Month: June 2024

UPDATED: The Elle Era2 Head from LAQ Was the Excuse I Needed to Upgrade My Avatar—And Now, For ONE WEEK ONLY, It’s 75% Off!

PERSONAL NOTE: I’ve been meaning to write this blogpost for a while, but my life has been rather hectic lately, and I simply haven’t had time. However, today I am off sick from work with various aches and pains, and my worn-out 60-year-old body is telling me that I need to rest, recharge, and heal a bit, so I decided that today is the day I will finally write this review (that, plus I learned yesterday about the sale!).

Since 2017, my main Second Life avatar, Vanity Fair, has kept the same standard components: a Catwa Kimberly mesh head, and a Maitreya Lara mesh body (with Daria skin from The Skinnery). Every so often—usually after tearing my hair out struggling with the complicated and non-intuitive Catwa HUDs—I would teleport into the LeLutka store, to have Vanity pick up and test drive various models of LeLutka EvoX heads, as a possible replacement. LeLutka’s savvy marketing (including giving away free male and female heads every December for the past four years!) has lead to EvoX becoming pretty much the new standard across the grid.

However, each time I decided to stick with my Catwa Kimberly head, which I had grown attached to (something which is a common occurrence among Second Life users). So for many years, this was how Vanity looked:

However, in February, I decided to purchase version 1.0 of the Elle Era2 Bento mesh head from LAQ, after picking up and playing around with the free demo. Here’s what Vanity Fair looked like, wearing one of the three free head skin gifts available at LAQ if you joined the store group for free, called Sophia:

There are actually three heads in the Era2 skin package: Standard, EvoX, and SupremeUHD. Standard works with standard SL head skins, and EvoX works with any LeLutka-EvoX-compatible head skins (which, as I mentioned earlier, have become the new de facto standard). But what really sold me were the SupremeUHD (Ultra High Definition) skins, which are new and, I believe, an exclusive LAQ innovation.

The level of detail on this head with the SupremeUHD skins and makeup is just INSANE! Here’s an extreme close-up of Vanity wearing the Sophia skin:

I was also impressed by the animations section of the HUD, which offered a wide variety of moods and animations. You can select multiple moods, and the head randomly switches between them at random time intervals.

Here’s a 30-second video (no sound) showing a couple of those moods (in this video Vanity is wearing the Susanna skin on the Elle Era2 SupremeUHD head, which I picked up as a gift at the recent Bellisseria 5th anniversary celebrations). I switched from the Sophia skin to the Susanna skin as the skin Vanity Fair wears every day, and I quite like it! I also like the many different smiling moods of the Era2 Elle head, everything ranging from a simple closed-mouth smile to a broad grin!

Over the past four months, I have experimented with various looks for Vanity Fair using the LAQ Era2 head, pairing it with another upgrade, the Maitreya LaraX body, and I have been very happy with it. Here’s a gallery of a few of those recent looks, to give you a better feel for this head (please click on each picture to view it in full size):

And, if this blogpost has interested you in the LAQ Era2 head, you’re in luck, because this week only, the male and female LAQ Era2 heads are on sale for 75% off their regular price! The sale price is only L$1,150. When asked on Flickr how long the sale price will last, LAQ owner Mallory Cowen responded, “From now until midsummer (next weekend)”, so you have a limited time to pick these heads up!

Just teleport into the LAQ store (SLURL), and you will see both the female and male Era2 head vendors, along with four free skins (three female, one male) for the Era2 heads, if you join the LAQ store group (there’s also a sign for you to join the group, which is free). Both heads have now been updated to version 1.2, which include more hairbase and makeup options, among many other improvements.

I love this head so much, that I took advantage of the one-week sale to pick up six more Era2 female heads to use with 6 of my female alts! Here’s one of those alts, Fire Bird, wearing the SupremeUHD Emma skin (another gift if you join the LAQ store group for free). Again, please click on each picture to see it in its full-size glory, and to admire the details on this head and face skin:

Remember, this 75%-off sale only runs until midsummer (i.e., this weekend). Unfortunately, I do not know the exact date and time that this sale ends, so if you’re interested, please don’t delay, because this is an exceptional bargain!

