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Lex Neva added a comment - 22/Aug/07 09:34 AM
I think groups actually have a fairly large unseen load on the sim you're connected to, as it processes permissions for all objects in view, checking if their group matches your active group. Allowing people to avoid creating needless groups would definitely lower sim load in that case.
Use a "titler" (or "tagger") to have tags displayed over your heads, and avoid to increment system load for that creating "fake" groups.
You can find plenty of freebie titlers which you can set the manner you want in writing, color, effects and so on. Even I've built one, as a LSL programming experiment: you can find it, freebie, in the Vulcano's SIM freebie. In few words: don't waste grid's cpu/bandwidth, please (or don't pretend the grid performs smoothing if you do, lol). Elwe,
Since I mention titlers in the proposal, it is safe to assume I actually do know about them, (lol). They are an ugly hack to cover for a (minor) shortcoming of the system which this proposal is intended to address with even less load on the grid (no need for an extra prim in the scenegraph, or the text itself in same; lsl code constantly listening for a command to drive the setting of the text, etc.; AV attachment point wasted - assuming you had one to spare in the head region anyway). Titler text often either has to be floated a good distance above the associated AV or risk being obscured by the real title text or the AV's body itself. In short, this proposal causes less grid-load than either existing alternative. The only thing the grid has to do is supply the 'custom' title at the same time it pushes out all the other AV data such as name, shape attributes, etc. Because the group is still 'none' all the region-group permissions checking (the main load here) would be switched off. Mmmm... I agree: a "title" function shouldn't not interfere with groups then (so groups can handle titles as is nowadays).
As a "display-only" funtion it should not load the server. go voting for it Well, from a group title one may want to deduct what group someone is in, what's their position and so on. Letting that be set to anything could introduce ...... well, kind of frauds. Or inconveniences.
I agree that having groups just to have a cool sign above you does have some impact on the system, but then again, the user pays for it... Everyone pays for title groups in the end as it loads the simulator with needless permissions checking every time the user enters/exits a parcel or does something else that can be permissions-restricted.
As for security, the same effect as you describe can be achieved with a title group, so I see this as making things no different from an 'identity security' perspective. And putting "quotes" around non group titles as suggested would address this anyway. Oops, didn't notice the quotes part. OK, that solves that concern. I do however oppose Be Holder's proposal to have them the same, that is without the quotes.
As for lowering the load on the system, it's a good question what do the residents without the titles do, set active to none or just hide the title. Well, having this option only when active group set to none would actually silently encourage residents to step out of groups when they don't need one, and not only those that had their own little groups, but also others which would want to take advantage of this new feature. I can hear complaints from some that will want to have a custom title even with a group active. But I suppose it is only reasonable to do it this way. Next thing, someone needs to design where this would be set in the UI. Not Preferences, they're local. Profile is the logical choice. The only trouble I see here is that I deduct the same code is used to show your profile or someone else's, and the mindset is the same, whatever is there is public. I am not saying this text field shouldn't be visible for some reason, but it would look awkward to me to see it in the profile. Additionally, there is no clue that this is related to active group being set to none. Therefore, my proposal would be to enable the Info button for the "none" 'group' and attach a little dialog there: "Text to be displayed in your name tag instead of the group title when no group is active: [_________]" But I wonder how much infrastructure is needed for this one... Well, it's up to LL, but I think there are other more urgent things, but I can't tell if this one taxes the server that much. But I wouldn't close it. Even simpler, just let the "none" group name in the groups list be editable... changing from [none] to ["title"], so when you look at your groups you can immediately see what your "none" title would be.
Best would be to pick up the concept of "attributes" from text-mode virtual worlds (like MUDs and Mucks). Give the user the ability to set a number of tagged strings in his profile, with an "access" flag. Some of them would have special meanings: one of them would be "title", another would be "description"... people using a text mode interface to SL would see this by "looking" at them. This would provide an open-ended tool that would allow all kinds of capabilities, like titles that could be set by group, so only other members of a group could see them... Interesting idea, Argent
 , though you loose the ability to have a pull-down list of favorite 'titles' in return for having the custom title more visually accessible. Also, we still need to keep a genuine 'none' where no title is displayed (I often go title-free).
