Ten Years Ago: Linden Lab Steps Away From Birthday Events

 

It was ten years ago today, April 18 2012, that Linden Lab dropped a bombshell on the residents. There was a short announcement from the Lab, "This year we will focus the spotlight on community events." While not spelled out, it was clear that the Linden Lab would not be doing a Second Life Birthday event that year, no SL9B.

Some residents didn't care less, "If Linden Lab doesn't care enough about Second Life to celebrate it's birthday, why should I?" But there were many people who were sad and upset. What would Second Life be with out an anniversary celebration? It wasn't long before certain people were communicating and organizing. And before long, there was a team of volunteers whom were going to do a resident-run Second Life Birthday celebration, on land provided by sponsors. Word was spread in part through some amusing "Prim Reaper" videos.

So why did Linden Lab stop doing the SLB events? The move was done under Rod Linden, a time when the Lab was putting some distance between the residents and itself, such as canceling the "Kiss a Linden" event, the Linden snowball fight, and the Second Life convention. So canceling the Birthday may have been part of the distancing. But that may not have been all. It had been suggested that Linden Lab may have wanted to get away from the drama that some of the more recent celebrations had seen.

"The Birthday" went more or less smoothly, opening on time with numerous exhibits and a few stages, notably the Cake Stage by Mikati Slade. The Newser would have it's own exhibit, an office building with a hat on it. It would go on for a couple weeks, and went off with a bang, with the Lab doing nothing more but letting it happen.

For a few years, this was how the SLB events went. Then the Lab started organizing a paraell music event, "Music Fest." There would also be "Meet the Lindens" events. The Lab was slowly becoming more and more involved. 2018 would see the last of the resident-run Birthday events, the SL15B. In February 2019, Linden Lab announced it would be in charge of organizing the anniversary events. On the whole, the residents were pleased to see Linden Lab once again running The Birthday. But, many did miss the Cake and Stage Left stages that marked the resident-run Birthday events. 
 
Bixyl Shuftan
 

Top Stories of The 2010s, Part One

The 2010's are almost over. Over the past decade, the Newser has reported on thousands of stories. But some stand out more than others. As time goes on and new residents show up, what was big news then becomes unknown or forgotten to more and more. So in this part of a miniseries, the Newser takes a look back at some of the major headlines in which residents were anxious to read on what happened next.

Read the first part of this look back in Extra.

SL Videos: SL Newser Exhibits, SL9B and SL10B (Repeats)

With this being our anniversary weekend, and the SL12B not far away, we're repeating this videos of two of our exhibits for earlier Second Life Birthday events. For the office tower we had for the SL10B, one can see the portraits on the ground floor, and Gemma Cleanslate and Qwark Allen are looking out from the top floor of the office tower there.



Here's Qwark's build for our first exhibit, the office we had for the SL8B, during which an impromptu "office meeting" was held. Gemma didn't think too much of it as Qwark's recording made her look like her mouth was wide open, "I look like I'm yelling at the boss!" No she wasn't as I was there.

This year, Qwark Allen is on hiatus, and we're doing something a bit different from the office theme we've had in the past. So what is it? You'll see.

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

By Bixyl Shuftan

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day

KlausWuffenback Outlander, aka Baron Klaus Wuffenback, of Steelhead gave a lecture on Steampunk in Second Life at the SL9B. Among the lines in the dialouge were these used when referencing "Professors Philip and Kaja Foglio," the personas of the artists behind the "Girl Genius" online comic, of which one of the characters is KlausWuffenback's namesake.

Guess the Baron sees the comic references as amusement, which would probably get chuckles from the fans.

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Survey at the SL9B

Linden Lab never took part in the SL9B festivities, but is apparently interested in seeing what the residents liked about it and what they didn't. The link was in: https://my.secondlife.com/second.life .

Did you attend SL9B this year? If so, take this short survey and tell us about your experience! http://bit.ly/N56GWZ .

