Writers' Meeting in Caledon

 

I was busy with things today, but last week, I was able to attend the Writer's Meeting, a weekly event that takes place in Caledon, every Thursday at 11 AM. 

 

 Join the Writers' Meeting in Caledon January 22nd 2026, 11:00 AM SLT. in Caledon Nights reading room in front of a huge fireplace. Talking in public chat about writing. Elfbiter and Silver Moon Unicorn. 

We talked about a few things, such as stories we've finished and stories we're currently writing on.

 

Once again the Writer's Meeting is every Thursday at 11 AM.  

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Oxbridge%20Village/223/189/4002

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Announcement: Affiliated Ministries' Easter Dance

 

 !Affiliated Ministries invites you & your friends to our Annual Easter Dance.

If your are in SL between SLT 4-8 pm on Saturday April 15th 2023 Please join us as we Celebrate Jesus's Resurrection & God accepting Jesus’s Sacrifice as payment for our sins.

This years Easter Event will start at 4PM with a message from Pastor Michael followed by the dance outside Club United's Chapel. DJs Bob & Zakar will be providing the music as we all join together as 1 corporate family of God in SL & fellowship together.

    Sim – Eternal Life
    SLURL: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Eternal%20Life/123/247/1002
    When: Saturday April 15th 2023
    Time: SL 4 to 8 pm
              * Come when you can, leave when you need to.
    Attire - Sunday Best or Semi-Formal wear
              * This is a G rated Event, please dress appropriately.

!Affiliated Ministries is a group of Christians & Staff Representatives from Christian Groups in SL that all work towards bringing everyone together for Corporate Celebrations of Our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ.

For any Information or questions you may have;
Please contact
2023 !AM Chairperson - TicToc (tigrera.silverfall)

Announcement: Panda Jenn Looking For Furry Avatars to Help With Video Collaboration

 

Panda Jenn (PandaJenn0 Resident) is working on a collaboration project in which the aim is to get a number of people to take part in a video, and those with furry Second Life avatars are invited to take part.

 

I want to do a collaborated video with all you furries dancing. (preferably in fursuit, vr chat avatar, SL avatar, etc.) The final cut will be to the song "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston. If you're interested, please DM me.

 

Second Life residents can contact her via a notecard or IM (both might be best). For those interested who don't have a furry avatar, there are free or nearly free avatars, such as the Wingless avatars, available.
 

To check out what videos Jenn has done before, her Youtube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/c/PandaJenn . 

CDS Declares Members of Next Representative Assembly

  

The Confederation of Democratic Simulators, or CDS, is unique among Second Life communities in that it has procedures for choosing it's leaders. Twice every year, there is a call for candidates to run for office. If there are more candidates than offices, then there is an election with voting. This time, the number of candidates matched the available offices.  On Friday May 7, Delia Lake, the Dean the Scientific Council announced the news to the community.

We have a slate of candidates for the CDS 35th Term of Government. Candidates who declared for the 1 Chancellorship and the 5 RA positions are:

Chancellor - Samara (Kyoko) Barzane

Representative Assembly -  Almut Brunswick, Laure Levenque, Rosie Gray, Tailsworth Horsley, and Tor Karlsvalt.

We have the exact number of candidates as we have available government positions. Therefore the CDS will not hold voting for this next term. The candidates will be officially installed in their respective offices on June 1, 2021, the first day of the new term.
Thank you all for declaring and volunteering to serve our community!

The Scientific Council of the CDS would make it official the following day, Saturday May 8. With this, the election becomes a formality as there will be no campaign or further voting. As the announcement states, the new Representative Assembly begins on Tuesday June 1.

Bixyl Shuftan
  

SL12B: The Welcome Area and Station

 By BloodyKitty

There is an event going on, the SL12B that runs from June 21st to the 28th of June. The information has also included that the sim is also open on the 4th of July for residents to explore the particular location. This event is celebrating the birthday of Second Life, but in a cool way with tons of events. When you first arrive you are greeted with a spooky scene, but also a beautiful one if you change your lighting (or the sun settings). 

There were two people greeting (at the moment I was there) that go by Londyn2, as well as another girl but she had left before I got a chance to see her name. What was a positive for me right away was that they instantly helped me and asked if I needed any information on the sim and the event, I said I do.

Upon getting an info card if you request one by one of the fabulous hosts, it tells you on what's going on, as well as that you get two gifts which include a party hat and a flag. Aside from that there is a map of the whole place via a texture sort of file, landmarks to the major venues, and a schedule for the events going on around the land. It is when you go down from where you are greeted that the fun begins. There are teleports to different locations to different places in the sim to help people easily get around, which is a plus for me. 

