There's a few ways to get around the sims of the Second Life Birthday. You can walk around, fly around, take a balloon, or you can take the Pod Tours. While you can look around for one roaming around the sims, it's best to start where they're rezzed, at SLB Incredible (134/224/21), near the Red Carpet Welcome.
Nothing too complicated. Just hop on one and wait for it to get going, which may take a while, or click on the pod and it will get going. As they go past exhibits, sometimes they'll give a little information on them.
Compared to previous years, there's more detail to this year's pods. They look like small, wheelless cars.
Normally they go s few feet off the ground. But at one point I was going several feet in the air. Not sure if this was a glitch or not.
With October approaching, some people are getting ready for Halloween early. And Gemma Cleanslate has been looking for a few places that can cater to them. She found two. One is Khargo, which had plenty of skeletons. At Halloween Town in Portland, you can take a tour and shop as you go along.
The Fantasy Faire continues, with not just places to explore, but events. On Saturday the 26th, the Masked Ball took place. It took place at the border of two sims, with close to a hundred at the spot.
With avatars of all kinds present.
A good time was had by all, even if not many were masked.
The following day, I came across a sim tour, at Lavendell. It was well attended, with people sharing info about the sim and cracking jokes.
The Fairelands pawlice were there, checking out a beehive.
Did a little more of the Fairelands Quest, "The Dreamcasters Cauldron," talking to a few NPCs.
We recently were contacted by a Wol (Wolwaner Jervil), of the SL Guided Tours Team. He send a small article of several places that were around in 2006 that are still up today. Some are fairly well known, some not so much. And a few might surprise people, who thought they closed. So what were these locations?
Virtual Ability is known for a number of events and activities. One such activity are the weekly tours, run by Andee Coope. In her article today, Gemma Cleanslate describes one tour done recently, which looked at The Lost Unicorn and Big Sur. So what did she see?
The anniversary events of the Bellisserian Bureau of Bureaucracy are over. Gemma Cleanslate has been reporting on them, and for the last events, she was there. There were concerts, there was an art exhibition, and there were tours in which people could explore new areas, as well as get more stamps for their BBB passports. For the last of the events over the weekend, Gemma was there to get the story.
The Bellisserian Bureau of Bureaucracy is celebrating it's second anniversary. They are best known for their passport system, which has proven popular among people in and outside the Linden Home continent. The celebration involved parties at the Belliseria Fairgrounds, and tours for both fun and to give residents a chance to get stamps for their passports.
You are cordially invited to come party among the stars at the grand opening of the Ascendant Base (a science fiction sim in the Star Wars Roleplay universe). We will have music with DJs and live music from Spiral Sands, Gypsy Witch, Kyizl and more from 6 PM to 9 PM SLT on Saturday January 22nd, 2022.
Ascendant Base is a science fiction sim in the Star Wars Roleplay universe that is open to all players and science fiction fans. It is a full and maxed-out sci-fi sim made by fans large enough to have room for multiple role-play events to co-occur.
There will be tours of a 6 level 300-meter-tall space station and the planet it orbits.
Whether you are a Star Wars Role-Player on Second Life or just a fan, come out and join us for this grand opening and bring your sci-fan friends.
With the Yavascript Pod tours in the news recently, naturally I had some questions about the cars. But with Yavanna Llanfair still suffering the lingering effects of a Coronavirus infection, she wasn't available for an interview. But Asadorable Delightful (Asadora Summers), the Pod Riders group moderator, was. Asadorable was willing to answer some questions about the vehicles of which their tours have become part of the Second Life Mainland in the past decade.
Some good news for the Yavascript pod car tours on the mainland. In the pod riders group earlier today, Yavanna Llanfair announced, "I've just had an extremely constructive meeting with Patch, Tommy and Derrick." And would explain more in an attatched notecard.
Dear pod riders,
I am very pleased to report that I've just had an extremely constructive meeting with Patch Linden, Derrick Linden and Tommy Linden. Hopefully I won't get suspended for a pod crash again! (It was clearly a mistake). I have therefore removed the server block on the pods. It's actually better than just that though. We were able to discuss possible future joint ventures, and how they could help me going forward. So I'm very happy about the outcome of all this. I'm extremely grateful to you all for your support. It's not been an easy time for me lately for reasons I've talked about before, but your good wishes have made me feel so much better. I'm still going to be mostly keeping out of SL for the moment, but as the winter nights draw in and I feel better in myself I hope to be working on more pod projects.
I have returned with an update! 😁 We
have just met with Yavanna and I am super excited to say that we will be
working more closely together going forward on not only helping to
support the pod tours system as it currently exists, but also expanding
it in to other areas it does not reach today. I'm sure that as
expansions and other fun add-ons unfold, there will be more updates on
those as they happen. For the immediate future, the pod tour system
should be returning to normal functionality.
