Month: December 2021

December 2021 Web User Group summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Web User Group meeting venue, Denby

The following notes cover the key points from the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday, December 8th, 2021.

These meetings are generally held on the first Wednesday of the month, with dates and venue details available via the SL public calendar. A video of the meeting, courtesy of Pantera, can be found embedded at the end of this article (my thanks to her as always!), and the following is a summary of key topics / discussions.

Web Properties – Past Month

  • Search: most of November was focus on the Search facelift that launched on November 22nd – those interested can see my own thoughts here.
    • LL are aware of criticism the new look has received, both performance-wise and in the design. The latter drew the comment, “we like it, so we’re keeping it.”
    • Again, as a reminder, this was a cosmetic update, the underpinning Search engine was not touched or altered as a part of the work – see below for notes on functional updates.
  • E-mail preferences changes: part of November was spent preparing for splitting the receipt of Group notices away from general IM receipt via e-mail when off-line. See the official blog post here, and my own notes.
    •  This change comes into effect from Wednesday December 15th.
    • There was a bug within the Change Email Settings page whereby re-enabling the receipt of Group notices would disable the receipt on IMs via e-mail. This is said to now be fixed.

2022 “Roadmap”

Whilst not a roadmap in the strictest sense (as no specific order was assigned to them), the Web team was looking to implement (or start) the following projects in 2022:

  • Search: an attempt to overhaul and refine the way the current web search engine works.
    • The two watch-words for this project are to make Search more useful and to return more relevant results.
    • This work is to be undertaken with a 3rd party SEO specialist company, rather than being handled by LL themselves.
  • Web Properties facelift: a facelift of all of the Lab’s public/user-facing web properties.
    • The two watch-world for this are to make all web properties more user-friendly and mobile friendly for tablets and smartphones.
    • This is seen as a major project to run through 2022.
    • This work will include the Marketplace, which is going to see “a lot of changes”.
    • Presumably  – and this is purely my personal take on this – the facelift work will see more utilisation of the Flat Design approach seen with the Search front-end and in things like the Second Life landing pages.
  • Infrastructure updates: 2022 will include various infrastructure projects aimed at better leveraging the tools and capabilities that are now available to LL via Amazon.
  • Premium Plus: the hope is that Premium Plus will be revisited and launched in 2022. Any questions on what it might look like, fees, etc., will not be answerable until the option is available for deployment.
  • Other projects: there is the potential for other work to be carried out in 2022, some of which may not be user-visible, but the details on other work for 2022 are still in a state of flux, and updates will likely be given at WUG meetings through the year.

Place Pages

Reed Linden asked the question on what would people like to see Place Pages actually do, and what would they like to get out of them.

Second Life Place Pages
  • It has been accepted by the Lab that as they stand, Place Pages are under-utilised and with a genuine raison d’etre for their existence, having been left hanging since their introduction in 2017.
  • There is functionality within Place Pages that might be better leveraged to help people find out more about specific locations within Second Life, but it is acknowledged the capability requires tuning and a more clearly defined purpose.
  • Some of the suggestions that were put forward included:
    • Allowing more than the current 3 screenshots + hero image.
    • Better integration between Place Pages and web Search.
    • Allowing Place Pages to be filtered by Maturity Rating and also selected options such as “private island”, “mainland”, etc.
    • Better promotion, so that people actually understand Place Pages exist and can be used as a promotional / informational tool about locations in Second Life independently of Search.
    • Offering the ability to provide information on events / activities, etc., allowing Place Pages to become more of a general web presence for locations in-world (which was actually part of the original promotion for Place Pages when they first launched).
      • This might be seen as something between a simple listing of events and a blotter-like feed of information and updates, possibly with ability to have it displayed as media in-world, removing some of the the need for script-intensive event boards.
    • Displaying historical  / predictive information on a location – e.g. how many have visited in the past week / month / how many are present at the moment, when the best times are to visit and find people there, etc.
    • Providing the means to include links to other social media / platforms utilised by a venue / business (e.g. Twitter, Discord, etc.).
    • Possibly de-coupling Place Pages from public search – useful for private groups who wish to have a central place for information that can be used purely by Group members, without it necessarily being surfaced through Search, etc.
  • It should be noted that currently, updating Place Pages is not a planned project from the Lab – Reed is simply seeking feedback on directions the capability might be taken should it become a focus for overhaul / update.

