Can you do anything about (possibly) deliberate eyesores?

Luckily I've never had this problem though I suspect many have (or have seen it on others plots)

Say you have a nice little house with a sea view (perhaps their is 1 parcel in front of you which dips down into the sea at the edge of the sim.)

Main land, so no build rules.

Someone buys the plot in fron of your small house and builds a 40m tall black/white GIANT wall 3/4 the way round their plot to screen them from everything apart from the sea at their parcels sims edge.

Now they have (potentially) ruined the surroundings for yourself, and perhaps the people with plots either side of them also.

Am I thinking your only options are:

1: Put up with it.
2: Move.

I'm ignoring the obvious (have a chat to them, as if they are going to build such an eyesore in the 1st place they know full well what they are doing)

Just jogged my memory as someone I know (passing friend) decided to move as a resident a couple of plots down (just on the next sim) build a very ugly bright white wall (cheap brick texture) all around 3 sides of their plot just to screen their garden from others, and even though she had a chat, they didn't see a problem with it, so she's just moved to get away from it.

I think quite a lot of SL residents put up these walls not to deliberately cause annoyance but simply because they are thoughtless. They probably put mountain views or something on the inside and just leave the outsides blank or plain colours.

Presumably all of us who own land want to make our mark in some way. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but for some people, the best way to mark their territory seems to be by going big and bold! It's a bit like residents who fill out hostile profiles telling profile stalkers to get lost.

i had something similar occur to me. somebody rezzed a huge treehouse with a 30m kingkong bamboo gate around it, completely blocking several peoples view of the coast. i im'd the person and they apologised. then not only derezzed the giant gate but the treehouse too! they set up a beachhouse and all was good.
in that case the person simply didnt stop to consider the impact of their build on others, and when it was brought to their attention they recognised it and did the right thing. dont discount the obvious option of the chat with them. you may be surprised.

A *polite* chat suggesting that they make the outside texture totally transparent is always worth a try.

I don't think that SL get involved in that sort of neighbourhood issue.

However, it is common for such screens to use megaprims.
LL generally remove mainland megaprims where they cause problems for others. A visual 'problem' is probably an edge case, but worth trying in an AR. THe AR should highrlight the word in the description, and include a transcript of communications together with a photograph of the wall. A good AR has to be structured so as the help a busy Linden come quickly to the conclusion that you wish them to come to.


If the wall were removed because of megaprims causing problems for neighbours, they could rebuild using standard prims, but they might be unwilling to use so many.
It's worth checking how many prims they have left unused on their land before pinning hopes on a megaprim AR. If they are low on prims, then it's a good move.

On the other hand, if someone is so unmannerly as to have a non-transparent texture on your side of such a screen, and refuses to consider a polite request or offer of help, then anything - within the TOS - that pisses them off would be good

Unfortunately, I don't think there's much you can do. This is why RL has zoning, but even then I've seen this happen on many waterfront properties in my town. You save and get a small cottage one lot back from the beach, then someone comes in and tears down the cottage in front of you that used to sit on the side of the lot, and up goes a McMansion and you get to look into their kitchen window, not at the ocean.

By the way, I am not advocating zoning on the mainland, I chaired a Zoning Board of Appeals in RL for a very long time Nobody is ever happy with Zoning, although I'm convinced that it's needed in RL. You can always move your house up the Z-axis, you know, and pick up a couple of Freebie TP pads like the Mark V's or equivalent. I put a nice little park bench at ground level on my property and give that SLURL out to my friends, then they just step on the TP pad and shoot themselves up to the skybox cottage.

However, it sounds like your property is a lot more elegant than mine so this may not work for you. Too bad some inconsiderate person did this to you! Good luck, Jackie

My understanding from Jack Linden's ongoing 'improve the Mainland' efforts, and long-time membership of the Arbor Project is that you may well have some success with an AR citing visual spam (can't remember the exact category) - especially (as others have said) if Megaprims are involved.

But first you should try asking your neighbour if they would mind putting a transparent texture on the outside. You can offer to send them one in case they don't have it.

Good luck.

That's why I use estate land, which has a landlord, that enforces rules. I have a tropical setup, and everybody WILL have to build a tropical island.

I chat with those putting up idiotic structures. usually they "didn't know", which indicates they didn't read any line of the terms of service before they bought the parcel.

However, some just flip you off and give you the "I don't care" response. Send an IM to the landlord, and within an hour their parcel has been reset, and they get a warning.

It depends on the landlord, but kicking one customer always looks better than pissing off all the ones who surround him/her.

Like everyone else said, asking nicely is always a great way to start.


If that fails, waiting usually solves the problem. SL is a very transitory place and it is fairly usual for a new landowner to rez something absolutely hideous at first and then begin to replace it with something better as they get a stronger hold on the build tools and land management. Patience frequently is the answer....

I waited out the huge, black, BDSM club next to my little mainland 1536m parcel; waited a couple months, they're gone; now an equally hideous castle has arrived; I"m still there, again, waiting....it's not my 'main' SL home so only annoys me for short times I'm there. I can wait....

Tell me about it! When I moved to Yosu sim over 2 years ago there was the huge horrible black wall of a casino across the road 30m high and the owner had also dotted those 'don't buy land' protest cubes all over the place too, in different colours and set to full bright. Thank goodness that casino went bust even before the gambling ban and now there is a mall in its place, which looks OK apart from a yucky floor.

If they aren't trying to extort money from you, it will be difficult to get anything done officially.

My best advice is to do as I have done. Find a nice private estate that suits your taste and abandon the mainland.

Way back when, I owned a mall. It was a shop, with a mall attached to it, whatever.. but the building was basically a long brick building. Now, I had goen out of my way to build it tastefully, and follow all the rules of the estate (I didn't build right up to the edges of my land, etc).

On the front of the building, there were some signs, but along the sides and back, it was a relatively normal looking warehouse kind of wall.

When the land next to me was bought, the landowner immediately erected a 10m high wall of fake palm trees. Just a 2d wall. invisible from my side, I didn't even notice it.. until I wandered over to the nearby SLX terminal and walked back, and found that her wall completely obscured my business from this angle.

Now, it was just as obvious that "if they are going to build such an eyesore in the 1st place they know full well what they are doing"... but I decided to have a talk with her anyways, to see what could be done, because I personally feel that 2-d barriers DETRACT from the landscape.

Turned out, she didn't like the brick wall there. (surprise). and she didn't have enough prims to tree-it-off using actual trees.

So, I offered to muralize the brick wall, with a "sky/sea" snapshot I took (pre windlight). it's just a simple gradient photo of the midday sky and sea.. but it doesn't look too bad. After applying this texture to my wall, I also set aside about 50 prims, and used them to rez some palm trees on my own land, to help "break up" the brick pillars and the long wall.

It didn't LOOK like the sky, not by a longshot. It was still obviously a building there.. but it met her needs, and I think that the fact that I added some trees to my land helped a lot.

Don't be so easy to dismiss a talking solution. It should be your first option in almost every situation in Second Life.