Recently in Musings & mutterings Category

Sometimes I am not sure why I do anything.

I log into SL and leave my avatar standing in my garden for more than an hour while I check Plurks in Firefox.

I go to a club and leave my avatar dancing there while I write a blog post.

I try to shop but nothing catches my eye and then I crash and can't be arsed to log back in.

I am in this weird mood where all of a sudden I want to delete my Plurk account and quit SL and wonder if anybody would notice.

Isn't it strange how you can KNOW that people care and yet still feel that nobody cares?

I really hate how things can change in the blink of an eye in SL, sims and stores vanishing overnight. Maybe that's why I'm so often tempted to BUY IT NOW! because you never know when a creator is going to discontinue the items, take down their store, or leave SL.
 
 

 
 
Recently I heard that the Life is Good sim will be closing down on Jan 15, and was like, eek! I've known of Porta Fosse's furniture for a long time, and would go back every once in awhile to look at it, but didn't buy because I didn't need them right at that moment; I told myself I could always go back and buy the furniture later.
 
Well, I'd just run out of time, and "later" had become "NOW!", complete with exclamation mark. So I hopped on over to the sim, only to discover to my dismay that the furniture store has disappeared. A quick search revealed that the creator has also pulled all his items from Xstreet. *sobs*
 
This is the item that I particularly wanted, a cute little stool. It is texture change and comes with 7 sits, and is only 4 prims!
 
 

 
 
Yes, I managed to find a copy of it rezzed somewhere, to take these photos. Search does work if you know exactly what you're searching for ;)  ...and yes, I've been walking around the grid in a demo skin, thanks for noticing :p  Dutch Touch is currently having a 50% sale on selected skins, and I'm trying to decide whether to buy this one. I decided against any of the Exodi ones because when I compared demos, overall the Dutch Touch skins seem to suit me better.
 
Anyway, back to the Life is Good "Soft Stool" -- I've sent a notecard to the creator, who is Japanese. I even asked a friend to help me translate my message into Japanese because I wanted to make sure that the designer would understand me! Yes, I want that stool very much, can you tell? :p
 
This is the second time this has happened to me, a store disappearing so that I've been unable to find/get an item I really like. I haven't seen any other furniture maker in SL produce a stool like that -- the shape and the textures, especially.  /me waaaaaaants :(

As I get to know more designers and creators via Plurk and consider some of them my friends, I would like to buy their products just to support and encourage them in their work. The problem is, firstly I simply can't afford to buy a lot of stuff, and secondly, sometimes their designs just aren't my style, although very well-made and good quality nonetheless.
 
It makes me feel a bit guilty, and I wonder what they think when they post a picture of a new release and I tell them it looks gorgeous, but then never buy it. Do they feel maybe I am not sincere? Like Evie makes awesome gowns, but I rarely buy gowns because I never have occasion to wear them. Almost all the gowns I have were freebies, or bought on sale. This gown by her is still one of my favourites; it was a group gift, if I recall correctly.
 
 

 
 
I always wonder how the fashionistas can afford to continually buy every single new release by certain designers. I mean, I like Truth's hair, yes, but If I were to buy new hair every Friday I would be perpetually broke :p
 
Most of my stuff is bought during sales, or were freebies, group gifts or hunt items. I rarely buy clothing or hair at full price, and again this makes me feel guilty when some creators claim the "freebie culture" is destroying the economy... because I am one of those who heavily benefit from the so-called "freebie culture".
 
But you know, I am really thankful for the generous designers out there. Their generosity makes me want to buy from them, to show my appreciation and indirectly thank them. At the same time, I've never stopped being excited about freebies, although I no longer actively seek them out. Every time I see a lucky chair with my initial, I hop on it in glee and am so happy to have won something! It is like receiving an unexpected present! *does a little dance*
 
Occasionally I do splurge, and allow myself to go crazy while shopping. Especially when there's a sale. But I hope all my designer friends understand that I think they're the bee's knees. In some cases, I would totally buy everything they made, if I could :)
 
 
---
 
Dress: Evie's Closet - Romany Kiss - Forest
Necklace: Deco - Fandangle Necklace - Olive (50L Friday item, still available at this price till Sunday midnight SLT)
Pose: *V* Vain Inc. 7

Happy new year, everyone!
 
