Category: News-Opinion

Lab announce Premium members meet-up

Posted on by Inara Pey
The next meet-up with the Lindens will be a Premium members affair and a beach party
The next meet-up with the Lindens will be a Premium members affair and a beach party

In the run-up to the 12 anniversary celebrations for Second Life, the Lab has announced the next meet-up between staff and users will be a special Premium membership affair, and an opportunity for those attending to grab a copy of the the 12th anniversary avatar.

The meet-up is set to be a part of various activities the Lab is planning to help celebrate SL’s 12th birthday, which will be available for all SL users, and doubtless announced through the official blog.

The blog post announcing the Premium meet-up reads in part:

Splish Splash – it’s a Tiki Beach Bash!
Premium members – this one is just for you, so be sure to save the date! We’ve lit the tiki torches and brushed up on our fruity drink-mixing skills to host a casual gathering with the added bonus of early access to our Official Second Life 12th Birthday commemorative avatar.

That’s right – come to the SL12B Premium Meetup on Thursday June 11th from 10:30 to 11:30 AM SLT, hang out with us, and be one of the first to glimpse and grab the celebratory 12th anniversary avatar. The nature of this particular avatar required us to select a remote island for our gathering as well as implement a strict quarantine on the subject, so you’re going to have to drop by our tropical jungle destination to find out what it is.

The bar is ready ...
The bar is ready …

For those unable to attend the event itself, the post also notes:

While we hope you can make it to the meetup, we understand that schedules, timezones, and such make it impossible for everyone to make every meetup. With this in mind, the avatar kiosk will be available until midnight SLT on June 12th for you to stop by and pick up your prerelease avatar. That means, even if you can’t come to the Tiki party, you can still get early access to the avatar.

Speculation is already running as to what the avatar will be, with some speculating it will be a dinosaur, given the hint of Isla Nublar about the official blog post. However, the only way to find out ahead of the rest is to attend the gathering.

So, Premium members, get your swimsuits on, make sure you all know where your towels are, and get ready to meet a few Lindens on the beach…

Lab seeks assistance with improving land bans in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeDuring the Third-Party Viewer Developer’s meeting on Friday, June 5th, Oz Linden raised the subject of making improvements to the current way in which land bans  – both region-wide and for parcels – are presented and managed within Second Life.

In doing so, he invited open-source developers to work with the Lab to help improve how the ban functionality is presented through the viewer, and how it works in general, indicating that those wishing to provide assistance would be able to work with the Lab to improve the viewer-side tools while the Lab’s developers work on the simulator end of things.

His comments came at the 17:58 minute mark of the video from the meeting, which was recorded by Chakat Northspring, and I’m providing his core comments  in audio and text below for reference.

 

One thing that I wanted to talk about was ban lists; and i’m referring to ban lists for land here. Right now … we certainly don’t have a good mechanism for managing the ban list. That is for looking at it and figuring out who are the least important people on it that you can get rid of to make room for more, that sort of thing.  I am putting out a general call for people to think about, and especially to contribute to implementing an improved ban list management mechanism.

Oz Linden - looking for open-source developer support for improving land ban management capabilities in Second Life
Oz Linden – looking for open-source developer support for improving land ban management capabilities in Second Life

At this point, several suggestions were put forward – such as having a note field in the list where the reason a person has been banned can be recorded, and / or adding a means by which a ban can be specified for a length of time before expiring, etc. Oz then continued:

So here’s what I’m really most interested in getting, is somebody who is interested in doing the UI and front-end work, in collaboration with us doing the back-end work for an improved ban list managed interface. So I’m putting out a call for volunteers and if you volunteer and want to put together a specific proposal,  we will evaluate whether or not we can get that much work done on the back, and how quickly, and do all that good stuff.

So that’s an opportunity to make all land owners think that you’re a wonderful person, and of course it comes with the usual inclusion in the contributor’s list and all that good stuff that goes with that.

Open-source contributors willing to assist in this work should probably, in the first instance, contact Oz through the usual channels to indicate their interest.

Viewer-Managed Marketplace update

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeViewer-Managed Marketplace (VMM) is a new set of capabilities designed to enable merchants to manage the creation and management of Marketplace product listings through the viewer, bypassing the need to use the Merchant Outbox an have copies of items stored on the Marketplace inventory servers), or using Magic Boxes located in-world, as VMM fully supports the sale on No Copy objects.

As most (all?) merchants are aware, it has been undergoing beta testing since the end of 2014, initially on Aditi (the Beta grid), and more recently on the Main grid, and there have been several feedback session on the work, either directly with merchants and those involved in the beta testing, and / or through the Lab’s Third-Party Viewer Developer meetings (see my VMM updates in this blog for specifics, together with the main VMM discussion thread on the Commerce forum).

The general feedback on the beta is that it has been going very well, with reported issues being dealt with by the Lab.

