Sunbeamers Reach One Million Lindens, Hit Emerald

 

 

Yesterday, Saturday April 11 just before 8PM SL time, Cynthia Farshore announced Team Sunbeamers had crossed the one million Linden mark in total donations for the 2026 Relay season, and reached Emerald Level fundraising.

 

Congrats yall we got Emerald
Sat, Apr 11 2026 7:57:57 PM SLT

that last push on the stage got us just across the line at L$ 1,000,523 to make Emerald!

 

As the picture shows, about 910,000 Lindens were raised inworld, but a total of $363.75 or 90,000 Linden dollars, had been raised outside of Second Life, for a combined total of a little more than a million. This makes the team seventh out of 168 teams in terms of fundraising.

 

And "the little team that could" does it again.

 

More on the Relaystock later,

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Relay For Life Fundraising Levels

 

 For those who wonder what the various team levels mean, there was a chart in the Relay for Life Volunteers group showing them.

 

For those that raise 12,500 Linden dollars, or about $50 USD, they have reached Bronze Level fundraising. This is what the plurality of teams reach. 

 

For teams that raise 50,000 Linden dollars, or about $200 USD, Silver Level fundraising.

 

Teams that raise 125,000 Linden dollars, or about $500 USD,  get Gold Level rank. 

 

Teams that raise 250,000 Linden dollars, or about $1000, about the price of a new computer, get  Platinum Level fundraising. 

 

For the teams that have raised 500,000 Linden dollars, or about $2000 USD, they've reached Jade Level.

 

The teams that get to 750,000 Lindens raised, about $3000 USD, they're at Sapphire rank. 

 

Teams that reach one million Lindens raised, about $4000 USD, are at Emerald Level. Those teams that reach this level have put in some work.

 

The teams that reach 1,250,000 Lindens raised, about $5000 USD, are at Ruby Level fundraising. 

 

Teams that raise a million and a half Lindens, about $6000 USD, are at Topaz Level fundraising.  

 

Those teams that raise 1,750,000 Linden dollars, about $7000 USD, are at Diamond Level.

 

Teams that raise 2,500,000 Linden dollars, about $10,000 USD, are at Crimson rank.

 

Those teams that raise 3,750,000 Linden dollars, about $15,000 USD, are at Purple Level fundraising.  

 

Teams that raise five million Linden dollars, about $20,000 USD, are at All Star Level fundraising.

 

The teams that raise 6,750,000 Linden dollars, about $25,000 USD, are at Super Star rank.

 

Teams that raise 7,500,000 Linden dollars, about $30,000 USD, are at Supernova Level fundraising.

 

The teams that raise ten million Linden dollars, about $40,000 USD, are at Hypernova Level fundriasing.

 

Finally, the teams that raise 12,500,000 Linden dollars, about $50,000 USD, have reached the top rank for this year - Intergalactic Level fundraising.

 

The ranks have changed somewhat over the years. For a time, they would get a little higher each year, until there was a reset. And sometimes the names are different. One year, "All Star" was the first fundraising level, before Bronze.  

 

How high will the various teams get this year?

 

RFL Team Sunbeamers Hit One Million Linden Mark. Reach Emerald Level

 

 

 Yesterday, the Relay for Life's Team Sunbeamers held their tenth annual air show, with the help of two squadrons, DJ Kala and the Roos, and other Relayers who dropped by. This would also be the day this Relay season the team would reach the one million Lindens raised mark, or about $4000 USD in real money. 

 

As of the writing of this article, the Sunbeamers have raised a total of 1,020,842 Linden dollars, or $4,083.37 US dollars.

The Sunbeamers are currently ninth among the 181 Relay Teams. In first place is TAP - The Adult Partnership, which has raised 4,657,000 Linden dollars/ $18,628 USD, at Purple rank. In second place is Team The River of Live at 3,078,000 Linden dollars / 12,314 USD, at Crimson rank. In third place is Caming For A Cure with 2,724,000 Linden dollars / $10,897 USD, also at Crimson level.

Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay!

Team Sunbeamers Reach One Million Lindens, Beach Party With Roos With A Dream

 

 

 On the late afternoon/early evening of Friday May 26, the Relay for Life's Sunbeamer team reached a big milestone in it's 2023 fundraising season. It had crossed the one million Linden mark in the total amount of cash raised, and thus was Emerald level fundraising.

