Category: News

Place Pages: a new gateway to your activities in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Second Life Places Beta Page
Second Life Places Beta Page

On January 11th, 2017, the Lab announced a new beta programme – Second Life Place Pages.

In essence this allows region and parcel owners to create a web browsable page for their location(s) in-world where they can be shared through blogs, websites, etc. Included with each page are buttons to allow visitors to the page to launch their viewer and teleport directly to your location (assuming they are Second Life users – if not, they’ll have to sign-up  via the provided link to the main sign-up process).

In order for people to be able to use the Places pages to promote their own locations, certain criteria must be met:

  • You must own the parcel / region in question OR you must be assigned a the group ability to Toggle ‘Show Place in Search’ And Set Category within the group owning the land
  • About Land > Show Place in Search must be checked (recurring fee of L$30 a week).

The announcement itself was – frankly – vague. Whilst explaining the purpose of Places, and the fact it is beta, the blog post itself doesn’t actually provide information on where to find detailed information on the new pages – such as how to get started or even how to view the new pages. While there is a link to a forum post, it also isn’t that much more informative on where to find information for those unsure of how to proceed. This being the case, here are the key links:

A part of the Places page set-up by the Lab for the Innsmouth role-play community
A part of the Places page set-up by the Lab for the Innsmouth role-play community – click image to visit the page

As a quick run-down of the basics, providing you meet the criteria for establishing public Places page(s) for your parcel(s) / region(s) as defined above, you can get started by:

  • Visiting the Places home page – note you may have to log-in to it.
  • Hovering the mouse pointer over your name (top right of the page) and selecting My Places from the displayed drop down  – this will list all of your parcels and regions. You can then select those you wish to edit, and follow the instructions in the Knowledge Base article.
  • Note that A Places page for a parcel can also be “hidden” at any time by unchecking Show Place in Search in the About Land window, while all Places pages for a region, regardless of parcel settings, can be hidden by checking World > Region/Estate > Region >  Block Land Show in Search.

Within the pages are options to embed image slide shows, machinima videos and include social media buttons to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ for those wishing to use them, as well as basic information on the location itself. There is also the ability to include a 360-snaphot banner / hero image, and to include links to the Places pages for locations  / venues within the current location. For example, Loki Eliot’s Escapades Places page includes links to the Places pages for venues with his Escapades island, as shown below.

If you have a location with multiple venues / places to visit, you can create a Places page for it, and then link to the Places pages for each of the venues / places within it - as Loki Eliot has done with Escapades Island (click to go to the Escapades Place page)
If you have a location with multiple venues / places to visit, you can create a Places page for it, and then link to the Places pages for each of the venues / places within it – as Loki Eliot has done with Escapades Island (click to go to the Escapades Place page)

All of which make the pages somewhat flexible. And while they are fairly basic at present, they could evolve into exceptionally useful items and make the L$30 a week search listing fee more than worthwhile.

Note, however that as a beta, capabilities are both limited and subject to bugs. The Lab is welcoming ideas and feature requests, and asks that specific bugs (the linking to places described above is buggy, for example), are reported via JIRA. General feedback and observations should be given via the official forum thread,

I’m not sure how many actually have access to the beta programme, or whether this initial deployment is restricted to those who actually OWN regions. However, I’ve been unable to access those parcels / regions where I have the required group rights as an Estate Manager and the land is listed in Search. Others in a similar position to myself have also reported they cannot view the Places pages for  their regions.  This being the case, and in addition to the screen shots above, here are some Places pages links for those wanting a closer look at things:

Of snowball fights and premium discounts in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Winter Wonderland - the snowball fight Arena awaits
Winter Wonderland – the snowball fight Arena awaits

The Lab has been awash with blog posts this last week. There was news of  a new Marketplace promotion – the 12 Days Of Savings, which launched on Wednesday, December 14th and runs through to December 25th. It sees the Lab hook-up with selected content creators to offer up to 70% off selected goods for the period.

That was followed by the announcement of the Jolly Holiday Crawl, and a chance to meeting Linden staff as they hop across wintry regions before retiring to Winter Wonderland for the time-honoured residents vs Lab snowball fight.

The Jolly Holiday Crawl will start at 1:00 SLT on Monday, December 19th, and conclude at :12:00 SLT at the Winter Wonderland, ready for the snowball engagement at Winter Wonderland, which will continue through to 14:00 SLT (officially!). There’s a special gift on offer for those taking part, and the itinerary reads as follows (all times SLT):

Winter Wonderland
Winter Wonderland

To coincide with the above, and the opening of the all new Portal Parks (see my post here for more), the Lab officially announced the re-opening of Winter Wonderland on Thursday, December 15th, together with an end-of-year Premium Membership discount drive.

The five regions of Winter Wonderland offer the Village of Lights (with the main landing point), the snow track for snowboard and snowmobiles (rezzers at the starting point), the skating rinks, Ferris wheel, walks in the snow, and – of course – the snowball fight arena.

The Premium Membership discount is this time in respect of the Quarterly  Billing plan, and relates to 50% off your first payment under that plan.  (all subsequent payments will be at the standard rate), and provides all the usual Premium perks. In addition, new and existing Premium members can claim yet another premium gift, which this time also includes a Premium Badge which unlocks exclusive options at Winter Wonderland (e.g. upgrading snowball weapons in the snowball arena).

For those who are interested in the Premium Membership offer, it expires on January 2nd 2017, at 08:00 SLT – be sure to read the small print on both the official blog post and the Premium sign-up page.

