The TQB Group
For the Good Life in Second Life®.
For the Good Life in Second Life®.
For the Good Life in Second Life®
FrequentlyAskedQuestions
THIS PAGE CONTAINS FAQs ABOUT BOTH LAND OWNERSHIP IN GENERAL AND SPECIFIC TOPICS HELPFUL IN MANAGING YOUR LAND.
MANY OF YOUR QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED RIGHT HERE
WITHOUT THE NEED OF CONTACTING ONE OF OUR STAFF.
NOTE: THIS PAGE WILL CONTINUE TO GROW AS WE STRIVE TO SERVE YOU BETTER.
MANY OF YOUR QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED RIGHT HERE
WITHOUT THE NEED OF CONTACTING ONE OF OUR STAFF.
NOTE: THIS PAGE WILL CONTINUE TO GROW AS WE STRIVE TO SERVE YOU BETTER.
Q: What do I actually own when I buy virtual land?
A: You own the exclusive right to use that land within the agreed upon conditions in our Terms of Service & Covenants, which includes Linden Labs' Terms of Service.
Q: What are tier fees and why do I have to pay them?
A: The Second Life virtual world exists on real world hardware with real world staff keeping everything going. This costs real world money. The TQB Group also has real world operating expenses, primarily monthly fees we pay to Linden Labs for the sims in our Estates. Tier (monthly maintenance) fees cover those expenses.
Q: Why are they called "tier" fees?
A: Linden Labs actually calls them "Land Use Fees"; the TQB Group uses the term "Monthly Maintenance Fee". Both LL & the TQB Group use a tiered fee schedule; the amount of land you own determines what tier level you are at and the amount of your monthly fee. The phrase "tier fee" is commonly used instead of "land use fee at the tier level for (land size)".
Q: What do the sim names in Thai Island Paradise mean?
A: "Koh" is Thai for "island" so Koh Samui, for example, would be Samui Island in English. Some of our single-owner homestead sims are named after individuals who are significant in our lives; these islands will not appear on any RL maps of Thailand. All the other sims are named for RL locations and can be found on a map of Thailand. Several of our staff reside in the RL Krung Thep, across the Chaophaya River from Thonburi. Sarit & TQ have visited many of the RL counterparts to our SL sims (Koh Samet is rather pretty) and TQ spent a night on Koh Phi Phi as part of a scuba trip some years back.
Q: I don't like my neighbor. Can you make them go away?
A: Our Covenants state that "All land owners are entitled to the quiet enjoyment of their land".
Actions that disrupt that quiet enjoyment are prohibited. Practically speaking, these actions must be identifiable and observable by staff. An object that shouts across parcel borders is identifiable and observable. A griefer floating off parcel borders is identifiable and observable. A 50m high animated object spewing particles and causing lag is identifiable and observable.
A neighbor who may be using the camera to look onto your parcel is not observable. Unwelcome chat is not observable. Chat logs can be altered or fabricated and the Linden Lab Terms of Service prohibits copying chat to a third party without permission. If statements are made to you in chat that you feel violate the LL ToS, we encourage you to file an Abuse Report with LL. Do NOT copy that chat to any TQB staff; we do not wish to be party to a violation of the LL ToS.
While we encourage our land owners to get along with their neighbors, we are aware that this is not always the case. If a neighbor's disruptive actions are identifiable and observable, we will take appropriate action. We will not involve ourselves in drama. If a neighbor's disruptive actions are not identifiable and observable, we will not become involved. Please note that disruptive actions have to be identifiable and observable by TQB Staff, to avoid your word against their word situations.
If you do not like your neighbor but there is no identifiable and observable disruptive action, we will do our best to find another parcel for you. Please do not demand that we remove the neighbor.
Q: Lag - What is it and what can I do about it?
A: Lag comes in three flavors: Client Lag, Network Lag & Server Lag. To see where lag is coming from, go to the SL Help menu and select Lag Meter. If all any of the indicators are yellow or red, the expanded meter will give you an idea of where the problem is coming from.
• CLIENT LAG
The following is from the Second Life® Knowledge Base:
"The video is jerky or stuttering, pauses for long periods of time, and everything stops moving, including my avatar.
• NETWORK LAG
Network lag results from delays in data moving between LL's servers and your computer.
