#lbsaplaza — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #lbsaplaza, aggregated by home.social.
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CW: Mal Burns memorial statue at Lbsa Plaza; CW: image description meta
Cherry Manga has made a nice Funko-style figurine of Mal Burns in his memory. She has even turned it into a statue which is on display and up for grabs at Lbsa Plaza in OSgrid.
I'd show you a picture, but I'd have to do that on another channel. And the background is so detailed that it'd take me an eternity to describe the image adequately.
#OpenSim #OpenSimulator #Metaverse #VirtualWorlds #OSgrid #LbsaPlaza #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta -
Is the #OpenSim community heading into the next #drama?
This time, it's about female fashion. On the one side, there's the complaint that there's hardly any female clothing to be found on freebie sims that doesn't make your female avatar look like a hooker. On the other side, there's the complaint that there's actually too much of it on allegedly the very same freebie sims.
Basically, until recently, there have always been three factions when it came to outfitting female avatars:
One faction favours outfits that are as skimpy and racy as possible. Skirts and dresses can't be too short as long as seeing what you aren't supposed to see requires camming. Bonus points if they're laced or otherwise open on the sides so that everyone can see that the avatar is going commando under a skirt or a dress. Footwear always has to be high-heeled, and the higher the platform soles are, the possible.
This faction also doesn't care about immersion; they'd wear micro-bikinis plus 4" platform sandals with 8" spike heels as everyday casual wear and on snow-covered, Christmas-themed sims because "it's just pixels," and it's always hot tropical summer everywhere on the #Hypergrid, no matter what a sim looks like. Until recently, they all had ripped #SecondLife mesh bodies, mostly Athena, sometimes one of the three outcomes of stealing SLink Physique Hourglass (Decadence-HG, BBHG, Je'Thai Hourglass).
The second faction, a great deal smaller, exclusively wears Athena, but they prefer their look to at least sometimes be less racy, less slutty. Maybe they prefer a more modest/more classy everyday casual look, maybe they want to dress in a way fitting the setting like on the aforementioned snowy Christmas sims. One of them has recently complained that clothes for such outfits are very hard to find whereas there are complaints from the first faction that they're everywhere, and they clutter up the freebie stores. It's obvious that there's a clothes-wise middle ground, e.g. denim micro-miniskirts, that's too racy for the second faction to be worn casually and at the same time too prudish for the first faction.
The third faction, much smaller than even the second faction to the point of being almost unknown, is similar to the second faction, but with the difference that they don't wear a body stolen from SL. Many are veterans who don't want to change their avatars' looks, hence they stick to the system body; a few have a body from the #Ruth2 family (e.g. Ruth 2.0 RC#2, Ruth 2.0 RC#3, #RuthToo RC#3, Ruth2 v4, LuvMyBod, Diana).
They don't even have any such super-racy clothes to wear. Such clothes have never been made for any of these bodies, neither as classic layer clothes for the system body nor as mesh for the Ruth2 family, and there aren't any clothes specifically rigged for Ruth2 v4 at all. At the same time, it's easier for them to dress more modestly because they know where to get such clothes that fit their bodies, and because system body and Ruth2 v4 users don't shy away from wearing old layer clothes or meshes by Damien Fate or even Linda Kellie (Clutterfly). However, chances are they're derided by the first faction for their choice of body, their "outdated" clothes and their prudish outfits, maybe also by the second faction for the former two points.
Chances are that the post on OpenSimWorld I've linked a few paragraphs above will deepen the chasms between these factions.
In the meantime, the first faction is splitting. One growing part is switching to bodies such as Legacy or Reborn which are "curvy" without being ridiculously so like Decadence-HG & Co. The bodies themselves are racier, you can wear them with soft, squishy boobs, and they're usually also combined with soft thighs. Also, even more extreme outfits are being imported for these bodies. Some don't even try to conceal the included thong; they do include a thong, however, because it's the only thing in the outfit that at least tries to cover up the pussy slit.
