It Came From The Forums

 

 

 Checking the Second Life Forums, on "How Does Your SL Look Today" on page 682 there was this post by Spiffy Voxel, which was a response to one by Ernest Deed, Spiffy expressing disappointment that the hat on the Newser's SL23B exhibit was not "a cunningly-disguised flying-saucer."

 

Well, we ave had a few flying saucer cartoons over the years. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Linden Blog and Forum Oopsie?

 

I was going to write something on the latest Linden viewer release, but something went wrong with the official blog and forums, at least at my end. Trying to get to them, all I see is what's on the picture on the left.

 

Why this is, I don't know. Others I've chatted with in SL aren't having this problem.  

 

Hopefully it'll correct soon.

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Featured News Back on The Dashboard

 

 

 It was a few weeks ago that I wrote about something missing on the Second Life website dashboard page, (https://secondlife.com/my/), the featured news was no longer on it. But a few days ago, it was back. It was labeled "Blog Posts," but still back.

So thankfully the latest from the Lab is a little easier to come across. 

New Default Appearance In SL Forums and Blogs, Featured News Removed From Main Page

 

 

 

There's been a couple changes on the Second Life website. One is the appearance of the forums and blogs. They went from having a white background to a dark one. I wondered if it was something I clicked, then one post showed others were seeing it too. 

 

As it turned out, this was the new default appearance. To change it to another, head to the bottom of the webpage on either the forums and blogs, go to the middle bottom, and click on "theme." You can have it back to how it was, or something a little different. 

On another note, there's been a change to the Dashboard page on secondlife.com, at least when I see it. It used to be that the last few articles of Featured News had their titles shown and could be directly accessed. A few days ago, I noticed the Featured News was gone from the Dashboard. 

Featured News can still be accessed from the Dashboard by going to the top of the page, clicking on "Community," and then selecting "Forums." But as someone interested in the latest from the Lab, it was more convenient to see it directly on the dash.

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Linden Lab Announces Then Pauses AI Character Designer

 

Several days ago, Linden Lab announced they were making available an AI Character Designer to Premium-Plus residents. 

We are making the Character Designer available on the main grid for early testing and feedback to Premium Plus residents. While we have completed initial internal evaluations, we encourage all interested residents to explore this alpha release, identify any issues, and share their input so we can continue refining the tool.

What is the Character Designer?

Developed in collaboration with Convai, the Character Designer empowers you to craft, customize, and animate virtual characters within Second Life. This tool is intended for developers, community builders, roleplay enthusiasts, and anyone looking to enhance their inworld experiences through dynamic characters.

Current Capabilities and Intended Use

The Character Designer provides a solid foundation for immersive roleplay, offering a range of features that let you shape and refine the personalities and behaviors of your inworld characters. Current capabilities include:

• Early-Stage Roleplay Support – Characters respond intelligently through IM, adapting and evolving as you interact.
• Custom Personalities and Backstories – Define unique histories, preferences, and communication styles to bring your characters to life.
• Integration with Existing SL Systems – Connect through a dedicated alt account, set arrival points, and fine-tune behavior filters for a seamless inworld experience.

This was quickly mentioned in the forums, where it quickly got hundreds of responses. Some expressed interest in the AIs. Some made jokes, "the thought of Second Life being so dead that they're trying to occupy its antisocial user base with chat bots." Some wondered if Linden Lab was doing this because AI was "the new shinny" thing in technology. But some expressed privacy concerns about private chats being exposed, "f that's not a password harvesting bot, I don't know what is.  NO WE DONT NEED AI." It was also brought up that anyone signing up to use one would be entirely responsible for whatever output it made, even if it wasn't it's creator's idea, "By agreeing to this, the bot, a literal black box I have no control over, can be made to say stupid **** and I would be entirely responsible for it. This is dead on arrival and has no place in Second Life as it's used. No one will want to take the risk that their store bot (perhaps in an adult store) can be coaxed into saying something truly reprehensible by a random stranger and then abuse reported for it, which as this is AI, should be pretty trivial." 

 

Finally after a few days and 17 pages of posts, Darcy Linden announced the new bots were being put on hold.

 

Hey everyone, thank you for posting in this thread and continuing the conversation!

We've taken your feedback and the Character Designer experiment has been paused while we retool.

