Looking Back At The Newser: The First Years, 2010-2013 (2022)

 

The Second Life Newser is a publication with quite a history, fifteen years. That's quite a lot to look back over. In 2022, Bixyl took a look at the Newser's first few years. Starting from a team of four reporters fresh from the recently closed Second Life Newspaper, the Newser would win the confidence of readers and advertisers alike and soon become a force in journalism covering the people, places, and events in Second Life (with occasional nods to our sponsors). But much of what it covered was a Linden Lab that seemed increasingly unable or unwilling to understand it's virtual world's users.

Read the 2022 overview of 2010 to 2013 in Extra. 

Looking Back At The Newser: The First Years, 2010-2013 (2022)

 

In a few days, the Newser will have an anniversary party to celebrate 14 years of reporting the news across Second Life. But one might ask how did things go when it first started? Well, we hit the ground running. Within a week, we had some BIG stories to report on, and the news kept coming. In 2022, we wrote on how it was for our first few years. Quite a bit had happened.

 

Read the article from 2022 in Extra. 

Looking Back At The Newser: The First Years, 2010-2013 (2022)

 

The Second Life Newser is a publication with a long history, twelve years. That's quite a lot to look back on. In this article, Editor and head writer Bixyl Shuftan takes a look at the Newser's first few years. Starting from a team of four reporters fresh from the recently closed Second Life Newspaper, the Newser would win the confidence of readers and advertisers alike and soon become a force in journalism covering the people, places, and events in Second Life (with occasional nods to our sponsors). But much of what it covered was a Linden Lab that seemed increasingly unable or unwilling to understand it's virtual world's users.

Read the overview of 2010 to 2013 (written in 2022) in Extra.

Looking Back At The Newser: The First Years, 2010-2013

 

The Second Life Newser is a publication with a long history, twelve years. That's quite a lot to look back on. In his article for today, Editor and head writer Bixyl Shuftan will take a look at the Newser's first few years. Starting from a team of four reporters fresh from the recently closed Second Life Newspaper, the Newser would win the confidence of readers and advertisers alike and soon become a force in journalism covering the people, places, and events in Second Life (with occasional nods to our sponsors). But much of what it covered was a Linden Lab that seemed increasingly unable or unwilling to understand it's virtual world's users.

Read the overview of 2010 to 2013 in Extra.
 

SL Video : "Raglan Shire Talent Show - 2012 "

(Click Here if the video fails to play)

Posted on Dec 2012 by "Nitwacket"

Commentary: Who Else Would Have Gotten "Man of the Year?"

By Bixyl Shuftan

The "Man of the Year" will be an article we hope to be doing this time of year from here on. We've gotten a few complements on it (thank you). Though there was a question raised: Who would have won if the Newser had done this from it's first year?

For 2010, the winner would likely have been people whom sadly had lost their jobs. The news that Linden Lab had given 30% of their workforce, including some popular Lindens, shook the Second Life community like few things ever had. People began wondering if the Grid was on a downward slump it couldn't recover from. That some popular Lindens such as Blue and Teegan were given pink slips gave others the impression the people in charge were sending a message to the others: "No fraternization with the masses." So the title would probably have gone to "The 30%." Others whom would have been in the running include Jessica Lyon for organizing Team Phoenix which created what would be Second Life's most popular viewer, Team Emerald for demonstrating how *not* to run a Third Party Viewer team with their hacking of a critic's website and the outright defiance against Linden Lab that led to the banning of a number of members. and Philip Linden / Philip Rosedale for coming back for a few months as interim CEO.

For 2011, the probable winner of the title would have been the new CEO Rodvik Linden / Rod Humble. His arrival with years of experience in the computer gaming industry gave many residents hope that Linden Lab was back on track. Others whom figured large in the news included zFire Xue for his controversial RedZone that raised many privacy fears, and for being among the few whom went to prison as a result of his activities inworld, Battlestar Galactica roleplayers for successfully negotiating with the real-life Universal corporation and being able to continue their games and therfore providing a precedent for similar groups in future years, Ozimal and Ammaretto for the lawsuit filed by the former on the latter (pointless in the opinion of the writer) which Ammaretto would eventually win, and Second Life's "pony" fans for introducing a new type of avatar and a new community that despite their first sims being taken down due to griefers soon bounced back and was on the Grid to stay.

