lucagrabacr

SL furry content on social media sites like Twitter are some of the most engaged SL content on those sites, mainly because the nature of us furries c= so if you're a furry or furry creator of any kind don't be shy to post and spread words of your wonderful stuff, people love them! ♥

Yeah, I was just mentioning the trend, not necessarily saying it's a good idea c=

There are still many people out there who are passionate about SL and believe in it c= and not to mention the people who stick around

I was replying to a post asking what I thought about crypto and I was criticizing Decentraland, and media that touts it up as the next Metaverse

It's certainly the thing right now to combine crypto with a virtual world, whether or not LL will try to experiment with that route, it's why it's important for us and LL to continue highlighting the non-technical aspects and advantages of SL, a lot of the people who are VERY into a virtual world like Second Life aren't into it to make money although of course it is important and a crucial aspect in making a virtual world work I have some ideas on how SL can capitalize on these aspects further with certain specific technical stuff, but it requires them to be in a very good spot and believe that it would indeed help growth

This blog said Decentraland is a successor to SL and implied SL is dead in the water. Sure you can say it's anecdotal and is just the writer's opinion, but the implication is still there There are more examples the kind we all are probably familiar with, it's a lot better post-pandemic since most of these bloggers do their research about SL better after taking the idea of the Metaverse more seriously during lockdown, but there are still many of them, mostly wrong in how they paint SL as still being the same as how it was in 2009

There have been cases where user efforts help substantially or transcend official marketing efforts in salvaging something from possible relative obscurity, mostly happened with open source IPs or indie games, but doesn't mean that can't be the case with SL as well. And not to mention it will also help LL understand the users better if they are more vocal

I'm sure they mentioned that they have a plan for SL in general post-acquisition, though no matter how good it is it won't matter much if we can't break the barrage of constant misinformation about SL out there or convince people that SL is still alive and is one of the best virtual worlds out there c=

I never said that, I was just addressing your argument implying only LL should, and that it's LL's sole responsibility to make SL better

I don't believe so but even if that's the case doesn't make it not worth for the Residents to help SL which is ultimately something we collectively find enjoyment, use or meaning in regardless of whose responsibility it is to make it better

I don't think that's always the case, but it doesn't matter where it came from or how, in the end if Second Life is in a better place it's ours to enjoy as well

It is rooted in a rather sound observation. There is a huge discrepancy between the passion and care the Lindens show on a personal level compared to what's seemingly in LL's mind, and if you check sites such as glassdoor you will see reviews which say that higher ups did constrain them a lot, or at least they used to

LL employees are human too so they are certainly not perfect, especially with limited resources compared to big tech out there which can pour billions into things. And yes that's certainly not how things should work in an ideal world but it is what it is, and depending on how you see it SL is our responsibility as much as it is LL's

That about sums up the experience I have getting my friends and people into Second Life, yet despite all that some of them stay. We have something special here and that's the most important thing, the rough patches can be smoothened up with enough pressure and incentive

Well now that real competitions are raising that does make them more receptive. Experience with the business and concept of the metaverse in general, and of failures that they are less likely to experiment with the kind of things you mentioned which have failed, and listen even more closely to the community The key is within the Residents, the Lindens are chained by a professional code of conduct to not say or do certain things. A lot of the solid vision, pressure and visible interest of certain things have to directly and organically come from us, that requires a unified vision and movement which synthesize the overall desires of the various SL communities out there, and communicate them in an impactful way

They had little to no competition, had a lot of old-school thinkers oversight, and they didn't have a unified voice of their userbase showing them what really matters to them and what the future can hold, and why so that they can pitch those to higher ups. They have a lot more experiences now and the Lindens are generally more in-touch, and perceptive.

We have people in the hundreds of thousands invested and believing in the concept that is what SL is right now, for one reason or another that's why they stay. With enough words of mouth carrying a unifying vision and promise of what SL can become, to expand on that initial concept, we can ignite all those buried and passive embers of hope

Hey, it's quite a good point and I do see a pattern of people wondering what we could possibly be saying about SL that differentiates it in a positive way compared to other platforms out there, so I'd point some out here; While the render engine is older, it still offers its users the ability to have a more detailed avatar and scenes compared to competing Social 3D Apps out there (IMVU, VRChat, and other VR-centric ones which require their users to stay within poly limit which are lower compared to SL's) although this is a quickly diminishing advantage, of course SL is the only open-world Social 3D virtual world, the only other ones are Somnium Space and Decentraland, which haven't got a lot of things figured out for themselves to be what we'd call a Metaverse SL has a matured ecosystem and various communities, even cultures very specific to SL Gravitas - while other ventures are mostly startups with little to no non-technical achievements, SL has plenty to point out SL is still the best way for non-media content creators of all kind to make money with its matured and varied market Of course these are only some examples. I do want to emphasize technical advantages or disadvantages don't matter that much, perception matter much more, if we can harness what we do have to their fullest and get more people and hype that way, LL would have more capital in their disposal to further upgrade or even make a true 2nd Second Life. Another thing is that if we are successful, they might be able to have more leverage to push SL in a direction that won't turn SL into something like one of the platforms I mentioned Edit: who knows, maybe if they have enough money and hype behind them they can afford to get the R&D necessary to make SL much more technically sophisticated, or even have VR, or revolutionize the engine altogether. The point is if we just say SL doesn't have X or Y, it won't really give LL that much more capability to develop that X or Y because they can only subdivide the resources they have based on our input, but if we can help adding more to that pool of resources or the perception that it's worth investing in those things with our voices, then that would help better. There's simply no alternative to the SL model and our best bet is SL