The all new (new) portal parks open in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
New Portal Parks
New Portal Parks

Back in October 2016, Linden Lab blogged about various updates to Second Life (see here). One of the updates mentioned concerned the new two-region Portal Parks, which I wenet on to write about in a little more depth (see here).

Well – guess what? It’s all changed again!

“We made everything fit into one region again,” Naughty Mole told me as I dropped into one of the new Portal Park regions on the suggestion of Dee Linden. “These will be replacing the 2-region ones, which will be gone in a few hours.”

There is something distinctly Tolkienesque about the new parks, which offer a very compact design. At the centre is a huge tree, rooted in a massive crystal, which itself hovers gently in the air, light rising in twists and spirals around it from the glimmering water below.

New Portal Parks
New Portal Parks

Around this is a circular pathway, sitting between the rim of the pool and the great walls of an all-encompassing dome, ageist which great statues and pillars stand, feet garlanded in flowers and plants, the walls behind them set with growing ivy while crystals light the scene. Within these walls are set great doors. Some are closed, their lintels guarded by ancient runes – representing destinations still to come. Others are open, offering walkways to waiting portals, the destination displayed in glowing letters above the runes which might otherwise guard them.

All of the current Lab-provided destinations are represented: Gaming Island, Halloween Haunted, Horizons, Isle of View, Linden Realms, PaleoQuest, The Cornfield and Winter Wonderland. However, if any are not currently open to the public, their teleport portals are sealed and inactive.

New Portal Parks
New Portal Parks

Of the various portal parks designs, this is both the most compact – and potentially the best looking. A landing point built out over the central well present people with a place to sit and a map of the available portals on the surrounding walkway. Admittedly, this started to get a little crowded as people were diverted from the “old” parks – but things will hopefully settle down as both of the portal parks come into use.

SLurl Details

Lab adjusts billing and trading limits in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Tuesday, December 13th, Linden Lab announced updates to the caps placed on trading volumes across the LindeX which are designed to help prevent fraud.

The announcement reads in full:

Many Residents participate in the LindeX® exchange – trading L$ and contributing to the Second Life economy on a regular basis. As part of our commitment to prevent fraud and comply with applicable regulations, there are limitations in place that cap the trading volume for each Resident’s account at certain tiers.

We have recently reviewed and adjusted these tier limits to better accommodate the needs of Second Life Residents. For most, these changes will be beneficial, and you can review the details of your current trading limits by logging into your account and visiting your order history.

If you find that you need higher limits, you can request a tier limit review through our support system. Simply submit a ticket –> Billing –> LindeX Billing and Trading Limits Review Request (for basic accounts) or  Billing and L$ -> LindeX Tier Review ticket options (for premium accounts).

Happy trading!

A Petrovsky Flux gone from Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
A Petrovsky Flux - no longer in Second Life
A Petrovsky Flux – no longer in Second Life

A Petrovsky Flux, the stunning, ever-changing cluster of devices that would assemble themselves and grow almost organically, only to blow apart and rebuild themselves over and over again, taking on a new form each time – has gone from Second Life.

Designed by Cutea Benelli and blotto Epsilon, the installation had, since 2010, been curated by the University of Kansas at their Spencer Art Museum region in SL, where it had over the years been a popular draw. However, at a time when eyes were all on the opening of the Horizons regions (see here) and return of Mont Saint Michel to Second Life in November 2016 (see here), the Spencer Museum of Art region quietly slipped away from Second Life, pretty much unnoticed.

It wasn’t until Chantal Harvey contacted me about the possible status of the Spencer Art Museum region that I found out something may had changed.  “I’ve been trying to get there for weeks now,” she informed me via IM, “I was filming there. but it seems it is gone, do you know?”

A quick check on the map confirmed the region had indeed gone from the grid, and a check through Tyche Shepherd’s excellent Grid Survey summaries showed it had been removed from the grid during the week ending Sunday, November 13th, 2016.

It’s not clear if the removal is permanent or not – as I reported in 2014, the region came close to vanishing from Second Life, due to something of a miscommunication involving the Spencer Art Museum, the University of Kansas and the artists. As a result of that situation, I’ve written to Stephen Goddard, the Spencer’s Associate Director/Senior Curator of Prints & Drawings. He was responsible for the Museum’s presence in Second Life, so hopefully, he can shed some light on what has happened. Should he reply, I’ll offer and update.

In the meantime, here’s Toxic Menges’ 2010 machinima of A Petrovsky Flux to remind us of this fabulous build.

Full Private region LI upgrade now available in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

As per my coverage of the increased LI allowance across Second Life (see here and here), the Lab announced the availability of an additional 10K LI for full private regions on December 7th, 2016.

The recent LI increases represented, on average, a 33% increase across regions. now  – as announced in Upgrade Your Full Private Region to 30,000 Land Impact Today! – owners of FULL private regions can increase their LI allowance by a further 50% – taking them from 20,000 to 30,000.

Upgrades can be requested by submitting a case through the support portal on the Second Life website under the case type Land & Region > Land Impact Change Request. However, when making a request, keep in mind:

  • There is a one-off upgrade fee of US $30 applicable to each Full region being increased to 30,000 Land Capacity.
  • There is an additional monthly maintenance fee applicable to each updated region. This stands at US $30 per month at the time of writing, but please refer to Land Impact Change in the Managing Private Regions Knowledge Base article for current fees.
  • The upgrade must be maintained for a minimum of one calendar month.
  • Downgrading to 20,000 Land Capacity will incur a further one-off charge of US $30.
  • No pro-rating or discounts are permitted with the upgrade.

Telrunya Winter; Inara Pey, November 2016, on Flickr Telrunya Winter – blog post