Okay, this is a new one for me. On my Reader feed, I saw a post about someone getting scammed at a store. When they paid for a product, it brought up a name they didn’t recognize. After waiting a few moments, they realized the product had not been delivered.
They went to the redelivery kiosk and tried to have the item redelivered. The item did not show as a purchase. So now the person is trying to figure out what happened, where her L$ went, and where the item was.
I thought nothing of it, and went about my day. Later, I was looking through Flickr and noticed a post with this same name mentioned. The post stated that somehow, someone was able to rez an invisible prim in front of a store vendor, and then people would mistakenly pay the scammer rather than the actual vendor.
I wondered how that was possible, since I would assume stores would only allow certain people to have rez rights to avoid this very situation. Reading through the comments, it appears the guess is that the scammer made themselves invisible (by wearing alpha layers?) and then stood in front of the vendor and collected payments.
Criminals are creative, I’ll give them that. This would never have occurred to me, but then, I’m not a criminal. Also, how do the buyers not notice that they are paying an avatar rather than a vendor? I can’t remember for sure, but wouldn’t the pie menu have some different options when you click on an avatar (like add friend or something) than a vendor? Are people just so busy spending L$ they don’t notice?
If you have names turned on, wouldn’t you see the name of the invisible avatar, even though they’re invisible? Maybe that’s different depending on your viewer.
As thieves get more creative, I guess we all need to start paying more attention to the details. Know what you’re buying and who you are paying before hitting that pay/buy button.
As I return to blogging and photography, I find myself looking at stats again.
Not my favorite thing. Mostly because I’m not doing this for the stats (thank goodness!), so sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down in the details and forget the bigger picture.
Since resuming posting here and on Flickr, I can’t seem to get a handle on when to post things. Some posts/pics do well with early morning posting times and others do better with a later publish time.
But I have yet to figure out when the best time to post is for me.
I generally schedule my posts to publish because I tend to write in batches. I won’t have anything to post one day and then the next I have 3 or 4 posts rattling around in my brain that I have to get out. So I have been playing around with the posting time to see what gets a better response.
After looking at stats again today, I’m stumped. Perhaps it’s because most of this is aimed at SL folks, who tend to be all over the world, which means all different time zones.
The older I get, the more time is on my mind. I took a hiatus from this blog for a while, and while I was gone, the blog had its 6th birthday. 6th!
I can’t believe I’ve had this blog for 6 years.
When I started it, I had more free time and so I posted more often. I’d thought that as I got older, my free time would increase, but it hasn’t worked out that way. However, I’ve missed blogging and writing, so here I am.
Space is the other thing on my mind – I use the free version of WordPress for this blog, so I get a limited amount of space for the pictures I add. When I was posting reviews of dance shows, I had multiple pics per post. Same with when I started doing travel photos – multiple pics per sim. I’ve only used 21% of my free storage so far, so I guess I have another 12 years or so before I need to worry about reaching the limit? 😛
Seriously, though, it’s a real dilemma. You want pics because those interest people (and drive traffic) but the tradeoff is the space requirements. I could upgrade to a paid account with WordPress and get more space, but that’s hard to justify right now.
I also used to post my pics to Flickr, but now Flickr is limited as well, unless I pay to go Pro (which I won’t). So now I’m back to debating what social media I might want to use with the blog. I used to post on KoinUp back in the day and they’re still around (and still free, I think) or I could use my Ello account. Any suggestions besides Fakebook and Twitter? 😀
For the past week or so, I’ve been slowly easing back into SL. In many ways, it feels like I never left. My avatar, inventory, and land are exactly as I left them. My virtual wallet has gotten thicker (thanks to my premium stipend), but other than that, everything appears the same.
But it isn’t, of course.
I was barely present in SL for almost two years – and I don’t see myself returning my previous levels of activity. However, time in SL is something I enjoy and so I will. 🙂
Many things have changed in those years, obviously. I’m excited to experiment with animesh, but I’ve seen much less of it than I had anticipated. Lots of stores/venues I used to frequent have closed – people moving on in RL as they do. My friends’ list looks the same, but it seems a few of them have disappeared. They are present in my list and nowhere else on the grid.