Network lag can result from disruptions anywhere between LL's servers and your computer. This could occur on LL's network, your home network, your local ISP's network or any part of the internet that the data passes through on it's way to and from your computer & LL's servers. If your home or local network shares bandwidth, increased traffic on that network will add to the lag.
The source of persistent network lag is most often your home or local network. Possible solutions include minimizing the number of concurrent applications running that use the network (file sharing applications can really suck up the bandwidth), switching to an internet service that does not share bandwidth among local users and upgrading to a faster level of internet service.
The following is from the Second Life® Knowledge Base:
"My avatar takes forever to start walking, won't stop walking for several seconds, and chat does not appear for a long time.
• SERVER LAG
Server lag has many potential causes. Server lag is experienced primarily as client and/or network lag, since data on the server must move through the network to the client. In extreme cases, objects which lag a server can crash the sim, often requiring Linden Support to bring it back online.
Key elements in server lag include, but are not limited to:
"Large numbers of objects will slow your region down, especially if they're of any of the following types:
(more to come)
Objects that self-replicate, make noise and run into things are most often the result of griefer attacks since such objects can rapidly lag and even crash a sim. With Sion Chickens and other Self-Replicating Ambulatory Objects (SRAOs), SL residents are paying for the privilege of griefing themselves and their neighbors. Fortunately, SRAOs replicate at a slower rate than griefer objects, offering the owners the ability to minimize their effects on the sim.
From the SL Wiki on Improving Region (Sim) Performance:
"The top collider physical objects in your Region can potentially slow it down. These are physical objects that are often moving and can contribute significantly to the time your Region takes to perform the physics calculations."
And:
"removing the total number of moving objects in your Region can improve performance. "
SRAOs are colliders. They run into things.
When a sim is lagging, one of the things we check in the Statistics Bar is the Physics Time. If the Physics Time exceeds 4.0, we take a look at Top Colliders. And we start returning them.
From our Covenant:
"No abusive objects. Objects with high lag scripts or high numbers of potential collisions that adversely effect sim performance will be considered abusive.
OBJECTS WHICH SEVERELY DEGRADE SIM PERFORMANCE OR THREATEN TO CRASH THE SIM MAY BE RETURNED WITHOUT NOTICE. THE TQB GROUP BEARS NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGE TO OBJECTS RETURNED UNDER THESE CONDITIONS."
How to minimize the chance of having your SRAOs returned:
• Upgrade to the latest version.
• Limit the total number rezzed.
• Limit the number of SRAOs in a pen.
• Round pens may lower potential collisions; however, I do not know this to be a fact.
• Place pens so they do not intersect other objects. A pen that sticks through the side of a building allows the SRAOs to collide with the building.
• Rezz your SRAOs a few at a time. Use the Statistics Bar (under the View menu) to track the Physics Time. Stop rezzing SRAOs well below the 4.0 level. Please note that the Physics Time is for the entire sim; if your SRAOs push it up to 4.0, normal use by other residents may easily push it over. When the distress call comes, reducing SRAOs collisions will very likely be our first action.
Some general observations about the majority of SRAOs:
• They cost money to upgrade.
• You have to feed them or they die. Food costs money.
• Upgraded SRAOs can't eat the previous version's food.
• They can get sick & die.
• If you transport them or take them into inventory without special containers (which cost money, big surprise), they die.
• If we return them, they die.
None of the above puts any money in the sim owner's pocket. Most of it does put money in the creator's pocket.
FAQs:
Q: If I follow all your suggestions are my SRAOs safe from being returned?
A: No. If the sim lags due to a high Physics Time, the top colliders (excluding AVs) will be returned.
If that's your SRAOs, then it's bye bye birdies, bye bye bunnies, ta ta turtles, etc.! NOTE: If there is an event on the sim with a large number of AVs colliding, we'll wait until after the event and restart the sim before killing your SRAOs. If the number of AVs on the sim is not unusually high, we'll start reducing top colliders immediately.
Q: Will you contact me before returning my SRAOs?
A: Usually not. If we get a complaint about poor sim performance and trace it to your SRAOs, the situation requires immediate attention. The people being inconvenienced by your SRAOs also pay for the use of their land.
Q: The creator/person I bought them from says my SRAOs are not the problem.