Automated Migration Notes

As a part of the transition to VMM, the Lab is offering merchants an automatic migration of their existing Direct Delivery items to VMM (items in Magic Boxes must be manually migrated to VMM). It is this automatic migration process that has been undergoing the most recent and extensive testing, and details on the process are now beginning to emerge, which can be summarised as:

  • The automated migration process for all merchants will start no earlier than June 20th, 2015
  • The automated migration process is capped at a maximum of 5,000 items per merchant, and the Lab has been notifying affected merchants of this, and what actions will be taken for those with more than 5,000, namely:
    • Any unlisted items held by the merchant will be removed from the Marketplace as returned to the Merchant’s Received Items folder
    • If the above fails to reduce the item count to below 5,000, any listed items held by the Merchant which have not had a sale in the past year will be unlisted and returned to the Merchant’s Received Items folder.
  • Those merchants with more than 5,000 items on the Marketplace who do not wish to have their items pruned by the auto-migration process are being encouraged to carry out any pruning that may be required to get their numbers below 5,000 ahead of the start of the auto-migration process, or to carry out the migration of their Direct Delivery items manually and alongside any Magic Box items they may have.
VMM includes an option to manually associate existing MP listings with VMM items in your inventory, which will help ease part of the the migration process for those concerned over automated migration paths
VMM includes an option to manually associate existing MP listings with VMM items in your inventory, which will help ease part of the the migration process for those concerned over automated migration paths

For those who wish to do so, manually migrating Direct Delivery items to VMM is relatively straightforward. All you need is the VMM project viewer (currently version 3.7.28.300920, although this may update shortly – see below), and you can use the Associate Listings capability within VMM to easily link items in your Marketplace Listings panel with you existing MP listings without having the re-create the latter, as shown above.

One point to note when moving DD items to VMM is that if you use multiple sub-folders within a current Direct Delivery folder, you may have to re-arrange things to avoid VMM treating the sub-folders as individual versions of the product.

Additional Notes

Some concerns have been raised over goods from merchants which are still popular in terms of sales, even though the Merchant may no longer be active in Second Life. It would seem that if these items meet the criteria for automatic migration, then they should continue to be available following the migration process. However, if they are only available via Magic Boxes and are not migrated manually (or fail to meet the automatic migration criteria), then will cease to be available as the switch-over to VMM runs its course.

The UKanDo viewer is one TPV to have already implemented the viewer side VMM updates. Out of curiosity, I used them alongside the project viewer to convert my own Marketplace items
The UKanDo viewer is one TPV to have already implemented the viewer side VMM updates. Out of curiosity, I used them alongside the project viewer to convert my own Marketplace items

For those who would prefer to use the viewer they are most familiar with in order to migrate their items to DD, rather than use the LL viewer, it is anticipated that the latter will undergo a further round of minor fixes, and the updates version either issued as a release candidate viewer or promoted to RC status shortly thereafter.

Once at RC status, the VMM code will legitimately be available for incorporation into TPVs as well. However, some TPVs have already adopted the code – the v3-style UKanDo viewer being one, for example.

One additional point of note here as well is that just because the viewer code may go to RC status fairly shortly, it does not mean the Lab are suddenly going to declare VMM is “live”. Lead times have been promised and adhered to throughout testing, and as noted earlier in this article, the only time scale that is confirmed for now is that the automatic migration process for all Merchants will not commence before June 20th.

While my own feedback may be of limited value, as I only have a small store and do not classify myself as a Merchant, I have used both the project viewer and UKanDo to manually migrate my items (and have removed various items out of choice, even though my store was well below the automatic migration threshold). By using the Associate Listing capability in VMM, I found the entire process to be relatively issue free – the only problems I did have were the result of silly mistakes on my part will flicking back and forth between the project viewer and UKanDo to test the functionality of the latter against the former.

Related Links

Second Life: changes to viewing group members’ lists

Posted on by Inara Pey

Due to a missed communication from the Lab, which indicated a preference on their part for this issue not to be blogged about, this post has been withdrawn, at least until such time as I can resolve matters with them.

Updated: Further to a discussion with Oz Linden on Friday, June 5th, there will be an updated report on these changes available on Tuesday, June 9th 2015.

An opportunity in Australia with a little help through Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Image courtesy of Carmsie Melodie
Image courtesy of Carmsie Melodie

FreeWee Ling is perhaps best known for her tireless work on behalf of the University of Western Australia (UWA), and co-organiser and curator of the UWA’s art-related projects, activities and galleries within Second Life.

At the end of 2014, she rightly gained recognition from the Australian Department of Education for this work, and was awarded an Endeavour Executive Fellowship that allowed her to travel from her home in the eastern United States to spend four months at the UWA in Perth, Australia, where she was based with the UWA’s Department of Physics.

