Ideas for our SL Property

Check out the link to the Tolkien Education Center and Museum

I really like the wall panels once you get inside. You can read the entire history of different Middle-earth species.

I think we could use this idea for the LT hangout.

If no Thingamabrarians are on SL and someone walks into our home, they can read info about LT... ie: how it works, about its creators, the talk page, etc. You know some people will automatically be interested in something as bookish as LT is... but I don't think it'd be good to just send them off to the website if that makes any sense at all.

Anyone else have some good ideas?

I find "informational spaces" pretty uninteresting. I mean, why not go to a website to read about Tolkien? It's like using books for hammering nails, or radios as dancing shoes, or scribbling poetry on your TV screen.

I think we do something social and integrated with LT on the back-end, or we don't do anything. If we have any information, it should be one short panel, and if a link to the web site, it should be low-key.

Opinionated me.

I am not on SL, and don't know whether I'll go there (RL getting in the way ;-) ), but I'll throw my 0.02 € in anyway.
So someone walks into the empty LT place in SecondLife...- What should he see there? It's a book thing, so he should be able to access libraries of members in some way and be able to browse them (much like the tag hopping we are doing here). Maybe a tag cloud on the wall and the invitation to select a tag and get a random selection of books for that tag? And maybe access the discussions mentioning the book(s).
If there are Thingamabrarians around at the LT place, the head boxes are a great idea and conversation starter. Do the books change like in the widgets?
Just a few thoughts off the top of my head.

I log in to SL occasionally, but I will definitely check out a LibraryThing presence there. I tend not to go on at all if I have no reason to, and this would be a reason.

I am a big fan of Isle of Wyrms - the architecture there is great. Sadly I have no idea how to build.

I'm in SL a few hours per week. I have a few friends who build, a couple who script, etc. I don't have any ideas for what the space could be like, but I like the idea of book clubs. I know there are discussion groups that meet regularly in SL. That would be nice.
I'm sure you all are considering copyright issues. A lot of that's up in the air in SL. Lending books is one thing. Making digital copies another. So I don't know how the sharing part would actually work.
I have visited a couple of Libraries (can't remember exactly where) in SL and got items that look like books and clicking on them gives you notecards containing the text. Most were the classics, so that might be a way around the copyright deal. But it's modern books I'd be more interested in.
Oh, and I wonder if we could have real authors log in for panel discussions. :) That would be really fun. I know musicians broadcast live and some celebs have made appearances.
Well, that's my rambling thoughts on the matter. I'm excited though.

Dean Koontz was on SL a few weeks ago. In the equivalent of a real-time bookstore but its name escapes me at the moment. I think it began with a D.

For me, the titles of books on SL would be enough. Perhaps LTers would be able to have a small part of a genre--like thrilllers or horror or fantasy and recommend 5 of their favorites. With notecards and tiny reviews. I could browse those. I could donate Lindens towards a shelf.

(The latest exchange rate for Lindens a week ago was $2.00 or so for 500 Lindens. It varies just like the real world!)

We got our land back! Three cheers for Lorelei.

Tim, please post the coordinates for the LT land.

Well, it's empty. I'll get it next time I'm there.

Empty except for a tiny tiny plaque on the ground, that even so has been already returned once by an overzealous librarian.

Figured I'd save Tim some time, so...

This should be the location of the LibraryThing area

Damn ...

I really wish I could get SecondLife to work for me ... hell, I even went and bought a new 3D graphics card but it's still not working.

Now, it's no longer crashing when I try to load, but here's all I get:




I think that those are supposed to be my feet down at the bottom there, but I don't know because it's never rendered anything more than that grey background (it goes into an hourglass icon and never moves past it).

What the heck does this program need?

So close and yet so far, BTripp. It must be maddening. How much memory do you have and what's the speed of your CPU?

So you don't get any more error messages?

PS. You do have shapely legs! We are "aquiver" with anticipation at what your avatar will be--- once you get your PC working properly. :-)

It would be good if one could access the book suggester in SL.

"How much memory do you have and what's the speed of your CPU?"

I've got the standard 512mb of RAM and an AMD Athon 2000+ running at 1.67ghz.

This has been VERY frustrating. I've never been much of a "gamer" (unless you count MS Solitaire/Hearts), so this video crap has never been an issue for me, and I'm incredibly frustrated that despite going out and buying a damned video card the stupid SecondLife thing still won't work!

BTRIPP > I don't remember seeing what kind of internet connection you have, is it broadband?

"is it broadband?"

Yep.

BTRIPP, 512mb RAM isn't really the standard for 3-D graphic intensive applications. From your screenshot and description, it really looks like you need to bump up that RAM to at least 1GB, more if possible. That might make more of a difference than the new graphics card.

I'm beginning to think it's all "good money after bad" since I've never had a problem with anything I've used my system for until trying to do SecondLife. I have no intention of suddenly wasting all my time on games, so throwing money into this seems stupid.

I agree with you, BTRiPP. I created an account there (easy to do), chose not to expend any "real" dollars on anything, downloaded the required stuff, and still no entry--not even as far as you got with the strange silhouetted buildings. Like you, I have no intention of spending even an instant on something that doesn't work "out of the box". Games just aren't that interesting to me. Maybe it's a good thing for experienced gamers, but I guess I'm doomed to stay outside the Second Life terrain!

"it really looks like you need to bump up that RAM to at least 1GB"

I'm afraid you may be right on that ... I just loaded S.L. while having the Windows Task Manager open, and as the scene started loading the CPU usage crept up and up and up, and the S.L. screen froze when it hit 99(%).

I'm shopping around for appropriate RAM (PC2100 DDR 266mhz), and right now it looks that it would run me (with shipping) sixty something for 512mb and a bit over a hundred for 1024mb. Kinda pricey to play a game.

"Bookstacks- the place where Book lovers gather" i finally nearing completion. mainly because i am running out of prims:^)
I envisage this very much as a social space, Dance, Music, Chat, and events. Poetry, Reading group discussions, meet the author etc are the sort of things i envisage along with quizzes and other themed events are the sort of thing I envisage.
So if you have an idea for a gathering let me know.

SimonW11 - I'll be out of town for the next two Sundays. Will miss y'all. Notify Hensonian Pennyfeather of the Poetry Guild of a new venue. They usually have their readings in different spots each week.

thank Marfita