Sharing your Second Life experience via social media can be something of a scattergun effort, utilising different platforms for different activities: Flickr or Deviant Art for photos, for example, Twitter or Bluesky or Discord, etc., for messaging and so on. But what if there was a single platform where these various needs could be met, one which – although independent from Second Life and Linden Lab – had been developed specifically for, and with input from, Second Life users and offered a degree of integration integration with Second Life, with the potential for more in the future?
Well, as of June 20th, 2024, there is: Primfeed. And this is its story so far.
First formally announced on May 26th, 2024, Primfeed is the brainchild of Luke Rowley, a Second Life resident and developer with over 17 years history on the platform. He is also the developer behind EasyBloggers, a blogger management system specifically designed to simplify the management of blogger teams by Second Life store owners and which has proven exceptionally popular and highly regarded among Second Life creators and bloggers alike since its launch in 2023.
About Luke
Initially introduced to Second Life by his brother, Luke at first treated the platform as most of us do: as a means of fun and relaxation. However, he became fascinated by Linden Scripting language (LSL) and starting with objects scripted purely for fun, he quickly graduated to developing practical tools (including a complete combat meter system – something that also has relevance in 2024, as Rider Linden works to overhaul the Second Life Combat System (SLCS) and make it a more robust set of tools for combat system developers).
From here, Luke started developing web interfaces that could be used with Second Life, work which led him being engaged by one of the biggest hospitals in France developing a Second Life-based simulation to help train medical interns in providing support during disaster situations. Two years later, and still working in the healthcare sector, he started on a career as a web developer.
The main aspect of code I love is: Your code visually creates something. And with SL being this 3D world where the objects you script in-world directly interact with your avatar, I was sold.
While we can think SL looks outdated, I do feel that they are making huge progress, and trust me, it’s not easy when you have 21 years of legacy behind you, while maintaining what’s working now on the grid. What they are doing with PBR is awesome. It looks awesome, and it will save hours of work for every designer.
– Luke Rowley on the appeal of Second Life
Throughout all of this, Luke maintained his love of Second Life, looking for a means to combine his professional skills with the platform and develop something that would not only produce a useful service to Second Life users, but would actually raise the bar in how external websites can both support Second Life and offer a professional level of integration with the platform.
After much discussion with fellow SL users and creators, he came up with the idea for EasyBloggers, a platform which, at the time of writing and just 10 months after its launch, is used by over 400 designers and 2000 users. Part of this success is down to the fact that not only does EasyBloggers fill a much-needed gap in the Second Life creator / blogger ecosphere, it is exceptionally easy to use, feeling like a natural extension to SL. Another aspect with EasyBloggers is that Luke has not rested on his laurels: he has continued to develop and enhance the platform in response to user feedback. At the same time, he started looking at what else might be done to help support Second Life users, and his thinking quickly turned towards social media platforms.
Enter Primfeed
As anyone who has used any social media platform is aware, they can be difficult places for Second Life users, both directly, and Luke notes from his own experience. “You try to see what other SL users are doing and what’s going on but within second of scrolling on a traditional platform, about 90% of your timeline is flooded with ads and suggested content that have nothing to do with SL.”
This led him to thinking about a platform that might be specifically geared towards Second Life users and avoid the pitfalls of more generic options like Twitter/X et al. At the same time, he was aware of increasing frustrations within other spheres such as Flickr. Combining these two factors gave birth to the idea of a dedicated social media / photo sharing platform.
However, coming up with the idea for such a platform is not the same as developing one; as Luke noted, it’s another level of product management – one that would require some indication it would be welcomed if effort were to be put into it. As such, Luke initially thought it might be something to approach over time, starting with him testing the water first. “My original idea was to perhaps start work on it in 2025; but I was not sure residents were sharing my observations and frustrations,” he notes. “So I thought, ‘Well, let’s make a simple Google Form and see if people are interested’. I included some simple questions with the idea that if 30 to 50 people responded, I’d consider the idea as a future project.”
That questionnaire went live on May 16th, 2024 and the response was overwhelmingly positive, with people not only confirming they’ve love to see such a platform – but that they wanted it now. A message Luke received very clearly.
“I knew I’d have to start working on it as soon as possible,” he told me wryly, “So the next day I worked through the number of responses, looked at the realistic costs of building and running such a service, and quickly became convinced that yes, such a platform could be viable and supported by users. On the back of that, I made an informal announcement that I’d soon start work on the new platform – and the reaction was again overwhelmingly positive.
