that which drew you, like a crow to glass beads

Solace Beach has completed their remodel of their home sim:



Now, I'll be honest: just as a general guideline, my thing is not tropical locales. And we've all seen ten thousand beaches on SL, and we'll likely see ten thousand more.

But, Solace Beach prides themselves on actual diverse beachfront. And the remodel of their home sim just proves that out in spades. It's not only well done, but it feels like 19th-century Polynesia in several spots.



This is the view from the sales office, looking out towards the volcano and the black-sailed ship in the harbor. I, as usual, focus on the details, and what most impressed me was not the lava or the ship, but the ornamental copper door panels. They're very, very well done.

It's now combined with the Land School boards, which were in their own thatch-roofed hut in the last Solace build:



Whether you own property on Solace Beach or not, it's a great tutorial walk-through, especially for newcomers to the grid.

All in all? Kudos on the rebuild, Solace Beach. Now, if we could contemplate something to break up the acreage of space inside the land office...I might have a wicker lounge or two about. :)

Jaime Skelton, over on MMORPG, is discussing some general ways to add more diversity to both existing and new games, and in the process, she lauds Runes of Magic for developing a gender-independent marriage system. Now, as far as I know, the announcement--while met with great support, because a lot of us wanted that ability to teleport to the marriage partner directly, as opposed to wade through the hordes of the day to get to their side for any given Big Bad combat--wasn't met with a lot of opposition. But, in Ms. Skelton's view, it is highly unusual for MMOs to offer same-sex partner options.

Guess I've been in Second Life too long, it just makes sense to me.

Having some free time today, I did an idle search through my inventory for ADA textures and sculpts, deleting them as I found them. As I suspected, the sculpted lattice-windowboxen caused a pang, but it also made me aware of a never-quite-finished project--a rose cottage. And three textures I'd already partially adapted--to wit, the Ostara hunt offering from ADA of RET ADA Blood Red Roses Custom - 05, RET ADA Blood Red Roses Custom - 09, and RET ADA Blood Red Roses Custom - 10.

Now, if I'm interpreting this correctly, "RET" may well stand for "Retired", in which case, ADA doesn't sell them as an active product. And it was a hunt gift offering a few months back, which means I received them--and began working with them--long before Miss Shikami snapped.

But, because I am stupidly ethical at times, I pulled open their TOS to read through one more time:

You may no longer upload for any purpose at all any ADA Texture to your computer for purposes of making clothing or anything else.

Well, technically, they mean download, which is still 1) short-sighted and 2) ridiculous, but it's what they seem to want. So, what about textures I've already downloaded to my computer that aren't fabric?

If you feel you need to do this, then you just submit a notecard to ADA and be dispensed a special license in which you state you understand the terms of the standard ToS in that you may NOT use the clothing made with ADA Textures on another grid, or out of Second Life for any reason whatsoever.

This part of the revised TOS again seems to just reference fabric--to wit, the clothing reference--and again, these three textures are not fabric, but espaliered roses for use on a cottage wall. As far as I know, the above provision applies to fabric textures only which ADA has created.

For clarity, the only ADA Textures that may be downloaded to your computer for modificaton are fabric and THEN to do so you must have a special (for Second Life only) or extended license (Purchased for use outside of Second Life) issued by Adaarye Shikami.

She meant "modification", of course, but moving past that...she says on the one hand that no textures can be downloaded past the date she revised her TOS, which was on the 13th of July, 2010. This is not a problem; I've already downloaded the textures, several months back.

She then states that if I am working with fabric textures only, I may apply for a special licence to do so, with the understanding, explicitly stated to her, that I will not be bringing them to any other virtual world platform.

This is not a problem, as I'm not working with fabric textures.

But, she goes on to state that the only textures allowed to be modified at all by downloading off the grid are her fabric textures. How'ver, prior to July 13th, this was not a concern, as her TOS stated no such thing.

No TOS is retroactive, after all.

ADA Hippo Group and VIP Group Gifts, Lucky Letter, and Prizes for Picks Prizes: These all fall under the same terms, conditions and licensing as listed here for purchased textures. They are not freebies and not to be distributed, resold, or given away or shared.

The only provision I could find relating to hunt objects was this one, which only generally alludes in the most basic sense to them. How'ver, we can extrapolate from group gifts, lucky chair/lucky board/prizes for picks gifts, that she also intends to cover hunt gifts as well. And she states that they fall under the same conditions as all other textures she has mentioned in the TOS, which is both good and bad; one, it sends me back to the clear 'no fabric downloads' passage, but also doesn't entirely clear up the 'no modifications at ALL' assertion, which is mentioned here:

These textures are offered as full permission for the users convenience and for use on items that may be resold in Second Life. Full permissions does not grant the buyer the right to sell, modify, or redistribute these textures in any way other than as applications to thier own prim creation in Second Life.

It's "their", actually, but it's also that "prim creations" line that worries me regarding fabric textures, but, since I don't have any from them any more, we're down to the espaliered rose trio again; and this particular passage seems to state that I can, in fact, use them on my prim creations only, once modified off-grid--as long as I don't modify them post-13 July.

Save that I'd be bringing them in after July 13th, due to the hard drive crash, and the fact I burned off all my saved textures--some that I created, some that others created on the grid that are in process of being cut and stretched properly for clothing, and some that are royalty-free images found on the net--so would I then be in violation of her stated current terms of service?

Too much trouble. Next time I go in, I'm tossing the textures. I'll make my own if I really want to break into house creation.