Well hello everyone! I have not written here for so long but today I feel I must and set the record straight on something very big in my SL life.
I, along with 3 wonderful sl friends have been the managers and owners of Buffys Cove and its small sister Island Pollo over the last two years. Sadly I made the announcement recently that as the owners here, we would be leaving. What that really means is we have decided to stop paying rent here and we are moving on. The Islands will go back to sand to be built on by whoever decides to rent them off ACS.
There are reasons but there is one main reason why this has occurred and I need to outline the truth. After all, we had an owners meeting just before Christmas where we had all agreed we would obligate ourselves to another year as owners here.
Buffys was about to be deserted by its original builder over two years ago and since this person was a good sl friend of mine and had offered me some beautiful opportunities, I felt I had a duty to save it. I truly loved the Island as so many of you do. Eventually we had four of us who agreed to pay real dollars into this place to keep it going.
This person told us they were leaving sl forever and of course also wanted us to save their beautiful build. This person left many items of his on the island for us to use so we could retain the character of what the Island was and meant.
To allow items to be saved in a build, you must belong to a single group. Our group was called Buffys Holdings and was originally set up by the original owner. I had been a member of this group for at least a year before taking over Buffys and part of my deal was that I wanted to be the builder on the island while also being one of the owners. I have built many like this island myself and I wanted to retain the original feel and brilliance of what this person had created.
An amazing builder and mutual friend of mine supplied the Palms and the Animals on the Island to the original owner. He also had to be left in the group so his things did not do the disappearing trick after our set 7-minute time out. This is why we left the group in tact. I had no idea that we would see the original owner ever come back into sl! We as the 4 owners allowed people like the original owner full control and these people could literally come along and return or delete everything on Buffys. This is still possible by the way! We trusted that the Island, since we paid for it, would be respected by all. How wrong we were!
The Island cost us to rent off ACS over $120 American dollars a month, Pollo half that. That is a grand total of around $190 US dollars a month or somewhere around 50000 Linden. Gray, my beautiful business partner in sl paid for one quarter of Buffys and all of Pollo! How amazingly unselfish this man is! We have both put thousands of real dollars into this place. Can you say you have done this sort of thing too?
I am a hairdresser in rl so getting the money together was a bit hard sometimes, however when people came up and told us they loved the place as they sometimes did, I felt my little hobby was more than justified. At other times when they came to attack me for all sorts of reasons I felt sl was the worst hobby in the world and I would go to the beach rl instead. However we continued on.
Recently we heard that the original owner was to come back. I was overjoyed and put out a notecard to all in the Buffys Holding group announcing his/her return. Early conversations this person had with Gray said that they would pay for and take over the half sim Pollo. I was totally over the moon with this.
I saw the person soon after in world and went to see them. I saw no interest in Pollo from them and I soon realised this person had purchased another small quarter sim next to Pollo and Buffys.
This person told me and another that they wanted to change over the plants and adjust the cliffs on Buffys. We went to an area in sl and actually purchased plants for this reason. I felt I wanted some control as this person pays nothing towards our Islands!
As I followed her along like some apprentice builder, I soon gathered they wanted to control Buffys as the owner again.
I offered this person Buffys back right there and then. I said I was happy to withdraw and let them take it back over but, no, while they wanted control, they did not want to pay for any of it. I felt like I had been a caretaker and a surrogate owner. The entire fabric of what Buffys meant to me did fall over at this moment of realisation. My heart sank to the deepest depths.
The next day I came back in I found items added into Pollo and Buffys. Furniture, Plants, Signs, and even a large bridge blocking the sea made me freak out. I have total respect for this person so I was not about to return them. I wanted a peaceful solution. I was confused and very hurt.
Without warning I would get a tp summoning me to wherever this person was. No hi, or hello! Just a tp offer. This is not how I operate but I did go and ask her to refrain from adding anything to our Islands until we had spoken to the Owners group collectively.
This was agreed by this person but coming in every time saw more changes, even the Whale on the main beach had been turned around! Then I noticed all the landscaping had been changed and then worse, a massive trench had been dug outside the main beach area of Buffys. I honestly felt like I had no control. My sand features all needed repair and anyone who knows terrafirming in sl would realise how heartbreaking it was for me after the work I had put in.
Over the course of all this happening I would let Gray know. I don’t want to speak for him but I could see he was getting so tired of it all. We felt like the last two years we have been used and now he/she is back, we mean nothing. We may pay for Buffys and Pollo but we are at the mercy of this person.
Only yesterday I walked onto a prim that sometimes loses its firmness and decided to simply swap it over. Imagine my surprise when the ex owner questioned me over this.
He/she wasn't even on my land! Why don’t people understand it is not his/her Island anymore, he/she just loaned us some parts!
I don’t go into my neighbors and ask them why they threw out some leftovers? I pointed out to this person how could I ever feel like I am the owner/builder here if I can’t even adjust 1 Prim on my Island without being scrutinized? Why do people pay real money of their own to sl to offer a free beautiful area to others only to be scorned upon by others?
I have not logged in since. I was so hurt and disgusted.
What most long term visitors to these Islands think is that nothing much has changed apart from what I have added in. The truth is I have adjusted and painstakingly moved nearly every last prim on Buffys and adjusted the terrafirming at nearly every point to make the Island better visually. When I first went there you could not even walk in the village.
I am not much into abstract design where as the original owner is. One look at their new rock will prove what I mean. I went all over Buffys to improve it and I am totally proud of what I have done. If you could see a layout of how it looked to now, there are major changes that have taken place while the basic layout has remained.
Gray and the rest of us are simply worn out from all of this. It is just no fun anymore. Some of my so-called sl friends have already totally turned on me. I have been called everything you could ever think of. A Liar, Paranoid, Hateful, and told simply to go to hell by one individual. Well, if this is friendship after what we did at Buffys, then THIS IS HELL and I don’t intend to stay!
A beautiful friend said to me today, why pay to suffer pain. I ask you all, would you pay for a hobby that hurt you?
You people who have been so quick to judge and so quick to desert the owners here should be ashamed and if you don’t know much on the real workings of sl, I suggest you learn quickly before uttering total lies to others in world.
I wanted to explain to everyone what happened in a group note but Gray just wants to let it all go and asked me not to 'air the dirty laundry'. A friend suggested I write this and to be honest it has been a great release for me. Just so you know, even as late as two days ago, after all this has happened, I spoke to Gray about carrying on but he is over it. I have every note, every transaction detailed so at least I know the TRUTH.
Finally, as Buffys as it was known and so beautifully loved and enjoyed vanishes, I would like to thank all those people who have supported the truth, and have supported me. I will never forget you and all I can say is Karma will judge everyone involved in the demise of Buffys.
If you feel ready to take a shot at me, I really hope your real life Karma is ready for that.
If you feel you have a right to say I am wrong then may you suffer what will come your way.
We never charged a fee, we never had a toll, we only wanted a place of beauty and peace in sl you all could enjoy without griefing and lag. We did what we said we would do. Recent events have made it impossible to carry on.
Now after reading this and you think I didn't love the former owner here, then be sure to read all my posts. You will hopefully wonder like I do why I have been treated as I have.
And if you are one of those that have ever attacked me, then I know you must be so terrible and low in rl that I don’t want to know who you are.
Hope your days are blessed in both worlds.
Peace and Love to you all from a bloodied and hurt and largely forgotten Teresa Korhonen.