Yesterday I was trying to wrap my brain around the bakes-on-mesh project. I see the benefits, but understanding how it all will work was tough. In some ways it seems like going backwards, even though it isn’t. It will be interesting to see what happens on the grid when it finally appears.
I feel a bit like a time traveler – things seem familiar on the surface, but underneath there are changes I have yet to uncover. Hence the dejá vu.
I look forward to seeing what other changes I’ve missed. In the meantime, I have inventory sorting and shopping to do!
I spent most of Saturday afternoon teleporting around SL and looking to see what’s changed in the 2 years or so that I’ve only been inworld intermittently.
I was trying to see if any new animation stores had opened so that I could see (ok, buy) some new dances. Didn’t really find any. Although I did find a few old stores still around. Old as in they haven’t uploaded anything new in the last few years. But SineWave was around forever even though nothing new was added. Not sure when it finally closed, but it’s no longer there. Or at least, no longer accessible. It shows up in search, but I get an error trying to tp there.
I’ve been going through my inventory and boxing/deleting old things. Which, to be honest, is most of my inventory at this point. There are always things I won’t part with – sentimental things and my dance animations, of course. But everything else is fair game. I have an overflowing build folder that is full of items I use to build sets. It needs going through (again) but it’s so large it’s overwhelming. So, clothing folder it is!
I deleted most system clothing several years ago after I bought a mesh body. I still have a lot of mesh and applier clothing, but everything is at least 2 years old now. Which is, like, a decade in SL time, right? 😛
I really should go through my hair and makeup folders as well – no need to keep that 9 billion prim hair from 2010, is there? Just kidding, I got rid of most of those a couple of years ago.
Back in 2013, I bought a CTS Wardrobe system. Boy, was that a blast from my SL past. Once upon a time, I was trying to put everything in my wardrobe so I could see photos of what I had, since many creators don’t include photos of the item in your purchase. I haven’t touched the system since 2015, I don’t think. I know that probably 90% of what’s in the wardrobe was boxed up and/or deleted in 2016.
Right now, I’m leaning towards just deleting most of my clothing and buying new stuff. I mean, things have to have improved in two years, right? I’m still waiting on bake-on mesh, but the animesh project did happen while I was away. So I’m curious to see that in action as I wander around inworld.
The saddest thing I’ve found so far is that PurpleMoon is closing. I’ve been a member of that group forever – almost since I joined SL. I was going through my groups and seeing what notices I’ve missed and discovered the sim was going to close that day. So I missed out on her huge closing sale. Bummer.
You know that old saying – “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” I’m usually pretty good at staying on top of things, but sometimes I’m so immersed in details I forget to look at the big picture.
It’s a good thing WordPress sends reminders, otherwise I would not have known that today is my 4th (4th!) anniversary for this blog. Amazing.
The blog has grown and taken some twists and turns from where I started, and I’m not sure I ended up where I intended to go, but it’s been a terrific journey so far. 😀
Group of event related 3D words. Part of a series.
This is the last article in a series of articles by Caledonia Skytower about promoting and marketing your events in Second Life.
The whole series is well worth reading, and you can find links to all the previous articles at the bottom of this one:
by Caledonia Skytower Part 6. Tying it all together (Final) This series has covered a lot of territory this year, and I am changing the ending of it somewhat, as it feels like we are reaching a po…
I am a creature of habit, so change is never easy for me.
I’ve had enough upheaval in the last few weeks to last me for the next couple of years.
A week or so ago, I lost 1/3 of my inventory in the Great Inventory Debacle of 2016. I did send a ticket to LL, and they attempted a fix, but alas, my precious inventory items disappeared into the aether. 😦
I’ve been spending my time since then trying to replace what I could, but was forced to accept that 1) I couldn’t replace everything, and 2) I probably didn’t absolutely need most of what I lost. Are there things I wish I still had? Yes.
