Category: News-Opinion

SL Mobile Available to Premium Plus and Premium in Open Beta

Posted on by Inara Pey
SL Mobile – via Linden Lab

On Tuesday, June 25th, Linden Lab announced the launch of an Open Beta phase for the SL Mobile App for Android and iOS, extending the opportunity for anyone with a Premium Plus or Premium subscription to Second Life to download the app and try it, and report on issues / give feedback.

  • The launch coincided with an announcement at the Product and Engineering Town Hall event at SL21B, and came with news of a series of special community-lead events to be held across the grid to mark the launch as well.
  • The announcement also saw the SL Mobile (beta) website become generally available, and the opening of a SL Mobile FAQ – those wishing to download and try the app on their device(s) should give this a read through.

How To Get It

As a beta release, you will need to use one of the links below on your device to access the SL viewer download:

The log-in screen (splash image changes with each log-in), the connecting screen giving destination, and the in-world view with drop-down menu active on a mobile ‘phone with octa-core processors ( 2×1.6 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6×1.6 GHz Cortex-A55), Mali G57 GPU and 8+8Gb RAM 

Some Points on Using SL Mobile

In General

  • This is beta software and liable to glitches (such a avatar skins rendering fully or partially black under a variety of situations).
  • Log-in is subject to multi-factor authentication, so if you use MFA, have a valid code available from your chosen authenticator when initially logging-in.
  • Once you are logged-in to Second Life on a specific device, future log-ins will be automatic on starting the the App until you log-out / are logged out from your device (e.g. because you try logging-in from a regular viewer whilst connected via SL Mobile).
  • The app also supports “standard” touch-screen capabilities including strafing movements (camera), pinch-zoom (camera zoom), etc.
  • SL notifications can be displayed as a part of your device’s notifications.
  • In order to comply with Apple requirements, Adult rated regions in Second Life cannot be access by the iOS version of the SL Mobile app.

Initial Tutorial

Avatar movement is via a “joystick” controller (tap bottom left of app window to reveal it), and a brief tutorial is supplied at first-time log-in.

Part of the Joystick tutorial displayed when logging-in to the SL Mobile App for the first time. Captured via a Doogee T10 8+7 Gb (Octa-core 2×1.6 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6×1.6 GHz Cortex-A55 CPU with Mali-G57 MP1 GPU), 1920×1200 25.65 cm diagonal screen

June 2024 Capabilities

  • Core capabilities in addition to world rendering and avatar movement, are accessed via a menu button to the top left of the app window.
  • These include:
    • Avatar: ability to change between complete outfits located in the Outfits folder
    • Chat: both nearby chat and IM (Friends (+Friends )n-line); Nearby; Group) – via overlay.
    • People: view All Friends, Friends On-line, Groups, Nearby, those Recent(ly contacted), those Blocked.
      • Includes options to view avatar profile, chat, IM, offer teleport, add / remove as friend, block, and AR.
    • Places: personal favourites, Destination Guide, Mobile showcase (DG subset).

    The Destination guide as seen in landscape view (Doogee tablet, 25.65 cm diagonal screen) and in portrait mode (16.5 cm screen on a mobile ‘phone)
  • There are also option to access the App’s settings, including:
    • General settings (draw distance (range 20m to 250m, with 20m or 100m and above not recommended); LOD (high, medium, low), Audio Steaming toggle switch, etc.).
    • Notifications settings.
    • Developer tools.
    • Feedback & bug reporting.
  • Also supported are:
    • Limited Context Menu access for avatars (e.g. to profile, to open chat, et.c) and in-world objects (e.g. to sit) – long touch over the avatar / object.
    • Receipt of Group notifications.
    • Receipt of app-specific notifications (blue dot).

What Isn’t There – Yet

  • At the time of writing the app does not support:
    • Building or object editing.
    • Inventory access and management (but see note on Outfit changing, above).
    • Use of voice.
    • Displaying on-screen HUD attachments or interactive dialogues drive by llDialog.
    • L$ transactions (or balance display) or Marketplace access.

Closing Comments

While I have been trying out the Mobile App since the public beta opened, this piece is not intended as a review, so I prefer not to give personal feedback here. I will, however, provided a more in-depth look at running the app on both a mobile phone and on a 10-in tablet device both on Android 13 in due course, as I gain more familiarity with using it.

