Category: SLB

SL19B MTL – Patch Linden: Premium Plus and more + video

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab
Monday, June 20th, 2022 saw the first in the SL19B Meet the Lindens events, this one featuring Patch Linden, the Lab’s Vice President of Product Operations.

The following is a summary of the session covering the core topics raised, with selected audio extracts. The full video is located at the end of this article.

Note that this is a summary, not a full transcript, and items have been grouped by topic, so may not be presented chronologically when compared to the video.

 Table of Contents

The TL;DR Summary

  • Premium Plus:
    • Launches June 23rd, 2022.
    • Offers a new subscription package for users, with benefits over and above those of Premium membership.
    • Priced at US $29.99 per month (or an introductory US $24.99, available for the first 30 days after launch) or US $249 annually.
    • Existing Premium members may / will receive some form of pro-rata upgrade path.
    • Does not replace either Free accounts or Premium subscriptions, but exists alongside them.
  • Event Regions: will now be priced at US $599 a month, with no set-up fee.
  • Linden Homes: further new themes; re-visits to existing themes to update them; new large-scale community centres; first Premium Plus theme possibly towards the end of 2022; retirement of old Linden Homes regions to be revisited with a view to starting that process.
  • General Discussion:  a series of questions, arranged by topic and with short answers: most significant changes to SL; the overall effect of the COVID-19 situation on SL use; SL and the metaverse; improvements to Mainland.

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About Patch Linden

  • Originally a Second Life resident and business owner who joined the platform in 2004, and became a Linden in September 2007.
  • Initially worked as a support agent and then as a support liaison. From there he moved to the Concierge team, eventually becoming that team’s manager.
  • Shifted focus to the role of Operations Support Manager for a year, then moved to the Product group, the team responsible for defining the features, etc., found within Second Life.
  • At Product he developed the Land Operations team, which includes the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW).
  • In 2018, he established the company’s support office in Atlanta, Georgia, and in 2020 he oversaw the move to larger office space in Atlanta, interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • In 2019 he was promoted to Vice President, Product Operations, and joined the Lab’s management team alongside Grumpity and former VP of Engineering Oz Linden (see: Linden Lab’s management team expands: congrats to Grumpity, Patch and Oz).
  • Together with Grumpity and (now Mojo Linden and Brett Linden(, he forms the leadership team overseeing Second Life’s continued development.
  • In his management team role, Patch continues to oversee all of the Lab’s user support operations (some 5 teams), including the LDPW.
  • Despite his longevity at the Lab, his is not the longest-serving Linden, nor is he the “oldest” resident-turned-Linden.
  • Sees the most significant changes to SL during his time being: the arrival of voice (2007), Mesh (2010), Pathfinding (2011), Experience Keys (initially 2015, fully in 2019/2020), Bento  (2016/17), Animesh (2018/19) and EEP (2018/19), and Bakes on Mesh (2019).

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Premium Plus

[Video: 22:49-41:23]

Outline

  • Premium Plus is a new subscription package that has been in development for some 18 months. As the name suggests, it offers additional / increased benefits in comparison to the Premium membership package.
  • It is in addition to, not a replacement of, Premium membership, which will continue, as will the free Basic account.
  • Full details of the Premium Plus offering will be presented in a forthcoming official blog post. The following is a summary of the specifics mentioned by Patch.