2012's most influential newsmakers, and therefore whom would have been the collective "Man of the Year," were probably the SL9B team. When Linden Lab announced that they would no longer be sponsoring the event and suggested the various communities hold their own celebrations, various residents refused to take the news lying down and instead banded together to organize it themselves. Second Life's Ninth Birthday proved that while Linden Lab may have provided the software and the sims, it was the residents that truly made Second Life what it is. Other newsmakers included Crap Mariner for his publicizing SL9B with his series of videos, Rodvik Linden for his decisions such as new games and platforms for the Lab such as the "Patterns" game, Qarl Fizz (formerly Qarl Linden) for his work on the mesh deformer, and the Star Trek Community for successfully negotiating with Paramount to be able to continue their roleplays in Second Life.

2013 was dominated by two controversies, both about Second Life's Terms of Service. One was about third-party Linden exchangers, which Linden Lab tried to ban. While most folded, the Podex Exchange headed by Jacek Shuftan remained open, saying they had a duty to their customers and tried to talk to the Lab. But the Lab would not listen to him and temporarily gave him the boot. It was ultimately up to the Second Life masses whom rose up at once in protests, many threatening to leave, who got Linden Lab to partially back down and allow third party exchangers to remain (but not buy Lindens back). So for his work Jacek Shuftan would have gotten runner-up. The second controversy was the longer lasting Terms of Service Content creator controversy, of which the opposition was organized under the United Content Creators of Second Life group, founded and headed by Kylie Sabra. Despite that Linden Lab wouldn't budge until the following year under a new CEO, Kylie Sabra's efforts would have gotten her "Woman of the Year" for 2013. Others in the running would have included Tuna Oddfellow for his protesting the ToS issue by moving his performances to the InWorldz Grid, which spurred numerous others to take a look at the alternative virtual world, the SL10B team for organizing the effort to celebrate the Grid's tenth anniversary, and the Relay for Life volunteers for their "100 Years of Hope" season which celebrated the American Cancer Society's centennial.

Just as we take a look back to see whom made a difference in Second Life in the past, the Newser team looks forward to spreading the news about who does so in the future.

Bixyl Shuftan

A Collection of Relay Weekend 2012 Pictures

For Relayers whom are feeling a little bit of a letdown from the season ending, some might find a collection of pictures by Softpaw Sommer a refreshing look back. Softpaw, the fae kittygirl of Steelhead, had taken over three hundred screenshots of  the RFL track during the Relay Weekend from 2012, including of the Kremlin-like "Pug Palace" pictured above.

http://www.softpaw.org/LJimages/SL/RFL2012a/index.html

2012: The Year in Review

For Second Life, 2012 had it's triumphs, stumbles, and events that could be considered something of both. From the SL9B, to Premium perks, to Linden Lab policy changes, to "Pathfinding" and "Patterns," there were a number of impacts big and small, for better and for worse.

For Second Life, 2012 might be known as the year Linden Lab began to put a little distance between itself and the residents. Gone were the yearly events of old organized by the Lindens where residents could meet up with them, such as the "Kiss a Linden" at Valentines Day and the official Winterfest and the Linden Snowball Fight. Linden Lab also declined to organize it's official birthday event, instead suggesting the various communities hold their own celebrations. The response from the residents was to organize their own SL9B event, which had a better attendance than the one before. For the Second Life Community Convention, it was a different story. Linden Lab didn't announce until late that they wouldn't contribute a dime, and so the organizers a AvaCon canceled it. Later on, they announced there were plans in the works for a similar convention in 2013, but there would also be "OpenSim and other platforms."

