Looking Back: The Sunbeamers At Relaystock (2024)

 

It's been a sad time for those in the Sunweaver community. With the passing of Rita Mariner, we naturally look back at happier times, including yours truly. One of the things we took pride in was our efforts to raise money for the Relay for Life in Second Life as Team Sunbeamers. And one of the activities we did every year was taking part in the Relaystock. Sadly, both the Relay Rockers, the team that organized the Relaystock, and Team Sunbeamers, are gone. But we can look back on the memories. A couple years ago, I would write an in-depth article of just went on while the girls danced on stage for an hour, while one guy would live up to a couple bets with mildly embarrassing but funny results. 

 

Read the 2024 story in Events.

Sixteen Years Of The Newser

 

In Spring 2010, the staff of the Second Life Newspaper faced a dilemma. It had not been a good past several months. A sponsor went under, forcing them to abandon their office and build a new smaller one elsewhere. The owner and founder JamesT Juno was facing real-life difficulties and had to take an indefinite break from Second Life. And Editor Dana Vanmoer was spending less and less time inworld due to real-life as well. Finally in their April meeting, Dana announced she was having to close the paper. It was news that shocked the rest of us, some having been writing for the "Gray Lady" of SL for most of it's three and a half year history.

So we talked amongst ourselves, and four of us, Gemma Cleanslate, Grey Lupindo, Shirley Sands, and Bixyl Shuftan (myself) made the decision to start a new newsletter. Since I was the one with the most experience, being Dana's assistant editor aka Office Manager, I would be the owner and editor. And so on June 5 2010, the day the Second Life Newspaper made it's last entry, the Second Life Newser would start. 

Sadly, our first topic was covering the retirement of the established paper. Following that were a few routine articles. Then came shocking news. Linden Lab was laying off a third of it's staff. This would include some popular Lindens. Then came news of then CEO M Linden stepping down and Philip Linden returning as interim CEO. We would cover a happy event as expected, the Second Life Birthday, the SL7B, though we also reported on the close of the classic Greenies sim which longtime residents from the early days still look back on fondly. And there was the office and land donated to us by Ranchan Wiedman of the Sunweaver/Angels community. It was an active first month. As the year went on, we would report on the Relay for Life, the Emeraldgate scandal, the decision to merge the teen grid and the older teens, Universal demanding Linden Lab shut down the Battlestar Galactica roleplay and then pulling back, Ozimal bunnies taking Amareto horses to real-life court, Philip stepping down and the new CEO Rod Humble stepping in, and the real-life news network CNN closing it's location in SL. To help us out, Breezes Babi and Any1 Gynoid would join the team. We would also get our first sponsor, the Podex Exchange owned by Jacek Shuftan (no relation). 2010 was a pretty active year. 

Since then the Newser team has continued to report the news, big and small, of the people, places, and events in this crazy and wonderful virtual world. There have been no shortage of problems, the occasional griefer, drama that can end a group or community, sims closing down, the occasional questionable move by Linden Lab (in the past this happened more often), and saddest of all people passing away. But there's also been plenty of good, memorials set up to honor soldiers and others who gave their all, support groups to help those with troubled thoughts, people tweaking the mechanics of this virtual world to explore it's possibilities, people who found friendships and comradery here, charities that help people in real life such as Team Diabetes, Homes For Our Troops, and the Relay for Life, and much more. 

Sadly, over time people have had to drop out of the Newser team due to real-life concerns. Grey Lupindo and Shelly Sands would drop out after a couple years. But we've had others step up to contribute to virtual journalism such as DrFran Babcock and Grease Coakes. Today, the Newser consists of three full time staff. Gemma Cleanslate (who is currently under medical leave) and myself remain from the original team, with Netera Landar having rejoined us and is productive as ever. 

Sixteen years later, Second Life is a very different place. The few sims owned by corporations and US Government agencies are gone. Mesh has changed the way people build. The people have themselves changed with the Boomers and Gen Xers slowly giving way to more Millenials and Zoomers. But what hasn't changed is people still want to know what's going on. And it's up to newsletters such as the Newser to deliver. We're not perfect and occasionally we miss something. But we're persistent. Every day we post something, even if it's just a video or cartoon. But we inform as well as entertain. Our mission as always is to report the news big and small on the people, places, and events of this virtual world. And we will continue to do so. 

Special thanks to JamesT Juno and Dana Vanmoer for showing us the ropes. Special thanks to Ranchan Wiedman and the Sunbeamer and Angels community for giving us our office. Special thanks to Linden Lab for giving us this virtual world to start with (but we still wonder about some of our strategies). And of course special thanks to you the readers without whom this newsletter would not be possible.

And that's the way it is. Good day from the Second Life Newser.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor
SL Newser

 

My Time At Second Life Newspaper (2015)

 

Today, the SL Newser turns sixteen. But what did people read before it? While there were tablods such as The Herald, there was also the Second Life Newspaper, owned by JamesT Juno with Dana Vanmoer as editor. It started small, a blog with occasional glances at the virtual world, but soon grew into a respectable newsletter with a good sized staff. I would join it in October /November 2007, and become a respectable member of the team. This was a different time, the Golden Age of Second Life when it and not social media was talked about as the future of the online world and it would be mentioned on the news and even prime time TV, while we the residents made all content entirely inworld in these pre-mesh days with only a small amount of the content created by the Lindens. So what was covering the news in these times like?

 

Read the 2015 article in Extra. 

 

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. 

Commentary: Patch Linden - A Long Career With A Sudden Ending That Leaves A Big Hole And Many Questions

 

It isn't often that one of the Lindens, particularly someone outside the Lab's CEOs, makes a big impression. Early on, there was Torley Linden with his "Friendly Greetings" Second Life tutorials. Oz Linden had some fans as well, and his farewell party had a huge attendance. April Linden as the one furry among the Lindens at one time had some admirers among the grid's furs. 

 

And then there was Patch, or Eric Nix as he's known in real life. 

 

It's fair to say Patch had a very huge group of fans. Being in the public eye since 2015, he would take a role in various Meet the Lindens events at the Second Life Birthdays and other occasions, as well as taking part in Linden Bid Me Bald events since 2017 and Linden Jail and Bail events since 2018. He was a part of Bellisseria since its beginning, and would sometimes appear in group chat and make comments, the locals as a group feeling he was one of them. 

 

As then CEO Ebbe Linden began to appear less in public around 2018-19, Patch Linden would stand in for him. When Ebbe Altberg passed away in 2020, Patch would be part of the Lab's leadership team, and took the lead in honoring it's departed leader. Linden Lab would never choose another CEO, it's leaders being those of the Waterman Network that bought them in 2019 with Brad Oberwager (Oberwolf Linden) as Executive Chairman. But Patch would remain the most visible of the Lindens. 

 

It's fair to say to Second Life's residents, Patch would be the face of Linden Lab to many, if not most, taking the lead in being part of many fun events as well as announcements such as Pride Month celebrations and explaining why controversial moves such as the Gacha Ban were done. And he would also appear in public between events, and willingly be the butt of jokes such as people spinning on top of him and taking pictures and getting spanked. 

 

Then came the troubles.

 

In late February 2024, there was an article being passed around accusing several Lindens and Moles of engaging in ageplay, or in laymans' terms virtual child pornography, including Patch. The majority after being confronted with this "what the hell" moment would conclude there was no real proof any of the charges were true, Prokofy Neva, who was certainly no fan of Patch or at least a number of decisions made under his watch, would make a lengthy article explaining none of them held water. Linden Lab eventually felt it had to make a statement a few weeks later acknowledging they were taking the accusations seriously and investigating. While a few Lindens were let go some months later, the reasons were not given, so they could have been dismissed/resigned for other reasons. 

Sadly while most of us believe "all remain innocent until proven guilty," some go with "once accused, always suspect." And a small number would view him with suspicion and hostility. Linden and Mole Chatter in the Bellisseria group would vanish for a while. Patch would keep a low profile for some time, not appearing at the VWBPE Conference that year and it would be months later before anything was heard from him. It wouldn't be until the Second Life Birthday that all seemed more or less normal again. But once in a while one of his anti-fans would speak out. 

