Reader Submitted: A Replacement for Singularity, Linden Lab Bringing in Chat History

 

I have been using the Singularity Viewer for years as it has the kind of interface I like. However, over the last year or so, it began having problems getting functions to work, finally ending with constantly getting logged off while in the middle of building, causing lots of lost work, especially when it happened while making a new railroad rout. Unfortunately, Singularity is no longer recieving regular updates, and as a matter of fact hasn't in a very long time. So I started a search, and I found the Genisis Viewer (https://genesisviewer.org/).

It has the same interface and performs very well. I also find that it has regular updates, so updated that it is already testing in a Nightly Build, a new function being readied by Linden Lab, Group Chat History!

(https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/12652-coming-soon-to-a-viewer-near-you-group-chat-history/)

What it does is that when you log on and you either open a group chat or it opens when someone types, you get to see the prior conversations up to an hour before you logged in. I'm sure we all have logged on numerous times to see someone say something, leaving you wondering "What in the world have they been talking about?" Well, you will soon have your answer, as all that was spoken before will be displaced in italics. I downloaded the Genisis Nightly Build, sperate from the regular viewer, and test drive it, and YES it works. I can't show you an example because that's busting privacy and Terms of Service, but I'll state that I was seeing all the conversation that took place before up to an hour in any group. This does not apply to your friends but not needed anyway. Right, you already know that.

I'm sure that other viewers will soon follow and have this very useful function included. As for Genesis, it is the perfect replacement for those of us who use Singularity.

Cynthia Farshore

Ten Years Ago: Linden Lab Puts More Rules on Third-Party Viewers

 
It was about ten years ago on Friday February 24 2012 that Linden Lab annoyed a number of fans of Phoenix (the predecessor to Firestorm) and other third-party viewers by announcing changes on their Third-Party Viewer Policy. Before the change, viewers were free to make innovations that allowed different feature from the Linden Viewer, such as Phoenix showing what viewer others were using by displaying the name over their avatar names. 

The reason the Lab gave for the change was to protect the residents' "users’ privacy and security." It was also stated elsewhere they thought the users of their viewer were being bullied by some of Phoenix's users, pressured to stop using the Linden Viewer and run Phoenix instead. While some residents thought the Lab was being reasonable, seeing the move as applying standardization, others thought the new rules were out of jealousy for Phoenix being much more popular than the Linden Viewer, and that the move might stiffle third-party viewer development. 

Despite the concerns, Phoenix and other third-party viewer teams went with the new regulations. On Tuesday Feb 28 2012, Phoenix's Jessica Lyon would appear in a public meeting to explain what was going on. 

While there was much complaining, life, or in this case virtual life, went on. But there would soon be other topics for the residents to discuss.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Oz Linden's Last TPV Meeting

 

Panterapolnocy films the Third-Party Viewer Developer meetings. The last one on Friday February 19 would be distinguished by it being the last one. For those not wanting to sit through the whole thing, Inara Pey's report gives a rundown on what was discussed, notably the Project Jelly Viewer. But many would find the most important detail being Oz Linden's farewell talk near the beginning.

"I want to say that working with the third party viewer community has been  – I mean this is how it started for me, and it has been a theme throughout, and it has been a very great pleasure working with all of you. It’s really been terrific, and thank you. Thank you for making me look good, and thank you for all you contribute to this really impactful and fun product. It's even more fun to work on than it is to use."

Oz Linden's last appearance will be on Lab Gab, tomorrow at 11 AM SL time.

Top Stories of the 2010s, Part Three

The 2010s are over. But as we say goodbye to the decade, there's some looking back at what happened. The Newser has covered much in the past ten years, and we're looking at some of the top stories that made the news and got more attention than most.


Read the third part of the series in Extra.

Singularity Viewer Developer Calling For Patreon Support

One third party viewer for Second Life that got plenty of use in the recent past was Singularity. Developed to resemble the classic Linden viewer before they changed to V-2, for a time it was the second post popular viewer with only Firestorm getting more use. It would be updated every few months until February 2015. Afterwards it would be hit with a number of problems such as one developer dying and another leaving the team. It would come up with one more update in June 2016. But there have been none since. While the viewer still works, some newer avatars don't rezz properly with it, sometimes in ways that block much of the screen.

