Covenant Update for August 19

I have updated the covenant to reflect our new way of renting land. Specifically, all vacant parcels are listed for L$1 and you must pay your first week's rent immediately once I set up your rent box. This should reduce confusion we've had in the past where people paid their boxes too early when we used to have a purchase price equal to the first week's rent. There are no rules changes in this version of the covenant.

[Updated 2007.08.19]
Thank you for considering a Desperation Isle Estates property. There are several sections to this covenant that cover an introduction to the isles, steps on how to find and acquire land, general renting details, and rules for residents.

*** ABOUT THE ISLANDS ***
- Each of our rental estates is a tropical residential adult community; a place to build your home in a community of like-minded folks. There are no taboos here. (Well, except anything that is an outright violation of Linden Lab policy.)
- The isles are primarily residential, however commercial renting is allowed so long as it adheres to the 'Rules for Renters' guidelines in this covenant. Businesses should be attractive, should aesthetically 'fit' on the island, and should never be a nuissance for other residents.
- Residents of the Desperation Isle estates have access to all areas of the public playground, Desperation Isle (even when it is closed for organized RP).
- As with all private islands in Second Life, Desperation Isle properties are for RENT, not for SALE. The 'purchase' price you pay is a 'reservation fee,' and grants you the same powers over your land that a full owner would have- but you will not be able to resell the land to another resident, and you must comply with this covenant in order to remain a tenant here.
- NOTE: You do NOT have to be a premium member of Second Life to rent land on these estates.
- Lots up to 4096 meters are priced according to a flat rental rate based on the size of your parcel and rounded to the nearest L$25. Lots over 4096m go into a tiered pricing structure after that, where the more land you get the better a value it becomes.

512m: 117 prims, weekly L$250 ($0.94 USD), monthly L$1000 ($3.75 USD)
1024m: 234 prims, weekly L$500 ($1.87 USD), monthly L$2000 ($7.49 USD)
1536m: 351 prims, weekly L$750 ($2.81 USD), monthly L$3000 ($11.24 USD)
2048m: 468 prims, weekly L$1000 ($3.75 USD), monthly L$4000 ($14.98 USD)
3072m: 703 prims, weekly L$1500 ($5.62 USD), monthly L$6000 ($22.47 USD)
4096m: 937 prims, weekly L$2000 ($7.49 USD), monthly L$8000 ($29.96 USD)
6144m: 1406 prims, weekly L$2850 ($10.67 USD), monthly L$11400 ($42.7 USD)
8192m: 1875 prims, weekly L$3800 ($14.23 USD), monthly L$15200 ($56.93 USD)
12288m: 2812 prims, weekly L$5400 ($20.22 USD), monthly L$21600 ($80.9 USD)
16384m: 3750 prims, weekly L$7200 ($26.97 USD), monthly L$28800 ($107.87 USD)
32768m: 7500 prims, weekly L$13600 ($50.94 USD), monthly L$54400 ($203.75 USD)
65536m: 15000 prims, weekly L$25600 ($95.88 USD), monthly L$102400 ($383.52 USD)

*** HOW TO FIND AND RENT LAND ***
Here's how to find which lots are available for rent:
1. Enable the View > Property Lines option in the menu to show colored lines around each plot.
2. Enable the View > Land Owners menu option to show which parcels are taken or available. Red land is owned by someone else, Green land is owned by you, Purple land is owned by a group, and brown/auburn land is available to be rented.
3. While standing on the land you intend to rent, right-click the ground and pick Buy from the pie menu. The list price for the land will be shown (L$1), and if you have enough L$ in your account you will be able to buy the land.
4. Contact Wildefire Walcott in IM to say you've started renting. She will invite you to her private group as a resident and set up a rent box for you. This will give you unlimited access to Desperation Isle and also serve as a way to get important notices for residents. This is a non-spam group; only relevant notices will be sent.

NOTE: If you can't find a parcel of just the right size, contact Wildefire Walcott. She can divide or join available lots as needed, although she will not be selling 512m or 1536m lots at this time.

