Worst Case Scenario on giving modify rights?

I need to hire and give a complete stranger modify rights to clean up and align some house building that I did, and running through the possibility of a worst case scenario. Am I correct in thinking that these might be the possible ramifications?

1) They are tweaking the house late at night, and have one too many bourbons, and decide to go down to the store and realign all my sofas and coffee tables. (which was not part of the job)

2) Same as above, but they decide to go down to the store and rearrange all the room displays, and decide they think green camo would look better than pink polka dots.

What I'm not sure of is.....

1) Does giving someone modify rights mean that they can make a copy and slide it into their inventory?

2) Does it mean that they can slide a texture from the object into their inventory?

3) Does it mean that they can slide a piece off the showroom floor? Then change the textures from their own stash....then change the permissions to copy/transfer, and distribute?

4) I use full perm scripts and textures, and respect the creator's wishes that these are not to be passed along......is it possible for someone with modify rights to pull the full perm script or texture from the item, while working on it...then toss it out as full perm to the public?

Are there more ramifications?

Thank you for any info.

Yes they can to a surten point. Make sure the next owner permissions on your stuff are as restricted as possible.



No, if you do not have the texture, you cannot grab it from a prim you can edit in this way.



They cannot change next owner permissions, but yes they can modify your object with their own textures.



Not as far as I know, even with mod rights, and even if scripts are full perm, you cannot just view and edit, or copy other people's scripts. Textures, see above.



With modify rights come delete rights. Keep that in mind.

I only give mod rights when I fully trust a person, or when I am there myself.

Edit to ad: If I help a customer out and need their mod rights, I always advise them to remove it straight away after I am done. Make it a habbit to do so. The next guy might just come back in later and have 'fun' remodeling.

Confusing, ain't it? The worst case scenario is that you will have overlooked something when you set permissions in the first place.

I figure the short answer is to not give a complete stranger *any* control over your property at all, whatsoever, in any event and under no circumstances even if the sim is burning down.

It'll only end in tears, Mickey. You mark my words and don't say I didn't tell you so.

Best find someone of proven ability that you know very well and *only* if you would trust them with your mother's life or your stamp collection, whichever comes first.

I'm not sure as far as the textures, but they can pick up your objects and then it belongs to them when rerezzed. Likely they can also make a copy for themselves.

It might be best to make the terms as specific as you can think of as to what the job does and does not include. A reputable builder would likely be more interested in getting other jobs than in pranks. (And revoke permissions as soon as they are done).

Benski, on them making a copy and sliding it into inventory.....don't I have to leave the permissions wide open, while they work on the house? Like if they are working on the front facade, and I tell them I want it repeated on the back?



YIKES! I didn't think of that one!

Thank you, Benski!

Yeah, I know. The problem is, that everyone that I know and trust, do not have building skills, or their building skills are so magnificent, that they don't have time to fool with my stuff.

That's what I was afraid of. It would be real easy to go down to the store, and take a copy of everything. Not that it's that great, but it would be tempting. The way around this, I suppose, would be to be on location while they are working. But that is time prohibitive. And allow them rights only for each building session, then pull them after each session.

Yes they need the parts that need to be copied to be full perm.
But, then again, they need to sell the copied parts to you later on to be able to link. You cannot link something from 2 different owners.

What is it that needs to be done? Is it really so time consuming?

On the other side of this, I have people give me mod rights to work with their items all the time. Customers who want something customized on a build I made, people who want me to set up a house or people who want me to "arrange" their furniture or gardens for them, etc..

Just be careful who you hire, that is the thing. The best case scenario is that you are standing right there when they do the work, so you grant them modify rights, they do what needs to be done, then you remove the modify rights when the task is completed. That's usually how I like to work. I always have people remove the modify rights as soon as we agree the job is done, it protects both of us.

Benski, I have a bunch of houses that I started, and want to finish....but I can't build a house correctly. I'm not good at aligning. I can't do door scripts. I can't make roofs. There is always an aspect that is needed to complete a house, that I don't have skill for. Like turrets or bay windows. And swimming pools - I can't do water. And I have attention deficit disorder - can make it through a sofa completion - but not a house completion. I also want to put the houses in a rez box - and certainly do not have the skill to do that.

