Most people that come to my rentals and read the rules grasp that they can't use a security orb on the ground because it is fucking annoying. They agree with this themselves -- that's why they are in my rentals on the Mainland and not on an island bunker.
Indeed they are the bane of SL existence. In a group rentals with a lot of parcels next to each other on one sim. if you let anyone have orbs, all their fellow tenants nearby are bounced around; even I am bounced off my own land by some of them. It becomes a thicket of ejection and you can't even get to your own lot.
Most people don't have this overwhelming need for security of this type. They make a skybox for their sex lives or any kind of privacy. Or they go to another rental where they can have these kind of bunkers -- usually at a greater cost. Or they even just use ban because that's really sufficient. The key is NOT TO CARE if someone comes into your virtual house if you are not there. Either put your sex furniture on "name" only or put it away -- or put it in a skybox if you are rattled by the idea that someone may give you AIDS in a virtual world by going on your bed. No one likes the idea of home invasion -- which is why there is ban. But if the thought of anyone coming near or in your house while you are away is so horrible, this isn't the rental for you. The lion's share of houses never have anyone coming into them. But on a sim with a lot of parcels, either you have people looking for rentals, or you have newbies coming from Help Island who haven't figured out the rules yet, or whatever, but I find in the overwhelming majority even of these cases, they are not repeated affairs. Most people who are predisposed to get angry and upset about invasion of virtual space do this with ONE INTRUSION. NOT DOZENS. They don't see reason and they are bothered even by a visitor script that in fact may be picking up people within 96 meters that haven't even entered your house. As I said MOST PEOPLE DO NOT CARE ABOUT THIS which is why I have many tenants. If they did, I wouldn't be in business.
But occasionally you find someone who just keeps arguing and arguing -- as if they are going to persuade me after 16 years of seeing the damage of security orbs.
For background: this fellow is on one of the cheapest rentals, on the sim Ravenglass, which is $165/225 prims or $265/325 prims, and management houses don't count. That's .73/prim. It isn't my absolute cheapest -- those are .50/prim or .66/prim in the "newbie" communities on other sims. I raised the price a year or so ago because I couldn't see the point of continuing to lose money -- which is what you do when you charge prices this low that don't cover tier, or perhaps barely cover tier but no other cost like content. More and more, I have made less and less cheap rentals -- because they are not worth it, they don't stay full anyway, you lose money, and you have more aggravation. Why bother? If you had a notion of "the good of the community," leave it at the door. Most of the time those "poor newbies" you are supposedly helping like they are Central American refugees deserving of our help in real life are in fact IT guys paid handsome salaries who are just cheap when it comes to wanting to spend online. Nowadays many people have lost their jobs and it's understood that there might be more demand for cheap rentals and more people returning to SL. Most of these types of customers are only grateful and I only have pleasant interactions with them. And why not? I lay out cheap, self-service rentals FROM WHICH YOUR CAN REFUND. Most rentals do not provide that option.
And as I've said a million times, it's always the people in the cheapest seats who complain the loudest. This guy who was someone returning to SL after being away paid a grand total of $594 Lindens per month. That's US $2.23 a month, less than the a cost of a Starbucks or just about anything really these days.
Ravenglass the sim is a sim that really does not have much going on. I am on every day for long hours and constantly taking care of customers and also looking at the map to see how things are doing on the sims. Some sims that have a fair number of people or are sometimes targets of griefing have a sensor that lets me know when they are "down" so I can check whether it is a rolling restart that is ordinarly on schedule or a crash. Ravenglass has about 30 little parcels with cottages or skyboxes, plus a tower with another dozen rooms. Yet there are never more than about 1-2 people on the sim at any time. If there is an event at a store that had 20 people like the other day, that's once in a blue moon. Because it's the flagship sim, I decided to have lower prices and "management prims don't count" and also put a forest with hunts in the sky. Since some people want to place their own house, and generally this is disallowed here, it's never full.
Why can't they place their own house? Well, they can, on other sims that cost more. But in a sim with smaller and cheaper rentals, I find it is better to supply the house and if they don't like it they can find something else -- remember the idea is to remain cheap and self-service, so that my time, which isn't compensated, is not wasted on things like showing people houses or carping at them to follow rules so that everybody nearby doesn't move out.
