Well today I learned a few lessons in Second Life.
About three weeks ago, I rented my first land in Second Life with the idea of experimenting to see how TPN could use it to spend more time with our community. I rented the land from an avatar called Rich Bulloch (who also apparently goes by the avatar Dog Fargis). We paid six months in advance and it wasn’t a lot of money – about L$20,000 for six months (about US$80). After about a week on our first block of land, Rich sez he has a bigger block, a whole island, we could rent for a bit more L$. I asked Rich if there were any “gotchas” on the new island and he said it was “low prim” (1874). Being a complete n00b, I asked him what the practical implications were of that and he told me it limited what we could build. It was twice the prims we had on the previous block however, so we upgraded.
The first thing I learned pretty fast is the real implication of “low prim”. We ran out of building room pretty fast. Everything you want to build on your real estate in SL requires “prims” or “primitives”, like building blocks. And when you use up all of your prims, you can’t build anything else – buildings, chairs, etc. So we figured out pretty quickly that we were going to have to move again.
Little did I realize how soon….
This morning I found out that Rich Bulloch, who was renting the land himself from a Gigs Taggart, is behind in HIS rent and as a result, I’m getting evicted from my island. Gigs claims he hasn’t heard from Rich is over a week and Rich is way behind on his rent. So Gigs is evicting us! We can rent the land ourselves from Rich but he wants US$114 a MONTH. Remember I’ve already paid Rich about US$150 for SIX MONTHS. That’s a pretty big rental rise and way more than I had budgeted for.
I tried contacting Rich myself but his profile said he hadn’t been online for a week. So I IM’d the R & A Realty Group, Rich’s group of tenants, and asked them if Rich is a scammer. That started a slanging match between a few members of the group until I finally got a private message from one of Rich’s friends, telling me it was all a very big mess, that Rich wasn’t a scammer, that it was all her fault, involved “mafia stuff”, and that Rich would refund my money by Wednesday. I told her that even if it wasn’t Rich’s fault, he should get in contact with his tenants and explain why they were getting evicted. I paid him money in good faith, not I’m getting kicked off my land. I gave her my email address and asked her to pass it onto Rich.
A few minutes later I got an email from Rich saying:
well i tell ya what i will get you in the next few days all the proof that it was paid that is how i paid threw paypal but i did cancle that account afterwords but i have spoke with paypal and they are gathering the info where i did pay him i will make sure you get copies of that also they will be faxing it to me within 48 hours and i will make sure you get copies of it to post with your blog if you would like gigs is saying something deffernt and i will not fight with him in world i am letting sl take care of that issue for me and paypal for charge back
Okay, so… I may see my money back (not that it was a lot of money) and there are some lessons learned.
1. Second Life needs a good way of reference checking who you are dealing with. Ebay has a pretty good (though not infallible) rating system. These things may already exist. If they do, I’m not aware of them and it would be good to have them built into an avatar’s profile for handy reference. Rich’s profile in SL was only a month old when we rented from him. Probably should look for someone with a longer track record?
2. I deliberately jumped into my first land rental without ANY research, knowing I might get hurt, but wanting to learn. And I’m a big believer in LEARNING BY DOING, as long as while you are DOING you minimize your downside. This time I’m going to do some more research before we get new TPN land. I’m talking to people like Duncan Riley and Jeremy Chase (from the Second Life mafia, as heard on G’Day World #105). Duncan sez we should buy our own land, not rent. Sounds like a good plan, if I can afford it.
I want TPN HQ to be a place where our audience can experience and experiment with Second Life, learn the rules, find their Slegs, in a safe and encouraging environment. So I’d rather I learn these lessons and be able to pass them on. I’m fairly resilient. 🙂
Bye Bye for now TPN HQ. 🙁
Bummer. Where will we all meet up now? Duncan’s place, maybe?
ooh, nastiness… just like the web world, it looks like you need sponsors on your new island to make it worthwhile…
That totally sucks dude. Feel free to swing by the Dirty U-Turn if you need a place to hang out. http://www.dirtyuturn.com
Ooooh….nasty…but I see this type of thing happening more and more online, and more and more in meatspace.
