Ancient SL History: Or, Where Have the Years Gone?

[rasterscan]

Fascinating thread thanks all. That SL has survived 18 years plus of computer change is remarkable indeed. In my youth I studiously learnt as much BASIC as my pea brain could cope with.. Little did I know some 20 years later it would help so much with tinkering about with LSL code, which these days is my favourite past time !

 

 

[Aethelwine]

I re-found this link on the oldest items in Second life that might be of interest:

https://lalotelling.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/seconderth-a-deep-map-sl-8-25-b/ 

(Note the article is 12 years old now so locations given like I-World Island don't seem to be around any more)

Edited August 13, 2022 by Aethelwine

[Aethelwine]

There is a 4 prim banana in Welsh by Paul Zeeman that has a creation date 4 June 2002. 

It isn't in the list, but if that creation date is accurate it would pre-date the original beanstalk

Edited August 13, 2022 by Aethelwine

[Aethelwine]

On 8/11/2022 at 1:39 PM, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Duplicates of the actual oldest First Prim can be found in the oldest original sixteen sims of SL, the "San Francisco" regions. But I'm not telling you exactly where!

These historic prims are actually older than the lucky avatars that own and closely guard them, they're also older than the sims they're found in, and are even older than Second Life itself! Should you actually find one, please keep it a secret. 

These special prims all have the exact same time and date of creation,  20:46:40 SLT on 25th January 2002. The original First Prim was created before Second Life even existed, as it originated in an earlier Alpha Test incarnation of SL that was called Linden World, which was superceded by the Beta Test version of Second Life on 1st November 2002.

Interestingly, the oldest prim has no creator name, as no such creator database existed at the time of the first prim's creation.  It's highly likely that the very first prim was created by the man who invented primatives, an Avi Bar-Zeev, a colleague and friend of Philip Rosedale.

And if you look around Sansara continent carefully enough, you might also find duplicates of the very first textured object ever created, a replica of a US five cent "Nickel" coin, that was also created in Linden World, not long after the First Prim was.

Not sure where these prims are you mention. 

DaBoom does have an earliest Prim display, the earliest Prim there is from 15 October 2002, from Bill Linden.

 

[Aethelwine]

The Nickel is in Natoma under the "Arch d Linden Grande" from 11 Feb 2002. The Arch itself is from 18 October 2002.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Aethelwine

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Natoma History

Most people are unaware of Natoma's earliest role in SL, it wasn't always a sandbox and didn't have an Ivory Tower until years later, because Natoma was originally created and used as SL's first ever official Welcome Area sim!

Way way back in time at the dawn of SL, Natoma sim was originally the landing place where a brand new account holder would first appear, landing in a enclosed wooden fenced corral area on the ground in the middle of Natoma sim. The corral area became nicknamed "the Noob Corral", although Natoma itself had a more formal and official title, the Welcome Area.

The more experienced and helpful avatars of the early SL would often sit around on the square perimeter fence of the Noob Corral, hanging out, observing, and volunteering help to the new arrivals.

However, according to witnesses (and survivors!), sometimes less friendly avatars would wait there too, teasing, griefing, trolling the new arrivals, which probably made the new arrivals question what the hell they had signed up to! The Noob Corral became quite notorious and infamous for a while too.

Located around the Noob Corral were a network of stone tile pathways, leading to information signs, educational displays, artwork and decorative features, such as The Arch d Linden Grande, a 1950's retro-sci-fi style archway found on the central east border side of Natoma.

The Arch d Linden Grande is a decorative archway or gateway that was created on 18th October 2002 by Alberto Linden as part of official Second Life sim decoration for Natoma sim for the Beta Test era and Release versions of SL.

At the northwest of Natoma, proudly standing on top of a tall grassy hill was also The Man statue, one of only a few relics saved and imported from the old Linden World grid, which still stands there today. The Man statue has never moved from it's hill and is SL's longest continually rezzed object - although not the oldest ever object.

It is said that Philip Linden himself terraformed the hill underneath The Man statue, which is certainly why the hill has become known as Philip's Hill. It is also known Natoma is one of Philip's most favourite sims, as he has made many spontaneous visits to Natoma over the years.

