Vanity Fair

I have another question for you: In your opinion, what have been the biggest successes in the 15-year history of SL? Things that we should celebrate, that were accomplished either by Linden Lab or by the users? Thanks in advance! ?

Yes, I do remember that. Age verification was definitely a controversy at the time. I remember that LL hired some company called Aristotle? Or something like that to do their age verification for them, and all the complaining that people did. And then, after a while, LL removed the age verification system they had in place.

Hey, I'm not laying all the blame at Linden Lab's feet. And this is not any sort of attack on Linden Lab; I think overall they do a pretty good job as a company (even if they do make the occasional blunder now and then; every company does).There have been many controversies that have happened on the grid WITHOUT their involvement, too (disputes and lawsuits between competing vendors, for example). And if Linden Lab decides to shut this thread down for—God forbid!—talking about the history of SL, warts and all, well then I'll just continue the discussion over on The Forum That Shall Not Be Named. It's probably going to be more entertaining over there anyways.

Now I want to know what the whole "*****" fiasco was!

One controversy I do remember was the whole age verification system they put into place and then later scrapped completely.

Wasn't that under M Linden's watch?

Oops, sorry! I forgot to post the link to the interactive timeline I discovered! https://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/43981/Second-Life-Controversies/

I'm curious, and I thought this forum would be a natural place to ask the question: In your opinion, what have been the biggest controversies in the 15-year history of Second Life? I have found a website with an interactive timeline of SL controversies, but it only goes up to 2012. What do you think have been the major controversies since then? Thank you in advance for your comments! I've also posted over on That Other Forum Which Shall Not Be Named ? and I am hoping to trigger some lively discussion and (perhaps) I may write up a blogpost for my blog on the topic.

I just wanted to add to this discussion by saying that I have compiled all the current information I could find about the upcoming last names feature in Second Life, here: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/03/22/more-details-on-the-upcoming-ability-to-change-your-user-name-in-second-life/ Interestingly, this is one of my most popular blogposts on my blog, getting around ten views per day. A lot of people are looking for information on how to get last names! I have a feeling that this service is going to be VERY popular, since we have over seven years of pent-up demand for last names.

Altamura has FREE men's and women's full-body (head and body) avatars as hunt prizes in the Men's Only Hunt and the Women's Only Hunt, but only until August 18th: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/08/03/second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-free-male-and-female-mesh-full-body-avatars-from-altamura/ Here's info on how to get the two free Altamura Max male full-body avatars at the Ajuda SL Brasil and UniHispanaCrea freebie stores: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/05/02/second-life-steals-and-deals-where-to-get-both-versions-of-the-new-free-male-mesh-avatar-head-and-body-by-altamura-plus-the-best-freebie-stores-for-men/ And here's info on how to get the Altamura Valentina freebie full-body avatar for women and the dollarbie eBody mesh avatar bodies for women: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/05/15/second-life-steals-and-deals-the-four-best-freebie-stores-in-sl/ All the Altamura bodies have a HUD that gives complete alpha control, so you can wear just about anything with them. I have found that most clothing made for Maitreya Lara mesh avatar bodies tends to fit the female Altamura bodies well, and they have Slink-compatible feet in three heights: flat. medium, and high. Also: there is another free mesh avatar body for women called the Afrodite body by LUCYBODY, here's instructions on how to get it: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/05/29/second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-afrodite-female-mesh-body-by-lucybody/ Happy shopping/hunting!

I just popped into her store in SL yesterday to see what's new. She hasn't dropped any of her prices for her older system clothing, which surprises me somewhat. It's lovely stuff, but she can't be selling very much lately with mesh taking over the grid (even for system avatars).

I have a Maitreya Lara mesh body but I kept all my old system clothing. I use it with a system avatar with a Catwa mesh head and Slink Bento mesh hands for a more updated look. There is still a lot of life left in well-made system clothing by Nicky Ree and other vendors.

You forgot Xiola Linden, the Community Manager of Second Life.

Oh wow, I didn't even realize that people made custom mesh heads for avatars. That must be pretty expensive!

I want LOTS of group spaces so I can join all the fashion groups I want to, instead of swapping in and out at the 60 group limit.

Here is, gathered together in one place, all the information I currently have about the new last names feature in SL, from various Linden sources: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/03/22/more-details-on-the-upcoming-ability-to-change-your-user-name-in-second-life/ I am updating this blogpost with more information as I get it. It should answer a lot questions. For example, I have read somewhere that Linden Lab will be allowing one free name change to each resident, but I have not heard that officially and I doubt it is true. I would expect something around the US$20 range. Linden Lab has not yet said how much it will cost.

And... Do you see Second Life lasting for another 15 years, becoming a long-lived virtual world like Active Worlds, which is now over 20 years old and still going? Or do you ever forsee a situation where you could migrate Second Life users and their inventories from Second Life to a successor virtual world, perhaps Sansar? Inquiring minds want to know ;-) --Ryan/Vanity.

Ebbe, could you give us some sort of timeline on your plans to move Second Life sims from the server farm over to the cloud, and could you give us some idea of how much cheaper SL land would be once that change is implemented? (waves hello, it's Ryan Schultz from Sansar)

Here is, gathered together in one place, all the information I currently have about the new last names feature in SL, from various Lindens: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/03/22/more-details-on-the-upcoming-ability-to-change-your-user-name-in-second-life/ I am updating this blogpost with more information as I get it. It should answer a lot questions. I have read somewhere that Linden Lab will be allowing one free name change to each resident, but I have not heard that officially and I doubt it is true. I would expect something around the US$20 range. They will use this as a money-maker. They will probably make quite a bit of money from this, as there are seven years of pent-up demand.

I get the store names under the Pinterest link when I look at it on my iPad, but NOT when I look at it on my WIndows desktop PC.

Thanks! I added the link you posted with the Google Drive spreadsheet (which appears to be more up-to-date than the Pinterest link in Strawberry's blog) to my own blogpost about this upcoming change: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/04/11/second-life-the-e2v-vendor-system-is-shutting-down-and-how-that-affects-you/

Thank you! I'm very happy with this response. I have updated my blogpost: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/04/10/second-life-steals-and-deals-altamura-jenny-bento-mesh-head-for-only-l700-at-the-expo-fair/

I haven't heard back from LittleMe so I took my own screenshots and updated my original blogpost (see link I made earlier). I still think that this was a stupid decision on Altamura's part, and they are going to get lots of questions from users about it. In case you need the link again: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/04/10/second-life-steals-and-deals-altamura-jenny-bento-mesh-head-for-only-l700-at-the-expo-fair/

There's also a free Altamura mesh body and head package at Ajuda SL Brasil. You can't change the skin tone or makeup, but you can't beat the price. Altamura mesh avatar bodies have Slink-compatible feet and I have found that most Maitreya clothing fits the body well.