I bolded experiment as that's what this is, and it's how we want to proceed with new ideas: get it out early, collect feedback, and optimize/terminate.

When we started this test, the goal was NPCs like Greeters, store clerks, quest givers, etc. It's a creator tool. The companions were an attempt to scale down as NPCs will require more work and this space is in its infancy. AI has been in Second Life for years now and this experiment doubles as an investigation into how we facilitate the allowing people to make cool experiences while respecting the rights and privacy of others. 

With that said, many creators have reached out to me personally with excitement and ideas.

———

AI in/for Second Life is NEVER meant to replace people. EVER. It is a tool, to help us connect, create, and explore.

———

This statement isn't a marketing ploy. We all understand the value (and potential dangers) of AI and are taking incremental steps to integrate these tools to help creators make the best experiences without having to toil over servers, load balancing, prompting, model selection/fine-tuning, and of course getting the characters to work in Second Life within the parameters we all deal with each day.

For the creators watching this thread and especially to those who make AI characters for advanced, narrative-driven NPCs in roleplay — we are attempting to make a tool that would potentially have a deeper integration than LSL can provide, and are not in the market to directly compete. If you are interested in shaping this product, I highly encourage you to fill out the following form and we'll be in touch: https://forms.gle/6w1X9PuFsAfsjxJk9 (heads up, I will be reviewing these).

In terms of data collection, the term 'harvesting' data came up. We work very closely with Convai and have complete control over the pipeline. To reiterate, data is not being used to train any models, it's not being shared, sold, or used in any other way other than to return a response. If something like confidential computing (where only you hold the keys to the conversation) is important to you, let us know.. That goes for any additional feature that would give the grid peace of mind

The thread was left open, and people continuing to comment, some expressing a little sadness the experiment was over. As of the writing of this article, it was 25 pages long. 

So for now, Linden Lab's AI experiment is on hold. For how long is unknown. 

To check out the forum thread, Click Here. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Updates Terms of Service, Child Avatars Completely Barred From Adult Sims, Now Need "Modesty Layer"

 

Yesterday on Thursday May 2, residents logging in were told they would have to read and sign an updated Terms of Service. At the same time, there was an announcement in the official blog, "Enhancing Our World Together: Important Updates For The Second Life Community."

 

Our priority has always been to maintain a safe and welcoming environment for all while preserving the freedom of expression that makes our virtual world so special. That’s why we’re working to further enhance the safety and protection of the Second Life platform. These efforts include strengthening some of our community and employee policies as well as evaluating improvements to our age verification process. 

One area of ongoing scrutiny both internally and externally concerns child-presenting avatars. We recognize and want to acknowledge the vibrant community of residents who enjoy roleplaying as such, and we also feel that it is crucial to reinforce our stance that sexualized ageplay is strictly prohibited. Today, we are updating our Child Avatar Policy to ensure a clear separation and to safeguard all community members. We know that this update has the potential to cause confusion or concern in our community, so we’ve prepared an FAQ which we will continue to update as questions come up.

 

As before, actions of a sexual nature between adult and child avatars (which includes teens and "tweenagers") is strictly forbidden, and will result in being banned. And as before, child avatars are  barred from places that are a clearly adult nature. Also, content intended for child avatars, and this includes teens and "tweens", cannot be of a suggestive manner. There were two additions that are likely to draw at least a few complaints. One was that child avatars cannot enter any sim rated Adult, even if the area itself has no sexual or violent or anything else clearly adult around. Also, the way child avatars are made has to change. While under the old policy genitals were not allowed, under the new one this isn't enough. Even if nothing "bad" shows, child avatars cannot appear nude at all and now need a "modesty layer" in their skin, "Child avatar content creators are required to add a modesty layer which is baked into child avatar skins or bodies, is not transparent, does not match the skin tone, and may not be removed."

 

The Lab did state, "Merely having a childlike avatar does not violate this policy. It is not our intent to banish childlike avatars in and of themselves." This likely means tiny avatars. 

Later that day, one Relay event would he affected. The Sunbeaver Moon Dance takes place in one of the community sims, and a few years ago, the sim rating had been changed to Adult out of worries that Linden Lab would boot consenting adult avatars from activity done behind closed doors. So when Purple Tears' team captain, Wateru Kohime, showed up, he had to change. 

