"Watch the Marketing team in this pre-recorded session at SL22B on Thursday, June 26th at 1pm PT! In attendance will be VP of Marketing Brett Linden and Senior Community Manager Strawberry Linden."
You can see the recording in Second Life, at SLB Astonish (252/226/45) or watch in on Youtube (Here)
Some longtime residents recall Strawberry Singh, a noted blogger who did a number of fashion articles. In December 2017, she was on the spot when a Linden Lab employee demanded she take down a tutorial video because Second Life's "hand" symbol was trademarked, then the Lab issued a public apology. In April 2019, she was hired by Linden Lab and had a new account: Strawberry Linden. Although part of the Lab, she continued to make continued blog posts. But they could sometimes be months apart, only three in 2021, and the last one on July 1 2023.
On Bellisseria chat, someone pointed out that the blog had been taken down. Going to strawberrysingh.com, there were no links, only a blurry picture of a woman with the words, "Thank you all for the love and support." The blog is on the Wayback Machine, and was still up in early June.
In her last post about the SL20B, her final words included, "So thank you for being on this journey with me, especially to those of
you who have supported my work all these years and still read the words I
occasionally share on this blog. Here’s to 20 more years of virtual
adventures!"
Yesterday in the Second Life forums, Strawberry would post about her blog doing down, as well as her relative silence lately. She stated she had a death in the family, and closed her blog as she was trying to "reduce my digital footprint under my Strawberry Singh account." She did say, "I’m doing okay now and will be around more often."
On Friday April 19, Linden Lab had a pre-recorded episode of Lab Gab. It included the following shorcuts to certain subjects. Strawberry Linden would interview Grumpity Linden, then later in the video (on the Beta Grid) Signal and Kyle Linden, then Kiera Linden.
Among what was discussed, Grumpity stated there were "No plans to charge for access" to the mobile viewer. It will be able to use HUDS, but of being able to build inworld and manage estates, maybe, "For serious creation, you're still going to have to use desktop." They are hoping to open the mobile viewer access further to include Premium residents "soon."
Progress is being made on mirrors in the Beta Grid, as well as PBR terrain, "you can see the sunshine bounce off the surfaces." There is no scheduled release date, though they felt "weeks and not months."
Of the issue of underage residents in areas with clearly adult content, Kiera Linden would say, "one thing we are looking at closely is strengthening our age verification process, something we'll be sharing more about soon. ,,,Let me be clear on this one, we do not and will never allow sexualized ageplay. We do have a policy on this, and it is strictly enforced. In addition, we want to acknowledge and recognize there are residents who enjoy roleplaying as child avatars, and we have no intention of preventing that." They wanted the community of child avatars to continue to feel welcome, "but child avatars should not be present near or in regions that also have adult-rated activities. We're in the process of strengthening our child avatar policy right now, and you'll see us roll that out soon. But one of the guiding factors to these changes is to ensure an even stronger separation between child avatars, and adult-rated content and activities."
Kiera would also say there would soon be "better clarity and stronger guidelines on conduct and policies both within our community and in our organization. Internally, we're finalizing an update to the conduct policy which addresses a wide range of topics such as how Linden Lab employees interact with the community, and policies that address perceptions of conflict of interest, or favoritism."
There was also a mention of a "Community Roundtable" in late May, which Grumpity called part of the desire for better communication with the residents.
Strawberry would also talk about the upcoming SL21B
Last Friday's Lab Gab started with a video. Grumpity Linden, the head of
the Product team, talked about the upcoming SL mobile app viewer,
showing it off at the Kaleidoscope sim. "Yeah, it's true, it's so early,
but we're super excited to share a first peek at something new, Second
Life Mobile. Look it's me on my phone." She would say this wasn't the
first time they've tried to build a mobile viewer, "because of course we
want to have all the glory." But it was "the most exciting result we've
seen so far." They were starting with the more difficult details, such
as being able to view the "hardest" avatars and most detailed areas.
Plus they wanted the app to work on all platforms, "And so it is with
joy and trepidation that we share with you the early results of these
efforts." They did say things were still very much a work in progress,
so "you will see very little functionality or user interface for now."
