Leaderboard

At Second Life, we are committed to creating a richer, more immersive, and safer environment for everyone. With that spirit, we’re excited to share several important updates and developments that not only aim to improve our virtual world but also ensure that our community continues to thrive in a safe and engaging manner. Bringing Second Life Everywhere: Mobile and Desktop Updates Our development team is working tirelessly to make Second Life accessible wherever you are, whether you're on a mobile device or sitting at your desktop. While our Mobile App is still in Private Alpha, we’re looking forward to expanding access to more members of our community shortly. Our new App promises to bring all the richness and beauty of Second Life directly to your mobile phones and tablets. Don't miss our latest developer update video for a sneak peek at what’s coming! On the desktop front, we're gearing up for a wider release of some of your most requested features for the Second Life Official Viewer. We're particularly excited about rolling out innovations like Mirrors and 2K textures, which were showcased in a recent "Lab Gab" video. Making Second Life Safer: Strengthening Community Protections Our priority has always been to maintain a safe and welcoming environment for all while preserving the freedom of expression that makes our virtual world so special. That’s why we’re working to further enhance the safety and protection of the Second Life platform. These efforts include strengthening some of our community and employee policies as well as evaluating improvements to our age verification process. One area of ongoing scrutiny both internally and externally concerns child-presenting avatars. We recognize and want to acknowledge the vibrant community of residents who enjoy roleplaying as such, and we also feel that it is crucial to reinforce our stance that sexualized ageplay is strictly prohibited. Today, we are updating our Child Avatar Policy to ensure a clear separation and to safeguard all community members. We know that this update has the potential to cause confusion or concern in our community, so we’ve prepared an FAQ which we will continue to update as questions come up. Strengthening Internal Policies and Community Engagement We recently posted our initial response to community concerns about alleged violations of company and community policies by employees, contractors, and community members. Since that time, we have conducted multiple thorough investigations to look closely at whether there were specific infractions or problematic interactions that needed us to take action. The investigation determined that all Lindens and contractors have stayed in compliance with our own community guidelines, as well as unwritten, ethical guidelines. I do not make this statement lightly, and I know there will be plenty of discussion. What I can say is that there is no incentive, monetary or otherwise, for me to mislead the community. At some point, the community has to trust that we, the Lindens, do well when the community thrives. We may make mistakes along the way, and we know that our community will engage with us when we do. Second Life is an enormous virtual world and we have to walk a very fine line between policing and preserving freedoms while also protecting the future growth and health of Second Life as a platform that respects diversity and creative expression among our community. The findings did highlight opportunities for improvement. As a result, we are making updates to our internal policies to raise the standard for how Linden employees should respectfully engage with community members. This addresses multiple forms of engagement including how we present ourselves, how we interact with the community (even in moments of conflict), and how we minimize the perception of conflict of interest and favoritism in our interactions. Additionally, there have been specific actions we have initiated or finalized: Updated our Child Avatar Policy Updated our internal Policies and Procedures Implemented personnel changes Initiated management improvement programs Committed to Community Roundtables (see below) Committed to increased transparency and accountability Looking ahead, we are excited to announce the launch of our Community Roundtable with Second Life Leadership. The first one is scheduled for May 20 at 9:30-11 a.m. PT. This will be an opportunity for community members to connect directly with our top executives, share your input, and discuss ideas on enhancing Second Life. This initiative represents another step in our efforts to improve our community interactions, ensuring that your voice is more directly heard and valued. I will be a part of the first Community Roundtable and welcome you all to attend. Building a Better Second Life Together All of these updates and initiatives are part of our broader drive to continually improve Second Life. Stay tuned for more, participate in upcoming events, and let's make Second Life better together. Oberwolf Linden

Hey there! I wanted to take a moment and chime in as the person who oversees our Governance team. I've seen some of you mention concerns over weaponizing the policy. I want to assure you that we are prepared for people who might attempt to use this policy in a less than good hearted nature. We have a lot of internal processes in place not just before we take action on an account, but also as part of our appeals process. We understand that we are human, and some times even we might make mistakes even with our own intentions in the right place. We work hard to ensure that no action is taken without full and proper evidence to support the action. In addition to that, our appeals process ensures that not only does the person who took the action is not involved in the appeal, but that the process itself includes a review from more than one agent as well.