"So stupid," he would later tell me, "Everyone on an adult sim is supposed to be over 18, who cares what we look like? I could be a dwarf that looks exactly like myself but has a big beard and that's perfectly fine, but shave my face and suddenly I have to go?

"I think the way it was before was perfectly fine. Child avatars are okay on an adult sim as long as nothing 'adult' is going on. That's basically what they want to prevent, so as it stood, the rules already prevented it. Like most rules/laws, it only really affects the people that follow them. The people that want to go and break the rules are still going to go and break the rules."

There is a thread in the official forums about the ToS changes. Reading the first five pages, on the whole, people approved of the changes. One poster would comment, "Think it's Linden Lab just covering their you-know-what.  A lot of people are so sensitive on things nowadays.  As a business owner (a bar) I've noticed how the clientele has changed over the years. I've seen some patrons joking and one threatened a lawsuit on the other.  Old times they would laugh it off.  Same thing here. The Lab has to deal with much more regulation stuff then when Philip started the Lab eons ago." One other person wondered if a few venue owners might start booting out everyone who was short or of a certain body type without checking profiles. A third pointed out because some were tired of reading such a long list of ToS without a clue of what changed and what didn't, the Lab needed to make double certain word was getting around. A fourth worried some might try to abuse the rules, "I can easily see these rules being weaponized by bad actors who have a grudge against, say, anime-style avatars."

What do you the readers think? Please comment below.

Bixyl Shuftan

EOTB: New Senra Starter Avatars Now Availabler

 

When Patch Linden spoke at the SL20B a little more than a month ago, he stated that the first of the new starter avatars that were announced last year were almost ready. On Tuesday August 1, Linden Lab announced that two were ready for use by both newcomers and existing residents, the Senra avatars. 

We're excited to announce the launch of our new Starter Avatars! These avatars, called Senra, are a fresh mesh take on the classic Second Life avatar, with a customizable modern and stylish look. These avatars will give new residents the opportunity to get started with a mesh body and personalize their own unique look the very first time they log in to Second Life and get a taste for the endless possibilities of avatar customization available to SL Residents.

The Senra avatars come with a variety of body shapes, skins, and hair styles. We've also created a whole new wardrobe of clothes that are specifically designed for these avatars. There are more than a billion possible combinations, so you're sure to find the perfect look.  The Senra avatars and clothing have been designed so that any avatar looks great with any clothing. Mix and match to your heart’s content!

We're also pleased to announce that we'll be providing dev kits for creators to make their own clothes for the Senra avatars. That way new and established residents alike will have plenty of ways to express themselves and create amazing new looks for the Senra avatars. 

 

For newcomers, the avatars are now available at the start, as demonstrated by this SL University Youtube video. For existing residents, the avatars are already in inventories (those who have left their avatars inworld for a few days may need to relog), "Search for 'Senra' and you will find the full variety of clothing and bodies." 

 

The Lab invited content creators to make clothing and other items for the avatars on a Fashion thread in the official forums, Patch Linden saying, those interested needed to read a license agreement, technical information, and fill out an application process. But the reaction in the forum thread was mixed. Some were having issues with some details in the license agreement, "This is pretty much (dead on arrival)," and there were opinions that some questions raised about the avatars at the SL20B such as the polygon count were not listened to. Others went to the Lab's defense, "The Senra system seems to be intentionally unlike the current system, which new users find to be extremely confusing and difficult to learn to use. And if they don't have strict rules about it, it will become just another body option, and very unapproachable just like the rest."

How well will the new starter avatars do? Will they get more use by residents, or be just that to most, a start that will soon be replaced after a few days? Time will tell.

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Virtualverse Forums Down

 

 

 Virtualverse, probably the most popular online forums to discuss Second Life other than the official ones run by Linden Lab, is offline. According to Daniel Voyager, it has been down since early February. 

Virtualverse was preceded by the SL Universe forums, which were popular with both factual discussion and "peanut gallery" irreverent chatter. Then in September 2018, a couple months shy of it's 15th anniversary, it's owner Cristiano Midnight began taking it down and created a new forum area: Virtualverse. While perhaps not as active as it's predecessor, it still got plenty of attention, including from Tyche Shepard who would post statistics about Second Life there.