Still, she spoke, "it is a vibrant Second Life on Android and iOS."
Mojo
Linden, the VP of Engineering who would later say he's been with Linden
Lab for about a year and a half, would say that he was working with the
development team "to make sure that the community can experience
everything they love about Second Life while on the go with our upcoming
mobile viewer," repeating they were starting with some of the more
difficult details first such as full rendering of avatars and the full
rendering of complex environments. The viewer is built on Unity and can
use multiple mobile phone and tablet platforms, including Android and
iOS. Mojo described himself as "blown away" by the ammount of detail
they can get on it, saying they haven't had to "compromise too much on
graphic fidelity." He did admit "there's much work to be done" before
the mobile viewer's ready to be launched.
Patch, the VP of
Product Operations, was next. "Imagine being able to connect to Second
Life from anywhere, chat with your friends, visit your favorite inworld
hangout spots, and later do pretty muchanything you do with the desktop
Second Life viewer without being tethered to your computer. ... We can't
wait to show you more in the coming months as our development progress
continues."
The scene then changed to the three seated with Strawberry Linden, and would introduce themselves, Grumpity musing she had no real power but was still responsible for a lot ot things. Mojo joked he felt tlike the "baby" in the group. Later on, Grumpity would say she wasn't in her usual stick figure as it wasn't rezzing properly in the mobile viewer.
Questions about the mobile started 6:45 into the video. Mojo would state development started in October 2022, saying that using the Unity engine "really helped with quick progress and portability to IOS and Android." He was condident they would be able to make a mobile viewer that could show "Second Life in all it's glory." A beta version "with some limited functuality" should be released sometime in the second half of the year, adding "our play is to layer more features over multiple releases after that." Later in the video, Mojo would call being able to work on the mobile viewer "such an honor."
At nine minutes, Strawberry brought up the price changes. The lower sim prices were talked about first. Grumpity would say since 2017, they've been working to lower the price of land and making it "more accessible for all our residents," saying it wasn't easy as Linden Lab's income had been built on land. So they had to find ways to make up for the income loss there, "We try to find the fairest way to do it ... and, um, we decided that Linden dollar fees were really the way to do it. ... We know your prices are going up, and our prices are going up, and the cost of everything up. ... We took as long as we could before raising fees. But it's happened. ... We're watching very closely to see what happens in the markets so far."
At just before 11 minutes, Strawberry would also bring up the new option to pay for a sim with Linden dollars. Patch called it an exchange being done "on the Lindex basically behind the scenes ... and so yes, the price is a little higher."
At just after 12 minutes, Strawberry brought up the concerns about bot activity. Patch stated the Lab has been working on a new policy, including some talk with lawyers, "We had to take some time and get it reviewed by our legal team ... that took several weeks to get all of the necessary reviews in place for it." Patch would say they were expecting to bring it out the following week (the week of this article). Grumpity would add they're planning on giving extra ability to estate owners to ban bots, "will be able to choose access levels for scripted agents going forward, and those should be rolling out soon." She estimate the time as "weeks."
Just after 13 minutes, the PBR (Physical Based Rendering) development was mentioned, that it will bring "more realistic lighting to Second Life," Mojo saying it brought that particular technology about ten years ahead from where it was, "It allows content creators to define materials based on how they reflect light in the real world." He added there was already a project viewer with the feature currently out and people looking at it and giving feedback, "We want to be sure we are not going to cause content headaches for people as we've been fixing bugs for quite some time." He wasn't giving a definite release date, "it might be another three months." When asked if people would beed higher-end computers to see the feature, Mojo would say no, saying they were working to better enable current computers to see the new featurejust fine. But if people had any kind of performance issues, they could simply "just turn off Reflections" to get lighting back to where it was. There will also be tutorial videos about it later. It was stated that while PBR puts Second Life on the way to having true mirrors, for the moment they're not around just yet, at least the (virtually) real deal, "You can sort of fake it now with PBR." The Lab plans on working on technology to allow mirrors next.
