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Today we’re shining a spotlight on Kiria Mama, the creative force behind VELOUR, whose trailblazing efforts in beauty and fashion have revolutionized the shopping experience in Second Life.
How long have you been in Second Life and how did you first hear about it?
Seventeen years ago, I was on an old social network called Orkut when I noticed Brazilians creating profiles with photos of characters that were unlike anything I’d ever seen. Intrigued, I started chatting with one of them, and they introduced me to Second Life. That’s how my journey began in 2007.
What inspired you to create VELOUR, and could you share more about the range of products you offer and what makes them unique in the Second Life market?
Before creating VELOUR, I managed It Girls, a store owned by my childhood friend Annie Jolifaunt. When she was on vacation, I would take care of her store, analyzing sales through the vendor system. During that time, I started noticing patterns, identifying the best-performing products, and understanding which niches were the most successful for It Girls.I wanted to apply this analytical and statistical knowledge to my own brand while continuing to support It Girls. Annie taught me many skills in SL, including how to create makeup and skins, which set the foundation for VELOUR.
Today, VELOUR offers a wide range of products, from body and face skins to makeup, add-ons, and hairbases. What makes us unique is our Universal Match Project, which allows customers to seamlessly match our body skins with face skins from other creators. With more than 1,300 affiliated stores, we’ve created a collaborative network that elevates everyone’s work.
VELOUR has played a pivotal role in standardizing body skin tones across Second Life. Could you tell us more about the decision to offer such partnerships to other creators, and how can new creators sign up?
The idea of offering our skin tones to all creators—whether they started yesterday or are already well-established—came from Annie. She recognized my business skills and encouraged me to pursue this concept. While she focused on textures, I worked on developing the Dev Kits and reached out to designers to invite them to join our affiliate program.Our partnership program is open to everyone, and all applicants are accepted. To join, creators can apply here: https://tinyurl.com/VELOURpartnership.
Could you tell us more about the concept behind VELOUR Mall and how it enhances the shopping experience for Residents?
I’m obsessed with malls. Whenever I visit a new city, the first place I look for is a mall because I love being able to shop for everything I need in one place.In Second Life, I’ve built lasting friendships with some incredible people who have become real-life friends. One day, I said to them, “What if we all joined forces in one big space that looks like a real mall? A place where residents can come to buy a skin, and then shop for shoes, clothes, hair, and accessories all in one trip?”
That’s how VELOUR Mall was born. It’s designed to create an immersive and convenient shopping experience for our customers. Residents have told me it’s one of their favorite destinations, and that kind of feedback means the world to me.
In your view, how has VELOUR influenced the beauty and fashion landscape within Second Life?
VELOUR has set a new standard in the community by simplifying how customers match their skins with our body tones.Although we weren’t the first to share Dev Kits, we were the first to make them publicly available, which made VELOUR the top choice for body skins. Our initiative has helped establish a collaborative and inclusive approach that benefits both creators and customers.
What are some of the future plans or upcoming innovations for VELOUR?
We’re planning to expand VELOUR Mall with a second region connected to our current one, giving customers an even bigger and better shopping experience. (Hair stores, we’re looking at you 👀).In addition, we’re excited to announce new body skins coming in 2025. These will feature significant improvements over our previous lines, and we can’t wait to share them with everyone!
Where can people see your work? Please share links to your sites and social media accounts.
You can check our work in our FLICKR! https://flickr.com/photos/133402407@N06
Thank you, Kiria, for your visionary contributions and for elevating the virtual beauty landscape in Second Life.
Each of our Spotlight interviews offers a unique glimpse into the diverse experiences and vibrant personalities that shape our virtual world. Explore more stories and get inspired by visiting our full collection of Spotlight posts.- Read more...
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Have a safe and happy holiday season! 🌨️❄️🎄
Residents featured in this image:
Top Row (from left to right):
Middle Row (from left to right):
Bottom Row (from left to right):
Thank you for sharing your beautiful images with us! 💖
For a chance to have your image featured in our social campaigns, submit your work to the Official Second Life Flickr Group.