*** GENERAL RENTING INFORMATION ***
- Rent is expected weekly, and is to be paid to Wildefire Walcott via your individually assigned rent box. (Your first week's rent is due as soon as Wildefire sets up your rent box. She will tell you how to find it when it's ready.)
- Wildefire Walcott will set up a scripted rental box in a secluded location on your island that will remind you when rent is due, and you can pay the box as needed. Wildefire may contact you personally if rent is 2 or more days overdue, and may reclaim the land if you go for 5 days or more without paying or responding to her IMs.
- The number of prims you're allowed to use depends on the size of the parcel (refer to the chart above). The exact calculation is (ParcelSizeInSquareMeters * 15000) / 65536, rounded down. This is because a single sim (65,536 square meters) supports a maximum of 15,000 prims. If you require more prims you can pay for additional prims (in 117-prim increments), assuming Wildefire has extra land in that sim. It's an additional $125/week for every 58 prims.
- Be sure to inform Wildefire if you know you're going to be away for an extended period when rent would come due. Ideally you would pay your rent forward to ensure keeping your space for when you return.
- Some plots come pre-landscaped with objects such as trees, paths or homes. These items are not transferrable, and thus remain the property of Wildefire Walcott. If you do not wish to keep them on your land, please use the Return Objects feature in About Land after purchasing the land to return the items to Wildefire Walcott (do NOT delete them). I would ask that you not just leave the landscape barren. Do what you can to preserve or enhance the tropical flavor of the isle.
- As a renter you will be able to terraform your land, manage ban lists, and set the media streams for your parcel- basically anything that a full-fledged land owner can do.
- Mistress Wildefire expects her tenants to be good neighbors to other residents of the sim. She will provide you several guidelines regarding expected behavior and aesthetics on your land.
- Wildefire Walcott does have a number of copiable (but not transferrable) high quality houses she can place on your land at your request, for no extra fee. Due to item permissions, you will not be able to make modifications, but she can (within reason) make alterations if necessary.
- In order to provide a dark, romantic atmosphere, and to remain consistent with neighboring Desperation Isle, it is always night time on the Desperation Isle Estates. If things look too dark for you to see well, you can usually fix this by increasing the 'Nighttime Brightness' setting in the 'Adv. Graphics' tab of Preferences.
- If you just need to see things in daylight temporarily, you can use the 'World > Force Sun' menu options to see the isle at Sunrise, Sunset, or Noon.

