Our new website: bbbsl.net | Fixing the v3 Belli passport – in minutes – to get rid of the hide/show bug | Linden Lab Releases Six New Ranch Home Floor Plans | Ranch Home Videos | Events & Announcements | New Locations
08/12/2023
OUR NEW WEBSITE: BBBSL.NET
We have made great progress with our new website. Check it out here – we think you'll find it useful. It offers a web map, which you can browse directly and a searchable illustrated database of available stamps. Each entry in your search has a View on Map button to show you exactly where to find it. If your viewer supports it, you can then go to the location directly from the teleport link on the map! Failing that you can just copy and paste the SLURL.
Thanks to Ven at GridPlay Productions for all her sterling work on this. We asked Ven how the idea came about and what has been involved in implementing it:
Someone from the BBB reached out to me about adding stamp locations to my web map. After some chat in Discord and with Bel, I really saw the potential in the BBB and that they needed an official website.
It usually only takes me about an hour to setup a Laravel installation ready for web design and LSL communications. Thats an in-world script able to send data to the website. Laravel PHP is an awesome secured framework for web developers. It really helps with rapid deployment so I use it on all of my websites and web apps. There is still a lot of work to do on the BBB website so there's no time frame, I never put a time frame on any website project since it's always in active development.
In fact, we reached out to Ven after a user told your editor at SL20B how wonderful it would be to see our locations on a map so that she and her friends could plan their explorations to take in any stamp-issuing locations. He passed on the suggestion to the team and all this has flowed, it seems from that.
Full credit must go too to Robert Rhodan. His BBB databases developed for the Gazette Online Travel Guide and the StaFi (stamp finder) HUD in-world supply all the data for the new maps and search facility. Also to North, our chief scripter, whose database-driven V3.00 design not only made our passports better and more reliable in-world, but gave Robert a basis on which to take more of our services on-line, automate them and so allow us to cope with more users.
We are lucky to have such experts to make our daft ideas work. Our bureaucracy is an elaborate joke, not in any way to be taken seriously, but these folks play it for real and that makes it all the more fun. Enjoy – and please keep those suggestions coming.
FIXING THE V3 BELLI PASSPORT – IN MINUTES – TO GET RID OF THE HIDE/SHOW BUG
Some Bellisseria V3 passports had the nasty habit either of going off-screen when you clicked the red hide button, or of rotating to edge-on, resulting in an invisible green "show" button. Our colleagues Sandy Burgess and Robert Rhodan have now fixed this bug in our script. However, this requires all 434 passports in use to be updated, which could have been a logistical nightmare.
Fortunately, Robert has also developed a self-service redelivery terminal, which allows anyone with a passport problem simply to get a fresh one, with all their data and stamps intact. This can also be used to distribute the new version, with the hide/show bug removed.
If you have this hide/show button problem, please just teleport to BBB HQ and click on the Redelivery dispenser board. It will give you a folder called BBB IC Belli PP Redelivery DPL. In that folder you'll find a notecard with instructions and an object called Template BBB IC Belli PP HUD blank redelivery v3.004.
Please teleport to a sandbox, e.g. this one, or any other place where you can rez. Put the Template BBB IC Belli PP HUD blank redelivery v3.004 object on the ground. You'll see it's a blank V3 passport.
If your passport was issued in response to one of the old notecard applications, your personal data is not yet in our systems. Don't worry! The redelivery mechanism will automatically take you to a web-based form to fill in the missing data – passport photo UUID, sex, species etc. That will then be added to our database and you'll never need to supply it again. Just zoom in on the front page of your passport. Click anywhere on that page and follow the resulting link to the online form. Come back in-world when the form has been submitted.
If your passport was issued in response to our current web-based application system, we have all your data so you won't be directed to the online form. You will complete the next step automatically.
Zoom in to look at the front page of your passport. Click anywhere on that page. This will begin the process of regenerating your passport – filling in your personal data and recreating all your collected stamps.
When you take it back to your inventory it will be renamed IC-Belli PP V3 BE-<Your Name>. That's your new passport HUD, free of the show/hide bug! The whole process should only take a couple of minutes!