Hi all! I'm gonna admit that I haven't read every comment on here yet but I will be doing so shortly and responding where I can. Just a few things first: The only change to the Terms and Conditions is the update to the Child Avatar Policy The FAQ is a living doc, which means we know it is in no way complete right now. As questions come up here and through Support, we'll be adding more questions and answers to hopefully help clarify some of the changes.

Save the date! On June 23rd, Second Life will be turning 21! The 21st annual Second Life birthday celebration (SL21B) will be held from June 21st through July 21st. Get ready for a month of fun-filled days of live music, performances, shopping, and amazing community exhibits! This year’s Birthday theme is Elements. This theme invites us to explore the fundamental components that make up our vast virtual landscape and the diverse communities within it. From the fiery passion of creators and artists to the fluid adaptability of our social environments, from the solid bonds within our communities to the fresh breezes of innovation that propel us forward, "Elements" is a celebration of the core forces that shape our experiences in Second Life. Just like last year, your exhibit does not need to stay in theme. Share your Second Life passions with us. Your interests. Your communities. Your world! Every year we celebrate because of you, the amazing and creative Residents who have chosen to call Second Life home. What has drawn you into this world, and what keeps you here? These annual festivities are an opportunity to show us what fuels your Second Life. Let's celebrate that together! This year we are again offering two types of exhibitor regions, General rated regions and Adult rated regions. If you would like to participate as an exhibitor with a presence at SL21B, then please fill out this exhibitor form no later than May 12th. Over the next month, keep an eye on our blog for more opportunities to participate in the SL21B celebrations as a volunteer, performer, and merchant! CURRENT APPLICATIONS FOR SL21B: Exhibitors Application - Applications close on May 12th, 2024

In my humble view, @Laurel Aurelia has one of THE most interesting and photogenic faces I've ever seen in SL. I've used her for pics before -- in fact, one of my favourite shots I ever took is of her -- but I wanted to experiment with a new photographic style a bit, and she very generously sat quietly for like 45 minutes while I took about 30 shots of her. So expect to see more. Here's a first try though.

New Android and iOS Alpha builds were published Wednesday, April 3rd. We’ve been working hard for the last two months and are excited to share some major steps forward for the mobile client -- correctly displaying avatars and teleport improvements have been at the top of the list. If your avatar depends on an avatar shape deformer, you should immediately notice the changes to avatar rendering! Avatars that didn’t render at all before, or didn’t look the way you intended, now render correctly. Teleports are also greatly improved – no more getting stuck on a loading screen! If you’re on a parcel with streaming audio, you’ll now be able to use standard audio controls to stop/start and change the volume (tap main menu > tap the audio metadata at the bottom of the screen). We also found and fixed some issues with the order of group chat messages. There are definitely some known issues (h/t flexiprims!), but overall we’re sure you’re going to love the changes we’ve made in this release. Interested in checking out the Second Life mobile client? All Premium Plus subscribers are invited to participate - learn more about how to apply here. If you’re already participating in the Private Alpha, we appreciate your time, participation and feedback! Please continue to report issues in our feedback portal and from the app (main menu > Give feedback or file a bug). We’ve heard you, and know that there are lots of people waiting for wider access to mobile. We are working hard to expand access - and we will keep you updated with details and timelines as soon as we can!

One of my photographic alts.

Ok, LAST PIC OF @Laurel Aurelia !!! (Probably.) And I think the one I like best?

