Fifteen Years Ago: The Emeraldgate Scandal

 

Fifteen years ago early this month, Second Life's most popular then was collapsing, and the one that would replace it would be born as a result of it's demise.  In early and mid 2010, the Emerald third-party viewer had been the most popular one. But in August came a Directed Denial Of Service attack that was caused by computers using the viewer at the time, resulting in what came to be known as the Emeraldgate scandal. On September 1, 2010, Team Emerald announced it would soon be folding. Two days later, on September 3, former Emeraldgate member Jessica Lyon announced she had formed a new team and had made a new viewer "from the ashes of Emerald," Team Phoenix and it's Phoenix viewer. 

 

A few years later, the Phoenix viewer would be retired and replaced by the Firestorm viewer, the team having renamed itself Firestorm as well. Over the years, the team has faced a number of challenges large and small. And eventually Jessica would step down from managing on a daily basis. But Team Firestorm continues on. 

For more information, read the 2018 article on the subject, and an interview with then Firestorm team member Tonya Souther.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Thirteen Years Ago: The Emeraldgate Scandal

 

Thirteen years ago, Second Life's most popular then was collapsing, and the one that would replace it would be born as a result of it's demise.  In early and mid 2010, the Emerald third-party viewer had been the most popular one. But in August came a Directed Denial Of Service attack that was caused by computers using the viewer at the time, resulting in what came to be known as the Emeraldgate scandal. It would be thirteen years ago tomorrow, September 1, 2010, in which Team Emerald announced it would soon be folding. Two days later, on September 3, former Emeralgate member Jessica Lyon announced she had formed a new team and had made a new viewer "from the ashes of Emerald," Team Phoenix and it's Phoenix viewer. A few years later, the Phoenix viewer would be retired and replaced by the Firestorm viewer, the team having renamed itself Firestorm as well. 

For more information, read the 2018 article on the subject, and an interview with then Firestorm team member Tonya Souther.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

Emeraldgate And Start of Team Phoenix, Ten Years Ago

It was ten years ago this month that the most popular third-party viewer used by Second Life residents at the time was blocked by Linden Lab as a result of a scandal, and soon after three of the more noteable members of the viewer team were either banned or vanished from the virtual world. But many of the team had already split away and formed a new team and a new viewer, one that would go on to become the most popular viewer. This was Emeraldgate, which would be the end of Modular Systems and the Emerald viewer, and the start of Team Phoenix and the Phoenix viewer, which would eventually become Team Firestorm.

Jessica Lyon, the leader of Firestorm would have a message on their website on their anniversary, September 3.

Ten years ago to this day, the Phoenix Firestorm Project was formed. The Phoenix was born a decade ago. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10! How crazy is that? In human years, 10 years is long, but in Phoenix years… well, this bird is OLD!

The Firestorm Project is powered by people who are altruistic through and through. While we started this venture with just a handful of altruists, over the years our team has grown remarkably. Today we have over 80 amazing people from all walks of life behind us in what we do, and we do many things.

While our team has grown overall, we have also, sadly, lost many good folks along the way—some who were with us from day one. We miss them. I miss them. Whatever the reason for their departure, I thank them for their altruism and time with us. You know who you are … thank you.

Further details of what happened can be found in this 2018 article. In an interview a few weeks later, Firestorm member Tonya Souther would offer what it was like from the inside while Emeraldgate and the breakup of Modular Systems was happening.

Jessica would go on to say Firestorm's anniversary party was delayed, but would take place on Sunday October 18. The event will have three live performances: Savannah Rain, Maximillion Kleene, and Keeba Tammas and the Tiny Maniacs. There will also be gifts available. Stay tuned for further details.

Source: Firestorm

Bixyl Shuftan

Firestorm To Offer Seperate Viewers For Second Life And Opensim

For years, Team Firestorm has offered not only a viewer that can access Second Life, but also one that can go online either Second Life or the Opensim girds. In a recent announcement however, Firestorm's team leader Jessica Lyon announced they would no longer offer a viewer that can get on either virtual world.

We have reached a milestone in how we handle Open Simulator and Second Life binaries. In the past we have provided SL-only builds AND OpenSim-and-SL builds. This has always caused much confusion to our users, and for that reason—among many others—we have forked our code into two repositories. This means we can now issue updates for Second Life and updates for OpenSim independently of each other. It also makes it a lot easier for us to develop for Second Life without worrying about backwards compatibility with OpenSim, and to develop for OpenSim without concern about SL compatibility. Everyone wins!