Linden Lab announces venue for 1st Second Life community Round Table

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

Following recent announcements about efforts to improve communications and engage with the users, and to provide the opportunity to ask questions of members of the Lab’s senior leadership (see: Linden Lab: updates to policies and new initiatives on community relations (May 2nd, 2024) and Summary of Tilia acquisition Lab Gab + SL Round Table News (April 24, 2024)), on Thursday, May 16th, 2024, Linden Lab announced both the venue details for the the first Community Round Table and those from the Lab’s leadership team who will be attending.

You can read the full details in the official blog post: Community Roundtable on May 20 – Your Chance to Help Improve Second Life. However, and in brief:

In addition the the above, the post provides details on how users can engage with the Lab through the Feedback Portal and Support Portal, and by attending the regularly scheduled User Group meetings held in-world on a range of specific subject areas. For details on the latter, please refer to the SL wiki Official User Groups page, and for dates and times, please see the SL Public calendar†.

The official post concludes:

We understand that agreement on every idea or suggestion may not always be possible. However, we can assure you that your ideas and suggestions matter deeply to us, and those perspectives help shape our decisions. Your voice is valued in our ongoing journey together.
We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with each and every one of you in shaping a world that is not only enjoyable and prosperous but also vibrant and flourishing. Your presence here means the world to us, and your contributions are invaluable in making Second Life an exceptional place to belong. Thank you sincerely for sharing your time with us and for being an integral part of our journey towards creating something truly special together.

Again, please read the official blog post for all information on the meeting.

 

†While they are not officially representative of the Lab or these meetings, please note that I attempt to provide summaries of a number of user group session within these pages, and Patera Północy provides video recordings of the meetings she is able to attend via her You Tube channel).

Summary of Tilia acquisition Lab Gab + SL Round Table News

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

On Friday, April 26th, 2024, Linden Lab issued a pre-recorded Lab Gab session featuring the company’s Executive Chairman, Brad Oberwager (Oberwolf Linden) discussing the recent news concerning the acquisition of Tilia.io, the all-in-one payments platform established by Linden Lab in 2019 and which manages payment processing and cashing out for Second Life, by Singapore-based business-2-business (B2B) payments infrastructure firm Thunes, and which I reported on here on the acquisition.

At the same time, the blog post promoting the Lab Gab session provided further information on the upcoming Community Round Table event, first informally announced on April 19th, 2024.

The following is a brief summary of the Lab Gab session, offered as a quick reference summary for those interested. In addition, a brief summary of the Round Table event news is at the end of this article.

Lab Gab – Thunes and Tilia

General Points

[Video: 1:00-4:00]

  • The news of the acquisition has been the subject of considerable commentary on the official forums and elsewhere, and the concerns voice are seen as “understandable”.
  • Summary of Tilia (as clarification):
    • A payments company which (for Second Life) allows users to use credit and debit cards and PayPal to buy Linden dollars;  tracks the use of those Linden dollars and support the sale of those Linden Dollars, and allows users to cash-out the USD value of those Linden Dollars [after fees] to their bank accounts.
    • However, Tilia is not the LindeX itself – that is separate technology specific to Second Life.
    • In order to function under US regulatory law, Tilia requires money transmitter licenses (MTLs) [and is classified a Money Service Business or MSB]
    • Running Tilia costs “millions and millions” of dollars to run, so the decision was taken to spin it out as a business in its own right so that it could support other customers / platforms, and thus alleviate some of the costs faced by LL.
    • However, this has not worked out as well as had been hoped. While Tilia has a modest client list, it still relied heavily on Linden Lab to meet its costs, thus detracting for finances which could be used within Second Life.
    • The decision was therefore made to seek an organisation which might – “under guidelines” acquire Tilia and make it profitable.

Tilia and LindeX Demarcation

[Video 21:00-23:24]

  • The LindeX is a core part of the Second Life services, operated and maintained by Linden Lab.
  • Tilia is a regulated entity / financial institution which:
    • allows Second Life residents to hold US dollar amounts in an account;
    • is allowed to run a credit card;
    • is allowed to make pay-outs.
  • As such, Tilia has no influence upon the LindeX, and has nothing to do with pricing, exchange rates, etc., that are the remit of the LindeX.

Requirements for Acquisition

[Video: 4:41-5:28]

  • First criteria: any company acquiring Tilia must to commit to continuing to support Second Life, and the relationship between Second Life and Tilia is continued.
  • Second criteria: what could any company acquiring Tilia bring to Tilia and thus to Second Life?
  • Additional criteria included: how much were companies willing to pay; what would happen to Tilia staff, how fast could a buyer commit to completing the deal, etc.

