larry jeans
The Newbie Guide to Sandboxes in Second Life
In my recent post on unpacking boxes and objects, I learned that there were some free, newbie-friendly public sandboxes to explore in SL, and I was keen to check them out! Before I get to my recommended sandbox list though, here’s a trick if you’d like some additional privacy or open space in any sandbox or build-enabled area. Note: I use the Firestorm Viewer exclusively to connect to Second Life, but I believe these commands work on the official SL viewer and additional third-party viewers as well.
- In the Nearby Chat box, type gth followed by any number of your choosing, up to 4000. This will immediately teleport you high into the sky, where you can build or rez objects away from any crowd you may encounter. Many people choose even number heights when they’re on sky platforms – 1000, 1500, 2000, etc – so if a sandbox is particularly crowded on that day, perhaps choose an odd number for a better result.
- For example, let’s type gth 1772 into Nearby Chat hit the Enter key. You should immediately see yourself appearing (and falling from) high in the sky. Quickly click your mouse outside of the chat box, and then hit the Page Up button on your keyboard, which is the default hotkey for flying. This will stop your fall, and you’ll begin to hover in place.
- Then once more in the Nearby Chat box, type rezplat, which will rez a platform directly beneath your feet, which you can then stand on by clicking on the Stop Flying button or by holding Page Down until you meet the platform. The default platform size is 30 meters, but I’ve reset this to 5 meters in my preferences (see below) because I generally wouldn’t need a large platform for unpacking boxes or similar. You’ll find these shortcuts in the Firestorm preference menu under Chat / CmdLine. Bear in mind that the location of the CmdLine section has changed in the Beta viewer, which I’m using. In older versions, I believe these shortcuts were under the Firestorm tab in Preferences.
Firestorm CmdLine Preferences Menu
So let’s visit some sandboxes! I decided to compile my recommended list into its own page, which I’ll keep updated in case the links change or locations come and go. Please click the link below to view the list, then come back for some additional tips:
Free & Public Sandbox Locations in Second Life
Second Life Sandbox Etiquette
Now that you’re armed with some sandbox SLURLs, what are the guidelines and best practices for utilizing these public spaces? While most have a stated auto-return allowance (which means that any items you’ve rezzed or built on their land will be automatically returned to your inventory after a set time period), some sandboxes will only return your items once you’ve left the parcel or logged out, and others may only clean or reset themselves once a day. However, just because you know your items will come back to you eventually, it doesn’t give residents free license to leave things lying around, especially if you’re unpacking lots of goodies.
Stop it right there and clean up your mess, young lady!
See all those packages and parcels? Believe it or not, some of them have a fair bit of land impact, which means leaving a lot of discarded objects lying around may take up a good amount of the prim allowance of the sandbox, potentially preventing others from making full use of the space. So always be respectful and clean up the area before you teleport away.
You may be thinking: “I’ve just rezzed a hundred or more boxes. Cleaning them up is going to take ages!” Luckily there’s a trick for that as well. To delete a large number of objects at once:
Highlight all the things!
- Right-click on any of your objects, and choose Edit from the menu.
- While the Edit menu is open, click your left mouse button and drag a rectangle around all of the objects you’d like to delete. This is where rezzing them all close to one another is handy, but you can always zoom out if you need a wider view.
- Once every object is highlighted in yellow (the color may vary depending on which viewer skin you use), right-click with your mouse on any highlighted object and choose Delete in the menu. You can also press the Delete button on your keyboard.
If all goes well, every highlighted object should have been deleted all at once. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
If you happen to miss an item, or for some reason an object doesn’t delete itself, you can always right-click it directly and use the same Delete function. But please bear in mind that if you delete items with No Copy permissions, they’re gone forever. The same goes if you happen to leave a No Copy item behind at the sandbox; once the auto-return kicks in, that item will be deleted rather than returned to your inventory. So be mindful of the permissions on the items you rez in-world, just in case!
Ahhhhh, all those boxed up purchases, freebies and gifts finally unpacked and ready to go in your inventory, and you’ve quickly cleaned up after yourself. Good job, avie! Go ahead, strike a silly, self-satisfied pose. You’ve earned it.
