Before The Newser ...

 

Before the SL Newser, there was the SL Newspaper.

As we look back to our beginning today, we also look back at where for some of the crew the story truly began. Bixyl Shuftan (myself) and Gemma Cleanslate got our start in JamesT Juno and Dana Vanmoer's Second Life Newspaper. From it's humble start as a blog in 2006, as the months went by it changed into more of a newsletter, and a year later was Second Life's top source of information with a team of reporters. But nothing lasts forever, particularly in virtual reality, and forces beyond the owners' control in real life would force it's closing in June 5, 2010.

For over three years, the Main Page remained up for those interested in reading it. Then in January 2014, it was taken down. While some of the articles can still be accessed through the Internat Archives, it can be difficult. A few stories from it were reposted, notably around May and June 2005 for our fifth anniversary. But the real effort was our SL Newspaper Archives section. It's slow work, so it's a long-term effort. 

We won't be able to post everything as sadly, the other sections are gone, and so are some of the main page articles. But we can do some of them. Recently a little of the humble first few days were reposted, as well as the "Australian Ban" scare, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the goodbye posts of Gemma, myself, and Dana.

While we look to the future, we also remember the past, and take care of things in the present.
 
Bixyl Shuftan
 

Update on LEA 2.0

It's been a few weeks since the Linden Endowment for the Arts's committee made the decision to close it down. Not long after, Tansee Resident and Riannah Avora began an effort to save it. Marcel Mosswood recently went back to them to ask about developments since her first interview. As it turned out, there are several, including Linden Lab responding to their email.

Read Marcel's story in Design.

LEA 2.0 - An Effort To Save The LEA

Last week, it was announced that the Linden Endowment for the Arts, or LEA, would be closing at the end of August. Since then, a number of people have expressed sadness and hops that somehow it can be avoided. Tansee Resident and Riannah Avora did more than just talk. They started a movement to try to keep the LEA in existence: LEA 2.0 The New Future. Marcel Mosswood met up with them, and talked to them about the group and what they hope to accomplish.

Read Marcel's interview in Design.

Crowdfunder To Save Hangars Liquides Sims

In a further development on the continuing story about the Hangars Liquides cyberpunk-themed sims in danger of closing at the end of the month, it was announced in the group that a crowdfunder to save them had been launched on indiegogo.com.

We have just launched our crowndfunding campaign to save the city.

You can donate anything you feel like, keep in mind the 100 EUR perk is like the regular rentals yearly.

Djehan Kidd is offering two perks for people do donate. For a donation of $112 USD, you'll get an apartment in Hangars for a year. For a donation of $1122, you get one of four platinum rooftop lofts.

As of the writing of this article, $1257 of the $6735 goal had been raised.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Bixyl Shuftan

Addition: As of 1PM SL time, the amount donated is $1572 USD.

Gofundme To Save InWorldz

Yesterday on July 23, Beth Reisch, the owner of the InWorldz grid, announced that the virtual world was facing being shut down on Friday. But she also launched a Gofundme to try and save the place.

As many of you know, I posted this morning about current state of affairs in InWorldz. We have decided NOT to go down without a fight! But to do so, we need your support! I refunded most payments this morning via PayPal (there are still some needing refunding), and we will apply your donations to your region tier. We need $17k to get bank balance back to normal (because we paid off LoanBuilders one payment and Chase let it go through putting us in negative) and pay the servers for another month.  

I will be honest, Cashouts will be put off until we get everything organized, but all older cashouts will be held to be first paid off as things stabilize.

I know InWorldz is a home to so many of you, and I was willing to close the doors on that as I had not seen any way out of the impending doom. However, if you can donate, we can get the servers going and we'll get a new payment system in place that is not PayPal, but still allow all of our Domestic and European customers pay! I hope I can count on you and so do your neighbors! We will apply donations that match billing records as needed, just let us know which region and we'll update accordingly. Remember, if we don't hit our goal, you lose nothing! Let's hit it peeps!

As of the writing of this article, the total raised has gone up to $8290, slightly less than half of what's needed.

https://www.gofundme.com/inworldz-in-trouble

Update: As of 11AM PSD, $13,898 has been raised

Commentary: Second Life Could Use A Historical Preservation Process

It's been spoken that change is the only constant. In real-life people make the news and either die or fade away into obscurity, land gets built-on and the buildings are either bulldozed and replaced or rust away. Well, it's not always the case with the latter. Occasionally a battlefield or a building deemed of historic value may be preserved by law as a public resource.

In Second Life, most places quietly go up, exist for a short time, and fade away without much attention. But some become well-known and popular. While popularity can sometimes help a location stay afloat, such as donations or sales if the place has some means of making money, it does not always help. Sim owners finances can sour, or their real lives can otherwise get in the way. And so people are saddened as a favorite spot of theirs closes down, sometimes after having been up for years.

Over time, a number of well-designed places have faded away. Many of these are memorials, such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,  the dAlliez Land Headquarters September 11 Memorial, and the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Others are reproductions of real life historic areas such as the picturesque Mont Saint Michel, the cleverly-built "Crooked House" (which was up as late as July 2012 but does not appear in recent searches), Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and others. Sometimes a favorite location is saved, such as the International Space Museum. There has been one case of a vanished place being brought back: The Lost Gardens of Apollo. But so many times an owner looking for help to maintain his/her location cannot find it.

Only twice has Linden Lab stepped forward to save a location. The first time was with Svarga, an artificial working ecosystem that was considered one of the virtual world's seven wonders. The more recent time was with the SS Galaxy, which announced it's closing following a blunder by Linden Lab, but the Lab would soon step in to preserve it.

But will this be it? Will these be the only two places that Linden Lab will intervene to save?

One thing Linden Lab could do is start a process of preserving the most noted sims. Perhaps every year or every six months, it could ask the residents on it's blog "Which area should be preserved?" There could also be an option for residents to write-in a location to be brought back (or perhaps rebuilt by volunteers) should no noteable location popular with the residents. Depending on how Linden Lab stores sim data, this could take some time.

Could there be another kind of process? Possibly, though without listening to the public it would be a tricky business. One complication for any process is for places like Insilico and Steelhead, part of what made them great was the people. Having them around as preserved museum pieces would be of mixed news to their fans as they would no longer be "alive" as active roleplay and community areas.

But in any event, Second Life could use a way that allows some sims that help make Second Life great from fading away when their owners are no longer able to keep them up.

Bixyl Shuftan

Saving Prims

Becky "Sha" Shamen took a break from her exploring to reflect on an issue familiar to any of us whom have a home, office, or any other kind of space in Second Life: the prim count. Over time, she found ways to personalize her space better by looking for low-prim furniture, which doesn't always have to be expensive, and can sometimes be found for free.

Read Becky's article in Design.

Video: "Save City of Heroes"

The effort by it's fans to save the City of Heroes MMO continues, one of whom made this video. More information can be read at http://www.savecoh.com/.

Arcadia Asylum Library

Earlier this summer, Gemma Cleanslate wrote about the Library of Arcadia. Recently, she heard that the library was due to be closed, but the contents were being set up at new locations. On a tip, she went to one place to have a look for herself to see how Arcadia's works were doing.

Read more in Design.