Update: following the publication of this article, Linden Lab published their own official announcement blog post.
In 2023, at SL20B, Linden Lab announced a pair of “limited availability lifetime memberships”: Second LifeTime Premium and Second Lifetime Premium Plus. As I reported at the time, these accounts:
Featured a one-off payment and provided all of the benefits applicable to either the Premium Account subscription package or the Premium Plus Account subscription package, depending on which LifeTime membership is applied for.
Would remain in effect:
Even if the account holder cancels their membership – if they re-join later, they will be able to continue with their Second LifeTime membership.
As long as Second Life remains operational.
Were offered on a first-come, first-serve basis.
On June 28th, 2024, Linden Lab announced these Lifetime Memberships are once again available on a first-come, first-serve limited number basis, specifically:
121 applications for SecondLifeTime Premium.
21 LifeTime Premium upgrades to LifeTime Premium Plus for those who took out a LifeTime Premium membership in 2023.
21 applications for SecondLifeTime Premium Plus.
These packages are offered at the following on-off payment prices of:
US $859.00 at the time of upgrade for SecondLifeTime Premium.
US $1150.00 at the time of upgrade to go from Second LifeTime Premium (2023) to SecondLifeTime PremiumPlus
US $$1,899.00 at the time of upgrade for SecondLifeTime Premium Plus.
As with the original offer, Lifetime memberships:
May not be available to upgrade to other account types (e.g. from SecondLifeTime Premium to Premium Plus). However, requests for upgrade can be submitted via support ticket for case-by-case review.
Will not be available for downgrade, but will become the base-level membership account type for the holder.
Click the orange Submit A Ticket button on the top right of any page of the support portal, and sign in if you have not already.
In the support ticket form, select the ticket type Account Issue, and choose Request SecondLifetime Premium Account from the second drop down that appears.
Select which membership type you would like – SecondLifeTime Premium, Second LifeTime Premium to Premium Plus upgrade or SecondLifeTime Premium Plus.
Check the box that states, I accept the fee. This will be required for support ticket submission, and will allow your membership to be processed as quickly as possible.
Fill out any additional necessary details in the description section (e.g. if you have recently renewed either your Premium or Premium Plus subscription, add the date of renewal) and click Submit.
Allow up to 10 business days for Second LifeTime membership support ticket requests to be processed.
SL21B Product Operations Town Hall (l to r): Missy Mole (host); Patch Linden; Keira Linden, Derrick Linden and Izzy Linden
On Wednesday, June 26th, 2024, Linden Lab held special Town Hall Meeting of the Product and Engineering team, featuring the following personnel:
Patch Linden – Senior VP of Product Operations & Marketing.
Keira Linden – Support Operations Manager.
Derrick Linden – Product Operations Manager.
Izzy Linden – Creative Producer.
This is a summary of the topics discussed at the session. Audio extracts are included were appropriate, and a video of the session is embedded at the end of this article – my thanks to Pantera for providing it.
For ease of reference, timestamps are provided to the relative points within the video where specific topics are discussed, allowing readers who prefer to listen to the comments directly to be able to do so. Note this is not intended to be a full transcript, but rather covers those items discussed which are liable to be of the most interest.
A brief introduction to each of the people participating:
Patch Linden: joined the company in 2007 as a support agent. He later became Support Operations Manager time and then he established the Land Operations Team (then within the Product Team), which became the nucleus of Product Operations. As a senior VP alongside Grumpity, he is responsible for the development and operation of Second Life.
Keira Linden: joined the Lab in 2008 working in the Concierge Team. Currently manages all the various support teams for Second Life and also the Governance Team.
Derrick Linden: as the Product Operations Manager: joined LL in 2011 and wears many hats – including overseeing the Land Operations Team, the Skill Gaming Team and co-running the Linden Department of Public Works (the Moles) alongside of Patch Linden.
Izzy Linden: joined LL in 2007. As the Creative Director works on a range of projects, including with the Moles.
An update to the Premium Log Cabin theme floorplans.
A new mixed parcel-size (512 sq m and 1024 sq m) Premium theme with multiple floor plans.
A new Premium Plus theme with multiple floor plans.
This work is all in the planning / scoping phase; there is also some polling for possible themes to go with it, and maybe an idea from this might be implemented.