 

And now, out of the blue, while things were seemingly going well, comes the announcement Patch is no longer part of Linden Lab. 

 

It's fair to say Patch was fired and not simply deciding to move on and resign. There was no official final statement from Patch. His account was quickly deleted. And there was no time as a Linden to tie up loose ends. While he would continue to take part in the Jail and Bail at the Fantasy Fair, it would be as his "civilian" account, Patch Pawtato, which most of us hadn't heard of until now. 

 

So what happened? Companies do not simply up and toss out someone as productive and well-liked as Patch. None of the Lindens are talking. There was nothing in the short statement given by the Lab. So all we are left with is speculation. Naturally, some look at the accusations made against him and wonder if that was the reason. But it's been two years. If there was anything solid to be found, it would have been almost certainly been very quickly. In one IM conversation with someone, he gave one interesting possibility. A couple months ago, Facebook/Meta came close to shutting down it's virtual world, at least to those using VR gear. He thought instead of seeing it as a victory, the Waterman Group instead saw that the market for virtual worlds was going downhill and talked about the possibility of selling Linden Lab, talking enough about it to take a few steps, which included removing a certain high-profile employee with a cloud over his head, "'What about that guy who was accused of messing with kid avatars?' 'He's gone now.'" In my opinion, possible but unlikely. While perhaps not making as much as during the Pandemic in 2020, Second Life is still making quite a bit of cash. Someone else pointed out that Patch had been around for twenty years, and maybe the decision was made to move him aside to make way for someone new. Possible but highly unlikely. There's nothing to say Patch was out of touch with today's residents.

 

In my opinion, what probably happened was some kind of dispute, or a series of disputes behind the scenes between Patch and the owners. And all it would take would be for one of them to be in a particularly foul mood. CEOs. It certainly would be far from the first time someone was booted for POing the boss. 

 

But the truth is, we may never truly know why Patch was given the pink slip. With Philip Rosedale, Second Life and Linden Lab were established, and he felt it was time to move on. With M Linden, Second Life and Linden Lab had gone downhill during his tenure. With Rod Humble, he'd stopped the slide but hadn't succeeded in getting the place to bounce back and had angered content creators. But with our unofficial leader of the Lab, the reasons just aren't clear. And this uncertainty will likely complicate the Lab's relationship with the residents somewhat for some time. 

 

Will anyone else rise to fill the void Patch leaves? Right now, we don't know that either. Grumpity Linden is one possibility. But it's also probable no one Linden will truly take his place, among the Bellisserians, or the residents in general. The accusations were a reminder if you're high profile, you're a tempting target for trolls. 

 

Wherever you go from here Patch Linden/Eric Nix, we wish you well.

 

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Newser 

2025: Year in Review

 

2026 is here, a new year and the second half of the decade and the start of the second quarter of the century. But before we truly say goodbye to 2025, let's have a look back at what happened, a year full of triumphs and tragedies, of good news and blunders.

 

AI was a subject that got plenty of talk in real-life news, and made Second Life news as well.  Only days before the year started, the Lab had announced then paused an AI character designer. In late February, it was brought back, though just for designing a "personal companion." But in August, it announced it would once again pause development in September and those made couldn't be used any more until further notice. 

 

There would be an AI "Town Hall" in April for the Lab to answer some questions and concerns by the residents, one who would express, "If we let these AI run rampant, they will take our very humanity from us," and another who felt "An AI character can be a useful social outlet." Philip Linden would also answer questions about it at the SL22B, which was shortly after he wrote an essay "Ultraviolet Catastrophe" in which he suggested in the near future AI bots could overwhelm the Internet social media to the point people will drastically change how they use it. Two Lindens would leave the Lab, Runitai Linden, and Signal Linden.

 

There was a minor controversy in which what looked like AI generated commercials for Second Life made it to Facebook. Brad Oberwager, the head of Linden Lab, would respond those were never intended to be actual commercials but were tests that would be replaced with inworld content, "We f***ed up." 

 

A few readers submitted AI-generated fanart to the Newser. The majority of comments were positive, though not everyone was pleased, one calling it "supporting theft." There were also some music videos done in Second Life that were finished with the assistance of AI. There would be an event in Second Life, "AI Land" which displayed AI-generated art. The debate on the Internet about AI art would make it to the Newser in the form of a commentary by Nydia Tungsten. 

 

In February, Linden Lab announced "Membership Mania," in which residents got more perks, everyone getting a higher group limit, and Plus and above getting a few more such as Linden Home options, a higher stored IM limit, and more prim space at Linden Homes. They also had a computer giveaway. In March was "March Mobile Millions," which gave residents logging onto the mobile viewer a chance to spin a money wheel which had prizes up to one million Linden Dollars. April would offer the "Dash for Cash" just for logging into the mobile viewer. For a brief time in April, Linden Lab reduced purchase fees for Linden dollars to one cent. Also in April, Linden Labs would give all residents new and old the Avatar Welcome Pack, and make it a feature for new accounts. In May, Linden Lab would fully reverse the ban on gachas it enacted four years earlier and partially lifted in November 2024. The Lab would also occasionally offer gifts to Premium and Premium Plus residents. 

There was some expansion of Bellisseria in February, April, and September with the continued tradition of many of the sims having funny names. There would be four new types of Linden Homes. In February came the Tiki, underwater, which were perfect for Second Life's merfolk community. April had the Aspen Ridge Linden Home. In September came the Ridgewood Linden Home. While these expansions were taking place, areas with older pre-Belisseria Linden Homes would close down. Bellisseria would celebrate it's sixth anniversary in April, with the B6B event. 

 

Brad Oberwager would announced the number of monthly users had gone up to 620,000 in December.  This was further up from 500,000 last year. In November, the Second Life University videos by Linden Lab would resume after a two year hiatus This year, there were some changes to billing and financial systems for buying and selling Linden dollars. The Lab made progress on it's mobile and webbrowser viewers. Firestorm would also launch a browser-based viewer, but like the Linden one, one needed to pay to use it.  

 

In September, the last member of the Lumiya Viewer staff announced she was trying to restore the platform, which it is believed may be ready sometime in 2026. The creator of one popular third-party viewer, Black Dragon, announced in October that he may have to stop updating it due to real-life, which will eventually render it obsolete.  

 

For owners of breedable pets, the owners of ABC horses got a shock when in January, Awesome Breed Creations, better known as ABC, effectively shut down when three members of it's staff left, saying they hadn't been paid in months, including the scriptor, who turned off the scripts and effectively turned off the breedables. Many horse owners were saddened, some who had invested tens of thousands of Linden dollars into their pets. Amaretto horses responded with a message of sympathy and an offer of a free starter pack. There was no sign of ABC's owner, who is thought to have "taken the money and ran."

 

Another controversy was when the store Bella Epoque was evicted from it's land when the owner Jani La Belle (Janire Coba) was suddenly told by her landlord to leave, her saying she was angrily told to depart because of the "gang of homo" she invited for an event. Unfazed, she made a shirt with the phrase "Gang of Homos," and she and supporters were wearing it as an act of pride in defiance. 

In August came some unwelcome news for the owners of "prim babies." Zooby, which made them, announced it was discontinuing support for them in January after switching production to mesh ones six years earlier. But in November, they announced support would continue.

Tripp Foxtail, announced he would be closing the Travellers Station and his other places in August, but within a few days stated a partial retraction, saying while others were still closing, the Travellers Station would stay. In October, Emerald City Golf Course announced it was facing financial trouble, but after a few weeks announced they had raised enough to continue, at least for now. But not all places in trouble got a reprieve. In late August, it was announced the Rosehaven community estates would be closing. Sadly it would get no break. 

