SL for Nowt

The main SL for Nowt blog is on indefinite hiatus right now. I’m not sure that I have the heart to even continue it in the light of recent comments that I’ve received (but not published) and other (mainly online) things.

I have put three years of time, effort, love, and money into SL for Nowt (because yes, it may be a blog about freebies but I also blog cheapies, I host land inworld where newbies can start out, plus I pay for the blog’s hosting and domain name, and all of that has cost me a great deal of money over the years) but of late I don’t seem to be able to put a foot right anywhere I turn. The unpublished comments are, I fear, the final nail in the coffin for the blog and for my love of doing what I’ve done for three years. I’m not going into great detail about the comments here because to do so would be to identify the person concerned and I am not in the business of slandering large store owners or anyone else, but suffice to say I feel the comments are unjustified, unfair, and (after a quick bit of googling) hypocritical, but I don’t have the heart to defend myself anymore. I’d rather just close the blog and be done with it.

For all the happiness I’ve found through doing the blog and being able to give people a foothold in Second Life, this has just made me wonder why the hell I even bother anymore. SL for Nowt is just a minnow in a very big sea of much larger fishes. I know I have my faithful readers and I hate to let them down, but if the fun is no longer there for me then I would rather quit than keep going out of obligation. Not to mention the fact that I feel like I’m walking on eggshells now, because of the content of those comments.

It’s not just those comments (although if you decide to comment on this post, be aware that your comment will be published; I won’t hold anything back, so if you decide to come here and deride me for mentioning your comments in another blogpost after I expressly didn’t publish them on the main, more popular blog, as per your wishes, then your comments here will be published). There are other things that have been getting me down both in-world and in the general blogosphere and other SL-related areas, but the comments were the final nail.

I’m not posting this on the main blog because I haven’t made a final decision yet. If and when I do, there will be a simple ‘blog closed’ image post going up with a brief explanation.

I want to apologise for the downtime that the blog has experienced over the past day. Apparently, my webhost suffered a series of sophisticated network attacks that just kept on coming. They thought they had the attacks blocked, then they started again in another area, hence the blog was up and down quite a lot overnight. Hopefully, things have stabilised now, and the blog should be available to everyone now.

Mar has committed a terrible faux pas, and I feel absolutely awful about it, especially considering my ongoing efforts to inform newbies about etiquette in Second Life.

Some time ago, Mar put together a hedge-making kit containing two hedge textures, a hedge sculpted prim, and the sculpt map she used to make that prim (which she found in a freebie, full-permission sculpt map pack). At the time she didn’t even think about checking the creator of the sculpt map to see if they had any wishes regarding the possible resale of the item (I was completely green about intellectual property rights in Second Life back then), and in all honesty I had completely forgotten all about it. That was incredibly thoughtless of me, and now that it’s been brought to my attention I’m utterly mortified, because I am not that person who does things like that intentionally.

I have now unlisted the kit from SL Marketplace, removed it from both of my Magic Boxes (which means that, even if someone has an old link open in a browser tab, the item does not exist and cannot be sent by the boxes – nor will they be charged for it) and also removed it from my little stall in Baileya. Since the kit was for sale for L$10, this means that Mar has made money out of it and, while the original sculpt map texture is from a kit that the creator offers freely, I still feel bad that this has helped to pay my in-world rent on the Newbie Haven (which is also my home) for so long. To that end, I’ve tried to make reparation to the creator, inasmuch as I can guess what I have earned from the item and can afford at the moment.

This is a public apology to the creator: Cel Edman. Cel, I am terribly sorry.

To everyone else: if you intend to put together anything as I did, please check the creator of any full-permission items that you intend to include, to avoid making such a faux pas yourself.

Please visit Cel Edman’s store, where you can find his free sculpt map kit, as well as many other great sculpt map packs for sale.

It’s Mar’s third rezday! She first rezzed in Second Life on 26th January 2008, and this was her very first post over at the old SL for Nowt blog. I’ve been having a rather nostalgic wander through her old blogposts this afternoon, and thought it would be fun to try on her very first outfit, which she blogged here at the end of her first day in-world. For some reason, I forgot the necklace in the old outfit, but I then decided to bring that outfit bang up-to-date with some help from Tuli, Calico Ingmann, Ha!, HoC, and Love Soul.

Hop behind the cut!

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The Gnubie Store has closed its doors.

This is sad news for both new and old alike in Second Life. The Gnubie Store was one of the best freebie stores to send newbie avatars to in-world, and I loved browsing through what was on offer there, even after three years in-world.

It’s a bad day when such an SL institution has to end, no matter what the reasons.

Thanks to Jai Nomad and Ingrid Ingersoll, who created and ran the store for so long. And thanks to all of the designers and creators, both past and present, who so generously stocked it with items for old and new avatars alike to enjoy.