These ideas are likely to be in development for the next 6-12 months.
Transitioning off the Old Linden Homes [the original 512 sq m mini-continents] remains under consideration / evaluation.
The longer time goes by, the more likely it is to happen, but there is no firm timeline or date as to when this might start.
However, were it to seem possible that the old homes could be retired as the above new selections of homes are rolled-out, then this “might be a likely scenario”.
On Premium Plus being allowed two Premium Homes on a single account:
Has been thought about. However, doing so would impact available inventory of homes: there are only so many Linden Homes available as any given time, and people taking two diminishes the availability for others.
The current mechanism for managing Linden Homes and ownership isn’t geared for single accounts owning multiple homes.
It’s acknowledged that the above mechanism needs to by updated for other reasons, so it is possible when this work is carried out, that the idea of multi-Linen Home ownership (and “mix-and-match” ownership of different parcel sizes of Linden Homes) might being looked at. However, updating the system is a significant technical project, and not something currently in the works.
On mixing different plot sizes / themes [e.g. a 2048 tree house amidst 1024 Victorian homes]:
It’s always been implied that house selection is based on subscription level, theme and floorplan, with the location then based on that rather than being based on location, parcel size, etc.
The above approach keeps the system clean and easy to manage, given regions can be defined in terms of intended use allowing the land to be planned accordingly. Trying to mix all parcel sizes and themes could make things confusing and hard to implement, so LL is wary of introducing too many options into a single selection process.
[Video: 58:15-59:12] On providing 512 sq m Linden Homes on Premium Plus 2048 parcels:
Has been considered, but it is unlikely to be considered for the foreseeable future.
Might be something that gets revisited after the old linden Homes have been retired.
It has often been requested than LL should offer an additional region land product with a 10K Land Capacity, to sit between Homesteads and Full private regions.
The idea has been discussed numerous times within the Land Team – but this does not mean anything is necessarily going to be offered, nor should it be inferred that it will be.
Any new region product can have the potential to be highly disruptive to Second Life and the platform’s economy, and needs careful consideration.
[Side note: evidence of this can be seen in the 2008/2009 OpenSpace region update & transition to the Homestead product. This caused major disruption in terms of pricing and impact on users, and led to a false sense of SL growth. In a period of some 6-8 months, the number of regions on the grid almost doubled (18K to around 32K, and as the expense of Full regions) with no actual increase in the number of active users. This in turn lead to the false sense that Second Life was “failing” in the years following, as the region count declined year-on-year, even though active user numbers remained relatively stable by comparison.]
As such, the risk / rewards to everyone involved in SL – the Lab as a business that needs to turn a profit, through the wishes of those who would like to hold a more capable region, to the potential impact on the existing land rental businesses operating across Second Life and there revenue models – need to be carefully assists (and often reassessed).
As hinted at in the December 2023 annual review, the Lab has been considering more Adult-oriented initiatives [which was not, as was subsequently reported / claimed, anything to do with the theme for SL21B].
One specific new project in development is a streamlined on-boarding process for new users specifically interested in the more adult / spicier side of SL. It will include:
A new Adult-oriented Welcome hub / experience.
Provide information on more mature content.
Provide the means for them to acclimate to the platform.
And more.
This image was part of the December 2023 annual review blog post by Linden Lab, which might show an aspect of the new Adult-centre user onboarding hub / experience
This is part of a broader initiative that includes elements such as fostering community, offering living spaces, commercial environments, continental-sized land masses.
It is regarded as a “whole new way and approach” to having Adult communities in Second Life, and will be worked on over the next 6-8 months as a background project. More details will be made available in the future.
It will hopefully be an environment wherein established and new users within Adult-oriented interests can enjoy and appreciate SL’s Adult content in a setting that will be “very fitting for it”.
The Governance team does all it can to remain abreast of global trends in hate speech, symbols used, etc., which could potential violate SL’s Terms of Service & Community Standards. This is through a mix of research, collaboration with subject matter experts through seminars, etc.
Obviously, Governance is also reliant on Abuse Reports filed by users when they encounter hate speech / imagery / symbols, etc., and this can also be used to expand awareness in the team as well as being responded to.
It is acknowledged that saying on top of things can be difficult, and factor such as cultural differences at times can come into play, hence why investigations take into consideration context.
