Before you build, please read!

To cut to the chase: Before you build anything, PLEASE think long-term. Think HARMONY. Please. Try to be considerate of the neighborhood you are in. Will your build fit in or disrupt the atmosphere that could be balanced? If the neighborhood is residential, warm, and peaceful, think THRICE before building a shop or a club! Why not create culture? You have the potential to create something beautiful. Find land that will fit your needs.

I'm so disappointed because I had my eye on a 512m2 of land in the lovely and peaceful part of Atis. I go there today, naively thinking it will still be waiting for me (haven't bought it yet) and I find this hideous build in the middle of it. Some kind of a mall....

Even in real life, I'm disgusted by some places, like a few places I've been to in New Jersey...it's no Europe, let me tell you that....There is absolutely no culture....Highways, gas stations, factories, ugly buildings are cramped together...the aura of it is chaos...Let's not make the same mistake in SL

I love this post, it's just asking for us all to use our heads. Of course not everyone will do this and not everyone can build as well as others so their builds might not be as "pretty"..but what is being said here is to give it a try, talk to yer neighbors. Make friends, see what is going on. Can you imagine what SL would look like if most of it was planned out..themed...whole forest builds...whole cities....

Understandable, Beau -- doubtless zoned sims would generally be more uniformly good-looking than hapazard builds around SL. One need only check out Boardman and other zoned sims.

I'm not personally for/against zoned sims. I'm for "whatever floats your boat" sims.

Where's the line to draw? Where's the "good taste" committee?

I personally love that SL doesn't (officially) have one. Don't like what your neighbor builds? Tough luck. TOUGH LUCK.

"Buy the view" is the general consensus around here ... and I'm happy with that.

Last year I tried an expirement to harmonize my sim. I only had a small plot of land, but I filled it with plants I created and set them as free to copy. The plan was that my neighbors would probably find them, take coppies, and use them on their own land. Thus, there would be a some uniformity in the landscaping. It worked to some extent, particularly when the sim was largely subdivided into little plots.
Nowadays most of Green is owned by a handful of people (including myself), and my plants are limited to my land. Still, I try for some uniformity. In my spare prim allocation plot, I added trees that matched those across the property line. Also, another neighbor put tall terraformed spires on his land, so I've added spires on my land to harmonize things.