Siana Gearz, the head of the Singularity team, recently made a page on Patreon, a membership platform site that allows content creators to receive funding from supporters, or patrons. Apparently, her financial situation has gone downhill, saying, "the project has been extremely draining in part because it left me bankrupt." So she had created the Patreon page to "gauge interest to continue Singularity Viewer ...  if people are willing to pay, it changes things. You can also pledge here if you choose to support me in new endeavours, which are likely to be 3D printing related, probably firmware development."

So far (as of the writing of this article), Siana has a total of six patrons pledging $23 a month, including five "Singularitians" whom want her to concentrate on improving the viewer. More information can be readon her Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/sianagearz .

Hat tip: Mook Wheeler

Bixyl Shuftan

Singularity Viewer Updates For First Time in Over a Year

By Bixyl Shuftan

Some good news for Second Life residents whom prefer to use the Singularity viewer. For the first time since March 2016, the third-party viewer has finally updated.

While most users of Second Life use the Firestorm Viewer, the official viewers from Linden Lab having fallen out of favor from experienced residents since it gave them an overhaul in 2009 with the less than popular V-2, there one of a number of viewers available to go about the virtual world (some of which can also be used for InWorldz, Opensim, and others). In the past, Singularity was the second most popular viewer. But recent statistics on it's current popularity are unavailable. The viewer was developed with the goal of preserving the general "look and feel" of the classic Linden viewer. Inara Pey classified it as a "V-1 Style Viewer" along with Cool VL on her list of Second Life Viewers.

Singularity was updated every few months up to February 27, 2015 with a "minor patch." But then the team was hit with problems. The big one was the death of one of it's engineers, Latif Khalifa had died, word reaching Second Life's residents in early March 2016. Singularity also stated another developer had left to "pursue other interests." So the team was "hampered in our ability to update and test the viewer by a lack of infrastructure and hardware issues." While they were able to get another engineer, Mika-Pyon, and they managed to solve most of their hardware issues, they had a long list of things to update. They are still in need of someone who can update their Macintosh computer viewer.

After downloading the upgrade and trying it out, the most noticeable improvement to me was that I no longer had problems listening to others over voice. While there were still problems seeing mesh items at a distance, I didn't notice the worst of the problems I had been having. It's fair to say the mesh problem on my viewer could be due to the old graphics card.

More details about Singularity version 1.8.7, and what was updated, can be read (here).

Source: Modem World , Singularity 

Bixyl Shuftan

Podex is Gone

They're truly gone.

A little more than two months since the third party Linden currency exchanger closed down, a visit to their location in the Coda sim revealed ... an empty space. It seems Jacek has more or less given up on Linden Lab reversing it's decision to order all independent currency exchangers in Second Life to cease operations and close down in Second Life.

Podex, owned by Jacek Shuftan, and the Second Life Newser had a long history together. The third party Linden currency exchanger, which traded Linden dollars for several real world currencies, received praise from people, such as business owners and overseas residents, whom would have to wait for Linden Lab's Lindex to approve transactions. They began sponsoring the paper a few months after it's founding. But banks doing their job well is uneventful, so the Newser did a number of advertisements for them over the years, notably the continuing misadventures of a bandit who kept trying to rob the place and never succeeded whom would eventually be known as "Clumsy Cooper."

But in May 2013, trouble struck when Linden Lab first ordered all third party Linden exchangers to close. Podex resisted at first, saying they had obligations to their customers. Linden Lab responded by suspending Jacek Shuftan's account, effectively shutting down Podex. But residents complained and Linden Lab made a partial reversal, allowing a list of approved third party exchangers, including Podex, but they could only sell Linden dollars, not buy them from residents. This Linden third-party exchanger program would continue for two years until June 2015 when they announced the program was coming to an end and the exchangers had until the end of July to do business. Jacek hoped Linden Lab would listen to reason, and over a thousand residents signed a petition to keep the exchanges open. Despite complaints from some overseas residents the Lindex still wasn't working for them, Linden Lab went through with it's decision to close.

