Day: May 20, 2020

Second Life: Tilia Pay to handle all USD-related transactions

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

In July 2019, Tilia Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Linden Lab, officially took over the management of activities such as processing credit out of second Life (that is, withdrawing funds as US dollar balances the platform), and and US dollar balances held by Second Life users (see: Tilia has officially launched operations with Second Life*, August 2019).

Now, in an expansion of Tilia’s role with Second Life, Linden Lab has announced that as from Monday, May 26th, Tilia Inc, via its Tilia Pay service, will be managing all US dollar transactions related to Second Life, including those involving conversion of funds to other currencies.

This means that, as from Monday, May 26th, anyone:

  • Making a payment through one of their indicated payment methods – credit card, debit card, PayPal, or Skrill (as indicated on their Second Life account), such as purchasing Linden dollars
  • Adding a new payment method to their Second Life account

Will be consenting to the Tilia Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

The change is being driven to both comply with regulatory requirements across a number of U.S. states and to leverage he enhanced fraud and money laundering safeguards that Tilia Pay provides.

The important things to note here are:

  • All Second Life users should be familiar with the Tilia Terms of Service (and Not just those who have either a US dollar balance associated with their account and / or cash-out money from SL).
  • Users will not be explicitly asked to confirm their agreement with the Tilia ToS / Privacy Policy. Rather, when paying with a payment method (e.g. credit card) or adding a new payment method to an account, a users will see text stating that by proceeding with the transaction, they are agreeing to both the ToS and Privacy Policy.
  • This move does not:
    • Introduce any new fees.
    • Require users to submit any additional information to Tilia Incorporated or Linden Lab.
    • Change how L$ transactions are conducted in the Viewer or in the Marketplace.

Readers are asked to read the Lab’s official blog post on the change for further information relating to it. In addition, questions or concerns should be directed to the forum thread on the matter – questions cannot be officially answered through this blog.

Related Links

An Endless Yes in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Yes – Endless, May 2020 – click any image for full size

In April 2020, we visited SombreNyx’s latest design for Endless, her full region (see A journey to Orkney in Second Life). It’s a region we’ve often visited to appreciate Sombre’s work, and it has also been the home to at least one build  –  located in the sky over Sombre’s work – by Jackson Cruyff. It was Jackson’s work that drew us back to Endless, as he has recently completed another sky build.

Entitled Yes, this new build that keeps up with the rugged island feel of Endless 58-58N, albeit with a more mountainous look to it. It is also a most unusual setting, as Jackson explains:

A set of rickety structures, barely held together, creaky and possibly perilous. On the mountain top, optimism against all odds, and turkeys.

– Jackson Cruyff

Yes – Endless 58-58N, May 2020

From the landing point – a wooden deck built over an outcrop of rock sitting just off shore from the main island – a rope bridge points toward the route of exploration. Not that the latter is hard to miss; directly in front of any arrival, the island rises from grassy lowlands to the high rocky peak of it single mountain that tend to beckon to anyone on the landing point deck.

Trees and bushes are scattered over the lowlands, which undulate gently while rocky outcrops mark the coast. There are no beaches to be found here, and no distractions from the main features of the island.

These take the from a set of five wooden board walks, each raised on stilt-like legs. Each offers something different: a walk out over the waters of a small bay, a circular walk looping around a central deck, a figure-of-eight that offers an infinity walk over bushes and a camp site; a second circular walk that passes endlessly through a rocky arch in the mountain’s foothills; and the greatest of them all, a swirling climb offering the way up to the summit of the mountain.

Yes – Endless 58-58N, May 2020

From a distance it is possible to mistake the latter walk as perhaps part of an old-style roller coaster, or scaffolding designed to enclose some form of tower or similar structure. Only the long arms connecting it with the flank of the mountain suggesting it is in fact something else.

The impulse to climb this structure first is completely natural – but I’d urge you to leave it until last, and explore at least a couple of the other board walks first. I say this because this large structure makes for an interesting climb. Vertigo is not a common sensation people tend to experience in Second Life, and few things in-world tend to be a challenge to the senses. However, these are the feelings a climb around and up this walk can cause.

Yes – Endless 58-58N, May 2020

I say this not in any way negativity; rather it is to Jackson’s credit that a walk up the spiralling board walk can result in very real sensations of giddiness. In this I’d venture to say a walk up to the top of the structure is one of the more unique experiences found in Second Life.

Once there, a more sedate walk along the uppermost outstretched finger of the board walk will take you by stair, ramp and additional climb to the mountain top, where can be found a deck on which to appreciate the view and the aforementioned turkeys.

Rounded out by a subtle sound scape that is again in keeping with Endless 58-58N, Yes is a location well worth taking the time visit and appreciate.

