(en) Covenant

The Covenant is the law of the land in the Wastelands Estate within Second Life. It is the binding agreement all landowners must agree to. The table of contents is here so you can skip to the parts of the covenant that interest you most. It is suggested you read the whole thing. This covenant is broken down into sections. This is a somewhat long document, but it's written in layman's terms so anyone can understand. :)

About the Wastelands Estate

The Wastelands is the oldest and the largest post apocalyptic themed residential estate within Second Life. We cater to like minded individuals who are tired of the pristine beaches, immaculate prefab homes, and "shiny objects" that is the majority of the Second Life experience. Somewhat dystopian, and inspired by all manner of post apocalyptic influences; The Wastelands are home to some of the most beautiful "ugly things" on the grid, all thanks to the community that dwells and grows here! You will find no place like it on the grid. To build something broken is much harder than to build something whole.

A brief history; The Wastelands was conceived at the end of 2006, plans were made, and the first group of residents claimed their land on January 19th, 2007. Ever since then we've experienced tremendous growth into the large estate you see today. With each sim added, we've tried to touch up on a different post apocalyptic environment or sub-theme. For more information about sub-themes here in The Wastelands, please check out Section 5.

Individual Sim Opening Dates:

• (R) The Wastelands 01-19-07
• (R) The Junkyard 03-10-07
• (R) The Great Fissure 06-14-07
• (R) Fort Stygian 09-03-07
• (H) Burnt Oak 01-17-08
• (H) North Yard 01-17-08
• (H) Cormac 01-17-08
• (H) Ashvasta 01-17-08
• (R) Hambone Slash 03-27-08
• (H) Kronbelt 05-08-08
• (R) Malady Bog 06-06-08
• (R) Bloodmoss Swamp 07-08-08

(R) is a Regular 15000 prims sim.

(H) is a Homstead 3750 prims sim.

The Core Rules

Much thought was put into the "Core Rules" of The Wastelands, most were birthed from the regular undesirable behaviors and activities that we've all experienced at some point within Second Life. These rules apply to everyone in the estate, residents, visitors, and developers alike.

The Core Rules:

1. Visitors and Residents who do not read the covenant are not exempt from the rules of this covenant. If you don't like the rules of this covenant, it would probably be better if you went someplace that you enjoy. If you repeatedly or intentionally break the rules of this covenant, you'll find yourself ejected, temporarily, or permanently banned from the estate.
2. Be Friendly! We're all real people behind the avatars that represent us. If you don't get along with someone the best option is to just mute them. The developers won't resolve disputes between people unless it breaks other rules of the covenant.
3. This is not a Role Play Enforced estate. The Wastelands makes for a good setting and environment for role play, but role play will NEVER be mandatory. Role play here is considered opt-in, and unless you want to participate, just be yourself. There is a large role play community here who have been using the mythos in the link below for role play if you're interested. It's the general consensus that if you choose to role play, but are role playing something entirely different than the rest of the community, you'll be considered off "doing your own thing" or OOC. Please do not contact a developer about anything RP, as we won't assist you because this is not an RP enforced estate.
4. Outside weapons or objects that are used on residents or visitors without their consent are strictly forbidden, as well as anything that causes any sort of distress, be it auditory, visual or just a general annoyance; It's not allowed. We have our own opt-in games and combat system in place that is cheap, if not free to play.
5. Yes this is a Mature sim, but that doesn't mean there aren't standards in place. The rule of thumb here is keep your underwear on. Male and female avatars can go topless if they want. Genitals are not to be exposed on the estate at any time. That means that there is also NO SEX on these sims. If you wanna get your fuck on, there's the other 99% of the Second Life grid you can visit. I'll let the quote do the talking: "Seriously, The Wastelands is the only non-"dark eroticism", non-movie-based RP sim I know of. Maybe there's a steampunk one or something, but I got f'ing tired of looking." -- Perriwinkle Waves
6. Come as you are. There is no dress code for the estate, aside from the standards outlined in core rule five. My Little Ponies are just as welcome here as Rust Giants.

The Responsibilities of the Wastelander

Excellent! So you've decided to be come a resident of The Wastelands, a Wastelander. Not to sound scary or anything, but what you do, and how you behave reflects on the yourself and community of the Wastelands as a whole. This section is mostly clarifications on the needs of the estate and your cooperation to make this place as welcoming and awesome as it is.