The other part is trying to defend the status quo of Athena being relevant or even the sexiest body around, not to mention typical "sexy" Athena outfits. I guess they feel like being ground up between the small but increasingly vocal second faction demanding more exposure for "boring and prudish" clothes, the tiny third faction "going on everyone's nerves" with being fully legal and the "curvy" faction being like, "Step aside with your ugly and outdated teenager bodies, we're the new sluts in town!"
Yes, teenager bodies. Athena Petite, which is actually more realistic than standard Athena, is often considered underage already now for not being as voluptuous as standard Athena. If curvy becomes the new normal, then standard Athena, as well as all Ruth2 family members, will count as 15 years old tops, and Athena Petite will count as 11 or 12 years old.
I hope this won't escalate, but I wouldn't count on it.
In fact, I wouldn't even be surprised if the blocking or banning of avatars for their looks became more commonplace. The Plazas on #OSgrid (Event Plaza, #LbsaPlaza, Wright Plaza etc.) already have very strict rules which are actually being enforced by the mods with perma-bans. So this exists, and there may be retaliation against it by the "slutware everywhere" faction. And the Amoa Nude Beach Resort only lets avatars leave the small landing zone if they're naked and automatically teleports them back to the landing zone if they're detected to be wearing clothes. So this exists, too.
Another sim requires avatars like in 2003 with no prim or mesh attachments whatsoever as of recently and automatically kicks and perma-bans each avatar that breaks this rule from the whole grid upon first strike. While this is part of the concept of making the visit not too pleasant, the commercial grid DigiWorldz used to block any and all avatars wearing an Athena body for years because they didn't want to have avatars all decked out in copybotted stuff running around the grid. I guess they've lifted the block when they realised that they were blocking the vast majority of avatars on the #Hypergrid. So this exists, too. Or if it used to exist, it still remains technologically possible.
So, as a sim owner or even a grid owner, you have all kinds of means for getting rid of avatars whose looks you find insulting. It wouldn't surprise me if stuff like this was deployed even more, starting this year. What worries me most, however, is that those without stolen SL bodies would be the first victims, especially when whitelists are being used that only contain mesh bodies which the sim/grid owner tolerates. If you don't wear one of these, you'd be out. But even blacklists can hurt users of the Ruth2 family if sim/grid owners are aware of their existence. And if only classic system avatars were to be weeded out by blacklisting layer clothes, Ruth2 v4 would become a collateral damage because avatars with this body are very likely to wear layer clothes, especially as underwear, hosiery or swimwear, whereas avatars with stolen bodies pretty much always only ever wear mesh.
Such bans can easily also affect male avatars with the same technology. Another reason to be worried.
At the very least, we might see an increasing amount of de-rendering entire avatars for what they're wearing, body included.
#OpenSim #Metaverse #VirtualWorlds #Avatars #VirtualFashion -
CW: There's keeping naughty contents away from sims, and there's this
I've just come across a picture from #LbsaPlaza which shows a sign that reads all the avatar-related things that are forbidden on the Plaza sims on #OSgrid. Quote:- No nudity
- No child avatar/NPC/etc
- No sex
- No sex toys
- No BDSM devices
- No spankers
- No exposed underwear
- No diapers
- No lingerie
- No private parts
- No exceptions
The sign also says that all OSgrid Plazas are rated G. Remember that the General rating in #SecondLife corresponds to PG, but in #OpenSim, there used to be and still are sims that are unironically both Adult-rated and G-rated, for the Adult rating is often only used as an attempt at keeping child avatars (= paedophiles) out.
So far, so good.
Now you might argue that this list is a counter-measure against rampant trolling, and that the sims which represent OpenSim's oldest and biggest grid should really be squeaky-clean. But the mods at Lbsa Plaza have been described not only as so ultra-conservative that they're openly, unashamedly and aggressively racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic and transphobic, spewing hatred at whatever opportunity they get, but also as prudish, up-tight, strait-laced pseudo-Puritans. "Pseudo" because real Puritans actually weren't as up-tight as commonly believed.
So not only is this list meant seriously, but it can be expected to be both taken to its logical extremes and expanded and escalated further in the near future. Both can easily mean trouble for female avatars.