Belisseria would be the subject of the Newser's April Fool joke. Firestorm had some joke warning alerts, "Due to a coding hiccup, all avatar voices have been replaced with chipmunk squeaks. Happy chatting!" Linden Lab got into the act by announcing they were offering upside down Linden Homes. One joke that went better than expected was one avatar maker offering cardboard avatars as a joke, and were surprised when people kept buying them up.  

 

There were many events across Second Life. Among them were Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education in late March and early April, Mole Day, Hug and Dunk A Linden, the Love Train, Bellisseria's anniversary or B6B, the Bay City anniversary, the Sci-Fi con, Bay City Oktoberfest, Team Diabetes Scare Me Silly, Bellisseria Spooktober, The Multiverse Fair, Luna's Empire Ghost Hunt, The Dickens Project, Bay City Tree Trimming, Raglan Shire events such as Shocktober and Wootstock, Autism Australia, and the monthly Homes For Our Troops Benefits.

 

There were the Valentine, SL Birthday, Halloween, and Christmas Shop and Hops. There were Burn2 events, the winter, spring, and summer spinoff events and the main one in October, the theme being "Tomorrow Today."  One SL Burner got a surprise when her build in Second Life was being replicated at the real-life Burning Man. Bay City Prim Drop and various other New Year's Eve events.  And of course there was the Second Life Twenty Second Birthday, or SL22B, of which the theme was Myths and Legends. 

 

There were the events at the PBC, such as International Women's Day, Juneteenth, Fright Fest, and the "Meet the Author" event for yours truly and the novel I published, "The Corsean Encounter."

 

The Relay for Life would hold many events, not just during it's main fundraising season from February to June but across the year, the RFL Living Expo, the Relaystock (which took place early this year), Fly For Life, Bid the Lindens Bald, the Fantasy Faire, Outshop Cancer, Making Strides, the Christmas Expo, and of course, the Relay Weekend. 

 

Two events would not happen this year. One was the Renaissance Festival in fall to raise money for the American Cancer Society. The other was the Veterans Tribute in November. Late November would see the end of the weekly Science Circle events. 

 

Among other places and groups having anniversaries the International Space Museum would turn twenty. So would the Second Life Coast Guard group.  Team Firestorm would turn fifteen. 

 

Sadly, some residents of Second Life would pass away this year. They included SL musician Reno Jones, artist Solana Python , club owner Jodi Eyre, commentator on SL and other virtual worlds Mal Burns, Crim Mip of Rosthaven and Wooburn, Melanippe of Themiscyra (Melanippe Karas), Tanarian Davies and Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (Klauswulfenbach Outlander) who were the same person behind the computer, builder and writer Luna Lunaria (apelles.luna), dancer Josiane Auster (Josiane Llewellyn), designer and decorator Crito Galtier, and singer Beccca Baxton.

 

For the Sunweaver community where the Newser office makes it's home, it would shine during the Relay season with it's Sunbeamer team, with the Sunbeamers Air Show and weekly Moon Dance. "The little team that could" would pass the one million Linden dollar and make Ruby.  Besides yours truly getting a book event at the Premier Business Center, in February, Nydia Tungsten would announce the third book in her Switched Destinies series, "Acceptance of Fate," was published. A friend of the Sunweavers/Angels would reopen the Urban Furry club. But sadly Club Squeaks would stop having regular events. 

 

There was also some Internet news. There was the continued debate about AI and if it was putting the economy at risk with a "bubble" due to burst soon, as well as debates about data centers and their demand for water. Skype would shut down in May. There was gaming controversy in the summer when it was discovered Steam was unlisting a number of Adult-rated games following pressure by credit card companies. In response, Paypal started blocking Steam in much of the world. October 2025 was a month some computer users dreaded. Microsoft was ending support for Windows 10. Users had the choice of filing for a one year extension, paying for a business version of the operating system, upgrading to Windows 11, or ditching Windows altogether and installing Linux. Most chose upgrading to 11. But there were complaints about bugs and unwanted instillation of AI. 

 

For the Newser, it's been a productive year which was more productive with the return of Netera Landar, as well as the many submissions sent by readers. And we look forward to delivering you the news about the people, places, and events in Second Life in 2026.

 

Bixyl Shuftan

Editor

SL Newser

 

Here's to You, Alleara Snoodle

 

It was four years ago this month on December 2, 2021 in which the Newser reported on the death of Alleara Snoodle. A longtime member of the Sunweaver community, she was gifted with both brains and a good heart. She was able to build many things, including the seeming impossible. But she would also take time for many friends, including myself. So who was she? Like much about our beloved gypsy, the answer is both simple and complicated. 

 

Read more in People.  

 

Eighteen Years of Writing About Second Life

 

It was eighteen years ago this month in which my time in SL as I know it began. 

 

While I had first logged in on December the previous year, for months my time here was on and off as my one friend here at the time was busy, and I didn't know where to go. The "Destination Guide" we know today did not exist then. So I just randomly TPed to a few locations. Then I heard about the Relay for Life Weekend Track. While the event was over, the exhibits got my attention. So I began to log on more often, eventually coming across my first hangouts, Luskwood, then the STA, and began making a few friends. Also at Luskwood I would get a red fox avatar and finally upgrade from the starter avatar. 

 

Wanting to know more about this wacky and wonderful virtual world, searching around on the Internet I came across blogs and newsletters. One was the "Second Life Newspaper" run by JamesT Juno the owner and Dana Vanmoer the editor. Once in a while, they would ask for reader submissions. Eventually, I emailed them a story, then a picture, then another picture. They then asked me to show up at their office for a job interview. 

 

And I got the job, the "fox reporter" among this team of newswriters.

 

It took a little time for me to "get in the groove," but I was soon able to easily come out with one, sometimes two stories a week, along with at least one screenshot cartoon picture. I would document events, review places, and interview people of all kinds. After about to and a half years, things took a sad turn when James left SL, then Dana announced she would have to close down the paper due to real life. Saddened, but determined to keep on writing about the news, I would get together with Gemma Cleanslate, Shelie Sands, and Grey Lupindo and form the Second Life Newser. "One man's dream" had become a shared dream, and I along with my teammates would continue it. 

 

Year after year, I've continued to write about the people and places of this fantastic, sometimes weird, virtual world as Second Life's fox reporter. While I've come across some chicanery and selfishness, there's been no shortage of people wanting to build great things for others to see or do great things for others. The Relay for Life is certainly an example of this, with unforgettable well-designed sims in the Fantasy Faire, and great camps and hundreds getting together in comradery on the Relay Weekend. To me it is this, and not a few point to old scandalous stories a few people for some reason still point to, that is the real face of Second Life.

 

By all means not everyone's been happy. There have been a very few over the past 18 years who expressed dissatisfaction, notably the partner of one person who was caught robbing a charity.. But for the most part, I've received praise and applause. And to you I thank you. You have been the big reason I've kept going for all these years. 

 

Unfortunately, I have had to slow down from the amount I was doing a few years ago. After my real-life job at a depot ended several years ago, I had more time to write. While I took the time to finally make progress on and complete the novel I published several months ago, I also had time for a few more stories. Finding full-time work again got delayed for several reasons, including the Pandemic. But eventually I did. But unfortunately that means not quite the time for writing I once did. There's also that when I came to SL, I was a relatively young man. Today, I'm not that far from real-life retirement. So that may be slowing me down a little as well. While I am spending a little time on more novels to publish, most of my writing time still goes to Newser articles and briefs. 

 

That doesn't mean I like writing about here less, I'm always finding something. It's just that Real Life has a way of tapping me on the shoulder, a lot. Some mornings all I can do is put up the "Later today" sign, and finish whatever I'm working on in the late morning or early afternoon. 

 

The paper will keep getting updated every day. That will not change. But it's looking like there won't be quite as many longer articles from me.