A: They make money off the SRAOs, food, supplies, etc. What do you expect them to say? We have an obligation to all of our residents.
Q: If you return my SRAOs I'm out the money I've put into them. Who's going to pay for that?
A: Hmmm, let's see now. The guy who invented the things makes the money from everything purchased to keep them alive. We get zilch, unless you include complaints from other residents on the sim and difficulty in selling vacant land on that sim. So to answer your question, probably not him and definitely not us.
Q: I'm in TQB POSH; I don't share my sim & don't mind the lag. Can I have all the SRAOs I want?
A: Yep. Unless you're on a homestead; if you're on a homestead, you need to keep the lag down. Homesteads share CPU resources and it's not only your sim you'll be lagging. LL takes a dim view of this.
Q: Bottom line; can I have SRAOs on your sims that are NOT in TQB POSH?
A: Absolutely, on single-parcel homesteads. You may have them on shared sims if you already had them there prior to 10 October 2009. And if they cause problems, we'll absolutely return them.
Q: Why do you hate my chickens?
A: We don't. We do have a very low tolerance for objects that degrade sim performance. All the residents on a sim are paying for the use of their land or shop space; objects that interfere with that use are unacceptable. BTW, Sion Chickens taste delicious, the rabbits taste like chicken & the turtles make great soup!
A: You own the exclusive right to use that land within the agreed upon conditions in our Terms of Service & Covenants, which includes Linden Labs' Terms of Service.
Q: What are tier fees and why do I have to pay them?
A: The Second Life virtual world exists on real world hardware with real world staff keeping everything going. This costs real world money. The TQB Group also has real world operating expenses, primarily monthly fees we pay to Linden Labs for the sims in our Estates. Tier (monthly maintenance) fees cover those expenses.
Q: Why are they called "tier" fees?
A: Linden Labs actually calls them "Land Use Fees"; the TQB Group uses the term "Monthly Maintenance Fee". Both LL & the TQB Group use a tiered fee schedule; the amount of land you own determines what tier level you are at and the amount of your monthly fee. The phrase "tier fee" is commonly used instead of "land use fee at the tier level for (land size)".
Q: What do the sim names in Thai Island Paradise mean?
A: "Koh" is Thai for "island" so Koh Samui, for example, would be Samui Island in English. Some of our single-owner homestead sims are named after individuals who are significant in our lives; these islands will not appear on any RL maps of Thailand. All the other sims are named for RL locations and can be found on a map of Thailand. Several of our staff reside in the RL Krung Thep, across the Chaophaya River from Thonburi. Sarit & TQ have visited many of the RL counterparts to our SL sims (Koh Samet is rather pretty) and TQ spent a night on Koh Phi Phi as part of a scuba trip some years back.
Q: I don't like my neighbor. Can you make them go away?
A: Our Covenants state that "All land owners are entitled to the quiet enjoyment of their land".
Actions that disrupt that quiet enjoyment are prohibited. Practically speaking, these actions must be identifiable and observable by staff. An object that shouts across parcel borders is identifiable and observable. A griefer floating off parcel borders is identifiable and observable. A 50m high animated object spewing particles and causing lag is identifiable and observable.
A neighbor who may be using the camera to look onto your parcel is not observable. Unwelcome chat is not observable. Chat logs can be altered or fabricated and the Linden Lab Terms of Service prohibits copying chat to a third party without permission. If statements are made to you in chat that you feel violate the LL ToS, we encourage you to file an Abuse Report with LL. Do NOT copy that chat to any TQB staff; we do not wish to be party to a violation of the LL ToS.
While we encourage our land owners to get along with their neighbors, we are aware that this is not always the case. If a neighbor's disruptive actions are identifiable and observable, we will take appropriate action. We will not involve ourselves in drama. If a neighbor's disruptive actions are not identifiable and observable, we will not become involved. Please note that disruptive actions have to be identifiable and observable by TQB Staff, to avoid your word against their word situations.
If you do not like your neighbor but there is no identifiable and observable disruptive action, we will do our best to find another parcel for you. Please do not demand that we remove the neighbor.
Q: Lag - What is it and what can I do about it?