 

 And with the team reaching a million, a couple team members were called on to own up to commitments. For a certain reporter, it meant the return of the "Rita clone," which first appeared in 2017, and for the past few years was my offer to appear in for a week if the team reached Emerald.

 

This year, someone else had offered to be something else as well. Foxy offered to be a landwalker shark for a month if the team raised a million. And with the news came his finny look. As someone commented, "Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the water." It was also mused this would mean more tuna fish caught for the team.

Far from resting on their laurels, the following day the 'beamers hosted a "Beach Party" event jointly with the "Roos With A Dream." There would be two DJ sessions, the first with DJ Cynthia. The second one was with "DJ Kayla and the Roos." Following the event there was a volleyball competition and a boat race. Rezzdarnnit was the winner of the ball game. The fastest run in the boat race was from Liska, with a time of 166 seconds, who won a motorboat as a prize.

 

The event would be followed by a Memorial Day event at Club Cutlass with Cynthia Farshore once again DJing. At the close, Cynthia, who had done most of the building and organizing for the Relay event, logged off to get some much deserved rest.

 

The Sunbeamer and Roos Beach Party raised a combined 36,410 Linden dollars for both the 'beamers and Roos, getting the Sunbeamers to past 1,020,000 Lindens and Roos With A Dream to almost 800,000. Someone among the Sunbeamers commented it was no longer enough to reach the top ten, but to help out a few other teams along the way.

Go Sunbeamers! Go Roos! Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan

RFL Team Sunbeamer Tribute Horse

 

 Penny Shuftan of the Sunweaver community just loves horses. Getting an emerald-green one, she overheard someone comment that one of the Relay for Life's fundraising levels, the one for one million Linden dollars, is Emerald. Since this is the level that's the goal of the Sunny team, the Sunbeamers, she named one horse "One Million Dollars Sunbeamer" in tribute. 

Meanwhile, off-season fundraising has been going well for the Sunbeamers. Team captain Rita Mariner told those at a party at Club Cutlass the other day the team had collected almost enough to qualify for Platinum level fundraising for the upcoming season (provided the ranks remain the same). So it should be an interesting Relay season in 2023.

Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan

RFL Team Sunbeamers Reach One Million Lindens, Emerald Level

 *

On the late morning of Sunday June 12, the Relay for Life's Team Sunbeamers passed a goal that was looking doubtful. They finally passed the one million Linden dollar mark.

We made Emerald! Or as Dr. Evil might say, "One, million, Lindens!"

Great, but one small complication for yours truly, whom has to own up to a commitment. 

Yep, yours truly to help provide incentive for people to donate stated that if the team made Emerald, I'd go female for a week, as a clone of the team captain, Rita Mariner. And as Rita was pink thanks to a Bid Me, it was the pink Rita Clone. 

The team camp marker was quickly updated with a new badge to show the new rank. 

As of now, the Sunbeamers are 13th among the 138 teams in terms of cash raised.

Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay!
 

Sunbeamers Make Emerald: Part Two

It was a triumphant Relay Weekend for the Sunbeamers. After eight years, the team had finally raised a total of a million Linden dollars for this season, and getting Emerald rank for the second time (the first time it took not as much). Getting together for the group picture, one member rezzed a chunk of virtual emerald crystal. This included our star builders Cynthia Farshore and Shockwave Yareach, star DJs Snowy (Skylark Lefavre) and Mattie Carlton (Cynthia's also a great DJ), our newest member Omni-One Kenobi, team captain Rita Mariner, and one wiseguy reporter whom was sporting an unusual look.

Yours truly has a team tradition of doing "Platinum Avatar Challenges." So what would I do for one million? Earlier I was saying if we made that amount, I'd do "something crazy," bring back the "Rita clone" that I wore for a week in an earlier such challenge. Well, someone must have been listening as in the few days leading up to the Relay Weekend and on Saturday, we got over 200,000 Lindens. And so the "Killer Rabbit" is back, for another week.

Personally, it was a roller-coaster of a weekend, partially because of some sad news I'd gotten of a friend in real life. But the fight against cancer is an important one that brings me together with my friends online. And taking the victory lap, I would hear congratulations from a number of people for the Sunbeamers' achievement, as well as a few comments about "the million Linden dollar avatar."
 