However, sitting around whining about it wasn’t going to change anything, so I set about working on my next routine. And since my inventory is so depleted, it only makes sense to do some power shopping to replace it all, right? 😀
While I was shopping, an old friend dropped into my IM box and we started chatting. She’s always giving me crap about being too skinny, so she took it upon herself to ‘update’ my shape for me.
I’m not used to the new shape quite yet, but I am pleased with some of the photos I took wearing the new shape.
Like this one:
A tad more risqué than I normally put on my blog, but hey, it’s my blog, right? 😛
Diawa didn’t make me shorter, which I appreciated. I am short in RL, so I like being tall in SL. 😀
The shape is much curvier than I am used to, especially the thighs. I’ve worn the shape for a while, trying to get used to it. I will definitely be trying it out during some of my performances, so I’ll see how it goes.
In the meantime, me and my thighs are going to do some more shopping!! ;-D
It’s been a couple of days since my epic inventory fail, and I’ve learned a few things along the way that I thought I would share with you.
Some I would urge you to do, some are just things I am planning to do myself, after spending the last few days trying to replace a (very) small portion of what I lost.
CHECK YOUR TRASH BEFORE YOU EMPTY IT
As I said in the first post, I usually do, but this time I didn’t, and it cost me dearly. 11,000 items was nearly 1/3 of my inventory, and while I didn’t lose everything, some of what I lost was irreplaceable.
Some of the things I lost included a TON of outfits from Blacklace (which were mostly system, so I’m trying not to cry too hard over them); ALL of my silks – many of which are not available anymore (via in-world stores or MP), so they are just gone forever; ALL of my ‘whole avatar’ costumes, like my alien avatars, my gummy bear avatar, and all the adorable avatars I’ve collected over the years from Abranimations Advent Calendar – irreplaceable because they were gifts and/or no copy; ALL my ‘costume accessories’ which included things like headpieces, glasses, crowns, tiaras, shoulder pets, weapons, hats, scarves, bags, particle effects, bindis, masks, horns, and more.
Truthfully, there was so much, I don’t even remember all the names of the subfolders, much less what items were in them. Add in that many of them were hunt items, gacha items, or gifts – all gone. *wipes away tears*
KEEP YOUR OWN TRANSACTION RECORDS
You can log into your transaction information through your Second Life account. However, those transactions are only kept for the last 32 days. If you want to keep a running record, you will need to download the transactions yourself every 30-32 days and keep your own file.
I also went back through my MP orders – which, surprisingly, went all the way back to 2010. However, many of the items I purchased on MP are no longer listed there – because the items were on sale, because the items have been pulled, or because the store no longer exists. So even though I have a record of my purchase, I am not going to be able to replace those items.
I went to many stores to hit up their redelivery terminals and learned a few things. If a store uses CasperVend and you hit their redelivery terminal, it brings up a page with those store purchases listed at the top, but it also lists CasperVend purchases from other stores on the page as well. After hitting up the redelivery at one store, I was able to get many other items from other stores (some of which I didn’t remember) redelivered as well.
Same thing with stores using the Bejambled system – I hit the redelivery terminal at one store and got a list of lots of purchases at other stores as well. A caveat – no copy items cannot be redelivered, so any no copy items will show as purchases, but you will have to actually purchase them again if you want them replaced.
I haven’t come across a store that used the HippoVend system yet, but I’m hoping it works the same way. Many stores use the E2V system – however, what I’ve discovered with that system is you have to visit each store separately – your redelivery terminal only shows purchases for that particular store.
The biggest thing that I noticed was that many of my purchases (which I knew I had made) did NOT show up on any of the systems. What I realized was that those missing purchases were made at events, like Collabor88, FaMESHed, Uber, Kustom9, etc. I recalled reading somewhere that, to limit scripts and therefore lag, some creators used simple click-to-pay vendors rather than scripted ones. Without the Casper/Hippo/E2V scripts in the vendors, the only record of the transactions is in your history and the creator’s.