Thunes – Who and Why

[Video: 5:35-8:18 and 11:00-12:30]

  • Thunes is an international money movement company “missing one piece of a very interesting jigsaw puzzle” – the United States.
  • In short, Thunes does not have MTLs to operate in the United States, although they had begun the process of applying for them.
  • Brad Oberwager was introduced to the CEO of Thunes right at the time thought was being given to selling Tilia, and Thunes were starting on the road of  applying for MTLs in the US.
  • As both parties recognised the value in reaching an agreement, they were able to rapidly enter into an exclusive agreement for the sale of Tilia.
    • Tilia gives Thunes the ability to operate in the United States in a more cost-effective manner than Thunes could otherwise achieve.
    • Tilia (rebranded as Thunes) will effectively become Thunes’ centre of operations for expanding its business into the US.
  • [As noted in my article] Thunes allows for a range of payment methods direct to customers in multiple currencies and to bank accounts, to virtual wallets, etc., with payment made in real-time. These are abilities Linden Lab has not been able to build-in to Tilia, as they are both complex and expensive.
  • As Thunes integrates Tilia into its business model, Second Life will be able to access Thunes’ global network and services.
  • [From 11:00] While there were other suitors for the deal, Thunes was the company with which Brad Oberwager felt most comfortable.
  • Thunes also demonstrated they really want to invest into Tilia and grow it as a business.
    • They weren’t simply looking at Tilia as a means to gain the MTLs.
    • They didn’t see Tilia as a one-stop solution; rather it is a merging of capabilities neither Thunes nor Tilia have individually.

The 5-Year Partnership and Payment Options to Second Life Users

[Video: 8:23-10:59]

  • The Thunes press release on the acquisition references a 5-year partnership with Linden Lab.
  • This is in reference to the business agreement between Linden Lab and Thunes, which is “so good” for both, the two companies wanted for formalise it beyond just the acquisition of Tilia, thus meeting the first criteria within the Lab’s requirements for any Tilia acquisition.
    • Any offer made for Tilia which had not provided the ability to meet the first criteria set by Brad Oberwager would not have been accepted.
  • There will be “a lot of things offered” to Second Life users, but what cannot be committed to as this point in time is when these things might be offered, simply because Linden Lab will not be involved in the day-to-day management and development of Tilia, post-sale. However:
    • “First on the roadmap” is better pay-outs and more pay-outs.
    • There will also [likely] be more options for purchasing L$.

Regulatory Approval and When Will SL Users Notice the Transition

[Video 12:32-15:33]

  • The acquisition is being handled as a reverse triangular merger [in essence, Tilia is both the subsidiary and the post-acquisition entity].
  • The company will be rebranded, but all the technology and data will “remain Tilia”. As such, Second Life users may never know that the transition has happened; all the things that are important in terms of data are staying the same; all of the things in terms of the technology are “only going to get better”.
  • What will change in Tilia’s owner, and this is where the regulatory approval comes in.
    • MTLs cannot simply be handed over to a new owner when a company operating them is sold; the new owner has to be approved by the state (/territorial) regulator(s) responsible for issuing the MTLs.
    • While regulators work at different speeds [and Tilia is licensed in 48 US states and territories), the process of gaining all the required approvals could take “from 5 to 9 months”.
    • Confidence in a buyer being able to gain all this regulatory approval was another criterion for any sale of Tilia. Thunes give him that level of confidence, because it has gone through similar processes elsewhere in the world.

Benefits, User Data and Fees

[Video: 15:33-21:00]