What I found the best part in my opinion of the experience was that they had a train station and an actual train. It totally reminded me of Harry Potter, which unfortunately the train does not move, but it doesn't totally take away a good experience. If you look closer though you can see the station is in ruins as well as that the back of the train is all messed up. Just use your imagination on what may of happened!

Overall the world is large in itself if you take time to explore it, and there are different activities to enjoy while searching around. Because of it being a large sim and how many locations there are to teleport to, I haven't had the opportunity to exactly explore everything like I'd hope before this was put up. I believe that just touching base on the important details helps people who'd love to visit and check the place out. Have fun! 

BloodyKitty

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at the National Space Society's meeting at the Sci-Fi con. This is probably what one feels like when you hear that someone in your workplace is going to be let go.

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Full Circle Club Remembers the Newser

Last month, Wesley Regenbogen interviewed Hope Dreamscape and Kammie of the Full Circle Club following their hosting of one of the Relay for Life 2014 season's last events. Well, the club was so happy with Wesley's interview, they put it up on the wall of their club, along with an SL Newser kiosk.

Always happy to make friends.

Linden Lab Releases Versu, But Are They Going Too Fast?

By Bixyl Shuftan

Last week, Linden Labs introduced it's latest product, "Versu." Subtitled "Living Stories," Versu is an interactive fiction application. The press release described it as "an interactive storytelling platform that builds experiences around characters and social interaction." Versu differs a bit from other "choose your own adventure" platforms in that the applications artificial intelligence allows for characters to react differently based on the reader's choices. Characters react with emotions as well as actions.



The artificial intelligence was designed by Richard Evans and Emily Short. The two designers, Evans was noted for his work on "Black and White" and "Sims3," had founded "Little Text People," which was purchased by Linden Lab last year. There are plans for the platform to allow users to write their own interactive stories in the future, of which the writers can either make them available as free or for sale. In the latter, Linden Lab takes a percentage of the sale. Versu is available at Apple's iTunes App Store, and has four interactive stories available, including a short tale intended as a tutorial. 

In Gamasutra, Rod Humble had in mind what he saw as lacking in games, "when you go into a bookstore or look at an ebook reading list, the top sellers are almost invariably romance and drama. And then you look at what games make, and there's no romance, no drama. … Romance is going to be a mainstay in the games business. Someone is going to do it, and I'd sure love it to be us."

New World Notes' Iris Ophelia took a look at Versu. Describing herself as a fan of interactive fiction, the ability to act and react when she wanted to appealed to her, calling it "the choice to choose … it contributes to a much stronger sense of agency, which is the whole point of interactive fiction …" She thought it had the potential to be a great tool to use with children and teenagers, "as a teacher or parent. It's the sort of tool I would personally look for any excuse to work into a lesson or activity because it has a lot of potential to engage users with the content."

The problem, Iris felt, was considering that Linden Lab had released Versu so soon after Dio, which did many of the same things. She wrote, "it feels like one more clever and creative little thing that just isn't going to go anywhere, even though it absolutely could and should." While there was a market for interactive fiction, interest "probably higher now than its been a decade and a  half at least," there were already numerous devices and applications out there with devoted followings. And with Linden Lab seemingly "throwing things out to see what sticks," she felt Versu and Dio would not be able to attract sizable followings.

At the end, Iris wondered if Linden Lab might have been better off concentrating their efforts with Second Life, "If they're going to keep launching these indie-esque projects and just leaving them to rot without fostering any of the functionality or community endearment that makes all the other projects like these that came before actually work, they are probably wasting their time." 

Hamlet Au took a look at how much Versu, and Linden Lab's first of it's apps Creatorverse, had been downloaded. Versu's had a good start so far, but not many are buying the pay books yet. If the trends of Creatorverse are an indication, it may be in trouble. It began as among the top 5 downloaded apps, but "has since dwindled to ranks in the mid-hundreds."

Among those commenting on Iris's article was Shockwave Yareach, "The Lab wants to operate like Ford and give their dealers the job of interacting with the customers. Trouble is, the dealers don't have the powers they need to be able to do that. And quite frankly, Linden Lab sells Yugos instead of Fords." Also commenting was Ciaran Laval, whom thought it was too early to say where Versu was headed, "it's not unusual for a new player to enter an existing market and prosper."

Sources: Linden Lab, Gamasutra, New World Notes 

Bixyl Shuftan