No longer will the two be tied by release date or version numbers. Firestorm developer Beq Janus has been communicating with OpenSim developers and grid owners and has been working hard on OpenSim-specific issues for a future OpenSim Firestorm viewer update.

The SL and OS Viewer will still work for now. But the next viewers for Second Life and Opensim will only work on their respective grids.

Click Here for the blog post in full.

Team Firestorm's Halloween Gift Pet Wolf

Team Firestorm recently had a Halloween party. While the party may be over, the present for those stopping by is still there: a "Wild Kajaera Limited Edition Gray Wolf."

Wild Kajaera has once again graciously sponsored a gorgeous gift!  A Firestorm Gray Wolf limited edition pet! The gift will be available at the start of the event and for a period of time after that at Kajaera’s discretion.

To get the wolf, head over to Firestorm Dow Forest (224/232/3902). Click on one of the cubes with the wolf picture, and you'll receive a craft. Rez the crate in a sandbox or your home, and you'll get the wolf and a "blue flame." I'm not sure what the blue flame does, but the wolf can be rezzed on the ground. The pet can't be bread, but needs no food.

Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: Big Western Party at the Firestorm Gateway!

Please join Us for day filled with fun, and surprises April 3rd Relay For Life of SL party starts at 8AM with Savannah Rain singing Live!!!

We'll also be holding auctions on   Teager's, *Teegle* horse (avatar). Tyrian Slade's, *Ride-able* horse and Kittycats Lucky Shamrock Cat.  Auctions end at 6PM April 3rd.

Singing live later in the evening Paul Nowles at  5PM SLT Your rides attached

Go Relay!!!!!

SLurls: If your first initial is
A-J http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Firestorm%20Ghost%20Town/14/240/3902
K-R http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Firestorm%20Aerodrome/238/15/3901
S-Z http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Firestorm%20Dow%20Forest/237/238/3902

Scenes From Team Firestorm's Fifth Anniversary Party

On Thursday September 3, Team Firestorm, the makers of the popular Firestorm viewer, celebrated their fifth anniversary. It was a fun-filled event with music, visual performances, gifts for those stopping by, and lots of fun.

Read more in Events.

Team Firestorm to Celebrate Five Years

It's been five years since the events that lead up to the creation of Team Firestorm (originally known as Team Phoenix), which was formed from members of the team behind the Emerald Viewer following their breakup after a DOS attack on one of their critics. On their blog, the team announced there will be a celebration at 1PM September 3 tomorrow, asking people to check later for more details such as the location, which as of now is still a secret. What is known is that there will be live music from musician Seth Regan.

Latest Firestorm Viewer Release

Earlier this week, The Firestorm blog announced the release of their latest viewer: 4.6.7.42398.

We arrive once again at that time to update your version of the ever popular Firestorm Viewer.  Most notably this version brings Firestorm up to LL’s version 3.7.8 with Project Interesting. With which you will undoubtedly find world rendering to be much faster when logging into SL or teleporting around. This version also comes with a lot of bug fixes and a few cool new things.

A full summary of the new viewers changes can be found here: (link) Inara Pey also has written about the new viewer (here). Team Firestorm only continues to support three viewers, the newest one and the two most recent ones. The others are blocked from working.

Phishing Scams Target Phoenix & Firestorm

The development team at Phoenix/Firestorm are warning residents who use their viewers about a phishing scam that is targeting them.

The scammers claim that the people at Phoenix are paying Lindens to residents who take a survey. There is a link where the residents are led to a fake (but very realistic looking) login page. When the residents log in, their account name and passwords are taken. The scammers can then log in and steal the resident’s identity, Lindens and inventory. The scammers have even used the resident’s contact/friends list to send out phishing notes. This practice leads people to believe they are getting safe links since the information is coming from a friend.

Jessica Lyon of Phoenix/Firestorm stated that they are not paying Lindens for any type of survey. They are warning residents to be very careful about logging into fake sites. If residents believe they have been a target, they should immediately go to Secondlife.com to change their password.

For more information go to the Phoenix/Firestorm support site at http://www.phoenixviewer.com/. The site has detailed information on what URL to look for whenever you are asked to log into your account.

Information for this article was taken from http://www.phoenixviewer.com/.

Grey Lupindo

Editor's Note: Treminari Huet also wrote on the subject: http://treminarisecondlife.blogspot.com/2012/03/scammers.html

Firestorm Preview Interface Customization Tutorial

"A Tutorial video on how to customize the Firestorm Viewer as of January 26th. The viewer will however continue to change as we progress further into development." By Jessica Lyon