Opinions, Please? Am I being too harsh?

I'm developing my mainland area into what I think is an attractive small residential community. I have lots of vegetation and fun places to play. The area is between Linden Rte. 7 and protected Linden ocean in Sharman.

Almost a year ago somebody bought up an empty 1024 plot near my house and put what I consider to be a garish, out-of-place store on it. I've never seen any real customers there, but lately there has been a continuous presence of 3-5 bots in it.

As I got to the end of my sprucing-up project, prior to beginning an advertising blitz to bring in tenants, I decided to apply some creative decorating to deal with the store.

Please note that the stuff I've put up around it is phantom so it is not blocking access. Also, the store is at the edge of the sim and there is nothing but water on its far side. So it is not hemmed in.

The owner is complaining. I sent him an IM explaining why I've done what I've done and suggested that he can either make the store look more like a house or move it to a cheap mainland plot I've found in a low-density commercial area a few sims away.

Here's a link to pics of the store and how I've masked it.

Am I being mean? Violating TOS? Suggestions?

Thanks, all.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46810578@N02/?donelayout=1

Make any barrier walls/screens transparent on their side

I agree with Sling that it's considerate to make anything you put up transparent on the side of the parcel you're trying to block.

I'd go further in this case, though. I'm disturbed by the snapshots. Putting up a wall or landscaping on one side of someone else's build seems reasonable to me, but enclosing it so that it is no longer visible to passersby seems to come close to being harassment.

1) It's mainland. You pays yer money, you takes yer chances.
2) You haven't blocked his access on all sides (you did say the prims are phantom).
3) I assume your prims do not hang over the parcel line.
4) See number 1.

One thing you could do to ease tensions is, make the stuff transparent on HIS side, since you are creating his view as surely as he is creating yours.

ETA: Dang, I'm slow!

That's right, and I'd guess that that will be the response to the AR or ticket or whatever it is the Enclosed Guy filed. It's a 'between Residents' dispute.

But the OP didn't ask about TOS; the post requested opinions.

My view is that putting up any sort of blockade on more than one side of someone's build--not to mention IMing them to instruct them on what sort of building they should have--is, yeah, kinda tacky. ('Harsh' seems to imply that the OP has some sort of right to School this other person.)

'Schooling' someone by telling them what their build SHOULD look like, and enclosing them on three sides, is likely to lead to escalations of unpleasantness (the other guy could well decide to build up higher and higher and higher. You can do a lot with megas, even on a mere 1024.)

So, to my mind the OP did not make a wise choice.

Different people will see this issue differently.

Looking at the pics again, I have to reverse my stance on number 2 above.

It looks like you have in fact enclosed him on 3 sides. The sim edge is blocked in terms of avatar movement, one cannot walk or fly to his parcel from off sim. So he is effectively blocked on all 4 sides.

The high road would be for you to unblock at least one side of his parcel.

You also said his build has been there for a whole year and you have coexisted peacefully, so it would have been more diplomatic to talk to him before making this barricade, rather than after.

Start here, because they -can- AR you if you don't.

I guess without seeing the rest of your build, I'm not sure what was offensive about their store (some detail in the pic I missed perhaps).

But you can certainly put up a privacy fence on your side to block your view of it.

Suggest they move to a skybox store too. Lower lag up there, less clutter from other's builds, and so on.

You could go stealth with it. If you're not using the area near it, build a light woods there. So rather than a fence right up on the line, you have a general patch of trees and bushes that blocks it from anywhere where your build is being used.

Other tactics include offering them a new building, one you like the design of - and make it lower prim and more spacious than their current design and promote it to them on that angle.

I have made his/her side of the wall/screen transparent and I moved the trees and bushes away so they don't overhang.

I did ask about the TOS. I don't think there's anything in there that guarantees that anybody will have their advertising signage visible across half a sim without obstructions. I'm not trying to harass the person, I just don't want to see their ugliness. It's not just my opinion; previous tenants have commented that the place is an eyesore.

