[Something Sexy] Sweethearts

New lingerie release at my shop, Something Sexy. Five colors available covered in hearts, with Valentine's Day in mind. Each comes with copy/mod/no trans bra and thong in all layers as well as copy/no mod/no trans heels for 49L.
Marketplace
Something Sexy In-World

[Something Sexy] New Outfit - Alana

I have released a new dress, Alana, to my store. It's a complete outfit, including the dress, shoes, bracelets, necklace, pasties, and leggings, all for 99L. There are 11 colors. 10 are for sale, and one is a group freebie for the month of January!

Tipping Etiquette

Tipping is one of those things that seems to be not well understood by a large number of people. Second Life is something you can use for free, but there are people paying for a lot of the things people enjoy or working to make your experience a better one. 

In real life, I've been raised to tip certain amounts for different services. If I go out to eat, have some item delivered specially (food, newspaper, etc.), or have a hotel room cleaned, I plan to be tipping those providing the service. There are certain amounts for each type of service, and I was taught about it growing up. There's usually not someone to teach you in SL about tipping etiquette. 

First of all, a tip of any amount is usually going to be appreciated. If you want to tip someone but only have 5L and are concerned they may be offended, send the tip then let the person know how much you appreciate what they do to make your SL experience better. It will ensure they know that you value them. The kind words will make the tip that much greater. 

At clubs, there is the venue, DJs, hosts, and potentially dancers. The venue needs money in order to survive and many rely on tips. If you really enjoy visiting a club frequently, consider donating to the club itself to help them cover their rent. If the club has dancers with tip jars, and they are making your experience there better, consider giving a tip. Hosts work hard to keep the party going. They have to advertise, welcome people, and interact consistently to keep the party interesting and inviting. DJs play music for you! They have costs, such as the cost of the music they play, and potential equipment they may use, as well as the cost to stream the music to you. If you like the music, tip the DJ. 

If you enjoy going to live events, there is an entertainer, the venue, and potentially a host. Many venues pay the entertainer before hand. Some entertainers give the venue some percentage of their tips while others do not. If you enjoy the performance, it is nice to tip both the venue and the performer. If the venue does not have money, they will not be able to bring the performer back or invite other people to perform. If there is a host advertising, welcoming people, and socializing to make your experience better, consider tipping as well, especially if it is because of this person that you heard about the event.

There may be a place you visit frequently. There may not be any events, but it is a place you enjoy spending your time in SL. Land costs money in SL. There is a monthly fee from LL depending on the size of the land. Some people rent from others and pay a weekly fee, again dependent upon the size of the land and how much they can place on their land. Quite a few places leave tip jars or objects out so you can tip. It may be in a wishing well, animal, some form of nature, heart, or some other item - often with text above it to ask for tips.

You do not need to worry about tipping a person or place every time you visit, but if you have a good experience, visit a place a lot, go to a lot of parties with the same host/DJ, then consider tipping every once in a while if you can. There are even other situations I did not really dive into where a tip would be appreciated. One example would be for auctioneers. Not everyone can tip, and that's okay. Some people can't tip very much, and that's okay, too. If you can't tip, or you have a small amount to tip, please at least send a message of encouragement to the entertainer or venue owner to let them know how great of an experience they have given you in SL. 

On a slightly unrelated note, I am reminded by this article that I stayed at a hotel with some family over the summer for a reunion. I was temporarily babysitting my young cousin, and he hears someone knocking on doors and asks who it is. I let him know about house keeping. When they came closer and knocked across the hall, he said in terror, "Oh no, it's the house creepers!" Haha.

RedZone

RedZone is a product out to help determine the alts of people. This could be good. If someone is griefing you, copybotting, rule-breaking, or being generally obnoxious, you could easily ban the person from your land as well as all of their alts. The idea is good, but it's not accurate, and it invades everyone's privacy.

How does it work? A land owner can rez RedZone on their land which then scans avatars. If you've got media and/or music streaming, it will grab your IP and put it into a database. Any other avatars that have used the same IP as you will be tagged as your alts. Someone owning RedZone can check on any resident to see who their 'alts' are.

This is not something you consent to, and you may never know that you're being scanned. The easiest way to stop it is to disable automatically streaming music and media in your preferences.