In the past few years, Podex diversified it's service, trading the virtual currency of InWorldz and a number of other virtual worlds. But now Second Life residents will have to do without their service. And for the Newser, this is the end of a long business partnership, of which their loss has been a painful hit in the pocketbook.

Bixyl Shuftan

Breaking News: Linden Lab Orders Third-Party Linden Exchangers To Close By August

In a reversal of it's deal with third-party Linden exchange services wanting to stay in business two years ago, Linden Lab announced in it's blog that it was "Concluding the Authorized L$ Reseller Pilot Program."

In 2013, we introduced a pilot program for Authorized Linden Dollar (L$) Resellers. This pilot program was designed to give Second Life Residents additional options for purchasing Linden Dollars, particularly for those based outside the US.

Since then, we have expanded the payment options for Second Life users, and today, you can easily purchase L$ in more countries than ever before, using a credit card, PayPal, or Skrill, which supports a wide range of payment methods. We’ve found that these options support the vast majority of Second Life users, and we have therefore made the business decision to close the Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller pilot program.

We are contacting program participants directly to detail the next steps for them, and they will have approximately six weeks to sell off their L$ inventory.

As of August 1, 2015, the Authorized L$ Reseller pilot program will be closed, and the LindeX will be the only authorized place to purchase L$.

Among the Linden Exchangers is Podex, a long-term sponsor of Second Life Newser.

More details to come later on this stunning news development.

To view the announcement in full, Click Here.

The Singularity Viewer : A Lightweight Viewer for Second Life

If you're like most Second Life residents, you've moved on from the official viewer to one of the alternatives. The most popular is Firestorm, which has more users than even the official client software. But suppose this isn't running quite right for you either. Fortunately, there's other third party viewers out there. Among them, the Singularity Viewer. Wesley Regenbogen decided to give it a try recently. So what did he think of it?

Read Wesley's article in Design.

Team Firestorm's Fourth Anniversary and Interview with Jessica Lyon

This week, the people behind Second Life's most popular viewer celebrated the fourth anniversary of the founding of the team. From it's tumultuous beginnings, Team Firestorm quickly won the respect, and viewership of the Second Life public. And now it was time for the volunteers, and friends, to relax with a party and a couple gifts.

More in Events.

The Third-Party Linden Exchange Services Two Months Later

It's been about two months since the Linden Exchanger Crisis in which Linden Lab briefly closed down the Third-Party Exchange Services. The result from the residents was an uproar, especially from non-US residents as they often had problems buying Lindens directly from Linden Lab. Most exchangers folded when the Lindens demanded they shut down. But one, the Podex Exchange, instead tried to reason with the Lindens. It was ignored and then shut down by force. Eventually, Linden Lab partially relented, allowing the exchangers to apply for approval as Third-Party "Linden Resellers." After a few weeks, Podex was back in business.

There were concerns that the market would be dominated by Linden resellers that were subsidiaries of real estate businesses, thinking they'd be able to offer the best deals. But this has not been the case. Of the top five exchangers on the Linden Dollar Authorized Reseller Program website, only one was known for it's sales of virtual property. AnsheX, the most well known, never even made the top ten.

In terms of Euros per 1000 Lindens, the top three exchangers were The Teledollar Cash Service, The Podex Exchange, and the ELDEXchange. Teledollar made the top of the list at 3.34 Euros needed to buy 1000 Lindens. Podex was second at 3.40 Euros. But, Teledollar only did business with US Dollars and Euros. The Podex Exchange worked with those and more, British Pounds, Japanese Yen, Russian Rubles, and more. Recently, they have began accepting Mexican and Colombian Pesos and Peruvian Nuevo Sols.

Podex also offer many more payment options, from Paypall, to credit card, bank transfer, and more.

So despite it's rough treatment from Linden Lab earlier, Podex is alive and well, and offering it's customers good deals.