This means that each creator would have to be able/willing to go through their own records (assuming they keep them), to find proof of your purchases, and then redeliver them manually. Because I do a TON of shopping at events, this is a HUGE reason for me to keep my own records – then I can simply send a NC to the creator with all that information to prove my purchase. Much easier for them to do, I would imagine. Also, some creators do not use any sort of system like CasperVend or E2V, which means you have to contact each creator individually about redeliveries.
KEEP BACKUP COPIES OF ITEMS
This one may not make sense for everyone, but it’s something I’m going to start doing, simply because this whole issue has been a giant headache for me. Most items are delivered in a box – so my plan is to open the box, keep the items I need in my inventory, and then save the original boxes somewhere (probably in another box rezzed on my land). That way, if I accidentally delete the item, I can go back, pull out the original box, and just open it again. This is the system I have used for years with my dance animations, so it’s just another quick step to add into my opening/boxing/sorting routine.
You can’t do this, of course, with no copy items. Which brings me to gachas. 🙂 I have a love/hate relationship with gachas. I love them, because it brings it out the gambler in me, and winning that RARE or ULTRARARE is always a rush. For the past several years, I’ve avoided gachas for things like H&G items – I would want them to use in a set, and you can’t use no-copy items in a rez box. However, I would still play the gachas for clothing, hair, accessories, and costumes, because no-copy wearables is a non-issue for performances.
Unfortunately, the fact that they are no copy means no redelivery. That means all the gacha outfits, corsets, costumes, horns, and more that I had (many of which were rare or ultrarare) are gone forever. Oh sure, I could hit up the yard sales for replacements (and probably will, for some items), but rares and ultrarares are generally offered for ridiculous prices, so the odds that 1) I find them and 2) I’m willing to pay the price are pretty slim.
PART DEUX
I wrote in the first post about losing all my particles and ColeMarie Soleil (owner of Cole’s Corner particle store) being a doll and redelivering my purchases manually.
In addition to my particles, the other items I was most upset about losing were my costume purchases from !deviousMind. It has been one of my go-to costuming stores for years. I had so many of her items that the store had its own subfolder. 😀
I sent a notecard to Chandra Meehan, the creator, and explained the situation, asking whether it would be possible to get some of my lost items redelivered. Though I didn’t have transaction info for all of them, I did have pictures of some of the items on my blog and on my Flickr stream to offer as proof of purchases.
Chandra was an absolute angel – sending me all the items she could verify from what I had provided. She also very generously sent me some of her recent group gifts (I have been a group member for years) and told me she would work on replacing other items as she had time to work through her transaction records.
What I have already received was beyond my wildest expectations, and though I still have a long road ahead, I have at least made a dent in replacing some of what I lost. 😀
EPILOGUE
In addition to all the costuming items I lost, the other killer for me has been that I lost my ‘Finished Routines’ folder. The folder contained all my completed routines – dance HUDs, choreography sequences, rez boxes – everything I would need for a routine, should I want to repeat it or modify it.
This means that I now have no ’emergency’ ready routines that I can pull out in a pinch. For the foreseeable future, I will have to create everything from scratch (which isn’t a huge deal) while I slowly rebuild my inventory.
I used to pull out my choreography notecards and such and save them in other places in my inventory, but I had gotten out of the habit of doing that. Guess I will have to get back to doing it!
I also will be more careful about putting ‘everything’ to do with a routine in one folder – or at least make a backup copy if I do.
