The Annual Archive Reset

 

January First is the neatest the archival description on the front page appears. Normally it's a mix of the names of articles this month, plus the previous months in the year. But once the first article of the new year goes up, the last year "compacts." And so the section looks a little neater, just showing the first article, or first few articles, and the previous years. 

 

And we'll be quickly making it look messy again. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

 

 

SL Newser Archives: Fourteen Years

 

Each of the articles the Newser has done is easily accessible. Just go to the year and month in the archives. The archive display on the front page often looks like a jumbled mess with the months and list of articles. But every January 1st, there's a "reset" or sorts in which all the months of the previous year are neatly tucked away, and there's just one or two in the new one so far. It's kind of neat to see, at least in my opinion.

And lately, it shows how far we've gone. Fourteen years of reporting, with hundreds of articles, announcements, cartoons, videos, etc., sometimes over a thousand, each year.

 

And very soon, this year will have many, many articles as well.

Happy 2024

Bixyl Shuftan

Passing The One Thousand Mark

 

The Newser prides itself on being a daily source of news about Second Life and related topics. I sometimes say we update 363 days a year, leaving out a couple days due to the Internet (and computer hardware) being subject to bugs and glitches. But we usually have two or three articles, leads to articles, briefs, videos, cartoons, announcements, and other posts per weekday and sometimes weekend days. It all adds up, and on Monday our 1000th item for this year went up in the newsletter.

This isn't the first time we've done this. Actually for most of our ten year history, we've posted close to this number, and since 2015 have exceeded 1000 in all years but one. Still, it's something to be proud of. Not only have we done this milestone this year, but we've been doing it for a while, and barring technical difficulties will keep on doing it.

Bixyl Shuftan, Editor

 

More SL Newspaper Archived Articles Up

Over time, the Newser has restored articles from the old SL Newspaper of JamesT Juno and Dana Vanmoer, which vanished from the net a few years ago. The ones we've restored more recently are in the SL Newspaper Archived. Among them, the two articles I wrote about the Second Life Fifth Birthday (first) (second). So enjoy this little blast from the past.

Click here to go to the SL Newspaper Archived.

The Focus of the Newser

The Second Life Birthday and the Relay Weekend and now behind us. These two mega-events represent the best of Second Life, people coming together and making some great builds, and in the case of the Relay for a great cause. They deserve lots of coverage. And from us, they get it.

But as good as these events are, covering (and documenting) these great events and their places takes some time from other people, places, and events on the Grid, and a few related Internet and computer issues outside it. Quite a bit can go on in Second Life. For instance on the Relay's "Teardown Day," there was the opening of a small real-life book publisher's office inworld, a Moon Landing anniversary party, and a benefit concert for live musician Maxx Sabretooth whom needed medical help. We've had to make a few choices in what to cover, and what to put on the back burner. And now that the big two summer events are done, we can focus a little more on other subjects.

What do you the readers want us to look at? There's plenty going on, such as the LEA art exhibits, Madpea and other games, various shops in Second Life that we could put a greater focus on, personal stories, and of course Linden Lab's next generation virtual world Sansar.

Should anything get a little more (or less) mention? Reader feedback, especially written comments, can make a difference in what we the Newser team focus on.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor, SL Newser

Checking the Relay Sims

"You can either *be* in Second Life, or you can write about Second Life." Actually, you can, but I've found it very difficult to the point I seldom try. Stories take time to write, time that is sometimes needed to see something before it goes away, in this case the Relay sims. Don't worry, we'll have more stories up soon.

Looking Back At Second Life Newspaper

As our five year anniversary comes up, we're looking back at the days of our predecessor paper, Second Life Newspaper. The old paper's archives have been inaccessible by normal means for over a year, but can still be partially accessed through the Internet Archive (http://archive.org/web/). So we're republishing old articles and cartoons, like the one above done in early 2007 as a new reporter gets welcomed by a peer (nope, I didn't do it, I wasn't around yet).

Tell us what you think, and if there's a certain article you'd like to see again, let me know and I'll try to find it. No guarantee as the Internet Archive doesn't scan everything.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL10B Statistics and Comments

Daniel Voyager had some statistics about the SL10B published on his blog. While there have been no numbers for the number of visitors (for SLB6 more than 17,000 residents dropped in at some point while it was open), it does say over 640 were present at the moment of the grand opening. For the 22 sims, there were 375 exhibits and five stages, with 470 applications submitted by performers and among the staff, 115 alone were registered as greeters.

Click Here for the whole list, along with a link to statistics of previous SL birthday celebrations.

The Second Life Wiki has a "History of Second Life" page. It's from Linden Lab, so there's no mention of the adult content protests and the 30% layoffs. Click Here.

Of Second Life's future, Daniel expressed optimism, "I think we will see more new technology introduced from Linden Lab in the coming years making Second Life more realistic, faster and better improved."

Hamlet Au of New World Notes also had a few comments about Second Life, a few which made it to a SF Post article, and more in depth on an article in gigaom.com. Hamlet felt the biggest mistake Linden Lab made with the virtual world was "it ignored what the overwhelming majority of residents were actually doing." While it was pushing things like an "Enterprise" version for businesses to hold meetings, it paid little attention to the roleplaying and other gaming, fashion and shopping, adult activities, and other things which were drawing residents. It might have a second chance to get the larger public's attention as technologies like Oculus Rift make it much easier to use. Another thing that got Hamlet's attention, people with physical and mental disabilities were using Second Life to interact with others in ways that would be difficult to impossible without it.

What do you the readers think? What has Second Life done right, and wrong, in it's ten years, and how do you see it's future? Will there be an SL20B?

Bixyl Shuftan

Sources: Daniel Voyager, Hamlet Au

A Note From The Editor About Recent Articles

I had a few words with a friend on Facebook, who wondered if the Second Life Newser team was losing interest in Second Life. While we've always reported on something related to computers and other virtual worlds on occasion, lately there's been a number of them. Plus, a few of the reporters haven't been as active as usual.

This is for a few reasons. In recent days, there's been a number of developments outside Second Life that concerned at least some residents of the Grid, or which I felt were relevant in some way. For instance, the development of Runescape deciding to involve players in the punishment of offenders I felt would be very interesting to a resident whose favorite sims are plagued by griefers. As for the reporters, some have had real life matters to attend to, and others were busy working away to find and write articles. This weekend I got a number in the mailbox which will appear this week.

If there's something out there you feel isn't getting attention, by all means let us know. And of course we're interested in any Reader Submissions you the readers may have.

Stay tuned for a month full articles of what October in Second Life offers.

Bixyl Shuftan

1000 Mark

We've just reached a milestone. Second Life Newser has shown a total of a thousand articles, cartoons, and the occasional bulliten.

And we're not slowing down.