Two Basic Beginners Questions

Hi,
I only signed up yesterday, and enjoyed having a bit of an explore so far. Someone gave me a magic carpet and I was flying around on it, but I got this email:

The object 'Second Life' has sent you a message from Second Life:
Your object 'Terra Magic Carpet modified' has been returned to your inventory lost and found folder by Jeska Linden from parcel 'Help Island - Public' at Help Island Public 125.602, 134.706 due to parcel auto return.

Does this mean I did something wrong? I would hate to think one of the SL employees has to run around and manually clean up after me because I left an object in the wrong state or something.

Also, why are so many people so hostile towards people with free accounts? I was considering getting a paid account, and still am, but it only seems to be for people who wish to own land, which I guess is only really for people who want to run events, set up shops etc. Is there any other reason why I would want a paid account? And why are some people with paid accounts so against the idea of people with free accounts being allowed to sign up?

Arent people with free accounts the bulk of SL users? And dont they in fact help land owners make money by going to their events etc?

Just trying to clear up some of the concepts. I hope to start creating some objects and scripts etc soon once I get a feel for the place, and might even buy some land eventually.

Cheers
Kza

No, it's an autoreturn feature. If you have a copyable version of the carpet and took one out at the help island, but left it behind, the autoreturn will send it back to you. No worries, it's in your lost and found folder in inventory.



If you get heavy into building (as I have) the sandboxes tend to annoy you with the people who put out objects that interfere with your work (particle spewers come to mind here) and you just want a quiet place to work, you might consider becoming a landowner. I have been an SL resident since August, but only recently paid for it. I did so not because of the land ownership (though that is a plus) but because I wanted to help support the game's continuance.

Welcome to the family. If you'd like any help, IM me in world and I'll be happy to show you what little I do know, and introduce you to people who have helped me loads.

AT

There is an automatic land cleanup function that takes care of things that have been left out - it's not a big deal.

That's not to say it's ok to leave stuff anywhere and everywhere, as most people don't have this enabled. Sometimes, junk can end up sitting out for months if the land owner is away from SL for a while. However, anyone who would take you to task for small stuff like this is likely a bit addicted to internet drama.


Not everyone hates free accounts. Yes, there are some valid issues with regard to free access to everyone in the world, and yes it does add to database issues, bandwidth costs, and ease of griefing (how could it not?).

Yet it has also allowed some wonderful things too - by far the vast majority of people on the grid are decent, and huge numbers of them are free accounts. "Free" accounts that spend money, a LOT of money. I well know, because they spend it on digital content and land that I offer.

Yeah I don't get it because even with basic account don't you have to pay something? I don't have that type of account myself but either way if I had I still would have spent what I did.

Auto-return has already been explained, but I'll add one point. In general, it is rude to just leave things anywhere that you can rez them. The majority of land in SL is privately owned, and the fact that the land owner does not choose to lock down building abilities completely is not an open invitation to one and all to use the land that they paid for as your personal sandbox and garbage dump. Someone else is paying money every month to have that land, and the stuff you leave behind is using up their limited resources that they pay for.

My primary home has generally had to ban all access except for members of our group and those added to our parcel guest list, because every time we lower those defenses even for a few minutes, we get strangers walking through and rezzing stuff on our land as if it was a public sandbox. And we're talking people doing this on what is obviously the front lawn of a residential property! Personally, I have no objection to meeting new people and welcoming them to SL. But when they walk into the center of a cluster of 4 people who are obviously talking to each other, and stand there gawking and don't reply when politely spoken to, that gets more than a little bit creepy.

I think that the main gripe the longer term residents have is not so much with "free" accounts or "new" accounts as it is with "unverified" accounts. If a new Player signs up, and provides payment info, they get the first Basic account for free, and any account after that first one costs either a one-time fee of $9.95 USD for Basic, or a recurring fee for Premium membership. If they misbehave, Lindeb Lab knows who they are, and can act to ban all their accounts. So they are able to be held accountable for their actions. I'm a paid verified basic member myself. I don't want to own mainland property, so there is no reason at this time for me to become a Premium member. But I still own 4000 M2 of land on a private island, and I earn and spend thousands of L$ every month in SL.

But if a player refuses to give payment info, then NO ONE has any clue who they are. They can't be held accountable. Such accounts are very often used by 'Griefers' - troublemakers who come to SL for the sole purpose of spoiling everyone else's fun. An unverified account can be banned by the Lindens or can get banned by a land owner or sim owner, just like a verified one can, but there's nothing stopping the banned Player from just making another unverified account, and returning 5 minutes later, no matter why they were banned.

We realize that the vast majority of unverified accounts are probably perfectly nice folks. But remaning unverified marks you as a potential troublemaker, just as surely as walking into a bank with a ski mask hiding your face will mark you as a potential bank robber.

^^^^^ Well said.

I had this same problem when I first purchased land, and eventually scripted a system that would watch for people on my land and kick them in a certain amount of time if not on a list. People would occasionally create objects, but it was better than putting up ban lines, cause they're UGLY, and they just plain P me off....