Keep it in theme

As a themed residential estate, it is important that all the builds on the estate fall within theme. Our theme here is Post Apocalyptic, that means the "feel" of anything you build on your land should be based on the events after a hypothetical apocalypse. Broken buildings, scrap make shift homes and caves are the norms here. Since no one has experienced a real apocalypse, this leaves room for imagination and experimentation in a free form almost art-like environment. Please try to make your builds fit within the sub theme of each sim. For example, junk huts and hollowed out plane fuselages in The Junkyard, rotten reed huts in the Swamps. That being said please don't take it upon yourself to judge what is and what is not in theme on the estate. It only causes problems. It is the responsibility of the developers to guide and help people make their builds fit within theme. Your responsibility to theme is your build, and if you ever need help feel free to ask a neighbor or developer. Our community is strong and willing to teach and help, if you're willing to listen.

Terraform responsibly

It is imperative that you do not terraform right up to the property lines. Please leave a two to four meter buffer of unaltered land around your property. It is important because if you have a neighbor, you can unknowingly alter their land or even return a portion of their build if you terraform right up to the property line, but you won't have the ability to fix it. Please to not dig a 100 meter hole, or create a 100 meter tall mountain. While it is tempting at times, steep declines or inclines of land create "land static". Land static is what happens at the base, or at the top of the land when there is a sudden drop of land without any smoothing in between. It looks like sharp or spikey land that seems unrepairable, but with effort and care it can be fixed. If your land or neighboring land looks jagged or spikey, please contact a developer for assistance. We'll work with you to fix this.

Work with us

Because The Wastelands hosts game content as well as a role play environment, I ask that you please keep the following options set on your land for the benefit of the entire community:

If you have auto return enabled, please set it to greater than five minutes so the WLv* game elements can pass over your property without being returned.

Please allow "Object Entry" and "Run Scripts" for All Residents, in your About Land > Options. That way visitors or residents passing over your land in vehicles don't get ejected or crashed.

Please leave Voice enabled on your land on the estate spatial channel.

Finally, About Land > Access *NEEDS* to be set to "Allow Public Access". Broad ban lines within the estate are not allowed, but please feel free to ban individuals on a case by case basis.

Be tidy

If at all possible, please set the auto return on your land to five minutes or more. With as many visitors as we get, sometimes cars get lodged in buildings due to poor region crossing or any other similar issue. Because of all the sand, some people think that the estate is a sandbox, and will rez all manner of items here. Having auto return enabled helps with the clean up. If you operate a shop here in The Wastelands, auto return *MUST* be enabled on your plot.

• WARNING* If your land is deeded or set to group, and the objects are not also set to the same group when you enable auto return, those objects will be returned to their owners. Please make sure your objects are set to the proper group that your land is deeded or set to before you enable auto return!

Be considerate of your neighbors

Try not to build right up to, or over your property lines. No one likes being fenced in by a build. If you choose to have objects that frequently make noise on your property, please consider using the option "Restrict spatialized sound to the parcel" so your neighbor isn't slowly driven to a homicidal rampage featured on channel four news. :)

Keep tack of your tier. Please make a note on your calendar when your tier is due next. If you fail to pay, I WILL have to reclaim your land, not because I want to, but because I must. It is the only fair way.

The Shop Rules

The Wastelands is primarily a residential estate, but The Wastelands is the birthplace of all things broken and "junked up" on the grid. Why not let the wastes infect the rest of the grid? :) If you choose to operate a shop, your shop and vendors must appear post apocalyptic. Your shop must be an enclosed structure with walls and a roof, anything less will be considered a yard sale. Shops must be on the ground, and not in sky boxes. The things for sale in your shop must also be post apocalyptic, if they can be considered such. Services, sounds, gestures, animations might fall outside of this rule. You may have ONE guest vendor regardless of how much land you own, their content must also fall within the covenant rules. If more than one friend wants to have a shop in the Wastelands, they must own some land here. If you are selling skins the images for those skins you're selling must have the naughty bits covered up as per the Core Rule #5.

Be sensible

While we do allow pretty much anything to be built on your land within the theme, there are a few things that are not allowed on the estate. This is the No List:

No Casinos, No Camping Chairs, No Clubs, No Security Systems, No Yard Sales, No Big Ugly Signs, No Land For Sale Signs, No Temp Rezzers or "Prim savers", No First Life Religion or Politics, No Scamming, No Racial Slurs or Hate Speech, No Broad Ban Lines, No Sex.

The Rights of the Wastelander

As a paying resident (Wastelander), the estate managers are here to help you should you ever need it. This section will outline everything you're entitled to when you live in The Wastelands.