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As part of our ongoing effort to amplify the voices of the Second Life Blogger Network (SLBN), we’re excited to introduce a new way to discover and connect with our talented bloggers, vloggers, and influencers.
We’ve categorized and created public RSS feeds for participants of the SLBN, making it easier than ever to explore the diverse content created by our community. These feeds are organized to reflect the unique platforms and approaches our bloggers use to share their stories, styles, and insights about Second Life.
Important Notes on RSS Feeds
- We do not endorse or take responsibility for the content in these public RSS feeds: The opinions expressed in these feeds do not reflect the views of Linden Research, Inc. or its employees. All content remains the responsibility of the individual bloggers. These feeds simply provide a way to discover the incredible work being done by members of the SLBN community.
- We will not share all posts from these feeds to our official social channels and web properties: As always, we’ll curate and highlight specific posts that stand out and align with our SLBN Terms & Conditions and Content Guidelines at our discretion.
- Help us keep the feeds current: While we monitor these feeds to identify posts for promotion, there may be instances where we miss changes in a blogger’s content. If you notice that a blogger no longer creates content about Second Life or their focus has shifted away from topics relevant to the Blogger Network community, please let us know. Email us at editor@lindenlab.com, and we’ll review and, if necessary, remove them from the network.
- Content inclusion: We reserve the right to exclude any bloggers or content from these feeds at our discretion, even if they have signed up for the SLBN.
Explore the SLBN RSS Feeds
The following public RSS feeds are now available:
- Second Life Blogger Network: This RSS feed showcases the posts from all bloggers in the network, offering a comprehensive view of the diverse content created by SLBN participants. Below, we’ve categorized the feeds into specific topics to help you find exactly what you’re looking for. However, if you’d prefer to see everything in one place, this is the feed for you.
- Second Life Bloggers: Featuring bloggers who publish on official blogging platforms or their own domains and write in-depth posts about Second Life. Whether they’re covering fashion, art, destinations, tutorials, events, or community highlights, these bloggers are crafting written content that dives deeper into the Second Life experience.
- Second Life Video Bloggers: This feed features Residents who craft compelling video content, including live streams and edited videos about the world of Second Life.
- Second Life Fashion Bloggers: This feed highlights fashion-focused bloggers who share their creativity by showcasing stunning imagery and detailed style credits. These bloggers celebrate the artistry of fashion in Second Life.
- Second Life Decor Bloggers: This feed features bloggers who specialize in home and decor content, showcasing beautifully designed spaces and sharing decor details. These bloggers inspire others to transform their Second Life environments.
- Second Life Destination Bloggers: This feed includes bloggers who often spotlight must-visit locations in Second Life, offering stunning visuals and helpful slurls to explore destinations. These bloggers make it easier to discover the many incredible places in Second Life.
We may expand these categories in the future as new formats emerge.
Limitations for Social Media Bloggers
If you’ve signed up for the SLBN with links to social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Primfeed, or blogging platforms such as Wix and some others, please note that not all of these platforms generate proper working RSS feeds. While we’re unable to include your content in these public RSS feeds, rest assured that we’re still actively following your work and may feature it on our own social channels as part of the Blogger Network’s promotional efforts. If you don’t see your blog showing up in the RSS feeds, this is likely the reason. Feel free to resubmit your application with a social network that does have a working RSS feed, such as YouTube or Flickr.
Join the Conversation
We’re excited to see how these public RSS feeds enhance the visibility of the Second Life blogging community. If you’re already part of the SLBN, your eligible content may be included. If you’re new to the program, sign up today to share your work with the broader community.
Let’s continue to celebrate and support the creativity of the Second Life community. Together, we’re shaping a vibrant future for storytelling in Second Life.
For questions or feedback, reach out to us at editor@lindenlab.com.
Happy blogging!
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Happy Wednesday!