Already, we're coming up with some ideas for next year. One was "Bid Me ..." well, we'll tell you in 2022.

Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Team Sunbeamers Hit One Million Linden Mark

 Right on the Relay Weekend, the Sunbeamer team achieved something it had never done before. Since reaching Sapphire rank, the team continued to get donations. And in the past couple days, over 200,000 Lindens came in. Finally at 8:27PM, the amount of money went over the one million Linden dollar amount ($4000 USD). 

[20:26] Rita Mariner: SUNBEAMERS  L$: 823,099
USD: $3,292.40  L$: 178,045
USD: $712.18  L$: 1,001,144
USD: $4,004.58
[20:27] Rita Mariner: WE are now EMERALD

The Sunbeamers reached Emerald level three years ago, but it took less money to do so. This is an amount that hasn't been seen since the days of it's predecessor team, the Passionate Redheads. 

Out of 149 teams, the Sunbeamers rank number 12. 

"The little team that could" has done it once more.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Interview With Tonya Souther of Team Firestorm

It was a week ago Sunday that Team Firestorm celebrated it's anniversary. One member of the team whom was around since the start is Tonya Souther, whom is in charge of development of the Firestorm's Macintosh computer viewer. The Newser recently interviewed her about how she came to Second Life, the end of Team Emerald and the beginnings of Team Phoenix (now Team Firestorm) from her point of view, and some of the challenges the team has faced since.

Read the interview in People.

Looking Back at Emeraldgate

Yesterday, Team Firestorm celebrated it's eighth anniversary party. All were happy with the celebration. But eight years ago, the team was rapidly formed in the middle of a scandal that was sinking the team behind the most popular viewer at the time: Emerald. Known as "Emeraldgate," it started in August 2010 when a key member of the development team took advantage of a weakness in the viewer code to launch a Denial of Service attack on the website of someone he didn't like. The aftermath was a drama in which one woman brought people together to lead a new team, while others ended up banned by Linden Lab.

Read the story in Events.

Team Sunbeamers Reach Emerald

It was just a few days ago in which Rita Mariner, the captain of the Relay for Life's Sunbeamers, challenged the team to get them to Emerald rank fundraising status. And once again, the team pulled through. Late Saturday night, Rita announced that the team had crossed the 625,000 Linden dollar mark. And for the third time this season, the team achieved a level it never had before.

Thanks to generous donations from Cynthia, Royce and myself.  we are now Emerald.  I have gone GREEN for a month.  Sweet!

And of course, Rita lived up to her promise of changing to her appearance. So for a month, she'll be a glowing-green bunny avatar.

In the meantime, the Relay season goes on. The "Bid Me Buck" fundraiser is still going on. And there are several more days to enjoy the Relay track sims before they fade away. The Relay Wrap-Up, the final day of the Relay season, is scheduled for the last weekend of the month on Saturday July 28.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Video: "My Green Tamborine"

(Click here if the video fails to play)

From Nydia Tungsten, "Rita Mariner's SunBeamer Relay for Life team has raised over 625,000 Linden dollars, or $2,500 USD, which is a new record for how much the team has raised in a season. This video is to congratulate the entire time and to thank them for their dedication and all their hard work. As a survivor, I thank you all."

"Bid Me Buck" And "Rita's Emerald Avatar Challenge"

This year can only be called a record-setting one for the Relay for Life's Team Sunbeamers. Time and time again, "the little team that could," has reached levels like never before. On April 18, it reached Platinum for the earliest time in a season. On May 23, it reached Jade for the first time. On June 18, it hit Platinum Level fundraising for the first time. Since then, fundraising totals have continued to climb, as of the writing of this article over 540,000 Lindens. Which is leading a few on the team to wonder, can they reach Emerald level?

At 625,000 Lindens, or $2500 USD, Emerald level is the third highest fundraising rank, considered accessible by only by a team that's both large and quite active. But with the earlier successes this year, once again the Sunbeamers are reaching for the brass ring. this one with an emerald jewel. To help encourage donations, two of the team are putting their looks on the line once again. Team Captain Rita Mariner has offered to stay in a green bunny avatar for a month if this high rank is achieved.

Since the Sunbeamers are close to reaching Emerald Level, I have decided to put out a BID ME Challenge.  If the Sunbeamers make Emerald Level, I will go GREEN for a month!
I will setup a special set of Kiosks so you can BID away.  They will be at CUTLASS!