Benefits “Above” Premium – In Brief

  • Sign-up bonus and stipend:
    • The sign-up bonus for Premium Plus will be L$3,000
    • The weekly stipend will be L$650.
  • Land: 2048 sq m of “free tier”.
    • This can be split between Mainland parcels and a Linden Home, as per Premium.
  • Linden Homes:
    • Still only one Linden Home per account
    • Premium Plus members will be able to go via Land Support to request they are given a specific Linden Home parcel this is not currently part of the automatic Linden Home assignment system (i.e. being handled by the Linden Homes ordering web page).
      • Any existing Linden Home must be abandoned first.
      • Such requests will generally be filled in 24 hours, but only if the requested parcel does move into the automatic Linden Home assignment system in the interim.
    • Future Linden Home options for Premium Plus:
      • Homes specifically designed for 2048 sq m parcels.
      • Premium Plus Linden Home parcels may be given the ability to have house styles from the 512/1024 sq m Premium themes, allowing those who want more land with their Linden Home to have it.
    • [Video 51:23-51:42] The first Premium Plus Linden Homes theme might be released towards the end of 2022.
  • Upgraded capabilities:
    • Group count doubles over Premium to 140.
    • Off-line message cap doubles of Premium to 160.
    • Animesh attachments will apparently increase (Patch said from 1 to 2, but Premium members already get 2 Animesh attachments, so it is unclear if Patch was just referencing Premium Plus with Basic accounts here).
    • Premium Plus members will be able to create two land Experiences (rather than just one, as per Premium).
  • Fees:
    • No upload fees for textures, animations, sounds.
    • No fees for event listings.
    • Mesh / Animesh upload fees will change for Premium Plus will be adjusted in the future.
    • Group creation fee reduced to L$10
  • Special support ‘phone line, with a toll-free 800 number, with international users able to use this via the likes of Skype without incurring international call fees.
  • Premium Plus sandbox access.
  • Premium Plus gifts.
  • [Video: 1:09:12-1:09:21] Potential for early access to Lab-run events (e.g. Shop and Hop events).

Premium Plus Fees

  • Monthly: US $29.99 (or $24.99 for the first month, if taken out in the first 30 days after launch).
  • Annually: US $249 (equiv. to US $20.75 a month).

Launch date

  • Thursday, June 23rd, 2022.

Premium Plus Audience Questions

  • [Video: 47:10-48:51] Will Premium Plus subscribers be able to choose their own Last Name, rather than picking from a list?
    • No, thei system isn’t set-up for totally free-form names. But the ability to change your last name for less than the current $49.99 fee is a potential “future add-on” for Premium Plus.
  • [Video: 57:30-58:25] Will those already grandfathered on the L$500 a week stipend, will this be factored into Premium Plus (so their stipend would be L$850 per week)? If they later downgrade back to Premium, will they regain their grandfathered stipend of L$500, rather than dropping to L$300?
    • Needs to be clarified, possibly in the official blog post for Premium Plus, when this is published.
  • [Video: 1:07:17-1:08:12] Could renting a Homestead region from LL be de-coupled from having to own a Full region as well, for Premium Plus?
    • Probably not, given the doubling of land tier already provided in the Premium Plus package, and the fact the breaking the lock between Homestead and Full regions could have widespread economic implications for existing estates.
  • [Video: 1:12:58-1:13:36] Will there be a pro-rata upgrade path for those on Premium to move to Premium Plus?
    • Yes, but does not have specifics [presumably within the official blog post, when published].

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Event Regions

[Video: 12:45-21:03]

  • LL started tinkering with the idea of flexing the capabilities available through AWS to try to develop a product reflective of those capabilities.
  • The move to provide such a product was born out of a belief that for large-scale events in SL, concurrency matters.
  • In testing, the Lab managed to get a shopping event region running reasonably well with up to 231 avatars (providing users dialled-down some viewer graphics options – DD, complexity, etc., dialled down).
  • Event regions tend to run best in a “standalone” mode, rather than connected to other regions (particularly other event regions), largely due to issues around avatars and child agents¹ on multiple regions. This is why there were issues during the SL19B opening ceremony, as the avatar (175 per region) was set too high for adjoining regions .
  • The “introductory” tier of $599 per month and no set-up fee (which had been due to end on June 6th) will now be the de facto fee for Event regions.
  • Event regions are open to land owners / estate to rent from LL, should they also wish to hire them out to those organising events.

