Question: How do renters use radios?

I've been renting land a few weeks now and was quite honestly sick of having to call my landlord every time I wanted to change music and such. I heard that buying a radio was the answer... If anything it has lead to even more questions and no answer at all. The note card that came with the radio is confusing at best! I've looked over the forums both here and on sluniverse and have come up empty handed. Could someone please let me know how to make my radio playable on my rented land?

Since I, nor my landlord, could make sense of the note card, I will paste the card here in hopes that someone may be able to tell me in plain English the procedure for getting it to work. I wish that whoever wrote this thought a bit more about putting simple steps that new players could follow since most rent.

GROUP USEAGE

PRIVATELY OWNED LAND/GROUP SHARED

V1.5 is usable currently usable by groups in all instances, however it MUST be set to the group shared and the user must have the group tag activated. This is ideal for Event Hosts or DJ's.

GROUP OWNED LAND

The radio MUST be deeded to the group. Group members must have the group tag activated. The radio is not suitable for apartments ar shared group land, unless the officers deem the user to qualified to change the URL on behalf of the group. v1.4 has filters which can restrict the usage by other group members. This is ideal for single renters.

IMPORTANT NOTES

Once the radio is deeded to the group, you CANNOT edit the stations card (because basically, the radio is no longer exclusively yours) Edit the notecard before deeding, or remove the radio from the group and return ownership to an individual in order to change user setting.
Preset URLs are the most common used on Shoutcast.com and may periodically be down. If a station does not work, try another until the other comes back online.

Davy Flytrap had a similar issue recently, which I helped him correct. Talk with him for the script, or if all else fails, I think I still have a copy.

Basically, you have your landlord or owning group own the object itself, and use a script when you wish to change the setting.

It's not sufficient for the landlord or land group officer to own the object.

An officer of the land group has to first click off the object "share with group"
then he has to "deed to group" and make sure that every single thing inside that radio, the prim, the scripts, the notecards, etc. has all its permissions opened up so that he can take them and mark "share with group".

This should work to have a config card with different channels on it that can rotate different URLs through the property. So the officer shares-to-group, deeds-to-group then puts the prim down where the tenant wants it and because it is on "share with group," the tenant, in the same group, can toggle the URLs.

The problem is...it just doesn't work all the time. I've seen some radios work, and some not...and some that work on some sims not working on other sims. Sim lag/performance may be at issue. It's frustrating.

All of this is true of the videos, too. You have to have every single item in the video object checked off by the maker to open up all the perms, then "share with group" and "deed to group" everything you can.

Note: you cannot deed to group without sharing with the group, the two sequence, so when people keep querying you thinking you didn't share with the group, if it is deeded to the group, you did.

I'm still trying to figure out why certain radios and videos don't work. Perhaps it has something to do with textures whose perms weren't all turned on.

I wish some manufacturer would really grapple with this.

I have 2 freebies that anyone is welcome to try in our group and see if they can get it working. Some tenants have gotten it working.

WARNING: A shared, deeded object set to the group on which the land group is will DISAPPEAR NEVER TO RETURN if returned off the lot using "return objects". A warning message comes on saying "Do you wish to return/delete" that object. The reason that "delete" is there must be taken seriously. The game DELETES shared-to-group, deeded-objects because it doesn't know what to do with them. No, they aren't in lost-and-found foldres or trash, they are gone. It's a flaw.

So the moral of the story is, don't buy the $999 radios that may look good but only have the exact same script as the freebie radios, especially given that if you are late with your rent, and your objects have to be returned, you may lose that radio. We make every effort to try to save those radios. But sometimes it happens that they get swept up even by the tenant and have perm or disappearance problems.

Consider that a shared, deeded object is kissed goodbye, and only half works.

I'd be happy to answer your questions here.

First of all, it's important to know, that not just anyone can go around changing URLs on other peoples land.

That said, there are ways in which owners and officers can. There are numerous land options in SL. The main being agent/no share, agent/share and group owned.

Once a radio is placed, there is no need for the owner to log on everytime to change it, so long as the correct permissions are set.

Let's go through these 3 examples.

The most important thing to remember is this: You must be in the same group as the radio.
and luckily no group = same group.

1- Agent/no share. This is what I do in all of my retail locations. The reason why, is because I can set the radio to allow anyone to demonstrate before buying.

2- Agent/share. This will limit the usage to only members of the group. You must have your group "active" as well.

3- Group Owned. Group land is not owned by any individual, despite contribution. Only an officer of the group can set the permissions. In the case of my radios, I recommend that owners subdivide packages that limit the range of the radio. Afterall, you dont want multiple people changing the station on you and/or disrupting other tennants. All radios on group land MUST be deeded. In other words, be prepared to "give away" your radio to the group. An officer can reverse this at anytime, so dont worry about it being returned. Edit the 'stations' notecard before you deed the radio, otherwise you can't later.

So, to answer your question about renters: Drop your radio where you want it. Have an officer of the group attend. have the officer set to share with group, then deed and allow anyone to move. Done. Just remember to have your tag active from herein. No need to call the boss again.

Clear as mud? Understandably, it is confusing. I didn't write LSL, but I can do my best to workaround the quirks to provide a good product. radio_v1.4 is an excellent script, well tested and based largely on user feedback. The radio listens to users dependant on llSameGroup() any other users are ignored or filtered (an internal function I can enable in special circumstances), or in other words llListenRemove(). I released the radio based on the most common usages of the radio in it's presets.

If you own your own land, and drop a radio, it will automatically work without settings, mainly because any objects you rez, will adopt your currently "active" group. Anyone else in the same group may also use it. Rarely will the owner not have other members use the radio. 1.4 has proven successful in clubs around SL, mainly because of the ability of DJ's to form their own group and use the radio at will, by permission of the owner/officers. Sim owners with cabins, houses and subdivisions also find the radio useful and applicable to thier situations.

My best solution for these quirks is this, I am happy to attend any location in person, to supervise it's installation and make the necessary recomendations. As it is, daily, I respond to one or two questions about installation.

I wish there was an easier way, but I don't mind meeting new people and checking out new things.

So in other words, everything has to be "owned" and "accessable" by the "owner" of the plot. That makes sense, and is essentially what I was getting at.

Hoo... sometimes I'm glad I keep things simple with my plots.

Rickard Roentgen (sp?) who sells under the tradename R-Type sells a "radio" parcel tuner that seems to address most of the needs of a landlord. Depending on configuration, the tuner can do things such as take votes on the stream to play so that you can get into Punk vs. Partridge Family battles with your co-tenants.

I recall him having a store in GigasSuperMall in Garrison, but Find "R-Type" should get you to his store(s).