FREEBIE FASHIONISTA TIP: In these pictures, Fire Bird is wearing the LAQ Elle Era2 mesh head with the LucyBody Atenea mesh body. Looking for an inexpensive, Maitreya-Lara-compatible mesh body? Slap the Midnight Madness board at LucyBody, and wait until it hits 350 (usually within 2-3 days) to receive a free Atenea female mesh body, which is completely compatible with clothing designed for Maitreya Lara! The feet on the Atenea body are Slink-compatible, with three heel heights (flat, mid, and high), but the newest version of this body also includes a special foot setting compatible with Maitreya Lara high-heeled shoes. (You can pick up a Bakes on Mesh HUD to use with this body for only L$250, to be able to wear any BoM skin with it; see image below.)

UPDATE June 18th: This evening, I used the Sophia SupremeUHD skin gift on another female alt, Summer Fall, to produce the following blonde look, which I am quite happy with (and again, I just love the genuine smile animations on this head!):

Also, in addition to the two new SupremeUHD hairbase HUDs in version 1.2 of the Era2 head, you can pick up a third SupremeUHD hairbase HUD for only L$1 at the No Match hair store, to match the hairstyles sold there (exact SLURL; see picture below):

I leave you with another look at Summer Fall at my favourite SL club, LOVE:

UPDATED: Please Support Death Row Designs in Their Request to Linden Lab for Better Tools and Procedures for the Sharing of Business Accounts in Second Life

FIRST, AN APOLOGY: My work life and my personal life have both been rather hectic, even chaotic, lately, and I have not had much time to blog. Often I come home from work, and I just lie on the sofa, absolutely exhausted. (Sometimes I escape into my beloved Second Life for an hour or two, as a welcome refuge from the sometimes-overwhelming changes taking place in my real life.)

Among the many changes that have taken place, the entire science library where I work (collections and staff) has been moved to another library at my university. I still haven’t even fully unpacked all the moving boxes in my new office space!

And I am once again suffering from a pinched nerve in my neck, which at its worst leads to numbness and tingling running all along my right arm and hand, which obviously limits the amount of time I can spend at the keyboard. I am currently visiting a physiotherapist twice a week to get that fixed!

Thank you for your patience while I navigate yet another set of changes and challenges in my life. I will be back when I can.

Death Row Designs

Believe it or not, most SL businesses have been operating against the TOS, and unfortunately, there is no current way for SL to resolve this issue. Additionally, the risk of losing years of work overnight without warning is very real. We recently faced this threat ourselves and can attest to its seriousness. Please join us in changing this and help our community ensure a more secure and compliant future.

—Jaimy Hancroft, owner of Death Row Designs

Last Thursday, Jaimy Hancroft, the owner and operator of the Second Life home and garden decor store Death Row Designs, received a very unpleasant surprise:

I am writing to bring up a severe issue that has recently affected my business, Deathrowdesigns (DRD), which has been running since 2008 in Second Life… Just recently, Second Life finally got around to cracking down on TOS infringement of account sharing and deleted our entire marketplace listing – over 2000 listings down the drain. They kept our account on hold, without any warning or reason. This has put a severe dent in our operations.

Despite pointing out that Section 4.1 of the TOS mentions the possibility of obtaining written permission for sharing an avatar, support has consistently denied us a clear path or process to obtain this consent. We’ve received messages implying that sharing the account in any capacity will result in termination, which feels particularly targeted, especially considering other businesses appear to operate without similar scrutiny.

Although my account is now released to me and me only, I cannot function or do business alone. DRD has well over 10,000 customers and over 3000 items that we manage. Handling all of it single-handedly really just isn’t an option, and manager solutions are just not there.

It’s just not possible for me to operate DRD on my own. I have my actual sister and our amazing CSR, Charlotte Bailey, without whom we wouldn’t have been the success we are today.

Where Jaimy and his sister have gotten into trouble is that they were sharing a single Second Life avatar/account to run their business, which is a situation that is not uncommon among SL stores that grow beyond a certain point, and employ multiple people. Linden Lab has rules against account sharing, but these rules can sometimes make it difficult to operate a money-making business in Second Life. Jaimy is feeling upset and singled out for punishment by LL, and I can’t say that I blame her. It is possible that somebody with an axe to grind (perhaps a disgruntled customer or even a business competitor) reported that she was sharing her account with her sister, simply to get her store into trouble.