You're entitled to be involved or as uninvolved in The Wastelands as you want

If you're brave enough to run weekly or occasional events here in the Wastelands please feel free to do so. We all thrive on the activities and things to do here. You can choose to play the games, or role play. That is part of what makes the Wastelands so great! On the other hand, you don't have to attend any of these events, role play, or play the games. You should never feel obligated to do anything here in the Wastelands. As a resident, we want you to be as comfortable as possible. If sitting in a cave all day alone makes you happy, go for it. If you do run events, make sure you post them on our calendar! http://forums.the-wastelands.org/calendar.php

You have the right to a stable and low lag estate

We make no absolute promises about the availability or performance of the estate, but we do promise we will try to make it as low lag, and as stable as we can. Second Life Grid is utterly out of our hands, but we will do our best with what we have. We will restart sims as needed, make phone calls to concierge, and work with residents who have laggy items to improve the quality of life here. We've got a two year long track record of great performance here. This is what separates us from the unmanaged blight known as the mainland.

A Wastelander is entitled to non-themed enforced areas

You may build any non-theme structures above 512m.

You may sell your land

Unlike some estates that add you to a list of group shared land, you are the technical owner of the land here in the Wastelands (as long as your meter is paid). You have all the abilities that you would owning a parcel of mainland, from changing media and audio streams, to terraforming. If you choose to sell your land, we'll help you as best as we can. We want you to leave the estate, as easily as you came to the estate. Here's a handy guide.

Wastelanders may sublease land if they own a cumulative 3750 prims across the entirety of the estate, and with the written approval of estate management. Your sublease residents also must adhere to the same covenant here.

The right to be heard

You have the right to have your complaints and compliments about the estate heard and addressed Feel free to contact us (see below), or bring it up for discussion on our forums (again see below).

All Wastelanders are entitled to help where applicable. (See Below)

Sub Theme of the Sims

The Wastelands estate is made up of many connected simulators in Second Life. All of them follow the over arching theme of the post apocalypse, but each sim has a sub theme, lore, and technical notes associated with it. Wastelanders should try to make their builds fit the sub theme of the sim they live on.

The Wastelands

The Wastelands is the ruins of a small town, some of the streets are intact. The proper theme would be suburban post apocalypse, remnants of mom and pop shops as well as various homes and places built from scrap materials. The land in this sim is terraformable. =====

The Junkyard

A great highway overpass goes right over the Junkyard from the Wastelands and to the east. The Junkyard is a tad more industrial than The Wastelands sim but along the same sub-theme, more structures are built from junk salvaged from The Junkyard itself. The land in this sim is terraformable. =====

The Great Fissure

The Great Fissure was caused by the accident in Fort Stygian. A giant fissure tears through the center of this sim. Over time the locals have set up residences there. The Great Fissure has little bit of hometown, and sort of a more wilderness theme, as there aren't many structures that lasted through the earthquake. The land in this sim is terraformable.

Fort Stygian

Fort Stygian is where an ancient military conducted experiments, and brought ruin to everything in the region. The land is broken and a fiery cauldron of magma is the final resting place of the last experiment. It's always oddly still like a lake on a beautiful day. Builds here should be a bit more fortified to deal with the conditions (ruined military-esque), or fresh camps for those that dwell in the region. The land in this sim is terraformable.

Malady Bog, and Bloodmoss Swamp

Think of the darkest, most diseased, deadest swamp you can think of. Now put some mutant vegetation that thrives on the swamp itself in there. You'll have Malady Bog, and Bloodmoss Swamp. Malady Bog is composed of swampland, and as such most builds should either be heavily sunken buildings with vegetation overgrowth, tribal swamp huts, odd projects with catwalks, or small boats. The land in these sims is *NOT* terraformable.

Help, Service and Operations

The Developers of the Wastelands are passionate about the estate. We manage the estate and the community, and create game content and infrastructure. We've all worked real jobs as content developers, event managers, and customer support within Second Life as well. We do what we do here because we love it. This is our escape, where we come to develop bleeding edge things within Second Life. We have the talent, the ability, and the drive to make this the best estate on the grid. We would never do or allow anything to harm the estate. That being said, it's time to get down to basic estate operation, legal issues, and what if scenarios.

The entire estate is solely owned by NeoBokrug Elytis (That's me!). While a democratic rule would seem ideal in the estate, I have to run the estate as an authoritative figure. I do listen to the residents and other developers, and make improvements based on suggestions as time passes, but ultimately it's my money and time on the line. If everyone voted that they should have free tier, the estate wouldn't last a day. So as the owner and leader of this estate, I promise to use fair judgment as much as possible.