[Video: 32:24-33:06] On providing insight into the tools and techniques Governance uses:
The team and the Lab does not publicly comment on the tools and techniques used during investigations.
One simple reason for this is that if those determined to make mischief know of the techniques and tools used by Governance, they would seek to find ways around them and try to avoid discovery, etc.
LL is looking at companies and products in the content moderation space.
The aim is to try to make the moderation of egregious content which clearly violates the SL Terms of Service and which could potentially violate laws outside of Second Life, as automated as possible.
Evaluation of these tools for suitability is still in progress, but the aim is that should they prove to be on use, to add them to the Governance toolkit and make the removal of offensive content on the platform faster.
This is not something the Lab can easily involve itself: sub-leasing land from another resident comes down to an agreement between to SL residents to which LL is not a party.
As such, and unless there is a clear violation of the SL Terms of Service involved in the situation, there is very little Governance can do.
That said, it can be good for Governance to received ARs on situations like this, as it can help to determine if there is a pattern of behaviour or similar, and whether it might be necessary to reach out to someone to discuss matters further.
Tickets can be submitted 24/7, even if not responded to on a 24/7 basis.
The is the support chatbot, which is available 24/7 and can deal with basic support requests.
Live chat support works to hours that have been determined to be the most effective for dealing with most types of enquiry, and as the platform has been improved, LL have seen a global reduction in the need to provide global 24/7 support.
Support observes US holidays, as that is where it is now based, and staff deserve the opportunity to spend time with their families, as such, all all of support is staffed during such holidays – but this does not necessarily mean there are no support staff.
On a simplified level, the Terms of Service and related policy specifies that account details should not be shared with another individual, and while often complicated, LL has tried to adhere to that.
LL look upon users’ accounts akin to a financial instrument – accounts have financial information on them and provide access to billing and payment methods and includes the ability to spend money.
Account access gives opportunities for irreparable damage to be done, such as deleting and purging a person’s entire inventory.
It is also true that relationships can and do go wrong, and can be seen to go wrong . Therefore, LL is protective as protective as possible about people’s accounts.
That said, LL has “heard the call”, and recognise that perhaps times have changed, and so might be amenable to change.
Changes to process and policy can take time, particularly when it touches on multiples teams / departments (as this does).
However, this request / issue is actively being worked on in order to come up with an approach / solution that meets everyone’s interests.
Biggest concern is fraud / the need to protect people’s financial interest, simply because relationship can break down / things go wrong between people.
As such, it will take time to work out and produce something, but the issue is being worked on.
Content Theft & Sale: Setting a Policy Outside of DMCA – Keira Linden
It is “tricky” determining who is the rightful owner when two people claim to be the originators of content in SL.
As Intellectual Property (IP) is protected by international laws, via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), LL must adhere to DMCA provision in order to be covered by it.
Therefore, in all matters of potential content theft, creators must submit a duly-completed DMCA form, and the team responsible will help guide people through the process.
Filing the DMCA form starts a creator on the legal process of protecting their named content not only in Second Life, but in the digital ecosphere as a whole.
While there may be very occasional situations where the IP violation is so obvious, LL might be able to take direct action, these instances are seen as very rare, and creators should not rely on fitting into this category.
Dealing with Charitable Organisation & Events & Disbursement of Funds Raised – Derrick Linden
Linden Lab has two levels of relationship with those raising funds through Second Life.
The highest is with established fund-raising partners in Second Life (e.g. the American Cancer Society; Team Fox / The Michael J. Fox Foundation, etc.). This level includes agreements in place for how they operate and how the Lab supports them.
The lower level and individuals and organisations raising money through SL, but where there is no formal partnership with LL. Here’ the Lab is more limited in what it can do in support of such events.
Working with those in the latter option tends to be limited to assisting them with listing their event(s) in the Destination Guide, verifying any past fund-raisers the individual / group has done, and, if the individual / group is working directly with a charitable organisation, getting verification that they are authorised to to so.
Ergo, if an event is listed in the Destination Guide, it has gone through verification as a legitimate fund-raiser, and the money raised will make its way to the intended recipient party/ies, with verification this as happened after the event.
This does not mean charity events which are not listed in the Destination Guide are someone “false” or not really raising funds as stated – it simply means that the event has not gone through any process + verification in order to be listed.