Natoma also featured official freebie shops, the most well-known being Avatar Central, a large official Linden-backed building close to the Noob Corral where new arrivals could take freebie items left there by more experienced users.

These freebie items had to be submitted and examined by the Lindens for approval before being authorised as free items. (There is a near-perfect full size replica/reconstruction of Avatar Central displayed in Aqua sim) 

Eventually, as Second Life's population grew, free space in the early smaller SL grid was getting tighter and scarcer, with land values across the early grid increasing.  Natoma's Welcome Area role was shared with Ahern, a new sim region (created on 26th March 2003)  that was created as a secondary Welcome Area further to the west of central Sansara.

Thankfully, Natoma was not fully sold off, a few small parcels became protected areas in which reminders and relics of Natoma's history would be kept safe. The Arch d Linden Grande was retained, as a nod to Natoma's original Welcome Area role.

The Man statue was retained too, as a continued reminder of Linden World. These two historic artifacts still sit in Natoma today, although the position of the Arch has been moved slightly to the north a little from it's original central sim edge position.

Sadly, the rest of the Welcome Area objects, such as the Noob Corral and Avatar Central were removed or deleted. However, copys and replicas of the Welcome Area's objects are known to still exist.

Luke Lorentz claimed a parcel in Natoma on 22nd October 2003 and built a home there, a home which still stands there today!

Natoma's parcels were (mostly) bought by June 2006 by Lumiere Noir, the owner of The Ivory Tower Library of Primatives, which had been running a small "Natoma Branch" of the Ivory Tower in Natoma since 2004, but primarily from a different sim called Noyo since March 2004.

The Ivory Tower originated in Noyo, because at the time, Noyo was one of a few sim regions which contained a Telehub, a LL object which one would use to teleport around the SL grid to specific areas.

Lumiere Noir and his colleague Avi Arrow ceremonially demolished the original Ivory Tower in Noyo on 17th June 2006, which spectacularly fell down the Noyo valley side into the river below in hundreds of pieces, witnessed by many onlookers. (See Torley Linden's Flickr record: https://flic.kr/s/aHsiDbDaP4 ). Lumiere and Avi then opened a brand new, larger Ivory Tower in Natoma in June 2006, which still stands today.

If you visit the present Ivory Tower in Natoma, you will find a small model of the original Noyo Ivory Tower on display, just inside the Tower's entranceway. A visit down south to Noyo, and you will still see the east valley side location where the original Ivory Tower once stood from March 2004 and eventually fell into Noyo's river on 17th June 2006.

Edited August 14, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[NevaehHeartstrings]

Where would one find the oldest private island still surviving and what could be on it?

[Claireschen Hesten]

2 hours ago, NevaehHeartstrings said:

Where would one find the oldest private island still surviving and what could be on it?

I believe it's either Edge or Cayman both within and not directly connected to the Sansara that is the oldest private region

[Akane Nacht]

I remember SLB a year or so ago had time capsules from the various years of SL's history, but I didn't collect them. Not sure if the really early years were included or what was in them.

[Akane Nacht]

12 hours ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Lumiere Noir and his colleague Avi Arrow then rebuilt a brand new Ivory Tower in Natoma, along with a very large sandbox area. They also ceremonially blew up the original Ivory Tower in Noyo in June 2006, which spectacularly fell down the valley side into the river below in hundreds of pieces, witnessed by many onlookers.

I was only born in 2008 so never saw the original but I remember visiting the new one when I was trying to figure out how to stick prims together. Never met the builders, but they sound like they were great fun. Wish I'd had a chance to meet them. I took a picture of their memorial statue, complete with bomb (now I understand the significance of that!). 

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

11 hours ago, NevaehHeartstrings said:

Where would one find the oldest private island still surviving and what could be on it?

Cayman was the first and oldest private island sim in SL and its owner also owns the neighbouring island Edge too. As you can see on the world map, they were very early sims which became fully encircled by the expansion of Sansara continent as both islands are now trapped within it!

The island owner was also the original owner and a DJ of an early dance club called The Edge, which originated in Da Boom sim, but which later moved out to it's own private island sim - almost certainly to the island sim Edge, which is undoubtably how Edge got its name.