  • Proceeds of the sale will [obviously] go to the owners of Linden Lab. They will then determine how much of those funds are invested back into Second Life.
  • The better Second Life (or aspects thereof) do, then the greater the amount of money put into Second Life. Cited examples:
    • If SL Mobile sees high adoption and use, if it becomes successful on the Apple / Google app stores, etc., then more money could well be put towards further development / enhancement of the mobile product.
    • If SL sees increases in retained new users as a result of initiatives, with the daily average usage of the platform increasing, then more money will go into further improvements in that area.
  • A key point with the acquisition of Linden Lab [by Oberwager and Waterfield in 2020] is the company spending has increased, which has “proven to be a good thing” for the platform.
  • User Data Security: An important point to note with the acquisition of Tilia is that Second Life user data is not changing hands.
    • Tilia will have new owners and will be renamed, but the lock-down of Second Life user data resides in two places: Tilia (for financial information) and Second Life (actual user data).
    • As a financial services company, Thunes is required to keep financial data as secure as it currently is with Tilia, and the data will not be removed from the current Tilia systems and moved elsewhere.
  • User fees for payment processing, cashing out, etc.: Brad Oberwager has “no intention” to change fees “any which way” as a result of the deal with Thunes.
    • Pointed out that LL does revise fees, but tends to do so in a manner intended to reflect the value of the services they provide. So, while fees for payment processing, etc., have increased in the past – they have generally been as a result of lowering fees elsewhere (e.g. in reducing land tier).
    • Also made clear that while there are no plans to increase payment process / cashing out fees as a result of this deal, the LindeX is expensive to run and maintain – and so he is not saying there will “never” be any fee increases; changes will be made on a business benefit basis.

On The Future of Second Life

[Video 23:25-26:11]

  • Views Second Life as a “moral imperative” – it is so good for so many in the world for so many reasons, that there is a moral need that goes beyond a financial reason to have Second Life continue.
  • The only connection between selling Tilia and Second Life is that, under Linden Lab’s ownership was not “financially good” for Linden Lab, but is a potential financial powerhouse for Thunes.
  • The Thunes deal has gone ahead purely because it is good for Linden Lab, for Second Life and for Tilia and its employees; therefore there is “nothing negative” about the deal.
  • He remains fully supportive of Second Life, and – per the earlier examples – willing to put the money raised from the sale back into Second Life.

Round Table Update

  • As per the original April 19th informal announcement, the Round Table event will take place on Monday, May 20th, 2024, commencing at 09:30 SLT, and will be the first in a series of such events, which are defined as:
An opportunity to connect directly with our top executives, share your input, and discuss ideas on enhancing Second Life. This initiative represents another step in our efforts to improve our community interactions, ensuring that your voice is more directly heard and valued. 
  • The location for the event has not (at the time of writing) been stated, but will be announced “closer to the date”.
  • This first Round Table will feature Linden Lab Executive Chairman Oberwolf Linden and Senior VP of Product & Engineering Grumpity Linden. Plus:
    • The session will include further discussion of the above Tilia acquisition, and on upcoming Linden Lab / Second Life Policy updates.
    • There will be an open Q&A portion of the event (which is not for airing individual support issues or personal grievances and subject to the SL Community Standards.
    • In addition, questions and  / or feedback can be provided to the Leadership in advance of the event using this anonymous form.
  •  Future Round Table events will feature other Lab executives participating on a variety of topics, and the scheduling of these events will likely vary to be more accessible to other time zones.
  • Please see the official blog post for more.

Lab Gab April 2024 Update: Mobile, Mirrors, Policies – summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

On Friday, April 19th, Linden Lab issued a pre-recorded segment of Lab Gab, intended to provide updates on various technical projects currently in progress – notably the SL Mobile app – and to provide a modest degree of update on policy matters in the wake of allegations levelled publicly and pseudonymously against the company and some of its employees and contractors, during the month of February 2024.

The video itself – which is embedded at the end of this article – is extensively indexed within its You Tube page. The following is a brief summary of the major (in my eyes) points raised in the segment, and offered as a quick reference summary for those interested.

SL Mobile – Status

[Video: 1:20-12:00]

  • Currently remains in Premium Plus closed alpha testing (Premium Plus members can sign-up for access to this alpha testing phase).
  • Work is in progress to expand access to Premium subscribers. However, this requires moving the app from the iOS (Test Flight) and Google Android testing infrastructure (where users have to be manually added to the test environments) to an environment where granting access can be handled on a more automated / streamlined basis, and this will take time to complete.
  • An update highlighting some of the more recent Mobile app features was issued on April 5th, 2024, and the week commence April 15th, 2024, saw an updated version of the app made available to those in the alpha test programme, which includes further bug fixes and updates – including the addition of deformer support, so quadruped / non-biped avatars render correctly in the app.