FreeWee was encouraged to apply for an Endeavour Executive Fellowship by colleague Jayjay Zifanwe (Jay Jay Jegatheva in the physical world, Manager of the School of Physics at UWA) and her application was supported by a letter of recommendation from UWA.

Now, JayJay, FreeWee and the UWA are encouraging other Second Life residents to take the opportunity to follow in FreeWee’s footsteps, and applying for a 2016 Endeavour Executive Fellowship and, if selected by the Australian Department of Education, travel to UWA.

News of this was passed to me by Carmsie Melodie, who Tweeted me to point to a write-up on her blog. The same write-up is also available on the UWAinSL blog, where FreeWee has also written about her experience as a Fellowship awardee – so if you are interested in applying, do make sure you read FreeWee’s article.

What is the Endeavour Executive Fellowship?

The Endeavour Executive Fellowship is one of a number of Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships offered by the Australian government to international applicants from participating countries who are considered high achievers in business, industry, education or government.

The Endeavour Executive Fellowship is a 4-month study period in Australia, focusing on learning and building skills and knowledge through a host work environment in the applicant’s field or area of expertise, rather than through formal enrolment in a study programme. It offers financial support (up to  Australian $18,500) towards professional development opportunities for the successful applicant, and an opportunity to study at UWA for four months.

Image courtesy UWA
Image courtesy UWA

Commenting on her experience in applying, FreeWee said:

The Endeavour application process was fairly easy, all done online. You need to describe what you want to do, get a couple of people to write recommendations, get certified copies of transcripts, etc. But it’s all carefully laid out in the online application. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about it. You can’t win if you don’t enter!

Once I was notified that my application was approved, the program turned me over to a caseworker who supported me from leaving for Perth to arriving back home. My caseworker was great, always responded quickly to any concerns I had and monitored my progress throughout my stay.

To find out more, please read the Endeavour Scholarship and Fellowship lead-in from the Australian Government,  which also includes a link to the applications forms.

Should you decide to apply for the Executive Fellowship, please be sure to contact Jayjay (in-world via IM or note card or via e-mail to: jay.jay-at-uwa.edu.au) and / or FreeWee (in-world via note card) for advice and support on how the UWAinSL can assist you in your application.

Do note as well that submissions for Fellowship applications close on Tuesday 30th June, 2016.

With thanks to Carmsie Melodie for the pointer via Twitter.

Linden Lab raise group limit to 60 for Premium accounts

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Thursday, May 28th, Linden Lab announced that with immediate effect, Premium Members can now join up to 60 groups – raising the limit for them from the previous 42.

This increase is only, for now, a pilot programme, for reasons explained below. However, all things being equal, it will hopefully become a fixture of the Premium account package.

The news came via an official blog post, which reads in part:

Today we’re thrilled to be rolling out another perk for Premium members: now you can be a member of 60 groups! Groups have been a consistently popular feature among the Residents of Second Life. It may not be obvious, but group membership can have an impact on the performance of a number of systems. That’s why in Second Life’s early days, Residents could only join a maximum of 10 groups. Over the years, we’ve made improvements that enabled us to raise the group limit to a maximum of 42, but we know that for some power users, even that isn’t quite enough, and today we’re happy to raise the bar for Premium subscribers.  We must make sure that the recent gains in group performance are not jeopardized, so for now the new limit is a pilot program. If there are no problems, we will look forward to raising the limit further (stay tuned!).

Simon Linden:his work on group chat has contributed directly to the announcement on group limits being raised for Premium members
Simon Linden:his work on group chat has contributed directly to the announcement on group limits being raised for Premium members

The “gains in group performance” referred to in the quote above are related to the recent improvements made to the Group Chat service. These have been going on for almost a year now, spearheaded by Simon Linden, who has been working hard to bring about significant improvements to the entire group chat service, front-to-back.

One of the key aspects of these changes relates to how  various “update” messages, created every time someone logged-in or out of SL, etc., and which required updates to be sent to every group of which they were a member, could actually interfere with the group chat system sending and displaying actually messages being members.

At the time Simon was working on these changes, it was indicated that the Lab might consider raising the limit on the number of groups people can join if the work proved successful – so kudos to Simon here for all his hard work – and kudos as well, to the Lab for approaching things cautiously, and recognising that should the new limit prove detrimental to the performance gains that have been achieved with group chat, they are prepared to roll them back.

There is also news in the post for those who take advantage of the increase in the group limit, and then subsequently opt to downgrade their membership to Basic:

Premium members can immediately take advantage of the new limit. Downgrading from Premium membership will not remove you from any of your groups, but it will mean that you cannot join any new groups until you remove yourself from enough groups to get below the Basic account limit, which remains at 42.

This is a further change to the Premium account package that sees things continue to pivot away from the idea of quarterly “gifts” and the like, and towards offering options and abilities that users are more likely to find of use and thus appreciate more. Again, as the official blog post states, expect further updates to the Premium account offering that continue to move in this direction.