Podex is a sponsor of Second Life Newser.

Bixyl Shuftan

Firestorm Viewer Undergoes Emergency Update

By Bixyl Shuftan

Users of Firestorm are having to upgrade their viewers once again, at least those whom had just upgraded to the version before. Linden Lab informed Team Firestorm the viewer was causing them problems. So the team went to work on a new update in a hurry.

It was June 26 when Firestorm released version 4.4.1 of their viewer. Jessica Lyon told the users this was a mandatory upgrade due to it's Project Sunshine and its upcoming rolling out of server-side baking, or server-side appearance as it's being called now. Five days later, The Firestorm blog had some bad news.


According to Jessica, when the viewer was being beta-tested, it was made to "enable special data logging." This sent a sizable amount of information to Linden Lab's servers and user logs, "mainly avatar appearance debugging data and usage data."  Unfortunately, this feature wasn't turned off for when the viewer was released. The "usage" information was the bigger problem as the viewers were sending this information "every 30 seconds … instead of the usual 10 minutes. The result according to Linden Lab was their statistic servers were being overwhelmed. So Team Firestorm had to act fast.

Version 4.4.1 was removed from their downloads page right away. The team then went to work on a new version of the viewer with the feature for the extra data disabled. They stated it would be available on July 2 at latest. Later in the day, work on it was finished and it was made available as Version 4.4.2. Team Firestorm then began blocking the logins of Viewer 4.4.1s in service.

Those whom had yet to upgrade from 4.4.0 do not have to upgrade right away as their viewer wasn't blocked, at least not for a few days when Linden Lab's server side appearance goes into effect.  But it was recommended they make a "clean install," that is "clearing the settings from the hard drive, along with uninstalling the application and manually wiping the cache."

Jessica accepted responsibility for the error, "we screwed up, and because of our screw-up, thousands of you are going to need to upgrade yet again, only this time with little to no notice or choice whatsoever. We acknowledge this will be, at the least, very inconvenient to most of you and on behalf of myself and the entire Firestorm Team, we extend our deepest apologies."

"… we won't make this mistake again."

Various residents across the Grid also acted. Hearing about the emergency update, they spread the news, telling friends in-avatar as well as IMs, group chats, and group notices.

Jessica stated July 9 is when Linden Labs rolls out server side appearance. For those still using Phoenix, she urged them to upgrade to Firestorm, or use another Third-Party viewer that can handle this new way avatar data is processed. Otherwise for them, Second Life may become a very colorless place.

Source: Firestorm Blog

Bixyl Shuftan

List of Authorized Linden Sellers Expanded, Podex Back in Business

By Bixyl Shuftan

Almost a month after Linden Lab sparked a crisis by changing their terms of service to shut down Third-Party Linden exchangers, and over two weeks since an initial five "Linden Resellers" were authorized to do business, the list of companies residents can buy Lindens from has been noticeably extended. It's possible to once again possible to do business with many of those who shut their doors, or in the case of Podex had the doors shut for them despite repeated attempts to negotiate with the Lab. Podex is among the exchangers now back in business as "Authorized Linden Resellers."

"We are very happy to announce that Podex has been given permission to sell Linden dollars as a member of the Authorized Reseller Program" Jacek Shuftan stated on the Podex Website, "All our clients are welcome to buy Linden Dollars again."

Besides getting it's main source of business in Second Life back, the Podex Exchange has also made a deal with the OpenSim world "Virtual Highway." On this world which recently passed the landmark of one thousand registered users, Podex now offers business buying and selling Virtual Highway Dollars (V$) in addition to Visa cards and the "possibility to earn your own profit in our affiliate program."

Not all of the Third-Party Exchangers have been allowed to return to business yet. Some, such as Moneyslex and the Brando Estate's exchange service are still closed. But for the customers of many once-closed exchangers, their bank is back in business.

The Podex Exchange (http://www.podex.info/) is a sponsor of Second Life Newser.


