From Avination to Second Life

In February 2011, I left Second Life, because of the lack of respect they showed the security and privacy of their customers, permitting the data-mining by the spyware zF RedZone for over a year, despite more and more alarming reports on how it was used to abuse Second Life customers. Linden Lab eventually banned the spyware and its controller, after it was revealed the controller was a convicted Internet fraudster who used the spyware to phish for Second Life passwords among other things, but they refused to take measures to prevent similar systems from continuing operating then or in the future.

I gave up Second Life then, abandoning two full sims, and moved to Avination, hoping it would be a safe haven from similar incidents. I had researched several alternative grids, but Avination seemed the most promising, from a technical perspective. Since it runs on the alpha-stage OpenSim server software, I was expecting technical glitches, and I got them, even a bit more than I had expected.

First it was the asset service disaster, probably resulting from a successful PR campaign bringing in so many new users the servers couldn't keep up, but lost, corrupted and threw especially textures any which way. After a month and a half, in late March, that was somewhat under control though, and life went on with just the occasional sim freezes and crashes, failed teleports and script failures. The latter was expected and quite manageable though.

Early April, the Redgrave / Mimi's Choice debacle struck, where two of the high-profile merchants left Avination over "differences" with the grid owner. Since I didn't know the full story, I gave Avination management the benefit of a doubt about what really happened, despite it didn't make them look good. I was more worried about the editing of the discussion "for legal reasons" and the gaming of it with alts of Avination management, and it did put a dent in my trust for them.

Mid April, Avination lost its PayPal services, and despite they were soon restored, the information about it to the customers left much to be desired.

Early May, the next glitch struck, when Avination management without notice tried to sneak in poorer rezzing performance to improve things for those few venue arrangers who attracted more than a few visitors to their venues. The result was a lot poorer rezzing performance and in-world experience to all the rest of their customers. After heavy criticism, management backed off from that "improvement".

Just a week later, the server upgrade with untested, bleeding edge code changes that sank logins and grid services for the two weeks to come were implemented. Logins were down repeatedly for up to 4 hour stretches, and meanwhile, teleporting, inter-sim messaging and often movement was poor or totally out in-world. That also marked the beginning of an accelerated decrease in region numbers lasting for almost two months.

Early June, Avination management decided to hire the infamous viewer developer JCool / Fractured Crystal to "fix" their viewer, despite him being known for developing copybot viewers and turning Second Life's then most popular viewer Emerald into spyware and a DDoS tool. Despite lasting only a few weeks before being fired again for continued violations of rules and after a public uproar, his appearance marked the beginning of a steep decline in user activity in Avination which is still ongoing.

In the aftermath of the JCool incident, I had a heated e-mail exchange with the Avination grid owner Melanie, where she falsely accused me of having made threats against Avination on my blog, and lied me straight in the face about things I had said according to her. I was prepared to let that pass with the half apology she made about it, even if it took away her last traces of credibility with me. However, four days later, my home sim, which was paid for another three weeks, "accidentally" got deleted from the grid, and my support ticket about it was ignored for 5 days, until I made the issue a public embarrassment for Avination management on their forum.

I got furious over the way Melanie got back at me, disregarding all the other shop owners in the deleted sim who got hit in the process, and Maggie broke down and cried over losing our home and security in Avination like that. We then decided to leave Avination, the weekend 2011-07-09 - 10, abandoning our own sim under construction, despite all the efforts and care we put into it together. Despite it made me feel sick to feed more money to Melanie, I made good on my promise to the others in the sim deleted and eventually restored, and another sim I had also "adopted" after its owner left Avination, probably because of "differences" with Melanie as well, and made a final payment to keep the sims up until late August, despite not having any real illusions about Melanie honoring the payment.

Right after the sim deletion, Melanie threw in another untested upgrade of the servers, wrecking about as much havoc on the grid as the mid-May upgrade did, and which Avination is still fighting to recover from. This time they claimed that much of it was owing to several disks happening to break simultaneous with the upgrade, and another server failing spontaneously at the same time. I'd give that as much credit as the sim deletion and support ticket ignoring just happened to coincide with my brawl with Melanie though.

We lost much in leaving Avination: Our home, our common labor of love in our own sim, Maggie's wonderfully artful and tipsy creations, and a friend who was very dear to us, who also decided to leave Avination after hearing about the way management had acted, but who for personal reasons refused to go back to Second Life. But we also learned a lot, about each other, about Maggie's abilities as a creator, and about what we can achieve when we work together, combining my straight-line perfectionism with her playful tipsiness. Hopefully, I also learned better not to be so naive about others. Where there's smoke, there's fire, and my decision to give Melanie the benefit of a doubt, despite what I already heard about her, was an obvious mistake.

I still dislike Linden Lab's way of managing Second Life, and their way of disregarding their customers, but my experiences in Avination makes going back to Second Life feel like the lesser of two evils, since the other OpenSim alternatives don't offer what I require yet. Fortunately, I still had a premium account and the "free" 512 sqm parcel to go with it in Second Life, so Maggie and me could start creating a new home there, first a simple, bought skybox, but after a couple of days a skybox we built ourselves, and keep improving. A 512 sqm parcel with 117 prims may seem poor after having owned 2 full sims before in Second Life, and a full sim in Avination, but we have the necessities there, and I don't feel like feeding Linden Lab money any more than I felt like keep feeding them to Melanie.

Pleasure and problems

This morning, Maggie and I stayed in bed chatting and cuddling, mostly about our future and our friends.

In the evening, Maggie was quite distressed, because some of the things she had made yesterday had lost textures, and she had crashed some 10 times before I came. She took me on a little tour to a place with some nice freebies, and then to a place with some freebie fun. It's nice to see that you once in a while find a place, in this case a kind of mall, where people don't follow the cookie cutter concept most places in Avination seems to follow, but dare do some crazy and fun stuff as well.

