2026 week #44 Land & Support meeting: Moles & More

The following notes were taken from the Wednesday October 28, 2026 Land and Support User Group meeting. These notes form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the meeting by Pantera is embedded at the end of this summary – my thanks to her for providing it.

Meeting Overview

• The Land and Support User Group meeting is intended for discussion & education of current known issues and bugs, project viewers and new features, and general Mainland issues.
• Meetings are:
  • Generally take place on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 12:00 noon, SLT, per the Second Life Public Calendar.
  • Held in text in-world, at this location, and are a mix of Voice and local chat.
  • Hosted by Wendi and Izzy Linden.

General Updates

• Reminders about:
  • The Linden-led Halloween activities and events (and other related events) per this official blog post.
  • The LL / Primfeed/PrimEasy offer for Premium subscribers.
  • Autumn Premium Gifts.
  • The upcoming year-end Holiday Shop and Hop event (applications now open).
  • The Second Life Creator Partnership Programme.
  • The September announcement about Skill Gaming being allowed grid-wide on suitable Moderate or Adult land.

General Mainland Work

• Satori water regions: additional water regions are/have been added to the southern tip of the continent (Furball and eastwards) to make navigation / flying easier.
• Additional work has been going on fixing assorted small issues.
• The next planned infrastructure project is “probably” building roads within Nautilus, around the Bob Too region area, although other options are being considered.
• Further Linden Homes are being added, with a focus on Premium Plus 2048 sq m parcels – Ridgewood Enclave and Copperfield Heights. Further 2048 units are due to be added.
• Reminders that Linden Home availability is provided here and Premium Plus subscribers can request a Linden Home at a specific location via a Support ticket.

“New Zindra” and the Parcel Lottery

• For details on the lottery itself please see: Lab provides Zindra new land update for Second Life.
• The lottery is now complete.
• LL believes the programme went smoothly, and strengths and weaknesses within it are being discussed internally.
• The overall number of parcels in the lottery wasn’t indicated (details not to hand), but Wendi Linden was “sure” there will be an update on the programme in due course.
• The Adult Hub with the Mosh region of Zindra is currently under reconstruction.
• A request was made for Adult Linden Homes – no current plans.

Changes/ Phasing Out of the “Mole” Last Name for LDPW Contractors

Brief Background

• The Linden Department of Public Works (LPDW) was founded in 2008 as a mean by which Second Life users could work for Linden Lab as contractors to undertake specific in-world tasks and work.
• Collectively, these contractors were referenced as “Moles” (as a good portion of their original mandate was terraforming / landscaping / building) and they were given the last name “Mole”.
• Notable major projects in this regard carried out by the Moles include: the infrastructure within Nautilus City; the development of Bay City; the Linden Homes continent of Bellisseria; facilities for events like Shop & Hop, SLB, etc; the turn-key regions available for businesses, starter avatars, etc; LL-provided experiences and the games accessible via the Portal Parks).
• In more recent years, the Moles have been supporting other projects and initiatives with Linden Lab (e.g. marketing, etc.), under the broader banner of the Second Life Studios.

Current Situation and Discussion

[Video: 14:23-26:18]

• Whilst the LDPW Group continues to exist, it has been noticed that several long-term “Moles” have changed their Last Name from Mole to a choice from the generally available pool of Last Names. whilst continuing to be contract workers for LL.
• This has led to some upset (on account of the lost of a long-standing, recognisable name that is part of Second Life lore) and concern – specifically, how are genuine LDPW contractors to be easily identified?
• The Official explanation for the changes might be summarised as:
  • Those Moles who have changed their Last Names are still working for Linden Lab as independent contractors and remain within the LDPW Group.
  • Nothing is actually changing inasmuch as the work these contractors do, the powers they have, etc.
  • The reason some are currently retaining the Mole last name is that certain functions and capabilities related to Linden Homes are tied directly to accounts using the Mole Last Name, and have to be updated prior to all LDPW contractors switching to a Last Name of their choice.
  • The overall reasons for the change is to “unify” how LL work with independent contractors, given that the LDPW is no longer the sole group working in partnership with LL where in-world content is concerned who are not defined as “Moles” or otherwise uniquely identified (hence, perhaps, the reminder about the SL Creator Partnership Programme mentioned towards the top of the meeting, even if the relationship here is slightly different in nature).
• Concerns over identifying genuine LL contractors over those who might be tempted to try to impersonate bring “a Mole” for the sake of griefing / harassment, etc., were raised, together with commentary on the loss of colours, etc., in name tags to help with identification.
  • The issue of name tag colours was somewhat misplaced, as not all viewers do this – it is a feature found within various third-party viewers.
  • It was suggested that verification could be obtained by checking the LDPW Group. Some in the meeting appeared to take this as meaning “checking the Group’s Membership list” (which is not always available for non-Group members in different viewers). HOWEVER, I would suggest Izzy Linden actually meant “Check the Profile of person claiming to be a member of LDPW to see of it lists the LDPW Group”.
  • The latter is a not unreasonable point, given that name tag colours alone cannot be relied upon. However, it a) misses the point that not all clients might be able to open an avatar’s Profile; b) is not as simple or direct as seeing the “Mole” last name directly in-world / in chat or IMs.
• The meeting saw a lot of back-and-forth, but it would appear that while those Lindens who are user-facing are sympathetic to the concerns raised, the decision has been made at management level.
• My personal take on this is that as the entire concept of the Moles and LDPW is so ingrained in the substance of Second Life – particularly for many long-term users (take the Bay City Mole Day, an exceptionally popular event in-world) that:
  • A portion (emphasis on portion here) of the reaction is more a typical reaction to changes that appear to upset the accepted status quo within SL, leading to a lot of FUD.
  • Nevertheless (and given the changes were bound to cause upset / concern), LL could have pre-empted a fair portion of it via up-front communications such as a blog post on the changes, outlining the reasons and providing reassurance.