Sources: Second Life Wiki, Hypergrid Business

Bixyl Shuftan

Third-Party Exchanger Update: No Additional Authorized Linden Resellers

It's been about a week since the last of the Third-Party Linden Exchangers were closed. AnsheX, owned by SL tycoon Anshe Chung, quietly ceased trading. Podex, owned and operated by Jacek Shuftan, was shut down when Jacek's account was suspended by Linden Lab. On the same day, the Lab announced it's new terms for "Authorized Linden Resellers." Of the many exchangers that had once been operating, only five had been approved for the new plan. Among them was AnsheX.

A couple days ago, Jacek's suspension was finally lifted. He however had not gotten a response from Linden Lab concerning his application to continue trading Lindens. And now about a week after Linden Lab's last announcement, the list of five allowed resellers remains at five.

It's unclear why no additional new Linden Resellers have been authorized.

Bixyl Shuftan.

Linden Lab to Allow Several Third-Party Exchange Services to Reopen, Podex Still Closed.

In a partial reversal of it's earlier ban, Linden Lab announced earlier today that they will be allowing Third-Party Linden exchange services after all. But so far, only five of the many exchangers have met their approval. Plus, the services now operate under tighter and more limiting terms and conditions.

Now, to give users more options and make it easier to purchase L$, we’re launching a pilot program of Authorized Resellers of L$. These sites are authorized by Linden Lab to purchase L$ on the LindeX and then resell those L$ using a variety of international currencies and payment methods. To be clear: per the Terms of Service, these resellers will not be allowed to purchase L$ outside of the LindeX (i.e. they will not be able to buy L$ back from users and cash people out). The list of Authorized Resellers participating in the pilot program is available here.

So far, only five exchange services, now officially called Linden Resellers,  have been approved by Linden Lab. They are AnsheX, Buildo, vForEx, VirWoX, and ZoHaIslands. As of the writing of this article, only two had operational ATMs, Bulido and ZoHa. ZoHa announced the news on their blog, "We are proud to announce that ZoHa Islands became today an Authorized Reseller of Linden Dollars," followed by a short description of what this means and the conditions.

The Podex Exchange, which was shut down early Friday morning, was not among the approved exchange services. On the Podex site, Jacek announced they had applied to become an official reseller, but were still stopped from doing business. On "Hypergrid Business," he stated, "Undoubtfully, it is a great news for residents who are not able to use Linden Lab payment methods. ... It will lower the profits of independent exchanges but gives a sparkle of hope that we can continue our virtual existence."

The new terms and conditions are more limiting for the exchange services than before. From now on, they can only get their Linden Dollars from the official LindeX Exchange, and nowhere else. They can no longer buy back Lindens from residents for US dollars or any other currency.

These new terms mean Linden Lab now has a more tighter rein on where it's Linden dollars go. It's very likely they were made with the US Treasury Department's FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) new guidelines about virtual currency in mind. Other conditions include resellers taking steps to "take commercially reasonable steps to prevent and deter credit card and similar types of fraud." They're also required to make sure no business is done with or anyone from any country with which the United States has an embargo with, such as Cuba or Iran.

The new terms have one serious weakness. With residents unable to sell Lindens to anyone but the Lab, Second Life business owners dependent on Third-Party exchangers to convert Lindens to real currency are still out of luck. It's possible that there may be changes in the terms and conditions in the near future to allow this.

So why didn't Linden Lab offer something like this earlier? A few residents in forum threads and article comments thought the Lab was genuinely surprised by how many expressed anger at the move and how many were dependent on the Third Party Exchanges. Other posters expressed suspicion that all this was really about FinCEN, feeling profit was their main motive, noting everyone would have to use LindeX, including the resellers, one poster on SL Universe commenting, "This is a brilliant plan to let Anshe stay in business … ACS and the other land barons have all this L$ they get directly they can sell. Everyone else has to buy it on the Lindex, mark it up, and resell it."

Residents are breathing a sigh of relief, but Linden Lab has once again shaken the confidence of Second Life's users.

The Podex Exchange (http://www.podex.info/) is a sponsor of Second Life Newser.

