Yavanna’s pod tours: agreement reached between Linden Lab and Yavanna that will see normal operations resume
Updated, August 25th: following Patch’s forum post, Yavanna issued a note card through the in-world Pod Riders group stating her pleasure with the outcome, and I’ve quoted it at the end of this piece.
On Friday, August 21st, I reported on the news that for various reasons – including her on-going recovery from being stricken by COVID-19 -, Yavanna Llanfair, had decided to suspend the automated running of her Mainland YavaScript Pod tours (see: YavaScript Pod Tours Mainland operations suspended – UPDATED).
At the time, there was a certain amount of confusion over what may have happened with regards to an account suspension she had received in late July. As I noted in an update to that original report, this matter had particularly confused Patch Linden, who commented on a forum thread on the subject, promising to look into things.
Keeping his word, on Monday, August 24th, Patch provided a further update:
Howdy everyone!
I have returned with an update! 😁 We have just met with Yavanna and I am super excited to say that we will be working more closely together going forward on not only helping to support the pod tours system as it currently exists, but also expanding it in to other areas it does not reach today. I’m sure that as expansions and other fun add-ons unfold, there will be more updates on those as they happen. For the immediate future, the pod tour system should be retuning to normal functionality.
By “returning to normal functionality”, Patch presumably means that the automated running of the pods across the Mainland will shortly resume.
In the meantime, speculation has already started on what the “expansions” to the system might be – including suggestions such as using the pods to make tours of Bellisseria and the SS Galaxy, which as I reported in January (see: SS Galaxy drops anchor at Bellisseria), is now moored off the west coast of that continent.
Obviously, time will tell where the expansions are concerned, but for now, Patch’s immediate news is being warmly received by the majority of Mainlanders concerned about the situation, and pod users.
Update – Yavanna’s Comments on the Outcome
Following the publication of this article, Yavanna issued a note card giving her very positive reaction to the understanding that has been reached between herself and the Linden, which reads in full:
Dear pod riders,
I am very pleased to report that I’ve just had an extremely constructive meeting with Patch Linden, Derrick Linden and Tommy Linden. Hopefully I won’t get suspended for a pod crash again! (It was clearly a mistake). I have therefore removed the server block on the pods.
It’s actually better than just that though. We were able to discuss possible future joint ventures, and how they could help me going forward. So I’m very happy about the outcome of all this.
I’m extremely grateful to you all for your support. It’s not been an easy time for me lately for reasons I’ve talked about before, but your good wishes have made me feel so much better.
I’m still going to be mostly keeping out of SL for the moment, but as the winter nights draw in and I feel better in myself I hope to be working on more pod projects.
Yavanna’s pod tours have been a staple of the Mainland for exactly a decade, but automated operations are to be suspended
August 24th: Please see my further update on this subject.
YavaScript Pod tours have been a part of the Mainland in Second Life for a decade, but news is now circulating that on the very day of their 10th anniversary, the automated element of the service is to be suspended.
Notification of the suspension was given by the system’s creator, Yavanna Llanfair, via note card, which was circulated initially through the in-world Pod Riders group, before being more widely circulated within the Second Life community.It comes as a combination of factors, including an issue related to Yanvanna’s account, and her continued need to take time in recovering from being stricken by COVID-19.
Following the start of their operations in 2010, the pod tours grew to become a staple of the Mainland landscape, following the major road systems across Sansara, Heterocera, Jeogeot, Corsica, Mãebaleia/Satori and Nautilus. In addition, they’ve also become a familiar sight at the Second Life Birthday celebrations, and others have taken to running their own services using Yavanna’s system.
The announcement of the decision to suspend the Mainland automated service reads in full:
Dear pod riders,
Today is the 10th anniversary of the first road pod – “YavaScript Pod V5.0 (MCT)” – MCT standing for Monowai Constant Tour, which I put on the road in the morning of Saturday 21st August 2010. I have set that pod running again; it will run until it is swallowed by some random event (like a sim restart or a crash).