At just after 18 minutes, they talked about inventory updates. Grumpity would say one project they were workiing on was "Inventory Thumbnails." They would also add a single folder inventory view. Of updates to the viewer, they were working on an "emoji viewer" that Grumpity called "a third party contribution from Catnip" amd that they've been "trying to make sure everything works." A project viewer should be availablt in "weeks."
Just before twenty minutes, Strawberry asked if there were plans to make Second Life "VR ready." Mojo's response was "probably not this year" saying the render rate would have to be at least around 60 frames per second. Of the possibility of a Linux viewer, Mojo did say there were internal tools that benefit from a Linux viewer. But for now what they have can run through Wine and Proton. But an outright official Linix viewer isn't in the Lab's plans for this year.
At 21:30, Strawberry brought up Marketplace saying there's been "a lot of changes." Grumpity would say a week earlier, the Lab released an update to Marketplace search. She would go on to say they were "taking your feedback, we're making changes." The fifty-page cap on search results has been removed. Strawberry asked about inworld office hours. Grumpty's response was, "We have user groups for all sorts of topics ... choose your favorite and come talk to us."
Just before 26 minutes, Strawberry would ask about the upcoming New User Experience (or NUX) avatars, which one was shown off at last year's Second Life Birthday. Patch answered they were "quite a ways along in their development." The avatars themselves are done, he stated, and the work at the moment was getting them a line of clothing and attachments. They will also be "PBR ready." The avatars, he reminded, were to help new users have "better simpler easier fun," and there should be an update about them soon.
Around 27:30, Strawberry brought up Linden Homes. Patch stated there would be some information coming soon. They were working on the homes for Premium Plus resident accounts, which were "nearing completion." They were also working on expansions and additions to current themes, Victorian being named. Of Second Life's upcoming 20th anniversary celebration theme (which was announced Thursday March 16), Patch would only say "It's really, really, really big" and that they would have an announcement soon.
Before the Lab Gab ended, Patch would say they might make a "blooper reel" of errors made during the filming of the movile viewer video.
Last week on Thursday December 15, the made in Second Life movie (or machinima) "Waarheid" premiered at the "Film Threat" theater. Scheduled to start at 10AM SL time, the 100 second countdown started at 10:30. There were over a hundred people in the sim.
The movie is a dystopian sci-fi tale of which the script was written by Huckleberry Hax, who has also done over a dozen novels and numerous short stories in Second Life, the most noted being "AFK", and also plays the part of the antagonist, Belletristik. Caitlin Tobias is the actress behind the protagonist Erika Janssen/Waarheid. Other roles played include AvaJean Westland, Ylva (Soulfullife ), Boudicca Amat, Lydia Lindemann (Lydiadecremorne), Mich Michabo, and Strawberry Singh (Strawberry Linden). The movie is a sequel to Stomol, Huckleberry's first major SL film, which debuted in July 2020.
The movie starts with Waarheid / Erika trying to track down the location of the man who nearly killed her, recalling what happened to her, losing her arm, and her recovery. But things do not quite go as she planned. She eventually wakes up in what apparently is a very sophisticated virtual reality simulation, placed there by someone who says she wants to help her accomplish her tracking down her attempted killer, but wants her to trust him, which she's reluctant to do.
The movie ended with applause, and afterwards much of the cast and audience went to a club to celebrate at an afterparty, Huckleberry saying at one point, "We have this amazing venue tonight due to the generosity of Amelie (amilee34) and Ylva - please show your appreciation to the venue and DJ."
Yours truly doesn't want to give too much away about the movie, though with her in an ultra-realistic virtual reality simulator comes the question how does she truly know she's out of it (Total Recall anyone?) I was pleased with the ending. A lot of work was done on the movie and it was well-done.
A few days before on December 9, Strawberry would interview Huckleberry, Caitlin, and AvaJean in a Lab Gab episode. Huckleberry would say he didn't plan on doing a sequel to Stomol at first, but hearing what people thought eventually came up with the idea for Waarheid. It was filmed in a number of locations, some of which are no longer around. Huckleberry spoke that he has no plans for a sequel to this, though he won't say "never" either.