2012 also marked the revealing of two projects of Linden Lab that were completely separate from Second Life. One was Creatorverse, an iPad application. The other was "Patterns," a sandbox virtual world in which both the avatar and the environment were made up of triangles. Critics compared the first to an old crayon game and even those who liked the second felt it had an obvious similarity to the popular "Minecraft." "Patterns" has yet to be released past it's alpha version. 2013 will determine how successful it is. These new projects seemed to mark something of a culture shift in the Lab, from the creators of the Metaverse to "shared creative spaces." But the message to the residents was clear: Second Life would no longer be Linden Lab's sole focus. It was a message some took badly.

Linden Lab continued to offer gifts to Premium subscribers in the form of gifts such as a mesh airplane and a few new areas exclusive to Premium accounts. No one but the Lindens seemed to think they could make a difference in bringing in subscribers. Linden Lab also announced the development of Pathfinding and other "Creator Tools." Direct Delivery appeared in Marketplace to help streamline transactions. The Lab also announced "Project Shinning," an effort to reduce lag in Second Life. The full impact of these will have to wait until 2013, though it looks like the result will be those still using viewer-1 based Viewers, with a few possible exceptions, will have to upgrade to remain in Second Life in 2013.

Linden Labs also made some changes in its policies early this year. In February, they announced changes in its Third-Party Viewer policy. No longer could residents see which viewers others were using, and any further changes to third-party viewers would have to be approved by Linden Lab for use on theirs.  Many residents felt the former was because of the Lindens' embarrassment from the official viewers being less popular than third-party ones. While some could see the later being the desire of the Lab for a standardized virtual experience, many residents worried that this would mean further third-party innovations would stagnate. Shortly afterward, word came there would be no more quarterly economic reports. A move a number felt was a sign of trouble. One policy change that was expected but never came was a return of last names for newer accounts. Rodvik Linden insisted there was no "clean solution" to the matter, but the majority of residents disagreed. After months of increasing optimism following the troubles of 2010, people began having doubts about the Lab's intentions and competence once again.

One move by Linden Lab that got overall approval was making Second Life accessible from Steam, a popular gaming platform known for "Team Fortress" and other games. A majority of residents felt this would mean an influx of more residents, though some worried this would mean the influx of gamers would mean more bored troublemakers interested only in "pwning" and griefing others.

Not all developments came from Linden Lab. From the former Qarl Linden came the mesh deformer, which helped deal with the problem of mesh clothing not always fitting the shape of it's owner. One development of mesh was two new types of avatar: the large Colossus avatar which could be twice to many size the size of a normal avatar and unlike the prim macros could move about naturally, and the Petite avatar, which meant normal looking Tiny-sized human or humanoid avatars such as pixies were now possible. Linden Lab's "Project Shinning" which would render Viewer-1 technology increasingly obsolete had another effect on development. Most Third Party viewers eventually stopped further development on viewers based on the old Viewer 1s. This included Team Phoenix-Firestorm, which made the decision to cease technical support at the end of 2012. Cool VL was the exception, the Viewer 1-based viewer continuing to be updated.

Breedable pets continued to be popular in Second Life. Kittycats got some publicity at the SL9B with their sim sponsorship. But the number one pet continued to be the Amaretto horse. There were some new pets introduced this year, but none came close to replacing the horse as it continued to trot along as the top companion.

Second Life had a few legal issues in 2012. The case between two of it's breedable pet companies,  Ozimals and Amaretto, also known as "Bunneh vs Horsie," reached a summary judgement in November, meaning the case is all but over, which Amaretto declared was a victory for them. In October and November, CBS struck fear in the hearts of Star Trek fans when it sent letters to both Linden Lab and several merchants ordering the latter to remove their Trek items from Marketplace. Would Star Trek sims and role-plays be next? There was some emailing between the Trekkers inworld and CBS, then the media company ceased contact, leaving the question unresolved. Internet bills in the US Congress also created worries inworld, such as SOPA which could very well have meant the end of Second Life, in addition to You Tube and Facebook, if it passed. There was also a proposal to turn over control of the Internet over to a UN Agency, which would  have been bad news for activists in some dictatorships. Fortunately, no such bills and proposals were approved.

