By Prokofy Neva, Virtualtor
Pick up the notecard with landmarks at the Main Office in Maryport.
Group gifts are at the office. Remember that when you tip any amount at the SL Public Land Preserve, you get a gift, and these are changed fairly often. There's a new on at Botany's Grove, for example, the headquarters for the Land Preserve where you can also pick up the regularly updated list of locations.
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As you can see, some locations are closed for lack of use (Refugio Flea Market); new ones are added (from NigelFerguson); some that have been suspended will reopen at new locations.
EVENTS
Come to the latest merchant event at Mieville, a steampunk community with frequent events and fairs. Here's our stores at the train station:
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Here you can find Dogstar, which will give you instructions on how to set up OpenAI's ChatGPT within SL. We have it working at several venues - you can come try it out. Results are uneven because its training data stops at 2021 and you have to pay more to get it to to train up yourself. Still, it's interesting for random chat and image generation:
Talk to the Inspector:
Talk to the Moth Robot:
There's also a hunt with this event and you can easily find a prize at my newly-reopened store Shaman's Hut in Tofalar:
SPRING
Spring is coming to Ravenglass lands.
SHAMAN'S BLUFF
This area has nice themed skyboxes
Lovely cove on the Mt. Osore site of the Land Preserve:
$905/1175
This is 8f8's house in Shaman's Hollow with some of the flowers, which you can rent:
$185/250 prims. Management prims don't count.
LL ANNOUNCES $20 OFF ISLAND TIER
1. You may have read that Linden Lab is lowering the cost of private islands. Forums discussion -- with lots of complaints! is here:
https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/12863-infrastructure-investment-update-buysell-fee-change-and-land-pricing-effective-mar-6-2023/
This relates only to newer islands, however; we have an older "grandfathered" private island and homestead, and there has been no price reduction on these. Note that yet again, the fee for cashing out Linden dollars has been increased. We've noticed that generally the cashout is at a lower value lately, i.e. the Linden currency has become slightly devalued. Therefore we don't see any price reductions coming on our end.
NEW RAVENGLASS TIER DONATION RATES
2. Linden Lab recently created the Premium Account with 2048 m2 land credit (although not yet 2048 Linden Homes) and the new Plus account which is $5.99/mo with 512 m2 land credit. This has led to more tier donations for us and it may be an option for you. Currently we offer $355 value on any rental for 512 m2 tier donation and $710 value for 1024 m2 donation. The incentive for you is that generally you can get more land and prims for that amount than you would at a Linden Home currently (351 prims); $355 will have 500 prims, for example.
Going forward, we will grandfather that valuation for everyone who currently donates tier to our groups. But starting now, we will have to change the valuation we give for amounts higher than 1024. That's because at higher amounts, it leads to a great value for you, but a loss for us.
Example: if you put 4096 into the group, that's a value of $2840 per week. For sky platforms of 0.71/prim or $990/1406/4096, that would enable you to get approximately 11,750 m2. At the discounted rate for land owners of more than one sim (0.0025 per meter), that means I would have to pay US $29.37 in tier to provide you that discounted rental, and save only $11.26 in tier myself from your 4096 plus the 409 m2 group bonus - a loss of $18.11.
Or on the private island where the rent is $1300/1300 prims, you would get 8192 m2/3052 prims, saving me US $22.53 in tier, but had it been a cash payment, with the 4 week 10% discount, I would have received US $37.44, a loss of $14.91 in this system.
This made sense for smaller amounts to prevent having to add tier at the basic rate to another account, and for larger amounts, it makes sense to encourage longer stays and deter the costs of carrying vacancies, but it really isn't viable as more people contribute more than 1024.
Therefore from now on, if you donate more than 1024, YOU WILL GET THE EXACT EQUIVALENT IN SQUARE METERS, NOT CASH FOR THE AMOUNT YOU ARE DONATING. After studying various rates and ways of doing this (thanks to Rick Nightingale for help with Excel), I had to conclude that this is what makes sense for now. This will apply whether you donate as an individual, or as a couple, or group of friends, or add alts. So let's say you and a partner each donate 2048 from your main account and from an alt, for a total of four accounts or 4096 m2. That means you will get land equal to 4096 in meters. Thus you can rent 4096 m2 of land. This may mean that you will have to combine several rentals on different sims as we tend don't always have lots of 4096 m2 in size available or larger than that size. If for some reason a cash equivalent has to be calculated, e.g. for apartments and stores, then the rate will be $0.0025/meter, the same rate I pay for tier. So 4096 will be $10.24 value. (Group bonuses are not factored in for you in tier donations to groups).
The advantage to you is that while you have to pay the cost of a premium in addition to tier, you will not have to buy land and will have the flexibility to come and go -- you can remove your tier at any time after notifying me. The advantage to our groups is the 10% group bonus, which is used to get more prims on sims or "buy the view" in some emergencies, and also avoid the need to add non-discounted tier on a separate account.
Tier is so confusing! Here's a help card explaining the whole thing:
NO SUB-LETS
4. Please note that we do NOT allow sublets on our land. This is stated clearly in the Quickstart FAQ cards given to every tenant upon rental. If you are found to be sub-letting, you will be evicted without a refund. It makes no sense for us to be covering your business costs with our cheap land -- when we also pay advertising and content costs. Buy your own land, or find a landlord willing to allow you to sublet (although is rare).
NEW COTTAGES + SKY PLATFORMS
5. I've added some more "distressed gentry" rentals in Sylvia for those "in between Bellisseria houses". You get a small cottage and a sky platform to place your own skybox (we do not provide them at that location although we do in some B&B rooms on that sim and elsewhere). Management prims don't count. This area is in "M"; there are also vacancies in Tenera, which is "G". Don't be afraid of "G" - go up in the sky to avoid issues.
$75/108 prims
$105/150 prims
SILVA BEACH
Go to the office to pick up the "Area Attractions" list and see all the vacancies for rooms, B&B, cottages, and land.
6. NEW! While in Sylvia, you can check out the new Zaker sky dome and Greek style sky home, very pretty
$250/250 prims.
This sim has a pool, sea access for boating, several spas and hangouts, a chapel, and an art gallery with interesting freebies you can find and a stamp in the BBB stamp system.
JUBATA GREAT WALL
7. Fermicelli Benicelli, our long-time tenant in Jubata, who was there for more than five years, sadly died in RL. His good friend contacted me. He made very original builds so stop by and take a last look and picture of his home, as I will be removing it on Friday night. If you would like to rent this space, contact me, first come, first serve, with those on that sim having first dibs.
Other nice rentals in this community by the Great Wall on Heterocera:
CORSICA SOUTH COAST
Just got another abandoned plot in Emyniad in the artists' community of Corsica South Coast which has lots of activities, live music, and art shows. This should be ready soon. IM me if you are interested as these go fast.
MORAINE
Don't forget these nice riverfronts and river views in Moraine. Use our terrain or ask to place your own.
Have fun!
Prokofy Neva
Owner & Manager
Ravenglass Rentals
SL Public Land Preserve
Shaman's Hut
Mainland Appreciation Society
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