HV Community Roads Removed Due To Remodeling

 

Among the latest developments in the Sunweaver lands following the passing of it's leader Rita Mariner, there's been a change at HV Community. At the one sim in the land that's not in any danger (while Purfecction is owned by one resident, it hasn't usually been counted as Sunny land), the roads and rail track have been removed. This includes the length in front of the Newser office. 

 Cynthia Farshore, whom had laid down the roads and track, told me due to people moving to HV Community because of the uncertainty of the future of the sims, the roads had been removed so Nydia Tungsten and Ranchan Weidman can remodel and move things around as needed. 

 

Stay tuned for further updates.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

News and Commentary: Sansar Newsblog on Hiatus After Dispute With Linden Lab

By Bixyl Shuftan

If Linden Lab has a theme song these days, it might be "Oops, I did it again."

In December, Linden Lab found itself in a public relations flap when Strawberry Singh was asked by them to remove or edit a video with Second Life's eye-in-hand logo. When the Lab later apologized and annouced their trademark policies would be revised to allow others to promote the virtual world, all seemed well. But recently there was a dispute involving a blog of Linden Lab's other virtual world: Sansar.

On January 8, Ryan Schultz posted in the Sansar Newsblog about the "Aech's Garage" location, a build of a place in the upcoming Steven Spielberg Movie "Ready Player One." Shortly afterwards, he was contacted by Linden Lab, and he was asked to take the pictures in the article down and apparently there was a problem with the blog's use of the word "exclusive." "Apparently, someone at one of the many companies mentioned in that blogpost is upset," he would later post in the comments of Inara Pey's article on the location, telling her, "you’d better be prepared for a request from Linden Lab to take down the pictures you posted to this blogpost." Besides Sansar Studios, the companies involved were Intel, HTC Vive, and Warner Brothers.

After some talks with more in Linden Lab, Schultz was able to repost the images without fear of trouble. But he was asked to take down the word "exclusive." And there seems to be some problem with the name "Sansar Newsblog." "I have asked Linden Lab for clear, yes-or-no answers," Schultz stated about the issue of the pictures and the name of his blog, and had only gotten one for the former. As a result, he is putting his blog on hold.

I don’t want to lose that tight focus on Sansar, on which I have worked so long and hard on with the Sansar Newsblog these past five months. ... I may not be a Warner-Brothers-size company, but my blog is important to me and, if I can believe the comments I have received in support, important to many others as well. Until I get clear, authoritative yes-or-no answers to BOTH of my two questions (Can I repost the pictures I took from Aech’s Garage? Can I keep the name Sansar Newsblog?), I’m not going to bother spending my time and money blogging for Sansar. Linden Lab can go find some other blogger to cover and promote their platform.

Right now, I have only a verbal okay from Ebbe Altberg at an in-world meetup months ago that the name Sansar Newsblog is acceptable to Linden Lab, but after this recent incident, now I want more. I want a clear “Yes” or “No” from someone official at Linden Lab that the company is not going to ask me to rename my blog.

Until I get clear “Yes” or “No” answers to BOTH these two questions, from someone at Linden Lab who is authorized to speak on behalf of the company, the Sansar Newsblog will remain on hiatus.

Schultz stated if he was told to change the name of his blog, he would stop his focus of Sansar and give more coverage to High Fidelity, VRChat, "and the other new VR-capable virtual worlds ... and the other new blockchain-based virtual worlds that are suddenly springing up."

He would later update his post. saying he had gotten an apology from Ebbe Altberg, Linden Lab's CEO. "I do still have a lot of love and respect for Linden Lab. ...  However, I will wait for Linden Lab to issue new brand guidelines for Sansar before I start blogging again. I am really tired, and I need to take a break. ... perhaps two or three weeks at most. The blog will be back, either as the Sansar Newsblog, or under a new name with a new focus."

The incident has been starting to get attention from other blogs and newsletters. Nalates Urriah was reminded of the trouble with Strawberry Singh last month, " ... it looks like the Sansar team is going to have to go through the same learning curve. But, I had hopped the SL experience of the Linden support people, like accounting, legal, marketing…, would carry over. I suppose not, now that I see this second ‘take down’ call." Isabelle Cheren would write about it as well, "Be thoughtful to people who visit. Sansar needs the promotion and here you go and upset a person who promotes it daily, often a number of times a day?" Inara Pey, when asking the Sansar community team for answers, was told, "users are not discouraged from posting screenshots from any experience that is open to the public as long as there is no claim to exclusivity, early access, or other potentially misleading statements or claims that are untrue or could be construed as an official statement from Linden Lab or Sansar."

After Sansar was officially opened, it had gotten a lukewarm reception from most. I had gotten a number of comments asking for the Newser to focus on other subjects, notably when the Second Life Friends Facebook group told me any links to Sansar-related posts would be removed. With the Sansar Newsblog on hold, the next-generation virtual world is without a blog that promotes it with singular focus. It would seem once again, Linden Lab's heavy hand has backfired.

Sources: Sansar Newsblog, Modem World, Natle's Things, Isabelle Cheren  

Image Credit: Isabelle Cheren, Ryan Schultz

Bixyl Shuftan

Bryn Oh's "Virginia Alone" to Close

In her blog, Second Life artist Bryn Oh announced her popular exhibition "Virginia Alone" would soon be closing. She is working on a new exhibit, and In order to finish and build it on her Immersiva sim she has to make room available. So to make room for the new, the older "Virginia" house will be removed.

I am working on a new build called Imogen and the Pigeons which requires me to delete Virginia Alone as I have just about run out of prims. I am going to leave it up until December 1st. Time flies and I still have a few more projects I would like to accomplish on Immersiva. ...  I would like to thank everyone who sent kind messages to Virgina through me. When I went to visit her she was really touched that people from around the world, whom she didn't know, would send her good wishes.



