One Year Later

It was a year ago that Dana Vanmoer and JamesT Juno announced their departure from Second Life, and with it, the newspaper they ran, Second Life Newspaper, came to a close. We the staff had been given some advance notice, and after some talk, the decision was made for one of us to start another paper. Second Life Newspaper’s manager: myself.

It wasn’t a decision I made lightly. We would be starting over again, and there’d have to be a number of decisions made. We would need revenue. We would need some kind of virtually physical presence on the Grid. Fortunately, we had help from the beginning. Sunweaver Air had some longtime friends of mine whom offered a land sponsorship and a building. And so we had our office. It wasn’t just prims. It was a symbol that we were a presence in Second Life. Eventually, we had a cash sponsor as well, the Podex Exchange.

Second Life Newser hit the ground running. It was barely a week old when the “Restructuring” hit Linden Lab, a third of the Lindens, including some popular ones such as Blue and Teagan were given pink slips. We would continue to report on events such as M Linden’s stepping down as CEO and Philip taking charge again for a little while, Second Life’s Seventh Birthday, “Emeraldgate” and the falling apart of what had once been the top third party viewer, Philip Linden stepping down and being replaces by Rod Humble/Rodvik Linden, the RedZone controversy followed by the removal of its controversial product and it’s creator from the Grid, the Relay for Life, and more.

We did more than just report the big news. We reported on smaller more local events from sim anniversaries, to sports events, to combat roleplays, to tributes, and more. We reported on various places, such as the Madpea gaming place, to Book Island, to China Tang, The Shelter, and many others. And of course various people in Second Life from comedian Lauren Weyland, to the kid avies of the SL Kids, the tinies of Raglan Shire, Tuna Oddfellow of his psychedelic “Odd Ball,” to the whimsical “bronies,” and more.

Reporting the news big and small.

We’ve had a few setbacks along the way. A few of our number had to stop writing for health reasons, personal reasons, or real life demanding full attention. But we’ve had another join our ranks.

But Second Life Newser has accomplished much. It has attracted and maintained a widespread following of readers. Much of our readership is outside the United States. Not just Europe and Australia, but we’ve found hits from Latin America, Asia, Russia and the Middle East as well. For instance, from May 9 to June 7 2011, we’ve had 121 hits from Luxembourg alone. Despite it’s government’s censorship, we’ve gotten seventy-three hits from Iran in the same time period.

So where do we go from here? Continue doing what we do best, report the news. Second Life’s Eighth Birthday is just a few weeks from now, and sometime soon comes the much-anticipated Mesh update to the Grid. Then there will be events completely unforeseen at this time. Perhaps another troublemaker along the lines of Team Emerald and zFire Xue. Whatever happens, we’ll be there.

And of course, we’ll continue to write about more local events, and the people and places.

For me personally, it’s been an interesting challenge. It’s been a lot of work keeping the newspaper up. But it’s also been fun. And the praises and complements we’ve received are truly touching.

Thank you for your continued support and well wishes.

Here’s to another year of bringing you the news of Second Life.

Bixyl Shuftan