Cartoon of The Day: Possessed Game Board

 

 

 Skipee is a Second Life game similar to Uno, though a bit different. In this match, the three piles of cards all turned up with a six on top at one point. For those who don't know, 666 is supposed to be the Devil's number. It would seem the devil is in the details. 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

Sunweaver Community Goings-On

 
By Bixyl Shuftan

There's been some things going on in the Sunweaver community. With the Relay season having started, much of it is about Team Sunbeamers. This includes the team making Platinum rank on day one, the  "Bid Me Panda" and "Bid Me Purple" events,  and the Moon Dance (more on that later). But there's more going on. 

Not long ago, the community's main club, Club Cutlass, had a night in which the double contest had seven winners instead of just two. On Wednesday February 24, it happened again. 

[19:45] Jenni Greenfield: VOTING IS NOW OVER. TIME FOR TONIGHTS 'B' WINNERS. GL ALL!.
[19:45] [KittyKode] ContestBoard shouts: Perri Prinz won L$83!
[19:45] [KittyKode] ContestBoard shouts: LiskaBystrouska Resident won L$83!
[19:45] [KittyKode] ContestBoard shouts: Dusk Griswold won L$83!
[19:45] [KittyKode] ContestBoard shouts: Contest is over! Congrats to the following winners: Perri Prinz, LiskaBystrouska Resident, Dusk Griswold
[19:45] [KittyKode] ContestBoard shouts: Spooked Dreamscape won L$83!
[19:45] [KittyKode] ContestBoard shouts: RECoyote Mindes won L$83!
[19:45] [KittyKode] ContestBoard shouts: Zorro Wuramunga won L$83!
[19:45] [KittyKode] ContestBoard shouts: Contest is over! Congrats to the following winners: Spooked Dreamscape, RECoyote Mindes, Zorro Wuramunga
[19:45] Crystal Sabre (CrystalAmber69 Resident): Congrats !!
[19:45] Kylee Gracemount: Congratulations !
[19:45] Zorro Wuramunga: 6!
[19:45] òᴥó Mr.Fox da'Alenfey òᴥó (Spooked Dreamscape): :o
[19:45] òᴥó Mr.Fox da'Alenfey òᴥó (Spooked Dreamscape): Thanks
[19:46] Jenni Greenfield: CONGRATS TO....... ALL OF OUR WINNERS!
[19:46] LiskaBystrouska Resident: Two three-ways
[19:46] Rita Mariner: wow 3 way on males and females

So for both the men's and women's boards, it was a double triple-play that night, or a six-way depending how you look at it, and another contest for the books.

At Sunweaver Space, Snowbuns (Skylark Lefavre) was up to a bit of funnery when she rezzed a huge fedora on a friend's house, knowing it would soon be seen. She then took it down, but the friend liked it and wanted it back. So Snowy placed it where it was.

Guess one could call it "Hats off to a house, or maybe not."

A little of the good-natured funnery that goes on around the community.

Bixyl Shuftan

Six Years Ago ...

It's been six years today, June 6 2010, in which the Second Life Newser came to be. For The previous two and a half, there was the Second Life Newspaper owned by JamesT Juno and Dana Vanmoer. For a while, it did well, covering the news of the people, places, and events across Second Life. But when James and Dana had to go offline indefinately, they made the decision to close down their paper. So four of their writers, Gemma Cleanslate, Grey Lupindo, Shelie Sands, and myself, Bixyl Shuftan, formed a new paper: the Second Life Newser.

We weren't sure what to expect. For myself, going from one of the writers to Editor was a big step. And while the readers were familiar with our articles, it was James and Dana's direction they had come to trust. But from the begining, we had support. The Sunweaver community gave us a home at Sunweaver Air where a friend build us an office and let us stay there rent free. Soon offers for advertisements and a sponsorship from the Podex Exchange. And we soon had new talent joining our staff.