 

In any event, it's been quite "a long strange trip" writing about this wacky and wonderful virtual world, and looking forward to writing more in the years to come. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

Editor and Reporter 

SL Newser 

 

My Time At Second Life Newspaper (2015)

 

It was Fifteen years ago this Wednesday that the Newser came to be. But who was reporting the news of Second Life before that? In 2006, JamesT Juno would start the Second Life Newspaper, and others would join him in covering the news about this virtual world. This included Dana Vanmoer who would take over as editor, as well as Gemma Cleanslate and Bixyl Shuftan, who would go on to write for the Newser. So what went on during this earlier time of Second Life? Bixyl Shuftan would describe how things went from his point of view.

Read the article from 2015 in Extra. 

 

A Few Fantasy Faire Stories

 

The 2025 Fantasy Faire is over and done.  But the memories remain, as well as the numerous screenshots, and a few videos, made. When asked, a couple people shared some stories of theirs, in one case a short story and a picture. And yours truly has a few words.

 

Read more in Events..

 

2024: Year In Review

 

2024 is over, and not only are we starting a new year, but a new quarter century. But before we say goodbye to the old year, let's take a look at its triumphs and tragedies,its wins and blunders, and other interesting moments. 

 

Sadly one of the more consequential events was someone writing a slanderous article accusing a number of Lindens and Moles of ageplay. It had no real evidence of the accusations, but enough residents were talking about it to the point Linden and Mole chatter on Bellisseria group chat quieted down for a while, and Patch and a number of other Lindens and Moles were scarce for a while. The Lab announced they would investigate the accusations. But they would also make some changes in child avatar policies, notably they could no longer be nude and could no longer be in adult sims, even if there was nothing sexual out in the open. The later got some complaints as some residential areas were rated Adult only out of worry the Lab had a problem with couples being intimate behind closed doors, and there were events, notably Burn 2, where nudity was okay but allowed child avatars to be among the visitors and volunteer staff. 

 

Probably the development Linden Lab was talking about the most was it's Mobile Viewer, available for newer smartphones powered by Android and IOS. At the start of the year, it was available only as a "private alpha" for Premium-Plus residents, and they had to be on a waiting list. In June, Premium and Premium Plus accounts could get it on "early Beta." In November, it would be released officially, and available for all residents to use. But there was one detail that complicated going about on it. Since it was available through Google Play and the App Store, their terms and conditions meant that it couldn't be used to access adult regions. Firestorm announced it had no plans to make it's own mobile viewer.

 

Another development for Second Life was PBR, or Physical Based Rendering, technology. This made possible reflective surfaces off metal and water, and allowed for actual working mirrors.  Introduced in June, it would take off in popularity when introduced into Firestorm viewers later in the month, which got people using it and content creators making items such as furniture mirrors. But, some residents experienced technical glitches and crashes, leading to the opinion of some that the technology was rushed to be in time for the Second Life Birthday. One former Newser reported was saying the update make SL so bad, he was leaving and not returning. With the most popular viewer, Firestorm, having a "three viewer policy" in which older viewers were gradually phased out, those who were finding PBR features made SL almost unusable feared what would happen if the last viewer before the update, 6.6.17, was phased out. Finally in mid-August, the Firestorm team announced they were modifying their policy and 6.6.17 would be around "forever." The Lab would also acknowledge some residents were having issues and resolved to fix the bugs, as well as working closely with Team Firestorm. The bug fixing would go on into September and presumably later.

 

Other Lab developments, on WelcomeIsland, on January 30 there would be a new Community Exhibition where SL communities could place a display to advertise themselves to newcomers. JIRA support ended in February, it's operations transferred to a community portal.  In April, the Lab would lower the land impact, or weight, or mesh items. In September, the Lab would announce they were working on a combat system for those interested in taking part in battle games. Voice would change in Second Life, the servers moved to WebRTC.

 

In July, the Second Life Blogger Network was put on hiatus. A new one would appear in November. Also in July, Linden Lab would take a poll for it's next Linden Home theme. The results would be delayed, then in August it was announced the winner was the Tiki/Water Theme, with Alpine Style Theme (Snow) as the runner up. But for some reason, neither or any other new Linden Home would be made available this year. 

 

In October, Linden Lab would do a partial reversal of it's controversial Gacha Ban in 2021. Gacha machines can be made and sell items like they did before, but these items can no longer be transferable and able to be resold. While this made some happy, some longtime gacha fans complained part of the fun was being able to give away or trade them while some critics complained they were still bad.

 

There was some expansion of Bellisseria, notably early in the year. There would also be a new water connection between it and the Mainland in June. In April, Bellisseria would celebrate it's fifth anniversary. It would also have numerous events around the year on it's Fairgrounds, such as Bellisseria for Life in spring and it's own Mole Day in September.

In June, the SL21B, the Second Life Twenty-First Birthday celebrations would take place with the theme "Elements." As always, there were numerous resident and community-created exhibits. Among those taking part was the Newser, with it's exhibit build by the talented Silvia Ametza and her team. There would be a few town hall events. At one, Patch Linden would announce 21 residents could upgrade their accounts to lifetime Premium Plus. One difference between this and earlier Birthday celebrations, all the official music events were in the first ten days, then no more.

Brad Oberwager, the head of Linden Lab, would confirm in October that there were some layoffs saying there were "changes across the whole organization, and some people got promoted, some people got moved into different parts of the organization, and some people, we had to say goodbye ..." Philip Linden aka Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab, would become it's Chief Technical Officer in October. One Linden, Strawberry, would close the blog of her private account, Strawberry Singh.

In December, Linden Lab offered a gift to the residents, six months free of the gaming company Madpea's Unlimited service. But it would also offer them to take part in an experimental AI character designer. After a few days of heated debate on the forums, it would pause the program.

One change in Linden Lab was the sale of it's virtual currency exchange service Tilia in May. It had been created several years ago in response to growing US Government scrutiny about virtual money.

 

In May, the Grid would experience a welcome milestone. The number of sims had gone up past the 28,000 mark for the first time in years. Sadly the number has declined by a few hundred since, due to the closing of some private regions. 

 

For Team Firestorm, founder Jessica Lyon stepped down as it's Project Manager in January after almost fourteen years of being in charge of the people behind Second Life's most popular viewer. She remains on the team as it's CEO, but is no longer leading in day to day matters. 

Second Life's largest fundraising organization, the Relay for Life in Second Life, would hold a number of events for this year's season, Decades of Hope: the SL Living Expo, Belliseria for Life, Fantasy Faire, Sci-Fi con, Fandom con, Making Strides, The Renaissance Festival, I Pink I Can, the Winter Expo, and of course the main fundraising season from February to late June, with it's high point the Relay Weekend in early June. Once again, hundreds of thousands of US dollars were raised, over $454,000 as of the end of the main Relay season. Mattie Carlton (Mattie Foxpaws) would do a song for the Relay in honor of a departed friend, "We Are Here." The team of the community hosting the Newser office, the Sunbeamers, would hold a number of events such as it's annual air show (with the Anemone Wing Walkers and Team Phoenix), took part in multiteam events such as the Relaystock and would reach Ruby level for the second year in a row.

There were numerous other events in Second Life. In March there was the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference. This year, it was noticed that when the Lindens had a meeting there, Patch Linden was absent. There was the Burn2 art and music festival in October, the Second Life version of the Burning Man festival in real life, which had spinoff events in Winter, Spring, and Summer. There were the monthly Homes for Our Troops benefit concerts at Veterans Island. Mieville would hold events such as Silk Road. There was Virtual Ability's events, such as the Annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference. Team Diabetes would hold fundraising events, such as Scare Me Silly and the Art Bazzar Bay City would have Mole Day in February, a Truck Food Festival, Oktoberfest, and many other events such as it's anniversary parade and party in May.  Team Firestorm, the people behind Second Life's most popular viewer, would hold their anniversary party in September, their fourteenth. Halloween was celebrated in many places around Second Life, notably on the Luna's Empire sim which brought back it's Ghostbuster-inspired free to play game.