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Linden Homes

[Video: 49:15-57:18]

  • LL “constantly looking” at ways to improve Linden Homes; this work includes additional house styles within the existing themes.
    • The original Traditional Homes will be seeing “a slate” of improvements.
  • New “grand scale” community centres to match those of the more recent themes (such as Sakura and Fantasy) or those like Campwich Lodge (Log Theme), etc., are being developed for the earlier Linden Home theme environments.
Sakura Linden Homes – Shobu Community Centre, May 2022. More such centres are likely to be coming to Linden Home environments
  • Further new Themes will continue to be deployed, which the next release for 2022 possibly being Premium Plus homes.
    • The idea of having “Premium Plus neighbourhoods” mixed in with Premium Linden Homes has been toyed with, but nothing has been decided either way.
  • Thus far, the most popular themes (in terms of lack of availability due to occupancy) appear to be Traditional Homes, Houseboats and Stilt Homes, following by Log Homes.
  • In terms of increased capabilities / options, the Fantasy theme homes are probably the most popular, followed by Sakura.
  • It is likely that the plan to “wind down” the original Linden Homes and their mini-continents will be looked at again in the near future .
    • This will not simply be a “turning off” of the regions, leaving those still living among them homeless, but will be handled with care and methodically.
    • Some instances of the older home may be preserved in some way, such as under the SLRPS banner, particular those elements that have a story behind them [e.g. Cape Ekim and the mystery of Professor Linden].

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General Discussion

  • Personal list of most significant changes in Second Life [Video 1:46-4:07]:
    • The 2007 implementation of Windlight + the arrival of voice.
    • The addition of Sculpties, and then mesh import (2010).
    • Pathfinding (2012).
    • Bakes on Mesh (2019).
    • The move to AWS (2019-2021).
    • Feels that SL is still at the forefront of what is being called “the metaverse”.
  • Last two years – COVID and user influx [Video 5:51-7:39]:
    • SL is still “well above” pre-pandemic levels, from economic activity (land, MP, on-world purchases, etc).
    • The sharp uptake in SL has slowed, but there has been no significant falling away of engagement.
  • SL and the “metaverse” [Video: 7:44-9:35]:
    • Believes that all of the interest in “the Metaverse” is good for Second Life.
    • Believes all the virtual worlds will have to work together – at some point in the future – to allow a degree of interoperability if “the metaverse” is to achieve its goals.
  • Mainland [Video: 41:37-45:36]:
    • LL is aware there is a lot of abandoned land on Mainland that could be made available / be improved with new landscaping.
    • However, there are no plans at present to add further mainland coastline to those continents that might otherwise be able to take it, because so much in the way of parcels inland remain available. This include the Zindra Adult continent.
    • The pricing of current coastline areas of Mainland are subject to the same laws of supply and demand as the rest of the Mainland (unless price gauging can be demonstrated).

Q&A Session

[Video: 58:47-end]

A range of general questions, some related to Premium Plus (and which have been listed above), the majority on more general topics. Please refer to the video for these.

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Footnotes

  1. Simply put, a Child Agent refers to a secondary agent (avatar) presence associated with your own, then can exist in regions physically adjoining to the one you are currently in, allowing you to “see” into a connected regions (and have it render in your viewer).

Child agents are not physically rendered avatars but a simulator resource, as such they can directly influence region performance.

Session Video

SL19B: your unofficial pocket guide to the celebrations

Posted on by Inara Pey
SL19B, June 16th through July 5th, 2022: The Steamworks

Second Life marks its 19th anniversary in 2022 with a week-long celebration of music, entertainment, art and more across 44 regions, nine of which are given over to exhibits from Second Life residents, and which include the companion Shop and Hop event.

With core celebrations running through until Sunday, June 26th, the birthday regions and the Shop and Hop event will remain open through until July 5th, 2022, and the theme for this year’s event is – Steampunk!

The gates have now opened, but as there was no opportunity for any previews by bloggers, etc., in advance, we’re all scrabbling around trying to put things together. Hopefully, however, this will serve as a shorthand guide, and my apologies for any omissions.

Key Events

In terms of major events, what does SL19B hold? Well, the best way the stay abreast of all that’s going on is via the official calendar of events, which I’ve embedded below.