The following is not a moral for you, but for others who would find themselves without capacity to work out the problem: if it’s too good to be true, it’s probably fake;
try to imagine everything is a scam, and be pleasantly surprised now and then when it is not;
the deal of the century comes around about once a month.
Hope the TPN HQ comes back from the electronic ashes.
And it was just starting to feel like a second home!
Hopefully you can find a new crib soon.
Proves that SL is still the wild west and that it needs a reputation system of some sorts!
Maybe a background checking process would help.
Ouch, Cameron…bummer. I know that I’ve heard on some of the SL podcasts about reputation systems that work as HUD add-ons for your display; I don’t know if any of them have gotten any real traction, though. I googled and came up with a couple of quick links:
http://wse.hopecapital.com.au/
http://www.3pointd.com/20070309/ratepoint-to-launch-second-life-ratings-service/
3pointD usually has good info; Mark Wallace has been around for quite awhile. Ah, that RatePoint post has a link to another one:
http://www.3pointd.com/20070104/user-created-trust-networks-in-second-life/
Maybe worth looking at. Your other lessons (longer account life is usually better, and owning is better than renting if you can afford it) are both definitely valid. And of course, the old adage…if it seems to good (ie, cheap) to be true, it probably is.
Good luck! I’m in the process of setting up a new machine for the first time in 6 years (!) this week; once I get the new beast up and running, I’ll have to come into SL and say hi.
All the parts of real world live in sl it seems. We need to be as vigilant there as we are here especially when it comes to money and reputation. I got stung on ebay recently only for $10 but before I had a chance to notice that it was dodgy I had a refund coming through. I think some one started to get onto them and burn their reputation so ebay and paypal were able to sort it out. There is a new system of trade developing that is different to the old folding money deals and I’m glad to see in my case it worked out. I look forward to hearing your money has been returned Cam
Another issue with the was SL deals with land, is that any promotion you’ve done using your location co-ordinates, becomes worthless with every move. The more you move, the more fragmented it all becomes.
Given the way prims are allocated and that prims can’t be bought in isolation from land, it’s a fundamental business risk of buying/renting in SL.
Hmmm…so virtual worlds are actually part of the real world. Why am I not surprised by that.
That definitely sucks, I’m sorry to hear about it. I’d be happy to help out in any way I can in reestablishing TPN HQ in SL. You had a really good thing going there – a real community feel starting to happen. It was a thing to behold.
Can’t wait to visit the new, new, new TPN HQ in SL. I think it’s worth persisting.
jj
Hmmm…so virtual worlds are actually part of the real world. Why am I not surprised.
That definitely sucks, I’m sorry to hear about it. I’d be happy to help out in any way I can in reestablishing TPN HQ in SL. You had a really good thing going there – a real community feel happening. It was a thing to behold.
Can’t wait to visit the new, new, new TPN HQ in SL. I think it’s well worth persisting Cam.
jj
Hi, That’s a real bummer about that mess and I hope you’re able to recoup something that you’d spent. There are pockets of land all over secondlife available for sale. You may have to start with a small plot at first, and then snap up neighboring plots as they go on sale. (an example: where I bought my first buy, a 512 for $512L with a prim allowance of 117 prims… land went on sale next door for $15,000L for a 1024 sized lot. I got it, but I wished I’d have looked around a little more, because only a few plots away, a 1024 is for sale for only $7999L)
Also, about prims, low prims, etc… you’re coming in at a very good time. Once upon my noob days, a staircase might be 30 or more prims, but now with sculptie prims, what was once 30 prims.. in the hands of a talented creator is now 2 prims.
I wish you good luck!
Hey Cam
Pssssst listen carefully cause I’m only going to say this once. I have a great scrap metal deal going pretty cheap. It’s currently being used as a bridge in a place called Sydney but I can let you in on the deal at mates rates.
Let me know if you’re interested.
Ah. Ok. So THAT’S why the island I’m standing on right now which USED to be TPN HQ is completed empty. Shame about all that mess with virtual renting – crazy!