We’re writing to remind everyone that we’ll be holding our monthly Web User Group meeting today at 14:00 SLT in our usual meeting place, where we’ll be discussing our status with ongoing projects and our near future plans for our web properties. As always, we’ll leave plenty of time for Q&A from the community. This meeting is conducted using voice. We're happy for you to contribute in voice or in text, but you'll need to have your voice settings activated. We look forward to seeing you there.
Stay updated with all of our user group meetings on our wiki and public calendar.
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To all our Residents impacted by the bumpy grid roll Tuesday, we’re sorry - and we want you to know what happened.
Timeline:
It started out as a normal roll to Second Life Server (SLS) when, around 7am SLT, the team noticed some regions were not coming back as swiftly as they should. Alarms were raised and we got a team together to tackle the issue immediately. It was quickly determined that we could not continue with the roll without causing more extensive pain to Residents, and the decision was made before 9:00 AM SLT to halt the in-progress grid roll. That left approximately 3800 regions in an offline state, while we continued the investigation.The team continued to bring the regions back manually, while simultaneously working to identify the cause of the problems. By noon there were still approximately 350 regions stuck offline.
Cause:
We’ve identified the root cause of the trouble. The server code itself is not the issue, but infrastructure communications between various AWS services broke down and prevented the normally smooth weekly grid roll.Next steps:
We’ve canceled the RC Roll on Wednesday while we ensure this problem doesn't happen again. Next week will be a quiet week with no SLS roll. Things should return back to normal with the following week’s server updates.Thank you for your patience while we banged on things yesterday.
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The Concierge and Land User Group meeting is a monthly, public meeting for discussion and education on Second Life, useful to both Mainland Residents and Estate owners.
Topics include any issues relating to Customer Relations/Support or concerning Land in general (mainland, islands, Linden Homes, estates, auctions, etc.).
Join us on Wednesday at 12pm PT at Linden Estate Services. All are welcome.
Keep up to date with all of our user group meetings on our wiki and public calendar.
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Hi Everybody!
I would like to introduce a new member of the Linden Support team, Boxy 5000.
Boxy 5000 is a virtual assistant/support bot trainee.
But wait, wasn’t there already a chatbot who answered questions for premium users? Indeed there was! Boxy 3000 was the earlier model of the trainee chatbot.
We are learning from some design flaws and moving forward with a more advanced bot. Boxy 3000 has been re-invented and given an extra 2000!
But wait a second time! Won’t this bring about the machine apocalypse? Not just yet–Boxy 5000 is more advanced and learns as they go but Skynet is still a few upgrades away.
The upgraded bot will be a 24/7 support option for both premium and non-premium residents! (Previously only available for premium customers.)
Boxy will have the ability to answer commonly asked questions, keep you up to date on current issues, help with ticket submission and in some cases handle a support request.
Boxy has uses for all residents, from early adopters to fresh new faces.
For new and more casual residents Boxy is available to help them find the support they need.
For our seasoned veterans Boxy can offer support options for some specific requests. Specifically, Boxy will be able to submit an abuse report on your behalf and in some cases help with the restart of a region!
Boxy will continue to learn as we go. Boxy might not have all the answers currently, but we will continue to review questions posed and help the bot to better answer your support queries.
We realize that a chat bot is not a substitute for a customer support representative, and this bot is not meant to be. It is however meant to help when we are unavailable or may be experiencing higher call volumes.For premium residents Boxy will only be the first point of contact before being passed to a support representative during office hours. Utilize Boxy to help better explain your issue once you are transferred to a support representative. Outside of office hours Boxy can help or create a ticket for when we are back in the office.
The ability to get an answer to your question or to get your issue resolved without having to wait until our Support Lindens are available is Boxy’s primary directive.
Anyone interested in saying hello to Boxy can access it by logging into our support portal. The Boxy 5000 chat widget should appear in the bottom right hand corner of your screen.
Boxy 5000, it’s advanced…
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