However, I am sorry to report that it is also the last day of the pods as we know them today. I have made the decision to suspend all services as of later today. The reason is as follows:
For the entirety of the running of the pod service, I have said I will only run the service where I considered I had the approval of the Lindens and the community. Whilst there have always been a few who would criticise (sometimes quite vocally), they have been a very small minority. And I have always felt that the Lindens have tacitly approved of them, though they would never say so directly. Certainly a number of moles have expressed their approval, and to them I am very grateful.
On 27th July, my account was suspended for 24 hours because of a pod crash in Mieum (on the Wellington Road). At least, that is what I traced it to, because the Linden who suspended me would not tell me of the reason – merely that the object was returned to me. I explained that it is impossible to avoid crashes in all circumstances. I raised a ticket to the LDPW asking them to let me know if this meant my pods were no longer welcome on the roads. I said that I would take anything other than a positive to be a negative. My ticket was closed without comment.
It would have been a shame for the pods to have fallen short of their 10th anniversary, and so I have continued the service until today. And for now, I will merely suspend all operations by flicking a switch on my server. This means that the road pods will still rez, but de-rez shortly after (within 5 minutes). Pods will also still be available from the pod stations by clicking on the rezzer. But this is not a sustainable situation, as the vast majority of people come to know about the pods by seeing them pass on the road, so without that, the service is far less likely to be sustainable in the longer term.
I announced back in June that I was stepping back, due to a long Covid-19 recovery. That recovery is still not complete; whilst I have made progress, I still have some issues, mostly neurological. And stress is therefore something I have to avoid at all costs. Therefore I am not willing at present to fight anyone on this. Maybe one day I will. If the Lindens wish to get in contact to ensure me that the pods are welcome again, I will of course re-instate them. But I suspect that is not likely to happen.
I will continue to support pod owners who run their own systems.
Thankyou to each and every pod rider for coming along on the journey with me. It has been exciting and a lot of fun. It isn’t necessarily over, but for now autonomous vehicles from the YavaScript stable will no longer be on the Second Life mainland roads.
– Yavanna Llanfair, via note card
Yavanna at the Yavascript Pod centre, Castell Yavana, Monowai
In terms of the suspension, pods can still be taken from the stations manually, but they will de-rez when the rider(s) alight off, rather than continuing on their own, and will no longer be seen travelling the roads on their own.
Commenting on the situation, Asadorable Delightful (Asadora Summers), one of those who passed Yvanna’s note card to me said:
The Pod Rider’s group has been busy most of today. We have all come to a decision as a group to express our memories/thoughts and feelings on how the pods have been an integral part of our virtual lives on Mainland. We are doing this in a positive way and would like for our memories to be shared.
Those with any enquiries regarding the service suspension, should do so via the Pod Riders group. If you have any memories about the pod tours you’d like to share, please contact Asadorable Delightful (Asadora Summers).
With thanks to Asadorable Delightful (Asadora Summers), and Holocluck Henly.
Update Saturday, August 23rd
The news of the suspension of the automated pod runs sparked speculation that there has been some form of change in policy at the Lab regarding Mainland vehicles / something else internal to the Lab. In response to such commentary, Patch Linden posted the following to a forum thread related to the news:
Howdy everyone!
I am potentially as confused as everyone else. But then again I’ve been out of town this week and I have some catching up to do. In any case while standing in the house of mouse, this did make it to my attention to look in to. While I’m digging in to find out what happened there are a few things I can assure everyone of:
We’ve made no policy changes surrounding automated vehicles on the Mainland.
We like the Yavapods system
We use it in Bellisseria as the “engine” for the ferry boats, with Yavanna’s permission of course
We keep having it back to SLB every year
These items do not seem like a recipe for a change in policy. Hopefully things will unfold and we’ll get to the bottom of this in a positive manner. I can’t really see any other way forward, and the team and I have no reason to not support or help Yavanna.
