Dealing with the Ugly Neighbor and SL Pricing.

What I did at my place was surround myself with trees so you can't see the crappy box structures hanging off the side of hills nearby. Yeah it sucks to use the extra prims, but the effect worked out well for my tiki hut. The result is a "hideaway" tucked into the trees and is very relaxing.

This is the paradox of Second Life for me. On one hand, I want the land to be beautiful around my place. I don't mind neighbors, as long as they don't have a heap of crap on their property. On the other hand, who am I to judge or otherwise make fun of people no matter what they create? SL is supposed to be a place of personal expression and creativity.

It's tough sometimes. There are occasions when I really have to hold back from sending negative comments or telling someone they are an idiot. I have to constantly remind myself that I don't have the right to do so, really. Someone could just as easily object to whatever I build, and I would view that as a violation of my Linden given right to create in SL.

There is no real solution to this problem either. Creating land with restrictions on what can be placed or created would only cause a "cookie cutter" area that is so boring to look at, no one would want to be there. The only real solution is to sell a kidney and purchase your own island.

This brings up another point. I think LL is smoking their breakfast for what they charge people for an island. Having worked in IT for the past 12-13 years, I don't quite understand the need to charge so much for the island, or the monthly charge. Servers are so cheap now, that it can't be the hardware. Bandwidth isn't very expensive either these days. I'd personally like to see a breakdown of the costs associated with this as justification for the seemingly rediculous pricing. I have the money to spend on such things if I really want to, but at the same time I have to stand back and wonder if I am being taken for a ride by LL.

I was recently bit with the bug of teiring up again, and buying more land until I started to really think about it. The only reason I really wanted more land was for the additional server resources (prims). I understand the need to limit prims, but I think the limits that are set now are designed primarily to force you to upgrade if you want to actually build anything. I mean what can a proud owner of "First Land" build with a 73 prim limit? I know I tried, and was forced to upgrade to even be able to have a small shack and a few items to personalize it. I have friends that just came to SL and they probably won't stay after seeing how expensive it can be to really have fun with it.

I'm an ugly neighbor. Not a neighbor of yours, but I'm one of the ugly neighbors. I've been a member of SL for quite some time. However, it seems that no matter how hard I try, I never have been able to get the hang of building some of the wonderful beautiful things that I see in other places (Like your TIKI HUT). So I have ugly crackerboxes with single textures all around. What I try to do is make the INSIDE interesting somehow.

I have an ugly movie theatre now that is going to be up and in full operation soon.

I'd be willing to "pay" someone to build a nice theatre for me, but there seem to be no takers.

Don't fault your ugly neigbors. Many of them are experiencing the joys of SL, but just can't seem to get the hang of creating the beautiful things around them!

Spuds

Bandwidth is cheap, but not *this* cheap.

9.99 for infinite bandwidth?

The initial cost is a fair amount. However, check out schwanson, he's got a great rent to own deal.

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But cloudy's house rocks, it is not a crappy box structure but creative and interesting.



I think the negrate is invented for occasions like this. I think people should be less uptight about its use. I rarely take the time to use it for an art critique, I try to save it just for little protests against people actually pulling down sim FPS or blocking actual access to properties. But why not?

Sometimes you can start little conversations with neighbours and sometimes a neighbour who can build better than you will give you a house, or visa versa, I've seen that happen.

I think we all *do* have the right to comment about what fills up the public space of our view corridors. Why not? All this tripe about how "you can't buy the view" as if someone has some inside hotshot real estate knowledge from RL, doesn't apply to SL, because there are no neighborhood committees, city building commissions, planning permits, referenda, etc. etc. the way there are in RL.

People fill up that view with crap that they could never get away with filling it up with in RL. So, sure, I think we do have the right to comment, to push back, and to question what arrogant and heedless types do when they fill up the public view space. Sure, it might be their own property, but I do question their right, on their 512 or their 2048, to crap up everything for everyone for miles. I think it is right and property to have public discussion about this.

Screesn with SL screenshots or shrubbery on them aren't a solution, they look too fake.

I'm going to back up Prok on this one... It's a social issue and needs to be socialized on a scale worthy of the issue. Come on, poeple! Build something less..... square. Do you really have to take up ALL your land? Right to the plot border? 20m high? aw come on, dude! SL already feels like a ghost town already, why build more space than you'll ever use? The only thing worse than a large building in your way is a large VACANT, sparsely decorated building in your way.

~lefty

*sigh*

I try to build my artistic and colorful square light boxes on hillsides as a personal expression of my creativity, then some idiot always comes and spoils the view with crappy tiki huts surrounded by unconvincing trees


Btw, I really, really get pissed off with this whole 'ugly' thing. I mean, some of SL's 'top builders' as far as I'm concerned create ugly pieces of shit. But it's got nothing to do with me what they do. Even if they do it right next door.

As people have said before, however unsympathetic it sounds, if you want to control the view, get a private island, because you do not have a right to good neighbors.

LOL!

My first house on my 512m rectangular plot looked like a mailbox. Since the plot was so small, I had to make the house take up almost all the land, hell it was cloisterphobic even when doing that. I still have a copy of it in my inventory. Ahh fun times.

Find people who agree with your aesthetic vision. Purchase land together (if you've got enough people, buy an island together). Include a buffer zone around your collective border. Draft guidelines for building in your new paradise.

Unfortunately, with greedy speculators driving auction prices of land far beyond the means of average players, your group will either have to be rather large or rather wealthy, both being difficult to keep on track for different reasons (large groups for reasons of logistics, rich groups because of their overbearing sense of entitlement).

But if you can pull it off, you'll have a whole sea of middle fingers to wave at the purveyors of tastelessness.

i disagree with anyone who has oppinions about what is "bad" building either way. I agree that techno-phantasy boxes done intricately is something cool to look at. And I also agree that tiki huts can be unimpressive and half-ass. I only have a problem with vacant space and height. Unless your "artistic" side includes an affinity for feeling closed in and claustrophobic, there are limits to what your artistic choices should be able to press on others. Art is only art if it's agreed that it's done well. Vacant space is unused space and therefore not art space. If hollow boxes are sombody's idea of art, they're stuck in the RL 60s.

I think a mailbox would be cool on a 512 plot and i think smaller plots can't help but use all their land space (as long as they really do USE it all)

Who will do the agreeing, and how? In your group where you have the sole veto? Where you said everybody could build what they want...but in fact you obviously have some very very clear ideas what you think is "good"?

it won't be a White Cube of Death if it's limited to two stories and surrounded by trees It would just be a plain house, no?


As for a larger Cube of Death on a larger plot with taller height restrictions. Well, in my sims they will be in the background of other smaller plots with smaller height restrictions so they will only be ostructing their own air space i suppose.

as for bringing up MY project, you know darm well that it's in its infancy and isn't very developed in terms of standards. There's no reason to bring it up here out of context with such animosity.

~lefty

What's all this "my sims" stuff, lefty ?

You bought them yet ? Where are they ? Or just dreaming/bragging ?

Sorry - I'm grumpy tonight and you're irritating me with your ego.