Edited August 14, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

@Akane Nacht

Torley Linden kept a record of the "closure" of the Noyo Ivory Tower on 17th June 2006: https://flic.kr/s/aHsiDbDaP4

The bomb and Lumiere Noir's "Black Spy" avatar are both elements of the classic 1960's MAD Magazine's comic strip,  Spy vs Spy, which was also turned into a popular 1984 split-screen two player videogame featuring the two opposing Black Spy and White Spy characters (which two players would control) who each had the goal of laying booby traps in rooms within a building in order to "kill" each other.

 

Spy vs Spy was also turned into a MAD tv animation series in the 1990s.

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Fortyniner Beck]

The op made me look through my books and I found…

[Akane Nacht]

2 hours ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Torley Linden kept a record of the "closure" of the Noyo Ivory Tower on 17th June 2006: https://flic.kr/s/aHsiDbDaP4

thanks for sharing that!

Yes I remember Spy vs Spy. Forgot the dark spy often carried a bomb 😁 

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Ahern, Nova Albion and Linden World Theme Park

Ahern sim, which took over Natoma's role as the Welcome Area sim, is still titled as a Welcome Area, although its role has changed and has become one of four sims which form a high capacity chat arena (formerly a voice area) formed around the four corners of Ahern, Dore, Morris and Bonifacio sims.

Morris also has two public sandbox areas, just to the north of a tall sim-edge waterfall that falls into a desert canyon sim called Oak Grove.

Oak Grove features SL's first ever wild west town, which has been restored to its original condition.

To the immediate west of Dore, there are the four sim regions of Nova Albion (Miramare, Barcola, Grignano and Sistiana), a new town which was opened on 24th March 2004.

Nova Albion was built over the former location of SL's first ever theme park, "Linden World" (named after SL's predecessor) in two regions called Coney and Luna, which used to occupy the spaces now used by Miramare and Grignano.

The Linden World Theme Park officially opened on 13th October 2003 in Coney and Luna. The entrance into the park was via a road bridge across a waterway from the Dore sim region. The entrance route road into the park was decorated with numerous tall towers which once ran along the entire roadway into Ahern, and possibly even further east as far as the old Varney boardwalk.

A "Spook House" by Sinatra Cartier was one of many innovative rides and stalls featured in the theme park. The Spook House was advertised widely across the SL grid, with ads placed as far south as Noyo (its still there!), and even one on the back side of The Man statue hill in Natoma (which is also still there!).  Sinatra's Spook House is still available in SL to visit today. (I recently found another Spook House advertisement in Da Boom sim too!)

Sadly, Linden World theme park didn't last long, popularity waned and its initial two sims were reduced to just one sim by December 2003, causing Luna to be split off, relocated to the south and transformed into a Linden Mall, named Luna Oaks - which still stands today. Eventually, Coney was closed too and deleted from the grid in early 2004, leaving an empty void once again.

However, the location of Linden World Theme Park was reused when Nova Albion's four sim regions would be built over it in March 2004.  Coney's former location is now taken by Miramare sim. And before it became a mall sim, Luna used to occupy Grignano's current space.

If you visit Dore sim, along its road you will find a few mysterious tall towers that nobody seems to know too much about.  You can now other people what these towers really are,  relics left over from the short-lived 2003 Linden World Theme Park....

^ Dore region, looking west towards Luna (south of bridge) and Coney (north of bridge)

 

^ Sinatra Cartier's "Spook House" in Linden World Theme Park

Edited August 14, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Love Zhaoying]

5 minutes ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Ahern, Nova Albion and Linden World Theme Park

Ahern sim, which took over Natoma's role as the Welcome Area sim, is still titled as a Welcome Area, although its role has changed and has become one of four sims which form a high capacity chat arena (formerly a voice area) formed around the four corners of Ahern, Dore, Morris and Bonifacio sims.

I met my bestest old SL friends and family in Luna, adjacent to where we were all born in Ahern or Dore in those years.

[Prokofy Neva]

21 hours ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Natoma History

Most people are unaware of Natoma's earliest role in SL, it wasn't always a sandbox and didn't have an Ivory Tower until years later, because Natoma was originally created and used as SL's first ever official Welcome Area sim!