There have been some silver linings to this whole situation. 1 – People have been absolutely amazing with their kindness when they learned of the issue (it seems unexpected inventory loss happens more frequently than I realized). 2 – Though I wouldn’t have chosen to lose 1/3 of my inventory voluntary, it’s quite possible that this is a blessing in disguise, forcing me to get rid of all those old items that I kept for no apparent reason. 3 – I now have 1/3 less inventory to manage. 4 – Less inventory means more shopping! 😛
My darling husband commiserated with me over my loss, and then told me to go shopping and replace what I needed, even offering to share his large and rarely used stockpile of L$ with me. 🙂
So, SL has given me lemons, and I am busy making lemonade. Now, what events start this week? 😀
I like to think of myself as organized – I don’t like a lot of clutter, and I routinely go through my inventory to box up or delete old items.
Thursday, I was happily organizing, boxing up old clothing and shoes. My inventory count has been hovering around 35K, and it was bugging me.
After I box up everything and delete what I don’t need, I generally empty my trash. I always look at it first, just to make sure I don’t delete anything accidentally.
Except Thursday.
This is me, Friday, sobbing and wailing when I discovered that I had somehow accidentally deleted my ‘Solo Acts’ folder – the folder where I kept all my show costumes – corsets, burlesque outfits, feather fans, headpieces, tiaras, crowns, weapons, gacha outfits, particle effects, and more. And then, blissfully unaware that the folder had somehow been moved into my trash, deleted my trash.
*Wails uncontrollably*
Pretty much every costume I’ve been collecting for the last 6 years is now gone. Silks – gone. Corsets – gone. Hand particles – gone. Feather fans – gone. Wings – gone. Hats – gone. Cute avatar costumes, like my gummy bear – gone.
When I realized what happened, I felt sick. There was absolutely no way I’d be able to get back everything I lost.
I spent a good 15 minutes crying about it, and then told my husband. Such a sweetheart – he told me I could take all his L$ and go shopping. ♥ I didn’t, but I did start making a list of all the items I could remember that I might want to replace.
My two biggest wants were the items I’ve purchased from Cole’s Corner (she makes absolutely fantastic particle effects – check her out!) and, of course, all my costumes from !deviousMind.
I tried to visit as many places as I could and try to get redeliveries – however, neither Cole’s nor !dM had a redelivery terminal. Yikes! I took a chance and sent notecards to both owners, asking if I could get redeliveries, even though the purchases were so old I didn’t have proof of them. My hope was that the owners would have their own records and could verify I’d actually purchased the items.
I know I won’t get any gacha items replaced, so I’ve had to say a tearful goodbye to all the outfits I collected over the years. 😦
As I was frantically tp’ing around to various places for possible redeliveries, items suddenly started appearing in my inventory. ColeMarie Soleil – owner of Cole’s Corner – graciously replaced all my particles. I was ecstatic. So be sure and check her out – the particles are fabulous, they are very well-priced, and she is an absolute gem.
I’m still waiting to hear back from !deviousMind, so wish me luck. 😀
I did manage to get redeliveries from several stores, but I was surprised at the number of stores who don’t have that option. I have also purchased a lot of costumes on Marketplace, so I will be going back through my orders and sending notecards to some merchants asking for redelivery for those items.
Thankfully, my loss did NOT include my dance animations (I have those backed up just for this sort of thing!), my dance HUDs, my mesh body/heads, skins, hair, or shoes. I do have a folder of regular (non-costume) clothing, so I don’t have to wander SL naked. 😛
I’m trying to find the humor and see the silver lining here. A lot of my costumes were old, and many of them were system clothing, which I don’t wear very often anymore. However, the shock of losing 11K items, especially some of my precious and much-loved costumes, was terrible.
So, avoid your own epic fail, and make sure to check and double-check your trash before you hit ‘delete’.
Okay, this is a new one for me. On my Reader feed, I saw a post about someone getting scammed at a store. When they paid for a product, it brought up a name they didn’t recognize. After waiting a few moments, they realized the product had not been delivered.
Mostly because I’m not doing this for the stats (thank goodness!), so sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down in the details and forget the bigger picture.
I spent most of Saturday afternoon teleporting around SL and looking to see what’s changed in the 2 years or so that I’ve only been inworld intermittently.
A Kat and A Mouse 