Current oddities

I haven't posted for a long time about current bugs and problems. I used to find that I gained a pretty good picture of what was going on by listening to the mentor channel. Mentors would post questions about whether this or that was happening a lot currently, or ask about workarounds and fixes for common problems, and one would get to know what was affecting people in general.

Unfortunately, policy regarding the mentor channel has changed and become very prescriptive: mentors are allowed to post questions but anyone who tries to answer the questions in open channel is jumped on and told to reply in IMs. I think this ia a big mistake, and the indications are that the Lindens recognise this as they have started a new Q and A group for the mentors where it is acceptable to post answers.

Anyhow, people are out of the habit of sharing their problems, and so it isn't so easy to keep track of what is bugging everyone this week. I've personally experienced a couple of strange things over the past few days however.

The first involved my alt avatar, which I use for testing things when I need someone who isn't a member of the same groups who doesn't have mods on my stuff. I decided that unlike my main avatar Cali, who is 25, slim and attractive, I would make this alt closer to my real self. I haven't spent a huge amount of time on her, but I was fairly pleased with the realistic appearance I had achieved.

Unfortunately I crashed out while in her body, and when I returned, her shape (or bodypart) had disappeared. The avatar was "ruth'd" having reverted to the default female with red hair, which looked very odd, as her wig was showing through her eyes, because the head was far smaller. The shape had been lost altogether from my inventory, and the previous shape too. Relogging, clearing the cache were no help.

What was infuriating was that the system kept telling me that I could not change my appearance or clothing because it was still downloading, and that message continued to appear when I attempted to change anything about her appearance, including taking off her wig, for at least half an hour. I was on the verge of seeking help when it cleared and I was able to put her out of her hair-in-the-eyes misery.

The second rather strange experience was that while testing a vendor in my alt yesterday, I appeared to be able to delete an item that I did not make or own, and for which I had no special mods. When I clicked to delete as an experiment, I got a blue pop-up which informed me that the permissions system in the sim did not allow me to delete the object. In the past if the permissions system did not allow you to delete the object, you didn't get this as an option on the pie chart.

Appearance: the basics, and saving

When you arrive in Second Life, your avatar is dressed in Linden basic clothing, unless you have signed up to one of the commercial orientation experiences which sometimes provide their own clothing and skins.

What you need to know is that some base elements of your appearance can never be removed, they can only be replaced. Other items can be removed and your avatar can survive without them.

So, you will always need a shape, which controls your avatar's size and bodyshape, you will always need a skin, which controls your avatar's outer layer, and you will always need base hair and eyes.

You can also have items of clothing, tattoes, shoes, attachment shoes, hair, and a multitude of other attachments which can give you jewellery, gadgets or anatomical parts, furry or human.

When you start out, you will probably find that the elements of your appearance are in a folder, but they may not be. My advice to you is that before you start to mess around with your appearance, you make a copy of your current appearance.

It's easy to do this. Right click your avatar, choose appearance. The appearance window will open in front of you, and your avatar will take a special stance that tells other people you are editing your appearance.

At the bottom of the window you will see a button "make outfit", if you click that button a window opens which shows you the items you are currently wearing and offers you tick boxes, some of which are already filled in.

Along the left hand side you will see boxes which aren't checked, for skin, shape, eyes and hair. Check everything you are wearing, including these, and rename the folder using the space provided near the top of the window. I tend to date my avatars, and give a quick indication of the clothing worn.

What will happen is that everything copyable will copy into the new folder. Everything which isn't copyable will migrate to the new folder. This can be a pain if you aren't aware of it. For example, when you start buying outfits, and find that you have saved your avatar and have consequently lost the top from that dress or the bottom from that jumpsuit.

But for now, if you are wearing all copyable stuff, you should now find you have a copy in a new folder.

You should be aware that if you make changes, say to your shape, and save them, the current copy of that shape will now be as you changed it. You will need to go back and find the original to be able to revert back.

If you think of your appearance as being a set of documents in a folder, and altering them as being exactly like changing a word processed document, you will understand... you can only go back if you saved the last version.

The elements of your appearance are governed by permissions in SL, like everything else. Linden stock items are usually set to allow you to modify, copy and transfer them. You should be aware that many of the commercial versions of these things do not. Some will allow you to copy them, but not to transfer them to another avatar. Others will allow transfer, but you can only have one copy and transferring the item to another avatar will mean that you lose your copy of the item.