 

Daniel Voyager would state that Cristiano had some health problems that he was recovering from in early January.  It is unknown if these troubles have anything to do with the forums being down or when they will be back up. For now, fans can continue to use the Virtualverse Discord channel (here). 

Source: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

Strawberry Linden's "Famous Landmarks Challenge!"

 

 Strawberry Linden has another challenge in the forums, the "Famous Landmarks Challenge."

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!

Strawberry would show a selfie of herself at the Paris City region:

 

 Others would post their own pictures, including a poo avatar. Most were much more attractive, such as this couple.

 

DeniseUnicorn Toonie, one of the Sunweaver neighbors of the Newser office, would also post one of her own.

 

 For those who want to see the other pictures, or post one of their own, Click Here.

 

New Forum Guidelines Announced By Linden Lab

 

The Second Life Forums can be an informitive and interesting place. You can find information on recent changes, find advice on what mesh head to use, get feedback on a common technical glitch, and more. But there are also topics that while possibly mildly entertaining have nothing to do with Second Life. Taking a look at the General Discussion Forum, there were some such as "What do you think of Mark Zuckerberg?", "Dummest Ads In The World", "What are you watching today?" and others.

It seems there will be no more of these as several days ago, Linden Lab announced there would be some new "Forum Guidelines and Restructuring." In short, they want the residents to limit conversations to those more relevant to Second Life and what's in it. Tommy Linden would post the following:

... Over the years our forums have gone through many changes, and today we have some more to share with you. We’ve been taking a good, long look at our forums structure, guidelines and how our Residents use this space, and have come up with a few changes that we will be putting in place today.

We’ve added some clarity to the sections, and developed guidelines which should enhance everyone's participation. We hope these new guidelines will help provide a more structured forum environment where conversations about Second Life can continue to flourish, and where members old and new alike will feel comfortable and safe in participating.

We’ve also made changes to the forum structure and cleaned up some areas that have gotten a little dusty.  Reorganizing the Land forum will make it easier to find and post about that awesome parcel/region you are selling/buying.  A brand new Roleplay category is now available to post Roleplay groups or regions that are free to join.  

We also wanted to try and help Residents understand what type of topics belong in each category of the forum. You will now find that in the pinned section of each category is a brief post with some basic guidelines for what is, and is not allowed in that section.

We love seeing the discussions about Second Life that take place here on our forum, and we hope that everyone continues to enjoy them as much as we do.

So what kind of changes? In the more active "General Discussion Forum," Tommy Linden would say this:

... In order to ensure that you have an enriching and productive experience interacting with other Residents on the Forums, we want to define what generally belongs here in the General Discussion Forum and what does not.

If you are not familiar with the Community Standards, Community Participation Guidelines and Forum Participation Guidelines in general, please familiarize yourself before posting!

Allowed:
We encourage you to participate by posting anything related to Second Life discussions that don’t quite fit in our other sub-forums. These are just guidelines, so please use your best judgment when posting if it is not explicitly stated here!

Not Allowed:
In addition to adhering to the Community Standards, please refrain from posting content discussing inflammatory content (Politics, Social Justice issues and Interpersonal disputes), Anything that doesn’t relate directly to Second Life/Linden Lab, Generic posts (like “Post a random animal picture!” versus an acceptable “Post your Second Life pets!”), etc. These are just guidelines, so please use your best judgment when posting if it is not explicitly stated here!  

For Educations and Nonprofits, the following was allowed:

...  any discussions among Educational and Non-profit organizations with a presence in Second Life, as well as anything related to discussions about educational and non-profit organizations with a presence in Second Life or how to bring educational and non-profit work into Second Life.

And the following was stated as not allowed:

In addition to adhering to the Community Standards, please refrain from posting content containing School Roleplay, Volunteerism Roleplay, advertisements for organizations outside of Second Life, or advertisements for education/non-profit groups and/or events in Second Life.

Naturally, a thread about these changes soon came about in the forums. There were some who welcomed the changes, "the forum was a uncontrollable sh**Show were people tend to get in fights even over the most minor things or old forum users not answering questions instead they just gave 'helpful' answers like 'you posted this in the wrong section'." But not everyone was in favor, "I simply can't live with such strict rules for general discussion. This is not the way to treat adult members and even call these pages a community. Even in a classroom kids are allowed to go of topic every once in a while." There were also people commenting perhaps people will start posting more on other forums such as Virtualverse.