Rita's challenge isn't a "Bid Me" in the usual sense that instead of being a different look for every week for so much raised, it's a challenge issued to be a different look for a while if a certain fundraising goal is reached, such as the avatar challenges offered for Jade and Sapphire levels.

And then, there's mine. After Shockwave did a "Bid Me Goat" fundraiser, a certain someone kept encouraging me to do one of my own. So with Rita issuing her avatar challenge, I volunteered for a "Bid Me Buck."

With Emerald rank in sight, Rita and Bixyl are both stepping up one last time this year to put their looks on the line. For Bixyl, with more than a few news critics trying to get his goat, he's volunteered for a "Bid Me (Buck)" fundraiser. For every 5000 Lindens donated in the "goat" kiosk, our intrepid reporter will be with horns and hooves for a week, rounded down (9999=1 week, 10,000=2 weeks). As usual, there's a default kiosk for those wanting to keep him looking foxy. So how long will our reporter be a "ba-a-a-a-a-ad" boy? You decide by donating.

As usual, I can still be my fox avatar when it's clearly obvious I'm on Newser duty, such as interviews. But the rest of the time such as club events, it's the horns and hooves for me, "Oh well, people already think of reporters as 'butt-heads' to begin with."

The main event, the Relay Weekend, is already upon us, being tomorrow. But there's still a month left in the Relay fundraising season. While many teams just sit back at this time, the Sunbeamers won't be among them. So even if I end up taking life by the virtual horns will the "little team that could" pull it off still yet again for a third rank it's never before obtained? Why not?

The kiosks for "Bid Me Buck" are at Club Cutlass, at Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757).

Bixyl Shuftan

Team Firestorm Celebrates It's Third Anniversary

September 4 was the third anniversary of Team Firestorm, then called Team Phoenix. And to celebrate, the group held a little party at it's "Phoenix Firestorm Support" sim.

Finding the SURL on Daniel Voyager's webpage, I headed over. But arrived at a spot far away from where the party was on a platform over 2700 meters in the air. Getting there took a few minutes. When I arrived, none of the Firestorm staff were there, although Daniel himself was.

In front of the Firestorm Phoenix was a dance floor where a few were dancing. Nearby were a few gifts people could pick up. These were a wreath of flowers, a Firestorm logo necklace, and a "Firekitty" breedable cat. Next to them was a model of a birthday cake.

The original members of Team Firestorm were part of the team behind the first third-party viewer to gain popularity: the Emerald Viewer. Known as Modular Systems, they were very popular for a while, rivaling the official viewer in use. Then in August 2010 one of the team resigned, accusing teammates of abuses. This was followed days later by a Denial of Service attack on the website of one of Emerald's critics that was traced to computers using Emerald Viewers at the time. Linden Lab took Emerald down from it's list of approved viewers and gave it's team a list of conditions to reapply. But among the conditions was the resignation of a few key members, and one refused to do so. The team then split apart, Jessica Lyon leading the breakaway members. They would form a new team, and on Sept 4, 2010 announced the launch of the Phoenix Viewer. Days later, Emerald was no longer useable, and Phoenix was on Linden Lab's list of approved viewers. Two key members of Emerald's staff would be banned from Second Life, and a third disappearing. They were last heard of working on a minor virtual world platform known for a small adult grid, and almost nothing has been heard of them since.

Things settled down for Phoenix after it's story begining, and the viewer and it's team leader Jessica became quite popular. Phoenix soon surpassed the official viewers in popularity. Keeping up with technical developments, the team created a new viewer, Firestorm. They continued to update the older Phoenix for a while, but eventually Jessica decided it was becoming too difficult and it was time to move on. Despite that Phoenix is no longer supported, a number of loyal fans persist on using it. Firestorm persists as being more popular than the Linden viewers.

More pictures of the event can be seen on Daniel Voyager's Flickr.

Bixyl Shuftan

Team Emerald Heading to Utherverse/Red Light Center

In the week since the discredited Emerald Viewer was blocked from Second Life, the remnants of Team Emerald are heading off to another virtual world. Their departure, however, was conducted in a less than professional manner.

