Tip #4 is courtesy of Layla Slade, who is well qualified as she sits at the top of the Signature Gag Scoreboard at a whopping 360 hours! She gives us some tips on how to get your name up there:

“1.- As weird as it may be a lot of people expect you to talk normally even if you’re gagged so always try to have a titler to state you can’t speak while gagged. It saves you a lot of time and if they don’t pay enough attention you can always point to your titler.

2.- Keep the chat and history window closed unless you plan on talking and when you’re done close it straight away. Many times you don’t try to say anything but something can land on your keyboard, a cat can walk by or you might simply type a letter or dot by mistake. Having chat and history close can make you avoid this issues and help you keep well behaved.

3.- Change windows if you’re stepping away from the keyboard for a while ESPECIALLY if you have pets or visits or children etc. This is due to the same exact reason as above but since you’ll be away it is good to take extra precautions.

4.- Double check what you’re typing, it is easy to forget a slash or a number and it can errase hours of gag time, just a couple of seconds of double checking can make quite a difference!

5.- If you plan to do MANY hours in a row, be mentally prepared remember SL can mess up, it can erase hours and it is always best to avoid high lag areas so don’t expect a ton of partying. If you know in advanced and you can, tell your friends and family what’s goning to happen. They are there for you and not being able to communicate freely isn’t always easy so a little extra support won’t hurt you.

6.- TP-ing isn’t always bad but when you make many hours it is better to just relog in region if possible* but even then SL is a mess.”

* Lulu’s note: relogging saves your “state” at that point in time. That is, unless Second Life’s servers mess up, which they do from time to time.

So there you have it, from the Queen of Gags herself. See your name up there!

Luv, Lulu Ludovico

If you are using the Signature Command HUD v4.10.x and above, you will notice the big “HELP” button on the HUD menu. Now, if you encounter an unusual problem, where to find help? Well, the various help options are right there on the help menu after you press that button:

• group help (Lulu’s Designer Club).
• 24/7 Online searchable help – great place for searching for keywords (if your keyword doesn’t turn up anything, try other keywords – seems MySQL search sometimes doesn’t work very well).
• smart reset. Chances are, if something doesn’t work right on your HUD, it might be due to a “dead” script. Smart reset will revive it and even restore lost settings. (But v4.10 versions below v4.10.09 might not work properly, saying all is well when it really isn’t).
• what’s new. The latest release notes. If you are not using the latest version, perhaps your problem is a bug that has been fixed in the latest version. (only v4.10.09 onwards have the “what’s new” button on the help menu).

This last “what’s new” is the main focus of this week’s tip. Sometimes, you will see that the latest version is an “Unreleased” version, and the text is grayed out. What does this mean? Where can you get this version?

Well, you can’t. At least not yet. Unreleased simply means it has been fixed, or is being fixed for the next release, but is not yet ready. It is there so that you can check your problem against the bugfixes to see whether it is a known issue. If you’ve made feature requests, you may also peep here to see whether it’s on the way.

So here we have it. Might as well explain a bit more about the Release Notes headline (e.g. “Signature Command HUD v4.10.10 + Signature Cuffs v1.05.05”) color coding:

• Black or blue headline = General Release (most stable, fewest bugs; gone through wide testing);
  • update notice: users will be notified once they wear the respective toy. Just go to the Warehouse and click the Update Switch, and follow instructions.
  • silent-release: there is no update notice. But clicking the Update Switch at the Warehouse will get you this version. And new purchases will also be this version. Sometimes, I will put Release Candidates on concurrent “silent releases” if I feel that new users will benefit from it more than the risk of potential bugs. In this case, there is a good chance that the silent release will work its way towards an “update notice” pretty soon. Another reason for doing a silent release is that this version has minor improvements over the previous one, so I do not want to bother the majority of existing users unless they have specific reasons to update. New users however, would benefit.
• Red headline = Release Candidate (mostly stable, might have a few bugs, otherwise on the way to general release soon)
• Gray headline / text = Unreleased version (still in alpha, or closed beta testing)

And what if you still can’t find the answer to your problem? That’s probably the time to submit a bug report (also on the help menu).

That’s it for this week.

Next week: Layla Slade (reigning queen on the Gag Scoreboard) shares with us her tips for getting your name up there.

Luv, Lulu

Welcome to Tip #2.

Setting up the Signature toy or activating a plugin could be a harrowing for some people, especially they’re not very comfortable with windows and dialog boxes or if English is not their native language.

Did you know that the guided processes is designed so that a more experienced friend can easily help another through the steps? Yes, each step, there’s a “public” feedback either on whisper (within 10 meters from the avie), and/or hovertext on the Yellow Setup Ball. So, even though the friend can’t see the avie’s blue menus, he can pretty much tell which step they’re at, and what to do.

So, next time you see someone needing help, you can try walking her through the process.

Have fun!

Lulu Ludovico

Welcome to my first Tip of the Week. Short, sharp, for busy avies. On how they can make full use of their Signature toys’ many features, some of which are not prima facie obvious.

Tip #1 is for subbie’s happy owner, and revisits that little prim key you have in your pocket. Yes, the Signature Real Key, which has been around since the early days of the Signature Gag (circa 2006), that requires you to not only be near your sub, but also facing her for you to use it (yes, yes, laws of physics come to Second Life, blah blah.)

Tip #1a. You can use the key to order your sub over for any reason other than locking or unlocking her. Say, subbie needs a kiss or a spanking. Just whip out your key, click the button, and watch hapless subbie come over to you. Instant obedience, no permissions asked.

Tip #1b. The Signature key system is totally Cuff-aware.

• If subbie is suitably bound in her Signature cuffs, and you click “come over” (even if it’s with a non-Cuff key, e.g. a gag key), she will come over in the “walk” of the respective position. Say she is bound lying down, she will crawl on her belly; if she’s standing upright, she must needs hobble over. Poor thing.
• but if she is bound in a no-move pose (e.g. thighs tight), then, suprise! She will not be able to move.
• unless she is bound with her arms in a suitable position, clicking “crawl over” will fail as she can’t get her arms in front of her.

Tip #1c. Everytime you unlock your sub, do check the message that is displayed in chat. That confirms that you were the last person to lock her, and at what time. If that time is different from what you remembered, beware – mayhap your sub is cleverer and naughtier than you think! And if your sub has reached the Slave Circle, you have the additional option of reviewing her lock history, which gives historic details of who locked/unlocked her, at what time and so on.

Go on, have fun!

Luv, Lulu Ludovico