The Vanishing of A Continent: Gaeta 1 To Be Phased Out By End of 2026

 

 For the first time, Linden Lab will be doing away with one of the Mainland continents. 

 

On Wednesday, the Lab announced "A new chapter for Mainland."  The plan was to open 90 sims on the Zindra continent, which has not yet been finished, while the residents of Gaeta 1 are being asked to move. The reason the Lab gave was that "Adult mainland continues to operate at very high occupancy and shows consistent demand. At the same time, some General and Moderate mainland areas, including Gaeta 1, have seen lower overall use over time." And so rather than simply just raise the number of sims on Zindra, they made the decision to adjust "existing capacity to better reflect where Residents are most active today."

 

The Lab went on to say the change will start this month, April, expected to finish by "the end of 2026," and there are no plans to close other Mainland areas. They did say the change was to start "early April," but it was already the 15th when they made their announcement.

 

 Of the Second Life Mainland areas, Gaeta 1 and Zindra are distinguished by each having unfinished look. Of Gaeta 1, the southeast and east central areas were never completed. It's north of the Mainland northeast of Bellisseria, but not connected to it by sea sims, and distinguished by it's small size, 141 sims, smaller than a few private sim continents, and large amounts of abandoned land. The SL Wiki describes the land as being created in June 2008, with the north added a little later. 

 

The Yavascript pod tours gave the reason for the unfinished business as,  "Much of the land around here was being prepared for sale, as SL was expanding, in 2009, but as land supply exceeded demand, it stopped. ... In more recent years, mainland has become more popular, especially alongside roads and by water. Nonetheless, this continent was still never finished, as can clearly be seen from the shape of the map."

 

One other detail, the SL Wiki described Gaeta as the most underpopulated continent.  

 

 

The other unfinished continent, Zindra, is more famous for being the Adult-rated Mainland continent: All the sims are Adult-rated. The first of its land appeared in 2009, "and continued a few years later" according to the SL wiki. But development stopped before the southeast was finished. 

 

Besides that the buildings and the signs on the map show residents are free to explore their sexual sides, other than the unfinished corner the land is distinguished by a larger size than Gaeta, 348 sims, and for some reason being placed *far* away to the right of the other mainland sims. 

 

And it's the second most crowded of the Mainland continents, second only to Heterocera, with little abandoned land and high land prices. 

 

Two threads appeared in the forums about the topic, one in the Land forums by Linden Lab, the other in the General Discussion Forum. Naturally, there were a number of objections. 

 

"... being a many year resident of Gaeta I's lovely north coast. Nukeing Geata to create an expanded area of adult regions (which is also disconnected) doesn't make any sense to me. None of Geata I is adult at the moment and it's not clear to me that there's a shortage of adult parcels, so I'm not sure what problem this is actually solving."

 

"I am one of two landscapers, developers, and managers for Bimini Falls, a growing community sim that currently spans over 14 regions on Gaeta. Bimini Falls has been a long-term project that has taken over a year and a half of continuous landscaping, design, and development to reach its current state. The owner has invested significantly throughout this time, purchasing additional land multiple times as the community expanded and evolved. It is also important to recognize that the foundation of this work began long before my sister (the other landscaper) and I joined the project a year and a half ago. In total, this represents years of creative development, planning, and ongoing refinement. The financial investment from the owner—covering land purchases, upkeep, development costs, and our compensation—has been substantial. What makes this situation especially difficult is that Bimini Falls is not something that could simply be rebuilt elsewhere. Starting from scratch in a new location would require another one to two years of intensive work just to reach its current level of development, and even then, it would never truly be the same. The unique character, flow, and history built into the current regions cannot be replicated. In addition, there would be a significant loss of income from renters during the entire rebuilding process, further compounding the financial impact on the community and its owner. This situation is incredibly heartbreaking and deeply upsetting for everyone involved, as so much time, effort, and passion has been poured into bringing Bimini Falls to life." 

