Mephiliskos, We Barely Knew You.

Today we are closing Mephiliskos' parcel on the Seoraksan sim. Even though the land was a *very* good deal, and I am very proud of the builds we made on such an awkward bit of land, the idea was to keep it as long as we could sustain it out of pocket.

We can not sustain it out of pocket, The gentleman who owns the land was very kind in accommodating us several times, as we needed more time to come up with rent money. But this time, already four days in arrears and no resources, he deserves to have his land to rent to someone else.

I could give you all the sob stories (i.e. Moving costs set us back, we had to purchase appliances, They moved my husband's pay schedule to once a month), but I want them to be circumstances rather than sob stories.

Parcel/Sim/Land management is not something we are prepared to do. I think all of our residents have homes elsewhere, and places they can go. So I don't think anyone is left high and dry.

As for my Second Life activity... I expect it to increase now that things are calming down for us some. However, since Korinna, and her children's identity were *so* entwined with Mephiliskos, that putting Mephiliskos in Semi-retirement, means that those characters are also in Semi-retirement. It is one part emotional attatchment (it was her home.) and another part Storyline (She's a Dryad, bound to a tree, she can't keep moving it.)

When I am on as Korinna, it will be to build. You can drop me a line of you like, but I may not get back to you right away.

Keeping the Group open if people want to Text RP. Will open the group so anyone can do group announcements for RP reasons, or whatever.

I may be seeking RP opportunities on other sims at some point, with other avatars. Even though there are so few that accommodate a European/United Kingdom time zones. We'll just see what the future holds.

When Anti-theft Measures Discourage Sales.

/me drags out soap box.

I love my hair,  but I have been wearing it every day for over a year.  I thought maybe,  Just maybe a little variety is in order.  My character is supposed to have Curly hair, and try as I have most Curly hair on SL looks as terrible as dread locks. But, on the lookout I remain.

I came across this on SLex  Xstreet the Marketplace  last night, and thought it was worth a shot, I picked up another while I was at it.

I wait for my delivery (an awful long time these days) .  I unpack my delivery like a good girl should, and I try on the hair,  lo and behold, this is what happened.

 



The hair attempts to Rez on my head, but then quickly disappears, and I am told  not once but twice "[02:19]  [DEMO] Action Womens Hair Debbie - Candy: This DEMO can only be worn/viewed on the Action sim, you can get their by clicking the SLURL--> http://slurl.com/secondlife/Action%20Surf%20Sk8te/39/180/24"

Hmph.  Now, I am not normally one to complain on something that cost me nothing,  but since this touches on a bigger issues, I left this one star review:

So, I admit upfront I didn't read the description all that carefully, because for a freebie demo, I didn't think it would be so complicated.

But, since my connection is super slow of late, I opted not to go to their sim in person just to try on the hair.  As it is very difficult to teleport much less go to a sim with a lot to download.  So I didn't even get to *try* the hair which means lost sales. (at least two)  Downloading this Demo, and searching for it on the Market place actually wasted my time.

Theft paranoia is getting in the way of customer service. I can't support that.

Looks nice from the pictures though!

Protection from theft is a good thing,  and I find it especially admirable to take a proactive step to do this. I once downloaded a hair demo that was "No modify" in my inventory, but very modifyable on my head.  I could have said and done nothing,  I could be wearing it right now! But I did what was right and contacted the seller.  (didn't buy the hair, though.  It was everything I hate about curls in SL) so no one can tell me I am okay with stolen hair.

But it's getting out of control when measures to deture theft make it so inconvenient for your potential customers that they don't buy the hair.  As it turns out, I got lucky with the second Demo, and it let me try it on.



I like it, a lot.  But alas, I can not support such disrespect for customers with my buisness.

Especially since, trying on the hair in the store wouldn't stop a copy bot.  A copy bot steals the *whole* item, with full permissions, so it ends up being worn off the sim anyway,  the big ugly demo box is removed.

It used to be, that the big demo box was a great big source of shame that you were too cheap to buy the hair.  That was deturant enough (even if it is a sort of walking advertisement)  Apparently, "Demo" Images on strands of the hair are not enough now, either.

/me puts soap box away