Revision as of 10:44, 26 October 2010

Private region types

	Full Regions	Homestead Regions	Openspace Regions
Description	The premier Region product which offers the highest performance.	Lower performance than a Full Region and is intended for low-density rentals, quiet residential, or light commercial use. Only available to Residents who own at least one Full Region.	Intended for very low-impact scenic use, such as ocean, forest, or countryside. Only available to Residents who own at least one Full Region.
Size	65,536 m²	65,536 m²	65,536 m²
Setup fee	US$1,000	US$375	US$250
Monthly maintenance	US$295	US$125	US$75
Educational discount?	Yes	Yes	No
Prims	15,000	3,750	750
Max. avatars	100	20	10
Script limits	N/A	TBD	TBD
Habitation allowed?	Yes	Yes	No
Rental allowed?	Yes	Yes	No
Events & classifieds?	Yes	Yes	No
Conversion to Full Region allowed?	N/A	Yes	Yes

The land store

This article explains how to buy new Private Regions (also called "islands") within the Second Life world through the Land Store.

Tip: The Land Store has been upgraded to give you an easier-to-use experience. In response to longtime requests, you can now buy "Developed Land" Regions with a prebuilt theme so you're ready to go in minutes.

Purchase

Note: In order to purchase land from the Land Store, you need to have billing information on file. Go to your account's billing info to update your status.

Log into the Second Life Land Portal.
- You may wish to read the introduction which explains the difference between "Developed Land" and "Undeveloped Land". The former is great for a quick start, and the latter is if you want an "empty canvas" and know how you wish to shape it.
When you've decided, either click Buy an Undeveloped Private Region or Buy a Themed Private Region.
- If don't need the amount of control and space that comes with a Region, you can choose Buy Mainland.
You're presented with thumbnail images and descriptions of several appealing choices. These are all starting points for your creative vision, and you can always reshape your land later. Click Checkout to proceed.
On the "Land Detail" page, decide from the comparison details whether you want a Full Region, Homestead, or Openspace. Click the Choose button under your choice to continue.
- You can only purchase a Homestead or Openspace if you already own or are also going to buy one or more Full Regions.
On the "Name your land" page, type in the Create a Region Name field and click Check Availability. If it's not taken, you can proceed.
Region Coordinates are automatically filled in. These coordinates are where your Region will be physically located on the World Map.
- If you'd prefer to override them, click [change], then click a map square that isn't crossed out in red.
- You can click the arrow buttons to look at different areas on the map.
- You can also search for another Region to be near (for example, one that a friend or colleague owns).
Take a few seconds to fill out the brief survey at the bottom.
Click Add to Cart button.
Once all details have been successfully verified, you can shop for more Regions (same steps as above) or click Proceed to Checkout.
- You may have up to 10 items in your cart at once.
- Items don't stay in your cart forever; they stay in your cart until you or someone else buys them. A Region is held as yours for 30 minutes after your last activity in the Land Store. If someone else buys it (or a neighboring Region) after those 30 minutes, it will appear in your cart as unavailable.
At the "Real Estate: Shopping Cart" page, click Place Order to confirm your purchase.

Note: Orders totaling more than US$10,000 can't be processed through the Land Store. If you're planning on buying more than US$10,000 worth of land, consider making multiple orders.

Delivery

Once your Region purchase is complete, you'll receive an email with details. A new Region is generally delivered within 15 minutes. Occasional service updates may affect that time, so see the Second Life Grid Status Reports page if it's taking longer than expected.

Enjoy your fresh Region, teeming with possibilities for you to explore!

Maturity ratings

New Regions are delivered with a default maturity rating of Moderate. You can customize this using the Region/Estate tools:

From the Viewer menus, go to World > Region/Estate.
Click the Region tab.
From the Rating dropdown, select either General or Adult.
Click Apply.

Note: If your Region is

Moderate or

Adult, only Residents, including yourself, who have set their Maturity preference correctly will be able to access the Region. Otherwise, if they try to enter, they'll be prompted to either set their preferences or be age-verified. See "Setting your maturity preferences" for how to do this.

Guidelines for private region naming

This article explains Linden Lab's guidelines for naming your Private Region (island) or Estate. Private Region or Estate names:

Must not already be in use
Must be more than 2, but less than 26 characters (spaces count)
Must contain three words or less
Must use only alphanumeric characters (no punctuation)
Must not be the name of a real life city (however, "New York Island" or "Los Angeles City" are fine)
Cannot include SL, Linden, Linden Lab, Second Life etc in the name
Must comply with General maturity rating guidelines. You can't use the following as your Private Region name or Estate name:
- The name of another person to the extent that could cause deception or confusion
- A name which violates any trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right
- A name which may mislead other users to believe you to be an employee of Linden Lab
- A name which Linden Lab deems in its discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive (obscenities in any language or any form of spelling, racist, sexist or otherwise derogatory in nature)

Linden Lab reserves the right to change any Private Region or Estate name for any reason or no reason.

