NotWorkingLife

I tried logging into the OpenLife web page again -- and couldn't. The template in the upper right-hand corner simply wouldn't. Yes, I allow pop-ups, cookies, java-script, yes I have Mosaic. The cursor lands in the middle of the box, you keep trying to type, and meanwhile it pulls up a screen I never saw before, with a name like "Microsoft X Docs" or something. I keep trying and trying, and it keeps trying to open up a document-like template and save a file...while I'm trying to *log in*. Right.

I try and try, finally logging in, press on the land store, and I arrive and show that in my shopping cart is the sim "Whiskey", which of course gives the lie to pyotr who claimed there were no sims for sale. I have no idea if I've been charged for it, but I try taking it out of my cart, and finally get it out. When I get back on the land page, I see it's gone, and in its place is another one called "Spice". I decide to try to buy it, it's only $89, mindful of Paisley's horrible experiences.

I buy it -- that is, I go through the screens, which this time, do have a country pulldown and don't ask for my Tax ID number. I believe that likely what happened before and which the owners never bothered to see or fix or understand, is that if you do NOT log in and go to the land store to buy, it doesn't prompt you to log in, it prompts you to fill out that huge template.

I went through all the screens, it took me then to PayPal, NOT giving me an option to use a credit card, which is fine, and then...nothing. No email saying "Congratulations, Prokofy Parvenu, you have become a Foundation Sim Owner!". Nothing. Not even a PayPal receipt. I waited, and about 8 hours later, I did get the PayPal receipt. Nothing else. No email. No notice, and I couldn't find the sim in world.

The reason I couldn't find the sim inworld is because...the search has regular SL in it. Like...it has Ravenglass, and Alston, and Maryport and the Ivory Tower of Prims. Surprised, I teleported to these places...but got a message saying "That region no longer exists". So what these goons have done is slurped out the entire search of Second Life into their world. That seems wrong, somehow, and also stupid, because you then can't use the search to find their things in their world. Nothing shows up. If you try to type in "shape," you get the real SL's shape stores, etc.

The world isn't that big, perhaps 200 sims or something on a map that reminds me of the SL map in 2004, but I couldn't find my sim, and gave up. I went to the welcome area and saw a lot of other frustrated ruths like myself. Curiously, some were editing, or seeming to edit. I went into the appearance, tried to turn on "edit body shape" various ways -- nothing. Went into the library, pulled out "male shape" on to myself, but it barely seemed to change me. My eyes were strangely zombie-like.

There was a box on the ground saying, helpfully, "Male Shapes". But I tried clicking, buying, copying -- nothing. I flew around and found a prefab that I copied, it was free. Then I decided to try to take a picture. I took one for inworld, and it announced to me that it would debit me $5. I had $10,000 in my wallet.

Next thing I know, I've got the picture, but my account has been debited a whopping $9000, and I'm left with $1000, post-picture. Somebody back at RuthStart had been overheard bragging about how you have more than the $300 or $500 of SL -- except, geez, if a mere picture will cost you really $9000, ouch! So lesson one: don't trust or use the money on here.

I landed here and there, and saw some painful looking boxes. I mean...painful. Like they were taking too long to build. I couldn't find a sandbox area. I chose a place with a name like "Persia" that looked from the map to be promising, but when I arrived, it was deserted, with a big sign on the parcel 'NOTHING WORKS IN OPEN LIFE". Ok, brutal, but helpful.

Uhhhh. Ok. What to do next? Realextend doesn't interest me in the slightest. Every time somebody brags about this place, they brag about it. But if I can do absolutely no editing in my appearance mode of any sort, and can't even drag library clothes on, what good is Real Extend.

RealExtend seemed to amount to this: arms outstreached -- extended -- I moved around the world. It wasn't by flying, i.e. assuming a flying posture, with a rushing sound, and changes of various types (you realize when you *don't* have these ingredients we take for granted in SL that in order to make an avatar "fly," it's like the millions of frames of the old Disney cartoons, somebody has to plan how to make the whoosh, the fly position, the changing of positions, etc.) So I sort of moved flatly through the background standing, like I was on a Segueway. I dropped myself to see if I'd brush myself off and pick myself up like SL, but instead, I merely kept on sinking down like standing at the Crossroads in the Cream song.

Well, out of stuff to do for now -- besides, I crashed anyway.

Comments

[Gigs Taggart]

Heh, funny story. Kind of ...strange... that they changed it to 9000L$ to take a snapshot, that setting is actually client side (even on the real grid!).