Over the next several days, Luke continued to refine the idea, looking at what he could initially achieve and how the service might be expanded. From the start, and like EasyBloggers, he wanted the platform to fulfil an identified need. He also wanted to make using it feel, as much as possible, as an extension to Second Life. By May 26th, he was ready to formally announce his new service, with his initial focus for its capabilities being to support the abilities to both upload photos in up to 4K resolution and share thoughts and ideas through simple Twitter/X-like posts.
Integration / Extension
Of course, Primfeed is not the first attempt as a dedicated Second Life centric social media platform – I’ve covered some past attempts in these pages. However, those services have tended towards the use of pre-existing software platforms and services. Primfeed, like EasyBloggers is being built as a dedicated service by Luke under his Kynno brand. This means he has the unique ability to directly engage with SL users and develop / tailor the platform in response to requests and feedback, thus helping to make the platform a genuine extension of people’s SL.
Already this is manifest in a number of ways. Take sign-up for example: Primfeed will automatically pull your Second Life profile photo across and use it as the default profile image there (although you can also change it if you wish).
More particularly, Primfeed offers a set of maturity ratings that are remarkably similar to those found in Second Life and with similar icons and definitions, allowing Primfeed users to filter the content they see on the platform in a manner similar to that found on Second life, providing an instant sense of familiarity.
That said, Luke has taken things a step further than Second Life in this regard: as well as an Adult rating, he has provided an A+. The former indicates things like nudity are likely present, with the A+ indicating active sexual content, and others legal extreme content. Given the (incorrect) claim oft made by some that Adult always equates to “extreme content”, this is a useful distinction – art, for example, can include nudity, but is hardly “always” extreme content.
When you build your websites totally from scratch and you are not using a paid template, you can deeply and carefully add features that really matters and match what residents really want.
– Luke Rowley on designing Primfeed
Nor does it end there; for those familiar with using the likes of Twitter/X, Bluesky and so on, the Primfeed interface will be immediately feel comfortable, sharing a lot of similarities of approach and layout:
- The left-side quick-access menu.
- The ability to click on a user’s name in the timeline and open their timeline and / or hover the mouse over their name to see their profile summary.
- When viewing a user’s profile, the option to view a gallery of their uploaded images.
- The ability to access a timeline directly (subject to being logged-in to the platform) using the format “primfeed.com/user_name” (so you could add your own timeline to your SL profile, for example.
Similarly, and in response to requests from Beta users, Primfeed presents a Flickr-like Gallery option for display uploaded photographs from all users, as shown in the image above.
Another aspect of integration – so to speak – is the fact that Primfeed is mobile / tablet friendly, offering the same capabilities and design layout, making it exceptionally easy for used to be able to use it and keep in contact with one another wherever they are (Internet connectivity allowing, of course!).
Photos and Posts – But More to Come
The initial release of Primfeed focuses on the ability to upload photographs and post then directly or with accompanying text, and the option to send Twitter-style text posts, which also includes these capabilities:
- Posts (text and / or image) can be deleted or be opened to have their text edited.
- URLs are automatically converted to clickable links.
- Clicking images will open a viewing overlay, allowing the image to be zoomed in on to be viewed in detail, with any text accompanying it (and any posted comments) displayed on the right, a-la Twitter/X, etc.
But there is more to come, including:
- Two public feeds / timelines: the first featuring both text posts and images (as is currently the case) and one specifically for uploaded images.
- Support for direct messaging between users.
- The integration of EasySubscribers: residents will be able to follow subscribe to a given store’s newsletter from the store’s profile.
- The ability for creators to create personal accounts and have “Store” pages for their products, and the ability to switch between the two.
While the initial focus appears to be photography, Primfeed is not just about photographers; it will be for every Second Life resident who wants to use it. There will be a lot of features coming as the platform grows and I receive feedback and people vote on ideas through the upcoming Feedback Portal.
– Luke Rowley on expanding Primfeed’s capabilities
As Luke mentions, the Primfeed Feedback Portal will be an important element for helping to enhance Primfeed going forward. During the most recent period of development, Luke has relied on Discord and a group of Second Life users in a closed Beta phase of testing / feedback/ enhancement. However, he’s also recognised that when the platform is launched, he would need the mean for any and all users to have an easy, direct means of providing feedback, requesting features and – equally importantly – reporting issues.
This portal might also be said to be another aspect of trying to make using Primfeed as comfortable and familiar to users as possible: Luke has built it using the same software as Linden Lab now uses for its feedback portal, thus making filing and viewing requests, etc., as familiar as doing so for SL.
Costs and Payments
Obviously, running a service like Primfeed involves costs, both in terms of hosting and management and in development. As such, the platform will be based on a tiered / free / subscription model. At launch this will mean:
- Those using free accounts will be limited to a maximum image resolution of 1500×1500.