How Development of the Mobile App is Approached

[Video: 4:06-6:45]

  • SL Mobile development is being looked at in terms of what residents may want to do and the features required to achieve that.
  • Currently the focus is on users staying connected through notifications, being able to converse, etc., and the receipt (and response to) off-line IMs (which is said to have implications for Second Life in general, not just with regards to Mobile, with future updates on what is being done being promised.
  • Related to this is work on actually being able to do things – visit places, change outfits / looks / accessories, etc., and interact with objects.
  • In addition to providing features and capabilities for active users, Mobile is being thought of in terms of how to get “lapsed” users to re-engage with the platform. This work particularly requires the building-out of a set of capabilities to help such users re-engage with the platform and friends as smoothly as possible.

Mobile Q&A

[Video: 10:14-12:00]

(taken from questions submitted in advance, following the announcement of a Mobile update segment of Lab Gab originally scheduled for March 2024, but subsequently postponed.)

  • Will SL Mobile support HUDS – yes.
  • Create and build on Mobile? – longer-term it might be possible to provide a feature that allows some form of content creation on Mobile, but it will be limited. For “serious” content creation capabilities, the desktop viewer will still be required.
  • Voice support on Mobile – yes
  • Estate Management – maybe.
  • Mobile-specific capabilities (webcam, GPS, etc) – maybe.
  • Keyboard & mouse support – definite maybe.
  • Will Mobile be free or pay-to-access  – currently, there are no plans to charge for Mobile use, but ideas for making current subscription plans ore meaningful for those only accessing SL via the app are being considered.

glTF / PBR

[Video: 12:53-20:05]

Mirrors

  • A glTF “featurette” capability, providing real-time mirrors in Second Life (including avatar reflections).
  • Currently available for testing on Aditi (the Beta grid), but simulator support due to start limited deployment on Agni (the Main grid) during week#17 (commencing Monday, April 22nd), with viewer support (at the time of writing) available via the glTF Featurettes RC viewer.
  • In keeping with the new glTF features, leverage both reflection probes and the upcoming 2K texture support.
Signal Linden demonstrates the glTF mirror capability, which is about to become fully available in Second Life

2K Textures – including Fees

  • Full support for 2048×2048 textures.
  • To ensure there is no undue impact on performance given 2K textures have 4 time the area of current 1K textures, work has been put into streaming optimisation to ensure only the require MIP map is used with a textures (e.g. if the texture is 2K, but the surface it is being displayed on only requires 512K – then the 512K MIP map will be used, NOT the 2K MIP.
  • Fees for 2K texture uploads:
    • Basic / Plus account: L$50 per texture.
    • Premium account: L$40 per texture.
    • Premium Plus: L$10 per texture.
  • Viewer support will be provided separately to the Mirrors / PBR Terrain work, “soon”.

PBR Terrain

  • Provides support for PBR materials on SL terrain (including specular and normal map support).
  • Includes the use of 2K textures.
Materials applied to Second Life terrains. Credit: Linden Lab
  • Not only improves the texel density (resolution) for terrain, but also provides better blending between textures as terrain elevation changes.

General

  • Those wishing to see glTF mirrors and terrain support can do so by requesting access to Aditi (the beta grid) and visiting one of the following regions: Rumpus Room 2048; Rumpus Room 2049; Rumpus Room 2050 and Rumpus Room 2051.
  • However, (initially limited) deployment of back-end support for Mirrors and PBR Terrain on Agni (the Main grid) commenced on Wednesday, April 17th, using the Featurettes RC viewer available via the Alternate Viewers page. The supported regions have the same Rumpus Room names as given above, and I will be updating on this as a part of my SUG meeting summaries.
  • All of the glTF work is discussed at the Content Creation User Group – see the SL Public Calendar for the meeting dates – and I summarise meetings here.

Policy Updates with Keira Linden

[Video: 21:14-24:12]

Note: this section is in keeping with the statement by Linden Lab owner and Executive Chair, Brad Oberwager in light of allegations made with a pseudonymous article which appeared on a social journalise website in February 2024 (further commentary on this can be found here).