Things in Avination seems to be deteriorating on many levels at present. The technical problems are far worse than just a few weeks ago, without any apparent reason, and our home sim Sweet Hideout is still off-line, after almost 4 days now, without the slightest response from management or their team. I'm seriously pissed at their arrogance by now, but I will give them a little bit more time to fix it before taking any further actions.

Economy:
2011-07-04: -
Avination stats:
2011-07-05 04:16 UTC, 33,962 residents, 6,755 in 30d, 972 sims

Further Avination deterioration

Owing to real-life problems, I didn't have much time to spend in Avination today. I basically just dropped in to tell Maggie I'll be away in the morning, and then I found some time to spend with her in the evening. Lena was there too when I came, and both her and Maggie were dressed up to the teeth in beautiful gowns. I never found out the reason why, but I guess it was some girlie-thing.

Maggie had really been busy, and turned our skybox in our region BDSM into a real home. She proudly showed me the things she found for a very good price, and she had every right to be proud. It was also just as well that she did finish our home there, because Sweet Hideout with our original home is still offline, and without any explanation or response to my support ticket from yesterday.

Avination has begun to act up a lot more in the last week in general. We get bad lag spikes in our sim BDSM despite it uses just a few 1000 of the assigned 15000 prims, just a couple of hundred scripts in total, most of them being simple, standard pose ball scripts, and with just 2 persons present. Maggie has even been forced to turn off her RLV now, because it flips her back into undesired states every time she's online. Script events are often ignored, and prim shapes and textures keep snapping back both during and after editing prims. Today there also was another total login outage.

I can't help but wondering if the performance deterioration in Avination has got something to do with the black hat developer they hired and fired. He said himself he launched DDoS attacks because he was bored, less than a year ago, and if he gets pissed from being fired, there are innumerable security exploits in OpenSim, which Avination runs on. I even discovered a couple of new ones myself by accident, which I reported into that big black hole where every Avination support ticket, requiring something more advanced than a sim restart or a recommendation to clear cache and relog, seems to go.

Economy:
2011-07-02: uploads -C$1840
Avination stats:
2011-07-03 04:15 UTC, 33,785 residents, 6,801 in 30d, 969 sims

Avination fuck-ups

This morning, neither Maggie nor me could log in to our home sim Sweet Hideout. I didn't think very much about it, since it happens every now and then, and I had planned to spend my day in our own sim BDSM building anyway. I finally got the planned BDSM art maze done, and a new model for the swimming pool at the to-be club area, plus a helicopter ramp at the big light-house tower. Maggie kept working with our skybox home meanwhile.

In the evening, I was contacted by another shop-owner in Sweet Hideout, who wondered why Sweet Hideout was off-line. I tried a restart of the sim, but then discovered that it was entirely gone, even from map interfaces. I started with checking my bills, but they were paid in due order to keep Sweet Hideout going until the end of July. Also, the sister sim, Sweet Retreat, which I also pay for and which would expire earlier, was still online. I sent in a support ticket about it and hope this is just a technical glitch or mistake that will be quickly fixed.

Maggie actually got more upset over it than I did, and I can't blame her. Suddenly having your home, and all the things you have there, wiped from the map is no fun at all. It makes you wonder if it's really worth putting efforts into our own sim, if that one can just disappear over night as well.

Economy:
2011-07-01: -
Avination stats:
2011-07-02 04:15 UTC, 33,709 residents, 6,903 in 30d, 973 sims

Building lessons

This morning, Maggie showed me the latest development of our to-be home. She's really come a long way for someone who thinks she can't build. I gave her a little lesson in how she can texture her building prims better and easier as well, and she caught onto it right away.

When Maggie and me met again in the evening, we discussed the recent development in Avination, and our old friend and sim owner trad. It seems most likely he left Avination because he was royally pissed with management and their way of not dealing with the problems he experienced, and I can't blame him, after having had to deal with them myself. While the lag in the morning was hardly noticeable in our sim BDSM, in the evening it was worse than yesterday in both BDSM and Sweet Hideout, with lag spikes freezing movement and chat for up to almost a minute at a time. I noticed in my surveillance that the grid had went down entirely during the day, confirmed by a comment in the forums. It was a while since it was last noticeable now, and I thought it had been fixed, but obviously not.

I also noticed that the usage hours have dropped quite a bit in the last week. It may be just a random drop, summertime with nice weather, or some major vacation rush somewhere, but the suddenness and coincidence with the blackhat developer fuzz makes me suspect this is a result of it. So far, the number of sims haven't dropped much faster than before, but I suspect that may follow, if the number of people renting houses or shopping in malls and shops on the land keeps decreasing, so land owners, mall owners and shop owners don't have so many customers paying to cover their tiers.

Economy:
2011-06-29: sales +C$10
Avination stats:
2011-06-30 04:17 UTC, 33,571 residents, 7,063 in 30d, 975 sims

Dancing and asset problems

This morning, I met Maggie and Lena at Lena's place, and the Maggie showed us the progress of the skybox home she's building for her and me. Eventually, Lena had to leave, and Maggie and I had to split up for real life soon after that as well.

In the evening, I met Maggie and Lena together again, when they were out looking for furniture. Maggie tried to show Lena her new gown, but the bottom part of it was corrupt, so it didn't show. After Lena had to leave, Maggie and I went dancing and listening to live performers in two different locations, one female country singer and one Elvis imitator. None of them were top notch, and both suffered severe technical problems, the first with a repeatedly crashing sim, and the other with a music stream that came and went repeatedly. Yep, Avination still has some things to fix.

During the second performance, Maggie got response from the gown creator, and we eventually left the performance to let the creator have a look at the gown problem. She couldn't do much though, but believed the texture was somehow messed up and submitted a support ticket about it.

Economy:
2011-06-24: outfit -C$150
Avination stats:
2011-06-25 04:15 UTC, 33,180 residents, 7,157 in 30d, 983 sims

Avination grid survey 2011-06-22

Today I spent the morning chatting with Maggie, as so often, and in the evening I tried helping her learning to build precise, using numeric methods instead of dragging and trying to align things by eyesight. Creating the artful things she usually do, the dragging works better, but at present she's trying to build houses, where that method can be both tricky and cumbersome.