  • Use the Week / Month options, top right to change the calendar view.
  • Click on any given line item on any given day of festivities to view more information, including teleport SLurls.

Grand Opening

Patch Linden will be formally opening SL18B at 12:00 SLT at the Arboretum, which will also be streamed as a You Tube Lab Gab special, in which Strawberry Linden will afterwards host a tour of the SL19B regions.

Meet the Lindens

As per usual, SL19B will feature a series of Meet the Lindens sessions, which can be attended in-world and live streamed via the Second Life You Tube channel. The sessions will all take place at the Arboretum, and will feature the following guests:

Day (Times SLT) Featured Guest(s)
Monday 20th June, 14:00
 Patch Linden, Vice President of Product Operations.
Tuesday 21st June, 14:00 Linden Lab Executive Chair Brad Oberwager and Technical Advisor Philip Rosedale
Wednesday 22nd, June, 14:00 The Marketing Team.
Thursday 23rd June, 14:00 Grumpity Linden, Vice President of Second Life Product and Mojo Linden, Vice President of Engineering.
Friday 24th June, 14:00 Meet the Moles of the Linden Department of Public Works.

Premium Plus Announcement

If all is still going according to plan, at least one of the Meet the Lindens sessions should see the official announcement of the Premium Plus subscription package: what it is, what it will contain, what it will cost and when it will be launching.

SL19B, June 16th through July 5th, 2022: The Arboretum stage

SL19B Music Fest

  • The Music Fest will kick-off at 13:00  SLT on Thursday, June 16th, and conclude at 22:00 SLT on Saturday, June 18th.
  • It will take place at three venues across the SLB regions, with one venue hosting the event on each day.
Time (SLT) June 16th – Arboretum June 17th – The Steamworks June 18th – Vernian Rotunda
09;00 Gates Open — —
10;00 — — Cylindrian Rutabaga
11:00 Opening Ceremony Oblee Tia Rungray
Noon — AnLaik Skye Galaxy
13:00 Marqs DeSade The Interplanetary Liberation Front Tempio Breil
14:00 Joaquin Gustav Randy De Lucia SEMINA
15:00 Joka Shuggah! Mimi Carpenter
16:00 Holly Giles Sam King Frogg Marlowe & Jaycatt Nico (Effinjay)
17;00 Angelikus Deo J Lively spiritLed
18:00 Ruvie Gatchie Agatha Nowles Jimmyt49 Dukes
19:00 Seth Regan Grace Loudon Mae Loved
21:00 — — John Rocky
21:00 — — Gabryel Nyoki

Shop and Hop

The SL19B Shop and Hop event is the largest S&H event thus far held.

  • 20 regions of shopping.
  • 400 creators offering 20% or more off of items.
  • Open through until July 5th, 2022.
  • Find direct SLurls to all participating creators here OR use the SLurls at the end of this article to jump to any of the Shop and Hop regions.
SL19B, June 16th through July 5th, 2022: The Vernian Rotunda

Other Points of Interest

The Tapestry of Time and Gift Area.

First presented in 2018, the region-wide Tapestry of Time presents visitor with a walk-through of Second Life’s history from 2003 through to the present day using images, text and videos. True, not everything has been recorded, but there’s enough within the region to be of interest to the historically minded.

within the Tapestry of Time can be found the SL19B Gift Area, offering gifts from the Birthday exhibitors and from merchants participating in the Shop & Hop event.

The Community Gallery

For 19 years, Second Life has offered us a virtual space to create, define and explore, bringing people from around the world together to create, share, discover new interests and make new friends, participate in games and adventures, to learn and discuss, and simply have fun.

For SL19B, the Community Gallery has been created to offer a place where visitors can share their memories of their times and adventures, memories that turned a virtual world into a community of Residents.

Pod Tours

Once again, Yavanna Llanfair‘s excellent pod tours will be circulating through the SLB regions. Hop on any that are free as they pass, or grab one from the pod tours station.

