Does being out of touch or out of date prevent you from returning to Second Life?

Puretone

Still Pancakes alt (Roxy Couturier)
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Every now and again I get the itch to return to Second Life. I loved my many years there, the escapism, the creativity, the role play, the friendships. I don’t have a solid reason why I left, combination of health issues that prevented me from being online and a computer that didn’t allow me to fully appreciate it I guess started the decline and then one day I realized I hadn’t logged on in over a year.

Then the doubts crept in. Would any of the people I spent time with still be there? Would any of my favourite places still exist? Would I have to relearn the viewers? And what about my avatar and inventory? I don’t know anything about mesh bodies or heads.

I realize I’m over thinking it, it’s probably like riding a bike, but it feels like it would be a lot of work and frustration and maybe even disappointment if I tried again. They say you can never go back, but can you? Have you?
Pancake, you're still on my friends list, so there's at least one!

I'd be happy to help you navigate mesh. I have been happy with Maitreya body and most modern clothing makers have a Maitreya rigged offering. I like it because your system body shape rigs fairly close with Maitreya, so your shape can be as close to the old you as possible.

When it come to heads, I've used Catwa, Lelutka, Altamura and recently Genus. All have their pros and cons, but for me, Lelutka is the way to go. It comes with a ton of bento expressions and moods and a few fun add-ons like bubblegum! IKR?

I also know a skin maker that does very lovely work and her (mostly older) freebies are useful in head and body shopping as her applier huds have most heads and bodies in them. She recently re-branded, so I'm not sure if the old store is still around or not. But I might be able to convince her to lay out some of the old ones. (After all I convinced her to make the nipples on her skins softer looking!)

Additionally, I've gotten into your old hobby of SL Photograghy. Great strides have been made and there's a big community of shutterbugs that shares locations, techniques and general help.

I work the next two nights, but I'll be off on Wed and Thurs this week. Send me an IM anytime. :)
 

Puretone

Still Pancakes alt (Roxy Couturier)
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Oh, that would be wonderful! I'll look you up next time I'm on.
Gimme Gatcha is a great group for gifts. There's a new round every month with a ton of gifts each round. Monthly Midnight Madness (MMM) is another one, though it's a madhouse and requires great patience. Belle Epoque is Maitreya only and has cute group gifts that get added to quite often. Look in my profile to easily find the groups.
 
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I've never fully quit SL, but I spent most of my early SL years either DJing most nights of the week or working on my business. Now I'm not feeling obligation to DJ and the shop is less needy it's like finally I can go explore and make new friends and get into SL again. So I'm not in the same situation, but I can sorta understand how you feel. I'm one of those people who is fine when I get chatting to people, but it's quite a thought to walk into places not knowing anyone and start fresh again. I got invited into an event this year and the only way I got to the first meeting was to just TP the second I saw the notice and not give myself time to wiggle out of it. So that's a strategy I guess!

Some old friends are probably going to still be around. If you're in any shared groups with them, you can see when folk last logged in and hopefully track down a few contacts you can catch up with.

Old places are sometimes around and others will be gone. But there are new awesome places that I'm sure you'd find and love too. The Destination Guide is probably a good place to look for places that suit your interests. There are still some decent live acts and events in SL that could give you some easy inroads for making new friends. You could also go to some of of the education places in SL, there are probably some good orientation classes around still. Also building classes are good fun even if you have no plans to actually build and sell stuff, I spent many hours just doing random courses at one time because it was just satisfying to build something or try scripting.

With viewers, something like Singularity might be handy if you were only used to the older viewer as the interface would be more familiar, but there are support groups for the TPVs where you can ask if you get stuck. You'll probably remember much more than you expect to.

As for being out of date and not having mesh bodies, nobody worth knowing will care whether you're wearing the latest gear. Most of my friends are in system avis, myself included. Dress and do things for yourself, not to be caught up or doing what the current "in" crowd do. Especially when mesh bodies do come with a learning curve and they do take time to get set up and sorted out the way you want. Almost anything in SL is more enjoyable than setting up a mesh body! I'd leave all that stuff alone for a while and do something that's actually fun like exploring and visiting newer hangouts to meet new people. That way you'll have time to see what kinds of stuff you like/dislike and if you do decide on a mesh body, you've had time to learn about them and which body would fit the clothes brands you like. You don't want to buy a body and then realise all the clothes you like need another body :D
 

Argent Stonecutter

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If you like the dress-up-Babrie part of SL then diving in the mesh circus is a must (and I wish you luck with all the frustrating hours needed to fiddle things out).
Otherwise lots of people still use their system body. There are no places in SL that exclude non mesh avatars, as far as I know.
I have an alt (Argent Koskinen) who's still using a 2005-era avatar. Haven't had anyone complain about it.
 

Archer

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First off, I'm going to assume we convince you and say WELCOME BACK, PANCAKE!!!!!! :glomp:

And pretty much what everyone else has said. I took about a 5 year break and was lost when I came back. But at least I remembered how to walk and edit stuff so I wasn't exactly a noob like the first time I ever logged in! It was fun learning all the new stuff, to be honest. When I had stopped logging in before, SL had begun to feel stale and old, but now it's new again with lots of new things to do and learn.

One note about mesh, it has made SL a visual nirvana. Before, I could never tell one avatar from another from a visual perspective. The details just weren't there. But now, I can just glance at someone and recognize them by facial features. It is so much better. Oh, and the clothes. Must have more beautiful mesh clothes!!!!!!
 