Way way back in time at the dawn of SL, Natoma sim was originally the landing place where a brand new account holder would first appear, landing in a enclosed wooden fenced corral area on the ground in the middle of Natoma sim. The corral area became nicknamed "the Noob Corral", although Natoma itself had a more formal and official title, the Welcome Area.

The more experienced and helpful avatars of the early SL would often sit around on the square perimeter fence of the Noob Corral, hanging out, observing, and volunteering help to the new arrivals.

However, according to witnesses (and survivors!), sometimes less friendly avatars would wait there too, teasing, griefing, trolling the new arrivals, which probably made the new arrivals question what the hell they had signed up to! The Noob Corral became quite notorious and infamous for a while too.

Located around the Noob Corral were a network of stone tile pathways, leading to information signs, educational displays, artwork and decorative features, such as The Arch d Linden Grande, a 1950's retro-sci-fi style archway found on the central east border side of Natoma.

The Arch d Linden Grande is a decorative archway or gateway that was created on 18th October 2002 by Alberto Linden as part of official Second Life sim decoration for Natoma sim for the Beta Test era and Release versions of SL.

At the northwest of Natoma, proudly standing on top of a tall grassy hill was also The Man statue, one of only a few relics saved and imported from the old Linden World grid, which still stands there today. The Man statue has never moved from it's hill and is SL's longest continually rezzed object - although not the oldest ever object.

It is said that Philip Linden himself terraformed the hill underneath The Man statue, which is certainly why the hill has become known as Philip's Hill. It is also known Natoma is one of Philip's most favourite sims, as he has made many spontaneous visits to Natoma over the years.

Natoma also featured official freebie shops, the most well-known being Avatar Central, a large official Linden-backed building close to the Noob Corral where new arrivals could take freebie items left there by more experienced users.

These freebie items had to be submitted and examined by the Lindens for approval before being authorised as free items. (There is a near-perfect full size replica/reconstruction of Avatar Central displayed in Aqua sim) 

Eventually, as Second Life's population grew, free space in the early smaller SL grid was getting tighter and scarcer, with land values across the early grid increasing.  Natoma's Welcome Area role was shared with Ahern, a new sim region (created on 26th March 2003)  that was created as a secondary Welcome Area further to the west of central Sansara.

Thankfully, Natoma was not fully sold off, a few small parcels became protected areas in which reminders and relics of Natoma's history would be kept safe. The Arch d Linden Grande was retained, as a nod to Natoma's original Welcome Area role.

Luke Lorentz claimed a parcel in Natoma on 22nd October 2003 and built a home there, a home which still stands there today!

The Man statue was retained too, as a continued reminder of Linden World. These two historic artifacts still sit in Natoma today, although the position of the Arch has been moved slightly to the north a little from it's original central sim edge position.

Sadly, the rest of the Welcome Area objects, such as the Noob Corral and Avatar Central were removed or deleted. However, copys and replicas of the Welcome Area's objects are known to still exist.

Natoma's parcels were (mostly) bought by June 2006 by Lumiere Noir, the owner of The Ivory Tower Library of Primatives, which had been running a "Natoma Branch" since 2004, but primarily from a different sim called Noyo since March 2004. The Ivory Tower originated in Noyo because at the time, Noyo was one of a few sim regions which contained a Telehub, a LL object which one would use to teleport around the SL grid - for a fee!

Lumiere Noir and his colleague Avi Arrow ceremonially demolished the original Ivory Tower in Noyo on 17th June 2006, which spectacularly fell down the Noyo valley side into the river below in hundreds of pieces, witnessed by many onlookers. (See Torley Linden's Flickr record: https://flic.kr/s/aHsiDbDaP4 ). Lumiere then opened a brand new, larger Ivory Tower in Natoma in June 2006, which still stands today.

If you visit the present Ivory Tower in Natoma, you will find a small model of the original Noyo Ivory Tower on display, just inside the Tower's entranceway. A visit down south to Noyo, and you will still see the east valley side location where the original Ivory Tower once stood from March 2004 and eventually fell into Noyo's river on 17th June 2006.

Re: a Telehub, a LL object which one would use to teleport around the SL grid - for a fee!

 

I don't recall there ever being a fee for traveling on the telehub? If there was, it was gone by the time I came in 2004. 

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

@Prokofy Neva

Sorry, my little mistake, I got a bit confused by what Telehubs actually did as I've never used one! 