Also, the place is a nest of bots and campers. In all the times I've walked into the place and tried to strike up a conversation, not once has any entity in the store spoken to me. Yesterday a character called "Alt1 Alter", wearing the store's group tag, was standing on my land--*my* land--for over an hour. This was before I started putting anything up around the store.

I'm willing to compromise with the person, of course. However, I believe a true compromise involves not only me modifying what I've done, but him/her modifying the look of the store.

I've added another pic; it shows the view from behind my house. It's hard to see in the pic but the store's main sign can be seen from there. It's quite clear from that angle that there's a shop back there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46810578@N02/?donelayout=1

ETA: At night from that angle, from behind my house, the store's brightly lit sign is clearly still visible.

Esquievel, i looked at the pic. it's fine.\

they do what they want with their land, you do what you want with yours. you have done nothing that is offensive nor ugly. if they don't like it, too bad. don't change a thing!

I just flew over the parcel (that Bunny was me).

The water sim next to it is not world edge, but another sim with builds on its far end - so people can enter from that side just fine.

The shop doesn't have a very offensive design as far as shops go - but its open on the side in the pic, and the other sides are windows with products in them.

On the ugly builds scale, its not that high up there. But it doesn't match with the otherwise residential nature of the area. Customers are not likely to walk or fly in. There is nothing in the area that would cause a potential customer to be there. They're going to TP in from finding it in search.

That said, if a shop like that was the biggest concern I had on a sim, I'd consider myself lucky.

It would be nice if the builder could figure out walls... Or build in the sky... but oh well.

I don't think you've violated the ToS, but I do think you may have set yourself up for a protracted conflict with a neighbor that might very well be better than many you could have gotten there.

I found this statement rather presumptuous and arrogant on your part. Your definition of garish might not match others and just because you decided to build an residential area does not mean that you can tell others that they are "out-of-place". Even if you were there for a long time before him, you cannot dictate the "feel" or "design" of the entire area unless you own it all.


I personally find this to be incredibly rude on your part. You might be okay in saying that you did what you did because his store just did not blend with your residential design but to go further and suggest he conform to your design or move is beyond the line.

If you sent me some communication suggesting i change my build(s) to be more acceptable to your aesthetic taste, i would from that point on, leave that parcel along with some scripted treats on it to make your life there miserable.

If you want to control the damn sim so much, go buy your own 65,536m2 slice of utopia and control it all you want.

How rude of you to send them some crap IMs like that.

Am I being mean? Violating TOS? Suggestions?

Thanks, all.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46810578@N02/?donelayout=1[/QUOTE]


First, let me say you have obviously spent a lot of time making that area really nice and that is a good thing for the mainland. Congrats.
Second, prims with a nice view for you and phantom and transparent on their side should work fine.
Third, go back to making your place special and enjoyable and I hope profitable. Don't sweat this too much.

Personally I would just redesign the store with inspiration from Friedensreich Hundertwasser's KunstHausWien or the Hundertwasserhaus in Plochingen. After all, both are residential buildings so you wouldn't be able to say I didn't comply with the request even though they are extremely garish. I think you did a good job with your parcel and made a nice pleasant residential playground, but I have to agree with LittleMe Jewel's implications of sounding presumptuous and arrogant. Just be careful what you ask for because you might just get it.

It's mainland.




Caring too much about what your mainland neighbours do, will lead to constant venting, petty spite wars, dramah on teh internets, and in severe cases: mad blogging.

Just let it go.

For your sake, for your neighbour's sake, and for the peace of mind of everyone else.

Life's too short.

Good luck, man.

I didn't read the post, i'm trying out a new policy... if you have to ask if something is bad... it is. =)

To my eye, going by your pictures, the screens that you've put up look worse than the shop. A bit of creative landscaping would do a much better job, than a flat brown screen. Have a look at your "StorePartiallySeen" picture... your rocks and palms blend in, but hide the shop really well, however your big brown screen stands out like dog testicles.

Also, have you considered working with the store owner, to fix the problem? And I don't mean expecting him/her to do everything your way.

It may save you the hassle of a possible AR, from the shop owner, for blocking access.

Before I pick nits, I have to say ya've done a nice job. Ya have a nice lil tropical corner of teh grid.