Article and illustrations by Robert Rhodan
LINDEN LAB RELEASES SIX NEW RANCH HOME FLOOR PLANS
The ranch theme homes originally came with seven floor plans. Most were very open and had large rooms, irregular shapes and limited windows. Linden Lab received feedback that these were too large to decorate comfortably. Some creators began releasing kits to divide the huge rooms. Some great creations came out but not everyone wants to buy add-ons for their Linden Homes.
Linden Lab responded to the feedback on Friday August 4th by introducing another six floor plans that added more walls and rooms.
I am a big proponent of regular sized, squarish rooms that are easy to decorate. My comments on the six new floor plans are based on that. People who prefer large open spaces and dislike closed-off rooms may not agree with my evaluations. The new floor plans that I like most, they will probably like least and vica-versa.
Stable View and Stable Ridge:
Stable View is a two story with an angular staircase just to the left of the door. It has a large open space to the right with a back door, five small windows and one regular sized. There is a long rectangular walled off area to the left of the staircase. There are three rooms upstairs. For most people one will serve as a master bedroom, one as a second bedroom or office/study and the other as a bathroom. Personally, I find the downstairs part of the open model difficult to decorate.
Stable Ridge is the new walled version of Stable View. This is my personal favorite of the new floor plans. The large room to the right has been divided into three more usable sized rooms and the rectangular one to the left into two smaller rooms accessed by a small hallway behind the staircase. They walled off the original entrance to the left of the staircase so you can only access those rooms from the hallway.
In my opinion, the walls here are a huge improvement. The rooms are normal sizes and shapes and very easy to decorate. The upstairs remains unchanged. This remodel gets five stars. Well done.
Knotty Pine and Knotty View:
Knotty Pine is a one-story house divided into two sides. The right side has a hallway with three nicely sized rooms which could serve as bedrooms, studies, dens, an over-sized bathroom, etc. The left side is one huge narrow rectangular room. Most people would use that as a combination living room, dining room and kitchen. It has a bulge in the middle to help delineate it into three areas. There is also a special treat, a ceiling door which drops a stair ramp opens into a large square attic.
Knotty View is the same layout except that the long narrow rectangle to the left was divided into three separate rooms using archways and cleverly placed partial walls. I was very impressed with how they divided this one up into easily usable rooms and a very coherent feel with the other side of the house.
The new rooms are all a comfortable size and easy to decorate. This remodel also gets five stars from me.
Grizzly Point and Grizzly Pass:
Grizzly Point is a simple, very large two-story home. It has a single room upstairs, which most people will use as a bedroom. You enter into a large and mostly square room. I say “mostly square” because one end extrudes into the porch area, giving a little corner nook. The left side of the house is a long rectangular room with two entrances – an archway at one end and a doorway at the far end. Many people add a wall to divide that rectangle into two rooms, and use them as a bathroom and a kitchen/dining room There is a c-shaped stairway that leads upstairs to the bedroom. I really love how they did the stairway, it hugs the walls and divides the stairs into three separate short walkways. Very classy.
Grizzly Pass adds a wall and long archway to break the room you enter into two. The main room is squarish and still large, but not too difficult to decorate. The new room on the other side of the archway is a long and narrow rectangle. It can still be nicely decorated with a bit of clever furniture placement, but not as easily as a squarish room. They isolated the left room by adding a wall and door. Now it is now a hallway by the stairs plus a smaller rectangular room with doors at both entrances. I suppose it is possible to still add a dividing wall and use it as a bathroom and small kitchen
This layout is easier to decorate than the open model, but only moderately so. I give it three and a half stars.
Silver Spurs and Silver Ridge:
Silver Spurs is an L-shaped house with a few unusually shaped walls. You enter into the rightmost room, which has a pentagon shaped nook near the back door. Most people use the entry as the living room and the nook as a kitchen. Some of us, including me, walled the odd corner off to be a regular square shaped kitchen area. There is a hallway leading to two back rooms. The one on the left is a regular but large rectangular bedroom. The one on the right is a smaller but unusually shaped room that many people use as a bathroom.
Silver Ridge added only one wall with an arch. This wall separates the kitchen area from the living room area. It is a minimal change. I was not impressed by this modification, I don't see any benefit over the original model. I give it two stars.