- Those opting to subscribe to the platform’s Pro option will be able to upload images up to 8196×8196 resolution.
As further features are added, so the Pro subscription will gain further benefits over free accounts, although these will be carefully weighed. “I do want to provide more value to the Pro subscription, but I don’t want to paywall every feature on Primfeed,” Luke notes. “So my guiding principle is, “What can I give to people wanting to pay without making those on free accounts feel they are being penalised?”
One of the biggest aspects of Primfeed in this regarded is that right from launch it supports subscription payments in Linden Dollars. These can be made in-world at the Primfeed Payment Centre. At launch, a Pro subscription will be offered on a 4-week payment basis at L$1860 for 4 weeks or L$8870 for 24 weeks (representing a 12% saving of the 4-week rate).
“It’s important to me to offer a Linden Dollar payment service,” Luke told me. “Not only does it make Primfeed unique among social media platforms, but it does so at great convenience for SL users who might otherwise be put off by, or unable to make, payments in US dollar values. It also means that there is no requirement for users to have to provide personal payment data in order to use the service.”
How to Get Started
If all this sounds of interest to you, getting started with Primfeed couldn’t be easier:
- Go to the Primfeed website.
- Enter your Second Life avatar account name (not your Display name).
- A special code will be sent to you in-world via local chat.
- Enter this code into the sign-up page, accept the Primfeed Terms of Service, and you’re in!
Once your Primfeed account is established, you should go to the Settings option and add a password to your account. While this is not required, if you do not, you’ll have to repeat the steps above each time you want to log-in to Primfeed.
You can also use the Settings option to:
- Set the maturity ratings you wish to be able to see when using Primfeed.
- (If you are a Pro subscriber), see the time remaining on your subscription and use a button there to enabling teleporting to the in-world payment centre (by way of the SL World Map and launching your viewer, if required / enabled).
After this, you can update your Profile via the dedicated Profile link. In doing so, you can:
- Update the profile photo and / or set the banner image displayed when viewing your Primfeed timeline / feed.
- Provide a brief About bio.
- Include links to any other popular social media and photo / art sharing platforms.
Closing Comments
Despite the rapidity of its initial development, Primfeed already has a lot to offer Second Life users, and it is clear Luke has a lot more planned in carrying the platform further. Even so, it is a service developed and operated by a Second Life user – which means that while it is developed by someone with an innate understanding of Second Life, its user base and what they would like to have, it also means it is a personal project, rather than a commercial offering – and thus lacks the weight and “assured” longevity of a platform like Twitter or Flickr. Thus, there are bound to be some concerns as to what might happen to Primfeed should Luke’s interests move elsewhere.
This is something Luke is all too aware of, as he noted to me. “It is always a gamble with any Second Life product or service; however, I have no intention to go somewhere else. Yes, I am a single developer and entrepreneur; but as long as residents continue to support Primfeed, EasyBloggers and EasySubscribers, I don’t see any reason to stop anything; all my products are very much a part of my work – so I’ll be staying in Second Life for as long as I possibly can!”
In proof of this, he’s not resting on his laurels but is already considering additional services for future development. “I will be working on a vendor system, again as a result of multiple requests from users of my current services. Can you imagine for a second what kind of integration could be done between Primfeed and EasyVendors? That’s exciting!”
And in case anyone is wondering why Primfeed doesn’t share the “Easy” naming convention with other products, the reply is simple, as Luke again explains.
I feel like my EasyApps are dedicated to creators/designers (EasyBloggers, EasySubscribers, EasyTextures, and so on), while Primfeed is for everyone, so it deserves distinction. It is also a reminder of where everything started in Second Life. Creating a prim is probably one of the first action you would do back in the days when you were playing Second Life, and I liked that element of nostalgia in the name.
– Luke Rowley
In closing, and with the launch of Primfeed, I would like to thank and congratulate Luke for his time and on the launch of the service, and I look forward to continuing to use it. I’ve enjoyed the past week’s opportunity to try Primfeed and discuss the platform with him. As we were drawing things to a close, I offered Luke the opportunity for a final word.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has supported my work, and who have directly contributed to Primfeed’s development by responding to my questionnaire, who helped with initial alpha tests and engaged in beta testing, who provided feedback, identified issues and helped spread the word about Primfeed through their own social media activity. Most of all, I’d like to thank my RL partner, who has been an insane support for me.
“I hope everyone enjoys Primfeed and helps to make it a success!”
Addendum
To mark the launch of Primfeed there will be a party in-world:
- When: Thursday, June 20th 14:00-17:00 SLT.
- Where: Burrow Coffee Co.
- Featuring music by Semina Live! and DJ Lichi
