Why are so many stores turning off scripts?

Taking a shopping trip now means all too often finding scripts turned off at many of the stores. This means AO doesn't work mainly, but same goes for radar HUDs, hugs, etc.

Why have so many turned them off? Is this continuing copybot hysteria? If so, I'd not be so worried. If someone were going to copy your work they'd buy one item then go elsewhere to copy it, wouldn't they?

Is it a fear of self-replicating objects? Why not make the entry point to your land or sim no-scripts and the rest scripts working?

It just seems to me (and a few others I've discussed it with) that as a shopkeeper, you'd want happy customers, not irritated customers. Blocking basic things like an AO is a bit much.

Most stores create Massive Lag due to the shear number of items present in the store, And the active objects carried by the customers. Add on top of that Many active scripts, and you have an Inescapable Lag Morass. Shop Owners have discovered that Shutting off scripts allows people to Tour the store, and Purchase the items there but it Doesn't Lag them down to a point where the customers cannot move.

It's also a Good way to prevent griefing on thier premisis.

Angel.

Unless that got changed, scripts that are already running (like an AO) will keep on functioning in a no-script area.

My AO kept on running even when the Lindens turned the entire grid into a no-script area a month or two back .

I was noticing tonight that hugs don't work in many stores (we're always hugging LOL)...and while my AO works, the high priority typing animation I have on top of it will not. Strange.

I also get irritated when I arrive somewhere and my walk replacer stops working, causing me to stumble around like... well, one can hardly call it walking. But I also had to deal with giant, self-replicating prim shoes at my store lately, so I can totally understand the decision to disable scripts.

I'd like to see the "other residents" checkboxes in the land options (disable scripting / building) split into the 3 account types (payment information). That would help a lot to avoid grey goo attacks or other griefing (cages etc.), without annoying too many paying customers.

Sometimes I turn it off in my store due to problems with unruly visitors and then just forget to turn it back on until someone mentions it.

I sometimes have to turn them off due to a repeat griefer.

Stores aren't as bad as some clubs doing the same thing. In many clubs you can't pull out your own dance balls and it wouldn't be bad if they had enough balls for people to use but in many cases they don't.

Example: One club that packs them in barely has any balls on the dance floor and the ones they have the most of are "slow dance 5" and as you know, this isn't a good ball to begin with. Swaying from side to side all out of synch, this isn't a dance ball. 54 better balls would be better, no?
Or living life at the edge would be better served if balls actually worked instead of just being there for the sake of being there. If you're not going to put enough dance balls or at least enough balls that work, then let people bring their own. You'll have more people because now they don't have a problem dancing or having to wait for balls to be available.

Well .. figures .. you're a very huggable lady .... can I stalk you later?

Could someone please explain to me just what AO is and what it does? It's one of those annoying things that I keep seeing but always too busy or distracted to ask at the time LOL

Cole, hi. Dance slow 5 huh? I knew one of them is a pile of doodoo!

You've a very valid point about enough dance balls but a plethora of unpopulated balls is not aesthetically appealing either.

I have a couple of favourite places which have a scant selection of balls around the perimeter of a dance floor and these with most others I visit have the 'club dance' where you click on a poster or other object. Sadly I notice it doesn't take many participants to reduce this to a two position flip-flop

Anyway, sorry for digressing from the OP (again!) If I don't post my thoughts inspired by other comments I .. um .. forget

AO is the abbreviation for Animation Override(r). A script and several animations packed into a prim object worn on HUD or body. It replaces all standard animations, not only the walking / flying animations but also standing, sitting etc. Usually AO's take care of the "air typing" as well.

Some AOs that I tested during my first SL days came with an appealing walking animation (usually the standard Poser walk, unchanged), but rather silly looking, constantly changing standing postures. All joints are "locked", to avoid air typing and head jerks while typing, making it impossible to use nodding or head shaking gestures. Somehow AO user's become a bit bot-like, lacking the natural head and chest movement and being controlled by a script instead; if someone stares holes into the air while talking to you, hides her hands behind her back, steps onto her own toes and dislocates her joints in most unusual ways, it might be an AO forcing her to behave peculiar. Using poseballs can be a bit problematic too, often the implemented animation is replaced by the AO's sitting posture. I personally find AOs quite creepy, since it's hard to judge what your chat partner is looking at (that's another definition: AO's are a way to apparently gaze blankly at the sky while staring under a woman's skirt).

A "light" version of the Animation Overrider is the Walk Replacer, which only changes your walking / running animations to something that looks less cartoon-like than the standard walk, but doesn't mess with standing and sitting postures.

You can also play dancing animations right out of your inventory, without rezzing any lag-causing scripted object. You can even include your favourite anims in gestures and assign a hotkey. It works fine, even if scripts are disabled in the area.

Thanks Ishtara, very informative.
I understand now why I keep seeing someone saying '/ao'
I picked up a lovely freebie 'sexy walk' from Stella - I could follow my alt all day LOL

.. and you just reminded me .. I've got some dance gestures!!! ROFL

Hi Jenn,

Yes it probably does have a large fear element, but the root cause is LL not implementing an enforcable justice/punishment system. SL is fragmenting into a set of isolated enclaves where land owners are paranoid and restricting most rights to only those in a selected group.

Gone is the roam free, roam anywhere, but RESPECT all ethos.

What is arising is a new anarchic SL.

<end soapbox>

ask the club owner to put out more?

we always have extra, and as Bilbo put it having them around when not used is not appealin, and as another poster put it, you have dances in Your animation folder, no need to wait for a dance ball, Owen, makes dance chims, most clubs to save space will have these either on the wall, or in spheres near the ceiling. no need to wait for a ball if all You wish to do is dance.

misread, edited previous post and apologises.

fear? no fed up with the system of handling griefers? yes.

I do, but he keeps saying he has a headache!




(I'm sorry.)

LOL
dont be i needed that

You're mainly talking about the limitations of individual poses here, not the AO script, although admittedly what you describe is quite common. It's certainly possible to get poses for your AO which don't lock the head, neck and hands, and allow the default typing animation to play whenever the avatar types. Some of the better animators out there add a premium to good quality poses which don't override this default behaviour.


And of course, you can drop any walking animation (many freely available) into a free AO and it will replace your walking anim only. Many walk overriders, including those in shoes, often use the same franimation script used in the vast majority of AOs.

Aren't all worn items not affected by the no-script feature? I can still use my AO. My flight feather still works and so do my particle effects. I hardly notice it when stores have no-script.

Well, last night I tried to use my hug in a no-script place and it wouldn't go. Are you suggesting that an AO would enable it to?

An AO is already running so mgiht still work. A hug is activated as are most weapons and attachments. Previously placed attachments will continue to run, such as particle emitters on certain avs, in most cases, as long as they were already running.


Putting them on in a no script zone will render those scripts off until once again in a scripting area I imagine.

Thanks for that.
Is the learning curve flattening .. or am I just losing my balance?

No problem.. some AOs seem to keep working others stop. I'm not educated on the exacts of why some cease to work and others keep running, nor would I expose it here if I did, lest someone twist it to a gun that works in no script areas.