Spring View and Spring Crest:
Spring View is a cute 2 story house. It has two rooms upstairs, suitable for a bedroom and bathroom. The downstairs is divided into three distinct areas. There is a diagonal staircase and a wall to partition the first room into an entry or den/office. There is a larger room behind that has one diagonal wall and multiple windows on the two exterior walls. Most people make this their living room, but I would be tempted to put my kitchen and dining room here. The left side downstairs is a large rectangular room. Most people are making this their kitchen and dining room, but I would be tempted to make it a living room and den. I think this is one of the cutest models of the original seven open homes. It seems rather well laid out and I don't think it would be that difficult to decorate.
Spring Crest is the same upstairs, but downstairs it divides the home into 4 distinct areas plus a small hall. The room behind the stairs still has a diagonal wall, but much of it is now an archway to a small hallway. Their rectangular room is divided into two easy-to-decorate rooms with entrances from that hallway. All of the rooms are reasonably large and more or less a “normal” shape that's easy to decorate.
I give this model four stars because the open plan was so nicely laid out that it is hard to improve on it too much.
Buffalo Pastures and Buffalo Paddy
Buffalo Pastures/Buffalo Paddy are almost identical to Grizzly Point/Grizzly Pass. The only difference is that the main room is smaller on Buffalo Pastures and is regularly shaped. The Buffalo Pastures room still seems large to me and was a challenge to decorate, but it is possible to do it nicely with a bit of effort and forethought.
The only difference between the Buffalo Pastures and the Buffalo Paddy is a single wall and door along the top of the left room (the long narrow rectangle). This separates it into a smaller rectangle with two doors and a hallway near the stairs. It seemed like an unnecessary separation to me. It would have been better to separate off a small bathroom on the end where the door was.
I was not particularly impressed with this addition and give it three stars.
Creek Stone
Creek Stone is a smaller one-room house, and they did not create a new floor plan for this one.
Article and photograph byTeresa Firelight
RANCH HOME VIDEOS
The Parade of Homes staff (Teresa Firelight and Robert Rhodan) decided to celebrate their new Ranch homes by making videos of each of then. Robert is the talent behind the videos, but each decorated their own home.
You will notice they use different styles and have distinctly different tastes. Hopefully one or the other of their homes might serve as an inspiration for those of you trying to figure out how to decorate your own place.
That is what makes Parade of Homes successful – the fact that people have different styles. Parade of Homes exposes people to multiple ideas of how to furnish and/or landscape their Bellisseria residence. Since the Ranch homes are still relatively new, we hope people will find these videos helpful.
Teresa’s home is here and you can watch her video here. Robert’s home is here and you can watch his video here. Please feel free to visit either or both of the homes, to pet the cats, enjoy the animals, etc.
In addition, there is also now a Ranch Homes listing category for Parade of Homes. If you want to list your home for others to come visit, you can do so here.
Article by Teresa Firelight and videos by Robert Rhodan
EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
| If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other announcement, just let us know and we'll be happy to feature it here. Please drop a notecard on the Editor Dave (Lord.Junibalya) in-world or use the Email the Editor link in the sidebar to send us your information, posters or photos. |
Nice write-up in the Newser
Our new BBB Scout, Gemma Cleanslate, is best known for her work as a journalist at the long-established SL newspaper, SL Newser. She's recently interviewed our founder, Boo Rojyo, and published a very good article about our work.
For all our efforts at publicity it was clear to those of us who spent a lot of time talking to visitors at SL20B that there are still many SL residents who don't know who we are and what we do. There are also some very odd conspiracy theories in circulation about us, as to which it's best we just smile and move on!
An article like Gemma's in one of SL's most widely-read newspapers has to be a good thing. Thank you Gemma.
You can read the article in full here.
NEW LOCATIONS
Wumpkins Wood is being taken over for a special celestial celebration with music by DJ H. The event is at 8-11pm SLT on August 17. The stamp will be available until August 20 though.
We love a good diner and the one at Mowry Depot in Sansara looks like fun. It's part of an open-to-all complex that includes a roadside GTFO! cargo hub, a helipad and Donut truck.
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Wumpkins Wood TAKEOVER event - Celestial Celebration HE One day event on 17th August at 8-11pm SLT |
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| Mowry Depot Diner SN |
Thank you Andie!
Posted by: Dave | 08/27/2023 at 04:18 AM
I am so excited about your new website and so proud that you gave a chance to that idea with map. It is my dream come truth and I wish to see it working well soon. Thank you and wish you all the best with great work. :-)
Posted by: Andie Rau | 08/26/2023 at 02:38 PM