In Brief

• [Video: 12:30-14:01 and 16:28-16:59] Two Feature requests for the Combat 2.0 system were raised, both intended to improve accessibility for the Combat system:
  • New Feature Request: parcel level combat 2.0 damage teleport settings.
  • Set more regions to be combat enabled but with a caveat.
  • Both of these ideas are likely better suited to discussions at the Simulator User Group.
• [Video: 1523-15:58] In light of the Zindra Land lottery, it was asked via text if the approach might be used for other Mainland or similar – the response was possibly, if opportunities arise and depending on the final overall assessment of the Zindra lottery, but nothing planned for the foreseeable future.
• [Video: 30-20-32:44] Requests for Set Home being more widely allowed in various Linden locations – Welcome Areas, for example -, particularly for incoming new users. This was taken on-board.
  • This indirectly led to the suggestion that incoming being given a free Linden Home for their first 30-days in-world, helping them learn about home ownership and land holding in-world.
• [Video: 33:42-36:35] A discussion on Linden Homes themes being added to, the availability of homes,  completion of coastlines (“when Linden Homes are complete”), etc., led to a suggestion for having an “elastic” continent for Linden Homes – regions only spin-up when they are actively used (thus reducing costs).
  • This is similar to the Kitely grid system, which has both positives and negatives.
  • The idea has been more broadly been discussed at SUG meetings in the past, where the general feedback has been that SL isn’t engineered for this kind of approach.
  • In terms of use with Linden Homes, this would potentially mean that regions would move been simhosts between one use and the next, requiring considerable back-end re-engineering to manage grid coordinates, teleporting, etc.
• [Video: 37:25-40:30] A request for separating Groups from Land or having a special subset of Groups specifically for Land – make available as a perk for Premium and Premium Plus members.
  • It was noted that there have been internal discussions at LL about offering a more “a-la carte” approach to subscription perks, so that (for example) a Premium Plus subscriber might be able to select more Group spots whilst not taking up some other perk(s), etc.), but nothing along these lines is set for implementation.
  • There was a personal acknowledgement that there are various Group Role abilities which could perhaps be handled more efficiently, potentially reducing the number of Groups business owners, event organisers, etc., have to create to carrying out basic management functions. However, this was an opinion voiced, not a statement of intent from LL.
  • Group functionality is more of a Product team item, but it was noted general Group functionality might be raised at the Simulator User Group (SUG) meetings.

• [Video 42:12-52:53] A question from Wendi Linden on “the most intriguing region” those at the meeting would like LL staff to see. This lead to a general discussion with various suggestions, together with a request for the Motown Experience (SLurl here), given that partnership has ended & how it worked as a Welcome Centre, which moved on to a discussion of the newer Learning Centres. This moved to a more general conversation.
• [Video: 52:58-End] A discussion on the new Anchor Communities programme for new users – see this Corsica South Coasters announcement, given that LL have not been advertising the move (potentially to avoid being swamped with requests to join).

Date of Next Meeting

• • Wednesday, January 27, 2027 – the advertised November and December meetings in the Public Calendar (at the time of writing) will not be held as they clash with US Thanksgiving and with Christmas.