Why should I buy an island?

Why should I buy an island?

There. That's a question you can answer. This is NOT meant to be a Linden bashing post. I think if you read it, you will see frustration that many residents see. Perhaps, by sharing my frustration with you, you will find reasons to work on some of these things to fix them.


Background on me: I've been in SL for 15 months. I'm not prone to Linden Bashing. I have mostly been helpful, and the blot on my record was a genuine disagreement/interaction with a very rude person. I'm usually quite friendly to most, until given a reason not to be.

I have run an online service for over 10 years (remember BBS's?), so I can empathize with some of the issues that happen. You change this here, and don't remember that you have documentation in 3 places. I also have familiarity with dealing with the different sorts of people you have online, from the very gracious and helpful to the ones whose sole purpose here is to crash our second life. I tend to consider myself in the first group of those.

I enjoy Second Life, and I would like to buy an island to have a place to play.

Following, I'm sharing my thought processes as I work to muddle through buying an island. The numbers are things that I find that make me think I don't want to buy an island.

Process:

1) Go to Land Store. It's closed, but it will open. I can still order.

2) Fill out form. Which Island do I want? I'll come back to that, I want to review the rest of the form. I have to check this little box, "I have read the Private Island FAQ and approve the setup and monthly fees for the private island". Well, I should read the Private Island FAQ. I click the little link here, and I'm taken to the page "http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/?page=Private+Island+FAQ". Private Island FAQ. What does color of landmarks and last names have to do with private islands? This isn't the FAQ. I ask Live help. They give me the same link. Ok. What else can we do? Live help suggest F1. That's useful, and there's useful stuff in here, but, how far do I have to research to find the "Private Island FAQ" that I'm agreeing to? The help info is nice, but, I'm not agreeing to that. I'm agreeing to some form I can't find. Ok, I used to own a whole sim, and paid lots of money every month, and was allowed in the Concierge group. I don't own it now, so I don't have rights to concierge, but, I'll ask one of them, anyway, Fritz is online. He gives me correct link. "http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=054" Thank you, Fritz!

3) Item 14 of the FAQ, "Will I receive Traffic/Dwell for my Island?". "Yes", per the FAQ. I thought they did away with that, 3 months ago? I understand traffic numbers, but, still Dwell?

4) Item 5 of the FAQ. Name. Oooh, I can name it with 3 words, I thought it was only 2 words allowed, but 3 words is good. But "the space" counts as a character. What about the other space? That's not mentioned. Is it really 3 words, where I would expect to see 2 spaces? Or is it 2 words, with one space, that makes sense. 3 words with one space? Do two of the words have to run together? I'm confused here.

5) FAQ item 12. I can Terraform my island +/- 100 meters! Way cool! So, how tall are the islands to start with? If parts of them are sort of tall, I won't be able to make a low, flat area. Islands 1 and 4 look like they have snow on them. They are probably sort of tall in the middle. Island 2 looks low and flat, but, Island 3 has a nice shape, it's got lots of water. But it looks like it's got a peak in the middle. How tall is that peak? If it's over 120 meters tall, I can only bring it down by 100 meters, but the picture doesn't indicate how tall it is. There's a link below the picture, I bet that will give more information. Ooh, it's a bigger picture of the same island. Says nothing. Is that a peak in the middle, or a lake? How tall is it around it? I'll ask Live help. "What is the maximum altitude of Island 3?" They tell me I can make it whatever I want. No, the instructions say, I can only change it by 100 meters. How tall is it to start with? Ok. Live help can't answer. I'll ask Fritz. He's online. He never responded. I'll call concierge. Ok. Twice they don't answer, and after 48 hours, they don't return my call. I am not supposed to use them anyway. Ok. I'll write support. "What are the maximum elevations of the various Islands when delivered in default configured format?" That should get me the correct answer, which I expect will be in numeric form. No, I don't get that answer. Melanie Linden gave me a wonderful response, telling me I can raise or lower my island up to 100 meters, and that is usually sufficient for nearly any type of terrain. That's nice. Do I know that will be sufficient for me? I don't know. If I knew how tall the maximum elevation was, then I'd know if it will be sufficient for me. Does anyone know the maximum elevations of the default islands? I'm beginning to think the Lindens don't.

6) If I spend all this money on an island (this would buy, a really nice refrigerator, right?), what happens when I don't want it anymore? FAQ 9 says I can sell it. Cool! But, Lindens will provide no assistance. Let's see, I find someone, they agree to buy it, I transfer, they don't pay. Or, they could give me money, I don't transfer. How could lindens help here? Lindens could accept an "escrow" payment in lindens, from buyer, for seller, then if seller doesn't initiate transfer, Linden could return the L$ back to the buyer. Same as, I could initiate sale and transfer, and Linden could hold or cancel if buyer doesn't give the lindens the pre-agreed-upon number of lindens for the sale. Doesn't take but 5 minutes of a Linden time, I send email saying I want to transfer, buyer sends email saying they want to transfer, Linden contacts buyer to say, ok, buyer pays my cost in lindens to Linden, Linden sends me the lindens, and begins the transfer process. Otherwise, its' like, I have to trust someone on the internet that they are going to pay me after I initiate transfer of my high-priced toy. How much is a jet ski?


Now, I haven't gone into the pros about buying an island. I already know those, but it's all these cons that have made me wonder, do I want to spend my entertainment dollars here, knowing what I know now? That's not a question I'm asking here, my original question holds. I would hope some Linden reviews this and hopefully, reviews their processes in light of all this. This process of trying to buy an island has severly reduced the fun I normally enjoy in Second Life.

It's been an on-going challenge to keep documentation current given the rate at which change occurs in Second Life. But broken and incorrect links shouldn't happen, and we'll get them fixed (bug report posted).

Your questions about elevation is an interesting one. Melanie was correct in her answer and I'm actually not surprised that no one was able to tell you the base elevations. We'll need to get that information from the content team who created the .raw files for the islands. I'll see if it's possible to add a map that shows topographic information for the choices available. Also, if you want to design your own and have some proficiency with photoshop, it is possible to create a file which we can upload for you. For more information, just let [email]concierge@lindenlab.com[/email] or Ryan Linden know that you're interested.

The concierge can also help you with questions about transferring and naming your island. An email to [email]concierge@lindenlab.com[/email] is the best place to start.