Not only is there a problem of lack of consent and privacy, but it doesn't really work! There are several reasons for this. First of all, anyone who really wants to be annoying or to copybot is going to change IPs when they make new accounts, and they are unlikely to stream media or music in order to avoid being detected by RedZone. The other problem is that IPs get recycled. Some people get a new IP every time they get online, and that IP could be used by another Second Life resident who may cause a bit of trouble. It's not right to assume the two residents are the same person, and it's not fair if one of them behaves perfectly well and ends up banned at a bunch of locations because someone else caused trouble from the same IP. Then there's the case of family, friends, and public locations. I am not the only person in my household using Second Life. I am sure there are many others who have family or friends in the same home that use Second Life as well. I also have a tendency to log in at school and at the public libraries nearby. Just because other people may sign in at the same IP I once did does not mean we are the same person, or alts of one another.

Also, I don't believe anyone has the right to know anyone else's alt accounts unless the person tells them. If someone keeps their alts a secret, it's that way for a reason! RedZone can be used to stalk and harass other users, and it seems like it does that a whole lot better than it does at protecting land owners from griefers and copybotters.

I read about this JIRA on Forceme Silverspar's blog. Please log into JIRA and vote to ban RedZone!
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-24746?
Here are some other useful blogs about RedZone (such as sims using it, how to avoid it, etc.):
GreenZone
no2redzone

Photography Sim

Yesterday I found this awesome photography sim! I've never seen anything like it before, and I spent a few hours there trying out as much as I could, but I still did not exhaust everything they have to offer! It was a lot of fun, and I imagine it would have been even better if I had brought a friend along.

Ange's Free Use Photostudio

It's a G/PG sim. Although you cannot be nude here, according to one of the notecards you can pick up at the entrance, you can contact the owner (Ange) who will rez the props you are interested in in her adult land parcel.

There is a weekly photo contest. When you TP in, head north to get to the room the contest is in. There's also a bunch of cool freebies! There are some pose balls that you can load your own poses into. You can rez stuff in this sim, so the pose anywhere ball is really handy!

If you head west when you enter the sim, there's a shop with a lot of nice clothing for sale. She's also got a frame shop to the south!

Heading east will bring you into the world of photostudios! There are several different ones along the hall which leads out to more little photo areas and four photospheres (female, male, male-female, and female-female). Continue straight to go outside. You can change the color of the field of flowers right there. There are rocks all over that you can use for poses! There's a lot of awesome stuff going on, and you'll have to go check it all out for yourself!

Here are some of the photos I took.

Teens in SL

So, for anyone who does not know, the teen grid of Second Life is merging with the main grid this January. This has been a hot topic on the SL blogs, which I am unable to post on/access. It's amazing how much drama this change is causing, but I believe some of it has good reason.

I began using SL when I was 18, actually at the suggestion of family members. They thought I'd be able to make clothing and earn some extra money to save up for college. That didn't work, but I still came back later (on this account).

On that note, I don't think that age is a sign of maturity. You don't suddenly become mature the day you turn 18. The way both teens and adults are reacting is immature. I am okay with the two grids being combined, but there are some things that I am concerned about that I do not think have been addressed.

• How can we tell whether a user is over/under 18? Other than requesting they teleport somewhere on the Zindra continent. I think something like this would ease a lot of minds. Plus, I do not think that everyone on SL will know about this change. Some people are able to go without noticing these sorts of changes for a while. I was on a G sim (the only sim that those under 18 will be allowed on), and I received an IM: "How's it going sexy?" That's not an appropriate way to approach teenagers (or most adults, for that matter).
• What about profiles with adult content? I think that people should be able to set picks and descriptions as Adult or G. Or, they need to offer ways to keep 'adult' profiles from being viewed by teenagers (at the discretion of an adult account holder). 

I do think that most of the teenagers will add good things to the grid. Some will be immature, but the same goes for the adult user pool. Second Life attracts a special kind of audience, and I think most users have big imaginations and want a way to peacefully express themselves. They may help add to the economy, which certainly would not hurt. While I understand that this is (was) like a safe-haven from kids/teens for a lot of adults, you can still go to mature & adult land to get away from them. I think it's ridiculous how many people want absolutely nothing to do with them. I don't think I'll be interacting with them much, as my interests tend to be more on the adult side haha, but I think that it'll all work out in the end. Hopefully things will be done to help determine who's underage and to filter profiles for teenager access, while still allowing adult content in profiles for adult users.