The day Linden Labs made their announcement, Team Emerald member Arabella Steadham, officially the Communications Manager, reacted badly. She wrote an angry post full of rants and insults, the professionalism she had shown up until then stripped away. She attacked rival viewers, she attacked her former teammates whom had defected to Phoenix, and she repeatedly attacked Linden Labs. She ranted the “dunderheaded buffoons” of the “pond-sized American company” had bullied them for no reason other than their viewer being more popular than theirs, and the blocking of it’s use was part of some underhanded conspiracy to force the users to use Viewer 2.0. Second Life, she branded, had no future among virtual worlds except as a backwater.

The following day, Arabella announced that Linden Labs had terminated her account. Banned. She made a few more words defending her rights and branding Linden Labs as dictatorial “Thought Police,” warning readers they could be thrown out for the slightest criticism. Then basically stated she no longer wanted to be part of Second Life.

According to an article in the Herald, Phox, the Team Emerald member whose refusal to resign led to several members quitting and forming Phoenix, was also banned. Fractured Crystal, the member who resigned following the Distributed Denial of Service Attack, was not banned but apparently vanished on his own.

So where did they go? Blue Mars? OpenSim?

A couple days adrer Arabella announced her banning, there was another announcement.
...Second Life isn’t the greatest virtual world software. The only thing that makes Second Life so great is the people! We think that all the same people will be able to enjoy better software, and a better viewer by moving over to a competing platform, the Virtual World Web.

The “Virtual World Web” is the platform of Utherverse. This virtual reality company offers users the ability to access “a Virtual World Web of interconnected 3D communities ” that they call superior to the Internet. Of these virtual worlds, only one, Red Light Center, has gotten much attention. I’ve only run into a few who used it, and none were particularly happy with it’s performance.

Modular Systems has been officially invited to participate with Utherverse, the company behind the VWW, in advising on new viewer features and possibly on future client development.

"This is an enthusiastic group of developers who also love spending time in virtual worlds. They know what a Viewer needs to do to make the user happy because they use it themselves," said Brian Shuster, CEO of Utherverse. "It's shocking that their talents weren't properly appreciated by Linden, but the popularity of their work speaks for itself. We are very happy to have started up a new relationship with Modular Systems developers."

The freind whom I’ve discussed Emeraldgate with often chuckled over Team Emerald going to what he called a third-rate virtual world, being among those I ran into who tried it. He felt Utherverse was so eager to get more users, they were not stopping to think of the potential damage that could be done. The chance that they could rise above being a backwater, to borrow Arabella’s word for what she saw as SL’s future, was just too tempting.

But he felt “the real battle is in SL,” reminding that there were still these Emerald viewers with “spoofers” to get around the Emerald ban. Depending on whether or not they continued to make them available might make the difference in whether or not Linden Labs would take legal action.

The Utherverse is offering incentives for those in Second Life to change over. But in my opinion, this is likely the last we hear of Team Emerald, at least for a long time.


Bixyl Shuftan

Emerald to be Blocked From Accessing Second Life, Phoenix and Emergence Approved for Linden Directory

In what many Second Life residents thought was just a matter of time, an announcement was made on the Linden Blog:

As of 10am PT Wednesday, September 8, the Emerald Viewer will be blocked from logging in to Second Life as a result of violations of our Policy on Third Party Viewers. Residents who have been using any version of the Emerald Viewer will need to use a different Viewer to access Second Life. ... We take Residents’ privacy, safety, and security very seriously and will take action to enforce the policies that help protect it. ... we have decided to block logins from the Emerald Viewer in order to protect our Residents. All versions of the Emerald Viewer will be blocked from logging in to Second Life as of tomorrow at 10am. Please be aware that attempting to circumvent our blocking to access Second Life with a banned Viewer is a violation of the Policy on Third-Party Viewers and may result in the loss of one's account.



It didn't take long for word to travel, a few groups I'm in discussing about it in chat. Someone put up a link explaining how to modify one's Emerald Viewer to avoid being blocked. This was quickly followed by an announcement from the group leader that Linden Lab was not fooling around, and would not think twice about banning someone trying to get around the Emerald block.

There were still a few people confused as to what was going on, wondering if trying to simply attempt to log in with Emerald would mean a ban. To those reading, the answer is no. Trying to log into SL with an unaltered Emerald viewer after 10AM SL time tomorrow will not mean a ban, just unable to log in. But modifying it to get around the block very well may get you banned.