In terms of the order of events surrounding Yavanna’s account / support issue, Patch added:
This is where part of my confusion is. The LDPW and the Moles do not have a real ticket system. We sometimes receive JIRA’s for issues, but that’s not really a ticket and the Moles are not reachable directly through the support ticketing system. While I’m not here to dispute any of this, there also seems to be some real confusion on what or how this happened. If this took place in July, this is the first I’m becoming aware of it. There is no “fight city hall” here, again, we have no reason to do anything other than help with the system and the situation.
I’ll attempt to update this article or provide fresh input should more information / news be forthcoming.
Since that first article, I’ve provided a number of updates on the development work – please use the SL Mobile tag to catch up with all of them.
At the Web User Group on Wednesday, August 5th, Keira Linden gave a further update on the client’s status, as per the notes and audio below, which have been provided alongside my usual notes on the app.
August 5th Update
iOS Client
The iOS version has been in a closed alpha that includes a number of residents for some 2+ months, having started in May.
In keeping with the Lab’s plans, this version offers the ability to communicate via IM and view your Friends list.
As a result of this close alpha testing, the Lab now has a build that is “destined for [Apple’s] App Store”, which is currently “bouncing back and fort”h between the development team and LL’s QA team.
The hope is that this version can be submitted to Apple for review some time in August 2020.
This does not necessarily mean the iOS client will immediately appear within the App Store, as Apple can be exceptionally picky in their review process, which can result in requests for changes to an app to be made before listing is allowed.
LL obviously hopes the app will not encounter significant issues, but because of the review process, no time frame can be given on when the app will appear in the App Store – but there will presumably be an announcement once it is available.
Android Client
Having started much later than the iOS version, which remains the Lab’s focus, the Android version is still at a somewhat earlier stage of development.
However, it is under active development.
When it is ready, it will likely follow a similar Alpha / Beta test process to the iOS version.
In-world Presence
In a change to earlier statements, Mobile app users will have an in-world location.
This will be in one of several special “Mobile” regions. However:
As Mobile users have no 3D world view, these regions are not landscaped or populated in any way.
Access is restricted to those using the Mobile app, general access by users on the viewer or other clients is not allowed.
Currently, three Mobile regions have been set-up.
General Capabilities
Note: this is a reiteration of notes from earlier updates on the SL Mobile client.
It should initially be regarded as more of a communicator / companion app than a fully-rounded client. The initial intention for the client is to provide users with a means of maintaining basic contact with other users whilst away from their main means of accessing Second Life.
As such, it will support logging-in to Second Life services to support IM and group chat support.
Capabilities such as having an in-world rezzing location, the ability to chat locally, support for scene rendering will be added over time.
However, in terms of any in-world rendering, this will not be part of any initial released (in the meeting it was described as “not even Soon™”), as LL are focused in just trying to get the basic app available to users as soon as reasonably possible.
Reporting and Updates in this Blog
Again, all information I’m able to provide through this blog, including future updates can be found under the SL Mobile tag, and can be accessed directly from the top menu options:
SL → User Group & Viewer → Viewers → Android & iOS and then selecting either:
Blake Sea is now on Aditi and running in the cloud for those wishing to test vehicle region crossings
Following from the announcement concerning Ahern and Morris on Aditi (the beta grid), being in the cloud – see my Simulator User Group update of July 14th, 2020 – it has been announced that most / all of Blake Sea has also now been cloned to Aditi, and is also running on AWS cloud servers.
The came via a forum post by Mazidox Linden on Monday, July 21st, and the move has been made so that those who use boats and aircraft can carry out region crossing tests.
We’ve now expanded the number of regions we’re running in the cloud on Aditi to include the entirety of the Blake Sea mainland regions. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Blake Sea, you can use the following entry points to log in on Aditi and rez a vehicle to start exploring:
Test region crossing code (particularly using vehicles) between cloud simulators on the same host, and cloud simulators on different hosts.
– Mazidox Linden, July 21st
Again, just to emphasise, this is Aditi, the beta grid, only (at least one person has responded to the thread referencing Blake Sea region crossings on Agni, the main grid).
Those wishing to try boat / aircraft region crossings can do so by logging-in to Aditi and teleporting to the locations given above. you can also use Blake Sea – Half Hitch on Aditi for rezzing boats and seaplanes can be rezzed.
