Heralding Aulë (the) Finesmith

I have the alt Aule Finesmith now. This solved three problems for me:

Problem one: when one account gets so busy and in demand that Second Life becomes more like a second job, it's time to make a new account just for having fun. I'd spent so much time that I wasn't even posting to this blog for months.

Problem two: in the Builders of Arda sims, where I role play the J.R.R.Tolkien character Aulë the Smith, there are many sims where I need land rights or group rights to play my role effectively. The owners and organizers are more than happy to grant me those right, but I need open groups because of
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Limits

Groups:
* Max. # of groups you can belong to - 25
o Roles within groups are sort of like sub-groups. In many cases, you can use them instead of creating new groups.
* Min. # of members in a group - 2
o A group with only 1 person for 48 hours will be disbanded (cancelled). Unless the group owns land.
* Max. # of roles allowed in a group - 10 (including "Owners" and "Everyone", which can't be deleted)

Problem three: when your name is "Arth Karas", but the other players are supposed to remember to call you "Aulë" regularly and with some respect, you want to make it easy for them. Notecards, IM and floating text over the avatars heads are fine, but matching the role to the avatar name is even better.

Opportunity: When I saw new players using the last name "Finesmith", I located where I could register it using the SL name search website, and made Aulë right away. The name was too perfect to overlook.

Since I make most of my own clothes, skins and attachments now, it's been easy to make Aule a mirror of Arth as Aulë. Many players hardly notice the change right away, except as Aule befriends them.


I'll gradually wean Arth out of Arda, so he can continue operating in the rest of Second Life while Aulë has fun being a Tolkien fan in the Arda sims and forums.

Exchange Herald Resolved

The reply to my query arrived February 1:

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We have solved your issue
Solution:

Hello Arth Karas,

Thank you for contacting us with your query.

There are billing and trading limits that apply to all accounts based on the billing age.

The billing age starts from when you added a valid payment method and made your first purchase. This could be a membership fee or a small purchase of L$ on the Second Life LindeX (this does not include third party exchanges).

Your limits will increase as your billing age grows. You can see what your billing age is by going on the website: http://secondlife.com/currency/describe-limits.php
Your limit will be highlighted in blue in the Monthly Resident Limits table.
To know your exact age, please refer to your Account Statements, still on the Second Life website and you will see when your first transaction was made.

The limits are in place for fraud and security purposes and a tier review cannot be submitted until your billing age reaches 30 days.

If you have any further queries, then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

Aurelie OT
Linden Lab Support

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I still choose not to buy a premium membership at all, but that $10 US$ purchase would satisfy the Labs purchase requirement to sell L$ for US$.

What I will probably do is this:

1) wait till my Linden balance is large enough to warrant extraction. Besides, conditions and polcies might change to something more favorable for me int eh meantime.

2) Buy 6475 L$ for 25.30 US$ (the minimum), including $0.30 US$ transaction fee and the current exchange rate.

3) Wait 30 days for my ability to sell to kick in.

4) Sell 6475 L$ for 23.21 US$, including a fee of 3.5% and the current sell rate of 269 L/US . I'll take my other L out, too, that this time.

5) Transfer the US$ now on my Linden account to PayPal. Fee, each time this is done: $1.00. Fewer large transactions is cheaper than many small ones.

Total cost to activate Linden Dollar extraction: $3.09, or less then half a month of premium Second Life.