me as a new user, lots of time to sort through before finding anything I wished to use.

Most freebie places in SL still have these mixed boxes filled with hundreds of jumbled up items.


In my sandbox I have sorted out free textures available and products I feel will be of use to people in building, displayed in exactly the way described above.
Merely because of my frustration in sorting through the freebies I picked up as a new user.

I say you make it into a fishing pond area. So I don't have to fish in the floor boards at the hangout anymore.

Giant toilets!

Given the lag situation at the hangout, I'd dread the thought of freebie hunters piling through there en masse. Yes, I know we're newbie friendly but there is a difference between looking for a friendly place to hang out or get help and just raiding any old place for free stuff.

How about offering space, again on a rotational basis, to non-profit artists? Be that people building arty stuff out of prims and wanting to display it, or exhibiting original RL photography or other artwork. Poets, activists, and others just wanting to share ideas or concepts.
This would benefit people who (unlike merchants) don't really expect to make enough Lindens from their inworld presence to cover the expense of a shop or gallery.

Sandbox would be good, too, but some of that stuff that ends up lying around can be, well, pretty darn hideous

How about a clothing tutorial center similar to the one on the NMC islands. It would have the mesh available and links to basic tutorials and examples for making a shirt, a skirt, a pair of trousers etc... This was one of the most useful parts of SL I found as a newbie.

If the land were decided to become a sandbox which is always a great idea, you can never have enough sandboxes
One thing I can suggest, that we did was to make the ground sparsly landscaped but pleasant thus retaining the majority of prims for the parcel, explain in sandbox rules no building to be carried out at ground level and put in platforms at around 250m upwards.

This overcomes the problems of upset to neighbors etc.



A specialised sandbox build specific, there are probably fewer of these.
One possible problem with clothes or jewellery is they can easily eat up prims very quickly if not worn as attachments, this could be a problem on 4096sqm

How about a hands-off "SL etiquette" school, with a test that people have to pass to become members of the Forum Cartel, with access to the freebies? As far as I can see, the "first hour experience" discussions focus on teaching new avatars how to *do* things, rather than how to *behave* in a civilised fashion. I wouldn't want to speak for Spike (he might want to comment on it himself) but his experience suggests that if newbies can manage to be polite and enthusiastic (even if they don't feel the need to use the caps key that often ) then they are going to get along with others a lot better than if they wander around aimlessly with no profile, no manners and no insight.

It wouldn't replace the official SL introduction, the NCI, nor the Oxbridge tutorials (and God forbid that it should replace Lindal's "relationships" sessions) but it might offer a source of interesting and enlightened new blood for the Cartel.

Throw in a couple of "practice rooms" (I haven't worked out the full possibilities here - maybe two seater tables with a menu of conversation topics to get potentially shy couples off to a start) and some sponsored (to offset running costs) lm/tp points to appropriate places where the skills learned could practised seriously?

Pep (I would be loathe to suggest that grammatical and spelling tests could be included )

Or bring back the Anna Nicole Smith Memorial.

Perhaps we can invent a similar introduction to grant access to the undying thread while we're at it?

Only bigger!

Uhm, No. Considering it's founders, namely myself and the esteemed Mr Norse, that wouldn't be in keeping it's glorious spirit and tradition.

Thanks for the suggestions--keep 'em coming!

Just for historical perspective (and silliness), the ground level of the parcel has been more or less simple landscaping for a long time, aside from an ice-skating pond I made for the winter of 2007-08. The reason I even bought it, back in the day, was to screen the Hangout from a nasty crop of ad towers, when it was the site of my Temple of Adfarming:

I'd fail the "U <3 LOLCATZ?" question.

Pep (Deliberately)

Well Brenda, you could make it so that instead you would have to fail the test to be admitted to membership.

Pep (Depends on what the test covered - are guns allowed in the Hangout?)

QFT