I find myself blogging a lot more about Second Life lately than I anticipated. It wasn’t planned, it just sort of happened! As I have already said, there are at least a thousand bloggers out there who cover SL in detail, and do a much, much better job than I ever could! But there have been a few announcements from Linden Lab lately that I wanted to highlight, plus a few avatar fashion looks I wanted to share.
So, I wanted to ask: what are your pet peeves about Second Life? I have one in particular that absolutely irks me. It’s the wacky way that avatar ankles bend backwards when using certain animations, poses, and shoes. I see other avatars’ deformed ankles all the time in SL photos and it just makes me crazy! Dear God, people, it’s called ANKLE LOCK. Use it! There are a bunch of fixes on the SL Marketplace (Strawberry Singh sells a good one for L$1), or you can pick up one for FREE from the reception desk at Baby Monkey:
Buy the blue bag at the front of the group of five on the desk (it’s called “BM Ankle Lock”) and then simply wear the attachment. Easy fix!
What are some of my other pet peeves about Second Life? Well, I’m so glad you asked! (I am feeling rather bitchy today, so be forewarned…)
- Avatars who are still wearing old system shoes that used to use invisiprims, which are now broken, WITHOUT adding a proper shoe alpha to cover up the foot deformation. I still have many older, still-fashionable, invisiprim-based shoes (like the classic pumps from Shiny Things, remember that store?) that I can wear with the proper shoe alpha. There’s a free set of shoe alphas on the SL Marketplace (I haven’t tried them, so I don’t know how well they work). Or better yet, buy some new shoes! You don’t need to upgrade to Slink feet to get nice shoes. Lindy still has lots of fashionable styles which fit SL system avatar feet (in-world store, SL Marketplace).
- Avatars with too-short arms. I see this a lot. Strawberry Singh recently blogged about proper avatar proportions in Second Life. Go over there and read it.
- Bling. Dear God, whoever invented bling on jewelry and shoes needs to be shot, drawn and quartered, and then shot again. If you have a favourite piece of jewelry that you can’t bear to part with that is afflicted with bling, use Handy’s free Prim Scrubber.
- Pregnant stomach talkers. Thank God that this is a fad that has died down. I don’t give a rat’s ass how your virtual fetus feels. Instant mute!
- Horrible, horrible freebie stores that are unloading floor after floor of ancient system layer clothing. Freebie Galaxy is a 15-story crime against humanity and should be burned to the ground! The two best freebie stores on the grid are The Free Dove and the one at Ajuda SL Brasil. They update their selections regularly, and almost all the stuff you can get there looks great on your avatar. And I firmly support those vendors who do provide high-quality freebies to these places, by shopping at their stores and buying their products.
- Related to this last point: stores that give out poor-quality versions of their merchandise as freebies/gifts.
- “Gifts” (especially those at shopping events) that cost more than L$1. It’s a gift, people. Gifts aren’t supposed to cost L$5, or L$10, or even more. Every so often, still, I accidentally buy something in a gift box that I thought was free. Drives me crazy.
- Stores that constantly spam you with landmarks and requests to join their group. Once when I arrive is fine. More than that is just annoying.
- Being limited to 60 groups if you’re Premium (and 42 if you’re not). That’s not nearly enough for any SL fashionista! I am constantly leaving and rejoining groups to take advantage of offers and promotions. I say, bump it up to at least a hundred!
Well, I’m so glad I got that off my chest! I feel so much better!! What are your pet peeves with Second Life? What drives you crazy? Leave me a comment on this blogpost, thanks!
