IMPORTANT: Launchroom Owners - New Parcel/SIM Settings

[KipYellowjacket]

[KipYellowjacket]

Please excuse the poor quality of this video. Hope the audio nonetheless helps to explain the recent parcel changes. I'll follow this up with some screenshots shortly. :)

[KipYellowjacket]

If you are having problems accessing the parcel settings (changing media, controlling access, etc), it is most likely because I have yet to give you "officer status". Please let me know if this is the case.

[alicia barbitta]

Very Carefully explained Kip....always kind!

Wonder.

[Nergiz Kern]

Thanks a lot, Kip!
This answers many questions. There is only one thing I'm not clear about. Can anyone who belongs to the SLEnglish group rez objects anywhere in Virtlantis except on parcel's that are set to private?

[KipYellowjacket]

Hi Nergiz!

The below pic should answer your question. If not, just let me know. :)

[Anna Begonia]

Hi Kip, first of all thanks for all you are doing for us all :o)) and I have no problem with my parcel at the moment. My problem is about the fact that the land is closed to casual passer-by.
I know that the griefing attach was very bad and I know that this might be the best solution. On the other hand, what I do on mondays is open to everybody and I really enjoy casual passer by (often italians) to join in. In addition, from time to time I post a notice in Second Life events to try to find some more student. Italian student with an a2-onward level are not easy to find in SL, as you immagine, and having the land closed makes it very difficult, if new people are coming.
Whith a closed sim this is more difficult. If someone contacts me I have to explain them that they have to join Second LIfe English group to get into the sim and then 2alingua (my group) to get informed/keep in touch.
If they are newbies... it takes an awfull amount of time to explain it (all has to be in IM, because they are struggling to get in, they crash, they do not understand... and usually it happens while all the students/participants are gathering to start the weekly activity, and I should greet and small talk with them). If they are not newbies, we all know the problem all avatars have with groups: 25 slots are filled very easily and sometimes it's very difficult to find a free slot... not to mention 2.
And usually, after all we stay only shortly in Virtlantis: we gather and sometimes see some vocabulary that we might need for our trip/activity, and then we go exploring. So after all one thinks: all this fuss... for what?

So I wonder... am I the only one with this problem? I like Virtlantis, I like the community, being with other teachers, and I'm a big fan of Kip ;o)) but I liked more the old virtlantis, without walls and barrieres, open to whoever wanted to drop by, ask, observe, join, etc.
So my question is: is there any "plan C"? Any way to avoid griefing AND barriers?
Thanks :o))

anna begonia

[Włodzimierz Sobkowiak]

Hello anna,

Well... hard nut to crack, I'm afraid. I trust Kip to choose a solution which'll be best for us all, but of course there're no ideal solutions ;-( One or two things to chip in here... First: I happened to be in the very middle of the griefer attack which prompted all this commotion: avatar presence within the radius of about a hundred yards triggered of the explosion of snapshots and sounds from my own porch, in the noth-eastern corner of the sim, and I can tell you: THIS WAS AWFUL! The snapshots, the sounds and the feeling I could do nothing about it! I could not use my home, I could not use my launchroom... awful. As I am an ardent immersionist I actually felt this as invasion of my own privacy, not some funny graphical effect on one of the dozens of thousands of sims in SL. It actaully felt as if it was my RL home compromised to some jerk/s! If you've never felt like this, you'll not be able to share the relief when it was over. And there would be no price too high to pay for this peace and quiet.

The other point, very important: student access. I quite appreciate your point about the nuisance of barriers, such as group enrollment, etc. I'm myself also concerned about rezzing/copying/moving privileges on those occasions when I actually use some prims with my students. But, as far as I understand, we now have a lot of freedom to pass on some of our rights in this respect to our students/groups, so that should make things easier. Also - as far as general access is concerned: it would probably help if prospective students, or anyone interested, simply visited ning first, read up a little about SLEnglish as a group, both in 2d and 3d, both on the web and in-world, about group membership and how to sign up, etc. It's amazing how many people just drop down from the blue SL sky on some piece of sim and expect to know everything immediately... Let them do a teeny bit of backround research first - no harm here. Maybe we should set up an introductory post somewhere here on ning so that they could do it easily without further search. With links to video clips on how to sign up to groups, for example, and what rights they'd have once signed up? Plus an equivalent of the Virtlantis teacher wall: brief info on each of us, and on what we offer in terms of courses, materials, etc. And what access rules we have on our plots. And so on... What do you think?