I've compiled another Avination grid survey, and hope to be able to do so once a week, to better follow the development of the grid.

Region analyses 2011-06-22
(2011-06-22 14:34:15 - 2011-06-23 06:18:32 UTC)

No. of regions 2011-06-23 04:14:49 UTC: 984
No. of regions (0,0)-(2047-2047): 958 (97.4%)
No. of regions (900,900)-(1100,1100): 791 (81.0%)
No.of regions (950,998)-(1003,1050): 16 (1.6%)

Regions owned: No. of owners (out of 97,4%):
958: 578 total
74: 1 (Dieter Bohlen)
21: 1 (Reign Wilder)
19: 2 (Lunix Leven, Marysha Aeon)
11: 1 (Melanie Milland)
10: 1 (John Fall)
8: 2 (Compmark Vella, Tecster Loll)
7: 1 (Stev Nootan)
6: 3 (kit Myoo, Servex Congrejo, yanko Sella)
5: 4 (Daz Raymaker, F0X Andretti, Hanley Macarthur, SikhLife Arts)
4: 16
3: 21
2: 91
1: 434

Gone regions: (the 44 between (0,0)-(2047-2047) since 2011-06-16)
Parada, Calypso Bay Games, Obsession, Brasil Rio, Dubstep Island, Buzios, Estates Sim Admin, Donna Zeminoba, Chicago, Averno II, Averno, BWoR Radio, Gorean Hub2 Kamba island, Whisper, Rockers, Market Place 2, MEB FASHION, Devils Den, lyana&pietru, The Twilight Zone, Prinz Royal Islands, nederland, nederland 2, Lions Den 2, Apollo, SharkClub Gaming 1, Margaritaville, Slovakia, Commercial and private Rental, Istanbul, EPIRUS/WEST GREECE, Blue Horizon Club, Dark Lands, TISANE ESTATES, Las Vegas, BodyCreations, Isabelle's Kingdom, RENTAL 3, RENTAL 5, MIYABI, SAHARA, Gay Bears, Pink Velvet Island, KAMALA & DeCUIR REGION

New regions: (the 27 between (0,0)-(2047-2047) since 2011-06-16)
Motu Tapu, karina island, Mezzo, Adagio, Legato, Venus, aero, Lotus Paradijs, .: JeCey Factory :., GLD Furniture & Homes, Bella Luna, Deviance, alterWhere, TRU Textures, Haiku, Outer Rim, Mystic Isle, Hell, Break Room, Arabian Nights, Southeast Asia, Circle of Life, Marven Gardens, Party Central, Isabelle's Kingdom, HOME and GARDEN 1, Darkshore