She started a discussion thread in the official Second Life community forums, which was closed by Tommy Linden, who stated:

There seems to be some confusion regarding not only the Terms of Service, but also our process for dealing with account sharing.

I am not going to debate the policy itself, or the process for addressing it. However, I would like to point everyone to Section 4.1 https://lindenlab.com/tos and more specifically, call to attention this portion of the Terms of Service.

“You may not sell, transfer or assign your Account or its contractual rights, licenses and obligations, to any third party (including, for the avoidance of doubt, permitting another individual to access your Account) without the prior written consent of Linden Lab. Linden Lab reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to manage and control the number of Accounts that you may establish and maintain.”

Now for the issue of our process for dealing with account sharing. Termination is not the first step taken when it comes to someone found to be sharing their account. We place a temporary hold on the account for the security of the account owner. Once we have been in contact with the account owner, we discuss the above policy to ensure they understand before the account is released.

I understand business owners and content creators have concerns regarding this policy. The original poster has created a feedback post that everyone can participate in here: https://feedback.secondlife.com/feature-requests/p/allow-business-accounts-to-share-access-responsibly. I can not stress enough how this is the best way to get assistance with more tools and options for business owners to be able to better manage their business, without putting the security of their account at risk.

Since we are not going to continue to debate our Terms of Service, or the process for which we enforce it, I am going to close this thread, but I do strongly encourage you to participate in the feedback discussion at the link I provided.

The feedback post on LL’s Canny system, titled Allow Business Accounts to Share Access Responsibly, reads as follows:

As a long-time business owner in Second Life, managing operations efficiently is crucial. Recently, enforcement of the TOS on account sharing led to the deletion of our entire marketplace with over 2000 listings, severely disrupting our business. Death Row Designs (DRD) serves over 10,000 customers and manages more than 3,000 items, making single-person management infeasible. I propose creating a system for obtaining written consent to share business accounts among trusted individuals, specifically for business operations. This would help businesses like ours continue to thrive without compromising account security. Additionally, it would ensure compliance with the TOS while providing a practical solution for businesses that need to share account responsibilities.

This is now the most-upvoted request in Linden lab’s Feature Requests listing, and I would encourage you to read through all the comments, both on the Second Life forums and on Canny, then sign in to Canny using your SL account, and add your vote to this request. Thank you!

You can learn more about Death Row Designs from their website and their very active Discord server, and you should also know that they are having their annual Summer Sale, where you get 50% of your purchase price automatically refunded for almost everything you can buy at their in-world store. The sale runs from June 15th to 30th, 2024.

UPDATE June 18th: I have been in touch with Jaimy Hancroft, and she tells me that Keira Linden, the Manager of Support Operations for Linden Lab, has been in touch with her, and told her that she is currently working with other departments within LL to find a solution.

Below is an excerpt from Jaimy’s response to Keira, which she very kindly shared with me:

To be frank, the TOS [Second Life Terms of Service] is quite ambiguous, and I believe you’re aware of this. The official SL wiki pages are filled with references to account sharing for projects, such as:

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Managing_business_projects_in_Second_Life “Again, if an employee leaves, make sure to immediately change passwords of any accounts to which they’ve had access. And ensure their account is removed from all appropriate groups and land access, so they have no access to your business’ content and accounts in Second Life.”

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Permitting_Others_to_Access_or_Transferring_Second_Life_Accounts “Should you give another person access to your account, you do so at your own risk; that is, if you permit someone to access your account, you are responsible for what that individual does while using your account.”

While these pages may be outdated, regular users rely on them for relevant information. It is problematic having this info at SL ‘official’ wikis while the TOS seems contradictory. If TOS states the need for consent in account sharing, should not the way to grant this consent be provided in the first place? As expressed by your support, “Support cannot provide this permission you’ve requested, and there is not currently a way to obtain this consent.” Which is a complete stone wall.

I do understand the need to protect account security, but then, there has to be a balanced approach where business operations should continue in their legitimate way. This could involve establishing dedicated business accounts with enhanced security features, creating a transparent and documented process for obtaining consent, or implementing a feature similar to the Bot agent status, as suggested by many on the portal.