In Brief

  • Marketplace Q&A “forum”: Reed is still mulling the idea of where and how to place a means for the Web team to take and address Marketplace-specific questions / feedback.
  • Multi-factor Authentication: the work is focused on rolling the current capability across key web properties – including the Marketplace – and getting it into the viewer. This work will be in advance of any work to allow authentication using verified e-mails, etc.
  • Dashboard Communications option: the suggestion was made that, in addition to the planned mobile app, LL should consider adding a capability to the secondlife.com dashboard that would allow users to communicate with Friends who are currently in-world.
    • This is something LL are apparently in the process of discussing, together with providing the means for users to access things like Group functionality  / options via the web. And even – maybe – providing some level of inventory interaction via the web.

Next Meeting

  • Check the SL public calendar.
  • The core topic will likely be on the use of sub-brands within Marketplace stores vs using alt accounts to manage multiple brands / stores. That is the pros and cons, how it might work, what people expect of it, etc.

Clay and Seed in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Clay and Seed

It has been a fair while since I’ve had the pleasure of viewing Haveit Neox’s 2D artwork in SL outside of the entertainment regions he and Lilia Artis produce annually for Fantasy Faire. So when Akiko Kinoshi (Akiko Kiyori) informed me he and Lilia would be teaming with another artist I admire – Bamboo Barnes – to present a new installation at her Akimori art centre, I knew I’d have to pay it a visit.

Located within is own skybox, Clay and Seed takes as its core theme the erosion of the environment and human relationships, with the work of all three artists interwoven, each taking inspiration from the other two. But before getting into specifics, it is worth noting some key points: you should use the local EEP settings (World → Environment → Use Shared Environment); you’ll need to have ALM enabled (Preferences → Graphics → make sure Advanced Lighting Model is checked) and you should set your draw distance to 256m so that the entire skybox remains rendered during your visit, as it is a part of the overall installation.

Clay and Seed

This skybox offers a desert scene centred around a single body of water, the dunes rolling away into the distance under a sky rich in fields of clouds, the Sun low in the west. The predominant colour caught by the clouds is red, as if the light of the lowering sun is illuminating them from below. But the more one looks at it, the more the red, the more it speaks to rusting metal, its surface bubbled and marrred.

Together, the desert and sky speak to that theme of erosion of the environment, and each supports various elements making up the core of the installation. On the desert sits a number of structures. In particular, sitting close to the lake – possibly the last body of water in this realm? – is a combined 2D and 3D mini-installation by Bamboo Barnes that utilises lighting projectors within cube-like spaces visitors can wall through to experience her 2D art.

Clay and Seed

Around this are several structures placed by Akiko. Through the largest of these – a Japanese style house that partially extends out over the water – a train of horses prance before they snake their way up into the sky to where the second element of the installation, a pair of citadels, are floating.

Linked by curling paths that wind about both buildings and around a central set of net-covered rings over which fish-ships float, the two citadels are home to more of Bamboo’s art whilst their high windows offer poems by Lilia. Their combination of words and images further convey commentaries on destructiveness, growth, abuse, hope, gratefulness and loneliness. Follow the paths that roll and wrap themselves around the two citadels, and further vignettes by Haveit, each with its own symbolism.

Clay and Seed

And symbolism is very much the key here. Whilst offering something of a fantastical scene with centaurs and merfolk, Haveit’s city in the sky offer echoes of our own religious mythology. These range from painting on the outer walls of the citadels, and are also formed by the the likes of the the procession of horses that rise from the desert to climb the steps leaving up to the fish-ships in what might be seen as an echo of the story of Noah’s ark.

Further metaphor might be seen in the manner the the citadels and their surroundings float in the sky like a kind of New Jerusalem with all its promise of salvation. But the the desert below and sky above, together with the centaur vignettes speak the the reality of the matter, as do the images and words by Bamboo and Lilia: we, and we alone, are responsible for the fate that might befall us – just as we alone might yet be able to lift ourselves into a form of salvation (or at least, one of recovery), if we are prepared to work together.