"Virginia Alone" was made in June, and since then has gotten rave reviews from the critics, and thousands of visits from residents. The exhibit is about a lone, blind, elderly lady in her house dealing with bouts of schizophrenia, knowing something's wrong with her but not exactly what. Health advocates have talked about the exhibition as well as art critics, saying it's helped remind residents of mental illness.

The exhibit is scheduled to close on December 1st. Until then, one can see it at Immersiva (21, 127, 21).

Source: Bryn Oh

Megaprims Accidentaly Removed by Linden Lab, Lab Says Problem Solved

Last night, I was contacted by Jasmine Dawn, whom pointed out to me a thread in the SL Universe Forums. It stated Linden Labs had “blacklisted” someone and their actions in dealing with him had the side effect of removing megaprims with his name on them. There was a link to a JIRA filed about the problem, which had been written down:


Just a few moments ago most megaprims contained in the SALT collection were blacklisted. These megaprims are part of a collection used by most creators across the grid. Any items created with these prims are no longer rezzable. This includes components of a product I work on as well as possibly thousands others. It is not even possible to remove these prims from builds as the items containing them are not rezzable.


This was a potentially big mess, as a numble of builds I knew made use of megaprims such as Tuna Oddfellow’s Odd Ball and Club Zero Gravity. but stopping by the club, it was intact, and Tuna Oddfellow held an impromptu event that night without trouble. I never heard from any of my friends having a build taken down that night.

A couple posters on the SLU Forum thread checked and found of about a dozen makers of megaprims, it was one whose creations were blocked. Looking further, a couple posters mentioned having items taken down, and another those of his customers.

Later on, there was a Grid Status Report about the issue. Apparently, Linden Lab had fixed the problem, and while the affected megaprims weren’t back up, theye were no longer blocked, so those whom had them returned to inventory could rebuild. Those whose builds had disappeared were asked to contact Linden Lab, with a shortcut for Premium members.


[POSTED 10:35AM PDT, 20 October 2011] Due to a change we recently made to address a griefing problem, some megaprims were removed from the grid, which has affected users’ creations containing these megaprims. The issue has been resolved, and the megaprim objects can be re-rezzed from your inventories at this time. If you do not have a copy of the affected build, please go to your support portal immediately and file a case. If you are Premium member or above, you can use these case types: “Technical Questions” > “Objects (Rezzed) Issues. If you have a free membership and your group owned land was affected, please use “Land & Region” > Report an Offline Region”. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and are reviewing our processes to try to avoid repeating this situation in the future.


There was also a post in the official forums, though with no new information.

So hopefully the mess is resolved. But this on top of the mass of sim restarts earlier this week, one wonders what next?

Sources: SL Universe Forums, Grid Status Report

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Labs Acts Against RedZone

On March 2, Linden Lab moved against the controversial RedZone device. It was removed from Second Life Marketplace, as well as the in-world vendor, and stated it was in violation of their Terms of Service.

Soft Linden made the following post on the JIRA directed at RedZone:

Hey, all. I got the go-ahead to give an update on zF Red Zone specifically. Again, thank you for the ARs with specific info about violations. These have been very helpful for letting Lindens know what's going on.

Tuesday morning, we removed zF Red Zone from the Marketplace for a second time. We removed the in-world vendor distributing the item as well. We determined that zF Red Zone was still in violation of our Terms of Service and Community Standards.

We asked for removal by no later than today of all zF Red Zone functionality that discloses any alternate account names. That is, even if consent is asked, the service may not act on the consent. In addition, we asked for removal by no later than Friday of the interface for and any remaining implementation of the zF Red Zone consent mechanism because it does not comply with our policies. If these updates are not made, we will take appropriate steps to remedy the violations.

As before, we appreciate your help in keeping an eye on content. If you find that any merchant's product is not in compliance with our TOS or our Community Standards, please file an abuse report about the product. Do this even if you filed against a previous version. Include a specific explanation of what you believe is a violation, and ideally select and report the in-world object at issue in case it behaves differently than what's in the Marketplace. Before reporting, make sure you have first-hand knowledge of the issue. Support can best react if you explain specific steps to reproduce or confirm a violation.


The creator of RedZone, zFire Xue, naturally did not take the news very well, as evidenced by his response to a poster about Soft Linden’s statement on the RedZone forums:

Soft Linden did not say ‘zRZ contains malicious intent.’ It does prove that LL is easily manipulated by a flood of ARs. Consent is not allowed? Even if Alt names are not shown? So first alt names are forbidden without consent. Now consent is also forbidden? That's Linden Labs for you, the people who play politics rather then blocking copybot viewers or dealing with actual abuse ARs. All it takes is a flood of ARs now. Good times. (wink)

Tateru Nino stated on her blog that the inworld vendor was soon replaced, only to be taken down by Linden Labs again. She stated that Soft explained “specific conditions have been relayed to the creator that must be met before it can be reinstated. What those conditions consist of is not public at this time, to the best of my knowledge.”

Hamlet Au pointed out another statement from Soft Linden, stating that the Disclosure Section of the Community Standards page was updated, more clearly stating alts were not open to disclosure, “The key passage from the Community Standards now reads: ‘Sharing personal information about your fellow Residents without their consent -- including... alternate account names... is not allowed.’ "

This is probably not the end of the RedZone controversy. There was a picture on the JIRA of a blog post made by ZFire, saying if he was ever banned from Second Life, he would “privatize” RedZone by making it run outside the Grid, providing scripts for people, and accepting Paypal payments. But checking the RedZone forum, it was gone.

The RedZone units already bought and the RedZone service of sharing the blacklist of suspected copybot using accounts are still out there.

Sources, Dwell on It, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan