Stuff a land baron won't usually tell you.

Early on in my SL, I was in a jewelry store. IIRC it was a rather large, well-known one but of course now can't think of the name and I'm not in world.

Anyway, there was a section of perfumes and I asked the same thing you did of one of the sales consultants. (Well not about a perfume-stained note, but how perfume could possibly work in SL.) I don't know if it has a HUD, but what it did was say something in green text like: "The musky scent of xyz perfume entices you" or something to that effect. Shortly after that, I started seeing those kind of green text perfume comments in classes and social places. I guess it was something that was "in" for awhile. (Now I want to go check it out and see if it is still there...not that I'd use it, just curiosity.)

Re: Comic Sans font




/said in a small voice...Errrmmmm, I like comic sans. I use it in Yahoo Messenger primarily. I don't think it looks scary, but then I'm a redhead and to those who know the redhead temper, I'm scary enough on my own.

I do also really like fonts with flourish like your first example, Des, and I use that in my product vendor ads.

Ditto, we have two full sims and one homestead now. I hear ALOT from our residents.

And Desmond, TY TY TY for posting this. We hear so much about bad land barons and very little about bad renters. I agree this should be stickied.

One thing we use is the web based hippos as well which has helped greatly in keeping track of all our rentals. You get an IM from me or my partner asking if you are staying unless you select Not Renewing option. If we don't hear back in a day or two, then we clear everything out. (this is after the 3 day grace period which normally means we lost a weeks rental payment which is probably bad for business but...) I'd say about 1/2 our rentals are long term ie, been w/ us since the beginning and we do value them greatly and I have to say all have become great friends Others come for a week or two and go but many do come back which is always great to see. And yes, I almost always know who your alts are as well. lol

Out of curiosity, is there a land baron group? For sharing tips/tricks/griefer info? We don't get hit but every once in a blue moon and it's normally alts but would be cool to have a group to go to for help and such.

It already is! Someone spilled perfume on it!

(What's syna...syna...??)

this:

We don't charge over tiers. If we are fully rented, it pays all our tiers and its awesome! If not, we make it up between the two of us. Our goal is to create a great place for folks to come and hang out and have a good time. Profit is not our goal. We are pretty generous as well w/ prims from what I have seen in ads. 650L per week 400 prims. We are in it for the long haul and very rarely have open rentals. We have a tight knit community/group and like it this way. I know tho that some do under charge to get ppl in and then vanish b/c they didn't figure up what they needed to make tiers. Then you have those that charge too much and still can't make tiers b/c few ppl are willing to pay that much. I like to think we are in the middle.

You are not going to like for saying this, but I would not rent at your place. Hold your horses though, I will explain why.

My rentals always were for business parcels. And if anything, stability is important for business, so I needed a place that would "never" vanish from the grid. My business needs made me move a couple of times, which always costed me money for a while.

So why would I not rent at your place?
Simply because I cannot believe you on your blue eyes. I am convinced that when you say: "We are in it for the long haul", you actually mean it. But I do know that as soon as you do not like it anymore, you have no reasons to keep things going. While an estate that earns good money, has a very good reason to keep it open: that money. That is why I always preferred renting at estates which looked stable and profitable to the owner(s).
Don't get me wrong, I have friends with their own sims, who would have rented me a HS sim for virtually no profit. But for them, the same goes: If they decide SL is no more fun, they will not keep their mini-estate to keep me happy.

When Des decides SL is no more fun, he simply looks at his wallet and stays *grin*.

It's very informal, there's no 'group' per se. Such a group would end up being... I dunno, we'd end up with people wanting in it, that shouldn't be in it.

Sure, many of us might seem like competitors, but there's been plenty of times where one of us sees a 'gentleman competitor' estate being ravaged, we get on the phone (no estate manager access needed, toll free call, we are all concierge customers) and bring down the Wrath of Linden upon whatever tard decided to grief our friend's estate. I've seen all offending objects wiped, and griefer account gone from search inside of 30 seconds, from phonecalls like that.

Not that it's done all the time that way ~ you'd be amazed at the number of places that have me as an emergency estate manager, and I reciprocate some of these too. For instance, the estates of Skybeam, Winterfell, Lovelace and Gaslit can cover for Caledon directly.

Synesthesia: The phenomenon where a sensory input is perceived through another sense. For example, someone suffering from synesthesia might perceive the color orange as a noise, or as a smell.

what Lindel said... here's a wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

everyone has it to some degree, largely because some of it is associative.... like red being a "warmer" color than blue... or a shirt being "loud"... although for some people it's more than associative, red actually generates a feeling of heat, and that "loud" shirt has the effect of being just as distracting as if someone was yelling in your face.

Des was pointing out that certain styles of writing have a certain "feel" to them or association... making you think of what a person that writes a certain way looks like, sounds like, acts like, etc

I have some mild ones of the actual variety, like different types of pain having specific flavors (nerve pain is sickly sweet, for example)...

Thanks Void & Lindal.

Ever heard of BPAL, AKA Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs? They will utterly ruin you for any name brand perfume. They can rapidly turn into an addiction, be warned. Never mind how I know. /me hides box of 70+ imps (small glass vials of perfume) behind her back while humming "la la la, nothing to see here.."

Good to know, I always thought it was rude to IM a wall of text just right out of the blue.

Not at all! Busy people want to know the story right up front.

I mean, here's a typical IM exchange...

"Hi Lindal"
Hi, Avatar!
"How are you?"
Very good! How are you?
"Fine."
What's up?
"Nothing much."
*long, long pause*
Uh...why did you call?
"I was just wondering"
"If you wanted to go somewhere tonight"
Sure. You have something in mind?
"I found this new club that's pretty cool."
"Want to come and see?"
Sure.
*TP request appears, blocking my IM window*

Now, this has taken maybe ten or fifteen minutes. During that time I've changed clothes, re-set a rental box, and sent about six or ten other IMs.

PLEASE do it like this instead:

"Hi Lindal! Are you busy tonight? I'm at this great new club"
*landmark appears in my inventory*

You're much nicer than I am, Lindal. I don't respond to IMs *until* they get to the meat. I hate IM to begin with (I get confused easy). IM with just "hi" gets a response ONLY if it is one of my SL family. Nor do I respond to "how are you". If I tell the truth it would be TMI, so why go through the fluff?

I blame it on being autistic - Everyone already knows we have no social skills

don't forget all the are you there? IMs, with the large use of emerald and other 3th party viewers that show if someone is online those are obsolete, take up IM quota leading to capped IMs getting lost and are generaly anoying.
Just ask your question in one line, when I'm online I answer as soon as posible (might be a few hours later in case I'm logged in while sleeping or working RL) or as soon as I get online, sometimes even sooner when I check my email before going to work.

Which is a fair point but if the person isn't online, a brief follow up is really helpful.

I see lack of social skills as a blessing.......(I don't have any either).

QFT!

QFT on this one, too! I also do not multi-task well and then there is the issue of some degree of courtesy.

This happened awhile back and was from a friend I've known online for 15 years in other venues and now SL:

Keep in mind I have my "Busy" selection on with a personalized message, sort of like an answering machine.

Friend: Hey there!
Me: (Is *ahem* busy and figures she got the busy response so says nothing.)
Friend: Hey, what's up? You busy?
Me: (Wonders if there's some quirk in the busy notification, still says nothing, but now the IM notification and *ding*ding* are distracting me. (Yes I know I can turn off the sound and do that now. For me, even seeing an IM tab blinking is distracting.)
Friend: Did I do something wrong? Are you mad at me?
Me: (I wasn't but I am NOW!! Starts preparing the IM SHE'S going to get when I'm "not busy."

Ok, get ready for this...

Phone call from friend I hear via screening: "HEY, WOMAN!! I KNOW you're online."

Me: With redheaded fury I pick up the phone and tell her in no uncertain terms EXACTLY what I'm doing.

Friend: Oh, why didn't you say so? (/me face palms)
Me: (Shouting) DIDN'T YOU GET THE BUSY MESSAGE?!?!?
Friend: (Stumbling over her words) Yes, but I thought...I'm so sorry, oh gosh, sorry, sorry, I am soooo sorry.
Friend: (In a small voice, still stumbling on her words, which if you knew her, is NOT like her) Go back to (what I was doing).

I never had an IM issue with her again

Great post, Desmond.

pixplsthxbai!

I have experienced both sides of this, personally. I got into the estate business almost as a political statement against the problems I'd encountered on the mainland ("To hell with ban lines!!!", and I was more interested in using the rentals as a way to support my SL habit/hobby than as a serious business. But over the past couple years, I found myself personally spending less personal time in-world (even though I love the idea of SL, and I still have many friends here), and I found other RL interests to compete with it as a daily diversion. But by that time the estate was big and making real money- enough that I now have significant financial motivation to stick with it.

But while the money's important, what I think you REALLY need in an estate owner is someone who has both a balance of love for SL and a financial stake. If they're PURELY here for business, it only takes one crazy blog post from LL to send dozens, if not hundreds, of emotionally-uninvested estate owners packing after they do their ROI calculations. Someone committed to Second Life the virtual world, not Second Life the business opportunity, will do what they can to keep their tenants happy and maintain a role in the community.

From a resident's standpoint, you'd look for profitability, longevity, and stake in the community.

i've been a #9 a little, eh? i feel so dirty now.

Des, you rock as a landlord and you re a good person. anyone who says otherwise can just STFU. that is all.


.oO(btw, comic sans is my favorite font, and i get razzed ALL THE TIME about it at work)

I like comic sans too. Screw 'em if they don't like it.

viner hand itc in a deep maroon.