Exhibitor Regions

As is common for SLB events, the mix of content is varied, and the representation of interests broad. Role-play groups, arts, communities, are represented across the nine regions open to exhibitors; some are static, others are interactive in nature.

  • Direct links to the exhibitor regions can be found in the SLurls lists at the end of this piece.
  • Information / SLurls for individual exhibitors can be found in the SL19B Community Experiences pages of the Destination Guide.

Note that teleport boards are available throughout the region for jumping between them.

SL19B, June 16th through July 5th, 2022: The Steamworks stage 

Advice on a Better Experience

The SL19B regions – celebratory and Shop & Hop can get exceptionally busy. To help ease the pain for you:

  • If you have a high draw distance, reduce it to  as low as is comfortable for your enjoyment.
  • Turn off shadows in your viewer if you usually have them enabled.
  • Go to Preferences → Graphics and reduce the slider Max # Non-Imposter Avatars to a minimum and dial-down your Complexity slider.
  • Remove texture-heavy HUDs to free-up more texture memory.
  • To assist the simulator, remove unnecessary scripted attachments.
  • Dress lightly, avoid accessories of high complexity.

SLurls and Destination Guide Links

Core Event Region SLurls

All SLB regions are rated General.

  • The Arboretum – home to the Opening Ceremony, the Meet the Lindens sessions, the June 16th Music Fest line-up and more:

Arboretum 1 – Arboretum 2 – Arboretum 3

  • The Steamworks – home to the June 17th Music Fest line-up, and other entertainment:

Steamworks 1 – Steamworks 2 – Steamworks 3 – Steamworks 4

  • Vernian Rotunda – home to the June 18th Music Fest line-up, and other entertainment:

:Vernian Rotunda 1 – Vernian Rotunda 2 – Vernian Rotunda 3 – Vernian Rotunda 4

Exhibitor Region Landing Points

SLB Amaze SL1B Astonish SLB Astound
SLB Breathtaking SLB Captivate SLB Electrify
SLB Enchant SLB Fantasy SLB Imagination

Destination Guide and Other Links

SL19B: Shop & Hop, Music Fest and Meet the Lindens

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

The Second Life 19th Birthday celebrations are almost upon us, and on Tuesday, June 14th, the Lab published information on the Music Fest, together with the main calendar of events.

To help people with planning, I’ve pulled in the Music Fest info here, together with some key dates for other events during the celebrations. I’ll also have more on SL19B in general as a part of my Pocket Guide to the celebrations, complete with a list of SLurls and links, which will be available when the gates open!

Important: please note that all SLurls given below will only be available for general access when SL19B opens to the public.

Shop and Hop

The SL19B Shop and Hop event is perhaps the largest S&H event thus far held, featuring no fewer than 20 regions and 400 creators.

  • Public access to Shop and Hop, 10:00 SLT on Thursday, June 16th, 2022.
  • Early access for Second Life Birthday Group members from 09:00 SLT  on Wednesday, June 15th, 2022.

Note: these SLurls will be available on Wednesday, June 15th for members of the Second Life Birthday Group, and from 09:00 SLT on Thursday, June 16th for everyone.

Aurelian Chickory Dahlia Delphinium
Forsythia Frosted Gilded Gleaming
Golden Halcyon Hollyhock Jubilant
Lavendar (sic) Lupine Poppy Snapdragon
Snowflake Sugarplum Tinseled Zinnia

A full list of participating creators with direct SLurls  to there S&H stores is available here.

Music Fest

The Music Fest will kick-off at 13:00  SLT on Thursday, June 16th, and conclude at 22:00 SLT on Saturday, June 18th. It will take place at three venues across the SLB regions, with one venue hosting the event on each day.