While 2024 was a Presidential Election year, the Newser would have less coverage than in previous years due to the increasing amount of political drama and the increasing desire of some residents to get away from it. But there were some events such as the Red White and Blue Civic Awareness Party at the PBC. Much like eight years ago, Trump's victory was followed by numerous cheers and screams on social media.

Some Lindens would depart the team. In February, Mojo and Styfy Linden left. Alexa Linden, and an unknown number of others, would leave in October.

And sadly some residents would pass away. Among them, Lorivonne Lustre aka Lorraine Mockford of the VWBPE, Sylys Sable/Sylys Weezles, a regular at several clubs, including the Happy Vixen, Smoke Texan, the part owner of the Stagg Island 9/11 memorial, Kim (kimberleyalice1961 Resident) of Kim's Kreations, Lady Lovie Benoir of the Premier Business Center, Kara Foxdale, a tarrot card reader the Newser interviewed in the past. There was also Arabella Cinquetti of Lightning Video, her store closing just after her passing in March, and the servers for her videos going offline in April. Among the locations affected was the Happy Vixen, which had a movie theater with her videos. The Sunweaver community would say goodbye to Zorro Wurramunga, also known as the "Fisher Fox." 

One noted longtime resident, Xavier Thiebaud, known for his work in the arts and founding a popular group, would announce he was departing Second Life for personal reasons, having a farewell party in August following the last showing of his plays.

 

Of locations in Second Life, Wedcot Center would be back in March following being offline for a few months. But another tribute to a Disney park, Magicland, would close in April, though the builds would remain on the sim for a while. Also in April, the last of the University of Western Australia sims closed, noted for it and it's sister sims holding art and machinima contests with some large prizes. Oahu, the home of the Pearl Harbor Memorial, would close and then reopen after it's original owner stepped in to revive the island. In December, Club Furzona, which the Newser wrote about a few years ago, announced it was leaving Second Life, but no destination was mentioned. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial would move to Veterans Isle. 

For the Sunweaver/Angel community, there would be the return of Nydia Tungsten's KVXN Radio in August.

Draxtor Despress had been working with Linden Lab for ten years. But in March it would come to a close. He would continue with his Book Club a little longer, but it would soon have it's final show in November. He would restart his Drax Files videos. 

 

Ryan Schultz, who blogged about Second Life and other virtual worlds, would announce in November he was having to cease updates on it. 

On the Internet, Facebook would go through an outage in March. In October, the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine would be hacked.

In gaming news, in January a private server for the discontinued game "City of Heroes" got the go-ahead by the game's owner NCSoft to operate in an official capacity. In September, Nintendo, the owners of the Pokemon franchise, sued the owners of Palworld on the grounds the game infringed on some of it's copyrights. Later, gaming updates would make a change with one detail people thought made the game resemble Pokemon a little, but the lawsuit remains.

2024 was an eventful year, and hopefully 2025 will be a great one.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Newser

Troll of The Year: The Linden Ageplay Allegations Controversy

 

SL news is full of people accomplishing great things and helping others. Unfortunately, one of the biggest news stories this year was caused by a single individual whose accusations led to questions about some of the Lindens and Moles and resulting in policy changes which irritated many.

In late February, a number of residents were taking about an article that accused a number of Lindens and Moles of taking part in ageplay (sexual roleplay between an adult and a minor) with avatars designed to look like young teens. While the writer claimed to be well-known, a search of his name didn't point out other articles. Prokovy Neva, no friend of the Lab, would state that aside from a real-life name or two mentioned, there was no real evidence anything in the write-up was true. As one commenting in the Newser would say, "Anyone can make any claim they want about anything. And in SL, its also easy to create evidence of anything - you take a picture then add awful textures to replace the innocent ones on their wall. Sorry, but in this postPhotoshop world, having a picture is not sufficient to hang someone. Anyone can take any picture in SL and edit it to look like anything else."

 

Eventually, the Lab would take the discussions seriously enough to start investigating, reminding people, "we have a zero-tolerance policy against sexualized ageplay" and they were taking the accusations seriously. On May, Linden Lab announced changes in their child avatar policy, notably that they could no longer be nude and needed a "modesty layer," and could no longer enter any sim rated Adult, even if the location had nothing of a sexual nature. The later led to a number of complaints, particularly because some residential sims were labeled adult out of fear the Lab would boot consenting adults for what happened behind closed doors. The change in policy would affect the Burn2 festival as it had allowed both nudity and child avatars, notably Marianne McCann who helped out at the event. But with the new rule, she could no longer attend. 

Bellissaria chat would be quiet of blue dialogue from the Lindens and Moles for a while, and for a time those named in the article, notably Patch Linden, would keep a low profile for a while. Many cheered when he reappeared, but there were a few going along the lines of "hide the children!" 

Yours truly is not going to mention the man who caused all this by name, or psudonym, but he is our "troll of the year" for 2024. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Looking Back: Memorials to Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett

 

It was fifteen years ago today that two celebrities passed away, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Fawcett had passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer. Jackson's death was originally ruled a heart attack, but turned out to be caused by an overdose of a drug intended as a sleep aide. 

Memorials to the two media icons were set up in Second Life. For the article about the two memorials read the 2009 article, originally published in the Second Life Newspaper, (here). 

Bixyl Shuftan

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. 

My Time At Second Life Newspaper (2015)

 

It was fourteen years ago this Wednesday that the Newser came to be. But who was reporting the news of Second Life before that? In 2006, JamesT Juno would start the Second Life Newspaper, and others would join him in covering the news about this virtual world. This included Dana Vanmoer who would take over as editor, as well as Gemma Cleanslate and Bixyl Shuftan, who would go on to write for the Newser. So what went on during this earlier time of Second Life? Bixyl Shuftan would describe how things went from his point of view.

Read the article from 2010 in Extra.

Fourteen Years of The Second Life Newser

 

It was fourteen years ago today that one newsletter in Second Life closed down, and another began. Over three years earlier, JamesT Juno had started the Second Life Newspaper, and over time others joined him in writing stories about Second Life. Among them was Dana Vanmoer, who as editor helped it grow to the best paper covering the virtual world. We would cover the detailed and exciting places of Second Life, numerous events that were happening, the people that helped make Second Life what it is, and the goings-on of Linden Lab. 

Unfortunately, events in real life would catch up to James and Dana. And eventually the decision was made to close the Second Life Newspaper. For four of us, Gemma Cleanslate, Grey Lupindo, Shelly Sands, and myself, Bixyl Shuftan, we made the decision to carry on as journalist. But it would be under a new newsletter, our own. Since I was the Office Manager in James' and Dana's paper, posting when they couldn't, I would be the editor. And so on June 5 2010, James and Dana would hold a farewell party in which they announced the Second Life Newspaper's closing and would be departing Second Life indefinitely. And I announced the opening of the new one. Our first story covered would be a sad one, that of our predecessor shutting it's doors. 

We ended up hitting the ground running. After just a few routine articles came news of Linden Lab laying off a third of it's staff. This was soon followed by Linden Lab's CEO stepping down. It would be an eventful year, with Philip Linden coming back to temporarily lead for a few months and some controversial moves such as the Teen Grid merger and the Emeraldgate controversy in which the most popular third party viewer at the time was shut down due to actions by it's team. But not everything was controversy, and there was plenty of happy news such as the Relay for Life and the Second Life Birthday. Eventually, sponsors such as the Podex Excnage came forward to support the paper, and people came forward offering to join our team. And of course the Sunweaver community supported us from the start, offering us both land and an office as our headquarters. 

Over time, we've had our share of challenges. There would be more controversies to cover, such as the rights of content creators when Linden Lab changed it's terms of service to some questionable language for several months. There have also been new developments, such as mesh and mobile viewers. There have been places to cover, such as Bellisseria. There have been many events, such as the Relay or Life and Second Life Birthday. And of course writing about some of the people who make them possible.