Phase One – initial opening with selected communities – completed.
Phase Two: initial expansion with submissions from communities – completed.
Phase Thee: final build-out of available exhibitor areas, with submissions from communities.
Once the available space has been built-out, LL plans to start rotating community displays in and out of the exhibition space so that all participating communities have exposure.
Second Life Community Exhibition (SLCE), at its opening in January 2024
Also included in Phase Three will be a gift spire, where all participating communities can place gifts if they so wish.
Has been discussed, and a project to allow for multiple partners (including listed in profiles) is in development.
No time frame as to when it will be released – the design work has been done, and it is hoped that Engineering and Product will be able to work on in Soon™.
SL21B Product and Engineering Town Hall (l to r): Kali Linden, Signal Linden, Missy Mole (host), Grumpity Linden, Sntax Linden, Kyle Linden
On Tuesday, June 25th, 2024, Linden Lab held special Town Hall Meeting of the Product and Engineering team, featuring the following personnel:
Grumpity Linden – Senior VP of Product & Engineering.
Signal Linden – Director of Engineering Second Life Server & Viewer.
Kali Linden – Director of Engineering Web & Platform.
Sntax Linden – Senior Product Manager.
Kyle Linden – Product Manager.
This is a summary of the topics discussed at the session. Audio extracts are included were appropriate, and a video of the session is embedded at the end of this article – my thanks to Pantera for providing it.
For ease of reference, timestamps are provided to the relative points within the video where specific topics are discussed, allowing readers who prefer to listen to the comments directly to be able to do so.
A brief introduction to each of the people participating:
Kali Linden: has been with Linden Lab for nine years and heads-up the teams responsible for the Lab’s web properties (Marketplace, Secondlife.com, etc., the account management and log-in services, etc.
Signal Linden: a software engineer with a long history with virtual environments (MU* platforms, etc.), and started using SL as as high school student. He joined LL in 2015, initially working on Sansar. His background is software engineering, and he now leads both the viewer and server engineering teams.
Grumpity Linden: joined SL as a contractor with The Product Engine and helping with the development of (the then) Viewer 2.0, and formally joined LL in 2014. As the Senior VP of Product and Engineering she is responsible for coordinating both teams and overseeing their various projects, often in a hands-on capacity (as with SL Mobile).
Sntax Linden: manages the Lab’s web properties under Kali Linden (as he leads the monthly Web User Group meetings), and currently has a specific focus on the Marketplace and improving Second Life’s commerce environment.
Kyle Linden: as a product manager, is focused on creator tools within the platform. He is a 17-year veteran of Second Life and has worked in most areas of the Linden Lab / the platform in that time.
The SL Mobile 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
The App is not currently visible on Google Play, as new apps take up to 7 days to become searchable there.
It is hoped the Beta can open out more widely Soon™.
As a Beta product, there is still much more work to do – but a lot has been achieved with the assistance of the closed alpha users / testers.
However, SL Mobile will never provide all of the features found in the viewer, as it is impractical to do so (e.g. in-depth content creation is unlikely to be a part of the app).
In keeping with the above, feedback from those trying the Beta is welcomed – refer to the link to the official blog post above for details.
Feedback is requested through the SL channels, not through either the Apple Store or Google Play, as the latter could unbalance the app’s ratings unfairly, given it is only a Beta product, not a released product.
LL are still in consultation with Apple over the issue of the iOS version of the app not being allowed to access Adult rated regions.
LL have been in discussions with Unity (as the app is built on that engine) over Unity’s sudden licensing changes earlier in 2024, and the belief is that this will not be an issue for SL mobile in the future.
[Background: In February 2024 it was confirmed LL is looking to natively adopt Luau, a Lua VM implementation viewer-side as a means of providing better support for, and control of, scripted agents (including automated testing capabilities using such agents; providing a means of supporting custom UI extensions / plug-ins without having to resort to C++ and adding custom displays to present exiting information in the viewer. See here and here for more on the initial announcement.]
Signal indicated at as well as running Lua natively on the client-side, LL is now looking to replace the Mono VM runtime engine with Luau’s runtime engine on the back-end.
This means that scripts should be more efficient in their memory use and execute faster.
The work is still in the benchmarking / development phase, and more information will be provided as work progresses.