The SL9B blog commented, "Some of the questions do seem to reference the SL9B 20-sim Community Event, but many of them can be applied to other events if you want to comment on those (it might be worth specifying which event you are referring to in the comments!)"

The SL9B blog had it's own survey as well, which you can find Here.

Reader Submitted: "The Party's Over"

Submitted by Marianne McCann of Bay City, here she looks over the empty landscape of SL9B that was once a bustling region of exhibits and people seeing them.

SL9B: Reflections

Would it be the fragmented ”Look for something to do that somewhere on the grid" kind of celebration, or nothing at all, was in my mind when the LL put out the announcement they were leaving the birthday to us. Well, I figured what would be would be and went along as usual in SL, until I heard from Honour McMillan. Would I be willing to help as an exhibitor assistant for a birthday bash? I said yes I would.

At that time I did not know the extent of what was going to become an amazing success from beginning to end. The time passed so quickly it is hard to remember it all. We were all so busy settling builders on their plots. It is a blur. Then calls for streams and names and landing points went on for days. Everyone was so nice .The builders were so cooperative with the rules and thankful for any help. A couple tried to kidnap me, LOL, and it was great compliment. It was an experience. Loved that job!

Next I settled into security mode. Although there were some issues regarding rules of the party most were cleared up easily. Yes, the usual griefers appeared as expected and off they went . This was my first time involved in a SL birthday event. I loved it!!!

The leads of the event are to be congratulated for their support and wisdom:

Senior Lead, Performance Lead and Grumpy Old Man – Doctor Gascoigne
Land and Exhibitor Lead – KT Syakumi
Land Goddess – Diana Renoir
Volunteer Lead and Cruise Director- Budster Bashly
PR and Advertising Lead – Saffia Widdershins
Greeter Lead – Honour McMillan
SL9B Troll- Crap Mariner

The sponsors are to be thanked for their expense in donating 20 sims for the event.
Dream Seekers Estates, KittyCats, Fruit Islands Estates, and NEO Streams, who donated all the streams used in the sims.

All the volunteers did a wonderful job through out it all . At this time we are in withdrawal, which I think will take a few weeks! I hope you got there and I hope you loved it. Take a look at Loki’s video when you want to see it all again. With all the time I sent in the sims I never got to see 300 exhibitors . I know because up to the last day I was discovering new fascinating builds.

See you at SL10B. Plans are already under way!

Gemma Cleanslate

SL Machinima: "The Last SL9B Video By The Angel Of Death"

Filmed during the evening of the cleanup on Thursday June 29, this was the last of Crap Mariner's SL9B "Prim Reaper" videos in which he gives his farewell.

Crap invited those in the SL9B chat over before filming (you can see the fox reporter in there too). As for the final scene, well, next time you hear the Prim Reaper belch, well, hold your breath.

Weekend at the SL9B

The Second Life Ninth Birthday event was well-attended all week, with the most attendance and some of the most popular events on the Weekend. Bixyl Shuftan takes a look at some of exhibits, as well as attending a few of the events near the end of the SL9B.

Read more in Events.

SL Youtube: SL9B Hydra Power Plant Party

Video by Qwark Allen as he DJs for a party at the SL9B. The London exhibit is somewhere nearby.

Taking the Cake at Podex

It was a late June day at the Podex Bank. Summer was here, and many of the customers were talking about getting a new surfboard or jetski with their Lindens, or a new swimsuit. One customer from Sunweavers talked about seeing an anthro mouse in a snakeskin bikini, which got a few chuckles from the staff. Considering snakes and regular mice, why would girl with mouse features be wearing something made out of snakeskin, especially a bikini?

Other things were discussed too. The jet airshow was mentioned, as was the science-fiction convention in a few days. But the real topic of conversation was "The Birthday," or SL9B. Life as they had known it had been organized nine years ago. While many residents didn't seem to care that much, others were very interested, heading on over to the exposition area to see the sights, play the games, get souvenirs, and just plain have fun. Some of the tellers had gone or were planning to go. Others didn't want to fight the crowds.