So will the changes bring a little order to the chaos, or was the chaos a necessary element for all of the active speech. Time will tell.

 

Hat tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

Strawberry's "Then and Now" Challenge

 

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."

For those wanting to take part: Click Here. 

Bixyl Shuftan

From the Forums: Steamcake?

 

In a thread in the Second Life forums discussing Steampunk as the theme of the upcoming SL19B, Fluffy Sharkfin would show this picture, saying, "So far the only theme related thing I've made is the 'steampunk cake'... it's steampunk cos it's gear shaped!"
 

Reader Submitted: Forbiden Topic, or Not?

 

On Sunday, I started a thread, about Putin, and the invasion  of Ukraine. The thread got removed.  So I filed a ticket. Here is the ticket, and the reply.
====================

 On Sunday, I started a thread, and it was closed. I titled the thread "Is Putin insane?' I posted the thread in the general area. There was no trolling in the thread. It was about Putin, and about him calling up nuclear forces.
I see lots of topics that are not about SL. Here are a couple.
What makes you laugh?
What music are you listening to?
Does LL allow topics that are about current events. Like the war going on in Ukraine? I did ask in my post, if there was anybody in the Ukraine, that could still play SL. I know that they do have internet, but I don't know at what speed right now.
It would be great if LL were to  put in a mention, on the SL blog, about the war going on in Ukraine.
One more point. Does LL still collect taxes from players that live in Russia? If so, I suggest that you hold those taxes, until the war is over.
===========
Volo Linden
said 1 day ago
Hello Frankie Antonioni,

Thank you for contacting Second Life, and for your patience. We appreciate you reaching out to seek additional clarification regarding your forum post. While we often allow off-topic posts on the forums, we have the responsibility to ensure that the forums are a welcome place for all of our Residents in Second Life. In our experience, threads of a political matter often escalate in nature, and we made the decision to intervene before it got to that point. As the original post was closed, I would advise against posting another of a similar nature.

In regards to your feedback about a blog and taxes, this isn't something that Support decides, but we appreciate you taking the time to express your concerns. I'll be passing your feedback along to my supervisor as well.

If there's anything further we could do to assist you, please let us know.

Kind Regards,

Volo Linden
Account Specialist
Linden Lab
=======
Yesterday LL made an announcement, regarding Russia invading Ukraine.This was just a few hours after Volo replied to me.

Frankie Antonioni
 

Plans For Older Linden Homes To Be "Phased Out And/Or Repurposed"

 
With all the Linden Homes on the Bellisseria continent, the older ones have barely gotten attention lately. But recently in the thread about the latest Linden Homes, the Newbrooke, someone (Prokofy Neva) asked what was going to happen to the Meadowbrooke and the other older styles of homes. Patch Linden answered most would eventually be closed down.

The old homes will be phased out and/or repurposed.  I've never hidden this fact, what I don't know yet is timing.  There is a balance I have to strike on available new Linden Homes vs the old and having enough supply to meet the demand of shutting down the old homes (also, blend of available themes to choose from).  I have also contemplated keeping some of the old because it tickles my historian bones, some of the various community center or landmark places with the old homes will be preserved.  Largely though, those regions will be shut down when the time is optimal.  

For those unfamiliar, besides the Meadowbrooke "California style modern homes," there are three other themes of early Linden Home  These are the Tahoe "rustic cabin retreats" outdoors homes, the Elderglen fantasy-themed homes, and the Shareta Osumai "traditional Japanese style" houses. These are located in three small continents far away from Bellisseria and the mainlands. They haven't been discontinued as options, and remain open for Premium account residents to get if they choose.

While Patch stated the Lindens plan to eventually close down the older Linden Homes, at least most of them, they won't be starting to do so anytime soon.

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Second Life Homepage Gets A Video

 

Last month, Linden Lab updated their homepage. At the top of the page was an image of a blue elflike female that looked like the blue girl in a "behind the scenes" Youtube in the making of a video for a commercial about Second Life. At the time, the result was much chatter on the Second Life forums about if this was a smart decision of Linden Lab's. A few days ago, the website was updated again. This time, sometimes when going to the Second Life website at www.secondlife.com , a video can be seen. This is no doubt the now-finished video that was being worked on. The completed video showed both real life models (in make up and computer enhanced), and Second Life avatars made to look like them. So in a sense, the actors had become their avatars in the video.