What got less attention, but still talked about some was the change on the Second Life Third-Party Viewer Directory. Both the new Phoenix viewer from the team led by ex-Emerald Jessica Lyon, and the Emergence Viewer from LordGregGreg Back (whom had left Emerald before the scandal) had been added to it with no comment from the Lindens. In a sense, LordGregGreg and Jessica had been vindicated, and Emerald condemned.

So is this the end of Emerald? Not necessarily. There are reports going around of the last update of Emerald involving “spoofer” programing to allow people to sneak in. Diehard fans of Phox and Fractured Crystal may keep it around in small quantities for some time.

Chatting with a friend, he felt that the shenanigans by the troublemakers of Emerald very well could land them in serious trouble. The night before, he had listened to BBC Radio 5, which talked about Second Life and the Emerald Scandal, and knew that the next day Emerald would be banned (and Emergence & Phoenix placed on the TPV directory). Linden Labs could afford to be a little lax as long as the debate was within Second Life. But once this began hitting more mainstream media, it’s reputation was on the line.

What Linden Labs does with the troublemakers he felt depends on how defiant they remain. The Lindens have a lot of evidence against them from the Directed Denial of Service attack , to the Emerald code, and then the spoofer, which he felt was their way of telling Linden Labs off. He didn’t think they realized Linden Lab could call the FBI on them, whom could work with overseas police for those living abroad. What the Emerald Team troublemakers did, he felt, could easily be classified as cyber terrorism. Which means if Linden Labs decided to pursue the “nuclear option,” those involved face years in prison.

Or perhaps the judge will be lenient, and give them twenty years probation, but among the terms, they can never again so much as touch another computer.

Bixyl Shuftan

From the Ashes of Emerald ...

Just a few weeks ago, Emerald’s development team, officially known as Modular Systems, was doing very well. With Linden Lab’s official new viewer disliked by many in Second Life, they were the first, and most popular, of the third-party viewers. Probably about a third, some say almost half, of the residents were using the Emerald viewer. Having the respect and admiration of many, the few stories going around about the past of a few of the team members and possible code vulnerabilities got little attention.

Today, Team Emerald has fallen apart, and word on the Grid is it’s just a matter of time before Linden Lab blocks its ability to access Second Life.

Jessica Lyon whom resigned from team after what was branded a “hostile takeover” by the remnants, quickly organized a new one to produce a new viewer for Emerald fans.


A few days ago, I assembled a team of developers to work on a new viewer. Some who were originally Emerald developers, some who were not. All are respected reputable residents in the Second Life Community. The goal was simple, to provide users with what they want and do it transparently.

I’m am very proud to announce the launch of the Phoenix Viewer. This project, has started off simple, with it’s initial release of a safe clone of the Emerald viewer. Users want Emerald features, you shall have them.


It’s interesting to note Jessica included among the developers LordGregGreg Back, the developer whose resignation from the Emerald team marked the beginning of the end. So far, there is no conformation on his blog about his involvement, though he did hint he would be making another entry soon concerning Jessica’s actions.

Second Life Newser has already ran into a few people who have tried Phoenix and liked it. A peek at the comments suggested some have had a little trouble loading it. And of course there is the matter that Linden Labs has yet to give it its official seal of approval.

Here’s one review of the Phoenix viewer by “Natales” - Click Here

So will Linden Lab ban use of Emerald? Possibly, though pulling the plug on a popular viewer is a risky move. A fraction of the Emerald viewership refuses to let it go. It may be that they plan to let the word spread about alternatives to Emerald for a while, give the remaining Emerald users time to accept what happened and find a replacement. Then make an announcement they will block the viewer after a given amount of time.

Hamlet Au has had a few things to say about the Emerald mess. Among them, that the actions of Fractured Crystal bring up the debate on how to treat youngsters. He was reportedly 18. When 17 and 16 year old residents are allowed onto the grid, will they be allowed on development teams, and when they screw up will they be pilloried in the court of public opinion like adults? Then there’s the issue of Internet anonymity and business. Hamlet Au considered Linden Lab the only ones to trust in the mess as they were “an actual company with actual names.” Others feel this anonymity is still “the great equalizer,” allowing those with talent to succeed online even if in real life they’re a “horse-apple” shoveler. The issue will continued to be debated for some time.