I find when people are left to place their own houses in heap rentals, this is what happens, as just did in Columbia once again: people put up orbs that aren't allowed, they are removed. So then they put big clear boxes over their lot, as if this is somehow a solution. It's not, because it's ugly and drives other people away. Or they put up ridiculous picture boards that supposedly give "privacy" but it doesn't, because anyone can easily cam through over over them -- but guess what, there is no one to care! And furthermore, "avatars can see me" is UNCHECKED so you are INVISIBLE. Yet people still reach for these cheap and ugly solutions that I guess are hardwired by evolution, from the days before DNA testing when men could not tell whose children their wives were having so they kept them under lock and key or even under veil and lockdown.
People are terrified and angered that someone might see them having sex -- understood. But that there really aren't any people who have interest in this, as mostly the sim is empty (because people are on different time zones or don't log in every day) just doesn't sink in. That they could put up a skybox and have an orb there and ensure their privacy is a ready solution that many understand and do, but every once in awhile you get someone who is just excruciatingly learnedly helpless on this, and despite numerous efforts in teaching them to put a platform and a skybox up and deed an orb -- or even SUPPLYING all these things as part of the rental -- they can't focus on it.
Whenever someone says they will harm my reputation -- because I have rules that were made clear to them, which they understood and obeyed for a time but then decided to argue about, and didn't win -- I publicize their bad behaviour.
First, annoying the whole group -- which people hate, which is why chat is not allowed in my group and the lease specifies that you have to contact managers directly. These rules are there for the good of the whole community since most people DO NOT like chat in a group unless they specifically joined it to chat in it -- and not even always then. A rental group is generally NOT the place to chat in. Yet even though I provided a Ravenglass chat/help group for years, nobody ever used it. That's because they're lazy and they want maximum attention, not the few who are willing to join and keep a group that has strangers chatting in it stupidly.
So first, the group chat -- and this time it was fortunately that it was late and most people didn't notice and therefore there were no others complaining:
[21:50] bioisback Audran: so banning people everyday that im on isnt there any security i can get for my house
[21:54] Prokofy Neva: No, you can't have security orbs at ground level because they annoy everyone around you, you can only ave them in skyboxes at 500 meters or higher, ban should be sufficient, you can use it on your own parcel and any other parcel on the sim in our group
[21:55] bioisback Audran: well having people in my home is very annoying i would like to have some sort of security rather then logging on to find all my doors have been opened every single time i log on'
[21:55] bioisback Audran: security orbs are meant to be annoying they keep unwanted people out
[21:56] bioisback Audran: and its been everyday
[21:57] bioisback Audran: and i didnt want a skybox i wanted something ground level but i shouldnt have to deal with people being in my home every day
[21:57] Prokofy Neva: and the answer is no, you can't annoy everybody in the community 24/7 for a problem you have temporarily while you are online
[21:57] Prokofy Neva: if you can't deal with this, then this isn't the rental for you, refund is always an option
[21:57] Prokofy Neva: but what you don't get to keep doing is bothering everybody with chat in a group
Of course locking a door is one way to solve this at least to keep out the casual newbie or person landing and thinking the house is for rent as they don't see or don't understand the rental box paid nearby. To be sure, it's only a mild deterrent as most people have figured out how to sit through locked doors if they really want to get into a house.
Now, the history of chat:
[2020/04/03 16:44] Prokofy Neva: Welcome to ravenglass Rentals!
[2020/04/03 16:44] Prokofy Neva: I added you to resident powers in the group
[2020/04/03 16:44] Prokofy Neva: Switch to the title "resident on the group menu to access ban, media, set landing, change parcel etc
[2020/04/03 16:44] Prokofy Neva: this will require relogging
[2020/04/03 16:44] bio (bioisback.audran): i had a question and ty can you remove the items upstairs
[2020/04/03 16:45] bio (bioisback.audran): the chairs and the pole and that triangle thingy
[2020/04/03 16:45] bio (bioisback.audran): and should irelog now
[2020/04/03 16:46] Prokofy Neva: ok got it
[2020/04/03 16:48] Second Life: Inventory item 'Ravenglass Rentals Quickstart' offered
[2020/04/03 16:48] bio (bioisback.audran): User not online - inventory has been saved.