Rider Linden added further context to the above in local chat:
The project will end up swapping the underlying Mono VM out for a Lua VM under the hood … Our plan is to support both [LSL and lua]. We will end up compiling the LSL down to the Lua bytecode. [So essentially] 2 VMs. LSO (the old stuff) and ultimately the Lua VM. The Mono -> Lua bytecode change should be invisible.
The existing community of Second life creators as their greatest educational asset, and so are thinking about ways to spotlight creators who provide videos, guides, tutorials, and / or by teaching in-world, etc., on a “best practice” basis.
That said, LL acknowledge their own documentation is often poor – much is out-of-date, features are often released without full documentation [which also might never follow as a result], and focus needs to be placed on this.
Believes that LL are going to try to build a better repository / resource creators and users can use to find the kinds of tutorials / class / video guides mentioned above.
Improvements to Mesh Rigging and the Avatar Skeleton – Signal Linden
LL is aware the current approach to rigging mesh and attachments to the avatar is a non-trivial task is is looking to ways to improve the workflow for creators so that content built outside of SL can be more directly imported and “work”.
This involved moving to modern content creation standards [i.e. the glTF 2.0 specification, as frequently referenced in this blog].
First phase of this work currently in development with glTF scene import, which will prototype a “drag and drop” approach to taking content from Blender and dropping it into Second Life [details on the glTF import / export work can be found in my CCUG summaries].
One outcome of this work will be the ability to have more “local mesh preview” capabilities, where content can be temporarily displayed in the viewer exactly as it appears in the tool used to create it (e.g. Substance Painter, Blender), without having to go through any form of upload conversion (somewhat like the Local Textures capability).
Further into the future, this work will mean SL can support custom armatures (rigs / skeletons).
Animation Improvements – Priorities and Editing – Signal Linden
This is seen as an important capability by many, both for helping to improve the smoothness of things like Animation Override systems and in avoiding potential conflicts between animations.
It has often been requested and is something the Lab would like to tackle. There are requests on the Feedback Portal, and people are asked to vote on them to indicate how important they think this is, and new ideas should be submitted there.
Sees the issue potentially being tackled in a number of ways (e.g. better scripted support, supporting different animation formats, etc.).
2K PBR Terrain on Mainland / Support for PBR and 2K textures on Avatars -Signal Linden
2K PBR terrain on Mainland more a Product Operations question than an engineering question.
2K textures + PBR support for Avatar Appearance [Bakes on Mesh/Bake Service; wearables assets (inventory), appearance editing, etc.]: No 1 most voted request on the Feedback Portal and is currently being planned. Deployment should eventually be a combination of both at the same time, once ready.
The graphics team is continuing to work on optimising PBR performance, including fixing redraw bugs, memory use, etc.
This work is in part focused on optimisations for mid-range hardware (e.g. around US $800 brand-new).
With regards to MacOS, there is a focus on the current memory issues
LL recognise that the introduction is a world-changer in terms of SLs visuals – but it is also a world-changer in allowing content creators to more readily use their tools to produce good content for Second Life without having to resort to arcane measures.
Appreciate the change can be painful for some, and are trying to respond where possible with updates and improvements.
Pointed out (again) that the arrival of PBR is just one step in the overall plan for enhancing Second Life’s capabilities and full leverage modern content creation tools and techniques.
[Background: WebRTC (RTC=”real-time communication”) is bing implemented to replace Vivox as the Voice component in Second Life. It is both a viewer and server project, with the viewer code supplied as a library with a wrapper, so there will no longer be a separate 3rd party Voice .EXE plug-in. It will offer a more extensible, “industry standard” approach to voice in SL, with better fidelity and sound quality. Initial deployment will see it work alongside Vivox (with some limitations).]
The switch-over will be carried out in collaboration / cooperation with TPVs.
Work has been put into securing the use of WebRTC Voice against attempts to eavesdrop, obtain people’s IP addresses, etc., by routing peer-to-peer communications via an internal server using a Lab proxy IP.
Marketplace Search has been undergoing improvements and will continue to do so, all the the aim of improving the ability of content creators to promote their content and buyers get to the content they want to see.
Marketplace on mobile devices: There is a project underway to update the Marketplace design and UI which it is hoped will make it more accessible to smaller screens, and when using the in-viewer web browser.
