Community News

"We are grateful to those readers who took part in our annual survey. The results were interesting and helpful. Thank you. One reader commented that s/he'd like to hear less in The Gazette about the BBB and more about our users. We wholeheartedly agree! The whole point of the Events & Announcements section, introduced last year, is to give stamp-issuing users the chance to publicise their locations, events and activities. The section is steadily growing, but many are still not aware they can make The Gazette their own on request." Read more on the blog

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"Our bureaucratic colleague AmandaT Tamatzui is an artist in RL as well as SL. She deploys her artistic talents for us in designing passport stamps but that's merely a sideline! She has won a Second Life Endowment for the Arts (SLEA) grant to realise in SL a dream she has long held in RL of turning her paintings into a 3D world in which people can move about." Read more on the blog.

"Our BBB colleague Robert Rhodan loves to experiment with the latest technologies. He's created a techno-pop-electronic song devoted to Bellisseria's 5th birthday. He generated the lyrics using ChatGTP (a chatbot developed by OpenAI). After running various iterations and some personal input, he fed his lyrics into the Suno AI tool by Anthropic, which generates music.

Based on Robert's instructions about musical style, instruments to be used, the voice of the singer, the rhythm, etc., Suno generated a music clip of just over a minute. Robert reran, refined, cut and mixed clips to achieve the full five minute Bellisseria 5th Birthday song. Then he put together image clips to create this YouTube video. The lyrics are at the end."

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"Claire M (primerib1) has produced a new map of Bellisseria, naming all the various areas. The Lindens and Moles officially name continents (e.g. Bellisseria, Gaeta) and regions (eg. Swordfish, Nanga) and private estate owners name their own regions (e.g. Nyunanga) but useful names to identify areas of Second Life® usually come (in true SL spirit) from the community. Claire has kindly allowed us to reproduce her map here." Read more on the blog

"I am delighted by the participation in this years SL20B Event. I personally thank the BBB Team – the greatest team in SL –for all their hard work, including the laborious hours they put into its success. Amanda – who threw the parties and made all the stamps. Dave – who reset The Gazette I don't know how many times to include EVERY new stamp to be collected. Robert  – who fixed all my errors and mostly with a smile! Laurel – who worked overtime on passports, licences, and licence plates. Teresa – who had her own build at SL20B, but still gave us all she could." Read more on the blog.

"The BBB 2023 calendar is available from BBB HQ in Swordfish. You can pick it up from a dispenser sign there. This year's calendar uses the same Media-on-a-Prim (MoaP) technique as the StaFi stamp finder (also available from BBB HQ). The advantage of MoaP is that any updates don't require you to collect a new object. A refresh will always get you the latest version." Read more on the blog.

"Just like the start of that movie, those three words can make your day. And now, you can actually send and receive mail almost anywhere in SL." Read more on the blog.

"The BBB Postal Service has set up a special office for Valentine's Day. Teresa Firelight and Boo Rojyo have created a range of 11 different Valentine cards. You can get them for free from the special office to send via BBB’s Postal service to your friends, lovers and would-be valentines." Read more on the blog.

"The Lindens are inviting all of Second Life®  to celebrate with a fun Pumpkin Hunt, taking place in Bellisseria from October 18th to November 1st." Read more on the blog.

"The BBB is proud to announce our latest new and exciting service for you - The Post Office! This is a brand new innovation - the only one of its kind in SL, allowing you to both send and receive mail by Object or Notecard. Right now, we cover all of Bellisseria. We will be expanding to cover the whole grid very soon." Read more on the blog.

"On Wednesday we had a meeting of the BBB staff. We were joined by Patch Linden, Derrick Linden and Abnor Mole who sat in on the routine reports to get up to date with our work and to learn, in particular, about a major new product in development by our talented scripting team. It's still confidential,  but good progress is being made and further announcements can be expected Soon®. In the meantime we were much encouraged by their enthusiasm." Read more on the blog.

"Her Excellency Bijoux Barr, art aficionado and SL style icon, has been appointed as Bellisseria's Honorary Ambassador to the great mainland continent of Satori (a.k.a. the Japanese continent)." Read more on the blog.

"The latest addition to Bellisseria's Corps Diplomatique – new ambassador for Nautilus, His Excellency Freddie Harrington – will receive the keys to his new embassy on December 22nd at 12 noon SLT." Read more on the blog.

"We have an interesting selection of new places to explore this week. Moorcroft features above and needs nothing added here. Suffice it to say it's a good place to bring out your trusty steed from inventory for a pleasant hack." Read more on the blog.

"We are about to recruit Bellisserian Honorary Ambassadors to the Mainland continents of Sansara, Satori, Nautilus, Gaeta, Corsica, Heterocera, and Jeogeot. We will be opening embassies on each continent Soon®. The first will be on Corsica." Read more on the blog.

"Her Excellency The Ghost (theghostofghost) welcomed Abnor Mole and other distinguished guests to the new embassy in Heterocera at 12 noon SLT last Thursday for its official opening. Abnor presented her with the keys to the building after a speech in which he observed that transport infrastructure had been an important part of the design of Heterocera – on the understanding that connections build community." Read more on the blog.

"We are back from our break to wish all our readers a very happy New Year. We have big plans for 2022 and look forward to involving as many of you as possible." Read more on the blog.

"We wouldn't usually publish on a public holiday. Instead, we'd give our journalists and photographers a break and let them spend time with their loved ones. This year, however, we decided to celebrate the Gazette's very first holiday season with a special edition. We hope you enjoy it! All of us at the BBB would like to wish you and your families the happiest of holidays and the most fortunate of New Years." Read more on the blog.

"The Second Birthday Of The Bellisserian Bureau Of Bureaucracy Celebrated At The Belli Fairgrounds!" Read more on the blog.

"Yesterday at 12 noon SLT, His Excellency Jack Vincent, Honorary Ambassador, welcomed Abnor Mole and other distinguished guests to the Grand Opening of Bellisseria's new permanent embassy to the mainland continent of Corsica. Abnor gave a gracious speech before handing over the key to the embassy and the Hon. Ambassador spoke eloquently in response." Read more on the blog.

"Ever wonder if an immersive multi-stop tour is available to not only collect multiple BBB Passport Stamps, but to also see the way in which numerous stamps are connected via the numerous Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW) roadways, coastal waters or airway flight paths?  Well, wonder no longer!" Read more on the blog.

"BBB2B continues until 31st January: come join in the celebrations!" Read more on the blog.

"Our Second Birthday Party at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds – BBB2B – came to an end on Monday. We hope Oscar the BBB Snowy Owl found a safe home somewhere." Read more on the blog.

Watch the video on YouTube