Really it's kind of LL's fault about the search. They were the ones that changed it from a grid service to a web site. The openlife people need to offer a custom client to change the URL hard coded for the search though.

[Ann Otoole]

Odd. It must not like you very much. I had a zero balance. Until I uploaded a texture. Then I had L$10.

I was able to edit appearance and make new hair, shirt, undershirt, pants, and underpants. I applied textures I had uploaded months ago the first try when uploading textures crashed me.

I uploaded a sculpty map (thats when I got L$10) and made a hat, put it on, adjusted, etc. detached, attached, it was in the same spot.

All I need to do now is get the cowboy boots, jeans, and western shirts in. also a better skin. Make some female shapes, etc. Oh and probably make some hair that will work with hat. And i'll be ready to set out a freebies box.

And if openlife turns into rednecklife then blame me.

[Elizabeth Chase]

Until the day Linden Lab releases the server code, these OpenSim grids will remain home-spun reverse engineered walled gardens with dozens of regions residing on a single box in somebody's garage. Now that Cory is gone, that is not likely to happen anytime soon.

We are more likely to see a polished competing platform before we see an OpenSim solution capable of directly competing with the Linden grid. The kids over at Google and Mycosm are definitely cooking up some competition.

[radar]

Interesting experiences. It makes me think a couple of things:

This metaverse stuff is harder than people think, and people who think they're going to flock elsewhere right now are going to be seriously disappointed for awhile.

I'm really of the view that LL helped create this situation but not through malice but rather really poor planning. I am of the opinion that a lot of the openspace sim owners just won't admit they are helping cause the performance issues, because a lot of them don't even believe there ARE performance issues. I seriously doubt they're right. Anyone with shared web hosting has seen what happens with a resource hog neighbor, and a sim slams a server a lot harder than a typical web site would.

I think you're showing that these other VW's aren't really ready for a mass defection from SL. It's a couple years too early for them at least, IMO. It's just not gonna happen en masse.

[Jane2 McMahon]

LOL@rednecklife. I'd be thrilled with anything..I couldn't edit appearance, find anything to buy, nothing. I could deal with all of that, but the SL search was the kicker...it sucks in SL and it really, really sucks in a completely different virtual world.

[Anna Gulaev]

I was able to edit my shape, upload a skin and create slider clothes months ago. I also did a little building. At that time attachments were'n working. I should try it again.

But...nothing really to do.

[Lecktor Hannibal]

The current viewer will be replaced by a point release, hopefully this weekend. The R16.0 viewer release is promising to remove all references to SL and LL. A preliminary search tool is also being developed but may not make it into this release. However, I've been told the SL Search will be unhooked from the OL viewer.

Any references to currency in the current viewer client as well as the server code, is not active as of yet. The economic module should be activated very soon, possibly within the next week.

[Barefoot Ballinger]

I too logged into a few open-sim grids, even set up my own server. BUT I have spent years developing friendships and assets in SL... I believe that most of us will not migrate until we can do so in a simple manner, without having to rebuild from scratch. Technical issues aside (I don't WANT to go through alpha and beta again damnit), when my friends can TP into my server avatar intact, the alt grids will take off.

[Gareth Nelson]

Barefoot:
LL could allow TPs with intact avatars today if they wanted to, I know from personal experience as prok will be able to tell you :)

[Leon Washington (Real Life Name)]

Prokofy don't be a dickhead.
These places were not ready for the migrations from Second Life caused by the idiots at Linden Labs. They are in Alpha to maybe Beta mode. You and your sinking Titanic bullshit may work with any idiots that believe your shit but I am exploring all the worlds a little everyday and see your comments to be the sour grapes of someone watching their world burn slowly. These grids are the future. Feel free to keep the Linden cock in your throat and stay where you are if you can't do simple shit like work a webpage like 99% of the internet world can. Maybe someday they will come up with a virtual world for fucktards version and you can work it.For fucks sake it is obvious you did not even read up on this shit before you jumped in to get attention. How many years in Second Life and you still can't figure out how to make a new shape and skin, etc. from the stock folders? In the meantime take off your fucking diaper, get the binky out of your mouth and quit thinking the virtual world sun rises and falls on your delusional ass.
The worlds are cetainly not ready for a blowhard egomaniac with attention dependencies to baby sit. These people are working to build something. A cancer like you with all your attention whoring issues won't fit there. Techiwiki, geeks, what ever the fuck you want to whine about you are right on one point. You do not fit there. Let me know when you need a kleenex to wipe the Linden love juices from your chin, k?
Now, go on and respond with your shit. Pretend people give a fuck. I know it will make your day just a little more better. Fuckwit!