That is, if the video could be seen. Bringing it up didn't always play the video. I had to log off, log back on, log off again, and refresh the screen before I could see it. So not everyone will see it. Some people on the Second Life forums also stated they had trouble seeing it. Of of those who did, the comments about the video were overall positive on the quality, "Now that I seen the whole video instead of just the picture of the person dressed like an elf, it's soo much better." "It looks professional, well made and inviting. It shows that you can dream your world once inside. A good first impression, in my humble opinion. And that's why it is made I guess." There were a few complaints, including that not enough was spoken about what could be done inworld such as creating content and making money as well as making friends.

Isabelle Cheren would take the slightly more than one minute footage, and make it part of a four minute video. The additional time was all various Second Life footage showing various scenes. Several people have seen it and left favorable comments, including Draxtor Despres who stated, "Some fantastic visuals especially at the brush art sim from Fiona!"

Will the Linden Lab video be part of a Youtube commercial, or perhaps a television commercial? Time will tell.

Source: New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Questions Raised About Second Life's Redesigned Homepage

The Second Life website has gotten a new look. Those going to secondlife.com will see the above image (you may need to log off if you're already logged in), an elven girl with bluish skin and glowing blue eyes and hands with a white dress and gold jewelry. "Explore, Discover, Create," it says next to the woman, "A new world is waiting ... "

Going down the page, there was more:

Expect the Unexpected

With thousands of virtual experiences and communities, you'll never run out of places to explore and people to meet. Music clubs, roleplaying communities, virtual cinemas and more. Second Life is always wonderful, sometimes weird, and 100% wow-worthy. 

 Remote Meetings Redefined

Make meetings fun again with virtual hangout spaces, classes and conferences. For over a decade, leading companies and educators have trusted Second Life for branded social spaces for events and remote meetings. 

Imagine the Possibilities

Shop the Second Life Marketplace to discover millions of items including virtual fashions, home decor, and more. Create and monetize your own creations to earn real profits in a virtual economy powered by Tilia.  

There was a thread about the new page in the Second Life forums. The overall tone of those commenting was mixed to negative. It was noted that the top image didn't really look like an avatar, but was likely the blue girl in their "Behind the Scenes" Youtube made in December about doing a commercial in partnership with Levitate Media (1:14). 

There were a few comments about the filming not being cheap, and wondering where the money came from. One woman commented, "I can see it is really a human. I could not believe it. What has it to do with SL? ... I think how much that video had to cost. The studio, models, rigging, light, makeup and costumes. Where the bleep did that money come from? And for what purpose? Making people logging in to get an avatar, that is impossible to get. I feel like I do in RL when it is discovered that some politician has used money we had paid for taxes, and thought it was going to infrastructure, schools and such. Not to give politicians all sort of luxury. How many new regions has people have to buy, only to cover the cost of making that bleep video?"

Another woman reflected her friend worked at a big company, and over the years they'd made marketing campaigns that didn't do much except burn money, and this reminded her of his stories, "The marketing folks come in with 'tweaks' that will 'reap great rewards'. Sometimes there is a new look involved but that is the domain of another long time employee so not many changes there.   So my friend's company does the tweaks --- which costs the company he is working for a lot of money because what seems like a small thing to the Marketing people is often not a small thing at all.  In the end it doesn't work and my friend's company puts thing back (more money gone) and then the next great sales person comes along === and it all repeats."

This week, Linden Lab changed it's fees for buying Linden dollars, making it slightly more expensive to buy larger amounts. Among the reasons stated was "Developing new marketing initiatives and entertainment partnerships to fuel growth." While this is almost certainly not the sole "new marketing initiative," if the comments in the forums are a guide, it's not raising confidence among the residents.

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager  
 
Bixyl Shuftan
  

"Season's Greetings from Linden Lab"

 

 There's been a number of Christmas well-wishes going around. And among them was one on the Second Life forums from Linden Lab, posted by Strawberry Linden.