In the middle of this, someone entered the bank. He was dressed somewhat plainly, shorts and a T-shirt, but he looked like was wearing a cake for a hat! Upon a closer look though, it wasn't really a cake, but a cake hat.

"Um, can I help you?"

"Yes, I picked up a voucher for this place at the SL9B, but, just what are you again?"

"Well sir, we're an exchange service. We accept US Dollars, Euros, and several other currencies, and exchange them for Lindens."

"What if I have Lindens to trade for dollars?"

"We do that too."

"Can't I just buy Lindens at, what's the place, Lindex?"

"We charge less than Lindex does."

The visitor looked over his shoulder and at a sign, "What's this about a Visa card?"

"We worked it out with Zachodni WBK, one of Poland's largest banks. Like any other Visa card or debt card, you can use it for both Internet transactions or withdraw cash from any ATM across the world. There are no fees for exchanging Lindens into your local currency, and your money will be on the card within the same day."

The man thought for a moment, "Well, I own a shop here, so I'll take one."

The customer and the clerk went over a few details, and the paperwork was taken care of, "You should be getting it in your mail soon."

"Great. Well, back to the SL9B."

"Have fun. By the way, just what is it you sell?"

"Oh, I run a party store. I sell lots of cakes," he grinned, "and getting to this birthday first thing they do is stick one on my head!"

The two laughed, and the customer gave his farewell and went on his way.

The Podex Exchange is located at Moonbeam (26, 223, 34), with a website at http://www.podex.info/ . Jacek Shuftan is the CEO. Podex has recently been offering an SL Visa Card, aka "Second Card," with details at http://www.podex.nazwa.pl/card/ .

Note: The preceding is a fictional story, written for the dual purpose of advertisement and entertainment.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Youtube: "SL9B - The Cake Explodes "

Posted by KT Syakumi, "If you didn't see it, just before the sims went offline, Mikatis beautiful cake exploded! I videoed it for all to see." Asked "if anyone got hit in the noggin by a flying piece of cake," KT answered, "I did, repeatedly, and she left it all for me to clean up." KT explained this was her first try at a SL video, as Mikati was going to get someone else to film, "but they didn't show up. So five minutes before she exploded it, I downloaded Fraps and learnt how to film. I did almost everything wrong." Despite her lack of confidence, others in SL9B chat cheered her on, and RacerX Gullwing invited her to join in the filming of the next Cross-Sim Giant Snail Race (today).

Thank You SL9B Community

We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the Second Life 9th Community Birthday Celebration for all your hard work and volunteer spirit. True community spirit in the face of short time, insane deadlines and with all the team work that you could muster. Amazing!!! I was humbled by your efforts and collective energy.

We would like to thank our sponsors http://sl9b.wordpress.com/our-sponsors/ for the sims and services that were donated and delivered to us without a moments hesitation.

This year’s gathering expressed what true community is about. Community is not just a word it is an entity; a living, breathing entity. An interacting population of various kinds of individuals in a common location. Our common location is Second Life. It was truly humbling for me to see so much collaboration that the Second Life community shared for this event.

If you enjoyed the event and want to be a part next year, keep an eye on this blog and stay in the SLB Community Group for notification of next year’s festivities.

It was and always has been an honor and my pleasure to once again work with all of you.

Cya next time.....

Doctor Gascoigne

Submitted by Gemma Cleanslate

SL Machinima: SL9B - Give Us Feedback aka "The Angel Of Death #30"

Crap Mariner's 30th video on the SL9B. It was made on Monday June 25th, the day after the last official event. The self-professed "Wackadoodle" invited the others in SL9B group chat over (including a certain fox reporter, whom can be seen near the front), and congratulated them on a job well done before and after the filming of this video, in which the "Prim Reaper" asks for feedback on the Second Life Ninth Birthday, "Tell us what we did right! Tell us what we did wrong! Tell us what you want us to do next year! Tell us you want to join us! GIVE US FEEDBACK OR GIVE US PIE!"

