Cartoon of the Day

Taken at the Happy Vixen. Looks like CC found a way to make her bunny avatar really big. Which might make some in fox avatars feel a little uneasy.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Private Region Numbers Grows For Second Week In A Row

It's been about two weeks since Linden Lab put into effect their reduction in what they charge for land tiers (for non-grandfathered sims), while raising the fee to buy Linden dollars. While the Lab gave no clear reason for their move beyond "to keep Second Life a vibrant world," it's strongly believed the reason for this move was to stop the overall long slow decline in the number of sims. A recent report by Tyche Shepard, who keeps track of new sims and sim numbers in Second Life showed something promising. Total numbers of private estates show growth for two weeks in a row, 35 the past week and 34 the one before for a total growth of 69 sims.


We are now two weeks into the new pricing regime for Private Estates and this is now the 2nd week of positive growth of the grid
Net Growth stands at 35 regions this week (last week was 34) All this week's net growth was among private Estates .
Overall , taking into account last weeks closure of the 24 Temporary SL15B regions , Net Change in Private Estates since the new prices stands at 94 New or Returned Regions

I've no record of Region type at the moment, and therefore no estimate of overall change in revenue for the Lab, but the initial change in demand doesn't seem enough to increase overall revenue at this stage.

Two weeks is obviously too short a time to declare the slump over, but it does raise hopes that the long slow decline, from over 25,000 in June 2010 to just over 16,000 now, might, just might, be over. We'll need at least another two weeks or so before we can say so.

Source: SL Universe 

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager.

Bixyl Shuftan

EOTB: Linden Lab Makes JIRA Reports Readable to All Again

It was about eighteen months ago that Linden Lab made an unpopular move with its JIRA reports page, "Although some categories had been closed to public viewing, such as security issues, most were accessible to the public for residents to read to see if a reported bug was the same as the problem they were having." As of Sept 6 2012, this came to an end, " In the summary of changes, it was stated 'Second Life users will only see their own reported issues.' No longer can residents read and compare."

On Friday February 28, Linden Lab announced on their blog that there would be some changes. The Lab admitted the JIRA wasn't as good as it could be.

Recently, this system was working in a way that wasn’t very transparent, and it frankly wasn’t a good experience for the users who care enough about Second Life to try to help improve it, nor was it the best set-up for the Lindens tasked with addressing these issues. So you can see why we’re happy to be changing it!

 The changes the Lab is offering are:

"All users will be able to see all BUG issues, all the time."

"You'll also be able to comment."

"Lastly, 'New Feature Request' is back!"

A thread started in the forums about the JIRA changes. The results were mostly positive, "Thanks Ebbe." "OK - I'm officially impressed!" Some however were less than enthusiastic, "It's great to have it back, though it'd be better if it didn't get hidden again after triage.  Additional comments with updated incidents with further info could help narrow down the issue, or reveal other potential causes." Still, everyone agreed this was a step in the right direction.

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