A: Lag comes in three flavors: Client Lag, Network Lag & Server Lag. To see where lag is coming from, go to the SL Help menu and select Lag Meter. If all any of the indicators are yellow or red, the expanded meter will give you an idea of where the problem is coming from.
• CLIENT LAG
The following is from the Second Life® Knowledge Base:
"The video is jerky or stuttering, pauses for long periods of time, and everything stops moving, including my avatar.
This type of "lag", known as low framerate, usually indicates that your computer is having trouble drawing everything your avatar sees. There may be too much detail in the scene you're looking at, you may have your graphical Preferences set too high, or something else might be taking up a lot of your computer's processing time. This type of lag show itself in the Client section of the Lag Meter.
- Make sure your computer meets all of the Minimum System Requirements. It's best to exceed them in order to prevent bottlenecks, since the minimum system requirements are the minimum hardware required to run Second Life at all. A slower processor, older video card, or low memory can contribute to low framerates.
- Make sure you have the latest drivers for your video card.
- Take a look at the graphics settings in the Preferences window if you haven't already. Try moving the Quality and Performance slider to Low.
- Check to see if your hard drive light is showing a lot of activity. If it is, then your system may be running low on memory and using hard drive swap space instead, which is significantly slower.
- You might need to turn your bandwidth settings down in the Preferences window if your computer is receiving more network data than it can handle.
- Try teleporting to a quieter area, or one with fewer objects, to see if the situation improves.
- You might also read our Statistics Guide to verify that the problem is low frame rate (Basic FPS in the Statistics window)."
• NETWORK LAG
Network lag results from delays in data moving between LL's servers and your computer.
Network lag can result from disruptions anywhere between LL's servers and your computer. This could occur on LL's network, your home network, your local ISP's network or any part of the internet that the data passes through on it's way to and from your computer & LL's servers. If your home or local network shares bandwidth, increased traffic on that network will add to the lag.
The source of persistent network lag is most often your home or local network. Possible solutions include minimizing the number of concurrent applications running that use the network (file sharing applications can really suck up the bandwidth), switching to an internet service that does not share bandwidth among local users and upgrading to a faster level of internet service.
The following is from the Second Life® Knowledge Base:
"My avatar takes forever to start walking, won't stop walking for several seconds, and chat does not appear for a long time.
This type of "lag" is actually the conventional definition of lag: Latency between you and the Second Life servers. That is, information is taking a long time to get from your computer to Second Life, or vice-versa.
- First, make sure your Internet connection meets Second Life's minimum system requirements.
- If you're using wireless networking, you should try troubleshooting with a direct wired connection; we allow, but do not support the use of wirless network connections.
- Try opening the Statistics bar and seeing what your Ping Sim and Packet Loss values are. The ping values are the time (in milliseconds) it takes to reach the server from your computer. If this number is high, it could indicate a problem with your network or internet connection. If Packet Loss is a nonzero number, your network or ISP may be having issues.
- Finally, the region you're in may be busy or overloaded. Try to see if going somewhere else reduces the problem."
• SERVER LAG
Server lag has many potential causes. Server lag is experienced primarily as client and/or network lag, since data on the server must move through the network to the client. In extreme cases, objects which lag a server can crash the sim, often requiring Linden Support to bring it back online.
Key elements in server lag include, but are not limited to:
- The number of Avatars on the sim.
- Inefficient or very busy scripts.
- Physical objects with many collisions.
- Excessive use of large textures.
"Large numbers of objects will slow your region down, especially if they're of any of the following types:
- Moving
- Rotating
- Scripted
- Shape-changing sculpties
The following region items can slow down viewer performance:
- Big prims greater than 10 m x 10 m can slow down viewer FPS. These kind of objects cannot be created under normal circumstances.
- Large or numerous textures, when an avatar first comes within sight of them
- Overuse of sculpted prims, twisted tori, and other geometrically complex objects.
- Particle effects (which includes bling and poofers).
Keep in mind some of your visitors may have slow graphics cards or PCs."
(more to come)
+++++SION CHICKENS & other Self-Replicating Ambulatory Objects (SRAOs)+++++
Objects that self-replicate, make noise and run into things are most often the result of griefer attacks since such objects can rapidly lag and even crash a sim. With Sion Chickens and other Self-Replicating Ambulatory Objects (SRAOs), SL residents are paying for the privilege of griefing themselves and their neighbors. Fortunately, SRAOs replicate at a slower rate than griefer objects, offering the owners the ability to minimize their effects on the sim.