The estate model here is based off of Linden Lab's tier model, in that you pay a certain amount of money per month to use certain server resources. When you own land on the mainland, your name is affixed to the land, and you get control of that land as long as you keep paying for the tier on that land. If you stop paying for tier, Linden Lab will reclaim your land and auction it off. The same rules apply here, except you will be paying me instead of Linden Lab, because I am already paying Linden Lab the costs of running the simulators each month. And if you stop paying tier here, regretfully I will have to reclaim your land and sell it to the next person who wants it. Linden Lab will not cut me any sort of break on my tier, so I am afraid I cannot cut you any sort of break on yours. I do allow a three day overage before I reclaim land, but if it's abused too often, I will and should reclaim your land the minute the meter is up.

I use a tier meter system here in The Wastelands. Once you own land you'll be informed where you can find your meter, how to pay it to extend your time, and other things. Currently, I *ONLY* accept linden dollar payments directly to the tier meters. No paypal, no direct payments, nothing else. You can have as little as one day on your meter, or as much as twelve weeks paid up. Brand new residents initially must have four weeks minimum on the meter.

To continue to hold land in the Wastelands, you must pay a monthly fee, referred to as tier. You do not need a premium Second Life account to hold land here in The Wastelands, because I am already paying Linden Lab the fees for the sims. Land you hold here, will NOT count towards your Second Life billed tier. Linden Lab uses the model based on square meters owned. It's a bit deceiving and confusing if you're new to it. I've simplified it by using prim counts as how much you'll have to pay. You can find out how many prims a land supports by navigating to About Land > Objects. Primitives parcel supports is what you're looking for.

THERE ARE NO REFUNDS
THERE ARE NO REFUNDS

Linden Lab does not refund any of my tier payments to them, I cannot afford to issue out refunds of any form because of this. If you are afraid you're going to lose your land because you're going on vacation next week, pay a few weeks in advance. That is the only way to guarantee you'll have your land when you get back.

THERE ARE NO REFUNDS
THERE ARE NO REFUNDS

Escape clause: Should there ever be a day where the sims have to close down, due to say lack of residents, Second Life folds, or the apocalypse (irony!), I will do my best to compensate remaining residents, but this is NOT a guarantee. As I stated earlier there are no refunds. But If I have to sell the sims one day, I'll try to split the proceeds between who is left.

Et Cetera

Obviously we cannot for see and address every possible situation that this covenant could or doesn't cover. I think all of the rules here are pretty easy going, and that the only reason they're written down, is so that I can occasionally refer people to them. We'll do our best to adapt the covenant to new situations as needed, but I want the general spirit of the estate to be: "Have a good time, and play nice."

Thank You

Desmond Shang: For the encouragement and advice that got us off the ground and airborne. Your class and tact are unrivaled.
The Devs: For volunteering as much spare time as you have with only the thanks of the residents and myself to show for it. I pray some day that karma rewards you all.
Gutterblood Spoonhammer: For your unending pursuit to make Second Life a more efficient, vibrant and realistic place. Thanks for first person to run with me and my insane Post Apocalyptic sim idea.
Spider Mandala: For your initial connections, and rally cry for all that was to be what we are now. The days on Gibson developing salvage. You are a true SL fan to stick with SL this long.
Ash Garden: For keeping me sane and dealing with the insane on a regular basis. I miss your Asylum.
Makaio Stygian: For all you've done for the Wastelands, the code help, the potato farm, and all the small things you do. You still are the most talented person in Second Life.
Integral Danton (AKA Warren Ellis): For bringing the attention of the grid at large to the Wastelands. Without your word of mouth, we would not be here.
Sandling Honey: For being the first trader of salvage, the bravest to attempt to bring RP to the Wastelands, and the first neutral non-combatant in the Wastelands.
Sandusky Kayvon: For your endless ideas, suggestions, and commitment to the Wastes as a whole. Thank you for organizing The PA Press and more.
Giuseppe Spicoli: For repeatedly being the "Main Event" here in the Wastelands, you will forever be our Bob Barker.
Most importantly The Wastelanders: Without the Wastelanders this estate would not be. The tens of thousands of man hours the community as a whole spends here clearly shows through our builds, events, and much more. We're so much more than an estate now, we're a huge community represented through the estate. I am forever grateful to each and every one of you who helped my initial idea flourish.
And finally, Henry Bemis: For your unending devotion to reading, even after the bomb fell.