First I did was drop an Open Source double door set on your profile inworld. These are scripted and ready to go, instructions are included in the root prim. I hope that helps you on that issue!!

Packing a building is something you need to do yourself. Has to do with the permissions. I started giving my partner full perm copies, but due to the fact that the positioner scripts were no mod, she could not set the right permissions on the building parts itself.

So now I sell her the building directly, she then buys, set permissions and packs it. The proces of packing isnt complicated once you understand it, yet most systems come with a instructions notecard that might confuse some people. (my lady calls them Destructions for a good reason)

If you need someone to guide you through the packaging proces, let me know ok? No charge offcourse

People like you, with a great reputation, can be trusted, Isablan. But those kind of people are not going to want to do menial labor on someone else's project, where the project will reap the rewards for the person who hired them to do the completion. Maybe no-one will want to do that.

Was thinking that someone with basic building skills could do it as income. Several years ago, had a young college kid do this for me....but that was before I knew anything about the above. He worked out fine, though. He just wanted to play with stuff and build, and didn't have a piece of land to do so on...so I think it was fun for him to be given a huge lot to play with, and say "hey, here are the basic walls....the windows are over there....the doors are over there....it needs a roof....work your magic." But at the time we were just doing single projects - one house - it was not going to be sold over and over again - just once.

Thanks, Benski! The packing thing sounds complicated, and I've talked to a few friends who pull their hair out over the instructions, so have avoided it. And these are technologically advanced smart people!

It sounds like you have a good system down. I appreciate your offer. When and "IF" I get to that point, I would most certainly pay you for your time.

Well, yes, there is that. But what you are asking for is beyond basic building skills. Roofs challenge even A list builders. Alignment is a medium to high level skill -- unless the builder is an engineer or math geek right out of the starting gate. This is not saying that you aren't going to find a medium to high skill builder who needs to make some money, there are plenty of those out there in this economy, but you are going to pay for that level of skill. And you'll want some skill there if you are going to put your name on it, someone with basic building skills isn't going to do any better job than you will.

I'll bet with some effort, you can find a skilled builder who needs to make some money. If it were me, I'd post over in the SLU forums with what I was looking for and see who turns up. You might be surprised.


(Packaging is challenging the first couple of times you do it, but like anything else, it becomes a skill and gets easier with time.)

Thanks, Isablan. I'm going to try that, after thinking this through a bit. There is a potential for a good-working partnership, if someone could bring the technical skills to the table, while I bring the design/concept/functionality to the table. The problem with most prefabs is that the creator never actually places furniture, while building. Functionality is way off, and before you know it, you are redesigning the whole house. The rooms simply won't work.

I know that a true and equal and beneficial "partnership" concept is drama for another thread! But that would be ultimate goal.

ps: I know you make prefabs, and I'm not talking about yours. I haven't used one of yours yet, but will give it a shot, soon.

I completely agree with you, there. Too many prefab designers try to mimic RL structures, where we have lots of tiny rooms so that people can have little, enclosed private spaces. SL is different in that the tiny rooms are hard to fit furniture in and hard to move the camera around in. If more designers spent time actually living in their prefabs, they'd realize how difficult they make the space to use. The second problem that crops up is prim count vs usable space. You can only cheat just so much before you sacrifice build quality in favor of prim count, you've also go parcel size to consider in there, too.

A friend took me to see an amazing prefab last night. It was gorgeous. They had furniture placed, and they did a great job, and it all made very good sense. But it was 530 prims. Can't use it. I told my friend that it is easier to make a gorgeous, magnificent home when you can use 530 prims....than it is to make one that is pretty great (maybe not magnificent) with 150 prims.

Can you take one item that you want fixed, just ONE item, and

set the mod permission

give them the item

let them fix it and give it back?