From the SL Wiki on Improving Region (Sim) Performance:
"The top collider physical objects in your Region can potentially slow it down. These are physical objects that are often moving and can contribute significantly to the time your Region takes to perform the physics calculations."
And:
"removing the total number of moving objects in your Region can improve performance. "
SRAOs are colliders. They run into things.
When a sim is lagging, one of the things we check in the Statistics Bar is the Physics Time. If the Physics Time exceeds 4.0, we take a look at Top Colliders. And we start returning them.
From our Covenant:
"No abusive objects. Objects with high lag scripts or high numbers of potential collisions that adversely effect sim performance will be considered abusive.
OBJECTS WHICH SEVERELY DEGRADE SIM PERFORMANCE OR THREATEN TO CRASH THE SIM MAY BE RETURNED WITHOUT NOTICE. THE TQB GROUP BEARS NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGE TO OBJECTS RETURNED UNDER THESE CONDITIONS."
How to minimize the chance of having your SRAOs returned:
• Upgrade to the latest version.
• Limit the total number rezzed.
• Limit the number of SRAOs in a pen.
• Round pens may lower potential collisions; however, I do not know this to be a fact.
• Place pens so they do not intersect other objects. A pen that sticks through the side of a building allows the SRAOs to collide with the building.
• Rezz your SRAOs a few at a time. Use the Statistics Bar (under the View menu) to track the Physics Time. Stop rezzing SRAOs well below the 4.0 level. Please note that the Physics Time is for the entire sim; if your SRAOs push it up to 4.0, normal use by other residents may easily push it over. When the distress call comes, reducing SRAOs collisions will very likely be our first action.
Some general observations about the majority of SRAOs:
• They cost money to upgrade.
• You have to feed them or they die. Food costs money.
• Upgraded SRAOs can't eat the previous version's food.
• They can get sick & die.
• If you transport them or take them into inventory without special containers (which cost money, big surprise), they die.
• If we return them, they die.
None of the above puts any money in the sim owner's pocket. Most of it does put money in the creator's pocket.
FAQs:
Q: If I follow all your suggestions are my SRAOs safe from being returned?
A: No. If the sim lags due to a high Physics Time, the top colliders (excluding AVs) will be returned.
If that's your SRAOs, then it's bye bye birdies, bye bye bunnies, ta ta turtles, etc.! NOTE: If there is an event on the sim with a large number of AVs colliding, we'll wait until after the event and restart the sim before killing your SRAOs. If the number of AVs on the sim is not unusually high, we'll start reducing top colliders immediately.
Q: Will you contact me before returning my SRAOs?
A: Usually not. If we get a complaint about poor sim performance and trace it to your SRAOs, the situation requires immediate attention. The people being inconvenienced by your SRAOs also pay for the use of their land.
Q: The creator/person I bought them from says my SRAOs are not the problem.
A: They make money off the SRAOs, food, supplies, etc. What do you expect them to say? We have an obligation to all of our residents.
Q: If you return my SRAOs I'm out the money I've put into them. Who's going to pay for that?
A: Hmmm, let's see now. The guy who invented the things makes the money from everything purchased to keep them alive. We get zilch, unless you include complaints from other residents on the sim and difficulty in selling vacant land on that sim. So to answer your question, probably not him and definitely not us.
Q: I'm in TQB POSH; I don't share my sim & don't mind the lag. Can I have all the SRAOs I want?
A: Yep. Unless you're on a homestead; if you're on a homestead, you need to keep the lag down. Homesteads share CPU resources and it's not only your sim you'll be lagging. LL takes a dim view of this.
Q: Bottom line; can I have SRAOs on your sims that are NOT in TQB POSH?
A: Absolutely, on single-parcel homesteads. You may have them on shared sims if you already had them there prior to 10 October 2009. And if they cause problems, we'll absolutely return them.
Q: Why do you hate my chickens?
A: We don't. We do have a very low tolerance for objects that degrade sim performance. All the residents on a sim are paying for the use of their land or shop space; objects that interfere with that use are unacceptable. BTW, Sion Chickens taste delicious, the rabbits taste like chicken & the turtles make great soup!