The 'attributes' concept sounds very good too. My own preferred info format for the 'name tag' would be "[<title> /n ] <name_as_flat_field> [ /n of <home_simulator> ] [ /n on <home_grid>]". 'on' part only shown if you are off your registered grid (domain). LindenLabs could use such a system to spread a few separate-but-connected grids to key points in other countries with high user-bases. eg: A European grid subject to local content/ID laws run by the local LL subsidiary. Locals can still cross seamlessly to other LL grids in other countries (and vice-versa) at the expense of having international lag (which they have now anyway), but you can have your home sim on a server geographically nearby. Someone might end up as "Adelbert Diederick of New Berlin on Europa" with the "of Europa" dropped when he is on the Europa grid. (I would likely still be LaeMi Qian of Cheosan on Agni as it is probably the network-closest to me here in SE-Australia, and I doubt we have the userbase here to justify our own official grid - though if LL wants one, I am a presently-looking-for-work network tech! :-D ). -------- From here I start to wander a little OT -------- The whole first-name - surname thing is a little archaic to me, not to mention culturally specific - in RL I know people with the following name formats: <first> <middle> <family> and while I don't know anyone from centuries ago, <name> of <location> was pretty common back then: Robin Of Sherwood; Jesus of Nazareth. Name as a flat field with alpha-num-dash-space as valid fields covers all this (from the way LSL treats names, I get the feeling that the <given name><surname> system used at account creation is converted to a flat field anyway in-grid). Of course, LL's reason for enforcing the surname system was to discourage names like 'Gandalf434', 'Jane457645' and such IRC/email-related atrocities, which is fair enough, so I am not really complaining about the usage here. Right-click "none", select "rename", hit "backspace" and "return" and you'fve just cleared it.
I assume by "/n" you mean "\n". I would prefer not to force the display of any kind of first-life related information, even in profiles, even as simple as "Payment information used", let alone something telling people that a visitor is from Europe or Australia or Tibet or Dubai. – Following you off-topic – My RL name doesn't fit in the SL model either... they actually do use my last name in SL and do it wrong, and it kind of ticks me off. I believe the SL forced last name was to create a sense of family... people with your last name joined SL about the same time you did... and of course there's plenty of people with first names like Sexy52657 and xXxMERLINxXx. The location privacy issue is a good point, and I didn't mean it to be strictly used that way (though my choice of examples likely gave that impression). The 'location' is more like a domain name in an email address. There certainly should be nothing to stop a European user registering via Agni just as there is nothing stopping me opening an email account with google.com.tw, and my *ozemail.com.au email (and web) address was a rather innaccurate representation of my real location during the several years I was living in NE China.
The European grid (for example) might not be called 'Europa' (name was just an easy example) just as 'Agni" doesn't (AFAIK) relate to the grid being in USA (though I assume it is an acronym - Adult Grid ?something? ?something? ???). OTOH, a lot of people take great pride in which bit of above-sea-level rock they happen to live on (I am particularly attracted to the relative geological stability of mine, though I don't find the human population any more or less notable than elsewhere!) Also puts a fairly friendly domain-naming system in place for post-inter-grid. And of course, you could change your home sim name as quickly as selecting "set home position here". It is intended more as an alternative to running out of names and resorting to Sexy52657 and xXxMERLINxXx Just a (slightly OT) idea for expanding the namespace. Dragging my thread kicking and screaming back towards topic :-D...
I just thought: being able to have a location association would allow you to sort-of double-up on groups. For example, Ferralis Fox is a resident of the estate Furnation and in the associated group and a member of group "Bi Plane Aviators". By setting his active group to "Bi Plane Aviators", his name tag reads... Aviator The location refers (in this case - it isn't necessary that it do so) back to the primary group identity (I am assuming that people who live in Furnation identify strongly with being Furries) while a different group is active (while the location is Furnation, the only group active is "Bi Plane Aviators" - the location reference is only visual data in the name plate, it doesn't give access to any group-like function. Of course, this doesn't do much for people like me who own land wherever it was cheap at the time we wanted to purchase, but I have no problem with being known as "of Cheosan" until such time as I get a good offer elsewhere NOTE: I am just rambling about this here as I don't theink the idea is developed (or needed) enough at present to warrent a feature request. Bad example... back when the national top level domains were set up in the late '80s I used to say that I thought it was a bad idea then. And national domains are sure not being used consistently at all. They'd have done better just to auction off the rights to (say) 3 top level domains a year, and let the people who got them call them whatever they want.
And I don't think I'd necessarily want to broadcast where in the grid my "home" was. Agni is named after a Hindu deity, the god of fire. He's the twin of Indra, which is also the name of the root of the Second Life source code tree. if such time comes,becarefull with opening profiles (while using a graphic capable client) of people with names like:
"Goatse of CX" lmto Xp Great idea, I voted for this.. a title wthout making a group for it...
However LL might not do it (as making a group requires L and everyone who makes one for a custom title xyz generates income, and etc etc) |
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