Sadly, we've had to say goodbye to people over time. Grey Lupindo and Shellie Sands would eventually depart the paper. The Podex Exchange would close down after a few years following the Lab ordering all third-party Linden exchangers to cease operations. But other reporters would step in, and other sponsors would come forward. 

So where do we go from here? We've had our ups and downs. And real-life can sometimes butt in into our writing time. But unless there's some calamity that shuts down the Internet, Second Life will be around for years to come. And we at the Newser will be around to cover it.

Special thanks to our sponsors, Farshore Radio, Montecito Bay, the Safe Waters Foundation, and the Sunweaver community that has been the home of our office for all these years, to Linden Lab which created this virtual world to begin with, to James and Dana to showing us the way in how to report the news here, and of course you the readers.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor, Second Life Newser

2023 Year In Review

 

 2023 was a year in Second Life full of triumphs and tragedies, accomplishments and pitfalls, and a number of other noteworthy happenings. 

 

Probably the top news story of 2023 was Second Life's Twentieth Anniversary.  It was in June 2003 in which the virtual world officially went online, and there was plenty of talk about how much had changed over time, as well as defying expectations of critics. To celebrate, the Lab had a contests with a number of computers as prizes, and one lucky winner got a new car. Some real-life publications took a moment to write about the virtual world for the first time in a while, in some cases many years. There were numerous exhibits, some were encores that had appeared in past SLB events, while others reflected the theme "Our Fantastic Future." This included the Newser's exhibit by Silvia Ametza, who made a depiction of a near future astronaut base on a moon of Jupiter. As part of the celebration, Draxtor Despres had a movie-length documentary "Made in Second Life."

It didn't take very long for the year to come up with a burning issue. In January, the Bonniebots suddenly became an issue of controversy as they went from sim to sim gathering information. Some considered them harmless, some simply annoying, and others a threat to privacy, the latter group demanding the Lab do something about them. The owners of the bots were saying they were not trying to spy on people, but the calls for action persisted, notably on the official forums. Linden Lab's initial response was to close down a thread on the issue, but a second quickly popped up, followed by another. Eventually the Lindens stated they were looking into what they could do on the matter. In late March, the Lab would announce they were introducing new tools for residents to deal with unwanted bots, as well as a new policy about them. 

In March, Linden Lab would lower sim tiers, but raise Linden Dollar purchase and sell fees. This would be a continuation of the Lab relying less on money from sims and more on income from transaction fees. In June, they started offering Premium accounts for life with a onetime fee. They also started offering certain Linden Homes reserved for Premium Plus residents, first the Ranch style homes, then the Mediterranean. They would prove highly popular. The Lab would also create a new line of Mesh starter avatars: the Senra. It invited merchants to make products for them, and some did. In November, Linden Lab launched the PBR update to the Grid, which promised residents reflective surfaces in Second Life soon, including eventually working mirrors.

For years, many residents had asked Linden Lab to come up with a mobile viewer. While the Lab had partnered with others in the past to develop one, it had yet to come up with one that was truly it's own. In March, it finally released footage of it's own viewer. In December, it announced it was finally ready to offer a "private alpha" version to Premium Plus residents, but warned users to expect glitches.

 

Belliseria would see more additions, with the Ranch and then Mediterranean Linden Home areas for Premium Plus residents. The Fantasy Linden Homes would also get a treehouse option. The continent would also see the addition of the Bellihub from Linden Lab, a way to encourage residents to move to the continent. Bellisseria would also see it's Haunted Neighborhood and Trick or Treat event for Halloween. With Bellisseria in the news so much, eventually the Newser would open a satellite office there. 

 

Linden Lab would make a place consisting of several sims that would both show newcomers what Second Life had to offer but still appeal to longterm residents: The WelcomeHub. It would open in June with a party at the Motown sim, which was a partnership with two music groups. It would have a lasertag arena, the Cinema, and some shopping areas. It would be connected to Bellisseria by a rail line. Later in the year, Motown would hold another large event, a trivia party. In November, the WelcomeHub Cinema would show a short film by Saffia Widdershins inspired by the Fantasy Faire, "Harland Quinn and the Omega Hex." In December, the Cinema would show "Scrooge: A Second Life Christmas Carol," a faithful rendition of the Dickens classic made entirely in the virtual world done late last year by Caligula Aquila and AVTV.

 

One part of the WelcomeHub was a little controversial, the Social Casino. It had appeared on it's own a few months before. Offering blackjack tables and slot machines for which players could use Linden dollars to buy (nonrefundable) chips, there were charges of hypocrisy a couple years earlier the Lab had banned gachas as they resembled gambling.

While glitches have always been part of Second Life, there was an especially bad day in February with numerous sims offline and many people clouded for hours. In March, the Purfection sim had a major glitch which wrecked the Happy Vixen club, but thankfully a rollback fixed the damage. In August was some "Unscheduled Maintenance" that had people unable to rezz, log in, or put things on the ground for hours. 

Besides the Second Life Anniversary celebrations, there were many other events. Probably the biggest among them was the Relay for Life in Second Life, which officially went from February to June. Various teams big and small held events to raise money for cancer research and treatments and have fun doing so ("putting the fun in fundraising"). The high point would be the Relay Weekend in June in which hundreds walked along a track along American Cancer Society and almost 40 other sims, described as the most intense 24 hours in Second Life.

The Relay for Life would have a number of spinoff events. There was the SL Living Expo, which replaced the longtime running "Home and Garden Expo/" Sci-fi Con (which had Slime A Linden). In the spring was the Fantasy Faire that had many detailed sims to explore and many events such as the Childrens' Roleplay. In fall, there was "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer," which ran alongside events such as "Outshop Cancer" and the SL Renaissance Festival. The Lindens would appear at the later, in a bidding event in which the losing team got pilloried. And for December there was the Christmas Expo.

 

There was the VWBPE conference in the spring, which brought attention to how Second Life could be used for education. Burn2 would have it's "Animalia" event in October and several spinoff events across the year. The Seachai Library would hold the Bradbury event in October and the Dickens Project in December.

One annual event, One Billion Rising, was canceled for the first time since it started. The Sci-Fi Expo, a Relay event, would announce further seasons would be "indefinitely postponed."  Virtual Ability would have a number of conferences to educate and inform about the disabled. "Bid The Lindens Bald" at the Relaystock would raise almost three-quarters of a million Linden dollars. There was the Fandom Con, which took place in late July a few weeks after the SLB. Raglan Shire would have it's Artwalk and Wootstock. Team Firestorm would hold it's thirteenth anniversary bash. Halloween would see a number of events. Veterans Day would see the annual Veterans Tribute and "Tracks to Trenches."

Besides the Relay, there were numerous other Fundraisers. In February, there was a fundraiser for an earthquake that hit Turkey, and one for Ukraine in it's war against Russian invasion. In the summer, there was the "Forget ME Not" fundraiser for "research of ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), Long Covid, Fibromyalgia and related chronic conditions." In August was a fundraiser to help the people left homeless by a devastating fire on the Hawaiian island of Maui. It would raise about two million Lindens. There was the Spoonful of Sugar event to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. Luna's Empire would hold a Ghost Hunt event for Halloween.

 

Veterans Isle would hold benefit concerts every month to raise money to keep roofs over the heads of vets. Creations for Parkinson's and Team Diabetes would have a number of events, such as "Scare Me Silly" for Halloween.

On April Fools Day the Lab pulled on on Bellisseria with UFOs all over the island. The April Fool the Newser would pull was a playful poke at Patch Linden. There were also shopping events such as Abnormality, and Linden Lab's "Shop and Hop" events.

Besides Linden Lab's new starter avatars, one other body made the news. The popular Maitreya mesh body would get it's first major update ever, the Laura X. For owners of virtual pets, there was one less company as Biobreeds shut down in February due to a dispute between the co-owners.

 

The Mieville community was facing an uncertain future following the confirmed death of it's founder Perryn Peterson in later 2022. Fortunately Linden Lab intervened, in February offering residents the chance to take over the sims. So the community went on, celebrating it's 15th year that summer.