 

"As a former Gaeta I tenant who still has affection and nostalgic memories of Gaeta I, I think its utterly shameful and a backwards move by LL that will have Residents in Gaeta I and the other Mainland continents worried and fearing for the future. Why not just keep Gaeta I as it is and where it is now? Why are LL being so heartless? Is it just a case of in order to complete Zindra, another entire continent must be sacrificed for it? Unacceptable. Just no." 

 

"So wrecking a G or M rated community in Gaeta1 (which had been there 17 years) is totally fine with you, if it benefits an Adult rated community in Zindra?"

 

"Despite what is said in the reading, it feels like a small scale tester for a larger scale version later. The writing appears to be on the wall for mainland change and not the good kind." 

 

Some were open to the idea, "Optimally it'd be better if LL could finish both continents, but idk if the demand is there for more M regions with so much abandoned land on M continents, meanwhile Zindra's basically full. So... yeah. IMO this is a no-brainer, as long as existing landowners in Gaeta 1 have some way of recovering their investment." '

 

"This action will not be taken because they have nothing else to do during their working days.
The Lab has to get rid of parts of the grid that are running at a loss month after month and try to keep SL appealing for the vast majority of users I recon." 

 

"Zindra is so fugly it baffles me what would drive a non-land hogger person to the point of insanity where they'd voluntarily buy and stay and use land there." 

 

Prokofy Neva would comment, "Watch Gaeta land prices go up so you can get a free transfer to Zindra which will go for a fortune if landscaped." 

 

 Derrick Linden would answer the concerns, "Given the sizable amount of unowned mainland, increasing our overall mainland footprint isn't really something that's in the cards right now. After careful review, this felt like our best opportunity to shift some of our existing mainland resources for the long-term health of the mainland overall."

 

The Lab anticipated there would be lots of questions, and scheduled a Town Meeting for Monday April 20 at 11 AM at Town Hall Island1 (241/15/29). 

 

Stay tuned foe more information on this developing, and major, story.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Caledon's Governor Desmond Shang To Retire

 

September 12th 2023 became a red letter day in Caledon history. Desmond Shang, Governor of the Independent State of Caledon since 2006, has announced that he will be stepping down. The position, fondly called by its citizens “Guvnah” will be assumed by NeoBokrug Elytis. It is understood that Caledon is not sold just placed into the hands of a new Governor. Desmond has known NeoBokrug for nearly 20 years and NeoBokrug is owner of The Wastelands which itself is 16 years old, thus clearly Caledon’s new Governor is well chosen. 

 

This does not mean that Desmond is leaving; it is only a retirement. He will still be a citizen of Caledon and will be present it is just that real life is even more demanding and can’t allow him to give Caledon the attention it needs. A Town Hall meeting is scheduled for September 16 at 2pm SLT at the Governor’s Mansion for the formal change of office and public introduction. Later within the week NeoBokrug will be sending out inaugural invitations so more information will be coming. 

Cynthia Farshore
Duchess of Caledon Downs

 

April Linden Announces All Sims Moved To The Cloud

 

It was just about a week ago in which it was announced half the sims had their data moved to the Cloud. So with all the time that had been done before, one would probably expect quite a bit of time before the other half were moved. Well, that's not quite what happened. Yesterday, Thursday November 19, April announced that all of the sims now had their data moved to Cloud servers.

The team just finished up moving all of the regions to the cloud! We did it, before our goal of Thanksgiving!!! Uplift isn't done, we still have things to move, but getting the regions done FEELS SO GOOD!

As April stated, this isn't the end of the work on the Cloud move. And there's still glitching going on. For instance, there were issues with group chat, teleporting, and reading the world map. But it is a notable milestone that hopefully will lead to an improved Second Life.

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Asks For Patience For The Next Few Weeks With Cloud Migration

 

It's no secret things have been more glitchy in Second Life than usual. Last Friday, Linden Lab through Oz Linden came out and apologized for the various glitches, crashes, and bugs recently, saying they were from it's moving things to cloud servers. Yesterday, Wednesday October 21, in the "Tools and Technology" blog, it was April Linden's turn. She gave an update on how much has been done so far.