Links:  Official forums, SL Universe forums, Gwyneth Llewelyn,  Hypergrid Business, New World Notes,  Hamlet Au,

Bixyl Shuftan

Breaking News: Linden Lab Shuts Down Podex

In a stunning development to the Third-Party Exchange crisis, Linden Lab has apparently suspended the account of Podex Exchange owner Jacek Shuftan, in effect shutting down the business.

Tonight  at 2.00 o’clock all my accounts related to Podex Exchange were put on hold by Linden Lab.
I really believed that the new ToS is meant to protect avatars from the risk of fraud.  That was my goal as well so I was looking forward to cooperate with Linden Lab. I could not imagine that over one night they would want to destroy our cooperation and everything what I built for 6 years of my virtual life. They did.
I believed that they would answer my requests to start discussion. They did not.
All customers whose transactions have not been completed are asked to contact our support. I personally promise that they will not lose their money.
Podex is still working but its Second Life activity is now stopped.

Jacek Shuftan

With the AnsheX apparently having stopped buying and selling Lindens, this development in effect means all Third-Party exchangers have ceased doing business.

Stay tuned for further developments.

*Update* Linden Lab announced they will allow Third-Party exchange services after all, but Podex is still closed.

Most Third-Party Linden Exchange Services Close, Only Podex and AnsheX Remain

By Bixyl Shuftan

In the aftermath of Linden Labs changing it's Terms of Service concerning Third Party exchangers of Linden dollars, just about all have closed their doors. A number gave statements saying they  were wary of the Lab's wrath, such as the DX Exchange, "the TOS gives us a 30 day period … However, we so realize that with blocking our avatars Linden Lab can disable our business within seconds. We also realize that we put our clients at risk to lose their Lindens in case we annoy Linden Lab." CrossWorlds stated that they would complete orders that had already been placed. But most were no longer making new transactions.

Two Third-Party exchange services remain. One is AnsheX, owned by noted Second Life baron Anshe Chung. Their only response from them on the matter was reportedly their support staff saying "nothing has changed" and they were buying and selling Lindens as before. The other is the Podex Exchange, owned and run by Jacek Shuftan. Jacek lives in Poland in real life, but has registered Podex as a business in Delaware USA. In a press statement over the weekend, Podex stated the following:

Despite the dark clouds over independent third party exchanges, Podex Exchange continues its normal work selling and buying L$. The only change is stricter security policy which can cause delays with some transactions. We are sorry for it. We also want to assure our clients that not only their real money and linden dollars are save with us but also their personal data. Our policy of not requiring any registration to use Podex services have always guaranteed maximum security. We just have nothing to be stolen. To remain in total compliance with Linden Lab regulations and The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) guidance our legal office started preparing application process to become officially registered money services business (MSB).

So why did Linden Lab change their terms of service? In his "Modern Payment Systems" blog, Alex Kadochnikov stated as an issuer of virtual currency, Linden Lab had to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The penalties of not registering, were listed as pretty steep.

(a) Whoever knowingly conducts, controls, manages, supervises, directs, or owns all or part of an unlicensed money transmitting business, shall be fined in accordance with this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

But would Linden Lab really have gotten in trouble because of unregistered Third-Party exchangers? It seems they're not taking chances. In the comments following his article, Kadochinikov didn't feel all the panic was necessary, "I really do not know why they (won't) just register and spend a few dollars in compliance with regulations." Hamlet Au expressed puzzlement as to why "the company hasn't specified this is the reason for it's policy change." A reader commented that the Lab doesn't normally explain things to the residents these days, "the company has abandoned any pretense at communicating with actual customers, so it may just be their usual stony silence."

Perhaps as time goes on, more Third-Party exchangers will register in compliance with FinCEN. But for now, two exchangers independent of Linden Lab remain open for business as an alternative to LindeX. So residents unable to get Lindens from the Lab still have two alternatives. And those reluctant to deal with Anshe Chung still have Podex.

The Podex Exchange (http://www.podex.info/) is a sponsor of Second Life Newser.