 

Caledon would celebrate it's 17th anniversary in March. The next month it was announcing it was closing a few sims, though it had many more. It's founder, Desmond Shang, would step down as leader later in the year, with NeoBokrug Elytis taking his place.

The Newser would check numerous sims this year. Some were old favorites such as Calas with it's great scenery and Montecito Bay with it's stores and arcade. There were others we came across for the first time such as the New Genesis Bay sim with a riding track that was so long it took hours to finish. Echovets would create a gateway sim aimed at US Military veteran newcomers. Besides sims, we would check out groups, such as Drivers of SL.

 

Outside Second Life, one other world that was making mainstream headline news a couple years earlier, Facebook's Horizon, after months of being heavily promoted by it's owner was quietly "left behind" as it made little money compared to what had been invested in it, and Mark Zuckerburg turned his attention to other projects such as AI.

Among those lost, Palomma Cassanova, the owner of the Free Dove freebie store which had been helping newcomers for years. There were worries the place would be gone, but it was saved. Bree Himmel, noted for being one of Raglan Shire's "Basement Kitties of Doom" had passed in January as well. Xzavia Yifu of Timeless Textures passed in February. Ariel Loonie of Luskwood was gone. FrannyDJ, the lady who brought a tribute to Macy's Thanksgiving Parade to Second Life, and other parades, had died. Fans who enjoyed her parades would keep the Thanksgiving one alive. Allian Blackwell, a Commandant of the Second Life Coast Guard, was gone. New Citizens Incorporated lost Beverly Montgomery. 

Among the places that closed down was the WEDCOT Center Park, a tribute to Disneyland and Disney World. A couple years earlier, it got attention as Patch Linden held a Christmas music event there. But sadly the sim would close after ten years of operation. 

Live performer Keeba Tammas, the singer of the "Keeba Tammas and The Tiny Maniacs" band would retire from live performances, though the band would go on, renaming itself as just the Tiny Maniacs. Music video maker Furrex ended up banned from Second Life, and it seemed his days of making videos were over. But he was soon making them once more. 

For the Newser office's neighbors, the Sunweavers, it was an eventful year with a number of events. It was especially so during the Relay season in which there were events such as the annual Air Show and Ren-Faire, in which people dropping by had a chance to play games and courses set up by Cynthia Farshore and Shockwave Yareach. There were the Bid Me events in which team captain Rita Mariner went skunk, one team member became a clone of Luskwood's founder Michi, new team member Charlee Shuftan went panda for a few weeks. At the Relaystock, they would make over 100,000 Linden dollars at Cynthia's set alone. And there was Cynthia's weekly Moon Dance. The team would reach the one million Linden mark in May. Encouraged, the team reached further and hit Ruby Level (1,250,000 Lindens) for the first time ever. It was a record year. At other times of the year, "A Little Odd Place" at Sunweaver Bay would change for the holiday at the time. For Linden Lab's Halloween video contest, Nydia Tungsten would send in an entry. And one certain fox would find love and after a courtship they would be husband and wife.

For the Newser, it's been quite a year covering events here in Second Life. And we'll be continuing to cover it for 2024. Special thanks to our sponsors at Montecito Bay, Lorena Chung Estates, The Safe Waters Foundation, and Farshore Radio.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor, SL Newser

Looking Back: The Palestinian Extremist Sim

 

In real-life news, it's been about a month since the Hamas terrorist organization attacked Israel. In the resulting carnage, over 1400 Israelis were killed, notably many civilians in their own neighborhoods or attending a music concert. There have been numerous stories of grenades tossed into safe rooms where terrified families were hiding, and piles of decapitated babies. Many were also taken hostage. American visitors were among both the dead and abducted. 

 

In response, Israel responded by bombing Hamas positions in Gaza, the tiny but densely populated strip of land controlled by the terrorists, and then following up with an invasion. With so many people in the place and the terrorists taking positions so close to where noncombatants lived, the result has been scores of civilian casualties. With the stories of civilian suffering, there have been numerous calls among neighboring Arab states for a ceasefire, and pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the US and Europe. But there has been no alternative plan to get rid of the terrorists. 

 

Eleven years ago in November 2012, there was a less devastating attack on Israel from Hamas involving a number of rockets, resulting in a fight in which Hamas claimed victory despite coming out of it heavily damaged. In Second Life, there was also a Palestinian militant propaganda sim, Jordan River. The place was full of propaganda, referring to the Israelis as "Zionists," comparing them to Nazis, and calling for the end of the nation of Israel. Others spoke out against the place, Hamlet Au of New World Notes calling it a place with the "most extreme forms of expression."One commentator would say, "It seems strange to me that one can have a sim that calls for the annhilation of the state of Israel. And that's okay. But if (I) created one calling for the annhilation of Syria, Iran, Palestine or Egypt, why, then I'd be in violation of the TOS for 'hate speech'. Seems unfair to me."

 

Checking again several months later, Jordon River was gone. While it's possible the owner closed the sim on his own, more likely Linden Lab finally caught wind of the place and shut it down. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Looking Back: The ToS Content Creator Controversy

 

 There's no denying Linden Lab was pretty smart in creating Second Life and keeping it updated over the years. But unfortunately, they've also been known to make some blunders as well. Ten years ago was when they made one of their most memorable, a change in the Terms of Service that basically stated they could take the hard-made work of content creators, and sell it as their own. The result was an uproar of criticism, by both people accusing Linden Lab of plotting to rip off it's residents, and people criticizing them for refusing to own up to it's mistake of poorly written language and correct it.

Read the story in Extra.

 

Commentary: Second Life Turns 20

 

It was twenty years go, June 2003, in which Linden Lab officially started Second Life. It had already been in development for a few years, and for months people had joined while it was in beta. Originally called "Linden World," it wasn't the first virtual place online, and few others also came out soon afterwards. It was also not an instant success. For it's first few years, it's userbase was small compared to that of today, and it was relatively unknown to the computer and tech world. But it did have a combination that other places didn't. Not only could people interact with the environment and own a piece of it, but they could build more or less anything they wanted to with prims and scripts, and with the inworld economy they could buy and sell with one another and be able to convert whatever made into real-world money. It was a place like no other online.

Then around 2006, it began to catch on, and it started to grow fast both in population and land area. It was also getting noticed, first by computer and tech circles. And soon it was getting attention in mainstream media. Eventually it would get mentioned on prime-time television, notably on an episode of CSI in which detectives went into the virtual world to catch a killer. And along with the attention came still more people coming in, as well as businesses. Numerous companies such as Circuit City and Honda would get places here, and IBM would sponsor many sims. That people could make money through virtual real-estate also got attention, millionaire Anshe Chung making the cover of one business magazine. Charities such as veterans groups and the Relay for Life would come here. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and other politicians would come here for discussions. By 2008, people were calling Second Life the next stage of the Internet, and it's future. It seemed like in just a few years, everyone online would be in virtual reality.

But, this would not be the case. While millions would come for a peak, Second Life had a learning curve that confused many. For every ten people who logged on, only one or less would stick around after one or two days. People often had to figure out things like Instant Messaging, teleporting, joining groups, etc. on their own. With so many on the Internet having been used to games with clear winning conditions, the open-endedness of the virtual world confused many "How do you play this game, how do you win?" Where you have people, you eventually get troublemakers and people otherwise disagreeing. Some came here just to troll and/or bully, and others would end up causing drama. And of course there was the lag, which could be particularly bad on older computers. When social media such as Twitter and Facebook came around, the masses found them much easier to use, and they would get the millions Linden Lab thought awaited it in the future.

Then came the bad press. There came tales of virtual child abuse. And then came the tales of "cyber noogie." People were taking advantage of Second Life's freedom to not just make places of learning and socializing, but also to engage with others sexually. This creeped out some, and became fodder for more sensational stories that were soon pushing aside tales of veterans being aided by the virtual world. It even got to the point Gingrich's visit here was used to attack his opinions. One friend called it a sad fact of modern media, "It is so easier to sell to the public when there is controversy than when the story is constructive."

