Day: March 6, 2023

LL announce fee changes for Second Life land and Lindex

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

On Monday, March 6th, Linden Lab announced a series of fee changes / payment changes to Second Life which have sparked some debate.

The announcement leads with the reduction in “standard” Full private region (i.e. a region with the standard 20,000 Land Capacity) monthly tier being reduced by US $20 a month, from  $229 / month to US $209 / month – the reduction being to mark 2023 being SL’s 20th anniversary.

Note that the monthly Homestead tier and the US $30 / month for the Full Private region land capacity bonus remain unchanged.

It also introduces an option that has been requested numerous times over the years: the ability to pay tier on regions obtained directly from the Lab using Linden Dollars. However this option comes with some caveats:

  • It is limited to only one region per Premium Plus subscriber.
  • It is only available for Premium Plus subscribers.
  • It is currently a “beta” programme, currently set to end on September 6th, 2023 – although this date may change / be extended.
Land tier rates for regions in Linden Dollars – available for Premium Plus subscribers with land holdings, per the notes above. Table via Linden Lab.

Payments are made on the basis of a stable conversion rate of L$250 to the US dollar, and to facilitate payments, Linden Lab has created a Land Payments region, although at the time this blog post was written, it did not appear to be available. For further details on it, and the all information on using Linden Dollar to pay tier to Linden Lab, please refer to L$ Payments for Land.

Fee Changes

In what is likely to be a less popular move, the blog post notes the following Lindex fee changes, which come into immediate effect from Monday, March 6th, 2023:

  • The buy fee is increased to 10%, with the minimum and maximum fees charged remaining unchanged at US $1.49 and US $14.99 per transaction respectively.
  • The sell fee is increased to 5%, regardless of the size of the transaction.

The blog post notes that these increases are to offset the above land price reductions (and thus a continuation of LL’s policy of redistributing their means of revenue generation to be less reliant on a single product (land)), and also as a result of rising operational costs.

A brief FAQ on these changes is provided in the official blog post, and specific questions on them can be made through the forum thread associated with the blog post, or possibly submitted as a question which might be asked of the SL management team as a part of the Lab Gab session to be broadcast on Friday, March 10th (in which case the question must be submitted by 09:00 SLT on Thursday, March 9th, 2023.

Related Links

2023 SL viewer release summaries week #9

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates from the week through to Sunday, March 5th, 2023

This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
  • By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
  • Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.

Official LL Viewers

  • Release viewer: Maintenance Q(uality) viewer, version 6.6.9.577968, promoted Thursday, February 2, 2023- no change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • PBR Materials project viewer, version 7.0.0.578526, March 3, 2023 – This viewer will only function on the following Aditi (beta grid) regions: Materials1; Materials Adult and Rumpus Room 1 through 4.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

  • No updates.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • Speedlight updated to version v28, March 1, 2023 – release notes.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Transcend Struggle in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Yann Gyro – Transcend Struggle

I first encountered Yann Gyro’s (sempiternel) work during what was to become the last set of exhibition at La Maison d’Aneli in December 2022, when he presented an untitled but engaging 3D installation (see: Five at La Maison d’Aneli in Second Life). I was not the only one taken by that installation, as Dido Haas also saw it as well and asked Yann to consider exhibiting at her Nitroglobus Roof Gallery – and he accepted. So, officially opening on Monday, March 6th, 2023, we have Transcend Struggle, a combined 2D and 3D installation created by Yann.

This is a highly personal installation for Yann, focusing as it does on his mother’s diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer, and his love for her and his wish to support her through her diagnosis and subsequent treatment – and most of all to her memory and her strength.

For those who might not be familiar with the term, metastatic breast cancer is a stage VI cancer where the cancer cells have spread beyond the axillary lymph nodes to distant sites, including the bones, the brain, the liver and the  pulmonary pleurae. it can occur several years after a primary breast cancer has been identified and treated (or at the same time the primary cancer is identified) and is the final stage of breast cancer; while treatment is possible, there is no cure. Treatments can take many forms, some of which can be as debilitating as the disease itself (e.g. radiation and chemotherapy).

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Yann Gyro – Transcend Struggle

Given the above, it should come as no surprise that the images and 3D elements of Transcend Struggle are powerful in message; metaphor is not required (although it is powerfully present in one sculpture and one of the images). Supported by a poem by Yann, the pictures and sculptures speak eloquently and fully to his love for his mother, her strength, and what is means to live within the twin shadows of a terminal cancer and its treatment regimes – shadows which fall across both the person afflicted and those around them.

As someone who has both lost her mother to cancer and has herself faced breast cancer (mine was fortunately a benign DCIS, and as of May 2023 I am 5 years “clear” of the disease following surgery and treatment), I found Transcend Struggle deeply moving. However, you do not have to have gone through diagnosis and treatment – or know someone who has – to appreciate the outflow of love found within the installation; it in clear both within Yann’s words and the beauty of his images, while his sculptures convey an equally strong message. As such, it is difficult to write about it; Transcend Struggle very genuinely needs to be visited, and Yann’s the images, sculptures, words experienced first-hand.

Cancer loves to hide in the darkness of fear and silence where it can prey on the mind as much as it does on the body, gnawing equally on those diagnosed with it and those around them; confronting it – be it through seeking a diagnosis, through treatment or just by talking about it – may not always lessen its threat, but it does shine a light on it  and allow strength and love to be shared as it is faced. Transcend Struggle speaks eloquently to this fact.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery: Yann Gyro – Transcend Struggle

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