2020 has been quite the year for everyone, all around the world. We wanted to take a moment to wish you a safe and happy holiday season. I thought I would do another employee campaign, similar to the SL17B campaign that I did back in June. This time I asked different teams to volunteer for a seasonal image. The following are the teams that volunteered, and the last image is (almost) all of us, right after one of our All Hands Meetings!

Besides the group picture above, there's screenshots of the Executive, Tila, Engineering/Ops, Infra/Payme, Concierge, Marketing, and QA teams. There was also a picture of the furry (and feral & tiny) Lindens. 

For pictures of individual Lindens, one can check out Strawberry's "Meet The Employees" thread in June, and the Linden Lab Employees Flickr page.

  Source: Second Life forums

A Second Life Musician Says "Thank You"

 *
The following was posted on the Second Life Forums on Sunday November 29 by a Da5id Weatherwax, titled, "A moment to say 'Thank you.'"

*  *  *  *  *

As my friends across the pond were preparing to celebrate a rather strange Thanksgiving I was doing what I normally do as part of preparation for any week, putting the finishing touches to, and rehearsing, the set list(s) I would be playing in the coming week. It struck me that I had something enormous to be truly thankful for in these troubled times. I haven't picked up a busking pitch or played a RL live gig or session since late February. All the RL venues here closed in early March, all bookings cancelled until further notice. Even when this lovely city, a true hotspot of the arts and performance, was not under the most severe public health restrictions nobody who could be out and about would gather to listen to a busker and the po-po would tell that busker to move smartly along if they did. It's almost impossible to sing through a mask anyway.

Like so many of my colleagues in performance I was instantly unemployed. My usual fallbacks when I wasn't getting bookings as a performer were also gone, because there was no work as a sound or lighting tech either. Hundreds of other performers were in the same position, having to take whatever they could get as a "day job" just to keep the lights on and the fridge full. In the music industry you're used to "living on your wits" somewhat but I know from personal chats with others that even after all this shakes down there will be some who will not be returning to the stage. I'm not talking about the real tragedies, of the voices we will no longer hear because the pandemic has taken them from us, but of the small-venue musicians who can no longer summon up the energy, the fire, to break free of the rat race a second time. They know, from sometimes bitter personal experience, how great a leap into the unknown launching a career in the arts is, how precarious it is and how numbing the fear can become. Deep in their hearts, way too many of us know that we don't have it within us to do that again.

I have something to sustain me that most of them don't. I have YOU.

It is you,the population of SL, who have continued to show up to my sets, continued to appreciate my performances and kept my sense of identity as a musician alive. I'm still putting a set list together every week because I'm bringing it to you and you're showing up to hear it. Even though that soul-crushing day job is blowing massive holes in my schedule, I'm still a performer because of you.

So, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU. You are what I have reason to be thankful for this season.

*  *  *  *  * 

Da5id Weatherwax's post didn't have many responses yet, but perhaps this will soon increase as word gets around.

Source: Second Life Forums 

High Fidelity Fading Away

When the Newser last wrote about High Fidelity in July, the company was in trouble, having laid of a quarter of it's staff and made other cutbacks. But these moves failed to turn things around and the situation has continued to go downhill. Today, while High Fidelity isn't dead yet, it certainly seems close.

Earlier this month, Philip Rosedale, the co-founder of the company, had an announcement titled "Updates and a New Beginning," which had some bad news for fans of the virtual world platform. Among the things announced, High Fidelity was going to "turn over control of the codebase to the community. As of January 15, 2020, we’re going to make High Fidelity’s Github repository private. We want to give community leaders time to create their own repositories and systems as desired."

There were more layoffs announced, "we will reduce our team size in half effective today."

All High Fidelity applications are being removed from online stores and no further accounts are being created, "we’ll also be withdrawing our apps on the Steam Store, Oculus Store and our Virtual You: 3D Avatar Creator app from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Since there are no High Fidelity supported environments, we’re not offering registration for new accounts which these enable."

Taking a look at a "User FAQ" page on the forum, High Fidelity's Marketplace is closing, and there will soon be no more cashout's of the virtual currency, "The Marketplace will close. The public Marketplace pages will be removed, you will not be able to purchase new items, you will not be able to add new items available for sale, and you will not be able to edit existing items’ details. We will also no longer offer cash-out of HFC after January 15, 2020."