Linden Lab itself was also seemingly becoming detached from it's users. In the Second Life Fifth Birthday Celebrations, CEO Mark Kingdom made a speech that sounded like the Lab felt the virtual world's first residents would basically have to move aside for future users. There came incidents like the Openspace controversy in which huge price increases were announced. There was the new "Viewer 2" that older residents found awkward to use. Many established residents began feeling alienated, and some began dropping out.

The 2008 recession didn't help matters either. When people are unsure about their money, they cut back on expenses, and entertainment expenses are usually the first to go. So people were less able to pay for sims and virtual goods to begin with. But the bad press and many residents getting frustrated with Linden Lab encouraged people to cut back further, and the Lab began to feel it where it hurt: their bottom line. By 2009, it was becoming clear the virtual world had past it's peak. And in 2010, the Lab finally reacted with cutbacks, notably laying off a third of it's staff. There were other moves as well that hurt people's confidence such as the Teen Grid merger and ending educational sim discounts. It was a time when the virtual world's future was in doubt, some feeling it was doomed.

But Second Life didn't die. Many residents despite the difficulties such as Linden Lab's blunders continued to enjoy living here and interacting with one another virtually. The world despite it's flaws was still the creative and social space it had been. While some places online eventually closed, such as There, The Sims Online, Haboo Hotel, and others, Second Life endured. Indeed when the Pandemic hit in 2020, Second Life had a second wind as both former and new users flocked over here to enjoy virtually what they couldn't in real life. Facebook would try to get in on the action with it's own virtual world, but it only ended up mocked and loosing money while tech media once again began noticing our virtual world.

Second Life has also changed much over time. When it started, people couldn't teleport except at "hubs," and people were charged money for rezzing prims (which they got back when deleted). Both were soon corrected. The way people communicate has changed some with the introduction of Voice. The introduction of mesh and it's improvements has also changed the way things are made here. Some makers have adapted to the new methods. Others have dropped out. The way avatar appearances has also changed. While people can, and do, still get complete packages, more often people are getting heads, bodies, hands, and other body parts for avatars separately to make their own custom look. Shopping has also changed from only buying from people inworld to being able to get from Marketplace and have your items delivered within seconds (usually). In a sense, this reflects the ability of people in real-life to buy from Amazon and other places online in the past generation. But not unlike real-life, the result has been some stores and malls inworld closing down. The number of groups residents could belong to has grown over time, from ten in the early days to 42 for basic accounts, and more for Premium.

The way people are named has also changed over time. When Second Life first started, one could pick more or less whatever first name they wanted (that wasn't a profanity or slur) and pick from a list of last names that was slowly changed over time. The idea was that people with the same last name would have something in common, having came inworld around the same time and having the name would make them something of a "family." But when people didn't like any of the names when making a new account, their options were to either be stuck with a name they hated of not sign up, or were confused by not being able to use their real names. So eventually the Lab changed the system, new users choosing just one account name while having a "display name" that looked larger over their avatars. But with all new people having the default surname "Resident," they stood out and some felt like second-class citizens, and wondered why they couldn't have a last account name. After several years, Linden Lab would bring back last names for new residents, but only as an option that one had to pay a fee for.

Who could go to Second Life and where on it has also changed. It used to be a strict 18 and over only could come here while teenagers could only go to a separate Teen Grid. This would be changed in 2010-11 when the Teen Grid was closed and teenagers could go to General Audience, or be limited to certain General Audience sims where they had permission depending on their age. For a time, Adult sims were limited to only those who provided some real-life ID to the Lab such as a drivers license. But this would be dropped after a short time. But to buy Linden Dollars, one still needs their credit card, and some places such as Linden Realms require a transaction history to fully work well.

The way Linden Lab has interacted with the residents has changed over time. At first, there weren't many restrictions. As long as people didn't grief, cheat, or otherwise misbehave, no worries. But over time came more rules, such as the gambling ban, then the banking ban and other rules such as no buying Linden dollars from anyone but the Lab, no selling gachas, and others. In the early days of the virtual world, the Lindens interacted with the residents a lot, but this would slow down as the grid became larger. In the days of CEO Rod Humble in the early 2010s, events in which the Lindens interacted with the Lindens were closed and there seemed to be a policy of "no fraternization." But it didn't last very long, and after Ebbe Altberg assumed command of the Lab, Lindens slowly began to meet and talk to residents once more. Over time, the Lab would also become more involved with the homes of some of it's residents. In 2008, Linden Moles were involved in the construction of Bay CIty. Then came Linden Homes, a bonus for Premium account holders, which grew in popularity when the Lab began offering then on a new continent in the middle of the Second Life mainland in 2019: Bellisseria. Bellisseria would grow in size, and population, on land, and homes, made all by the Linden Moles, and in the Bellisseria group chat one can frequently talk to the Lindens and Moles. This doesn't mean the Lindens are so involved with all residents, most still live in either private sims and estates outside the mainland or mainland areas outside Bellisseria where the only thing made by the Lindens and Moles around is the occasional Linden bear souvenir, and hear from them only when there's a problem or glitch to fix. But Bellisseria demonstrates just how big a change there's been between the Lindens and residents over the past several years.

And then there are the alternatives to Second Life. This virtual world was soon leaving others in the dust, and in it's early days it seemed like the only real competition was the popular MMO "World of Warcraft," which not unlike Second Life was a ground-breaker in it's field. Eventually would come the OpenSim worlds, but most of these grids would remain very very small compared to Second Life, only a few such as InWorldz gaining somewhat large numbers. With new technology being developed over time, Linden Lab itself would eventually develop an alternative of it's own, Sansar. But it would gain only a small following. So would the virtual space created by Second Life's founder "High Fidelity." Eventually Sansar would be sold off and High Fidelity closing down. Eventually came a next-generation virtual world that did attract larger numbers, VRChat. But while more successful than Sansar it still attracts smaller numbers than Second Life, and has mostly younger users.

Finally, there's that twenty years later, there's that there's a literal new generation of Second Life users. There are people signing up who weren't even born when the Grid first came online. And with this new generation comes new attitudes and ideas. Early on, residents were mostly Boomers and Gen-X, and had certain attitudes about the Internet such as highly valuing privacy. But over time, they would slowly drop in number and there would be growing numbers of Millennials, and lately Gen-Z/Zoomers, who were more used to displaying their real-life identities online. 

 

How does Linden Lab perceive how new residents have changed? In his recent interview at the SL20B, Patch Linden would say that when Second Life was new, residents seemed mainly interested in building. Residents coming in around 2010, he felt were mainly interested in socializing. Residents entering in the past few years, Patch felt were interested in a combination of the two, thinking many had spent a few years in simpler virtual space like Roblox and now were wanting something more detailed.

I could go on and on with how much has changed from how real-life politics is handled, to some more of Linden Lab's questionable and downright boneheaded moves, to the move to the Cloud Servers a few years ago. But this would require more time, and pencil space. But Second Life and Linden Lab is enjoying an accomplishment that wasn't available to forms of entertainment such as Atari in my younger days, being very much alive and well and kicking twenty years later. As much as we oldbies sometimes call Linden Lab out for mistakes, we have to hand it to them for being able to last, and deliver, for so long.

So what does the future hold for Second Life? Right now, Second Life and Linden Lab are doing quite well. And while there have been a few moves by the Lab that raised some eyebrows lately, the residents are fairly content and happy. It's a safe bet that our virtual world will be around for at least the next several years. There is no reason to believe there won't be a SL25B, and little to believe there won't be a SL30B. Yes,  eventually somebody will make a virtual world that appeals to the masses better. And no company lasts forever. But unless there's a worldwide calamity far greater than the recent Pandemic, we'll still be going about the Mainland, Bellisseria, and the private estates for many years to come.

Twenty years later, it's still our Second Life, so let's make the most of it.

Bixyl Shuftan