Thanks to all for the feedback!
So the pod tours are staying up, and with the blessing of Linden Lab. This is certainly good news to the Pod Rider fans, whom cheered in the group and Discord page when it was announced.
On a follow-up to an earlier article, one of the tours I took earlier that was glitched appears to have been fixed and is in good working order. I also noticed that on the rides I (or rather my alt) got off, the pod would usually soon vanish. Also, the pod stations at Bay City are different than at the other ones I'd seen, with the pods already rezzed and needing a minute to start.
So what's become a popular feature of the mainland is here to stay.
On Friday August 21, Yavanna Llanfair, the creator of the Yavascript pod travel system that covered most of the continents of the mainland, announced she would be "suspending all services" due partially to a 24 hour ban by Linden Lab she had traced to a pod glitch and partly due to the lingering effects of a Coronavirus infection. The service had been going since it's start exactly ten years earlier.
The result has been numerous statements of people expressing their sadness, and some people wondering why the lack of a response by Linden Lab to her ticket. On Saturday, Patch Linden would respond.
I am potentially as confused as everyone else. But then again I've
been out of town this week and I have some catching up to do. In any
case while standing in the house of mouse, this did make it to my
attention to look in to. While I'm digging in to find out what
happened there are a few things I can assure everyone of:
We've made no policy changes surrounding automated vehicles on the Mainland.
We like the Yavapods system
We use it in Bellisseria as the "engine" for the ferry boats, with Yavanna's permission of course
We keep having it back to SLB every year
These items do not seem like a recipe for a change in policy.
Hopefully things will unfold and we'll get to the bottom of this in a
positive manner. I can't really see any other way forward, and the team
and I have no reason to not support or help Yavanna.
Of her account being suspended for 24 hours and the lack of a response to the ticket she filed:
This is where part of my confusion is. The LDPW and the Moles do not
have a real ticket system. We sometimes receive JIRA's for issues, but
that's not really a ticket and the Moles are not reachable directly
through the support ticketing system. While I'm not here to dispute any
of this, there also seems to be some real confusion on what or how this
happened. If this took place in July, this is the first I'm becoming
aware of it. There is no "fight city hall" here, again, we have no
reason to do anything other than help with the system and the situation.
Ebbe Altberg/Ebbe Linden, the CEO of Linden Lab, would also have a comment. In response to a Tweet by Anne Brightstar, he responded, "No one is stopping them from running."
It should be noted not every single resident is speaking out in favor of the pod car travel system staying. Prokovy Neva would make a detailed post saying it was preferable that the system be closed down, on the grounds all the riderless pods going around were "endless spam," and when going about on roads as half-spheres, they looked like something from "outer space" that didn't fit in with most sims. But most everyone else on the official forums was speaking out in their favor.
Taking a look at the pod stations this weekend, many of the pod rezzers I checked were still up and running well. One would just click on the sign, jump on the pod (or boat at some stations), and click on the vehicle to get going. But this was not the case of every single one. A few at the Durango (154/188/118) station would vanish about a minute after running. Of the two stations at Bay City, they run differently than the others I found with the railcars and boat already there, and not moving until about a minute after the person or persons get on.
So as of Sunday, the pod tour system is still up and running. The problems are some of the routes are glitched, and of course there's the uncertainly of if the system will still be running. But Patch Linden's comments do hint at a solution soon that should put the minds of the pod car fans at ease. Asadora Summers, a moderator for the Pod Riders group, would say on Saturday, "Things are very much way better than they were yesterday morning ... just believe me that all things will go back to what we know." She would also thank fans for the well-wishes they'd sent Yavanna, and invite others to send her notecards so she could email her the messages. Also, there would be a "Second Life Pod Riders Group" set up on Discord where fans could share pictures and stories.
Stay tuned for more details
Addition: Earlier I reported one of the Bay City stations wasn't there and the other didn't work. Another look showed the first was there, the car and boat were just some distance from the LM, and the pods at both do work, they just need some time after the person hops on to get going.
Addition Part Two: I had an alt check a few more routes. While one did glitch soon after starting (probably a sim crossing), most were running fine, including one that glitched earlier.
The Newser was just tipped off to a sad announcement. After ten years of taking residents around the mainland, the Yavascript pods made by Yavanna Llanfair will be shut down after today. The reasons are a lack of communication with Linden Lab following a 24 hour ban, and her recovery from a Coronavirus infection that has had lingering effects on her body.
Dear pod riders,
Today is the 10th anniversary of the first road pod - "YavaScript Pod V5.0 (MCT)" - MCT standing for Monowai Constant Tour, which I put on the road in the morning of Saturday 21st August 2010. I have set that pod running again; it will run until it is swallowed by some random event (like a sim restart or a crash).