Residents presenting as Child Avatars shall be prohibited from the following: Entering any Region rated Adult. Residents must change to a non-child or non-childlike avatar to visit Adult rated regions. Engaging or participating in any event or location where nudity and/or sexual activity is present, encouraged and/or expected. Wearing genital/sexual attachments including clothing, attachments or HUDs created for and/or worn by child avatars to indicate genitalia, whether visible or not. Being fully nude. Child avatar content creators are required to add a modesty layer which is baked into child avatar skins or bodies, is not transparent, does not match the skin tone, and may not be removed. Child avatars where the focal point of the body is on the breasts, pelvis, or buttocks Participation in lewd or sexual acts in which one or more of the avatars appears to represent minors (or the depiction of such acts in images, video, textures, or text).

Oh dear. People, where are your lovely pictures???? Well, never mind. Here's another by me -- apologies for crowding them in. It's in imitation of a much nicer work I ran across on Deviant Art, dating from 2009 and by an artist called Rust2D. I liked the effect, and wanted to see if I could replicate something similar.

This is my newest version of Estragon (aka "Gogo") from Waiting for Godot. The mostly-dead tree in the background is one of two "stage props" used in the entire play. The other is a rock. A weeee bit visually challenging!

Got bored last night. Decided I wanted to be the villainess from a Pixar movie for a bit.

Because one can never post too many pics of @Laurel Aurelia, here's another shot.

I've been looking for more creative outlets and ended up settling on a virtual scrapbook. This project has been really helping me come out of a creative slump. My next spread will feature some of my SL friends and I had the idea to take photobooth-style pictures with them to add to the scrapbook. Before I take pictures with others I tend to take test pictures to see if the idea translates well. Here are my tests shots for this little project.

One failed experiment later. Flickr doesn't like transparency. GnARGGHhhh. https://www.flickr.com/photos/191119559@N02/53662967387/in/dateposted-public/

This shot was supposed to be something else, but it became this instead. Oh well. Sometimes my pics have a mind of their own.

Happy Friday! Make it a good one 😘

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, right? 😜

As promised in our PBR Materials announcement last year -- as of this morning’s Second Life server grid roll, we have increased the allowance of Land Impact by lowering mesh Download Weight by 15% for all of Second Life! Since much of Second Life today consists of mesh content, anyone who owns or rents land will see more land impact available on their parcels. How can I check if my objects have been affected? Right-click on the object you want to inspect, then click Edit, then click the More info link to see the current Download weight. We’d like to take this opportunity to remind residents that this allowance is being given for no charge and is intended to help offset any additional Land Impact spent on manually rezzed reflection probes and lights, and of course in anticipation of the upcoming Mirrors release. Land Impact is a finite resource, please rez responsibly! Updated: Frequently Asked Questions. Q. My private region can hold 20,000 prims (Land Impact). How many prims will I have after this 15% Download weight reduction? The region will still only be able to hold its original 20,000 prims, as the same for any parcel, or 30k private region. With this update mesh object's download weight has been reduced, requiring less land impact for objects where download weight is higher than physics and server cost, and letting your prims go further. Imagine a box that can only carry 20 pounds. With this update, the box is still the same, but the objects inside are lighter! To learn more about how weight is factored into an object’s land impact visit: https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/calculating-land-impact-r273 Q. What types of items are NOT affected by the update? Animesh, primitives, and sculpties are not affected. The update will only affect static mesh objects that are rezzed onto your land. Q. How can I see what my meshes download weight used to be? At this time you will only be able to compare it by rezzing an object on the Beta Grid (Aditi) running older server code, which will be for a limited time as we are constantly moving forward. Any Beta Grid regions running server build 2024-02-21.7995320426 should report the old Download Weight. Q. This is confusing. Why didn’t you raise the region's prim (Land Impact) limits? Download Weight effectively controls the scene triangle budget. While the limit was appropriate when Download Weight was first introduced, it’s too restrictive by modern standards. By adjusting Download Weight independently of other resource limits, we can avoid overloading other systems (such as physics and script time) that are already using appropriate limits. Essentially, the weights were out of balance, with download weight carrying too much emphasis compared to other weights, and this change moves towards a better balance.

