Close The Grid Already!

Just now it struck me, right there on the front page of secondlife.com - the noobish avatar of Philip Linden pointing at the reader like a latterday Uncle Sam, saying ‘YOU might be a LINDEN!‘ I don’t know if Uncle Philip often gets to visit the grid, but if he can, I invite him to play Mentor for an hour or so and explain to all those new Residents we are so desperately trying to interest in staying longer than a day that yes, SL is great, there is so much to see and to do, but you know, Search is down and so is Map, teleports are shakey at best so you had better stay here on Help Island and bore yourselves to an untimely death.

Seriously, the best advice given to anyone right now is to switch off and try again tomorrow, without any guarantee that the grid will be better - if it’s up. With inventory losses running high, abuse reports not working because the people finder won’t run and Linden dollar transactions at your own risk - if at all possible - shouldn’t they just close the grid to prevent further mayhem?

Anyone entering the world now can be considered a loss. They won’t be coming back - only a true fanatic will hang on by their teeth and in order to become such an addict you need a little bit more than Orientation and Help Island - if they get that far, that is. And older Residents facing inventory losses - some are paying for the privilege - might also call it quits. Close the damn grid already, that’s called damage control.

And eh… I can be a Linden? Who in their right mind would want that?

Ghosted!

The plan was good. Outside my shop in Tamarind Bay is a harbour where I can dock a ship for free. Since the demise of the community of Mariposa I am feeling a bit lonely sometimes, so I thought I’d build a meeting place on the deck of a simple barge in the style of my beloved native town of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and host talks there for anyone interested.

Enter MS Parkkade, named after my favourite spot on the Rotterdam harbour front. She is a square, 8×18m motor barge with a simple wheelhouse. The idea was to add some rusty oil drums, crates and pipes to form a sitting area. A large lamp shining down from the mast could provide light. Due to the simplicity of the build I have to rely on clever texturing to make it work. And I do make a mean texture sometimes…

Well, there she is, in the FurNation Vista litterbox. She doesn’t look like much yet but it doesn’t matter. Look at the Build window: no object name, no creator, no owner, no group. MS Parkkade is ghosted - I cannot save it, take a copy or even delete it. You’re looking at a ghost ship in the best tradition of the legendary Flying Dutchman.

Please go to the Second Life Jira and vote for SVC-242. Refrain from building until this is solved - chances are you’ll just be wasting time. And do NOT use non-copyable objects as these are affected as well.

When MS Parkkade is ready I’ll start hosting regular meetings to discuss current issues. And beware - in the harbour we like our coffee strong!