Clay and Seed

Or that is my interpretation at least. Your might well be entirely different. And that is the marvel and beauty of Clay and Seed, in presenting the interwoven work of three superb artists, it has the power to speak with many voices.

SLurl Details

Between Autumn & Spring in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Between Autumn & Spring, December 2021 – click any image for full size

It’s been over a year since my last visit to ARNICAR India’s Homestead region, making it long overdue for a re-visit. So when Shawn Shakespeare sent me the LM for the winter 2021 setting, it served as a reminder to get my boots on and go pay a visit.

Sitting beneath a twilight sky that gives the setting something of an other-worldly feel, Between Autumn & Spring offers a marvellous winter setting that is one of the cosiest and most romantic I’ve so far visited this winter. This actually comes as no surprise, given ARINCAR’s eye for detail.

Between Autumn & Spring, December 2021

The primary landmass rises from a frozen body of water, a low-lying, if semi-rugged island. Somewhat oval in shape, it is crowned by a tall house occupying the flat top of its rocky spine. Warmly furnished, it sets the tone for the rest of the setting’s touches of fantasy, comprising two floors connected by an external ladder that climbs one wall to reach a balcony outside of the bedroom.

Ringed by trees, the house sits on a hill that, under its blanket of snow, forms a series of broad steps down to the lowlands between it and the frozen water. Stone stairs pass down the slope to the south, passing by way of the setting’s landing point and onwards to a garden space marked by an old stone wall. From this, paths around the outer edge of the island offer routes of exploration – and there is a lot to see in following them.

Between Autumn & Spring, December 2021

To the east, for example, a bridge supported by balloons passes over the ice to reach a little circular bump of rock that, in spring and summer, would be shaded by the broad span of the oak tree that sits upon it. A second bridge, rough in form, then leads on to a second small island and and a covered skating rink offering a seasonal diorama.

From the main island’s north shore extends a finger of land pointing to a solidly built ruin of a building that has been converted into a summer house. Inside, a fire burns in the hearth, and the table facing it is set for two to sit and enjoy a slice of Christmas cake – or cuddles on the room’s large bench seat.  Westward, meanwhile, and across the ice where children skate, sits a second pair of islets. The larger of these offers an old greenhouse that has also been converted into a summer house. But how to reach it in warmer months when the water is no longer frozen might appear to be a problem – until one remembers the ice-locked rowing boat moored at the east side islands.

Between Autumn & Spring, December 2021

In and around all of these locations are multiple places to sit, vignettes to admire and photograph, and views to appreciate. Along the edge of the main island for example, visitors will come across a couple of snowmen (courtesy of Cica Ghost, and not the only pieces by her awaiting discovery) looking for all the world like an elderly couple out for a snowy stroll – and possibly not appreciating the cold in the air, going by their expressions!

Or there are the penguins who have clearly staked a claim to two more rowing boats. These have been pulled from the water and then unturned on a wooden deck to prevent the snow from filling them and so form the perfect perch. Meanwhile, out on the northern promontory, deer watch the comings and goings of visitors, unperturbed by their presence, and a couple of ptarmigan appear to be discussing the weather  – or possibly whispering hopes that no-one decides one of them might be better gracing a festive dinner table!

Between Autumn & Spring, December 2021

Throughout the setting are multiple places to sit, indoors and out, some of them providing views of these and the other vignettes awaiting discovery, other providing places to simply sit and think – or cuddle – and take photos. Fireplaces, again both indoors and out, help keep some of these warm whilst other might best be enjoyed wrapped up against the cold and drifting snow.

Rich in whimsy and seasonal delights, ripe for photography and wrapped in a charming soundscape, Between Autumn & Spring is another graceful setting by ANRICAR, and not one to be missed.

Between Autumn & Spring, December 2021

SLurl Details

2021 SUG meeting week #49 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Paradiso, October 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, December 7th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. The meeting was recorded by Pantera Północy, and the video is embedded at the end of this summary. Note this summary focuses on the key points of the meeting; where there is something to report, the video should be referred to should full details of the meeting wish to be reviewed.