*** RULES FOR RENTERS ***
It is impossible to come up with a single set of guidelines that specifically covers everything that you should or shouldn't do. I will revise this section of the covenant as issues arise, but please closely read and understand these rules and use your best judgement when building. As always, you may contact me with questions or concerns about your own land or that of your neighbors.
- NO UGLY BUILDS ON THE GROUND! The ground level of the island is meant for attractive residences and businesses. The terrain should flow naturally to neighboring lots, and your overall area should "fit" aesthetically with the rest of the island. I don't care so much what you put in the sky (above 300m, please), but if it's on the ground it needs to look nice and cannot negatively affect the rest of the island. A good rule of thumb to follow is to ask yourself, "If this were in real life, would I want to live next door to this build?" If the answer is "No," then perhaps you shouldn't do it. Also, I'm a reasonable person. If there's a look you're trying to achieve, or you have some other design or privacy concern, just talk to me- I will work with you to come up with an acceptable solution.
- All renters must either have autoreturn enabled, or must DISABLE the ability for "All Residents" to create objects on your land. This is an anti-griefing measure to protect your land and that of your neighbors.
- No shouting objects (i.e. scripts that use llShout).
- No political propaganda in publicly viewable areas.
- No public-facing advertisements (signs inside stores, only viewable to people in the store, are okay). If you have a store, it IS okay to have a sign with your store's name on it, and have products displayed in your windows- just no advertisements for products, places, or services out on open land, please.
- No camping chairs, money sploders, dance pads, or other incentives to get people to camp on your property to artificially drive up traffic.
- No casinos, no gambling, no malls. (Note: By 'mall' I mean a structure whose purpose is mostly to rent vendor space to numerous Second Life merchants. Malls place a very large resource burden on an island (with all the textures and scripted, networked vendors).
- No building within 0.5 meters of parcel border without permission from your neighbors.
- Restrict spamming items (notecard givers, landmark givers, greeters) so that their range is limited to your parcel.
- You can only maintain a Ban list- you may NOT have an Access list. (In other words, you may explicitly ban certain people from your land, but you may not set up your land so that only residents on your list can get in.) If you need privacy, use a security device, but its range must be limited to your parcel, and it must give residents a warning and at least 10 seconds to leave your parcel before ejecting them. NOTE: If you become the target of griefing, please Abuse Report the offender and also notify Wildefire Walcott of the names and details. She will look into it and ban these folks from the entire Desperation Isle estate (encompasses all islands) if necessary.
- Sound-generating objects must be limited to your parcel (i.e. spatialized sound setting in About Land).
- No particle emitters.
- No skyboxes below 300 meters in the sky. Specifically, this means any structures below 300m should be firmly on the ground.
- No 'temp-on-rezzers' or 'holo-rezzers' without explicit permission from Wildefire Walcott. (I don't really mind that they give you more prims, but each temp-on-rezzer puts an additional load on the asset server, and that affects every single resident in Second Life.)
- Limit the amount of hovertext on your items when possible. It often shows through walls and can creep into neighboring properties if you're not careful.
- When building, please do not use textures larger than 512x512.
- No sandboxing below 300m. If you wish to use your land as a sandbox for building projects, that's absolutely okay- but please keep that activity well above the cloudline. The ground is intended for "permanent" homes and businesses.
- While you are allowed to terraform your lot, please do so within reson. Do not terraform coastal lots out to the sim border. While you are allowed to alter the terrain of your land, the end result must still look like natural coastline. I don't care if it touches the border here or there, but if you just fill out the land against the simline it results in a completely unnatural looking shelf of land that seriously detracts from the look of the beach. Finally, no terraforming within 1 meter of the parcel border without permission from your neighbors.
- Do not place any 'physical' objects without permission from Wildefire Walcott. Some items, such as prim inflatables for swimming pools, are physics-enabled, which in itself isn't a problem, but if physics-enabled objects collide in certain ways they can actually crash the sim, which is bad for everyone.
- No freebie houses. There are a number of well-known "freebie houses" scattered all around second life. Some are better than others, but really the sight of them kind of gives a sim a "low-rent" feel. If you are low on funds, please talk to me. I have a selection of nice low-prim houses to fit lots of many sizes, and can provide them at no cost to you.
- No plywood prims laying around. If you're building you're home, some exposed plywood during the build is understandable, so long as you clean up when you're done. But please never leave random untextured prims or abandonned builds for the rest of your neighbors to see. (Again, partial builds are more acceptable over 300m.)
- Do not block the views of neighbors with walls or privacy screens. If you wish to give yourself a little more privacy, please do not do it at the expense of your neighbors. There are several alternatives that are better for the rest of the island: Attractive looking bamboo or wrought-iron privacy fences can achieve the desired effect while still letting light pass through. Thoughtfully-placed trees and bushes can also give you a nice private-feeling environment (just please DO NOT make a big straight, unnatural wall of Linden trees, and please try to use plant species that you'd be likely to find on an island.) 'Blight Be Gone' screens by Keith Extraordinaire (KX Designs) come with an option that has nice looking textures on one side, but is clear on all others. When you put them around your parcel, you see the texture, but everyone else around you sees your land. Another option is to move up into the sky. You can safely place your home anywhere between 300 and 700m, giving you the opportunity to distance yourself from neighbors by hundreds of meters.

Please contact me with any questions.
Wildefire Walcott, owner of Desperation Isle Estates