When testing, be aware that crossings between these regions can be unpredictable – so please do report your experiences via the forum thread, and with the following points in mind, as also indicated by Mazidox:
Some regions can cause you to “bounce off an invisible wall” at the region border, even though you are able to see into them.
Please report instances of this occurring in the forum thread, including the name of the region you were in, the region you were trying to enter, the date, and the time.
Some regions will not show up at the edge of your current region, even though they are adjacent.
Again, please report instances of this occurring in the forum thread, including the name of the region you were in, the region that failed to appear, the date, and the time.
HTTP-out for LSL scripts is disabled on cloud-based regions, as is sending e-mails via LSL scripts. Please do not report either, as both are currently working as intended.
to Access Aditi
If you have not logged-into Aditi before, you should file a support ticket requesting access.
Once your ticket has been responded to, you can log-in to Aditi via any Second Life viewer using to SL account name and password:
Launch the viewer.
If the grid selection option is not displayed, press CTRL-SHIFT-G.
Select Beta Test Grid (Aditi) from the drop-down (see below).
Enter you log-in credentials.
Use the Grid selection option in any viewer to access the beta grid
To return to the Main Grid select Second Life Main Grid (Agni) at your next login
Note: when you log-in, your inventory may not reflect your inventory on the main grid (so you may not have your desired vehicle available, for example), and you’re need to wait for your inventory to be duplicated from Agni (the main grid).
The inventory copying process is automatic, and occurs at approximately 06:00 SLT daily. Simply by logging-in to Aditi you will have flagged your inventory to be updated the next time the copy process is run, so you should not need to wait more than 24-hours for your Aditi inventory to properly reflect your Agni inventory.
Further information on Aditi can be found on the Preview Grid page of the SL wiki.
Update: due to some last-minute changes, the public première of STÖMOL is now slated for July 24th – details at the end of this article.
STÖMOL is an ambitious feature-length science fiction machinima filmed entirely in Second Life and due to première on You Tube on Thursday July 23rd, 2020.
Written, directed filmed and produced by Huckleberry Hax, who also takes the lead role of Epi Stömol, a private investigator. Also appearing in the film are Caitlin Tobias as Waarheid and who is also the film’s assistant director and publicist; Ylva as Verity Certain, Boudicca Amat as Istinito Tatsache, Anthony Wesburn as Adevaru) and Mich Michabo as The Quill.
Stylistically, the film is very much shot in the style of an animated graphic novel – think of the likes of Sin City and you’ll get the idea – that grew out of Hax’s writing and Second Life photography. In all it has taken some 18 months to produce, and involved filming in more than 15 regions around Second Life. These include Zee9’s evolving Drune builds, which I’ve featured in these pages on a number of occasions (see: Drune IV: an Aftermath in Second Life, and Drune: a further visit in Second Life, for example), and the (now sadly passed into history) Kun-Tei-Ner by Lotus Mastroianni and Fred Hamilton (see: Kun-Tei-Ner: a water world in Second Life) and Huntington Beach, designed by Jade Koltai, although it has also since passed into a the pages of history (see: A trip to Huntington Beach in Second Life).
Described as being about “history” in the form of climate change and “truth” – topics that should both resonate with an audience, given the current geopolitical situation in the modern world – STÖMOL is framed around the search for a pair of missing coders, a boy and a girl called the Eye and the Quill respectively, who may hold the key to unlocking the truth about Earth’s current situation- or perhaps they represent something else.
Official history tells us the sky turned red after an asteroid hit the planet and a trillion particles of dust got blasted into the air. But some people say that’s a lie. They claim we did this to ourselves.
They can’t prove any of it. From 1990 onwards – seventy years of history – there’s official conglomerate media only. Systems today don’t recognise the file formats from back then. ‘Digital Hygeine,’ they tell us.