Regions: (the 958 between (0,0)-(2047-2047))
::^ZT@R^::, :. WoE .:, .: JeCey Factory :., .:: Prim God ::., .::NOON::. Shapes & Style, ..::: M & C :::.., {ALIAS}, **Fashion Point**, +Eretika+, ~Charmed~, ~Memories~, 1RC, 2Xtreme, 3X Heaven, 519 deSignz Ltd, 69 Park Ave, 777 Entertainment, 777 entertainment 2, 777 Entertainment 3, A World Apart, A111 Games, A111 Games No2, A111 Games No3, A111 Games No4, Absolut & Dissident Isla, Absolutely Fabulous, ACE Casino, Aces & Eights, Acid, AD Sport, Adagio, Adrift, AEGEAN SEA, aero, Affinity, Aimesi, AKEYO, Aksum, Alafia Country Escape, Albion, Alight, alterWhere, alvin, Amber west, Amor, Amsterdam, Amsterdam RedLight District, Amulet Magic, Ancient Alexandria, Andromeda, Angel Heights, AngelWolf, Animated spirits, Annabelle, Arabian Nights, Arcon, Area 1, Area 10, Area 11, Area 12, Area 2, Area 3, Area 4, Area 5, Area 6, Area 7, Area 8, Area 9, Argentum, ART !, Ashland, Atlantis the Dream, AVA-TARE, Avalon, Avenue, Avination Builders Supply, Avination Style, Avination Welcome, AVN Mall, ayumura, ayumura town, Babylon, Bad Girl, Bad Sanctum, Bahamas, Balearic Islands, BALI, Ball Mart Animations, Ballroom, Banshees, Barcelona, BDSM, BDSM Island - Insel FSK 18, Beach Bum Island, Beds by Oh Resort, Bee Designs , Bejambled Design, BELGIUM, Bella Luna, Bellagio, Belle of Charleston, BeReal City, Berlin, BerZerkeley, Best Of Avination, BEVERLY, Beverly Hills, Bid, Big Island, Big Isle, Biltmore Forest, Birmingham, Black Sun, Blackjack, Bliss Island, Blue Beard Beach, Blue Moon, Blue Skys, BlueBerry Forest, BlueHorizon, BnB, BnB2, Boardwalk, Bobis, Bootes, Bora Bora, Boys Town, Brasil AvNation, Brasil Corp Associados, Brasil Japan, Break Room, Breaking Dawn, Bressig1, Bressig2, Bressig3, Breyer Paradise Estate, British Tortuga, Brock, Broken Axle Island, Bromelic, Brutal City, Budapest, Butterfly Island, Calypso Bay Poker, Calypso Sands Estates, Calypso Sands Village, Camelot, CAMILLA'S - ECLECTIC DESIGN, Canada, Captiva, CARDS, Carmarthenshire, Casino, Casino City, Casino City 2, Casino City 3, Casino Imperial, CASINO L, Casino Neptune, Casino Nights, CASINO UNIVERSE, CasperTech, Castle Game, Castle Games, Cattleyas, Cedar Point, Celebrations Unlimited & Co., Celestial Game Tower, Ceriba, CFF Homeland, CFF Homeland 02, CFF Homeland 03, Chaos, Chateau de Tranquilite, Chelonia, Cherry Games, Chilli, China, CHRONIC NATION, Circle of Life, City Center, Civic Center, CL Design, Club Paradise, Coconut Bay, Coda, colorado, Colten Harbor, Commercial District Mall, CONSTRUCT, Coral Bay, Corleone, Couplez Resort And Lounge, Coventry, Covet, Crash Design, Crazy Games, Crown, Crown Casino, Cru South, Crystal Cove, Cutie Island, CY Design DJ, audio and club equipment, D.A.L.I., Dahlinks, Damselfly Hair Salon, Dania's House & Garden Paradise, Dark Refuge, Darkshore, DB1, DB10, DB11, DB12, DB13, DB14, DB15, DB16, DB17, DB18, DB19, DB2, DB20, DB21, DB22, DB23, DB24, DB25, DB26, DB27, DB28, DB29, DB3, DB30, DB31, DB32, DB33, DB34, DB35, DB36, DB37, DB38, DB39, DB4, DB40, DB41, DB42, DB43, DB44, DB45, DB46, DB47, DB48, DB49, DB5, DB50, DB51, DB52, DB53, DB55, DB56, DB57, DB58, DB59, DB6, DB60, DB7, DB8, DB9, DE Designs Clothes, Deal, Delphi, DELUXE GAMES, DeM Games, Denmark, Destiny Isle, Deviance, Distinctive Mystique, Dite, Divine Daisy, DLicious, DollyRock, Domain Paradisia, Doobie Island, DownUnda, Drasilova, Dream Estates, Dream Homes, Dream Ink Design, DreamLand, Drinja, Dutch Island, Dvandva, Dyer Maker Animations & Poses, Dynasty Gaming, Dynasty Gaming 2, EarthStones, Ebergarten, Echo Heartland, Eclipse, Ecomm, Eden, Egypt, Egypt Delta, ELBA, Electric Geisha, ELITE GAMES, Elysium, Emily's, Emmyline Slot Machines, Enigma, Enjoy Land, Epic, Erador, Erewhon, Essential Soul, Essential Style, Eventide, excaliber paradise, Exploration Island, Explore Me, Extreme, Fair Winds!, Fairplay Designs, FALLEN FANTASY, FANTASIA, Fantasy Island, Fantasy World Estates, Fashion, FashioNation Blvd., Fatal Desires, FD-Line Motor Yachts, feast, Felicity, FireHorse , Fireside, Fish Bowl, Fortuna Plaza, Fortune Games, FrAmed, France, France Accueil, Freckles, Freedom Mall, French Touch, FUJIYAMA, Fun Island, FurrtherEast, FurrtherMoor, FurrtherWest, Futian, GALAXY CASINO, Galland Homes, Gallifrey, Game Club Neptune, GAME NATION, GAME NATION II, GAME NATION III, GAME UNIVERSE, GaMe WoRLD, GAMES, GAMES 1, GAMES UNIVERSE, GAMING, Gaming Extreme, Gaming Paradise, Gaming Paradise Diamond, Gaming Paradise Extreme, Gaming Paradise Platinum, Gaming Paradise Royalle, Gaming Paradise Sunset, Garden of Eden, Gasparilla Games, Gateway Paradise, Gawk! to the DeeTaleZ, Gaywood, Gemini Isle, Gil Games, Gimli, GIRGI XIAO, GLD Furniture & Homes, Glocca Morra, Gloucester, Gold Nuggets Casino, Goldbusiness, Goldbusiness1, Goldbusiness3, Golden Nugget, Golden Palace 1, Golden Palace 2, Golden Palace 3, Golden Palace 4, Golden Palace 5, Golden Palace 6, Goodlife, Goose Bay, Gothic Obsession, GothiCatz, Gown, Gran Cru, GRAND ISLAND, GREECE, GREEN DOLPHIN BEACH, GreenLife, Grid Games, Guan Yin City, Gurly Styl, Gutter Games, GY Paraiso, Gypsy Isle, Haiku, Hairy Pineapple, Half Moon Bay, Hammersmith Palais Isle, Happy Games, Harbor Cay, Harley_Ginas, Heaven, Heavenly, Heavenly Escape, Hell, HELP Island, Hemera 1, Hermitage, HICKTOWN, HIDEAWAY BAY, Hobbs End, HOLDEM, Holgin Oriente Isle, Holland, Hollow, Holmen, HOME and GARDEN 1, Home Town, hoorenbeek, Hummingbird, Hummingbird Creations, I+D SCRIPTERS, IKA HEAVY INDUSTRIES, IKON, Ilha do sossego, Immortal Myth, Imperial Ar, Imperial,Zyngo,Deal,Kichers., In StyLE, INCOGNITO Fine Furniture, INDIAN LAND, INDIGO, iNEDIT Men & Women, Infinity, Ingelheim, Initiative, Iron Horse Island, Isabelle's Kingdom, iSassy, Isla Maldito, Isla Paradise, Island Tropics, Islands of the Arts, Isle of Dreams, Isle of Fantasy, Isle of Mother Earth, ITALIA, ITALIAN DREAMS, ITALIAN SQUARE, Jackson Bay, Jackson Place, JADED, Janjiis PEACE, Java Island, Jayzee, Jersey, Jewels Island, Jo's Place, JOIN LAND, Joker Games, Jokers Wyld, Joy, july, june, Just In The Nick Of Time, K & S Moloka'i, Kai Bay, KANSAI, karina island, Katachi, Kazumi Island, KCs Gaming Headquarters, Kicker