Crap clowned around a little with the Prim Reaper voice, but not much once the filming was done. All those "Angel of Death" videos as the raspy-voiced specter had been a little hard on his voicebox.

"Boogie boogie boogie"

News and Commentary: Goodbye SL9B

Wednesday June 27 was the last day to see the SL9B, Second Life Ninth Birthday Exhibits. So went out on the field one last time to see what I had missed. I took a few freebie souvenirs, played a couple games, and of course saw a lot and took lots of pictures. Most of which will probably never see the light of this paper, though I'll probably add a few to my Flckr when things quiet down a little.

Why the Lindens refused to even so much as contribute a single sim, we can only speculate. There have been numerous suggestions from cutbacks due to the recession, worries about bad press due to drama, and of course "corporate ADD/Dilbert Symdrome." Or perhaps it was a little of these and more. As with so many other things, the Lab isn't talking, and many of us have come to the point it's futile to ask.

Bur what did happen was the residents of the Grid did not take the Lab's decision lying down. People came forward to offer resources, time, or both. We had twenty sims of land and water, with hundreds of exhibits constructed on them. Second Life Newser's own Gemma Cleanslate spent many hours as one of the staff in first organizing "The Birthday," and then guiding people around as they came.

Daniel Voyager had some interesting statistics about the event. The total number of visitors is still unknown, but there were over 300 in the first hour alone, despite it happening when much of the user base was at their real life jobs. The Cake Stage alone is believed to have gotten over 6000 visitors throughout the event. Besides the 20 sims, there were 357 exhibits, 318 performers and DJs, over 1200 pictures posted on the SL9B Flickr Community, and about 69,000 hits on the SL9B blog. Despite the Lab officially having nothing to do with the event, several stopped by, including Philip Linden himself.

It is true SL9B was not completely free of drama. There was a 9-11 memorial exhibition showing an airliner about to collide with the Twin Towers. The staff was approached by people whom felt while well intentioned, this wasn't the place for it. Chatting with KT Syakumi, she told me, "I think the people who made it were sincere in the sentiment behind it. … They built a new exhibit in it's place … and we featured it on a pic of the day. … We have rules to follow, but I'd rather work with someone to get their build to meet the rules rather than just delete it and boot them. … I understand that most Americans feel strongly about 9/11. But it's also very emotional. … Maybe there is a place for that, but not at a birthday celebration."

The only other example of drama was much simpler. Crap Mariner's version of the story was someone added a "pornographic" picture to his exhibit, and when asked to remove the picture in question, the result was a "ragequit," getting mad, removing the whole build, and up & leaving. But the empty space was soon filled with a replacement, Tateru Nino's "Second Life: The Game," an amusing parody of monopoly.

There were other things that went on and off the Grid that Second Life Newser hasn't or hasn't yet been able to report on. From a forecast of the Grid losing ten percent of its private sims in the following year, to Gez Linden leaving Linden Lab, to an early look at Linden Lab's text adventure game "Dio." South Korea also made the decision to "ban trade for commercial game items." Habbo Hotel is in trouble after a sex scandal. And of course there is the "Cloud Party" that's gotten some attention.

We'll do some work on these, don't worry. We just need a free moment after getting some rest.

I could go on and on about "The Birthday," and I'll try to write a little more on it in the near future. After that, maybe some pictures on my Flickr account. So I'll leave with these final words by Christopher Organiser.

"On behalf of the SL9B staff team, we would like thank each and every one of you for celebrating Second Life's 9th birthday with us this past week! It truly has been a blast. On June 23, 2003, Second Life was launched with only 16 sims. Now there are thousands! It was, indeed, disappointing to hear the news that Linden Labs would not be sponsoring SL9B this year; however, it is astonishing to see how the Community can join as a team and create a birthday party bigger than Linden Labs themselves can!

"Second Life is our home, real life getaway, a place for entertainment, hangouts, connecting, chatting, and loving one another as a whole Community where dreams come true and nothing is impossible. Thank you to the participants, staff, and performers for your dedication to make this celebration possible. Thank you to DreamSeekers Estates for sponsoring this occasion and providing the 20 sims! Let's all celebrate and party one last time at SL9B! Second Life's birthday only comes once a year, but our Community sticks together 24 hours a day for 365 days.