[2020/04/03 16:50] Second Life: Inventory item 'News from Ravenglass Rentals March 25, 2020' offered
[2020/04/03 16:50] bio (bioisback.audran): User not online - inventory has been saved.
[2020/04/03 16:50] Prokofy Neva: so you can't put any orbs on the ground level but you can in a skybox 500 m or higher
[2020/04/03 16:50] bio (bioisback.audran): User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
[2020/04/03 16:52] bio (bioisback.audran): ahh
[2020/04/03 16:52] bio (bioisback.audran): so what do we do for security
[2020/04/03 16:53] Prokofy Neva: you use ban/eject or type names in the ban list on your own parcel or any other one in the group
[2020/04/03 16:53] bio (bioisback.audran): ahh ok got ya
[2020/04/03 16:55] Prokofy Neva: no need to have a conversation, right click ban
[2020/04/03 16:55] Prokofy Neva: this sim is pretty quiet, and your parcel is out of search, so you shouldn't see visitors but eject them if you do
[2020/04/03 16:56] bio (bioisback.audran): so lets say i want to add a person here to stay with me how would i do that its been forever since ive done this lol
[2020/04/03 16:56] Prokofy Neva: well there is no such thing as "adding a person" because they just join the same open group you do to set prims and set home
[2020/04/03 16:56] Prokofy Neva: if you want them also to have ban powers, IM me so I can switch their titles in the group
[2020/04/03 16:56] bio (bioisback.audran): ahh ok
[2020/04/15 21:58] bio (bioisback.audran): dont have you on my list so i couldnt im you directly
[2020/04/15 21:58] bio (bioisback.audran): so how does the refund work
[2020/04/15 21:59] Prokofy Neva: of course you can IM anyone you want directly by looking for them in the People List in search or on the group menu
[2020/04/15 22:00] Prokofy Neva: you click on the same box you paid and select "refund"
[2020/04/15 22:00] Prokofy Neva: you're on a sim with numerous small lots in which in fact there isn't much activity every day so if you are bothered by somebody clicking on a door, lock it, or conversely just refund as cheap rentals are not for you, pay more and get yourself a bunker
[2020/04/15 22:09] bio (bioisback.audran): im not going to argue the merits of sl ive been here long enough to know every other place has security for their places.. and if someone opened the door they were in my place my privacy and that is something you do pay for in sl and honestly i really didnt think of looking at the group to click you as to "not cause issues in group chat " but realistically group chat is where people go to bounce ideas off each other ..and the fact that ive had to ban a person everyday for the amount of time ive been here is just dumb
[2020/04/15 22:10] Prokofy Neva: Then go and rent in the every other place instead of endlessly arguing with me over a cheap rental, you're not thinking of anyone else but your own momentary irritation at someone clicking on a door or coming in your house instead of solving the problem either by making a skybox or moving to another rental where you can eject and annoy people to your heart's content
[2020/04/15 22:10] bio (bioisback.audran): but you have yourself a good one and i will be letting people know how this place is run
[2020/04/15 22:10] Prokofy Neva: it's not where people go to chat in a large rentals and it states so on the lease, now go find someone else to bother
[2020/04/15 22:11] Prokofy Neva: I will let people know about you, too, big guy
So, attention Alwin Alcott -- and I really should do a special blog just on him. I don't "harass" or "dox" people needlessly. I publish their bad behaviour WHEN they threaten me. If this was just the usual jackass that bitched and then left and went on his way, who cares? But as soon as someone says he is going to "tell the world" about his alleged mistreatment or "how badly these rentals are run," then he gets a quick ticket to my DO NOT RENT list and my blog. It's the only recourse. This loudmouth can go around and tell any tales he likes and the background -- that not only there was a rule in the lease but one he had ALREADY indicated he understood and was informed about in person -- but he chose to bitch about it.