Estate, Kidd, KingDom Estate, KingDom Island, Kink, KiraLand, Kirschvogur, Kismet, Kitti Kat Island, KK FOOD and PARTY, Knarmanda, Kokomo Beach, Kush, Labrador Sea, LaDiamond, Lago di Como, Laguna, Lahaina, LAND, Land Of Darkness, Landro, LaRosa, Las Orcas, Las Vegas Games, Las Vegas Nevada, Lawless Estates, LCGS, Le Nuage, Leaf, Leafpile Broadcasting Inc., Legato, Lesbian Resort, Lhasa, Limburg, Lions Den, lizard tail, Logi, London, Londons Point, Lookout Point, Loon and Leven Labs, Lorien, Los Angeles, Lost Island, Lotus Island, Lotus Paradijs, Lovers Dreamland, Lovers Isle, Lovers Lane, Lseven Region, LtMe's Surprize, Luna Estates, Luna Island , Lush, Luv's Hideway, Luv's Island, Luv's Oasis, Luv's Paradise, Macao, Macarthur Farms, Macarthur Park, Macarthur Square, Macau, Mackinaw Island, MADININA, Madrid, Mafia, Magia Island, Magic Dreams, Magic Island, Magic Isle, Magic Paradise, Magnetic Fields, MAKI Island, MAKI Resort, Malibu, Maniax Resort, Manichea, Marginalia, Marin Island, Market, MARKET SQUARE MALL, Marketplace Island, Marpole, Marsana, MARSANA 2, Marven Gardens, Mashimaro, masquerade, Massalia, Master Open, Matsuba, Maven Isle, Mayhem, McClellan Inland, Meeting Point, Meltonian, Memories, Mezzo, Miami, Midnight Lotus, Millenium, Mini Vegas, Misfits, Mistwalker Cove, MM Creations, Mo Anam Cara, Monday Creations, Money Island Casino, Monmartre, Monte Carlo, Montego Bay, Moo Town I, Moo Town II, Moon Shine, Moon Valley, MoonStar, Motu Tapu, Movie Studio, Mudfork, Murano, Music, musicearthlovebirth, Musicians United, MYKONOS, Mystery Island, Mystic Falls, Mystic Isle, Myth Gaming I, Narnia, NATIVE LAND, Natural Beauty, Navona, naxos island, Nederland 3, neo susukino, Neptune, Neptune SE, Neptune SW, Neptune W, Nevada, NEVADA 1, NEVADA 2, Nexxu Technologies, Nigerian Vista, Nightfire, Nirvana, No Limits, nolyne, Noumena, NsG Estate, Numbers Island, NyX, Ocean View, Odd Bawlz 2, Ohana, ohmg, Ometepe, OneDom, OneDom West, Onze Hemel, Open Breese, Opium, Opium 2, Opium 3, Opium IV, Oracle, Orange, Original Fruit, Otaku Zone, Outer Rim, Outlaws, OZ, Palm Beach, Palm Island, Pandora, Paradaisu, Paradise, Paradise found, Paradise island, Paradise Isle, Paradise Isle II, Paradox, Parc Games, Park Place, Parkplace, ParrotHead Cove, Party Central, Paula&Trixi\'s Liebesnestchen, Peaceskater Gaming Cove, Pemberley, Pen Island, Peter Estate, Pharaoh, Phoenix, Phoenix Island, phx2000, Pickwicks, Pixel Lighthouse, PixelDoodles, Plush, Point Lookout, POKER, Poker Paradise, Port Royale, Primrose, Psych Ward, PsyGallery, PurpleMoon Creations, PUX, Quan Enterprises, Ragnarok, Raiden, Randm Isle, Random Rosie, Randys Land, Rapture, REAL REALITY, Real Waves, Red Winter, REDGRAVE Skins and Fashion, RedLight District, Reel Froggy, Refuge, Reign, Remix, RENATO, RENTAL 1, Rio Bravo, Riviera, RIVIERA Casino 1, RIVIERA Casino 2, RIVIERA Casino 3, RIVIERA Casino 4, Rock Island, Rock Star, Rockport, Roman Empire, Romanos, romantique island, Rome, Roselinda's Paradise, Rotterdam, Rotterdam virtual, Rouge Island, Rovere, ROYAL, Royal Temptation XXX Games , Rummage City, Sa.Sa. Fashion Club, SABOTIAN, SABOTIAN Enterprises, Safira Moonlight, SAM, San Francisco, Sanctuary, Sandbanks, Sandbox, Sandel Dreams 3, Sands, Sannibel, SANTORINI, Santosha V, Saphoria, Sappho's Paradise, Satiated Desires, score note, Selikum, Sensation, Serendipity Island, Serenity, Serenity Bay, Serenity II, Serenity Isles, Server Room, Sexy, Sexy Passion, SF Design, Shadyland, Shangri-La, SharkClub Development, SharkClub Gaming, Sharonna, Shelman Sandbox 2, Shelter, Shenandoah, SHiNYbrand, Shotglass Games, Shylandia, Sicilia Isola dei Sogni, Sikh Life 1, Sikh Life 2, Sikh Life 3, Sikh Life 4, Silvari Cove, Silver Reef 1, Silver Reef 2, Silver Reef 3, Silver Reef 4, Sim City, Sinsation Bay, Sinsation Cove, Slice Of Heave, Slummy City, Slut Haus, SLX Board, SLX Board Sud, Smoking Aces Gaming, Smoking Aces Gaming II, SOL Island, Some Sim, Southeast Asia, Southold Beach, Speed Master, Spike Source, St james, Star Valley, Starbright Bay, Starbright Homes, Stars Designs, State of Independence, STEPFORD WOODS, Stolen Moments, Stolen Moments 2, Stormhold, Stormy Wind, STRAY NATION, Stx Tech, Stylez, Sugarplums, Sulcata, Summer Bay, sun Valley, Sunny Island, Sunset Glory, Sunset Palace, Sunset Paradise, Susanti Islands, Suzi's Paradise, Swagger, Sweet Hideout, Sweet Hollow, Sweet Retreat, Sweet Serenity, Sybaris, Synthetic, T & B ESTATES, Tamayo Island, Tamayo Island East, Tamayo Island North, Tamayo Island South, Targeta Blue, TashaJoubert, TD Templates, TECNO TEXTURES, Tee'z, TeleLinden, Templar Island, Terra Ursa, Terre d'Asile, ThaliasFashion, The Art Thing, The Carroll\'s Cove, The City of Tarnwald., The elements, The Elements2, The Falls, The G.R.E.A.T. Island, The Golden Moon, The Grand Casino, The Great Canadian Cabin, The Jungle, THE MAGIC ISLAND, The Original Slums, The Retreat, The Ritz, The Rock, The Track, This N That Village Store, Thunder, Tiamora, TicoTico, Token City, Tokyo City, Top Diamond, Top Games, Top Jasper, Tranquility, Treasure Island, Tree Frog, Trendy Templates, Tri-X Ranch, TRIBAL LAND, Trompe Loeil, TRU Textures, TrueHeart, Truth, Turkiye, Tutorial Island, Two Moon Paradise, U.N.I.T.Y ESTATES, Ultra Violence, Unlimited Love, Valentine, Valhalla, Vampire Bay, Vanity Designs Inc., Vegas, Vegas Sands, Vegas Vacation, Vengeance, Venus, VIAXER & CHIARA'S ISLAND, vild, Vintner City, Vintner Point, Vintner Slums, Virtual World, Virtual World Estates, Virtual Worlds Services, Virtualworx, Vista Animations, Votant, Votiv, Voto, Wahamii Island 1, Wahamii Island 2, Waikiki, Warm Animations, Washago, Water Lilies, Waterfalls, Waterford, WaterMills, Waters Edge, Way Cross, WDL Games, WeezlePops Estate, Welcome, Welcome Germany, Westminster, Wet N Sticky, Whippetland, Whispering Shores, Whitewater Reserve, Wicked, Wild Heart, Wild West, Wildcat-Bay, Wildfire, Wildfire II, Willows, Wineworld, Wish Upon A Star , Wynchester Hope Island, Xanten, Xyron, YES !, yr Nefoedd, Ys Annozero Atoll, YS Annozero island, YS Annozero Resort, Yukon, Yumix Land, Zantropia arts, Zantropia Isl, ZooNation, Zorkmid, Zyngo, ZYNGO GALAXY GAMES, ZyPS Labs

