I’ve just removed all the products I’ve had for sale at XstreetSL. Since they’re about to change their policy, I’ve decided it’s time to stop using their services. It’s been fun while it lasted but now it’s over. I won’t have any reason to log in there anymore now. No more browsing for products, not more impulse items. I wonder if I’m the only one thinking like that. Only time will tell.
Tag: xstreetsl
Changing directions!
For me, SL has always been about creativeness. I know that a lot of people don’t feel I should be part of Second Life anymore since I don’t pay for a premium account. I’m not ready to give it up just yet so I figured one way to be accepted is to stop making any money from it.
For that reason, I’ve decided to stop selling my products and give some back to the community. Once a week I’ll post one of my products here at the blog. I’ll not set a price for it and everyone that wants it can contact me in worlds and I’ll send it to them for free or for the price they feel is appropriate or can afford. One way of “paying” for it could be, and would be much appreciated, by sending me a snapshot of the product in use or just a few words about what they will use it for or have used it for.
My main goal is to give away my products but hopefully find out what people think about my products. I’m hoping they like what I do. Money has never been the important part.
Now maybe you wonder why I won’t just put my products in freebie boxes. One reason is that those freebies just get invisible among other freebies. Xstreet is filled with them already. I don’t have a place in worlds to put any freebies so this seemed to be the only way. Besides, this isn’t freebies it’s ‘Appreciation Wares‘. They aren’t free, they come with a price. Only if you like my products, you can have them;). And I won’t make them full rights so they aren’t for resell.
If you have any suggestions about ‘Appreciation Wares’. I’m hoping to hear about them. Should I do this? What should I think about? Any other ways of doing this? Suggestions please!:)
Changing the view
I’ve decided to stop doing everything I hate about SL and go back to doing everything I love. All the things connected to having a business are actually things I hate:
Having to decide what the best way is to advertise. Deciding where to rent a store or if I should own land. Agonizing over how much is cost for me to have land, when I’m having financial difficulties in RL. Deciding what rights the products should have and how the sales posters should look.
What I do love to do in SL is to meet nice people. I love to create things. Take snapshots of nice environments and to explore. I love the live music scene and to go to events. And I also love it when people like what I create. And it’s because of that I’ve decided to give away my products for free. I’ll stop selling them on Xstreetsl too. I’m still not certain of how I’ll do this because I don’t have a store in worlds and the freebies section in Xstreet is quite over crowded.
I have some ideas about how to do it. I thought I would give one thing away once a week. All free, not even for one linden. I could advertise them on the blog and then deliver them in worlds for those who contacts me. And you can “pay” me in pics of you using the product. Wearing the clothes or having the artwork or furniture in your house. That would make me so much happier than a few lindens.
I’ll give this some thought and I’m happy to get input from my readers about how to do this.
Apart from giving my things away, I’ll get back to exploring SL. I used to do that a lot, but I seem to have stopped doing it along the way somewhere. I’ll write about my “trips” here in the blog and post the Slurl so you all can go visit if you want. And I’ll start finding new and interesting artists too to go and listen to. Any suggestions?
It was nice while it lasted!
The forums will be gone soon. Only time will tell if it was a good decision from Linden Lab. I am torn between feeling relieved it’s gone and feeling sad. I had fun there, I met a lot of nice people, but there was also the opposite. Mostly my feeling towards the closing of the forums are coloured by my current mood.
The death of a community
Lila had been wandering around in the woods for so long that she had lost all sense of direction. She was beginning to think she would never again find somewhere to call home. Then one day, after she had almost given up hope noticed a big house in a clearing in the woods. She went closer and peaked into the windows. Inside she recognized some of them she knew a long time ago. She hesitated, but she went around the house to find a door anyway. This could be it, she thought to herself.
Lila knocked faintly on the door and soon she was let into the warmth of the big house. The place was filled with people, some she remembered, but most of them were new to her. Slowly she started to engage in some of the conversations and games that they played in the big house. And slowly Lila was beginning to feel safe, to actually feel at home. Of course there were people there that didn’t like here and the feeling was mutual. Most of them didn’t even notice her, but a handful of them seemed to like her and that was enough. I think I’ll make this my home, Lila thought. She knew that the others loved their home as much as she did.
