Announcement: Black Friday Sale at Furry Fashion

Nov 24th - Nov 27th
FF Main Store 50% off!
Vendors owned by Amethyst, Skyler, Alexiel and Becky D!
Gachas & Giftcards included!
I hear Project Mayhem is having a Sale too! ;)
Furry (175,207,28)

Eye On the Blog: Winter Wonderland Open, "Go Premium For Less"

Xiola Linden made a couple announcements on the official Second Life blog a few days ago. She stated that Linden Lab's "Winter Wonderland" area was once again open.

Winter Wonderland is once again alive with the sights and sounds of holiday delights and snowball fights! To get there, stop by one of the portal parks, follow the trail to the Winter Wonderland teleport portal, and tumble into an enchanted land of breathtaking beauty.

 At the Winter Wonderland area one can find a winter snow track, an ice skate arena, a ferris wheel, an ice shack with presents for Premium members, and the snowball arena, where later today at Noon SL time, the "Snowball Showdown," previously called the Linden Snowball Fight will be taking place following the "Holiday Crawl."

One can access the Winter Wonderland at Portal Park 1 (175/118/52).

Also, Linden Lab was offering a 50 percent discount for residents upgrading their account to Premium, but only for the first quarter year. New Premium accounts would get a 1000 Linden dollar bonus, along with being able to join more groups, access to Premium-only sandboxes, and a "Premium Badge" that allowed them access to more at the Winter Wonderland area.

If you’re not a Premium member yet, now happens to be a great time to upgrade - for a limited time only, save 50% on your first quarter’s payment for a Premium Second Life Membership subscription.*  As a Premium member, you’ll enjoy rewards like exclusive gifts, access to special Premium Sandboxes, a L$1000 sign-up bonus, more group slots, and weekly L$ rewards to spend on the things that make your time in Second Life most enjoyable. Land is better than ever for Premium members and also includes your own inworld home (which just got a 49% prim upgrade), and access to acquire Mainland Regions which were recently upgraded to higher Land Impact limits

For the full details, including the terns and conditions of the 50 percent off discount, check the post in full here.

Linden Lab Offering Half-Off on Premium Account Upgrades, With a Catch

Just after Linden Lab brought back the return of it's 50% off for educational and nonprofit sims, they're offering another discount as well. The Lab is offering a 50% reduction in the price for upgrading a free basic account to a paying Premium one. There are announcements on the Second Life website, and according to Daniel Voyager through emails.

However, there's a catch. First, the discount is only available "for a limited time." Also, it's limited to those choosing the quarterly billing plan. And the discount only takes place for the first quarter you signed up for. On your second quarter under premium, you would be charged $22.50 US dollars instead of $11.25.

Hamlet Au thought this was a sign of Linden Lab taking the initiative on attracting more revenue. Others felt differently. One posted in the official forums the discount was misleading. Hamlet Au's article had a few commentators who felt the Premium account itself was misleading in that it's benefits were few.

There is no word on how long the discount will last.

Sources: Daniel Voyager, New World Notes, Second Life forums, 

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Brings Back Educational & Nonprofits Discount

Yesterday on July 24, Linden Lab announced on it's blog "an update to Second Life pricing for educational and nonprofit institutions." To educational institutions and nonprofit charities that qualify, the Lab is offering a 50% discount to setting up private sims and maintaining them.


Effective immediately, any accredited educational institution or any organization with a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit tax status (or equivalent) is eligible for a 50% discount on private region set-up costs and a 50% discount on private region maintenance costs.

Longtime users will remember the half-off price and tier was standard operating procedure with education and nonprofit groups in Second Life until October 2010, in which it was announced they would be paying full price in January 1, 2011. After that, a number of sims owned by such groups shut down, such as ISTE Island. Hamlet Au put the number of closings at "hundreds if not thousands." In Spring of this year, Linden Lab began quietly offering "a select number of nonprofit and educational" groups that let sims go the return of the discount if they returned. Now, the discount is back for all.

The response seems to be a varied one. At the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference, which opened that day, those I overheard talking about the announcement were pleased, considering the announcement timed with their conference. Daniel Voyager considered this development great news. Hamlet Au, not so much. He felt in the years since the discount's end, education and nonprofit groups have moved on to other places online that are much less expensive. Readers commenting to Hamlet's article had mixed opinions. Some called it good news, or at least a step in the right direction. Others felt Linden Lab's move had ruined the trust education and nonprofit groups once had in them, "it's not just about price, it's about trust and stability," and saw the move was too little too late on bringing back the groups which had left the Grid. In the SL Universe Forum thread on the topic, some posters wondered if the abuses of a few had helped contribute to the discount's end.

But for education and nonprofits that remained in Second Life, such as Virtual Ability and the Relay for Life, this move is good news and will help ensure they stay.

Sources: Linden Blog, Daniel Voyager, New World Notes, SL Universe Forums  

Bixyl Shuftan