Economy:
2011-06-23: -
Avination stats:
2011-06-24 04:15 UTC, 33,102 residents, 7,210 in 30d, 984 sims

Showing things done

This morning, I spent chatting with Maggie in bed. In the evening, she came a bit late, but we also met Lena, and she showed us the home she created in the house Maggie gave her. It was really very nice, with clever furniture and tasteful shibari artworks as decoration. Lena had also added some BDSM poses into her bed, besides the ordinary sleeping variant. She really is talented.

After Lena had to leave, Maggie wanted to see the finished dungeon. I showed it to her, and she wanted to try the devices I put there. She said she liked it, so I hope any visitors to the island will too, once we open up to public.

Before I met Maggie in the evening, I kind of blew my top on the Avination forums. There's that guy there who is so smug, and who got really rude against someone who just asked if it was true that an ex Emerald developer was working on the Avination viewer. I had planned to not destroy people's joy over all the whistles and bells the new viewer brought, even if I myself won't touch it with that rogue developer from Emerald involved in it. But I couldn't help but hitting that guy on the forum pretty hard with the facts he tried to ridicule. I guess I won't be the most popular guy around after it, but I guess I can live with that. The question is if Avination can survive the utterly stupid decision to bring that rogue developer on board.

Economy:
2011-06-22: uploads -C$30
Avination stats:
2011-06-23 04:15 UTC, 33,011 residents, 7,255 in 30d, 987 sims

Whistles and bells

Yesterday, Maggie and me lay cuddling and playing some in bed in the morning. In the evening, I logged into Second Life for the first time in weeks, to check some of my creations there to try and re-create them in Avination. I got the prim part of them done, even if it took a while longer than planned, owing to a dear friend keeping me.

This morning, Maggie and me chatted about various things in the morning. In the evening, I finalized my old creations from Second Life regarding scripts and animations as well, while Maggie played around some with a sky box I created for her, creating an astounding atmosphere there. I think I'm about done with the dungeon part for now, after placing my "new" devices in the cells and common play area there. It looks pretty well equipped, and I hope people will find it exciting enough to try a few things out there, once we open the sim to public.

Today I also found out Avination released a new version of the viewer. The first comments about it was overwhelmingly positive, even if a few bugs were found as well. Looking at the release notes, it seems to be mostly whistles and bells though, and not so much really improved functionality. Also, considering the track record of the creator of it, concerning griefing, copybot building, spyware, stalking and harassment, I'm afraid the new version and future versions of the viewer are dead to me. In the end it will probably mean me giving up Avination as well, since I guess the old viewer I'm using now will become impossible to use as development proceeds on viewer and servers in parallel.

I have commitments in Avination until the end of August though, so unless things deteriorate too much inworld, I'll try and hang on until then. I've already talked with Maggie about the turn things have taken, and I think she will be OK if we leave Avination for some other virtual world. Considering the options, it looks like the only realistic alternative for me now will be to swallow my pride and crawl back to Second Life if so.

Economy:
2011-06-20: -
2011-06-21: uploads -C$70
Avination stats:
2011-06-21 04:14 UTC, 32,869 residents, 7,382 in 30d, 1,000 sims
2011-06-22 04:14 UTC, 32,945 residents, 7,337 in 30d, 995 sims

Fooling around and discussing the future

Today, Maggie and I spent the morning cuddling in bed and chatting. In the evening, Maggie was with Lena when I came, showing her some of the recent additions on the island BDSM. Lena seemed to appreciate the news, and I finally got a chance to see her naughty seesaw in action. She and Maggie looked really sweet straddling it, slowly bobbing up and down on the large plugs she had attached under holes in the balance plank.