  • A reminder of the age requirements for Second Life:
    • Second Life is generally for adults (18 years or older).
    • 16-17 years are allowed, but only within General rated regions.
    • Second Life is not intended for anyone under the age of 16, except for students in the 13-15 year age range, who are restricted to regions operated by recognised / sponsoring educational organisations, and provided with access through a special registration process.
  • LL is keenly aware of the need not to expose minors to inappropriate content. As such, the age verification process for users entering second Life is to be strengthened, and further details on this will be made available soon.
  • Use of child avatars:
    • Linden Lab recognises that adults do role-play and present as child avatars in ways that are entirely without any form of sexualisation or in any way ageplay related, and the company has no intention to limit or prevent this kind of engagement.
    • However:
      • Child avatars should not be used to access or be near regions which have (or also have) adult-rated content / activities.
      • Consenting adults engaging in adult-oriented role-play with / using avatars presenting as children (aka “ageplay”) is not allowed – and will never be allowed – in Second Life, and the policy on this is strictly enforced.
    • In light of the recent allegations, the Lab is in the process of strengthening the child avatar policy, and the updated version will be rolled out soon. The intent of these changes is to ensure an even greater separation between the use of child avatars and adult-rated content in Second Life.
  • As well as the above, LL is looking to improve policies relating to conduct both within the broader Second Life community of users and within the company as well (e.g. how staff interact with the wider community, and policies relating to potential conflicts of interest / the perception of favouritism,  in the case of the latter).
  • A cross-department project is also underway to help with content moderation, both in-world and on the Marketplace.

Community Round Table

[Video: 24:14-25:17]

  • A new channel of communication to launch in May 2024.
  • Being seen as a more “general purpose” user group meeting type of forum where users can put forward their ideas on how to improve Second Life to executive members of Linden Lab’s leadership.
  • Details to be forthcoming soon.

 

Second Life Combat User Group: April 11th, 2024 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Credit: Rider Linden

The following notes were taken from the Thursday, April 11th, 2024 Combat User Group meeting (also referred to as the Combat Committee User Group or CCUG, an abbreviation also used by the Content Creation User Group, and which I’ll not be using in these summaries to reduce the risk of confusion between the two). They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript.

Meeting Overview

  • The Combat User Group exists as a forum to discuss improvements to the Linden Lab Combat System or LLCS to better support combat in Second Life.
    • The core idea is to provide additional events and capabilities which sit on top of LLCS to provide combat creators with better tools with which to create better combat systems for their specific scenarios.
  • The meetings are the result of a proposal document on improving the native damage system in SL, written by Rider Linden, and which is the focus for both the meeting and any work arising from them.
  • These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
    • By Rider Linden, with the support of Kyle Linden.
    • On alternating Thursdays (rotating with the Content Creation User Group) at 13:00 SLT. Meeting dates are recorded in the Second Life Public Calendar.
    • Initially in text, although voice might be included in the future depending on feedback from those attending.
    • At this location.
  • Additional details are available via the SL wiki.

Work In Progress

  • Rider has updated the simulator running on the Aditi combat test regions (Thermopylae and Gallipoli). In particular:
    • The combat log events so that it will provide up to 1020 bytes of data at a time.
    • The single JSON object becomes an array, which will hopefully address the issues of overflowing the listen event.
    • A fix a possible exploit wherein rezzing a prim with damage in a non damage area then shooting it into a damage area would cause damage. To prevent this, the object becomes TEMP and DIE_ON_COLLIDE with no damage. This will be extended to regular damage to prevent situations such as people sniping at opponents from “safe” zones.
    • The issue of physical objects with damage (via llSetDamage or REZ_DAMAGE) not causing damage to objects with no sitters should now be fixed.
    • Setting up a well known sender for those so llListen can filter them is coming soon.
  • Rider is currently working on region settings for what happens when someone “dies” in combat.
  • Rider proposes setting up two combat-specific region on Aditi (the Beta grid), specifically for testing output from this work / project.
    • Names are TBC, but will likely be something along the lines of “Waterloo”.
    • These will hopefully be up and running in about a week.
  • In terms of initial work, Rider is looking to “knock off” the low-hanging fruit:
    • First will be llGetHealth.
    • Second will be damage transfer across regions (e.g. damage transfer is not going to 100% when you cross a region boundary).
  • The above will be followed by work on the on_damage() event, key to much of the rest of the work.
  • New documentation accompanying the events and capabilities will be posted the to LSL Wiki.

Comments and Requests

  • To new requests under consideration:
  • This led to a discussion on damage distribution when a vehicle carrying sitters is hit (Rider’s approach being if a vehicle carrying four avatars is hit, then each would receive 25% damage), and how llDamage should be handled (e.g. if called from within a vehicle  – one avatar shooting another – damage goes to the avatar; if llDamage called from outside the vehicle, it goes to the vehicle and the vehicle determines how the damage is applied to those sitting on it).
  • As a result of the discussion, a new function – llDetectedTarget – was seen to be increasingly desirable. This would allow specific avatars riding a vehicle to be targeted (e.g. the driver).
  • The meeting time may be changing to allow more US attendees. 3:30 SLT is being considered – although this could then exclude those from Europe.