Time (SLT) June 16th – Arboretum June 17th – The Steamworks June 18th – Vernian Rotunda
09;00 Gates Open — —
10;00 — — Cylindrian Rutabaga
11:00 Opening Ceremony Oblee Tia Rungray
Noon — AnLaik Skye Galaxy
13:00 Marqs DeSade The Interplanetary Liberation Front Tempio Breil
14:00 Joaquin Gustav Randy De Lucia SEMINA
15:00 Joka Shuggah! Mimi Carpenter
16:00 Holly Giles Sam King Frogg Marlowe & Jaycatt Nico (Effinjay)
17;00 Angelikus Deo J Lively spiritLed
18:00 Ruvie Gatchie Agatha Nowles Jimmyt49 Dukes
19:00 Seth Regan Grace Loudon Mae Loved
21:00 — — John Rocky
21:00 — — Gabryel Nyoki

Meet The Lindens

As per usual, SL19B will feature a series of Meet the Linden sessions, which can be attended in-world and (hopefully) live streamed via You Tube. The sessions will all take place at the Arboretum, which can be reach via the following SLurls:

Arboretum 1 – Arboretum 2 – Arboretum 3

Day (Times SLT) Featured Guest(s)
Monday 20th June, 14:00
 Patch Linden, Vice President of Product Operations.
Tuesday 21st June, 14:00 Linden LAb Executive Chair Brad Oberwager and Founder Philip Rosedale.
Wednesday 22nd, June, 14:00 Marketing Team.
Thursday 23rd June, 14:00 Grumpity Linden, Vice President of Second Life Product and Mojo Linden, Vice President of Engineering.
Friday 24th June, 14:00 Meet the Moles. The Moles are builders, scripters, and content creators employed by Linden Lab to work in the Linden Department of Public Works.

Second Life Birthday Calendar

The provides a full breakdown of events -note again that all times are SLT. Click here to open it in a separate browser tab.

Destination Guide links

Note: some of these may not be available until Thursday, June 16th:

SL19B exhibitor applications are open

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

June 2022 will see Second Life celebrate it’s 19th anniversary of opening to public access, and this year’s Second Life Birthday will run from Thursday, June 16th, with the Birthday regions open through until Tuesday, July 5th, and the main celebration events taking place from June 16th through to Sunday, June 26th, 2022. The theme this year is Steampunk.

On Thursday, March 31st, 2022, the Lab opened applications for exhibitor and volunteers. In calling for exhibitors the Lab notes:

Your exhibit does not need to stay in theme. If you are inspired by the thought of the hidden worlds around you, show us! Or, share your Second Life passions with us. Your interests. Your communities. Your worlds! Every year we celebrate because of you, the amazing and creative Residents, who have chosen to call Second Life home. What has drawn you into this world and what keeps you here? This year at the nineteenth  annual Second Life Birthday, show us what fuels your Second Life and inspires you. Let’s go exploring!

Those who are interested in exhibiting at SL19B are asked to read, complete and submit the official exhibitor application form, which includes this year’s Exhibitor Rules. Note that the closing date for applications is Sunday, May 8th.

At the same time, the Lab is seeking volunteers to assist during the celebrations, again noting:

We are looking for Residents with great people skills and a love and excitement for Second Life to help us make SL19B a huge success! That starts by making a great experience for visitors. If you like the idea of promoting Second Life in a positive way to thousands of people in a celebratory atmosphere, we welcome you to apply today!

Those who fancy volunteering are asked to complete and submit the volunteer application. Again, note the closing date is Sunday, May 8th.

This brings the total list of application form to:

SL19B: theme, music festival & performer applications

Posted on by Inara Pey


June 2022 will mark the 19th anniversary of Second Life opening to public access – and as we’ve all come to expect, a portion of the month will be given over to celebrations at the Second Life Birthday (SLB).

On Thursday, March 17th, Linden Lab officially announced the 2022 Birthday event and it’s theme, and also opened applications for the (now traditional) Music Fest that kicks-off the official celebrations, and also applications for those wishing to perform during the celebrations as a whole.

Dates and Theme

This year the SLB festivities will open on Thursday, June 16th, with the Birthday regions open through until Tuesday, July 5th, and the main celebration events taking place from June 16th through to Sunday, June 26th, 2022. The theme this year is Steampunk.

via Linden Lab

Music Fest

Now in its 8th year, the Music Fest has become the traditional opener for the official celebrations, and this year it will provide three days of live music entertainment between Thursday, June 16th and Saturday, June 18th inclusive.