We’re in a really exciting time in the history of Second Life. We’re in the home stretch on moving the grid to the cloud. We hit a fun milestone a few days ago, and now there’s over 1,000 regions running in the cloud!

Everyone in the Lab is working hard on this project, and we’re moving very quickly. I just got out of a leadership meeting where we went over what’s currently in flight, and there’s so many things moving that I lost track of them all. It’s amazing!

However, not everything was good news. She asked residents to be patient.

I’ve come to ask for a favor.  ... I’ve come to ask you for is your patience. 

We’re doing our very best to fix things that come up as we go. This means that we might need to restart regions more often than you’re used to, and things may break just a little more often than we’ve all been accustomed to.

In order to get this project done as fast as possible and minimize the time (and resulting bugs) we have to spend with one foot in our datacenter and the other in the cloud, we don’t want to limit ourselves to restarting regions just once a week. We’re ready to get this project done! We’ve seen how much better Second Life runs in the cloud, and we’re ready to have everyone on the grid experience it.

I’m sorry that things might be a little rough over the next few weeks. It’s our goal to finish the cloud migration by the holidays, so that everyone, Resident and Linden alike, can have a nice quiet holiday with our friends and families.

 We can’t promise we’ll make it by then, but we’re sure giving it all we’ve got. The mood around the Lab is really positive right now, and we’re all working hard together to make it happen. I’m really proud to be a part of the team that’s transforming Second Life as we know it.

Thanks so much for hanging in there with us. We know it’s frustrating at times, but it won’t last for too long, and there’s a better future on the other side of this. We truly appreciate your understanding and patience as we finish up this project.

So it appears in addition to the glitches we've been seeing, we're very likely to have to deal with sim restarts as well. Perhaps the Lab may slow things down a bit next week interfere with Halloween less. If not, residents may have to contend with having to suddenly leave sims in a hurry in addition to the ghosts and goblins.

To read the Linden blog post in full, Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan

Luxembourg "Pfaffenthal" Sims Moving to Sansar

The number of historic sims in Second Life is about to get slightly smaller. According to an article in Jo Yardley's blog, the "Pfaffenthal" sims, which are a reproduction of the central city of Luxembourg, will soon be closing down while their counterpart in the Sansar grid opens.

The moment has finally arrived, for the 1867 project to move on to SANSAR, were land is free, where we can have better graphics,VR headsets and real physical interactivity. Note that sansar works very well on a normal PC,for desktop mode you do NOT need a gamer PC.
IMPORTANT!
All the 1867 sims in second life will be shut down next monday, on the 26th of november. Please pack all your stuff by then.

Jo Jardley was disappointed by the news, "As a history addict I’m sad to see one of the few historically accurate sim in SL vanish. Personally I’m not sure Sansar is ready for a historical roleplaying community. Are there enough Victorian clothes, is there a rental system yet, could you buy enough period furniture to decorate the homes, can you even open doors in Sansar?"



Ryan Schultz called this development a first as he'd never before heard of a "wholesale move of virtual land directly from Second Life to Sansar." Will this be the first of a number of moves? While it might be the first, there may be few others, at least for now, as Sansar's numbers have been low. But for the people of Second Life, they'll soon only have screenshots, and this youtube, to remember the place.

Sources: Jo Yardley, Ryan Schutlz

Bixyl Shuftan

Update On The Rusty Garter Saloon

A few months ago, we wrote about the "Rusty Garter Saloon," a cowboy-themed venue in the Caledon II sim. Recently, there has been a change in ownership. Blake (Palmerblake), the owner of the saloon, along with the location's Patty Poppy (Autopilotpatty Poppy), will no longer be operating the establishment. The last event under their direction was on Friday April 14. But fans of the saloon need not worry. One of the people coming by to enjoy the place, Soaron Ronin (soaron.fazuku), stepped up to continue to run it.