After Lena left, Maggie and I went to a closing sale from a creator leaving Avination. Sorry to say, but with the prices and qualities, even with the items on sale with 50% off, I'm not surprised they're closing down. They may have made OK a few months back, but today, they can hardly compete since you can easily find twice the quality for half the price in Avination. Basically, they're one of those mechants I use to say try and sell a L$200 suit for C$1200, just because it's in Avination, also called Merchantville.

I am developing my surveillance of Avination and the analyses of the results continuously. The results from the grid survey, when analysed a bit more in depth, was really not very positive. Basically, I fear that when some of the things there get known, which they will eventually, regardless of if I blow the whistle or not, Avination will have many serious issues with their paying customers, maybe enough to push them out of business. What Avination needs is either a management replacement for the grid owner Melanie, or her understanding it's not a viable business model to have customers pay for her and friends' private sandbox, without caring one bit about said customers' needs.

Economy:
2011-06-19: -
Avination stats:
2011-06-20 04:14 UTC, 32,776 residents, 7,405 in 30d, 1,003 sims

A huge lighthouse

To keep things simple with Maggie's helicopter circling the BDSM island, I built a tower in Doric style this morning, as a kind of "station" at altitude for it. In the afternoon, I modified it some, and added a large fire bowl on its top, making it kind of an ancient lighthouse. The view from there, as well as from the circling helicopters, is great, and I think that it can become a popular attraction on the island. I also cleaned up some in the dungeon, added the new dildo pole I finished yesterday to all the cells and the common dungeon area as well, and added image holders both to the tower and in the to-be art maze.

Later in the evening, Maggie brought me to a place selling houses, garden furniture and full set pools. She was much after the pool furniture, but was almost jumping up and down from wanting the pool itself. I have already been planning for a pool at the to-be club area, but these pools were large. However, if they're mod as it says, I should be able to fix both its size and its looks, to make it fit and blend in better in the environment. We will wait with buying until tomorrow though, to melt and ponder some on it.

Economy:
2011-06-18: uploads -C$550
Avination stats:
2011-06-19 04:14 UTC, 32,633 residents, 7,397 in 30d, 1,006 sims

Dungeon taking shape

This morning, I finalized the last type of cage for the dungeon, a rather wicked one, and let Maggie test it. In the evening, I created a cell door that permits people to lease the key, to have exclusive control over the door and thereby cell. It's not really to make money, since I set the lease quite low, but more a convenient way of offering people the possibility and reducing the risk of it being abused. I then installed the created equipment in all 4 cells in the dungeon. There still are a few more things to re-create and add, but I think that will be comparatively easy.

I also helped Maggie with a cart she's trying to make, for her to pull. I found some critical values for parameters to make it work, but it still messes up some, so it needs more tweaking and experimentation.

Economy:
2011-06-16: uploads -C$30
Avination stats:
2011-06-17 04:17 UTC, 32,325 residents, 7,357 in 30d, 1,002 sims

More toys finished

Tuesday morning, I sneaked into Second Life, to rezz a couple of creations I made there and refresh my memory on how they were created. I made new versions, not identical but hopefully improved, of a whipping machine and a cell for the dungeon, and also got the scripts in the whipping machine working after some tweaking. When Maggie showed up, we spent the time just chatting about things in general.

Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, I was occupied real-life, and couldn't come to Avination. Wednesday evening, I found time to finish a few of the cages as well, while Maggie was busy prettifying the sim. This morning, Maggie and me just chatted some. In the evening, Lena was there, and we chatted some, the three of us. After Lena left, Maggie and I just relaxed some together before bedtime.

I also found some time to start a project of mapping Avination, more in economic terms than geographical. I managed to track some 97% of the sims in Avination through the map interface offered, getting a clue of distribution and ownership for them. Some 80% of them are located within 100 "squares" from the grid center at position X=1000, Y=1000. There is one really big land owner, and then a handful of semi-big ones, but most of the sims are owned by people who only have one or two sims. I'll add more as I find time to analyse the data better, and present it in a good way.

Economy:
2011-06-13: upload -C$40
2011-06-14: upload -C$10
2011-06-15: upload -C$30
Avination stats:
2011-06-14 04:16 UTC, 31,849 residents, 7,337 in 30d, 1,007 sims
2011-06-15 04:17 UTC, 32,013 residents, 7,355 in 30d, 1,003 sims
2011-06-16 04:17 UTC, 32,175 residents, 7,348 in 30d, 1,003 sims

One problem down

I'm still not up to much in Avination, owing to real-life circumstances. I spend most of my time there chatting with Maggie. This afternoon, I made a new little discovery of discrepancies between Second Life and Avination concerning animations. That finally enabled me to finish one of my toys I re-created from Second Life, but where the animations didn't work properly.

I also heard a worrying rumor that Avination management had engaged the infamous cracker JCool / Fractured Crystal to develop their viewer further. It's not even a year ago since he was permanently banned from Second Life over the Emerald debacle, where he installed spyware in the most popular third-party viewer Emerald, and used it to perform DDoS attacks against people he didn't like. I have asked for a confirmation or denial on the rumor, and if it's true or Avination management refuses to answer, I guess I will have to seriously re-consider my engagement in what they will be turning into a spyware-infested paradise for griefers and copybotters. I'm no friend of Second Life, but even their mismanagement will be better than the purely malicious disrespect Avination management is showing the safety and privacy of their users, if the rumor is true.

Economy:
2011-06-12: -
Avination stats:
2011-06-13 04:16 UTC, 31,661 residents, 7,314 in 30d, 1,010 sims

Stagnation

I haven't been in the mood to do much in Avination lately, owing to real life happenings. What time I've spent there, I've mainly spent with Maggie chatting and playing, and almost nothing on building. I managed to create a simple show sailing boat, and also help Maggie some with a couple of her projects.

I guess part of it is that I'm becoming more and more hesitant to if Avination will survive even until the end of this year, looking at the development of the economic data for it. That makes it hard to motivate spending a lot of time creating things that will be of no good in the end. Hopefully it's just part of my general down mood at present though.