As for Qarl Fizz, the former Linden who joined Emerald before the proverbial slop hit the cooling fan, he has yet to answer our request on his point of view of the team’s downfall. He may have just decided to stay out of sight for a while.

“This ain’t the end of Emerald, but you can see it from here.”

Bixyl Shuftan

Image of the Day: Die Emerald!

Found this in the SL Universe Forums, a photoshop of this picture, by Free Xu. With Team Emerald now discredited, there's been quite a bit of talk about whether or not Linden Labs will "kill Emerald" by no longer allowing its use (image also on New World Notes).

Will (Second) life imitate art? "To be continued."

The Emerald Team Part Ways

Yesterday, Arabella Steadham announced that the Emerald team would soon be folding it’s doors. Later, the post was amended, her saying there was “a hostile takeover was attempted by a portion of the Dev Team trying to gain unauthorized access to the Emerald servers without knowledge of the others,” Jessica Lyon fingered as leading this “takeover.” This was something of a surprise, as Arabella and Jessica appeared together on SL media to defend Emerald and give it's point of view together.

Jessica Lyon has started up her own blog, explaining her point of view.

* * * * * * * * * *

As of some time this morning, all access to the servers have been severed to all but Arabella Steadham and Lonely Bluebird. Neither me, nor any of the other Emerald Developers have the ability to put out releases at this time. Beyond the recent beta 2587, we also cannot certify the safety or validity of any future releases.

. . . . . . . . . .

Without access to the server and website, I am forced to make a very difficult decision as I will not allow myself to be held accountable to anything that happens from this day on in regards to Emerald.

With that said, I here by officially resign from the Emerald Viewer Project.

I no longer have access to post on the modular systems blog, so I have created a temporary personal blog here http://jessicalyons.wordpress.com . It will be on this blog where I will post future developments with myself and possibly the remaining Emerald Developers. We are considering, (only considering) the possibility of creating a new viewer, to be on the TPVD, picking up where Emerald left off. IF we do, you will have the same features as Emerald Viewer. The motivation for this would be purely to give the existing loyal Emerald users a TPVP compliant alternative with a fresh future.

I would like to thank, all of our dedicated and loyal users for your support through these difficult and confusing times. I would also like to thank our support team, for all of their hard work and relentless dedication to the emerald viewer project and to helping our users. Also to thank our beta testers who helped Emerald viewer be a quality product.

* * * * * * * * * *

The final (modified) Emerald Team post is Here.

Jessica's new blog can be found Here.

Both posts were soon followed by dozens of comments. Some were well wishes and thank you notes. Others expressed sadness that it ended this way, and wondering if there would ever be a viewer as good that they could use. And there were a few curses tossed in the direction of Linden Labs.

Unrelated to the team split, there was also an announcement in the Emerald blog of a griefer trying to "pervert the in world open Emerald viewer group. ... I tried to close the group down. Unfortunately, I could not do this in time, so many will now no doubt read disturbing notices put out ..."

Some residents vow to continue to use Emerald. Others are looking for alternatives, Snowglobe and Imprudence appearing to get the most attention (from my point of view). And there are those sticking with, or heading back, to the old SL viewer.

And so, the team started many months ago to provide an alternative to the official Linden Labs viewers, an alternative that won the hearts of many residents of Second Life, has come to an end. For now, the Emerald Viewer is still allowed to be in use. If or when this will change is unclear.

Bixyl Shuftan

BREAKING NEWS: "The End" for the Emerald Team

On the Emerald Blog today, the team posted that they had made the decision to fold. Two reasons were given, Linden Labs' demands that three "key members" of the team be dismissed, and an attempted (unsucessful) takeover from within. They stated before closing, there will be one final version of Emerald released, "the viewer we’ve been working on for the past six months. It would be a shame to let the efforts of the developers who put so many unpaid hours into this project go to waste."

This is the opportunity for a fork project to develop and create a TPV version of snowstorm, which is what Linden Lab really wants. I am aware of a number of small projects underway now, and I wish them the best, the very best in their endeavors.

For you, the user, what this means is that there will not be any further releases of the Emerald Viewer after today. The existing releases will continue to operate until Linden Lab decides to terminate their access and end Emerald once and for all.

This virtual world is ever changing and must be, otherwise it will stagnate. This incredible environment will continue.

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