If Kip does come up with a less restrictive scheme to ascertain that we're free from griefing, I'll be more than happy. I don't know if there are better ways to do it. But if there are not, or if there're good reasons why we should stick with the current restrictions, I'll say: let's keep them! I'd hate to go through the griefing nightmare again...

[Anna Begonia]

Hi Wlodzimiez.
Me too saw the griefer things, and suffered it. I had one of those autriggers blocks near my plot, and I understand the problem and do not underestimate it.
On the other hand what I offer is not a "course" nor a "class". I offer open activities to whoever wants to drop by. And I know that to ask people to read a lot of documents before dropping by is not a wise politics. Usually it's a better marketing strategy to say: drop by. If you enjoy it, read the paper and join.
(my italianiamo thing is for free).
On the other hand I understand the problem with griefing, and do not underestimate it. I'm just wondering if there is a "third way" :o))
see you in world

[KipYellowjacket]

Hi Anna!

Thanks for posting this here. Please find below my replies to your comments. :)

You wrote:
"My problem is about the fact that the land is closed to casual passer-by."

--The entire SIM is actually not closed (private). The landing point allows all non-members to access the SIM. They are also informed in a number of ways that it is necessary to join the Second Life English group in order to enter the rest of the SIM, i.e. a chat message is sent, and a large sign + tool for adding oneself to the group are in plain view. I'm sure this can be improved, i.e. how the need to join is communicated to the avatar, etc. I like Wlodek's idea about having more info on the community website - will work on that soon.

"Whith a closed sim this is more difficult. If someone contacts me I have to explain them that they have to join Second LIfe English group to get into the sim and then 2alingua (my group) to get informed/keep in touch...25 slots are filled very easily and sometimes it's very difficult to find a free slot... not to mention 2."

--I suggest you avoid explaining so much and simply send them 2 group invitations. Let them know that it is necessary to join both groups. I think any serious language learner would be happy to have Second Life English as one of their "more permanent groups". The SIM is of course open to everyone (general public), but the desire is to primarily cater to serious language teachers and learners.

"I liked more the old virtlantis, without walls and barrieres, open to whoever wanted to drop by, ask, observe, join, etc."
--In the past, I received complaints that much of the SIM seemed closed or off-limits due to parcel privacy. The tendency to leave the "privacy walls" up made much of the SIM inexplorable. My hope is that this new approach to SIM access will make it less necessary to make individual parcels private. It seems to me that a launchroom only needs to be private when a private event is being held. Current parcel settings will allow me to more easily reactivate public access to the parcel in the event that a launchroom owner forgets to do so. I would naturally contact the launchroom owner first to make sure that a private event is not pending.

Requiring avatars to join the group in order to gain access to other parts of the SIM acts as a basic initial deterrent to griefing. It goes without saying that it will not prevent the determined griefer, but it does make things a bit more difficult (more steps).

Please know that you have the ability to make your launchroom open to the public. It is currently set to allow access exclusively to the Second Life English group, but you can change this. If you change your parcel settings to allow everyone access (ABOUT LAND -- ALLOW PUBLIC ACCESS), you could avoid having to invite people to the Second Life English group. With a landmark or SLurl, avatars could teleport directly to your launchroom without having to join the SLE group. However, they would not have access to other parts of the SIM which require SLE group membership, which happens to be the entire SIM minus the landing point at the moment.

Hope this helps! Please let me know what you think! I hope to get other launchroom owners to give feedback here as well so I can make sure that these new changes are acceptable/desired by a majority of SIM residents (launchroom owners).

[Simon Bourn]

Hi Kip,

I'm having lots of fun setting up my parcel. One small problem - all of the options in the "about land" window seem to be greyed out for me. Is it because I need officer status?

Thanks

[KipYellowjacket]

Hey!

Yep, that's it. I'll give you officer status. :)