Call for Candidates for the 37th Term of CDS Government

 

It's election time in the Confederation of Democratic Simulators. Unlike most places in Second Life, the CDS chooses it's leadership. And twice a year, they have an election for their Representative Assembly and their Chancellor. 

The schedule for this spring's election go as follows:

April 8 - Census of citizens for eligibility to run for office

April 15 - Citizen qualification deadline for right to vote

April 18 - Call for Candidates for Chancellor and for RA

May 1 - Deadline for Declaration of Candidacy

May 4 - Dean posts list of candidates

May 7 - Campaigning starts

May 14 - Polls open

May 21 - Polls close

May 22 - 31, incoming RA take their affirmations of office and members meet to elect their officers

June 1 - The RA and Chancellor of the 37th Government of the CDS take office.

It was on April 17, a day early, that the Call for Candidates went out.

Today (April 17) is the first day to declare your candidacy for the offices of Representative Assembly (RA) and Chancellor. These are very important offices for our CDS Community. When we elect these representatives we are electing friends and neighbors to work on our behalf to set the direction of our community, enact our laws and regulations, and manage all the tasks that keep the CDS a wonderful place to live. Now is your time to participate and declare candidacy.

So far, one person, Almut Brunswick, has declared his intention to run. More will certainly follow in the next ten days. 

In contrast to many real-life elections, the CDS elections have remained largely drama-free for some years.  

Stay tuned for more information.
 

Announcement: Raglan Shire Medieval Grand Ball

 
Oyez Oyez!  The Raglan Shire Medieval Grand Ball will occur this Saturday September 11th at 12 Noon to 2PM SLT.  At the Raglan Shire Castle Grand Ballroom. 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Raglan%20Shire/83/156/58
 

Eye On The Blog: Creepy Crawl Call For Venues, Lab Gab Today

October means the Halloween season in Second Life. And part of Halloween in the Grid in recent years has been the "Creepy Crawl." For those who don't know, it's a Halloween-themed venue crawl, the inworld equivalent of a bar crawl in which a group of people go to a number of bars and spend just a little time at each, organized by Linden Lab. A few days ago, the Lab posted on the official blog that they were looking for venues to take part.

If you’d like to host a stop along the Creepy Crawl, own a spot that will be decked out for the holiday, and don’t mind if a parade of Residents and Lindens come through, then you might be just what the witch doctor ordered. We’re looking for spots that have entertainment (we like to dance around in our costumes!), are appropriate for general and moderate audiences, and can handle a crowd.

To get in, first of all, venues wanting to be part of the Crawl have to be listed in the Destination Guide. They also have to fill out and submit this online form before October 25. The Lab will choose several venues and notify them by email after October 25.

The Creepy Crawl will take place Thursday October 31 from 10AM to 2PM.

To read the blog post in fill, Click here. 

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There will be another episode of "Lab Gab," the live-stream show hosted by Xiola and Strawberry Linden.

Halloween is one of the most celebrated holidays in Second Life - when the veil between the other world and inworld is thinnest. Each year, we see events, parties, hunts, and costumes haunt even the farthest reaches of the Grid. It’s a great time of year to explore the elements of surprise and the unknown, and maybe even get a little scared. While dressing up is a year-round activity for many, there are some next-level looks that roam inworld.

This week, we’ll be talking about Halloween in Second Life as well as taking a field trip to venture into some Halloween-themed events. Join us as we wander the spooky, spoopy, and downright kooky side of Second Life! 

Those interested can watch the show on Linden Lab's Youtube channel,or their new Mixer channel. The show is today, Wednesday October 9, at 3PM SL time.

To read the blogpost in full, Click here.

Tomorrow Last Day to Sign Up With The Linden Shopping Event

For the second year in a row, Linden Lab is organizing an inworld shopping event for the Christmas season. And they need merchants to sign up to take part.

... Winter is coming...and that means it’s time for cheerful greetings, the spirit of giving, and lots of festive music! 
 
Like last year, we’re winding up for a winter inworld shopping event - and we’re now looking for Merchants who would like to participate!  

Our last big inworld shopping event for SL15B was a great way for us to see how big these events can be - and we’re adding in some extra space for shoppers, to make sure access to all the steals and deals is much better.  

This event, which opens on December 17th, 2018 and runs through January 4th, 2019, is an opportunity to bring a ton of new customers to your brand, offer some of you best items, and celebrate the holiday season in a huge shopping event across several Regions. 

We are looking for merchants willing to offer a discount on some of their items (think after Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday deals!) and provide a small non-exclusive gift to holiday shoppers. 

 Merchants interested in taking part are asked to fill out a form (here). Tomorrow November 27 is the last day to sign up. At one minute after Midnight, no more will be accepted.

For the blogpost in full, Click Here.

Image Credit: Victoria Darling.

Linden Lab Calls For Merchants For Christmas Shopping Event

On Tuesday November 14, Linden Lab announced on the official Second Life blog that they were asking merchants to take part in a Christmas-themed shopping event next month. The dates given for the event were from December 15 to January 1st. Monday November 27 will be the last day to register.

We’re winding up for a winter inworld shopping event - and we’re now looking for Merchants who would like to participate! For SL14B we held a similar shopping event that was a great success for both customer and Merchants alike - and we are hoping to do the same this winter. This event, which runs from December 15th, 2017 through January 1st, 2018, is an opportunity to introduce new customers to  your brand. We are looking for merchants willing to offer a discount on some of their items (think Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals!) and possibly provide a little non-exclusive gift to holiday shoppers.