Yes – Endless 58-58N, May 2020

SLurl Details

  • Yes (Endless 58-58N, rated Adult)

Previewing Lab Gab with Izzy Linden & the return of the Solution Provider Directory

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

The next edition of Lab Gab will be live streamed on Friday, May 22nd at 10:00 SLT (18:00 UK; 19:00 CET). For those who have not seen the official blog post about it, the segment will feature Izzy Linden of the Second Life land team.

Izzy has been with the Lab for some 13 years, working with the Land Team in various roles. Most recently he has apparently been working on a new Solution Provider’s Directory, which will be a core part of time on the show.

For those unfamiliar with it, the Solution Provider’s Directory formed a part of the Second Life Solution Providers Programme, this provided the means for businesses and organisations seeking specific skills – scripting, building, etc., – to make contact with individuals or companies / organisations providing such capabilities. At its height, the original solution provider programme included general users active within Second Life through to “gold” solution providers – those who had formalised their status (e.g. as a company of some form).

Izzy Linden with Lab Gab host Strawberry Linden

The original Solution Provider programme comprised a dedicated micro-site on the “old” Second Life web properties, and was supported by an in-world group and mailing list (SL Dev), a dedicated in-world region, and a series of SL wiki pages. However, it entered something of a decline from around the start of 2010 onwards, and in May 2012, the Lab announced the programme was to be wound down – see: End of the road for the SL Solution Provider Programme).

Since then – as far as I’m aware, the Solution Provider Directory has lain largely dormant, but as the Lab Gab announcement notes, it is now being revived (and in fact has two “full service” providers already listed), apparently driven in part by the number of business enquiries Linden Lab has received as a result of the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Exactly whether or not this means LL will attempt to revive the broader aspects of the old Solution Provider Programme – direct links to relevant micro-sites such as connect.secondlife.com to better surface information on solution providers, together with a mailing list / in-world group and and supporting region, etc., – remains to be seen (although I’ve dropped a question or two on this ahead of the programme!).

If you have any questions for Izzy about concierge work, the Land Team and / or the solution provider programme, you can submit your own questions via the Lab Gab Google form.

As usual, the programme will be streamed via YouTube, Facebook, Mixer, or Periscope, and if all goes according to plan, I’ll have a summary of the video (and the video itself) available soon after the the broadcast, for those unable to watch live.

Melu’s Roadside images in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Melusina Parkin: Roadside

Currently open at Melusina Parkin’s gallery is Roadside, her latest collection of images taken from around Second Life, which will continue through May and June. Presented in Melu’s familiar and captivating close-up style, they present a series of pictures with a theme of road trips – but with a very specific focus, as she explains in the introduction to the exhibition:

Diners, motels, pump stations, garages are elements of a “road popular culture” developed in wide spaces crossed by monotone and endless roads. We can’t imagine a motorway without them.

Like mountains, hills, fields, lawns and rivers, they are part of any landscape we see when travelling through the country.

– Melusina Parkin

Melusina Parkin: Roadside

So it is that we have a series of images of motel signs, petrol (gas) stations and pumps, parked vehicles, wooden walls of motel cabins and more, each one offering a unique take on the idea of the Great American Road Trip. Within them are many of the icons of that tradition – the coupé with its top down, the ribbon of dead-straight road vanishing into the distance, the metal-sized roadside diner, the pannier-laden motorbike, and so on. However, they are presented in such a way that rather than simply offering a scene for us to appreciate, Melu once again frames them in a manner that invites a story.

Take Roadside 3, for example: a battered yellow coupé sits parked in the foreground, inviting us to consider it: it’s condition, who might own it, where might they be going, and so on. Then, beyond it and through partially shaded windows, we can see the familiar bright red vinyl seating of a diner – something that always inspires a feeling of warmth and comfort, and our thoughts are similarly comforted with ideas of good food and rest in a friendly environment, whilst also broadening the story of the owners of the car: what might they be eating, what conversations are going on at their table, and so on.

Melusina Parkin: Roadside

Similarly, Roadside 5, with the motorcycle parked before petrol (gas) pumps immediately spins out thoughts of the freedom of riding the open road through to (perhaps) thoughts of iconic road trip films like Easy Rider. And so it goes on around the four walls of the gallery space (a single room at the top of her store).

There is perhaps a wider context for this exhibit as well. June will mark Second Life’s 17th anniversary with the familiar Second Life Birthday celebrations taking place. The theme for this year’s event, the theme is road trips and vacations, so Melusina’s Roadside might be said to offer a lead-in to the celebrations.

Melusina Parkin: Roadside

SLurl Details