However, I am sorry to report that it is also the last day of the
pods as we know them today. I have made the decision to suspend all
services as of later today. The reason is as follows:
For the
entirety of the running of the pod service, I have said I will only run
the service where I considered I had the approval of the Lindens and the
community. Whilst there have always been a few who would criticise
(sometimes quite vocally), they have been a very small minority. And I
have always felt that the Lindens have tacitly approved of them, though
they would never say so directly. Certainly a number of moles have
expressed their approval, and to them I am very grateful.
On 27th July, my account was suspended for 24 hours because of a pod crash in Mieum (on the Wellington Road). At least, that is what I traced it to, because the Linden who suspended me would not tell me of the reason - merely that the object was returned to me. I explained that it is impossible to avoid crashes in all circumstances. I raised a ticket to the LDPW asking them to let me know if this meant my pods were no longer welcome on the roads. I said that I would take anything other than a positive to be a negative. My ticket was closed without comment.
It would have been a shame for the pods to have fallen short of their 10th anniversary, and so I have continued the service until today. And for now, I will merely suspend all operations by flicking a switch on my server. This means that the road pods will still rez, but de-rez shortly after (within 5 minutes). Pods will also still be available from the pod stations by clicking on the rezzer. But this is not a sustainable situation, as the vast majority of people come to know about the pods by seeing them pass on the road, so without that, the service is far less likely to be sustainable in the longer term.
I announced back in June that I was stepping back, due to a long Covid-19 recovery. That recovery is still not complete; whilst I have made progress, I still have some issues, mostly neurological. And stress is therefore something I have to avoid at all costs. Therefore I am not willing at present to fight anyone on this. Maybe one day I will. If the Lindens wish to get in contact to ensure me that the pods are welcome again, I will of course re-instate them. But I suspect that is not likely to happen.
I will continue to support pod owners who run their own systems.
Thankyou to each and every pod rider for coming along on the journey with me. It has been exciting and a lot of fun. It isn't necessarily over, but for now autonomous vehicles from the YavaScript stable will no longer be on the SecondLife mainland roads.
Thankyou, Yavanna Llanfair
For those wishing to check out the pods one last time, head to the main station at Durango (154/188/118). You can also join the Pod riders group (link here) for a list of her other stations.
Yavanna would list the following as her reason for coming up with the rides.
Why do I make these tours? Well, I believe that mainland should be enjoyed and appreciated. Yet there is so little on mainland as a whole which attracts people, simply because they don't know about it. Most people don't travel around and look to see what is there; they go from landmark to landmark in their inventory, without taking the time to look around them. But mainland has so much going for it; beautiful areas, historic locations, educational establishments, rail and sea transport, which most people probably don't know exist. Mainland should be alive, it should be a community. We should all care about it, and then maybe we would take more pride in it and in our buildings. The road network is extensive (though not always as complete as it might be). It is there for using, and should be used as a way to help fulfil this need.
Going about, there was a lot to see while taking a ride. It was an effortless way to cover a lot of ground and see how much was on the mainland. It is a service that will be missed.
Remember, after today, the pods will probably no longer work.
Many residents have a tendency to dismiss the Second Life mainland, having the impression it's nothing but badly designed areas, ban lines, and empty space. The truth is, there are places of interest on the mainland. One means to help residents find them are the automatically running vehicles, known as "pods," which can take you around many different places along the roads. Klaus Bereznyak found out about a new pod station opening, and had a few words with Yavanna Llanfair, who maintains and updates the routes of the vehicles.
Today, Second Life residents have many resources on which to find noteworthy places online. About a decade ago, that wasn't the case. There was the "Search" function, but it listed only popular places, whose numbers could be skewed by bots. There were blogs, though some were more reliable then others. Better were newsletters such as the Second Life Newspaper. From late 2007 to early 2008, one man decided to take it upon himself to find interesting places and then show them to a tour group: Sean Voss. Among those in the group was then SL Newspaper writer Bixyl Shuftan. Eight years after Sean gave his goodbye, Bixyl looks back at the time the tour group made rounds across various places in Second Life.
Last Saturday May 27, Virtual Ability's Sojourner Auditorium hosted it's 2017 Mental Health Symposium. It's topics were about “ways to promote
mental health for themselves and their families, how diet affects mental health,
and how first responders and medical clinicians can improve their own mental
health.” There were also tours for a few places where people can find out more about how Second Life can offer help and support to those with mental health issues or those helping, as well as providing information about such issues. Gemma Cleanslate was there, and wrote about the event. Read Gemma's story in Events.
Please join us on Sunday,February 19 3pm SLT for the Grand Reopening of the newly designed American Cancer Society Island and a special dedication / opening of the new memorial gardens. . Special guest speakers, tours of the island and dancing.