I'm starting the new year having some minor difficulties logging in to SL. Sometimes I have to try a few times before I can successfully log in. The screen hangs at "Connecting to region..." and will not move. *sighs and curses my ISP*
 
Today I managed to log in after 4 tries, and this is what I looked like:
 
 

 
 
That is the same hair from my previous post; and you can see the background is all grey. I was standing underwater in the middle of Blake Sea, a water sim, and the ground was not rezzing. Linden ground, which uses default Linden textures -- there was no reason for the textures not to load. I stood there for 15 minutes, afraid to even move, and the ground did not rez. Then I crashed and couldn't get back in. *sighs again*
 
Moving on ;)
 
Looking back on the last year in SL, I think 2009 was a great year for friendships and relationships. I met a lot of wonderful people via Plurk -- too many to mention -- and some became inworld friends too. The constant swirl of conversations on Plurk helped me to get to know many people whom I might otherwise not have known, and I found myself receiving a great deal of care, concern and support from my plurk friends. *hugs all of you*
 
One person in particular became so special to me that we partnered, but alas the partnership only lasted 4 months, breaking up at the end of August.
 
 

 
 
Through it all, Peter has always been there for me, listening to me, giving me advice, providing unquestioning support, cheering me up and cheering me on. Our friendship has grown and deepened in a way I never foresaw. Peter is also the person I rely on the most to give me honest feedback. If he thinks my hair is ugly, he'll say so without compunction :p
 
When I was going through the partnership breakup, Ari was another who reached out to me in support, stunning me with his compassion and... yes, gentleness. We had friended before in SL, but not talked much, so he unfriended me *throws dramatic temper tantrum and pouts* -- but after my breakup we friended again and started talking regularly. I mainly talk with him because he said he unfriends people if they don't talk to him at least once in six months, so I need to make sure I keep my space on his list this time! *grins wickedly*
 
While we're on the topic of deepening friendships, this year I also got to know Elora better. She's been very busy towards the 4th quarter of the year, so we haven't gotten to talk much and I miss her.
 
At the same time, Bon came back to SL after taking a break for a few months. I was sad when he left, and so glad when he returned. His leaving left a hole in my SL. I love our conversations. I feel like I can talk to him about anything and I enjoy spending time with him, always. Plus, he is the only friend I have who regularly takes me dancing ;)
 
 

 
 
Speaking of old friends... I wish I could spend more time with Ciaran. Unfortunately his time zone is bitter enemies with mine and we rarely get to meet *sighs*. Ciaran was my third landlord in SL - we met when I rented a parcel of land from him in June 2008. The first time I set eyes on him, he was in full wizard garb and I was all o.O  He's still my favourite wizard in all of SL -- well, he's the only wizard I know in all of SL, but... yeah! xD
 
 
There are so many people I would love to meet in RL, and this year I did get to meet someone: Kamian came to Malaysia for the MotoGP and I met up with him & his wife, and had a blast. It was so cool to see him "in person" -- I still think of him as Kamian, it's a marvel I didn't actually call him that when we met xD  He had promised to bring me TimTams, a yummy Australian biscuit (cookie), but he forgot *giggles*. When he went home, he mailed me a box of them! *dances and hugs them to my chest*
 
 
And now for the new friends ;)

 
 
I started reading Marnix's blog and later got to know him on Plurk, then began to hang out with him inworld every so often because our time zones are not too wildly far apart (he is 5 hours ahead of me). Yes, he was a tiger when I first met him, why do you ask? *grins*   We became such friends that I freely dumped all over him when I was emo. Several times. The poor guy never complained. He deserves a medal :)
 
He introduced me to Alvena, I think; she had found my blog earlier and left a comment, but I don't think I responded to her comment at that time. After we were introduced, I hooked up with her on Plurk and then we friended inworld, and now we talk often. It is so cool to have found another Malaysian to talk with -- even if she isn't in Malaysia :p  I love how I can be Malaysian and not speak "proper" English, and she'll understand me completely! lol
 
Of course, I could never forget Ted, who helped me set up the beach I have wanted for so long. We met through Plurk (are you starting to see a thread running through these stories? lol). All it took was for him to say, "Hey, I can help" and look where we are now!
 