Sources: Google sites, Money Payment Systems,

Bixyl Shuftan

New Terms of Service Could End Third-Party Linden Exchange Services, Leave Many Non-US Residents Without Means To Buy Lindens

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Tuesday, Linden Lab announced in their blog they were updating their Terms of Service. Normally, it's just some small details. But the latest change could mean the biggest change to Second Life's economy since the gambling ban years ago.

To get Linden dollars, one could always get them from Linden Lab, the process done through it's Linden Exchange or LindeX. But they are far from the only means for residents to get Lindens. Other exchange services, or Third-Party exchange services, have sprung up over time, offering residents easier and quicker means to get virtual cash.

In the old Terms of Service, Section 5.3 read as the following:

There are other Linden dollar exchanges that are operated by third parties. Linden dollars are occasionally Bought and Sold on third party exchanges, which are wholly distinct from the LindeX exchange. Unless specified by Linden Lab, these exchanges have no affiliation with Linden Lab. We do not guarantee the legitimacy of the Linden dollar transfers offered on them, and we are not liable for purchases of such Linden dollars. You purchase Linden dollars from such sites at your own risk. If you Buy Linden dollars that are traced to unauthorized credit card activity or other fraudulent activity, we will recoup these Linden dollars from your Account.

In the new Terms of Service. Section 5.3 deals with new rules concerning third-party exchange services.

Third party exchanges are not authorized by Linden Lab and Buying or Selling Linden dollars on third party exchanges are not authorized transactions. Third party exchanges are wholly distinct from both the LindeX exchange and Linden Lab and they have no affiliation with Linden Lab. We do not endorse or otherwise guarantee the legitimacy of the Linden dollar transfers offered on them, and we are not liable for purchases of such Linden dollars. Buying or Selling Linden dollars anywhere other than the LindeX is done so solely at your own risk. If you Buy Linden dollars that are traced to unauthorized credit card activity or other fraudulent activity, we will recoup these Linden dollars from your Account. The only authorized exchange is the LindeX.

There were numerous comments from the articles on New World Notes and Vaki Zenova's Blog, in addition to the SL Universe Forum and the official forums. The response was virtually 100% negative, with many residents expressing anger. Some were confused at first wondering if the Lab was just not accepting further responsibility for Third-Party Exchanges, then word began going around that they would be clearly not allowed. There were two issues of complaint. One was that LindeX didn't give you your Lindens instantly, but could take a week or more to pay up. But the bigger issue was the ability to get Lindens at all. A number of residents outside the United States complained using the LindeX was difficult or just couldn't be done. The end of Third Party Exchangers would mean the end of their buying Lindens. For those with no job on the Grid, no more shopping beyond freebies, and no more paying tier or rent for land.

The reaction by the Third-Party Exchange Services varied. Many of them have shut down trading in Second Life. VirWoX, popular among Europeans, stated the following:

Linden Lab has recently changed their Terms of Service. Under the new rules, we will no longer be able to offer our service to Second Life residents. Linden Lab insists that our in-world terminals (ATMs) have to be removed. This means that we can currently not accept Linden Dollars from Second Life or pay Linden Dollars to Second Life. Other virtual currencies are not affected. We will post updates here as the situation develops. Please refrain from sending us support messages about this issue, at the moment we will not be able to give you more information.

Other Exchanges are still operating. This includes the Podex Exchange, Jacek Shuftan told Hypergrid Business, he intended to continue trading for the thirty days until the new Terms of Service go in effect, "We find it not fair to stop our activity in one day without prior notice to our customers. … Podex Exchange has built trust and reputation for many years, and we are not going to destroy it in one day."


I met up with Jacek, who had more to say on the matter, "Really strange move of LL. … I really do not understand (their) motives. We are all waiting for (the) official statement as (the) ToS does not forbid Ls exchange, but (the) post on (the) blog does." He stated As first the blog post didn't ban them, but it was soon edited so it stated there was a ban.