The Lab is seeking at least a dozen performers, both veteran Second Life musicians and those new to the scene, to provide the music for the festival. Full details on requirements / policies can be found in the Music Fest application form; however, and in brief:

  • Previous sets at the festival run to an hour in length including any required set-up time.
  • There is a 350LI allowance for props and rezzable items for your show, which must be set-up as a part of the performance time.
  • Accepted acts are requested to be at the venue one hour ahead of their appearance, in order to complete final check-out with SLB personnel to ensure everything is ready for their set.
  • There is no payment for participation – however performers will be permitted the use of tip jars, subject to the festival policy notes.
  • All performances and song lyrics must be G-rated.
  • Applications will close on Sunday, April 10th, 2022.

Performer Applications

Linden Lab are looking for all types of performers to join the week-long festivities taking place between June 19th and June 26th, inclusive. DJs, live performers, dance troupes, particle performers and more are welcome to apply.

Performers for the week are asked to complete the official performer application form. Note that applications must be made by the end of Sunday, May 8th, 2022.

Related Links

SL18B: Meet the Moles of Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Friday, June 25th, 2021 saw the fifth and final Meet the Lindens special events take place for the SL Birthday celebrations, featuring Patch Linden and the Moles of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW).

Unlike previous summaries in this series, this article does note provide a detailed summary of the session, but instead provides some core information on the Moles – who they are, what they do, how to apply to become a Mole, etc., –  before presenting the video recording of the session, which goes into greater detail about the Moles and their work.

Who or What are the Moles?

  • Officially called the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW),  originally formed in 2008. They are managed by Derrick Linden, the Product Operations Manager for Second Life, together with a team of Linden Lab staffers.
  • Moles are residents from all over the world hired by Linden Lab as independent contractors to undertake specific tasks. Their work was originally focused on the Mainland, adding the infrastructure – road, bridges, etc., and the landscaping, as noted in the official LDPW wiki page, although they actually do a lot more than this.
  • Notable major projects carried out by the Moles include:
    • The infrastructure within Nautilus City.
    • The development of Bay City.
    • The Linden Homes continent of Bellisseria (including all topography, flora, infrastructure and housing).
    • The facilities for events like Shop & Hop, the Second Life Birthday, town hall events, the turn-key regions available for businesses, starter avatars, etc.
    • The Lab provided games such as Linden Realms, Paleoquest, Horizons and the grid-wide Tyrah and the Curse of the Magical Glytches – all accessible via the Portal Parks.
  • They also provide support / input for / to technical projects (e.g. Project Bento and the avatar skeleton extension), and work with marketing, QA and other LL teams.
  • In keeping with their name, Moles were originally given a mole avatar, complete with hard hat. However, over the years, most have moved to having a more individual and personal look, although some say with the Mole avatar.
  • As well as being paid for the work they do, Moles also receive and allowance from the Lab, which is primarily intended to go towards the cost of uploads (texture, animations, mesh objects, etc)., but which can also be put towards developing their individual looks.

How to Become a Mole

  • Positions in the LDPW are open to application by residents who believe they are qualified to work in the team, and the team may also approach specific residents and ask if they would consider joining them.
  • Applications are made by dropping a résumé (note card or email) of qualifications / experience (including links SLurls, Flickr, You Tube, etc.) to Derrick Linden (derrick.linden-at-lindenlab.com) or to Patch Linden (patch.linden-at-lindenlab.com).
  • Applicants have to go through a former interview process.
  • Successful applicants get to pretty much choose their hours of work – providing agreed tasks are completed on time.
  • As they are from around the world, this can allow some projects to move forward on almost a round-the-clock basis.
  • Those who are more fully-rounded in skill sets  – content creation, scripting, etc., – are encouraged to apply, but LL will also take on specialists.
  • Motivated, outgoing, communicative people with a passion for SL and willing to self-teach themselves new skill sets are particularly considered.