I now realise there was no fee to pay with them, as in fact it seems Telehubs actually replaced the unpopular teleport fee system. So, your questioning is appreciated and my error is corrected.

I was too late to experience either Telehubs or teleport fees. But I did know that the locations of many Telehubs were later changed into Infohubs.

Edited August 14, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Seicher Rae]

7 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Re: a Telehub, a LL object which one would use to teleport around the SL grid - for a fee!

(realize you were paraphrasing someone else)

omg. A fee to TP? Please, don't give LL any old-new ideas!  "Premium Plus! No TP fees!"

[Prokofy Neva]

1 hour ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

@Prokofy NevaSorry, my little mistake, I got a bit confused by what Telehubs actually did as I've never used one! 

I now realise there was no fee to pay with them, as in fact it seems Telehubs actually replaced the unpopular teleport fee system. So, your questioning is appreciated and my error is corrected.

I was too late to experience either Telehubs or teleport fees. But I did know that the locations of many Telehubs were later changed into Infohubs.

The "unpopular teleport fee system" didn't last long if it ever existed and I'm not sure it did. Various residents created turbo-backpacks (like Cubey Terra's pack) that could jet you around. There was the "X-flight Rod" which was a freebie everyone used (and I still use it in the sky). But if you wanted to go somewhere, you clicked on the map location or used a landmark, but the system first took you to a telehub, from which you had to fly. So the "cost" was in time and effort.

This claim here about a "cost for direct teleporting" is not one that I recall as accurate at all but you will have to find an actual Linden from that era, and unless Andrew Linden comes forward, there aren't any I don't believe.

You can read some important history of telehubs here, here, here, here, and here. (Note that when you click on links to the old archived forums, you are given scary messages about the absence of certificates but nothing has happened to me and others in literally years and years of clicking on these links and using the search in them, which is interesting.)

The issue with telehubs wasn't just the alleged "avatar trap" issue (that avatars were trapped inside buildings in or near them, sometimes deliberately to make them see merchants' offerings); it's that you had to keep moving from them to your ultimate destination. The Ravenglass sim was nearly exactly 1,000 meters from the Waterhead telehub. It was a long, choppy flight. At first I despaired of ever finding any customers when I bought this sim off the auction to re-sell and re-rent. People would have to drive on the roads or fly from the telehub.

When Robin Linden said at the time, after fierce debate, that the telehubs weren't changing that much, that only the forced landing was changing, that was disingenuous because without any forced landing, there was no need to go to them, and hence everything built up around them, mainly malls, became worthless.  And people *didn't* go to them. They went to large shopping malls that then created traffic for themselves with bots and various other gimmicks -- until traffic manipulation was outlawed and eventually large events on separate sims for specific periods of time replaced shopping at giant stores and malls, although not completely.

The infohubs, as they were subsequently named, attracted zero traffic because nobody deliberately flies to some location or teleports to some location to read a signboard about how to build with prims, etc. 

Only when the infohubs began to be used as destinations to send newbies to after Orientation Island, on a random basis, did it make sense because "home" was automatically set and then people tended to return to them and know that there were instructions there.

And even this simple issue of "random" became contested as the Lindens insisted on using actual random distribution, which, with this small list of locations, meant that there was no load balance and in fact -- as randomly generated items can do when the set is a short list -- some kept repeating over and over and newbies bunched up at them. It made more sense to use serial distribution and I remember I even made an "optimized newbie distributor" portal board sent it to the Lindens because they just jammed on this point so terribly and wouldn't see the evidence of bunching up before their eyes. I think they did eventually change it.

Edited August 14, 2022 by Prokofy Neva

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Orientation Island (2008)

Different versions of SL's Orientation Island have existed throughout the years of SL and most people might only recall the one they experienced, as returning to Orientation Island after the initial tuition, is not permitted.

However, some versions of Orientation Island do still have Public versions which can be revisited for the nostalgia. Sadly, mine can't.

My own experience of Orientation Island was in June 2008 and no longer exists. It had four zones with mandatory tasks to accomplish. Failure to pass all the tasks needed would prevent you leaving Orientation Island. Here's what Orientation Island in June 2008 looked like:

The Appearance Tutorial, as I vaguely remember it, featured a castle that one could walk through, accomplishing tasks such as attaching and carrying a flaming torch to a particular destination.