[Dale Innis]

One note for SL folks trying out OpenLife or OSGrid (at least last time I tried it) or various other OpenSim-based worlds: often the skin, shape, hair, eyes, clothes, etc. that you first rez wearing are *all no-mod*. So if you want to edit appearance usefully you first have to create new ones from the "Create" menu in inventory, wear them, and then you can change them. (Pretty silly imho!)

Also some of these worlds forget what you were wearing when you log out, so every time you log in you're the default Ruth again (I've heard that this can sometimes happen when you just TP as well). One trick is to make a folder with all of your "standard" stuff so you can just "add to outfit" on it every time you login, and quickly stop looking so generic. Unless you like looking generic of course. :)

[Gareth Nelson]

"Also some of these worlds forget what you were wearing when you log out, so every time you log in you're the default Ruth again (I've heard that this can sometimes happen when you just TP as well)"

That generally happens with unclean logouts, make sure you always cleanly logout and this should not happen as often.

[Prokofy Neva]

Dale is a tool. Duh, I thought of that, trying "make an outfit" or trying taking a shape from the library that WAS editable or generating a new shape out of the library. It didn't edit. It wouldn't edit. It says "You cannot edit". Whether this is lag, packet loss, browsers, who the hell knows, there it is.

The idea that some people come on here smugly and say "But I could edit" when in fact they mean "But I didn't edit the way you normally did, I first generated a created shape out of my inventory then dragged in on myself" lets us know what kind of place it is. Those are the kind of geek secrets that geeks keep, never tell, never make self-evident, and years later, people might never have heard from them. If you raise an eyebrow, they call you stupid or tell you to read the manual.

This is not a place with customer service or any desire for the ordinary public to be coming in the door.

[pyotr wolf]

prokofy, the money system isn't active yet; the number on your screen isn't active yet. the inworld search is still connected to SL since the viewer is based on the opensource SL viewer. the search on the map screen does work however.

and the "geek secrets" you speak of are all listed in the wiki on the openlifegrid site as well as in numerous forum posts. most people hear it inworld AFAIK as the community is very helpful. however, the fact that you and just about everybody else figured it out shows that it's not that obscure.

[Prokofy Neva]

I didn't figure it out, because what I figured out didn't work.

You can't run a business by having people "go to a wiki" or "go to chat". That is a hugely retarded geek notion that is hugely laughable.

These people are not ready for prime time, and can't take advantage of the best windfall they are ever likely to get in their lives. Their loss.

You don't force people to join a community of snotty asshole geeks who are "helpful" only if you are in their little asshole club. You don't force people to fish through forums, IRC channels, wikis, and other forms of geek bullshit. You make it work on impact, or else.

This attitude hobbled the Lindens for the longest time and they lost money and almost closed a few times. They finally got it through their thick geek skulls that they can't behave this way in the normal modern world in which they are garage mechanics, not the kings of the universe.

[pyotr wolf]

prok, site site says all over that the system is in alpha, i.e. still in development. why do you think the mainland sims are called foundation regions? you're judging OLG as if it were a finished product. i agree, it isn't ready for prime time, but it's growing steadily, and maturing at an astonishing rate; the improvements in the feature set and stability over the last year are amazing.

[Prokofy Neva]

Don't sell sims if you can't back them up with CS, pyotr, stop being an ass.

[pyotr wolf]

prok. don't buy sims at a discounted early adopter rate if you can't handle the occasional glitch, stop being an ass.

[Jolly Jedburgh]

That's the same thing as asking a donkey to stop being an ass. I doubt that is possible unless it is rubbed hard by a horse cock, even then nothing changes until the next generation. At least there's hope tho.

I have had no trouble at all doing any of those things you had whinged about from first log in. Oh but I lack the qualities of an ass complaining about everything instead of asking for help from other users that have been there and are more than happy to help if you ask nicely.

BETA man B-E-T-A *slaps you*

I suggest you go a few blocks around the corner and check out Habbo Hotel, you may find it is more to your liking.

[Prokofy Neva]

Um, if there is a delay or standard wait period after purchase of a sim THEN SAY SO ON THE WEBSITE DUMBASSES.