 

 
 
Finally, this year was also the year that Peter introduced me to London. I love her, she is one of the most warm, open-hearted, funny, honest, generous, modest people I know. I will probably write more about our relationship some other time ;)
 
So there you have it; 2009, the year of relationships and friendships. All of you, my friends -- yes, including those I didn't name, because there are too many to name -- all of you make my SLife richer. I love you all. (Can't you allow me some mushiness? It's NEW YEAR'S DAY, for cripe's sake! :p)

Ari noticed that this blog has been deathly quiet (no posts at all in December! *winces*). "I want to see sexy pictures on your blog," he said wickedly.
 
Because I am very obliging -- plus you can't cross a pirate! He'll kidnap you, torture you, and make you walk the plank! -- here's my version of sexy:
 
 

 
 
I'm ready to fight fire with fire now! Bring it on, Ari! We'll see who wins! :P
 
The truth is, I had this huge streak of creativity going through the month of November (see my Flickr pictures) and then along came December and suddenly I hit a funk that lasted two weeks. I try not to blog when I'm blue because it always comes out sounding too emo and self-pitying, and self-pity isn't pretty ;)
 
After that Christmas was so near and I started trying to build some Christmas stuff and bam! before I knew it, December was nearly over o.O
 
But for the first time ever, I made a Christmas present to give out to my friends! It's silly, but I was so excited and happy about my present! So excited and happy that I forgot to take pictures of it. LMAO
 
Before I end, I just want to say that I have awesome friends :)  After writing about dreaming of getting a sim or half a sim to have more prims, Aisuru and Alicia both offered to let me build at their places. I now have a building platform at Ali's sim \o/ *hugs Ali*
 
 
Hair: A&A Wild Thing Hair - Chocolate (Gingerbread man hunt)
Skin: Rockberry Uma Group Gift - Natural
Shirt: Wrong - Tied Shirt - Black
Necklace: Alienbear Design - 2009 NX Dark gift set
Bangle: Ticky Tacky Worship the Black Pearl Bracelet
Tattoo: MFox MM 02 Flores Paleta Esq [$1L on Xstreet]
Boots: J's Loosefit Boots - Black
All other attire (pirate hat, eyepatch, underwear, stockings, thigh tie thingys): Part of pirate costume from Pasarella (Black Pearl Hunt)
Pose: Boudoir Rouge Sensuality - Pride

I had a sudden urge to look at homestead and openspace sim rentals this afternoon. I don't know what brought it on, except possibly a surge of envy at the seemingly unlimited amount of prims available. Oh, I know they're not really unlimited, but hey, 3750 prims on a homestead compared to 440 on my current land seems almost unlimited!

But as usual... economics. *sigh*

Although I remembered that for a period of time, when my ISP was behaving badly and refusing to connect to overseas servers, I used to spend $200 a month (in Malaysian dollars, or Ringgit) on a VPN connection just to get into SL... so it does seem, if I really wanted to, I could spare $200. Which is roughly about USD$60. Which means maybe I could share half a homestead with someone. [Homestead tiers are USD$125 a month]

[EDIT: Gogo has just informed me that homesteads are currently USD$95 a month, but tier is rising to USD$125 in July 2010]

Unfortunately I can still think of a lot of better ways to spend $200 than on half an SL sim, especially when I'm thinking of buying a house in RL. Finally. (My dad's been after me to buy a house ever since I started working 8 years ago. Why help to pay someone else's mortgage when you can pay your own? he says.) Which means... no half sim. Stop thinking about it, Quaintly! *baps self*

I woke up two mornings ago to my Plurk timeline exploding all over LL's announcement of new XstreetSL pricing policies. Apparently LL has decided that all freebies are "marketing/promotional tools" and as such, designers should pay for the privilege of promoting their store. Therefore, in future, designers will be charged 99L per month just to place their freebies on Xstreet. That's 99L per item.

Unfortunately, free listings will be shunted off to their own section and will not appear in browsable categories or keyword search results. I'm not sure how effective they'll be as a form of promotion when people can't even FIND the type of freebie they're looking for, hello?!

And then! LL has decided that even though other items are not marketing/promotional tools, designers should still pay for the privilege of being able to sell them on Xstreet. Thus, content creators will be charged 10L per month to place their products on Xstreet. Yes, again that's 10L per item. Not to mention that when a creator sells any of these products, they will continue to pay commission to LL on the sale, as they do now.