Thanks for the support you guys c= and I understand those who feel they might not necessarily have the time either. If you're one of the people who's into proactive collective action, again, feel free to contact me here or inworld, we've got likeminded people and it's a lot easier to figure out the field if someone who had tread it show you around I'm gonna show some disagreeable things which came out recently, just to emphasize what kind of entity would swoop in if we don't get our voice heard and known. This is a direct quote from IMVU's new higher up on an interview I wouldn't want to be a customer of any business which thinks it's okay, professional or considerate to say something like that in a public setting, but that's what's to come if people don't see the virtues in the Second Life model What about a very recent business article, which touts Decentraland as the successor of SL, people who want to grow their investment portfolio read these stuff and they or their broker believe it, even if they don't and they just want to do some short term investment it still grows their perceived value - with detriment to Second Life and us the users If you want to see just how predatory Roblox is, watch this video of a YouTuber spending thousands of dollars on Roblox (which he made back of course from the video's views), and he's an adult spending his own money so it's fine, but it exposes just how predatory a lot of Roblox's business practice is - that is the Metaverse according to people

We need to be proactive in countering the false narrative out there, Second Life has enough active userbase and concurrent users, that if even only a portion of that is committed to a collective counter-campaign against falsehoods about SL, it would make a lot of difference in how SL is perceived within the tech industry and media Remember, SL would be on Steamchart's top 10 if it were a game on Steam, that's a serious number. It will also be shown as having double the concurrent users of VRChat, the current "standard" of "Social 3D app". Those are very serious, considerable metrics Yet pretty much no one knows these, no one's talking about these, it's insane. I keep up with the news and any mention of Second Life by news sites out there, like 9 out of 10 refer to SL in comparison to what they think is the next "big thing" with the position or perception that SL is no longer, or dead in the water - which is not true at all. Not true, false, ignorant Yet that's how SL is judged, based on false information. But we can do something about it, a lot of things even. Remember, there is no comparable alternative to SL. If SL died or became something that is completely different from what it is now because people think there's nothing to it, it might be a while before something like SL surface again. Your livelihood, memories, enjoyment, whatever it is that keeps you from going away from SL, is at stake We have to consolidate our efforts here, right now, while we still have the mass and momentum to break through the wall of falsehoods. The Residents together can do a lot more than the Lindens, and the Lindens can do more if the Residents do more. Say what you think can help, share what you've been doing to help promote SL in this thread, invite your friends to and let them know about this thread, feel free to contact me here in the forums or inworld (lucagrabacr Resident) if you feel you'd like to help. I do this with passion, I know even more people who do the same thing with the same interest and I'll make sure we get our acts together as much as possible to preserve and grow this wonderful thing we have here. #SecondLifeIsAlive!

Hey guys, so looking at the overall state of the Metaverse as it is perceived, the Lindens are pretty much the last line of defense that keeps SL - which is the only established non-startup virtual world platform that has a real chance of being what we'd like to call a Metaverse, from turning into some predatory venture. Take a close look at what's currently being touted as the "Metaverse" - Roblox, Fortnite - the former is a VERY predatory platform targeting children to spend money, the latter not even what we'd like to call a Metaverse It might seem silly to us but the truth is, where it matters the most, the truth doesn't matter. The majority of the people with the money and influence, they listen to signals and numbers, and as far as they're concerned that means the Metaverse is indeed Roblox, Fortnite, or some elusive blockchain venture with little correlation to how we the actual users of virtual worlds use them Take a look at what happened to IMVU, it's never a good platform for most of us SL users, but then it got acquired by some company faraway out there with little to no care to what it says about its users - the new owner literally said in a public interview that they're eager to find more ways to monetize their userbase. Of course profit is always a part of the equation, but how companies say things says a lot about them, and not to mention they became even more predatory, and felt it's okay to directly nudge on SL in a misleading way as many of you know So back to my point from before, the Lindens are pretty much the only group of people in a real position of leverage who are able to convince the directors and whatever higher ups up there that no, those are bad, the way we do things here on SL is the right way of doing things and we should continue to do so But the Lindens can only do so much in term of encouragement or calls to action without being unprofessional, however what they can say or market to the public, depends a lot not only on metrics, but also visible enthusiasm on our part. I'm gonna continue my post in a reply so this doesn't turn into a wall of texts

The metaverse is not merely a digital space, but an answer to a very human question. I would've spent a third of my lifetime on SL later this June, this is my love letter to existence and the metaverse c=

The possibility and leverage I've been alluding to exist with SL's current technical state taken into account, the days of technical advantages are certainly over for the most part but within the entirety of everything that is SL, lies certain sets of unique potentials just waiting to be harnessed

I can't get into too much details for a few reasons but they are things that are not so apparent, these are real and SL is far from having no chance

A lot of what you said is true, but there's still a chance for Second Life. There are elements unique to SL as a whole, and only to SL, which allow certain sets of possible paths for growth and unmatched competitive edges to exist in this day and age. That window of opportunities is closing rapidly but it's still there