To see the movie, head to Film Threat (48/126/23). It should be there for a few more weeks. Exactly when the theater's next movie is scheduled to be up is unknown.
From Second Life's Youtube channel, a recording from the Thursday October 27 Lab Gab, "Strawberry Linden and Boston Blaisdale will be exploring some haunted destinations this Halloween"
Gemma Cleanslate has been checking out NatureCon, a two week event made to encourage Bellisseria and Mainland groups to work together and encourage exploration, especially exploration of nature-themed areas. There is much to see, do, and experience here. Gemma checked some more of the event, and took a moment to write.
For those that can’t travel to the real Paris and take a selfie in
front of the Eiffel Tower, you can do that from the comfort of your home
in Second Life! No passport required!
Miyuki Naidoo pointed out this scene at Mainframe. While some residents collect Linden and Mole bears, a Zac UwU put his up for all to see. He had a total of eighteen, of various sizes.
In clockwise order, they are:
Rider Linden - large teddy bear in a spacesuit with name overhead
Wednesday, June 22nd at 2pm PT - Meet the Lindens with
the Marketing Team. The Marketing team consists of Feuling, Brett,
Darcy, Maveric, Emika, and Strawberry Linden. Together they focus on
both the acquisition of new users and the retention of existing users
for Second Life. Watch it on the Second Life YouTube channel or at the SL19B Arboretum.
On Thursday June 16, the Second Life Nineteenth Birthday celebrations began. At Noon were the opening ceremonies at the Arboretum, which was a speech by Patch Linden. As the event can get crowded, the Lindens and Moles made the area their high-capacity sims. But things did not go as planned.
Today is the first day of the Second Life Birthday. At 10 AM today, the exhibits open. And among the exhibits to check out is that of the Newser.
Built by Silvia Ametza, the build fits the Steampunk theme (though a few of the controls may be a tad on the Dieselpunk side. Drop by SLB Imagination (176/75/23) to see it.
At 12 Noon SL time are the Opening Ceremonies, to be done by Patch Linden. After that, Strawberry Linden will be doing a special Lab Gab on the event, looking around the various exhibits and places. (Click here for the Youtube link).
See you there.
*Correction* - Gave the wrong SURL earlier, it's been corrected.
Earlier this month, Strawberry Linden posted a "Then and Now" challenge on the forums, "May 9th is my Resident avatar's 15th rez day
so I thought it would be fun to do the Then and Now Challenge. To do
this challenge, pick one of the oldest images of your avatar and do a
side-by-side comparison with a recent image of your avatar.
"
Some got my attention, such as how Draxtor's had changed over the years.
Panterapolnocy (formerly Chakat Northspring) would comment, "June 2011 vs now, May 2022. In exception of species... not much of a change, to be honest."
DeniseUnicorn Toonie, my neighbor, showed how her avatar had improved over the years.
And then there was Callum Linden, "Let's just call it 'timeless, vintage, immutable' shall we."
From Friday April 22, the recording of the Lab Gab at 9AM with Strawberry Linden interviewing Boston Blaisdale, "a popular YouTuber that has been creating informative Second Life
Tutorials and fun shopping and fashion related videos for over a year."
Strawberry admitted to being something of a fangirl "I love your work." Boston described himself as first joining Second Life 13 years ago after seeing an article on Reuters about it, taking a group of other real-life friends into doing so as well, relaxing at clubs inworld after dealing with exams. After a couple years, phased out SL until about 2020 when he returned after a breakup. Despite a rude welcome back by a couple trolls, he persisted, updating his avatar, spending "an obscene amount of time" in stores. He would ask others where they got their avatars and accessories, and discovered different creators. He would start blogging and posting on Flickr, and eventually started getting a following on the latter. After a few weeks, he decided to start to create videos to share some of the things he learned.
At the end of the interview, following a few questions on what he did to relax, Strawberry invited him for a dance, which made for some interesting moves, "If I tried this in real life, I would dislocate my shoulder."