Without that 10L listing bit, LL might just have looked confused and ridiculous but more or less well-meaning. But with the additional 10L listing charge for all items priced 1L & above, they've been called greedy, money-grubbing and a host of other uncomplimentary things.

I've read on plurk that a number of content creators are pulling out (or talking about pulling out) from Xstreet and moving on to other services like Apez and Slapt.me, but I don't really think that's smart: Xstreet is owned by LL, thus LL will be pimping it to residents, and the bulk of residents probably do not know that alternatives to Xstreet exist.

Content creators need to think of their target market. They need to remember that SL is larger than the circle of people they know on Plurk, or the circle of people they know though blogs and Flickr. They need to remember that not everybody reads blogs and fashion feeds or even the LL blog. Otherwise, there would probably be a lot less fodder for WTFug and a lot more people would be savvy about buying from BIAB (business-in-a-box) outlets or purchasing items which were possibly copybotted and stolen. I have a sneaking suspicion that you and I, my dear readers, are not the average SL resident.

Having said that, I commiserate with the content creators. You can't deny that there is a whole lot of junk on Xstreet, but not all of it is free. Besides, the lack of sales on Xstreet doesn't mean that an item is "stale" or clogging up server space. Many residents, myself included, use Xstreet to search for something, then go inworld to view & buy. It's just easier to look for something online than it is to go to a store, wait for everything to rez, then walk around trying to see if it has what you are looking for.

Here's what I think:

1. It's reasonable to want to charge a listing fee for freebies, but a monthly fee of 99L per item is a little excessive.
2. If LL truly wants to charge 99L monthly for listing a promotional freebie, the least they could do is to MAKE THE FREEBIES SEARCHABLE so that customers can find the damn promo item in the first place. It's hardly going to be an effective promo item if it won't even come up in searches and you can't browse the freebies by category. This doesn't take a genius to figure out.
3. Listing fees & commission together is a double whammy; it would be a lot more palatable if commission could be waived should it be less than the 10L listing fee, or the fee rebated from the commission if the commission is more than 10L.
4. If nothing in the "roadmap" changes, hopefully only serious merchants will remain on Xstreet, and that's good because it might get rid of the BIAB stuff, at least. By "serious" I don't mean "established", mind you. I mean people who make things and want to sell their stuff.
5. Merchants will have to re-think the way they use Xstreet. And that's okay; for example, listing one colour of an item with pictures of the other colours available, stating, "Other colours available inworld". Ari Blackthorne suggests offering the fatpack on Xstreet, letting customers know that individual colours are available inworld. Either way works.
6. Merchants may have to re-think the way they use inworld space. Previously, some merchants used Xstreet to offer products which they couldn't offer inworld due to lack of prims for vendors, especially when it came to old inventory that had been retired. There are ways to get around this problem. For example, instead of having 10 prims for 10 different colours of an item, you could put all the colours in the main vendor ad and use a script to allow customers to choose the colour they want when they click on the vendor to purchase the item. Jess Riederer has written a script which will do exactly that.

When I first read about the Xstreet changes I was dismayed, because I've long thought about making stuff myself and selling it, and I thought I would list on Xstreet first instead of committing to an inworld store & having to pay rent, when I don't have much store inventory to start with. But after spending two days thinking about LL's proposal, I don't think it will necessarily hurt small or beginning creators. If I wanted to start a business in SL, I should be willing to put a certain amount of investment into it, like renting land for a store, for example. I should also expect to have to do some amount of marketing & publicity for my brand and my products, not just list them on Xstreet and hope they will sell by themselves (I do realise a lot of creators work hard at marketing & publicity, by the way!).

In RL, businesses pay ad agencies to create ads; they pay newspapers, magazines, broadcast companies and billboard companies to show their ads; they pay PR firms to generate buzz about their products and keep their brand visible; they pay landlords rent for their business premises (if they hadn't purchased the building); they pay overheads to various utility companies; they pay taxes to the government on the sales they make. They have just as many, if not more, expenses that an SL business might have.

The only difference is that in SL, Linden Lab fulfills most of these functions, so it feels like we are paying them for everything. And it feels unfair. But if you were paying 5 different people or entities for all these things, would that make it different? You'd have the same outflow. That's something to think about.