There was certainly no shortage of events to cover. A week after we were under our new name, Linden Lab laid off a third of their staff and soon afterwards their CEO resigned, soon replaced with Second Life's founder as an interim. Then came "Emeraldgate," the scandal that hit the most popular third party viewer at the time when some in the staff launched an attack on a critic's website using computers with their viewer. As time went on, we would report on the decision to merge the Teen Grid with the main one, the "RedZone" alt detector controversy, the emergence of the pony avatar and community, and others. Besides the breaking news, there were plenty of sims to write about, as well as plenty of people from noted personalities to people whom hadn't attracted little to no attention before. After a year, it was obvious we would be around for a while.

So far, that while has been six years and counting.

We've continued to cover major news events, from the development of mesh, to Linden Lab distancing itself from the residents and then slowly coming back. legal troubles such as Ozanimals versus Amaretto and the owners of Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek filing suits against their respective roleplay communities here, The Content Creator and Terms of Service controversies, Linden Lab creating a number of other products besides virtual worlds only to sell or discontinue most of them, Linden Lab installing Rod Humble and then Ebbe Altberg as CEOs of the company, the discontinuing of third-party Linden dollar exchangers, the disappearance and then takeover by Linden Lab of the SS Galaxy, the announcement and development of the next-generation virtual world called SL 2.0 by the residents until Linden Lab gave it the name Project Sansar, and many more.

The Newser has made a number of friends over time, with new sponsors such as The Steelhead community, and new writers such as Netara Landar and DrFran Babcock. And then there is you, the readers, whom have grown to 27,000 who check the paper at least once a month, and from all over the planet coming from every continent except for Antarctica. Sadly, we've also had to say goodbye to some, our best sponsors the Podex Exchange having to close due to being shut down with Linden Lab changing the Terms of Service, and the Steelhead Estates after Linden Lab locked out the account of it's owner. And over time DrFran, Netara and others departed, as has Shelie Sands of our original team.

While we've had a few setbacks, we've also come a along way. We have stood the test of time, lasting almost half of Second Life's history. We cover a diverse variety of subjects on a daily basis of the people, places, and events across Second Life. And on occasion have a little chuckle with a cartoon.

Special thanks to the Sunweaver Estates which have given us a home all this time, to The Podex Exchange and Steelhead Community who sponsored us for so long in the past, and of course you the readers for making this newsletter possible.

Here's to year seven of bringing you the news of Second Life.

Bixyl Shuftan
Editor and head reporter of Second Life Newser

Press Release: Virtual Ability Celebrates Six Years

On Saturday the 16th of August, the Virtual Ability community (VAI) celebrated six wonderfully successful years since the organisation opened its first island in Second Life. VAI held a party for its community. DJ Danger Lytton provided great tunes for listening and dancing. The dance floor was surrounded by slideshows and photo boards filled with memories of the community's numerous activities since its start in 2008.

While it began operation as The Heron Sanctuary in 2007, Virtual Ability,® Inc. opened their first island in 2008, with a mission to enable people with a wide range of disabilities by providing a supporting environment for them to enter and thrive in online virtual worlds like Second Life®.

Since its inception, the community has grown in size to nearly 1,000 members comprised of people with disabilities, their friends, families and caregivers, along with medical personnel, researchers and educators from all across the world. Virtual Ability owns six SL islands.

In keeping with its mission, Virtual Ability partners with different organizations on initiatives like AVESS, developing best practices for providing on-line peer-to-peer support services for military amputees and their families. VAI also provides inworld services, employment and accessibility information for people with disabilities.  Virtual Ability hosts two annual professional conferences: the Mental Health Symposium in spring and the International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC), coming up in early October this year.

The group looks forward to many more years of activity, continued peer support and growth in virtual worlds. For more information about the organization, visit our website at http://www.virtualability.org.

Gentle Heron and Skye Silverweb

This is Your Life, Grease Coakes

Grease Coakes, DJ, fiction writer, published author in real life, and of course SL Newser reporter had his sixth rezzday this week. During the course of the day, fellow reporter DrFran Babcock came by and gave him an interview. Grease talked about his early days in Second Life, his first gigs as a DJ, a little about his avatars over time, and will he or won't he perform at the SL10B.

Read the interview in Extra.