Second Life had a number of major events this year. The Second Life Ninth Birthday, which could have been a non-event, turned out to be a bigger celebration than the Lindens came up with the year before. The Relay for Life season was the most successful one in it's history in the Grid, raising over $375,000. Burn2, the biggest art and music event here, enjoyed another well-attended performance with over a hundred artists, singers, and DJs entertaining the masses. Burn2 has proven to be so popular, it's sparked a number of satellite events across the year. The Australian fundraiser "Jammin for Genes" raised thousands to help with genetic diseases.

Unfortunetly, one real life event impacted Second Life in a bad way. Hurricane Sandy proved devastating as it hit the US near New York City, cutting off many residents for days, even weeks. Some are still recovering financially. One real life event that had some impact in Second Life four years ago was the US Presidential election. This year, not so much. While some politically-minded residents got together to discuss their candidate, the reaction of most residents was they wanted little to no discussion of politics, having gotten sick and tired of it.

Sadly the Grid in 2012 had some goodbyes. After over five years, the "Firefly" role-play at the Burnet sim came to a close. A "Star Wars" roleplay sim also closed. The newbie area "The Yard" which offered hundreds of freebie items as well as games shut down after over seven years. The Virtual Museum of Architecture also closed, although the group behind it continues.  Australian residents mourned the passing of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's own sim, ABC Island, when the company refused to renew the tier, marking the end of one of the remaining few real-life business owned sims. But a few places came back from the brink. The Cartoonimals sim with it's whimsical critters was saved when bought by a new owner. And the International Space Museum in the Sci-Lands briefly vanished when the person paying the bills got sick. But the matter was straightened out. Unfortunately, Second Life had no shortage of disappearing sims. Over the past year, the total number of sims has dropped by over eleven percent, sparking worry by many residents.

Second Life also bade farewell to some residents. Kev Sweetwater, a noted personality in Burn2 passed away early this year. Both the Burners and his friends in the Deadwood role-play got together for an inworld memorial service. Later on, Circe Broom, a longtime supporter of the arts in Second Life died after a long period of illness. Hyper Mole, one of Bay City's builders, fell to cancer. In December, blogger Lalo Telling also met his end from cancer.

Outside Second Life, other virtual worlds and some MMOs made news in 2012. Minecraft continued to attract users, including Second Life communities as some made places there. World of Warcraft, the biggest of the multiplayer online games, reversed it's membership slide with the "Mists of Pandaria" expansion. Despite the "Kung-Fu Panda" jokes, gamers overall thought was a better update than the previous one. "Star Wars New Republic" early this year looked like it could be a serious rival for World of Warcraft, then it's numbers stalled. InWorldz held a Relay for Life event, raising about $1500. Eve Online made news sadly due to one of it's gamers getting killed by Islamist terrorists in Benghazi Libya. There was one new kind of virtual world that made an appearance, "Cloud Party," but as it was accessible only through a Facebook account, some privacy-minded computer users passed it by. The zombie craze in real life brought on the MMO "DayZ," in which players not only fight the mindless undead but sometimes each other for scarce resources. One unique multiplayer game sadly met it's end in 2012. "City of Heroes," in which the player took on the role of a comic book superhero, met it's end when the company closed it down to concentrate on it's Fantasy games.

For Second Life Newser, it's been our second complete year in virtual print, and our most productive with over nine hundred articles, press releases, cartoons, and other posts. We've also had two promising writers join us, both with interesting experiences on the Grid to draw upon, whom we're happy to have with us. And of course we have a shiny new office, thanks to our neighbors. The Sunweavers/Angels community, where we have our office at HV Community, has also had their good times and bad, but they do their best to concentrate on the former and welcome new neighbors and friends.

2012 had it's triumphs, tragedies, and frustrations. And we at the Newser did our best to cover them. Now a whole new year arrives, our fourth in covering the news in Second Life, and we look forward to delivering it to you the readers.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor/Head Reporter
Second Life Newser

SL Video: A Year in Raglan Shire 2012

Raglan Shire, Second Life's most noted community of Tinies, made this video of various events over the past year. Happy New Year Raglan.

Hat tip: Daniel Voyager.