Can two people order adjacent regions?

add versioning

It is possible for two people to simultaneously order adjacent Private Regions:

The first person must order a Private Region.
The second person must also order a Private Region.
Both people must submit tickets to the Support Portal requesting that their Regions be adjacent to each other.

Example:

Clint and Brandy each want to purchase a Private Region, and they would like their Regions to share a common border. Both Clint and Brandy order their Regions separately through the Land Store, and then they both submit support tickets to the Concierge queue requesting that their Regions be placed adjacent to each other.

Private region customizations

This article explains your options for customizing your Island or Private Region.

What can I customize when I first order my Private Region?

With your Region order, you can specify the following customizations:

Name: You can select a unique name when creating the Region. See the Guidelines for Private Region Naming for details.
Terrain shape: You can select from one of the six predesigned templates (including flat green land and open water).
Estate: You can assign your Region to its own Estate, or to an Estate you already own (with other Private Regions owned by you). Your Estate tools allow you to control settings for more than one Region at once.

What can I customize once I own the Region?

As Estate owner, you have access to the Region/Estate menu, under World. This provides you with several other options to customize your Region:

Water height: You may specify the height sea level reaches on your Region.
Terrain textures: You can use almost any texture for terrain. You can specify low-resolution textures as well as high-resolution textures, and configure at what heights they shift from one to another. There's more information on terrain textures in the Estate Tools article.
Fixed sun position: You can lock the sun at a specific time of day or night.
Terraform: You can lower or raise your terrain 100m from the height at which it was created. This is usually sufficient for nearly any type of terrain (including very dramatic cliffs).
Custom terrain files: You can save your terrain to a .RAW image file, edit it in a program such as Photoshop, and upload it back into Second Life to instantly make wide-sweeping changes to your Region's terrain.
Agent limit: You may control how many avatars can visit your Regon at the same time, anywhere from one to over one hundred.
Parcel activity: You can decide whether to allow renters to sell their parcels to other Residents, and whether they can subdivide the parcels they rent.
Teleport routing: You can use a telehub to force Residents to land at a specific location in your Region, or you can allow Direct Teleporting, so Residents can use landmarks or the world map teleport wherever they would like.
Access: You can close your Private Region to everyone except your friends and colleagues, or you can open it to everyone in Second Life! You may also ban specific Residents by name if they cause trouble.

Setup fees

As of April 24, 2008, setup prices for land in the Second Life world have changed to the following:

Normal Islands: USD$1000
Normal Openspaces: USD$250
Educational Islands: USD$700
Educational Openspaces: USD$175

These prices exclude VAT.

Monthly maintenance fees have not changed from their current levels.

Further discussion of these changes can be found at the original post on the Official Second Life Blog.

Renting a region for a special event

Got a plan for a large event and need a temporary place to have it? Linden Lab offers temporary Full Region rentals. Rental amounts are to be paid in full at the beginning of the rental period.

Rental rate

Land rental rates are different depending on whether you want to rent private regions or space on the mainland.

Private regions can be rented at US$50 per region per day
Mainland regions can be rented at L$4,000 per region per day

Note: It is necessary to have a Premium account to rent Mainland Regions. Private Regions can be rented by any account type.

Are there discounts?

Yes, there are discounts for events held on mainland rental regions sponsored by or to the benefit of non-profit organizations: L$3,000 per region per day.

Mainland rental regions are Iridium, Osmium, Palladium, Platinum, Rhodium, & Ruthenium. (For fun, these are named after the platinum group metals.)

Details

Reservations must be made 2 weeks in advance, and are on a first-come first-served basis.
Residents must include a full description of the event when applying.
Minimal rental period is 3 days.
Residents are allowed to terraform the land, and do not incur tier fees for temporary ownership of the land.
Residents cannot transfer the land during the rental period.
The original state of the Regions will be saved immediately before the rental period. At the conclusion of the rental period, the Regions will be restored.

More information

If you're interested in renting, please submit a Land and Region Issues ticket with the Region Request field set to Region Rental from our Support page.

Additional information you'll need to submit includes:

The number of Regions you want
Rental start and end dates
Whether or not you need to be able to terraform the Regions
A full description of your event

Invoicing for special orders

This article explains how to make use of our invoicing option when ordering private regions (islands and openspaces) in Second Life.

Who uses invoices?

Invoicing is meant to be used by a specific set of Second Life users under specific circumstances:

Verified, approved educators and non-profit institutions, who receive a discount on the regular setup costs and monthly fees for private regions (islands).
Companies who fulfill the following conditions:
- Require an invoice before payment can be made.
- Are willing to pay either 6 months or 1 year of maintenance in advance.
Those who work with Purchase Order number requirements.
All Teen Second Life private island orders.

Note: While land orders from Teen Second Life make use of the special ordering system, land orders from individuals in Teen Second Life are not invoiced and hence not subject to the 30-day grace period; individual land purchasers in Teen Second Life (i.e. not schools or non-profits) must pay setup fees upon delivery, as well as monthly maintenance thereafter.

To receive the education and non-profit discounts, you must use the invoicing option.

Where do I go to get an invoice?