Chatting with Soaron some, he explained that the transfer had been done, "ll is sorted.. just small details." He had no plans to change anything, "The saloon remains as is.. just a new owner that likes to keep the place running." He would need to find a DJ, but he expected that wouldn't take long. I asked him if he had any role at the saloon before. His answer was, "Wanderer, as most of my SL life." So would it be a problem for him to have to take care of a fixed location? He told me no, "Well I got time, so not a problem." He told me that visitors to the saloon should expect to see him act in-character, "I keep the OOC (talk) to a bare minimu."

The "Rusty Garter Saloon" has events "every other Friday" at 7PM SL time.

Caledon II (112, 69, 22)

Bixyl Shuftan

Update on Steelhead: Nevermoor is Saved

Some welcome news concerning the Steelhead Estates. This week, Willow Leafstorm announced that she now had ownership of the Nevermoor sim, and it would continue to stay up. But there would be one change: the sim name.

Dear Friends and Citizens of Steelhead.  I am happy to announce a portion of Steelhead has been saved from the Linden axe.  Nevermoor has been transfered over to my care and custodianship.   However, as per agreement with the previous owner  I had to change the name and move the region, but the spirit of Steelhead will live on.

There was more to say at the Town Hall meeting Tuesday night.

Greetings Steelhead!  I have good news.  Nevermoor has been transfered over to to the ownership of Willow Leafstorm and will survive the Linden axe. I'm working on getting rental lots ready for people to move into. There will be a new rental system as well as a new pricing to help prevent monetary short falls. The new rental scale is easy enough to remember and calculate.  The new pricing is basically L$1 per square meter. ... Please note the Initial land fee and deposit have been reduced.  The fee will be also waved for current Steelhead and Ravenwood residents for limited time.  And that is the Willow plan. As you are already aware the sim has been moved and renamed as per request of Lunar.  The new name is Ravenwood Forest. More details will be forth coming.  I do work full time and this will be a slow transition process with a lot of learning on my part.

In a time when so many locations have been closing, Steelhead being just one example, finally some good news.

The sim is located at Ravenwood Forest (129, 129, 25)

Steelhead's last Town Hall meeting was something of a bittersweet one, with a number of residents giving their thanks to those who brought them over, and a reminder of the place's orgins, "It was originally Ambertown, and Steelwolf Pascal purchased it from the original owner for Katt Severine. There are dark times in Steelhead, I don't have time to go into, but long story short, Lunar and Tensai came in a couple of months after I did, and in January of 2007, Lunar and Tensai became managers and I became Sheriff."

"This has been a very rough month. But, remember, regardless what happens. WE will always be Steelhead. ... The Steelhead sims as you know it, is because of them. The Steelhead spirit as you know it is because of each and every one of you."

The exact date when the sims will be gone is unknown, "these sims may be in the queue for removal at the end of the month, but they could stick around another month before LL removes them." The last Friday night dance is planned to be at the Town Hall. After that,the  Green Fairy Cabaret in Ravenwood Forest will be holding them.  Of Steelhead's school for kid avatars, classes will continue to be held at Antiquity.

Steelhead has been on the grid for 9 years. That is a great accomplishment. As awesome as the Steelhead sims are, they were nothing without the citizens of Steelhead City. You are all an amazing group of people, and through you, the Steelhead Spirit will always remain strong, and will endure. Thank you all so much for an amazing nine years.

And so the community bravely faces the end of it's estate, with the small relief that one corner of their land will continue.

Bixyl Shuftan

Sunweaver Air to Change Hands

On 3PM SL time yesterday on Sunday January 23rd, The Sunweaver Estate's owner Rita Mariner called a meeting at the Cutlass Club to discuss a problem. There wasn't enough income coming in to cover the costs of the sim, and the one with the most unrented space was Sunweaver Air. She couldn't afford to hand onto it.

The good news, someone had stepped forward to take on the sim. "Shelly" Kit Repine would be taking charge of Sunweaver Air in a couple weeks. No one would have to move, and this includes the office of Second Life Newser, which sits on the land of Ranchan Weidman.

It was noted that the Sunweaver group was much larger than the current number of renters, "Please, if you're going to enjoy our club (Cutlass), consider renting out a spot to help keep the place going."