Eye on the Blog: Linden Lab Looks Back at 2012

In their most recent blog post, Linden Lab "wanted to take a moment to highlight just a few of the ways in which Second Life has grown and improved over the past year." Among the things they talked about were "New Perks for Premium Subscribers," Direct Delivery for Marketplace, and the beginnings of Project Shinning, which the Lab states will lead to "a Faster, More Reliable Second Life."

What do you the readers think have been the ways Second Life has improved, or has it gotten worse? What has been the best, and worst this year has had to offer the residents?

To view the blog post: Click Here. 

The Adult RolePlay 2012

For Second Life residents interested in adult-themed role-play areas and groups, it can be difficult to find just the right one. It can also be just as hard for such groups to find individuals interested in joining up with them. A member of one such group has began organizing an inworld convention for both, the "Adult RolePlay 2012."

Read more in Extra.

SL Youtube: "Relay for Life of Second Life 2012 Tour Video"

From MarkTwain White, "This is the official tour video of the Relay for Life of Second Life for 2012. There is an active community of real- life people around the world that "live" in the virtual world of Second Life. They hold Relay of Life events in Second Life much in the way real life relayers hold events to raise contributions to Find a Cure. This video tours the highlight of RFL of SL, a series of regions put together for a 24 hour rally with builds of all sorts created by dozens of teams representing thousands of real life relayers living, building, and raising real funds in a virtual world to cure a dreaded disease."

Burn2 Reminders!

The Burn2 plots are going fast! You can find information on the burn this year at http://www.burn2org/ . If you have been there you know what fun the burn in SL can be. Fabulous builds to explore, loads of fun freebies, great entertainment and lots of parties with DJ’s.

If you look in the blog you will find a volunteer application for so many fun jobs. Do it. If you have been itching to build on a plot hurry over to http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burning%20Man-%20Deep%20Hole/230/72/24 where you will find kiosks and information about plots and groups.


There have already been town meetings , workshops and training for Ranger will start soon. Many of you expressed an interest in getting involved when you visited last year so now is your chance!! The sims are in place ready for builds to begin!

See you on the playa!

Gemma Cleanslate

Press Release: Promo for Relay for Life of SL 2012 Tour Video

Some exciting things are coming to Hollywood Sim this Saturday,

September 1. We are calling it HOLLYWOOD’S BIG DAY. Join us for two
very special events..

At 1PM we will be sharing with the Relay for Life community throughout
SL the premiere of the 2012 RELAY FOR LIFE OF SECOND LIFE Tour Video.
Join us in the Hollywood Bowl for this exciting, touching, beautiful
video bringing to everyone all the splendor and detail of this year’s
Relay for Life in SL.

Starting at 11AM Starboards Yacht Club and Hollywood Airport will be
co-ordinationing sail and fly ins for the event. Details will come in
separate notices later in the week.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hollywood/191/88/33

Following the RFL Video we will be celebrating our new business
relationship with Cutting Edge Productions by hosting the first of a
monthly series of Tribute Concerts by Cutting Edge Productions, the
premier Tribute Band Performers in SL. The intial concert with be Elton John’s Live in
Madison Square Garden. Be sure to bring your camera to get a unique
photograph of Madison Square Garden rising up in the center of
Hollywood Sim.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hollywood/143/57/25

MarkTwain Wright, Bain Finch

SL Enquirer: Interview With Pooky Amsterdam, Kate Fosk and Ricky Grove of Machinima Expo 2012

Recently, Ginette Pinazzo sat down with Ricky Grove, Kate Fosk and Pooky Ansterdam of Machinima Expo 2012 to discuss the upcoming event and some of the broader implications of machinima.
*******
Ginette: Regarding the previous years of the show, can you give me short capsule descriptions of what those each were like? Notable changes as the show progressed through the years?

Read more Here.

Fantasy Faire 2012

Grey Lupindo took a look at the week-long Relay for Life event currently taking place in Second Life: The 2012 Fantasy Faire. There was much to do, much to see, and much to shop for with the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society through the various teams of the Relay.

Read more in Events.