Server Deployments

See the server deployment thread for further updates.

  • On Tuesday, December 7th, all simulators on the SLS Main channel were restarted to refresh them – no actual deployment was made.
  • On Wednesday, December 7th, two of the RC channels will receive a simulator update to allow for the upcoming change to off-line Group Notice receipt via e-mail. See: Lab announces change to e-mail preferences for Group notices for more).

Available Viewers

This list reflects those viewers available via Linden Lab.

  • Release viewer: version version 6.5.0.565607, formerly the Maintenance RC and dated November 10, promoted November 15 – this viewer now contains a fix for the media issues caused by the Apple Notarisation viewer.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • The Tracy Integration RC viewer version 6.4.23.563771 (dated Friday, November 5) issued Tuesday, November 9.
    • 360 Snapshot RC viewer, version 6.5.0.564863, issued October 21.
    • Simplified Cache RC viewer, version 6.4.23.562623, dated September 17, issued September 20.
  • Project viewers:
    • Performance Improvements project viewer updated to version 6.4.24.565672 (dated November 17) November 22.
    • Performance Floater project viewer, version 6.4.23.562625, issued September 2.
    • Mesh Optimizer project viewer, version 6.4.23.562614, issued September 1.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26, 2020.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.

Log-in Issues

As a result of a recent log-in server update, people experienced issues with scripted agent (bot) log-ins (see BUG-231530). and those with a double space in their user name. This updates should now have been rolled back, hopefully resolving the issues. Commenting on the situation, Mazidox Linden noted:

We’re updating the login hosts. We regularly deploy updates to most of Second Life’s service hosts. This one had some issues we weren’t able to find on Aditi [when testing the simulator code].

In addressing why the issue was allowed to “roll” for 24 hours, he added:

We needed the data that was being generated from the new login hosts.

libopenmetaverse Support Deprecation

Simon Linden had two items of news for those using libopenmetaverse for scripted agent operations:

  • Going forward, libopenmetaverse is no longer going to be supported, and will be replaced by libremetaverse.
  • Those using scripted agents should therefore switch to libremetaverse why building Python-driven bots.

LSL: llList2ListStrided

Whilst engaged in some LSL scripting work, Rider Linden encountered something which he is trying to determine how best to address:

I’ve been making heavy use of llList2ListStrided and I’ve noticed that in order to get something other than the first element in each stride you need to delete everything before the item you want. This leads to lots of calls that look like this:
llList2ListStrided(llDeleteSubList(src, 0, 0), 0, -1, 3)
Which is downright ugly. The question is would correcting the start parameter be the way to go or a new function (and perhaps throwing in a sort that lets you pick which column in the span to sort on).

Out of concern for content breakage with with way the function is currently used, the favour shown by those at the meeting was to have a new function that could be used going forward.

Lab announces change to e-mail preferences for Group notices

Posted on by Inara Pey

Tuesday, December 7th, 2021: Linden Lab have announced a forthcoming change to e-mail notification preferences in respect of the receipt of Group notices received via e-mail when users are not logging in to Second Life.

To quote the blog post in part:

We will soon be adding an option to email notification preferences. Currently, you can choose to receive IMs in your email when you are not logged in to Second Life. There will now be an additional setting that controls whether you receive Group notices in e-mail.
We are rolling this change out in stages. If you change your settings, it may be up to two weeks before it takes effect.
The default for the new setting affecting Group notices will be OFF. If you wish to receive Group notices in email, you will need to visit the web page and opt in.
This change is motivated by feedback from our community as well as residents frequently marking Group Notice emails as spam.  We want emails to our residents to be as relevant and useful as possible.

– via Linden Lab

The ability to opt-in to receiving Group notices can be found on your account dashboard at secondlife.com (there is a direct link provided in the official blog post), under Account → Change Email Settings.

Note that this is an option subject to multi-factor verification when accessing it, and the option includes a check box and dedicated Save button that must be clicked in order to update any changes, as per the image below.