"We will see you all again next year when SL10B comes around! Good night, all, and have an enjoyable Second Life!"

Sources: New World Notes, Dwell on It, Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

Loki Goes to SL9B

Chatting with KT Syakumi, she recommended this video of the SL9B by Loki Eliot, "My Machinima documenting this years SL9B community expo in Second Life."

SL Youtube: SL Newser Office "Meeting" at the SL9B

Filmed by Qwark Allen Sunday June 24 sometime in the afternoon. Qwark, his partner Gemma Cleanslate, and I have an office get-together with a few friends of ours. Most of us loved it, but Gemma had mixed feelings, "Hey! My mouth's open! I look like I'm yelling at the boss!"

No she wasn't, and I was there as her witness. But it's still a great souvenir for us from the SL9B

Funny Picture of the Day: SL9B Humor

Picture from Val Kendal, she attributed this joke exhibit of the SL9B to KT Syakumi. The staff of the Birthday sure didn't forget their sense of humor.

It could be easily seen as a parody of Marianne McCann's "History of Prims" exhibit.

SL9B Ends, "We Made it the Best SL Birthday"

Late Sunday night, after a week of events, it was time for the Second Life Ninth Celebration to officially end.

Next up on the Cake Stage is THE SL9B GRAND FINALE WITH FIREWORKS BY BEWLL ORMEGA ACCOMPANIED BY DJ LAZ DRESLER FROM 11PM TIL MIDNIGHT!!! Join us at the Cake Stage as we celebrate Second Life's 9th Birthday with this outstanding finale!!!

And so people from around the Grid gathered at the four-sim Cake Stage, for the final Event, "The last performance at SL9B is here!"

The event was attended by dozens of people, in many heights and types of avatars. Laz Dresler told everyone, "Thank you all so much for hanging with me tonight. I hope you had a great time." She played a number of songs, such as "You're Poison," and "Running Down a Dream."

Running down a dream
Never would come to me.
Working on a mystery.
Going wherever it leads.
Runnin' down a dream.

Among those at the party was the Cake stage creator, Japanese pop artist Mikati Slade. Her huge build got complements, "Mikati, I love your cake!" "Thank you!" Other compliments and cheers went around, "Thank you everyone for your hard work this year! You guys rocked!" "Awesome display and a perfect final for SL9B, Congratulations for a fantastic event!"

Someone remarked that for those who missed the event, a smaller show of fireworks would be going on "24/7" in the Celebrate sim. The sims themselves would remain up for a few more days so people could continue to see the exhibits, but would be coming down as soon as Wednesday.

Before the final event, people were thanking and congratulating one another for the event. Marianne McCann remarked during chat, "this event wasn't even supposed to happen. Instead, we made it the best SL birthday. I think we beat SL 3rd for the best title." "And Mari should know 'cause she's an old kid," someone seconded her. Crap Mariner after a few jokes told, "just wanted to thank everyone in here for giving it your all and then some. And I hope you got more back from it than you bled, sweated, and cried into it."

When someone asked what the record number of exhibits at an Second Life Birthday event was, KT Syakumi answered, "there are 357 exhibits, not counting the stages, infrastructure and events. Marianne McCann added, "I know we've not had 350± at any previous SL birthday."

There are numerous pictures taken of the exhibits, which can be seen in the Sl9B Flikr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/sl9b/pool/. Crap Mariner had several hundred up, "I'm not sure how many I've go snapshots of." Marianne McCann commented "I have been shooting a few things, but I know it's gonna be about impossible to see it all."

And so, the Second Life Ninth Birthday, the SL9B, probably the most discussed Birthday event on the Grid in years, is over.

"Thank you all for coming to SL9B! On behalf of the entire staff at SL9B, we hope you had a fun and memorable time celebrating Second Life's 9th birthday!"

Bixyl Shuftan