More on the SL9B Controversy

It was April 18th when word got around about Linden Lab's decision not to hold an official Second Life Birthday event, at least to the point it reached Second Life Newser and some other well-read newsletters and blogs. Numerous people commented in two threads in the official forums, SL9B and SL9B Fail, the SL Universe forums, and in various newsletters and blogs. The general feeling is of disappointment and sadness.

A few residents had the feeling, "Oh well, it was going to be a lousy show anyway." But most wished that the Lindens hadn't made this decision. There were some whom thought it was not too great a surprise, citing the Lab no longer running other Linden-sponsored events of the past. One resident wondered if the Lab would soon be abandoning the Linden Endowment of the Arts as well. One resident thought this was a great opportunity for one of the major real estate companies to gain a public relations coup by offering to host a resident-created SL9B.

It was interesting to note that a Linden spokesman posted on the SL9B Fail thetas to address the residents:


Having seen the feedback in this thread and elsewhere about the plan for SL9B celebrations, we wanted to elaborate a bit about why we’ve decided to focus on promoting numerous events hosted by the community this year, rather than hosting a centralized celebration as we have in the past.

We want to give the Second Life community more control over the celebrations and to put the focus of the events where we think it really belongs: on you – the landowners, the creators, the artists, the DJs, the musicians, the venue managers – the people who make Second Life great every day.

Many of you have invested both time and money in your own venues inworld, and we think the SL9B celebrations are a good opportunity to introduce new people to the work you’ve put into cultivating a community presence inworld (rather than potentially drawing traffic away from your region to a central event). A collection of decentralized events and exhibits means that not only can many more creators participate, but it should also help us to avoid some of the performance challenges that have lessened the fun for attendees at past SL Birthdays.

As many of you have pointed out, there are pros and cons to the approach we’re taking this year, just as there have been in the past, but we hope you’ll choose to participate and enjoy the celebrations.


Various blogs had various opinions. Botgirl Questi came up with a parody of the song "F**k You," expressing anger at Linden Labs. Daniel Voyager expressed the sadness and disappointment so many others did, hoping that there would be an effort by residents to organize some kind of anniversary event.

Hamlet Au's response was different, "To be honest, I think this state of things is just as well." He brought up an incident last year in which an artist accused Linden Lab of using a design of hers for the event without her permission or credit and numerous residents protested in her behalf without bothering to ask for her own art to compare with what was used, "another telling illustration of Linden Lab's inevitably fractious, drama-rife relationship with its own user community … bad faith on Linden Lab's part is automatically assumed." The persistent lag was another reason.

Tateru Nino's perspective of the matter was perhaps the most unique. Years ago, she had run the Second Life Third Birthday event (not called SL3B until later). She was the organizer of the event, which "had two key differences to all of the other anniversary events that have come afterwards. Firstly, it wasn’t centralised, and secondly, Linden Lab was barely involved. " Linden Lab did provide six regions, which were used for parcels for landless communities and SL groups, an art show, and the grand parade. There were numerous birthday events across the Grid as well. She felt, "It worked astonishingly well … better than any of the anniversary events before or since."

Tateru called the Linden's announcement, "almost a return to the way it was when I organized it." But this time no organizer. She thought the birthday event could be successful if both someone stepped forward to organize it and Linden Lab remained relaxed with the rules. Otherwise, the whole thing would just fall flat. She also called the decision an opportunity for such an organizer. But judging from the feedback she was getting, there was no sign of someone stepping forward. at least for now.

" What I don’t know is if the Lab is returning to this anniversary model because it is one that is proven to work, because it realises that it is crap at doing this, it is unwilling to spend the money, or it has nobody able to handle the work. Or perhaps some combination of the above."

In any event, Linden Lab has pretty much handed over the SL9B event to anyone whom will take it.

Sources: Linden Blog, Linden Forums, SL Universe, Daniel Voyager's Blog, New World Notes, Dwell on it

Bixyl Shuftan

Our Biggest Month

March 2012 was Second Life Newser's most active month so far, with 89 postings: articles along with a few cartoons and Press Releases. Besides St. Patrick's Day, there was the Relay for Life Kickoff and subsequent RFL events, the Military Expo, the "Mini Burn," and unfortunetly Linden Labs last names and economic reports blunders and the end of a Firefly RP area.