"No private parts" in combination with "no exceptions" should be expected to mean that female avatars can't go commando on the Plazas. Sounds hard, but still fair enough. Keep in mind, though, that there are plenty of "Athena-rigged" mesh skirts and dresses that cling to the body so tightly that any mesh knickers will clip through.
But if whatever can be seen when camming under the skirt of a female avatar wearing underwear counts, then "no exposed underwear" plus "no exceptions" essentially means no skirts or dresses. At all. For under a skirt or a dress, underwear is always exposed. Only to whoever can look up the skirt or the dress, but still always. And with camming, anyone can look up any female avatar's skirt or dress and see what's underneath. Remember, "no exceptions!" Your underwear must NOT be visible from ANY angle.
Now, keep something else in mind: Some of those big mixed freebie sims that offer Second Life clothes don't offer any jeans or trousers or leggings or outfits containing either, only skirts and dresses. Maybe the sim builder considers them too concealing and therefore not sexy enough, maybe the sim builder simply hasn't found any. If you do all your shopping at such sims, you're stuck with skirts and dresses. And this often also means no skirts or dresses longer than micro-mini where the hemline doesn't go lower than three inches below your crotch.
What can you do then?
Well, you may go look around for freebie stores that offer jeans or trousers, and be it in outfit boxes. Wear these instead of skirts. And to be safe, go find long enough tops that neither bare your midriff (you'll never know when that'll be banned) nor collide with your jeans.
If you absolutely have to wear a skirt or a dress, you have two choices.
Either forgo underwear and alpha out your entire hip area. But you have to remember alpha-ing it out whenever you go to a Plaza, any Plaza actually. In fact, if you're an OSgrid resident, alpha it out before logging out, for when you log back in, your home sim may be down, and you may end up at Lbsa Plaza.
Or put more effort into covering up. Forget knickers, wear leggings. Or opaque tights if you can find any.
No, not nylon for three reasons:
One, nylon is sheer. It lets your underwear shine through which remains a bannable offence.
Two, nylon could be filed under lingerie. This means you could be banned if a little bit of it is visible on your ankles between your jeans and your shoes. "No lingerie" isn't explicitly limited to lingerie in plain sight, it isn't limited at all.
Three, all this doesn't matter anyway to anyone with a Second Life body who only ever wears mesh clothes. You cannot wear mesh nylon tights over mesh knickers, you cannot wear mesh nylon tights underneath about 99% of all skirts and dresses, and you cannot wear a mesh skirt/a mesh dress over mesh nylon tights over mesh knickers at all.
Most female avatars on the Hypergrid would never wear layer clothes. They either have a pre-BoM mesh body, or they do have a BoM-enabled mesh body, but they still don't wear layer clothes. Maybe it's because they believe that BoM is just a fancy new way of applying skins, make-up and tattoos. Maybe it's because they consider layer clothes as outdated as alpha masks. Maybe it's simply because they don't know where to get any layer clothes. Today's freebie stores are all mesh only except for the few pieces of lingerie in the Athena 6 body boxes and that one Athena 6 box with some additional layer lingerie. So they're stuck with mesh.
So they have to go and find mesh leggings. Even if they do find a box with leggings, however, they'll end up discovering that these leggings clip through all of their beloved skirts and dresses. So they have to go and find skirts or dresses that leave enough space to wear something underneath.
Of course, everything would be easier with layer clothes. BoM enables you to wear a mesh skirt over layer leggings over layer tights over layer underwear with no problems at all. It lets you wear leggings or tights underneath everything. No more clipping than if you go commando. You just have to know where to find that stuff, and you must not have a problem with wearing something that's potentially even older than Athena. By the way, it comes with the advantage of definitely being legal. To my best knowledge, nobody has ever stolen layer leggings or tights from Second Life.
Speaking of Athena, there is one big problem with this body that may make wearing layer leggings futile. Athena has a pussy slit in its mesh. Mesh leggings can cover it up. Layer leggings can't; they'll give you a cameltoe. I can see cameltoes or even layer legwear on mesh bodies being banned next, especially if people start obtaining old layer leggings, putting them on their Athenas and then walking around Lbsa Plaza with cameltoes just to troll the mods.