Linden Lab: statement on recent allegations

Posted on by Inara Pey
© and ® Linden Lab

In February 2024, an article was published on the social journalism website Medium¹, making various allegations against Linden Lab and some of its employees and contractors together with various users on the Second Life platform, as well as claims relating to some of the services provided to users of the platform.

At the time of the article’s publication, I contacted the Lab concern its claims and allegations, but other than referencing a broad statement being given to those contacting Support on the matter, and an off-the-record comment, there was no official response for the purposes of quoting. As such, I decided not to comment on the claims or the Lab’s response until such time there was any formal statement on the matter, rather than writing on the basis of pure speculation.

Such a statement was made on Wednesday, March 20th, 2024 (when I happened to be away from Second Life entirely, dealing with an exceptionally hectic personal life, hence the somewhat belated nature of this piece). It came from company owner and Executive chairman, Brad Oberwager, who is, as many know, extremely hands-on with Linden Lab and its products.

If you have not already done so, you can read the full statement from Mr. Oberwager here.

For my part, I’ll simply highlight the core part of the statement, coming as it does after numerous in-world and on-line demands that the Lab publicly respond to the piece published via Medium’s website:

I promise you that we are taking this very seriously. Very. Full stop. 
I promise we hear you. We know you’re angry and you’re confused. We are working to do our best to resolve your concerns and restore your trust in us. These are complicated issues and we want to do things right. We will make mistakes along the way. I wish I could say we will not, but we will. 
As owner of Linden Lab, I have initiated a thorough investigation, both internally and with external partners, to review whether or not there have been any violations of our company and community policies by employees, contractors, or community members. While early preliminary internal investigations suggest that some of the accusations are unfounded, I want to make sure that we get additional investigative support externally to ensure that the process is fair and thorough.
One of our top priorities has been to ensure the safety of our residents, moles, employees, and families. There are real people behind the avatars, and it has been important to confirm that nobody was in actual physical danger. 
Additionally, I am taking proactive steps to review and revamp many of our policies, including a comprehensive review of our Community Standards, Content Guidelines, and Ageplay Policy. Any violation detected will be met with swift enforcement actions to protect our community. We’ll be sharing these revised policies in the coming weeks and, critically, we are turning to the community to help us shape the future of how governance operates within Second Life. 

While there were almost immediate calls on on social media and in-world for the Lab to make known its response to the allegations made and provide “full transparency” (or even a basic “we are investigating”), they were perhaps premature.

Given the seriousness of some of the allegations made (including the potential for them to be defamatory towards the company and the individuals named), caution of approach in even the most preliminary investigation was bound to be required, together with legal circumspection on what the Lab might or could say. This is further compounded by the fact the Medium piece brings together numerous different claims and allegations, some of which are perhaps easier to verify (e.g. issues within the Marketplace), others of which are not (including obtaining some veracity concerning the author of the piece, particularly given its pseudonymous nature²). Ergo, any investigation, either preliminary or in-depth, would / will take weeks (even months) to complete.

Nor, frankly, should there be any expectation that – given a statement has now been made – that the results of any investigation will be publicly disclosed in full once completed. There may well be legal or other ramifications which preclude this from happening.

That said, I do welcome the statement by Mr. Oberwager; it actually speaks well of the company that as soon as they have been in a position to respond to user sentiment on the matter, they have done so, and through the voice of their owner .

Footnotes

  1. At the time of writing this piece, the article in question has been found in violation of Medium’s rules of publication, and is subject to further investigation, and thus suspended from being viewed.
  2. The Medium piece was published under the account name “dantesedmond1844”.This appears to be a intentional reference to Edmond Dantès, the protagonist in Alexander Dumas’ 1844 novel of revenge / vengeance, The Count of Monte Cristo. Which, given the overall nature of the article, to me would appear to be a very curiously coincidental choice of account name (or possibly a contextual choice).

Note: as this piece is related to an on-going investigation onto an article containing unproven (and potentially questionable) allegations against specific individuals, it is requested than any comments offered in response to this piece forgo naming or otherwise discussing those individuals.