I spend my weekends in rl. Reuniting with my favorite sl people on Sunday is always beautiful

Sorta liked how this one turned out.

Didi (Vladimir)

Heyalp! Mah floor is eating me! Or maybe I'm supposed to edit this brand of pose ball.. 🤔

The only part of this that surprises me is the "modesty layer" bit; that's going to break a fair amount of content, I'd have thought. Overall, this is much less Draconian than it could have been. It's going to trigger some complaints, but other than the fact that kid avatars aren't going to be able to run around at nude beaches anymore (which I think is a good thing) or be given "realistic" baths (which . . . maybe is also a good thing), I don't see how this should impede those representing as children overly much.

Learn More About the Tilia Acquisition in an All-New Lab Gab! Join us for a special edition of “Lab Gab” with Linden Lab Executive Chairman Oberwolf Linden, who discusses this week’s announcement that cross-border payments firm Thunes has entered into an agreement to acquire Tilia. This deal is good news for Second Life residents and creators, who will soon see more payment processing options without additional costs. As part of the transaction, Thunes and Linden Lab (which is the current majority owner of Tilia), have agreed to an exclusive five-year partnership in which, post closing, Thunes will provide payment processing and pay-outs to Linden Lab, leveraging Thunes’ global network – allowing gamers to pay, and to receive money real-time, in a more cost-efficient way and with increased transparency. Oberwolf tackles many of the top questions emerging from the community about the transaction, including more specific details about what this means for the Second Life community now and in the future. Here are links to some of the topics we’ve covered in this episode: https://www.thunes.com/news/thunes-announces-agreement-to-acquire-tilia-llc https://www.pymnts.com/acquisitions/2024/thunes-tackles-us-gaming-market-with-tilia-acquisition To learn more, be sure to watch Lab Gab on the Second Life YouTube Channel! For full episodes of Lab Gab, click over to the Lab Gab YouTube Playlist. Join Second Life Leadership in Conversation at our Community Roundtable Event We’re also excited to announce the all-new Community Roundtable event with Second Life Leadership, scheduled to be held May 20 at 9:30-11 a.m. SLT. This is an opportunity to connect directly with our top executives, share your input, and discuss ideas on enhancing Second Life. This initiative represents another step in our efforts to improve our community interactions, ensuring that your voice is more directly heard and valued. At the first meeting, we’ll be joined by Linden Lab Executive Chairman Oberwolf Linden and Senior VP of Product & Engineering Grumpity Linden. During future Roundtable meetups, we’ll rotate in other executives to participate on a variety of topics and we’ll also aim to vary the scheduling to be more accessible to other time zones. For the inaugural session, we’ll open with some important updates on recent developments and announcements including the new agreement by global payment provider Thunes to acquire Tilia and other recent policy changes. Attendees will also have an opportunity to ask questions during the open Q&A portion of the event, but please remember that this Community Roundtable is not meant to serve as a forum for individual support issues or personal grievances. While we do welcome candid and honest interactions, the spirit and intent of this gathering is to provide an opportunity for both Leadership and the community to listen and learn from each other. Our usual Community Standards apply and hate speech or personal attacks will not be tolerated. If you would like to submit a question in advance or just provide feedback directly to Leadership prior to the event, then please use this anonymous form. We’ll update this post with the inworld location closer to the Roundtable date…and we look forward to seeing you inworld on May 20! Second Life Leadership Team

It's not drivable because it's not a road. It's a board walk. That's also why they don't have rezzing zones on them.

Ready for the Fantasy Faire...our favorite event of the year in sl!

a little rouge...

'At Home, Looking'

The weather is nice, it's spring....best time to play a round tennis, isn't it?

This weekend's 'keep-it-simple' shopping outfit.

Getting ready for tonight's Trek RP. I spoiled my alt for said RP with the newest Glam Affair skin, so she just had to mug for the camera! XD