Jacek felt Linden Lab would lose a *lot* of income over their move, "my clients, mainly from Europe, tell me if they cannot buy from me or other exchanges, they will not be able to buy at all. They use prepaid cards, or just send money to bank accounts, or by SMS." Jacek felt if profit was the main motive of the Lab, they could still have allowed alternative payment methods that weren't competitive with Lindex. He was wondering if another reason, if not the main one, was pressure by the US Department of the Treasury with their issuing of "guidelines" about virtual currency, "We just do not know, and we are all waiting for an explanation, and a way to find a sensible solution."

The following day, Gemma Cleanslate reported that a Podex ATM at a multi-exchange hub wasn't working.  The ones in the Podex main office at Coda worked normally.

More to come on what is clearly a major change to the Second Life economy.

The Podex Exchange (http://www.podex.info/) is a sponsor of Second Life Newser.

Sources and other articles, Inkline Media, Hypergrid Business, SL Universe, New World Notes, Official Linden Forum (LindeX Has No Instant Cashout), Ciaran Laval (ToS) (3rd Party Fallout), Modem World,

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Changes Third Party Viewer Policy

On Friday, Linden Lab announced some changes to their Third-Party Viewer policy. The reason given, the Lab stated there were concerns about privacy issues, and they wanted " to be clearer about the sorts of innovations that developers should work on for their particular Viewers" saying they didn't want users of other viewers to have different experiences than those using the official ones.


Here are the new sections of the policy:

2.a.iii : You must not provide any feature that circumvents any privacy protection option made available through a Linden Lab viewer or any Second Life service.

2.i : You must not display any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of any other Second Life user.

2.j : You must not include any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of the user in any messages sent to other viewers, except when explicitly elected by the user of your viewer.

2.k : You must not provide any feature that alters the shared experience of the virtual world in any way not provided by or accessible to users of the latest released Linden Lab viewer.

Linden Lab stated they still want the Third-Party teams to innovate improvements with viewers, but in partnership with them.

The Linden Lab forum post can be read in entirety Here.

Following the official post, naturally there were replies on the forum from the residents. While some were accepting, one resident saying this was to "preserve individual privacy, and ... begin to standardize viewers to a common visual experience." "The differences of experiences at the moment are way too big due to too many different features per 3rd party viewers compared to LL's program. It distroys homogenenity and the differences are so big that it can come to very serious misunderstandings between residents." Others were skeptical, "The SL default viewer is a sub-par experience, poorly programmed and tremendously laggy and cumbersome. By hindering third party viewers, LL is ensuring that they will alienate a large number of users." "Just as I was starting to have a little faith in Rodvik and LL, you have to go and pull this."

On the Phoenix website, Jessica Lyon stated those features in the Phoenix and Firestorm viewers that are now policy violations will be removed in the next updates. She stated she would discuss in depth what these policy changes mean for Phoenix and Firestorm Tuesday February 28th at 2PM.

One can also check out the SL Universe forum for the comments there.

Others have also commented. Tateru Nino called Linden Lab's policy change "the power of veto. ... If Linden Lab likes your feature, but hasn’t yet gotten around to releasing it in a non-beta viewer, well, people still aren’t allowed to use your viewer to connect to Second Life until Linden Lab gets through the process." In Prim Perfect, "one of the features that users of the TPVs love is their ability to respond and develop with flexibility. Long term residents have voted with their feet, and headed for new viewers, partly because the universal dislike there was for the original Viewer 2, which gave a massive impetus to the development of TPVs." Inara Pey wrote, "There is a very real risk that this policy change will completely stifle Viewer innovation – or even drive it away from Second Life entirely. " Daniel Voyager had a list of these and other commentators, including Tonya Souther, the lead Mac developer of Team Phoenix, who felt Linden Lab's message to Third-Party developers was "screw you!"

With their announcement, Linden Lab has created quite a stir, and made a number of people worried. Like so many of their previous announcements, time will tell what their intentions are.


Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: Review of SL 3rd Party Viewers

Many residents have been looking for a new viewer for Second Life following the Emerald mess. One of our readers, SamanthaS Nightfire, recently took a look at various alternatives to it and the official Linden Lab client. She came up with a few conclusions.

Read the story in Extra.