– From STÖMOL
Despite these focal points within its narrative, STÖMOL is a film that came together somewhat organically, rather than building from a set story. Discussing the development of the idea during a segment of Lab Gab, Hax noted the the filming of scenes would take place as locations in Second Life were identified, with the structure of the story not emerging until some 50% of the filming was completed, the actual script / dialogue then following from that.
This is, to say the least, an unusual approach to shooting a film, and appears to be borne out of Hax’s experience with the National Novel Writing Month, an event that takes place globally every year and in which writers are encouraged to write a 50,000 novel across the 30 days of novel – but not to edit or revise as they write, instead allowing the story to shape itself.
Which should not be taken to mean STÖMOL is in any way haphazard. Quite the reverse; the film demonstrates a high production quality, with many considered creative choices. It is also a film that carries with it a certain twist at the end (although the clue is there from the beginning – will you spot it?), whilst offering a certain amount of hat-tipping to the likes of Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 without ever feeling at all derivative.
However, while I’ve been able to see the film in advance of its release, I’m not going to go into further details here, as I have no wish to spoil the public première, the details of which are:
I’ll also have a personal review available following this public première. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek, and you can catch more on the STÖMOL website.
Olivia De Camps is a freelance Dominican-American film student in her Senior year at New York University Tisch School of The Arts and a former intern at the New York based independent film production company, Killer Films Inc.
For her latest project, she has teamed with producer and writer Tom Sidi in order to produce a documentary examining the ways in which people use virtual worlds like Second Life, with their introduction to the project stating:
THROUGH A SERIES OF INDIVIDUAL STORIES, THIS DOCUMENTARY AIMS TO EXPLORE THE CORE OF BASIC HUMAN INTERACTION. FOR MANY INDIVIDUALS, VIRTUAL WORLDS NOT ONLY SERVE AS ESCAPISM, BUT ALSO MORPH INTO AN EXPANSION OF THEIR REAL LIFE – WHERE GENUINE FRIENDSHIPS ARE FORMED, ECONOMY THRIVES, AND OFTEN ROMANCE IS BUILT UPON AN VIRTUAL IMAGES THAT IS FREQUENTLY TRANSFERRED INTO THE REAL WORLD. USERS HAVE THE ABILITY TO IMMERSE IN THE WORLD THEY HAVE ALWAYS DREAMED OF LIVING IN, EXPLORING THEIR GENDER, RACIAL OR SEXUAL IDENTITY, AND CREATING STRONG BONDS WITH PEOPLE THEY MIGHT NEVER GET A CHANCE TO MEET OFF-SCREEN. AS WE HAVE BEEN SUCK AT HOME WITHOUT A POSSIBILITY TO PHYSICALLY MEET, THE IDEA OF A DIGITAL WORLD HAS BECOME EVEN MORE ATTRACTIVE.
– Olivia De Camps and Tom Sidi
Olivia De Camps
In order to make the documentary, the team are seeking Second Life users who are willing to to be interviewed and have their avatars filmed as they tell their own stories about their particular interest(s) in, and use of, the platform. In particular, they are interested in hearing from people who can represent the broadest possible use of Second Life, noting:
WE ARE SEARCHING FOR STORIES TO TELL FROM AN EXPERIENTIAL, NON-JUDGEMENTAL AND VISUALLY-DRIVE WAY. TELL US YOUR STORY! HOW HAS SL BEEN A WORLD FOR YOU IN QUARANTINE? HAS IT HELPED YOU FIND YOUR IDENTITY? DID YOU FORM A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP ON THE PLATFORM? IF YOU ARE AN ARTIST, DO YOU COME HERE TO SHARE YOUR WORKS (DESIGN, CLOTHES, HOST VIRTUAL RAVES, TAKE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY)? WE ARE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO WOULD LIKE TO SHARE THEIR SL EXPERIENCES WITH US, DURING OR BEFORE QUARANTINE. YOU CAN CHOOSE TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS IF YOU WISH.
– Olivia De Camps and Tom Sidi
Those interested in taking part or wish to receive further information, should cotact either Olivia (oliviadecamps-at-gmail.com) or Tom ( t-at-boraxcfm.com) directly.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 