Last year, Linden Lab had a "Twelve Days of Marketplace" event. But they're comparing the shopping event to the Anniversary Shopping Event they organized to take place alongside the SL14B.

Image from Kathy Nikolaids

Press Release: Gacha Fest is Coming To The Builder’s Brewery!

The 1st Annual Gacha Festival will be an event hosted by the Builders Brewery Relay for Life team, with 100% of the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society.  The event will be held from April 9-16 on the Builder’s Brewery sim. 

We are looking for creators to contribute a complete gacha (set of clothing, hair in various shades, living room set, etc.).  These items don’t have to be unique for the Gacha Festival (although we would LOVE that), and you are certainly welcome to sell them at your store once the Festival is over!  We will be providing the official Relay for Life gacha machines.  We just need you to supply what’s in them!

The deadline for contributors is April 4th.  Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested in helping us raise money for the American Cancer Society.  We need your help!

If you are interested in being a part of this event, please send a notecard to Natalya Lore (freudianslipped Resident) in-world, or send an email to Natalya.lore@aol.com with the following information:

Your SL Name:
Store Name: (not necessary if you do not have one)
Gacha theme: (for example, “Clothing: Alice in Wonderland Dresses,” or “Tattoos: Inspirational Poetry”)
Your mainstore SLURL, Marketplace Link, or blog you’d like used for promotion.  (If you have one.  If not, just leave blank).

Thank you, and stay tuned for more announcements about this exciting event!

Eye on the Blog: Linden Lab Wants Your Spooktacular Halloween Screenshots

A couple days ago, Linden Lab posted on their blog asking residents for their spooky pictures. Reminding readers that October is not that far away, it invited readers to share Halloween-themed Screenshots on it's Flickr page.

One of Second Life Residents’ favorite holidays is coming up at the end of next month - but that doesn’t mean we can’t start celebrating Halloween now! We’re already seeing a ton of spectacular haunts being submitted to the Destination Guide, and now we’re looking for some of your great inworld images! Share your Halloween themed images, and your work could be featured in an upcoming email or banner campaign - with your avatar name credited of course! Do you like to dress your avatar up in costumes - travel the haunted spots all over Second Life, and generally run amok during this time of year? Why not show off your fun with images? Share your pic on our Official Flickr Page with the tag “SLHalloween2015” so that we can see all of your amazing works. You may submit as many as you like between now and September 28th, 2015. We’ll showcase the chosen image(s) in an email to Residents, as well as in some banner campaigns. We’ll let the chosen image creators know via Flickr and ask for an avatar name for the credits.


The Lab asks that all screenshots submitted be appropriate for all ages: no "bits" showing or suggestive poses, that the images are scenes that could easily tell a story, and that the pictures are free of texts and logos.

This is not a contest, rather an opportunity for readers to get their names an images publicized, and perhaps have the pictures be part of a Second Life advertisement (no pay though).

The blog entry in full can be read (here).

* * * * *

Also this week, Linden Lab asked residents to update their payment information, saying they were transitioning into a new credit card payment system.

Second Life is transitioning to a new payments processor for credit cards. If you use a credit card for Second Life payments and have not added or updated your billing information since July 7, 2015, we strongly encourage you to re-enter your information to avoid any potential disruption of services. If you use PayPal or Skrill for Second Life payments, no action is needed.


To change one's payment info, logon to secondlife.com, click "Account," then "Billing Information," then under "How You're Paying" click to add a credit card, Paypal account, or Skrill account.

The Lab did state there may be "small authorization charges made to the credit card associated with your account." They went on to say this was "common when new payment procedures are initialized," saying they were to "confirm the validity of the billing information on file."

To read the blog post in it's entirely, (click here).

Press Release: C.A.L.L. Asking For Artists in Protest Exhibition

Somnium Photo Art Gallery hereby invites all artists in SL to take part in a free, open and non-commercial exhibition - C.A.L.L. (Creators Against Linden Lab)

Create a piece of art that expresses your point of view on the Linden Lab terms of service section 2.3. - create a piece of art which property rights you will gladly grant on your own free will to Linden Lab. If there will be enough entries, Somnium Photo Art Gallery will host an exhibition of these pieces of art throughout November and December.

Pieces of art should be not more than 2 prims and 4 x 4 meters. They will be set for sale at 0 L$, as the content you have uploaded to SL is not yours anyway with the current LL TOS. All pieces should be submitted as a full perm copy to Walt Ireton until October 31st. If there will be more entries as there is available space in the exhibition room, I will select which pieces will be in the exhibition.

Remember that Linden Lab "owns Intellectual Property Rights in (...) Linden Lab trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos" - as it is stated in the same document which grants full property rights to LL for all YOUR creative content. Don't use anything that violates legal property rights of LL.

Contact Walt Ireton if you wish to be a part in this exhibition or if you have any questions.

CALL Exhibition Room
Somnium Art Gallery
Greece (51/25/35)

SL Video: "SL10B from Mistletoe to DJs"

A video from Mistletoe Ethaniel, calling over DJs to the SL10B, "A dorky but important message about SL10B from Mistletoe, this time for the DJs. And wow that boom box hurt my neck somethin' awful."