For a while, everything seemed perfect. There were of course the occasional fight, but afterwards, it calmed down. And the same people that were fighting last night could be best of friends the next. Then one day they heard that the house was sold. New owners were coming, but not much would change. They would just change the name of the house. People weren’t happy about this, but they adjusted and went on living their lives in the house. The next news they heard was that the house were going to be rebuilt and adjusted so it could be connected to the big trailer park behind the big house. Again the residents of the house objected, but the new owners just declared that everything would be much better. They would even give the old house a new coat of paint in a nice shiny green shade. Don’t say we don’t listen to you, they said.
The residents were getting more ill at ease about the changes. Let’s move away, someone suggested. At least we can go for a vacation. To get away from it all. Maybe the changes won’t be as bad after some rest. A few people left to build small houses in the other end of the clearing of the forest. The houses weren’t that big and not everyone dared to even have a look at them. The new owners might listen they said. Let’s try to talk to them again. We’ll tell them that we don’t like it to be rebuilt. The owners came, sat down with the residents and say, we’ll have a discussion about the changes.
We’ll always listen to you, you know that. Feeling somewhat relieved, but still pretty upset about the changes, the residents threw themselves into the discussions and most of them was totally against the idea of the house being connected to the trailer park. When they had discussed for a while, they looked around and the owners where no where to be found. They must have slipped out the house when no one was looking.
One morning when the residents woke up, the walls in the house had got a new coat of paint. And some of the doors were closed down, and others had been opened instead. Everything in the cupboards were moved. How will we be able to find anything now, the residents complained. I can’t even find the way to my own room anymore. It was clear that no one liked the changes and especially not the new colour on the walls.
Suddenly the owners turned up with a big smile on their faces. Residents, they said, we have information to you about the changes that we’re going to make around here in a few days. First we’re going to take photos of this old house. From every angle, don’t worry about it. And then we’ll have a nice little art show with the photos over at the trailer park. This part will be torn down as it’s quite old anyway, and it’s a bit far off from the rest of our property. Oh and remember, we’ll always listen to you, so if you want to keep something from this place, a cup or a curtain or something, don’t hesitate to ask. We’ll take a lot of photos of it then. Oh and we hope you like the new colour. It looks very nice with the shade of green we have over at the trailer park.
Everything that happened made Lila very upset. For the first time in ages, she had found somewhere to call home and even a handful of people that she liked. It was more than she could have hoped for and now, everything would be torn to pieces. What would she do? Would she end up all alone and homeless again? She looked around in the house that soon would be gone. It seemed pretty worn down and some of the windows were broken after some of the more heated discussions. Maybe the house itself wasn’t so important. It was the people that was. So she picked up her few belongings and went out through the door.
Out there in the woods, it had started to rain. After just a short while, Lila was all wet and started to look around for a shelter or another house. The small newly built houses in the clearing looked very welcoming, but she knew it was very hard to get accepted. Who would take her in and would she be able to find a place where she would feel safe. Three of the houses seemed big enough to be able to take more than just a few friends. First house was luxurious mansion. From inside she could hear laughter and chattering so she moved closer and tried to listen in on the conversations. She recognized some of them and could hear them talked about some of the other residents. Lila withdraw quietly, hoping that they hadn’t noticed her. Their ironic words still played again and again in her mind, reminding her of her school days and how she felt back then.
Next house was a modern villa in steel and glass. It seemed a bit sterile, but hopefully, the residents would be warmer. In there, she could see a group of men talking to each other. It seemed a lot better than the other place, but somehow it didn’t seem like somewhere she could feel at home. The last house were a wooden villa with lots of small rooms and bays and didn’t seem to have many straight angles. It seemed cozy but not over decorated. Lila could hear nice chatter inside. She moved closer. Inside she could recognize a few from the the old house and most of them she liked. This could be my new home Lila thought so she knocked on the door and was let in. Everyone welcomed her and seemed genuinely pleased to see her, as she was to see them.
Had Lila finally found a new home? Only time will tell, but what was clear was that her old home would cease to exist. Maybe a change will be good, Lila thought to herself.
The things people search for…
… and strangely enough ends up at my blog. Sometimes I get surprised, sometimes it makes me smile and sometimes it even makes me angry.
Here’s some word from the today’s searches:
second life closing down, xstreetsl cancel, “nina stepford”, tenshi vielle biggest dramas sl, second life noob
Xstreet is obviously worrying people, noobs are always a funny subjects of course and drama is something that is always present on the internet.
LL is closing down xstreetsl…
If that means only the forum or the whole site. Only time will tell. However the regulars are moving on to different alternatives. One good one is Ann Otoole’s forum: That Other Life. It’s been growing really fast in only a short time.