When you're in SL, you can't tell whether or not people actually pay on a monthly basis, but it actually says something about you if you have provided your payment information, which anyone can see in your profile. It makes it obvious that you're here for more than just griefing. Most people will take you more seriously, immediately, and stop treating you like a noob. BUT, if you still LOOK like a noob with all that default clothing, then you're just asking for it, lmao.

Providing payment info and making yourself less "default" is the way to go. But you don't need to be a land owner to be taken seriously.

Also, the other big advantage of premium subscription is your weekly stipend (allowance) of L$500. Which reminds me, today is PAY DAY! This is baout the equivalent of US$7 in a 4 week period. So, if you pay quarterly or yearly, you're not actually losing any money, but you get a small flow of cash each week.

Which has been reduced to 400L$/week. (New accounts only possibly?) I've been paid $400L both of my paydays and I had gone ahead and paid a full years subscription ($72US).

AT

People arent against free accounts, they just are against free accounts that are not verified, typically when people want to cause problems , all they have to do is create a free account that isnt verified and then sign on and cause all the problems that they want to.
Use the account that you want, If you use a verified account then you can buy some lindens and have some fun and people probally wont be as bad but even if they are acting bad towards you, they probally arent worth getting to know anyway.

Welsome to Second Life and I hope you find it enjoyable.

Welcome, Kza

I am assuming you have payment info on file, as you are a registered user of these forums. Which means you are verified, even if you selected the first basic lifetime membership for free plan.

Many complain about free users, when they actually mean unverified users - no payment info on file.

You can find this info in your in world 2nd Life profile.

Everyone has given some great answers. However, LL has recently dropped the weekly stipend to $300L per week, for new signups. So even tho those that signed up when it was $500L, then $400L still get the amount it was when they signed up for their premium account. Someone new signing up today, would only get $300L per week stipend plus the land tier of 512sqm.

I wouldn't have known about the drop to $300L had my friend not told me.. never saw this last drop announced.

Best of luck & have fun!
~Pal

Wow thanks a lot for all the replies, I am slowly learning how all this works. I only gave my payment information to get access to the forums, I didnt realise everyone else could see the details though!

My wife has forbidden me to spend any real money though, but she has an account, and is getting into it even more than me, but she wants some boots, so I think shes off pole dancing for money.

(We did try to make some boots but that was a huge mission, I couldnt even get a small cylinder in front of me without spending about half an hour just trying to get it right)

I did have one other small question. My wife an I cant be online at the same time as we just have the one computer at home, but can we still add each other as friends?

Oh and another more on topic question, what should I do with objects like the flying carpet to prevent getting auto return emails? Is selecting "Take" enough?

You can search under people and add each other yes, but if you can't be online at the same time there doesn't seem a lot of point except it makes the profile easier to call up if you want to pass objects to each other.
Last night I enable 'modify rights' between my main and alt avatars but since I can't actually meet myself, am not sure what it achieves

Take is fine. You'll probably find it creates another copy in your inventory. I'm forever deleting copies of objects which I pick up after opening. It is polite not to leave them lying on other peoples property

Heh, yes I have the same problem!

I ah, found a solution, but it took a little bit of effort... essentially making stuff and providing land.

Incidentally, my "main" character is a freebie account (I downgraded). Desmond is premium of course, though Desmond is a much younger alt.

My main account is often treated quite differently than Desmond is. When I enter into conversations regarding the banning of free accounts, I often have to consider if I'd have to ban myself...

Actually, most systems can easily handle running multiple instances of SL on one computer. You'll end up with two windows on the screen, one of which is her view, and one is yours. You'll just have to pass the mouse and keyboard back and forth and click on which window you want active. It could get confusing if one of you types into the wrong window's chat or IM, however! But that would give your two avatars a way to interact inside SL. Search the forums for "-multiple" for exact steps for your operating system.

An offer of friendship can be made while someone is off-line. Click the "Friends" button, click Add, then type in her name and hit return, It will verify that she exists, and that you didn't type it wrong. Then click add friend, and she will be sent a friendship request, that she will see on her next login.

Whan you're done using an item like the flying carpet, you have two choices for polite clean-up. You can always right click and select "take", to move an in-world item that you own back to your inventory. If the item was copyable, you'll end up with a second copy in your inventory, beside the original. If it was a no-copy item, then it gets put back where it came from in your inventory. This is the safest course. You can move duplicates to the trash if they pile up.

You can also right click an item, select "more" and then "delete". This moves it to your trash folder, if it was a copyable item that you own. Note however that if you delete a no-copy item, it destroys it! You'll get a warning if you try to delete a no-copy item or an item that you do not own.

If you are on land that you own, a land owner can also return or delete items that belong to others. Returning is the same as you doing a "take", except it ends up in your lost and found folder. A land owner deleting someone else's stuff from their land will also send a copyable item to the owner's lost and found, but will destroy a no-copy item.