Stay tuned for more news subjects this month. Among them, the Passionate Redheads Bike Rally, and the RMS Titanic.

Press Release: 2012 Relay for Life Kickoff Today

2012 Relay For Life of Second Life, Time For A Cure

KICK-OFF Celebration!!! March 10, 2012

Locations: Sims open at 8 AM SLT

RFL Discovery (6, 6, 42)

RFL Past (6, 249, 42)

RFL Present (247, 251, 42)

RFL Future (250, 6, 42)



8 AM - Pre-Kick-Off Party with DJ Aryon Dagger!

9:30 - PreKick Off Show with Trader - T1RAdio Official Broadcast!

10:00 - Official Kick-Off Ceremony!!!


11:00 - Live Music on Mainstage by Tamra Sands!

12:00 1:00 - Live Music on the sim stages featuring Bones Writer, Christopher Walmer, Maximillion Kleene, and Skye Galaxy!

12:00- 11 p.m. - Explore the sims!

Team Fundraising throughout the Kick-Off sims, Trivia Hunt, Sailing, Amusement Rides, music, and much more!!!

11 p.m. - Sims close, but Relay has just begun!!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOO RELAY!!!

Press Release: Relay For Life of SL Kick Off Celebration on March 10, 2012

The Relay For Life of SL Kick Off Celebration is on March 10, 2012. The sims are open from 8 AM-11 PM and events run throughout the day, including the Ceremony at 10 AM and a hunt from Noon-11 PM. The regions will come online by Thursday, so check with your team captain or the notices in the Relay For Life Volunteers group.

This year, the RFL of SL theme is a Time For A Cure. We can all say that and mean it and feel it, but the reason why it’s so appropriate is because science is finally catching up with the mysteries of what cancer is and why we have it. They understand so much of what happens when cells mutate and so we really can sense that in the future; we hope not too far in the future, that a cure for cancer really is possible.

As the veils of mystery of what causes cancer lift and the cry from cancer patients and their loved ones increases for the cure, so it is that we need to raise more money so that the American Cancer Society can increase funding to doctors, scientists and researchers to help them to help us.

Raising funds, raising awareness and supporting one another is something we do really well on Second Life. We can and do make a difference. Relay For Life of Second life raised over $375,000 last year and in total since RFL of SL started in 2004 we have raised an amazing $1.2 million dollars.

We meet this year for our Kick Off celebration to come together at the beginning of the 2012 fundraising campaigns and to celebrate what we’ve already done and to renew our pledge to raise even more money to fight against cancer.

While we work at raising funds over the next 4 months, one thing we also do really well on Second Life is have fun!

Every year we try to make the Kick Off celebration something special and this year is no exception. We hope that you really do enjoy the day and the environment that we have created for you. This year we are offering all of the teams the chance to kick off their fundraising campaigns by having a booth for 24 hours. Whether you have one item you want to introduce to everyone and start to sell or if you just want to proudly announce your team to the world, please let us know and grab a token from APinkSwan or Pippa Rexen.

The Kick Off is just the beginning of a series of events to raise money for cancer research in 2012, including:

March 10-22, 2012 -- Fashion for Life
March 31-April 1, 2012 -- Mardi Gras & Street Faire (Teams R Us Event)
May 4-5, 2012 -- May Day Celebration (Teams R Us Event)
May 12-13, 2012 -- Halfway There Fair
May 12-20, 2012 -- Paint SL Purple
May 19-28, 2012 -- Home & Garden Expo (includes Teams R Us @ the Expo)
June 3, 2012 -- National Cancer Survivors Day
June 22-24, 2012 -- Back to the 50s Weekend (Teams R US)
July 14-15, 2012 -- RELAY WEEKEND!

Some of you will be new to RFL of SL, some of you will have done this many times before and some of you will have decided to form your own team this year to do your fundraising. Second Life is a huge international community and we have so many nationalities here with us in the RFL community. So, wherever you come from and whatever your past experience is with RFL, we welcome you and are here to support you because we are one large team of Relay For Life in Second Life.