On Wednesday, Linden Lab announced on their blog "Second Life University." These will be livestreams viewable on Youtube that can be seen at any time later made with the purpose of instructing residents about Second Life.
Welcome to Second Life University, a new project that aims to teach people all about the vast virtual world of Second Life!
There are many videos and tutorials out there for Second Life already, including Second Life Tutorials on our YouTube channel as well as those created by our Residents,
— and we’d like to consolidate information in one place as well as
ensure that all content is up-to-date. We will begin with topics that
are particularly relevant for newer users. This is a huge project that
will take time, and we’re excited to work on and collaborate with the
community to make it easily understandable and fun.
The first of the livestreams, "Viewer Basics," was yesterday, Thursday April 7 at 2PM SL time, hosted by Strawberry Linden. A better title might be "Official Viewer Basics" as the Firestorm viewer, which is more popular, isn't necessarily the same. It handles things like customizing the toolbar, editing one's profile, using the Destination Guide to explore places, and more.
In the forum thread on the topic, there seemed to be qualified overall approval, one saying, "Depending on the quality of the courses for 'advanced learning and
building,' I think this could be a good thing. In fact, I think it's a
LONG-overdue thing. LL should always have taken responsibility for
teaching SL at all levels with this sort of program. So,
congratulations LL! But I think this announcement would have been MUCH more graceful had it
acknowledged the resident-run universities that stepped into the vast
knowledge gap over time, and still offer inworld in-person interactive
classes where actual humans answer actual questions." She would bring up two places to learn inworld, Builders Brewery, and Caledon Oxbridge University.
There will be more such videos in the future, some may be hosted by different Lindens.
From Strawberry Linden on Dec 17, scenes of the Linden Snowball fight, "Join us at Winter Wonderland on Friday December 17th at 10am to 11am PT and again at 2pm to 3pm PT. "
Recently, the Newser met up with Strawberry Linden. Currently the Social Media Manager of Linden Lab, appearing to residents in the "Lab Gab" show and occasional Linden blog posts, a few years ago she was known as Strawberry Singh, a noted Fashion blogger. In the interview, Strawberry talks a little about how she got her start in Second Life, and a little about how it is working at the Lab.
Yesterday, Linden Lab announced their next episode of "Lab Gab" would be today, October 8. It will take place at 1PM SL time. Strawberry Linden will be interviewing Brian Friedman and Jon Nakagawa.
Jon is the owner of Paragon Dance Animations,
a Hollywood-based production company founded by professionals in the
movie industry. Paragon brings the talents of accomplished and
high-profile dancers to life in virtual reality, by specializing in the
production of dance animations for Second Life.
The Lab would go on to say the two had teamed up recently with Paragon, and worked on a "dance number using a motion capture suit," with a film on their Facebook page.
During the course of the Second Life Birthday, a number of Lindens were interviewed at both the "Lab Gab" and the "Meet the Lindens" events. But there was one whom was making his first public appearance inworld: Oberwolf Linden, aka Bradford Oberwager, the Executive Chairman of Linden Lab, and one of the two people leading the acquisition of the company last year. Strawberry Linden had a number of questions for him, such as how did he find out about Second Life, what were his impressions of it, what experiences did he have inworld, and what were his plans?
For the third time this year, the Lab Gab show will be taking place tomorrow, Friday May 4. On this episode, hostess Strawberry Linden interviews Lindsley Allen and Jon Nakagawa.
Lindsley
is a creative producer, director, choreographer, mentor, and dance
educator. She is a founding member of Pussycat Dolls and the creator of Cherry Boom Boom.
Jon is the owner of Paragon Dance Animations,
a Hollywood-based production company founded by professionals in the
movie industry. Paragon brings the talents of accomplished and
high-profile dancers to life in virtual reality, by specializing in the
production of dance animations for Second Life.
Recently Lindsley teamed up with Paragon and held a Second Life
Director’s Contest, announcing the winner just this past weekend. Check out the winning video!
The episode can be seen live on Youtube tomorrow at 12 Noon SL time (Link). For more information about Lindsley and Jon, and the show, Click Here.
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