The Communicate Tutorial involved to a talking to a large parrot who wanted a kiss. The parrot was the first creature in SL I ever talked to and is still the only creature I have willingly kissed!

The Movement Tutorial involved driving a gocart around a small town. I spent quite a lot of time on the gocart as I found it quite fun as it reminded me of Mario Kart. There was another task which required you to walk inside one of the town's towers, then fly up inside it as a way to learn to fly.

The Search Tutorial is a complete mystery to me as I have no recollection of doing it! But I must have completed the tasks there, as I would still be in Orientation Island today!

At the centre of the sim was an area one could return to after passing all the required tasks. with some kind of teleporter which would allow the avatar to move from Orientation Island out into the wider SL grid.

After my "graduation" in Orientation Island, I was teleported out and arrived in Miramare infohub, one of the Nova Albion sims.  I now consider Miramare to be my "birthplace" ! 

Edited August 14, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Prokofy Neva]

Somewhere I have pictures of the Orientation Temple (as it looked back then) which was taken right out of the game "Myst". And was as frustrating in some ways. 

I remember one iteration some years ago where the Lindens had newbies driving around and killing rats, both activities that not everyone enjoyed, to say the least.

Speaking of ancient history, I just ran across a post I did showing the auction sale prices of entire mainland sims (they used to be auctioned as whole sims as they were rolled out contiguously).

The weird names -- the prices -- which were more than the norm then -- it's all hard to believe. These sims have changed hands many times and I wonder if there are any 2007 owners.

Rolypoly (128,128) Mature 65536m US$2751.00 Jul-22-07
Dingercat (128,128) Mature 62464m US$2551.00 Jul-22-07
Dooknock (128,128) PG 61440m US$2411.00 Jul-22-07
Salliohsis (128,128) Mature 65536m US$2811.00 Jul-22-07
Argybargy (128,128) Mature 62464m US$2551.00 Jul-22-07
Dex (128,128) Mature 65536m US$2751.00 Jul-22-07
Acknefar (128,128) PG 65536m US$2741.00 Jul-22-07
Glookbone (128,128) PG 59504m US$2345.00 Jul-22-07
Nerani (128,128) Mature 65536m US$2741.00 Jul-22-07
Wicktro (128,128) Mature 61440m US$2606.00 Jul-22-07
Thalipolli (128,128) Mature 65296m US$2751.00 Jul-22-07
Phenywheny (128,128) Mature 65536m US$2656.00 Jul-22-07
Hunbglump (128,128) PG 65328m US$2606.00 Jul-22-07
Tordangle (128,128) Mature 65296m US$2701.00 Jul-22-07
Divirian (128,128) Mature 62256m US$3056.00 Jul-22-07
Grumphmunch (128,128) PG 65536m US$2651.00 Jul-22-07

 

And these prices were paid *before* the P2P went in and made it easier to get to them but by 2007, the telehubs were long gone (they were removed in 2005). 

Here's another post where someone said they paid for teleports but "there were ways around this". I think they mean the jet packs?

 

[Prokofy Neva]

So Hamlet has an article about Le Monde's recollection of Ginko, and there are two things that stood out for me: 1) Hamlet got it wrong again -- it wasn't a bank and wasn't the worst of the financial problems of that era 2) there are "no Lindens who remember this".

Scary.

So Ginko wasn't a bank, it was what you might call charitably a "High Yield Investment Plan" or less charitably, a Ponzi scheme, which appears to succeed as old investors get interest based on new investments pouring in -- until it collapses.

Ginko didn't provide loans or investment or CDs or anything like a real bank; it just had these terminals connected to only one avatar who lived in a South American country and whose RL name was not known,  where if you put a deposit, you got a bonus instantly and then built up high interest. How was that possible? Because the Ginko guy was heavily into SL gambling, which at that time was legal because the US hadn't yet passed an online gambling law.

So it was no problem for him for several years to hand out money to newbies which he made on the slots easily. Camping was also a passive way to make money back then - seat alts on money-making chairs and leave them, although eventually many had scripts that unseated people after a certain amount of time.