As from December 15th, 2021, anyone wishing to receive Group notices as e-mails when they are not logged-in to SL will have to explicitly update their account e-mail options in order to do so

Finally, and as per the comment in red on the Change Email Setting page, and the note within the official blog post, this option must be checked by anyone who wishes to continue to receive Group notices via e-mail when not logged in to Second Life, from December 15th onwards. Also note:

  • From December 15th the IM’s to e-mail preferences setting within the viewer will no longer be valid; only the web page options will work to change these preferences. Until the option is removed from the viewer, attempts to use the Preferences option to change the setting will return an IM directing users to the web page).
  • This change does not see any change in the current cap on IMs-to-e-mail caps. However, if Group notices are set to off (the default), the cap should only apply to off-line IMs, rather than counting both IMs and group notices.

Scylla’s study of the Virtual Toxic in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Kondor Art Square: Scylla Rhiadra – Virtual Toxic
Elven Years ago, I opened a new exhibit that tackled the subject of representations of gender violence in Second Life entitled Is This Turning You On? About a month and a half ago, Hermes Kondor asked me if I’d be willing to return to the subject of toxicity and hypocrisy within Second Life.  This exhibit is the result.

– Scylla Rhiadra, introducing Virtual Toxic

Thus reads the introduction to Virtual Toxic, what will be for some, an uncomfortable exhibition at the Kondor Art Square.

Without a doubt, whilst Second Life offers a lot that is positive in life – physical or virtual; however, it also attracts the more negative aspects of human behaviour. And while other platforms also suffer from their own forms of toxicity, negativity and hypocrisy, the fact that Second Life does offer the means for positive immersion leads Scylla to frame this exhibition around a central question:

Why do we persist in replicating the flaws and toxicity of our sublunary physical existence in the virtual world as well? We can literally fly here. Why then do we fetter ourselves to the dark places on the ground?
Kondor Art Square: Scylla Rhiadra – Virtual Toxic

Thus we are presented with a baker’s dozen of images that deal with what can be seen as the more toxic – or at least darker – attitudes that can be expressed through words and activities in-world.

Virtual Toxic starts in the north-east corner of the square with Imagine Dark, a piece that offers a narrative on the fact that in entering Second Life, we are presented with multiple opportunities for discovery and expression, light and dark – and ask the question as to which we might chose. From here, the remaining images progress clockwise around the edge of the square with the last sitting in the centre. Each has a particular focus on behaviours and activities that all have an uncomfortable edge to them – sugar daddy / baby girl role-play, direct violence, rape “play”, the objectification of the female, and more. Each comes with its own text element offering  either direct or narrative context.

Each image and its associated text is provocative in the statement offered for us to consider; statements that – due to the fact they are based on physical world situations, attitudes, outlooks, activities – obviously extend beyond the virtual and challenge us to think more deeply and broadly about how we interact with one another and why we might chose to engage in actions that are in the physical world abhorrent to us and / or why we opt to display toxic / hurtful attitudes towards others.

Kondor Art Square: Scylla Rhiadra – Virtual Toxic

The former of these aspects is duly noted in one of the three information panels on the exhibit in the centre of the square (Some Important Disclaimers), which should be read when visiting the exhibit. The latter is perhaps most clearly defined in the south-east corner of the square, and the pieces My Name Is… and Gaslit.

Within the former we see reflected the fact that there are some who have an unwillingness to view others as equals / individuals with thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc; the avatar stands with face blotted out by the word Whatever. It’s a term that can have both positive and negative implications – and here is the usage is reflective of the negative / passive-aggressive form (as in, “I don’t care about you or what you have to say or feel”). Gaslit, meanwhile, references our use of words to manipulate others into self-doubt or (possibly) taking an action they’d normally avoid.

Kondor Art Square: Scylla Rhiadra – Virtual Toxic

Offered for public consumption to overlap with the UN Women’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, which draws to a close on December 10th, 2021, a campaign specifically focuses on violence and abusive acts against women (1 in 3 of whom, globally, will be subjected to violent abuse at least once in her life, with that abuse extending well into digital environments, as seen through the likes of Gamergate), Virtual Toxic is an arresting exhibition. However, it is not polemic; in asking its questions – most clearly exemplified by the 13th image, Why? at the centre of the art square – it invites us to view, read and consider what is presented without undue sway on the part of the artist.

SLurl Details