Economy:
2011-06-09: tier -C$600
2011-06-10: -
2011-06-11: upload -C$10
Avination stats:
2011-06-10 04:15 UTC, 31,408 residents, 7,461 in 30d, 1,010 sims
2011-06-11 04:15 UTC, 31,497 residents, 7,399 in 30d, 1,007 sims
2011-06-12 04:15 UTC, 31,576 residents, 7,352 in 30d, 1,010 sims

Real life interference

Some sad real life happenings have prevented me from visiting Avination for a few days, but today I was there as usual, although not in the best of moods. Maggie and I spent the morning chatting, and in the evening she showed me what she and Lena had built while I was gone. Maggie has prettified the sim BDSM quite some more and created a new hammock, while Lena had built a pretty naughty seesaw toy. Those two girls seem to like each other quite some, and I'm glad for that.

Economy:
2011-06-05: -
2011-06-06: rock and grass -C$275
2011-06-07: -
2011-06-08: -
Avination stats:
2011-06-06 04:18 UTC, 30,890 residents, 7,531 in 30d, 1,027 sims
2011-06-07 04:18 UTC, 30,988 residents, 7,468 in 30d, 1,020 sims
2011-06-08 04:15 UTC, 31,066 residents, 7,437 in 30d, 1,013 sims
2011-06-09 04:15 UTC, 31,235 residents, 7,405 in 30d, 1,013 sims

Trouble shooting

This morning, I logged in to find Maggie and Lena at our house. Lena actually left so quickly I didn't see her, but Maggie told me she had been there. Maggie and me then had a long talk about the relationship between the three of us. We both like Lena a lot, but there are some quirks that needs to be straightened out.

In the afternoon, I had a long chat with Lena as well, and I think that both opened up some between her and me, as well as giving her the security of knowing what goes around the three of us. I then tried to fix one of my devices, without much progress. When Maggie showed up in the evening, she and Lena had a long talk again, while Lena demonstrated her latest creations to Maggie. Damn, that girl is good at design and scripting!

At the end of the evening, Maggie wanted to spend the night in the half-finished dungeon, so I left her there and headed home for our bed in Sweet Hideout alone.

Economy:
2011-06-03: -
Avination stats:
2011-06-04 04:16 UTC, 30,721 residents, 7,590 in 30d, 1,032 sims

BDSM devices and railroads

Yesterday, I spent much of my time in Avination trying to straighten out one of my old BDSM devices from Second Life, a kind of Spanish horse. Scripting wasn't really on my side, and when I finally got the scripts working, I discovered the sit animation wobbled. I still havn't managed to track down if that's because of the animation itself or something else. Things do work a bit different in Avination compared to Second Life, so just because something worked flawlessly in Second Life doen't mean it does in Avination. Maggie spent much of her time working on a new carrousel, and prettifying the area with greenery and things.

Today, we spent the morning chatting, and in the evening, after shopping some plants and waves with Maggie, I finally took time to raise a ridge on the BDSM island to make room for Maggie to create a dramatic waterfall, plus increasing the size of a little island she wanted to prettify some. I also started laying out the railroad line around the island, so Maggie will be able to adapt her greenery and decorations from the start, instead of having to remake it later. I got a good start, but still have about half of the main line left to lay out.

Economy:
2011-05-29: sale +C$10
2011-05-30: upload -C$10
Avination stats:
2011-05-30 04:16 UTC, 30,241 residents, 7,633 in 30d, 1,041 sims
2011-05-31 04:16 UTC, 30,345 residents, 7,746 in 30d, 1,040 sims


Spanish horse of kind, in the dungeon at the sim BDSM



The sim BDSM, from SW with railroading, landscaping and waterscaping in progress



The pond in the sim BDSM, prettyfied by Maggie

Permission problems

I spent much of the day today trying to fix problems with permissions in Maggie's and mine sim BDSM. I discovered them when I tried to give Lena permissions to build there. It first looked like she couldn't build when she should have been able, but later turned out she could build, even when she wasn't supposed to. In the end, after numerous setting changes and restarts, I submitted a support ticket, without much hope of having the problem solved. Bottom line is, I can't open the sim up to public, before I made sure they can't rezz, build, litter and grief all over the place.

I spent a couple of hours with Lena, first trying to set her up, and then helping her out with a scripting problem she got stuck on. That sure "paid off" fast, because already in the evening, Maggie showed me her latest gift from Lena, including the functionality I helped her with. Lena really is a great designer, and very fast at learning too it seems. Actually, she added at least as much to the solution of the problem today as I did, when we discussed the best way to solve it.

Economy:
2011-05-28: paid votes +C$14, upload -C$260, contest -C$2
Avination stats:
2011-05-29 04:15 UTC, 30,156 residents, 7,650 in 30d, 1,048 sims

Taking care of friends

This morning, Maggie and I tried to set things up, so that we could let Lena come to our sim. Probably owing to lag of some form, it took time for the required setting changes to come through, but eventually we had it working, using Maggie's old avatar as a "crash test dummy".

Maggie met Lena this afternoon, and invited her to the island. It seems everything went well, and happily accepted Maggie's offer for her to have our island as a home. We both like Lena a lot, so we are happy for that. I hope I can manage to persuade her to start selling her creations as well, and having at least one shop for it on our island, since she's really a good designer.

In the evening, I added a few more information scrolls to the temple library at the island. Then Maggie dragged me off on a free money hunt on some island. After that we returned to our island and tried to set permissions right, to permit Lena to build, but not ordinary visitors and basic group members.It didn't work at all, but it may again have been because of lag. In the end, we gave up and went home to Sweet Hideout to bed, and I restarted both BDSM, Sweet Hideout and Sweet Retreat, hoping that would solve the permission issues on BDSM.

Economy:
2011-05-27: bird bath -C$200
Avination stats:
2011-05-28 04:18 UTC, 30,077 residents, 7,698 in 30d, 1,051 sims