Philip Linden felt that the reason for High Fidelity's failure to succeed was that virtual reality had yet to take off due to technical limitations that had yet to be solved, "four fundamental advances in hardware need to happen before HMDs replace mobile and desktop general-computing use. Until VR headsets don’t feel like, as The New Yorker’s Patricia Marx puts it, “a gerbil’s casket [has] been plastered onto the upper half of my face,” compelling social virtual worlds won’t gain traction. So where does that leave High Fidelity?"

Philip's parting words to High Fidelity's users were, "Your passion and dedication to the possibilities of VR and virtual worlds is inspiring. We’re grateful for your support over the years and hope you’ll try out our new product once launched." But the reaction by some users was quite negative. In the forums, one thread was, "Never Forgive, Never Forget," the poster remarking, "I call on the community to never forget the actions of High Fidelity corporate. How they have treated their users and how they have treated their employees. If or when High Fidelity comes out with their next project or a updated version of this project. We should remind High Fidelity of their past and educate their perspectives users of their past. Philip we do not forget. We do not forgive." But not everyone was so critical, DrFran saying, "I don’t know about you, but when people constantly criticize, belittle, and second guess everything you do, you tend to distance yourself from therm. I think HiFi realized the toxicity of the user base, and had to decamp. I don’t blame them for their actions. Their ball; their game."

Ryan Schultz commented of the announcement, "High Fidelity will soon be a dead platform, the first major victim of the social VR wars (but probably not the last). R.I.P." Hamlet Au's assessment was more optimistic, "High Fidelity's underlying code can still be developed by the community under an open source license. ... This seems to open up the possibility of the High Fidelity virtual world becoming the basis for... OpenSim 2." One of High Fidelity's users, Theanie, had his comments, "I ... am not in a state of mourning. The High Fidelity code is thankfully open source, and that means the platform will never really 'die.' There are already multiple forked projects in the works that could prove to be viable successors to the now-defunct platform. However, before we can move on toward that bright virtual future that awaits us, it’s critical to spend time on reflection. As the old saying goes, “Those that don’t learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.” We need to analyze the mistakes that were made, so as to prevent them from happening again."

In any event, the sun is setting for what was the next virtual world made by the man whom led the building of Second Life.

Bixyl Shuftan

High Fidelity in Trouble

With so much going on in Second Life, it's easy to miss what's going on with other virtual worlds. But there have been reports that one particular one that a number of residents have heard of has been having serious troubles: High Fidelity.

For those of you not familiar with the virtual world, after Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab, left the company, he went on to found High Fidelity in 2013. Despite having raised over seventy million from investors, it hasn't been doing well. In a community meeting in early April, Rosedale had some bad news. All company owned domains in the virtual world would be shut down, except for the orientation room for new users, and instead of focusing on VR headset experiences they would be concentrating on those from desktop computers. The reason for the latter was slow VR equipment sales. Hamlet Au remarked, "I can't emphasize enough how huge a blow this is to social VR and consumer-facing VR in general." In May came another announcement, a quarter of the workers would be laid off. The company would also be changing it's direction more to businesses.

As part of the changes in April, the General Assembly meetings were replayed with monthly Developers Discussion. When blogger Ryan Schultz looked at the video for the June discussion, he noticed a significant drop in attendance compared to the April meeting. "what happened to all the people who were active supporters of High Fidelity and who used to come out to meetings?" he asked. He then noticed on the forums some longtime members had their "trusted member" status downgraded to standard, which did not sit well with some, "Wow, after being here for 5+ years, I guess I never was trusted at all." Schultz's reaction was, "Is it just me, or is there a general overall sense of HiFi turning off the lights, shutting down various systems, and in general just downgrading services to their loyal userbase?"

If those weren't enough signs of trouble, in late May High Fidelity began offering it's office in San Francisco up for rent. All of this point to signs that of a company, and virtual world, in jeopardy. The name of Schults's blog post "Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" might have been a pessimistic assessment, but hardly unjustified. Despite Philip Rosedale's success with Linden Lab and Second Life, he's been unable to recreate it with his new company and virtual world, leading one to comment, "Second Life must have been a strange anomaly, that neither its founders nor the current Linden Lab appear able to replicate."

Sources: Wikipedia, New World Notes, Ryan Schultz, Crunchbase

Bixyl Shuftan