So what's new in the last 7 months or so?

I haven't been around much since February, when burnout/finances/poor net access/World of Warcraft led me to retire my SL business activities - but now I think I'm back!

So what's changed? I see AnsheCorp continues to dominate land sales. I see the new Orientation entry point idea. I see the 'Classifieds' tab in Find is pretty much useless. I see even more Tringo/SLingo events, and nothing at all in the educational category. I see no Show & Tell events. I found one Primtionary yesterday.

I want to get back into running things. If I go back to doing classes/trivia/primtionary/show & tell, will people come? Will they even get noticed on the event calendar? Will people attend an event that I don't need to script or buy elaborate games for?

I want to get back into selling things. Are malls still the way to go? Is web-integrated selling the great thing it promised to be back when the SLExchange debacle was going on? What's the best way to get a new line of items out there?

I want to get back into newbie help. Is there a place for someone to help people find First Land (no profit involved). What's the status on Mentors/Greeters/Instructors these days?

Help me out folks - I wanna contribute again! I made an armchair with my alt yesterday and I think I'm re-hooked...

Lots of stuff has changed, but its also a case of the more things change, the more things stay the same.

AnsheCorp is still definitely in the lead of land sales, even in the new climate due to changes in land release. In case you haven't heard, simulators are now only sold whole by Linden Lab at auction, typically for about $1000 in USD. There are also no longer any auctions for L$.

Rates now cost L$25 and bonuses from rates are being reduced, and eliminated. This has caused a few people extreme mental anguish. I emphasize "few". Neg rates are also in the process of going the way of the Do-Do bird, finally, since they were only ever truly effective in their use as a griefing tool by very pathetic people who needed to feel powerful.

You can now stream video that'll play in the Quicktime Player in world. Despite the cries that there would the "pr0n everywhere!", this hasn't happened. In my experience, its been mostly used for watching funny flash movies. Which is fun, and its nice not to have to whip out URLs and browsers.

As for web sales, I run SLBoutique.com and can only speak to that experience. Sales have gotten stronger and stronger as time goes on; we routinely breaking 500 sales per day now, as opposed to less than 20 our first few months. I don't think web stores are in danger of replacing in world sales completely any time soon for two reasons: (1) many like the immersive experience to remain intact, and not to have to go to a web browser, and related, (2) impulse buying during said immersion. That said, I think having an in-world browser in v1.7 will increase its popularity, and once you can put a browser on a prim... well, there's a 1-prim vendor with full web-tracking for anyone who wishes to use it. It is also much easier to browser on web stores, as well as find something specific. You can view 50 items in under 10 seconds on the single page on the web, and probably surf through several hundred in a minute. Good luck trying to do that in world with rezzing times!

There's still drahma, sillyness, lies, truths, good folks, bad folks, far too little free booze, the teen grid hasn't been the end of the world, the sky has not yet fallen, and Bub is still Bub.

And... WE MISSED YA! Welcome back.

Hugs,

-Flip

Yes, sounds to me you need to be re-educated. hehe.

First of all - Welcome Back!

Second, I would love to attend Show and Tell events. I used to go to them all the time to see new things and occassionally show off something I made myself. When they restructured the events it seemed to have made these type of events less appealing for people to run I guess.

I don't know much about the selling end of things - but I have noticed many malls with lots of unoccupied booths. I am not sure if that is an indication that things are moving towards the web based alternative. Personally, I use both methods. Sometimes I just like to travel around the world and do some shopping and other times I just browse to one of the website based services and use them.

and again - good to see you back

Yes welcome back dear. As far as Malls..I think the Mall owners make more than the merchants that rent there hehe for a brief period of time.

Welcome back Lisse.

The hottest news is I'm landless and at home throughout SL!


Invites for dinner gratefully accepted!

Landwise, the Lindens have filled in lakes with laggy void sims. There's also a large mass of throwup-textured land up north with really shallow water. The drama centered around the late and sparse telehub placement was hilarious.

Welcome Back!

Welcome back!

Wow Merwan I didn't know you were landless - while I am houseless (tiered down and could not keep both the animals and the house), I do still have my garden and you are always welcome to sleep there anytime. You do on occasion have to put up with one of Schwan's sheep roaming by and licking you but really it's not so bad...

The cats & ferret will keep you warm and there are a lot of fruit trees.

(Sorry for the derailment there Lisse) Welcome Back!

Welcome back Lisse ! I too have been on SL Sabbatical and just checked into the forum today after months away. Merwan, I'm land/tierless too !! We should get travelling gnome avies and wander together!!
Hi Rose *wave*

Lecktor, Merwan -

Well, I still have my land for the moment (subliminal)buy my land buy my land(/subliminal) although I'm trying to tier down to just my RV park. You're both welcome to pitch your tents there if you need temporary homes! And there's a camp fire around which we could have dinner some time... Just head for Derwent and you'll see it on the north side of the road. Parcel object return is set to three days.

Thanks for all the welcome backs and the suggestions. I think I'm just going to try scheduling some events to gauge the response for now.

As for my old land holdings and real estate "profits" (ha ha!) I've made what I feel is a very kharmic decision - I'm going to spend it all on getting my First Life real estate license and do some Real land deals! (have two interviews today, in fact)

It's good to see you all again.

Are you kidding? Sure people'd go. I for one usually log in when I get home and immediately log out because all there is is tringo etc and dancing.

I want to MEET people and talk! Not dance mindlessly in a mob of strangers for a handful of $L!

There were three Primtionaries yesterday (on Monday), actually. I know this because somebody scheduled one directly opposite mine, which I've been running consistently for quite some time.

'course, I don't think most of the Primtionary Posse even check events any more, just show up at my stage at 2, so I don't know how useful that tactic was for the other folks.

Also, Zonax normally runs a Show-and-Tell on sundays (but hasn't of late), Misty Rhodes later on on Sundays, a newbie S-and-T on Tuesdays... a new one in th emiddle of the week Madwand Thatch has been hosting...

Oh, and I've considered resurrecting the old "Avatar show and tell" that were being run by shinmai Akebono.

It's just these events take time and effort, whereas "TRINGO $$$" or "Show up naked" events do not; guess which gets spammed onto the lists?

That said, I applaud anyone willing to work to bring more non-crap to SL in any form, and I reckon I'll be down yer way for Primtionary tonight.

Lisseee Lisseee welcome back. I live right next door to your RV park now and was wondering where you were. I would come to your events Haven't played yatzhee in ages. We should get together for fun.

Heya! I would be interested in attending more interesting events and have been pondering events i could hold that would be interesting and fun. Anywho, welcome back and I'll see you around.

--BL

Welcome back Lisse!!

I haven't been able to be in world for almost 3 weeks now! My hubby and I just bought our first house. Yay!! Waiting for internet at home, so I'm stuck on a forced break.

Glad you are back and hope to see you in world soon!

EDIT TO ADD: And yay!! Welcome back Lecktor too!!! *HUGS*

Glad you're back, Lisse

I'm on semi-sabatical myself but it's great to check the forums and see a familiar face has returned

Welcome back, Lisse. Just thought I would mention that the last 7 months have been captured in photographs on Snapzilla - the link is in my signature. There are nearly 24,000 pictures now from the period where you were gone. That should help you see some of the stuff you missed