How did you get along with it for almost a year, but suddenly it's too garish and outa place to live with? I notice you didn' mention the giant glowing purple Zyngo parlor that shares the sim and is *much* more garish than that small shop, nor the club across the street from you.


Standing on your porch and looking towards their store, I have to say that it just didn't work. The 4 trees are too regularly spaced, it doesn't look at all natural and clashes with the other landscaping you have. Also the alpha in the trees foliage is fighting his windows and honestly, it's an eyesore.


I think you are being mean, although I don't think you meant to be. Really, the store isn't so bad. Compared to the Zyngo parlor down the street, it's hardly noticeable,

I think the store doesn't look too bad in the photo. The screens do look a bit of an overkill.
Maybe if you just have trees and a few other features to soften the impact of the store without obscuring it, both you and the store owner would benefit.

Another approach would be to landscape the area in front of the store to integrate it into its surroundings a bit, with perhaps some benches and a path leading to it.

Good approach. I have 59.5k of a mainland sim and I would have liked to build something on the highest part of it. I didn't because of an "out of place/character" glowing box-type store building on a 1024 that would be too near for the type of thing I would have liked to build (a castle). I put a pathway round that part of the sim and suggested that the building owner makes a doorway opening so that I could include an offshoot path right into his store. We did that. It's very different from the situation in this thread but I thought it was worth mentioning, in addition to Conifer's suggestion, because getting along with neighbors is so much better than conflicting with them.

Another example of getting on with neighbors occured just a few weeks ago. A neighbor had surrounded his 512 with huge megas that had trees on them, but they were ugly. I suggsted to him that he puts everything in the sky if he wants to be out of sight, and leave the ground looking nice for neighbors. He said he used the megas to hide a couple of business building from view (not mine). But he removed them anyway, and I placed some trees and rocks around. They don't completely hide the buildings but they make his view much better.

On the whole, I think it's much better to discuss things with neighbours first than to suddenly act. Sudden actions are likely to get up the neighbour's nose, but discussing the stuation may cause actions to be unnecessary, and the result to be much better than the possible actions could produce.

This.

I don't see what is so bad about the build to be honest. I pictured something hellaciously glowing and in neon pink or something.

Compared to what else I've seen on the grid that is not bad at all.

I don't think it's right to try to get someone else to leave or harass them off their land, either.

Well, you asked.

Yeah. This is often the effect. I've used screens on the Mainland, but only in really extreme conditions.

And at least in the photos, the shop doesn't look that scary. But you know, it could *become* scary: You could easily involve yourself in a war of escalating eyesores. (Back when Mainland was at its most hideous, I once chased a pissed-off adfarmer all the way to the cloud layer. But I had prims to burn.)

As things stand, they're just one megaprim from making all that screening just foundation plantings for a new, slightly elevated store location.

You could try to buy-out the store owner, but "a cheap mainland plot ... in a low-density commercial area a few sims away" isn't even close to an offer. A double-primmed corner parcel in Bay City, or the price thereof, might (*might*) work. It's not the store owner's idea to move, remember, so whatever is offered needs to be worth their while to even consider.

What you've done doesn't appear to violate ToS or anything, but it doesn't seem a good move, strategically.

If it were me, I'd just landscape around it, treating the store as an actual neighboring build, albeit a non-residential one.

This is the part that jumped out at me. It's mainland. (He's not on a parcel on your private estate.) Why would you tell your neighbor his place has to look like yours?

Qie said it very diplomatically and with a lot of good suggestions - couldn't you just rez some nice trees at least, around it?

Mainland is mainland. You have neighbors. They have a right to their dream too.

This.

Personally, if I see one more parcel done up in that swanky tropical look I'll scream. I live in Canada and can certainly appreciate the appeal of a sandy beach but COME ON!! Is that the extent of creativity in SL?

I wish the concept of "tiki" where removed from the grid entirely but I don't go around lecturing my neighbours about it.

To each their own, especially on mainland. I saw someone living in a giant shoe once. Now that is fun

Did she have a lot of kids?