EmpressOfCommunism

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If you are used to system layers a BOM body when you go mesh is a worthy investment because you can have your old favourites still. Of course they are new so I think over priced for what is literally clicking a checkbox and choosing a dropdown menu on the original mesh. But, you could get that free ruth2 body and either do it yourself or get someone else to do it. It's not hard and honestly gets rid of a lot of fiddly finnicky things with a mesh body IMO
 
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RyanSchultz

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If you want to explore mesh bodies without spending any money (or very little), here is a link to an up-to-date list of places to get free or inexpensive mesh avatars for men and women, as well as my recommended list of places to get free, modern mesh clothing for that mesh avatar:

Clip and Save: Ryan’s All-In-One Guide to Freebies in Second Life

I hope this is helpful. Many returnees to Sl after an absence find the transition from classic system avatars to mesh avatars a bit of a learning curve. If you like, I can arrange to meet you in-world to help you get started :cool:
 

Clara D.

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Speaking of bodies, does anyone have any finger/top tip covers (or know where to get them)? Toes and Nails from old skins don't work at all with BoM. I have some for the Apricot Paws feet, but none for hooman feets. And I'm feeling lazy.

Also, the RuthTooRC3 (Baked on Mesh) has a few . . . oddities. The hips are really overdone, I had to put saddlebag at 0. And the feet mapping is . . . not good. But hey, it's free :p
 

Fionalein

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Speaking of bodies, does anyone have any finger/top tip covers (or know where to get them)? Toes and Nails from old skins don't work at all with BoM. I have some for the Apricot Paws feet, but none for hooman feets. And I'm feeling lazy.

Also, the RuthTooRC3 (Baked on Mesh) has a few . . . oddities. The hips are really overdone, I had to put saddlebag at 0. And the feet mapping is . . . not good. But hey, it's free :p
I use those https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Sweets-Free-Bake-on-Mesh-Quick-Nail-Cover-Fix/18140945
I also use the Yabusaka mesh head studio demo head on Ruth 2.0 set to BoM as Ruthie has a really bad head UV.
 
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Clara D.

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I use those https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Sweets-Free-Bake-on-Mesh-Quick-Nail-Cover-Fix/18140945
I also use the Yabusaka mesh head studio demo head on Ruth 2.0 set to BoM as Ruthie has a really bad head UV.
Thanks! Er, but how do you set to Bakes -- the "bake" button is greyed out for me. {EDIT - ah, you have to wear it}

And . . . anyone have any tips for bulk-replacing links in inventory o_O {edit, derp, Firestorm has a replace links thingy, how did I never notice this, and why not sooner(


{edit, removed head comment, as the Oracul head doesn't work with slink body)


Another protip -- I link all the mesh body parts I can to save attach points :D
 
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Argent Stonecutter

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I have an alt (Argent Koskinen) who's still using a 2005-era avatar. Haven't had anyone complain about it.
I went in to take a picture of him, and discovered that someone decorated Ahern for Thanksgiving.


The whole picture series is kind of amazing. They built it and linked it together in the Morris sandbox and slid it over to the Infohub.
 

Val

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I loved SL from 2005ish to 2009ish. RL took all my attention and came back in 2015 and it was ... not as random and eventful as I'd left it. I miss wandering in any direction and coming across some sort of weird gathering or a hostile group of trolls. The biggest adjustment to me was the move from everyone creating their own communities and having awesome building projects to some sort of a tabloid fashion central. Not that all of what I loved went away but you have to look for it harder.

Mesh and all the technicalities were oddly easy to move to BUT you do not have to jump on the mesh bandwagon at all and just create an avatar satisfying to you. I only switched as shadows were wonky on my none-mesh body. Viewers changed and performance wise, I found Alchemy and Singularity to be best whilst Black Dragon is for stronger machines. Firestorm is standardish and good for organising stuff like inventory or picks.

Plenty old creators are still doing stuff just changed brands so you might have to track their store changes. Reel Motion and Shiny Things are gone though :( .

Soooo the best way to dip into SL is just to do it and take a look around and accept all offers from folks above :p .
 

Aribeth Zelin

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I'm the weirdo who'd suggest a slink body with BOM over anything else right now - all alphas are using alpha layers, so its much more efficient. I'm not a fan of maitreya at all, haven't ever been really. I need to do another look and see if any of my other mesh heads have BOM support.

And need to get back in myself. Have some ideas for my smaller chunk of land, and maybe even some products to make.
 

Clara D.

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I'm the weirdo who'd suggest a slink body with BOM over anything else right now - all alphas are using alpha layers, so its much more efficient. I'm not a fan of maitreya at all, haven't ever been really. I need to do another look and see if any of my other mesh heads have BOM support.

And need to get back in myself. Have some ideas for my smaller chunk of land, and maybe even some products to make.
I like the slink physique because quite a few "standard size" things have worked with it.

Although any more, a current creator's item has 15 copies because they not only have all the standard sizes, but also sizes for all the bodies. I'm gonna have to start boxing unused sizes.
 
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Kamilah Hauptmann

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I'm gonna have to start boxing unused sizes.
Or buy from Marketplace or places with redelivery terminals and just turf the excess. On average, by the time there's an inventory disaster/things missing odds are some new feature will have been added and three year old favorite outfits now look dated.
 
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I got rid of A LOT of inventory by deleting all the Hourglass and Belleza copies of my spaceclothes.
 

Nadia

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I recently returned after a 3-4 year absence. Its been fun and frustrating feeling like a newbie again. Most of my friends no longer sign in. But my favorite places are still around. So I’m meeting mostly new (to me) people.

ETA: At the moment, I only have access on weekends, so I can avoid burning out.
 
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