At least a ban on cameltoes won't hit smooth-crotched #Ruth2 v4. A ban on layer legwear on mesh bodies would affect that body undeservedly. A general ban on layer legwear would lock out every last classic avatar, male or female, unless they got themselves mesh clothes from somewhere. In fact, it would make all avatars illegal that are decked out in only what can be obtained from the Plazas.
Okay, so you want to wear mesh jeans instead to be on the safe side? Well, just about all "Athena-rigged" mesh jeans are skin-tight. It's only a question of time until they're being considered too risqué.
For those of us who play immersively and dress their avatars accordingly (like wearing something warm on winter sims), next summer will become difficult, for covering up sufficiently under skirts or dresses will mean wearing too much in the heat. Better get yourselves some shorts, but not too short ones. That is, unless they'll get banned, too, for being too skimpy. Or keep away from the Plazas for two or three months.
By the way, these rules also ban working on outfits within the confines of your home if it happens to be on one of the three homestead Plazas. That's right, you have to constantly cover up underneath your skirt even inside your house with closed opaque curtains. If a mod comes in and decides to cam into your bathroom while you're putting together a formal evening outfit, and he can see your knickers under your floor-length evening gown, you're toast. Banned from all Plazas on the spot and forever. In fact, even changing clothes isn't allowed on the Plazas because your undies may be exposed for a few seconds. You have to do that on third-party sims.
Last but not least: Cary Bean's old Deva Moda sakko outfits, as "business formal" as they are, are forbidden at Lbsa Plaza, too, if you wear them the way they're supposed to be worn. Yes, even if you wear them with the included pair of trousers instead of the included miniskirt or the additional pencil skirt that you can hardly cam underneath. The reason is because the layer tops that come with these outfits don't fully cover up the lace that ligns the upper edges of the bras. This falls under exposed underwear, at least for those who know these garments well enough to be able to tell what on the avatar's skin is underwear and what isn't. If you want to play it safe, leave the bra off.
#OpenSimulator #Metaverse #VirtualWorlds #VirtualClothing - No nudity
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CW: Contains some OpenSim content theft drama
And #drama in #OpenSim has reached new levels. Now it's two copybotters against each other. Both have actually stolen already stolen content.
The difference is: One has stolen content that someone else has stolen from Second Life and got caught trying to sell it for real money. He actually threatens the other one with Interpol for content theft. He also seems to have boatloads of alts under different names, and he has already created at least one sock puppet account on #OpenSimWorld.
Said other one was caught by #OSgrid officials walking onto official sims like #LbsaPlaza with a copybot viewer and at least the clear intent to copybot the entire sim wholesale, custom structures and all, if not even actually doing just that. Mind you, Lbsa Plaza is the only sim that's always populated with avatars which aren't alts of the sim owner, so there's also always a number of avatar inventories to copybot. He denied all accusations and blocked OSgrid from his grid in retaliation.
Seriously, these are the moments when I wish Linden Labs, along with the actual content creators, would send in the authorities. If they put enough effort into the investigations, I could see at least one certain grid being shut down and a number of people being convicted and arrested. But this won't happen, especially not in this case, for various reasons.
One, the financial damage is too small, at least in this case. It simply isn't worth pumping so much money into lawsuits and criminal investigations.
Two, in this case again, it'd have to be global investigations across several continents. The former guy has Spanish as his native language and obviously uses Google Translate to post in English, the latter runs a grid with a .ru domain. So we probably aren't talking about U.S. citizens and most likely not even about people living anywhere in the Western world.
Three, if Linden Labs actually decided to take world-wide legal action against stuff like this, they wouldn't concentrate on these two. I think they'd more likely go all-out and try to combat the theft and distribution of SL content all over the #Hypergrid, thereby threatening the existence of entire grids, but at least almost all freebie sims launched over the last five years or so. Pandora's box would be wide open.
#OpenSimulator #Drama