Second Life offers the invoicing option though our special orders selection from the Land Store. You can also access invoicing directly from the following URL: specialorders.secondlife.com

What information do I need to supply to get an invoice?

The following is information that you will need for the invoicing option. Please read it carefully and if your questions are not answered by this document, please submit a Support ticket to request explanation (please include "Education" in the ticket summary).

Verification Information

Company verification

The customer and address given must match the company URL.

If you do not wish to pay for the island setup and maintenance in advance ($2770.00 for 6 months or $4540.00 for 1 year), then you may go to the Land Store website, where you can pay for the island and then island maintenance fees on a month-by-month basis. Payments are made through your Second Life account and the form of payment specified therein. We have monthly account statements in PDF format available from your account for business accounting and reconciliation purposes, available from the Account Statements link in your Dashboard after you click Account on the left to expand it.

Note: At this time, individuals (either in Second Life or Teen Second Life) may not use the invoicing option.

Educational and non-profit institution verification

To receive the discount for island purchase and monthly maintenance, we must be able to verify:

That your institution is a valid educational or non-profit institution.
That the person who ordered this island is an employee of said institution.

Note: We do not offer this discount to developers who are working on behalf of education or non-profit institutions. Please refer to the aforementioned requirement concerning individuals.

Educational Institutions: Please provide us with proof of institution status as well as proof of the ordering individual's employment with the institution. The quickest method of verification is through your institution's website. We should then be able to access your name in conjunction with the institution. If your institution does not list staff/faculty/employees, you may send a written verification from the director of your department.

Note: We do not offer this discount to developers who are working on behalf of education or non-profit institutions. Please refer to the aforementioned requirement concerning individuals.

Non-profit institutions: We require 501(c)3 non-profit accreditation proof or similar not-for-profit licensing proof in countries other than the United States. Again, we should be able to connect the ordering individual's name with the institution as an employee. If you do not include non-profit documents through your website, you may provide the documents via ticket attachment, fax, or post. Those who have applied for non-profit status and are waiting for the appropriate documentation are considered on a case-by-case basis.

Note:

The island is ultimately owned by the university, and the avatar who operates the island in Second Life must be a verified employee.
The business conducted on the island must be of educational concern and related to the university who owns said island.
As stated above, we do not give discounted islands to individuals; this includes educational professionals who wish to pursue island purchase for personal use, as well as developers who wish to purchase an island for the institution.

Copies of appropriate documentation can be submitted by fax to 415-243-9045.

Approval and Island Delivery Information

Submitting an order does not obligate you to pay immediately; payment is made once the island has been delivered and the invoice sent.

When you place the order, you receive a sales order confirmation. This is merely an order confirmation, not a notice of delivery.
Once you place the order, your order is submitted into the approval queue.
Once the island order is approved, you receive an approval email, and then your order is placed in the delivery queue.
After approval, delivery time under normal circumstances takes 10-15 business days.

The delivery process could take a bit longer if:

You have island naming issues.
You have not set up your Second Life account.
You have placement issues with the other private regions whom you are bordering.

You will have access to your account in Netsuite (Second Life's special orders system) through the special ordering website.

Note: Netsuite is a different website than secondlife.com.

In your Netsuite account, you will be able to:

View your sales order
Add your credit card information
Pay your invoice with a credit card

Under normal circumstances, you may expect your island to be up within 10-15 business days. You'll receive an email with delivery instructions and an invoice (NOT the same as the sales order) for payment once your island has been delivered, displaying the correct amount based on the maintenance period that you chose. This is what you pay for. You cannot make a payment until you have received an invoice (bill), after which you have 30 days to pay for it. Late payment may result in your island being shut down and the possibility of lost inventory on the island. Invoices for maintenance will be emailed when the payment schedule is ready for renewal.

Payment Information

After you have received your invoice you may pay via check, credit card or wire transfer.

Note:

We neither accept Paypal nor use funds from your Second Life account to pay for your invoiced island order.
Currently, VAT is not added to our invoiced orders, but we will inform you as soon as this happens. Find out more about VAT and Second Life in this Knowledge Base article.

Wire Transfer

If you would like to pay by wire transfer, see this article for more detailed information. Please be aware that you will need to pay for your bank's wiring charges, so this will need to be added to your invoice total. Also, be sure to reference your invoice number in the wire details.

Credit Card

If you wish to pay by credit card:

Log back into your Netsuite account. You will be directed to menu options.
Select Make a Payment. All outstanding invoices will appear.
Move to the bottom of the page, where you may add your credit card information for payment of the invoices that you check.

Note: The listing of outstanding invoices is not the sales order document.

Check or Bank Draft

Please submit a check or bank draft to:

Linden Research Inc Dept. 34109 PO Box 39000 San Francisco CA 94111 USA

Those who use PO# should send us the required vendor forms for completion. We will add the PO# to the invoice as soon as we receive it.

Other useful information follows:

Federal Tax ID#: 94-3364615 VAT #: EU826011179

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 It is possible for two people to simultaneously order adjacent Private Regions:

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