Skin: Insol Body Skin Scarlett – Ivory (L$0, no longer available)
Eyeshadow: XCW Freebie Eyeshadow – Pink/Orange (L$0)
Lip Gloss: Fudge Opening Gift Lip Smudge – Peach Ice Cream (L$0)
Eyes: TSYI Light Me Eyes – Light Blue (L$0)
Hair: LeLutka Group Gift – Sheena (L$0)
Dress: [AB] Good Life Dress (L$0, no longer available)
Jeans: LARRY Jeans Dollarbie Pack (L$1)
Shoes: Daisy Shop Mesh Ankle Boots in 8 Colors – Dark Set (L$0)
L$2 Legit 2 Quit
Ever’s Age: 6 Days
L$ Balance: L$615
Every noteworthy era has to meet its end, and after schooling a newbie on metaverse sextiquette, I decided I’d had my fill of the Tutorial Land That LL Forgot. After poofing through the portal, I landed at Social Island, and a quick peek at the world map revealed that there are six Learning Islands and three Social Islands total, which new members are presumably rezzed on at random when they sign in for the first time. Oddly, Learning Island D looks nothing at all like Learning Islands 1 – 5 (at least from the overhead view on the map), so I’m wondering if there are special circumstances that result in someone rolling the D experience. But as suspected, I could no longer access the Learning Island sims, while all three Social Islands are ripe for the teleporting.
Ahhh, Social Island(s) – an oxymoronic name if there ever was one. Let me put it this way: I immediately encountered a gentleman whose profile mentioned his love of perving and fapping, and while his forthright honesty was commendable, I wasn’t particularly keen on being molested. I happened to land at Island #1, and after camming around a bit, I checked the other two and found them to be identical in build and in visitors. Which is to say, an even mix of 0 day newbies standing around seemingly confused and lost, and primarily silent veteran residents, many of whom had completely blank profiles despite hundreds, if not thousands, of days in their respective account ages. It reminded me of a shopping mall I worked at as a teenager, where all of the smaller boutique shops had closed and only the larger department stores remained. The facades were there, sometimes even the lights were even on, but no one was home.
Out of curiosity, I ticked the box to allow Voice, as I wasn’t sure if spoken word chatting was more common in these areas. Social Island 2 and 3 both have voice chat turned off at the main hub, but Social Island 1 allows it, and even the two or three people whom my radar indicated were voice-enabled were keeping quiet. However, I did run into one newbie who spoke to me in an distinctly young-sounding voice, which prompted me to quickly teleport away. I know that children do sign up for Second Life against the TOS, but hearing one speak was nonetheless alarming. I’m not even sure if you can send in an Abuse Report for that kind of thing, since voice doesn’t have the same ability to be captured as proof of abuse in the same way that local chat or instant messages would. Regardless, I’d had my fill of Voice for the night. Which means – drumroll, please – it was time for Operation Ever-Lution: The Marketplace Edition!
How YOU doin’?
Skin: Insol Body Skin Scarlett – Ivory (L$0)
Eyeshadow: XCW Freebie Eyeshadow – Pink/Orange (L$0)
Lip Gloss: Alaskametro Light Lipgloss Tester – Golden (L$0)
Eyes: TSYI Light Me Eyes – Light Blue (L$0)
Hair: Alice Project – Summertime Sadness (L$0)
Hairbase: Delizio Hairbase Tattoo – Chocolate (L$0)
Dress: Corvus 13 Dress (L$0)
Jeans: LARRY Jeans Dollarbie Pack (L$1)
Shoes: MYLU Cora Boots (L$1)
Pose: DESIRE Free Model Pose F08 (L$0)
Wall Texture: Dy’s Yardsale & Texture Shop Grunge Shaded Texture (L$0)
Floor Texture: DT.com Parquet Wood Floor Textures (L$0)
_____________________________________________________________
Total Spent: L$2
L$2 dolla bills, y’all!
Pretty cute, hey? I probably could have gotten away without spending those Lindens, but I have both the Larry Jeans dollarbie pack (comes with 3 pairs of jeans) and the MYLU boots on my main account, and I’ve gotten lots of use out of them. Speaking of footwear though, one thing is becoming troubling clear: it’s going to be problematic finding shoes for system feet, particularly ones that aren’t boots or sneakers. Thankfully I have a penchant for both, so I won’t necessarily mind wandering around the grid in a summer dress and close-toed stompers. But Slink mesh feet are becoming so ubiquitous, it’s genuinely difficult to find footwear options (mesh in particular) that don’t require them. Here’s hoping that the system avies in the upcoming Project: Sansar platform aren’t saddled with the same clubbed tootsies that SL ones are!
So I’ve officially “arrived” in Second Life! While I’ve made stops in newbie-friendly spots like Caledon Oxbridge (where I enjoyed a quick chat with Miss Lindal Kidd), New Citizens Incorporated and The Shelter, it was primarily to snag landmarks for my “helpful tips” notecard, so my visits were brief. But with the weekend finally here, and my inventory stocked with a modest cache of freebies, I feel like I’m ready to become a true resident of the grid at long last. Excelsior!
Happily, Ever Afterr in Second Life 