What was a far worse problem were the "Stock Markets." The first "Stock Market", at whose birth I was present, was started by a group of land dealers who originally wanted to compete with Anshe Chung's monopoly on prime waterfront, and pool resources to buy and sell land as a kind of second cartel. So they conceived of this idea of selling a kind of bond at first, then it became a larger stock program. This was then imitated by at least two other groups, probably more. Don't forget the founder of BitCoin, who later committed suicide, got her start in SL.

The stock market also paid out while the land market was prosperous, but then various factors, in SL and RL, caused it to fail. Soon the stock markets couldn't pay their dividends or even allow withdrawals.

A crusading coder-turned-lawyer doing an RP as a prosecutor blew the whistle on this activity, which in fact was initially touted by the Lindens and by Metanomics, a group founded by a Cornell University professor and many others, as a pathway to prosperity for the poor world. But actually by the time he was blogging about it, other people were already combating it and exposing the bad actors, some of whom made away with thousands of real dollars of real people. I myself never invested in Ginko but just supplied a rental for the terminal as it was highly in demand. People would come with 10 alts and collect all the bonuses, then usually leave their accounts empty. There were quite a few people playing the stock market as it was a fun game to play, with people having IPOs of their companies, etc. but basically, anything that is anonymous on the Internet fails, which is why BitCoin etc fail. There were claims of hacking, but the bigger issue was simply that the people RPing big money rollers didn't have the wealth to sustain their projects, and in the case of Ginko in particular, but others as well, when the Lindens outlawed gambling in compliance with US law, that demolished the Ponzis.

Anonymity is a killer for virtual economies, even though it is fanned as a boon, and perhaps it is for some. Eventually this will sort itself out. I recall there was also a very reputable loan company in the early days run by a guy who had retired from the aerospace industry. He supplied loans to buy land back when you constantly had to be poised with resources to make use of unexpected auctions and the flipping after them. He would join your group, supply the tier and/or give you cash also based on his ability to seize the land back. So it was basically a "rent to buy," a system you can still find although it is much more rare. But he got out of this business because it was a lot of work and people were anonymous and untrustworthy.

[NevaehHeartstrings]

On 8/14/2022 at 11:41 AM, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Orientation Island (2008)

Different versions of SL's Orientation Island have existed throughout the years of SL and most people might only recall the one they experienced, as returning to Orientation Island after the initial tuition, is not permitted.

However, some versions of Orientation Island do still have Public versions which can be revisited for the nostalgia. Sadly, mine can't.

My own experience of Orientation Island was in June 2008 and no longer exists. It had four zones with mandatory tasks to accomplish. Failure to pass all the tasks needed would prevent you leaving Orientation Island. Here's what Orientation Island in June 2008 looked like:

The Appearance Tutorial, as I vaguely remember it, featured a castle that one could walk through, accomplishing tasks such as attaching and carrying a flaming torch to a particular destination.

The Communicate Tutorial involved to a talking to a large parrot who wanted a kiss. The parrot was the first creature in SL I ever talked to and is still the only creature I have willingly kissed!

The Movement Tutorial involved driving a gocart around a small town. I spent quite a lot of time on the gocart as I found it quite fun as it reminded me of Mario Kart. There was another task which required you to walk inside one of the town's towers, then fly up inside it as a way to learn to fly.

The Search Tutorial is a complete mystery to me as I have no recollection of doing it! But I must have completed the tasks there, as I would still be in Orientation Island today!

At the centre of the sim was an area one could return to after passing all the required tasks. with some kind of teleporter which would allow the avatar to move from Orientation Island out into the wider SL grid.

After my "graduation" in Orientation Island, I was teleported out and arrived in Miramare infohub, one of the Nova Albion sims.  I now consider Miramare to be my "birthplace" ! 

Places like that used to show up on the Beta Grid from time to time then disappear again until another time . like some strange relic waiting to be found.

[NevaehHeartstrings]

On 8/16/2022 at 6:17 AM, Prokofy Neva said:

So Hamlet

So Hamlet has also been pressing the lab lately to charge for Teleports and other strange Facebook Digi Stasi moves in SL even at this late in it's lifespan .

Hard to take him with a grain of salt, more like a landslide full of it. he also ran off most of his readers with his lopsided censorship.