I think that might be a good route to go. I just wrote it all out:

I'm going to toss this out, for purely selfish reasons....lol....but that info on modify rights above is great info for anyone....thanks a bunch.....it doesn't seem to be the ideal situation....and maybe a work-through on the next scenario will help someone who is thinking of going through a "collaboration" process.

Does the following scenario eliminate the need to give modify rights? Are there some glitches? As in the transfer? Does it seem fair for the builder?

Offer: Builder to create homes to spec.

I let you use a 9200 sqm lot to build on. Plenty of prims for you to build requested spec home, plus play with your own creations, without fooling with a sandbox return constantly.

Spec home walls, windows, doors, design concept, etc. will be transferred to you to with instructions on how to complete....general floor plan will be laid out for you, and textures already in place. Main work will be aligning of walls, floors and roof, but most will be in place. It will need to be completed at ground level, in a finished position. And some tweaking will be required several times, for maximum functionality, and prim count will need to be minimized. You can use remaining prims on lot (ample) to build on a workshop in the sky for your own projects.

Finished product will be transferred to me, and have my name as creator, and will be in a rez box for purchase in my store, but half of each sale will go toward you, from vender tool. And agreement will be that you may not sell same house through other avenues. I will also give you credit through advertising and marketing as "collaborator" toward an established group of customers that buy prefabs often, and hire builders for projects.

Advantages to you....while you are working on spec house, you are using the prim space to design your own creations, at no cost....and your own creations may be sold in my store, with your name as sole creator.....free space, (for photos and package display, not for ability to rez prefab)....free marketing....and access to customer base. Your own creation could possibly be used as next display home, as well...completely furnished as an idea home for customer base, plus you would receive valuable feedback on design for furniture placement. No work required by you, on marketing and promotion. Full proceeds from your own creations go to you, with no split or commission.

(I know there are some technical issues here)

That is the real problem. It is extremely difficult to build interesting architecture with minimal prims. I've given up on low prim builds, I improve the 7 or 8 that I have regularly with new textures, furniture, etc.. but I'm not going to be adding to the stock at that level, it's just too restrictive to creativity. There are so many prefab builders out there that if you want to carve out a niche for yourself, it has to be in architectural style. Anybody can texture a box, slap a door on it and call it a house.

Just for fun, I did one skybox where I built without regard to prim count. I didn't count prims until it was done. That thing ended up at 400 prims, unfurnished. You can do a lot with textures, but there is no substitute for the architectural detail you can do with prim work.

I hope that some day in our future, there is a possibility of doubling prim counts, without having to double land responsibilities. I wouldn't mind paying a hefty price for the 400 to 600 prim homes, and most people wouldn't mind furnishing them to the max, in fact they are craving to do so. Double up on landscaping item purchases, as well.

Would be a boost to some creators. The only thing keeping people from buying more stuff most days, is that they are simply out of prims. They don't mind spending more for more stuff....but they do mind having to buy another lot of prims, and having to pay tier on that each week. In that case, it's like you are paying a storage fee each week, for stuff you already bought and placed.

Is there any way to use an alt account to advantage for this problem?

Something like: Give a copy of the stuff you want modified to your alt. The alt account gives modify rights to the fixer-upper. That reduces the risk of the repairman damaging other things owned by your main. When modifications are done your alt gives you the repaired stuff.

This might not work out at all; permissions are not my strong suit.

They don't really need "modify rights" for just that: edit the linksets, set all of them to a group you're both a part of and "Share with Group".

The risks are more or less the same as modify rights, but at least you control the potential damage and limit them to just editing things they need while keeping the rest off-limits.

That actually sounds more than generous as far as I am concerned. Since you will have created the initial floor plan and done the up front work, I would think that far less than 1/2 of each sale should go to the person that finishes things up -- unless of course there is a lot of scripting that has to be done also. Geez, as a math geek, I learned how to align prims to pretty much perfection rather quickly, cuz it is really all just math - though roofs are still a bitch cuz of the funky angling.

Will that work if the person needs to add scripts or modify textures?


Mickey - I don't think you also need to worry about having your name as 'creator' on every single piece. Many builders use mega-prims made by other people, scripts by still others, already made doors or windows by yet others, etc...