Feedback on these welcome through the Feedback Portal and at the monthly Web User Group meetings.
A road map is being developed as to what makes the most sense to do first with CasperVend integration in general.
Again the onus is on making the general shopping and merchant experience better across the Marketplace and when using / interacting with CasperVend products.
It is likely one of the first areas for integration will be having CasperVend delivering go through the same mechanism as Marketplace deliveries, simplifying CasperVend redeliveries.
Longer-term going is to have things integrated so that Merchants can manage their activities through a single point, whether selling through CasperVend or / and via the MP.
As well as those mentioned (glTF scene import, WebRTC, etc):
More sample content to the Library (e.g. mirrors).
HDRI support for skies, etc.
Possible updates to the library EEP settings to HDR.
Possibly extending the use of emojis in Display Names (this is problematic as it requires Unicode data to be stored, and so is only being explored at this time and many not make it to feature release).
Some of work going into SL over the last few years has been focused on laying the foundations for improved accessibility options.
One of the first elements of this work to surface will be server-side translation for text.
In the future, the deployment of WebRTC could potentially allow for direct text-to-speech / speech to text.
AI tools might be considered for giving access assistance to SL.
Those with ideas for making SL more accessible to all should file feature requests via the Feedback Portal.
It was pointed out that creators could help with accessibility by giving their creations meaningful names where appropriate, rather than leaving them as the default “Object”.
The future of Mesh Upload Prices – Grumpity Linden
Second Life marks its 2st anniversary in 2024, with a month of activity kicking-off through until Sunday, July 21st. Celebrations will be taking place across the Birthday regions in Second Life, and and with previous years includes live music, DJ sets, art, shopping (via the dedicated Shop and Hop event), exhibits by Linden Lab and – particularly – exhibits by Second Life residents and communities.
The following is intended to provide a general overview of the celebrations and provide calendars, SLurls and anything else that might be useful to you when visiting the regions.
IMPORTANT NOTE: many of the builds at SL21B, particularly the stages, etc. have been built using PBR materials, and the skies are rendered as HDR. Therefore, to see the regions at their best, you should preferably be running a viewer that is “PBR enabled.”
SL21B Welcome Area
Theme
This theme for Second Life’s 21st birthday (SL21B) has been given as Elements, which the Lab describes thus:
This theme invites us to explore the fundamental components that make up our vast virtual landscape and the diverse communities within it. From the fiery passion of creators and artists to the fluid adaptability of our social environments, from the solid bonds within our communities to the fresh breezes of innovation that propel us forward, “Elements” is a celebration of the core forces that shape our experiences in Second Life.
As per usual, SL21B will feature a series of events featuring various members of the Lab’s Board, management team and advisors. These will be a mix of live and pre-recorded sessions, per the schedule below.
Tuesday June 25th 13:30
Product and Engineering Town Hall
Senior VP of Product & Engineering Grumpity Linden; Director of Engineering Second Life Server & Viewer Signal Linden; Director of Engineering Web & Platform Kali Linden; Senior Product Manager Sntax Linden; Product Manager Kyle Linden.
Wednesday June 26th 13:30
Product Operations Town Hall
Linden Lab Executive Chairman Oberwolf Linden and Senior VP of Product Operations & Marketing Patch Linden.
Entertainment and Performances
Over 500 live performers are lined-up to perform across four stages at SL21B between Friday, June 21st and July 1st. The complete schedule can be seen below.
The Nimbus Stage
The Welcome Area
Never been to an SLB event before – try starting at the Welcome Area where you’ll find lost of help, things like the SL21B Hunt HUD, and more!
The Tapestry of Time and Gift Area.
First presented in 2018, the region-wide Tapestry of Time presents visitor with a walk-through of Second Life’s history from 2003 through to the present day using images, text and videos. True, not everything has been recorded, but there’s enough within the region to be of interest to the historically minded.
within the Tapestry of Time can be found the SL21B Gift Area, offering gifts from the Birthday exhibitors and from merchants participating in the Shop & Hop event.
Exhibitor Regions
via Linden Lab. Click for exhibitor list
As is common for SLB events, the mix of content is varied, and the representation of interests broad. Role-play groups, arts, communities, are represented across the nine regions open to exhibitors; some are static, others are interactive in nature.
Direct links to the exhibitor regions can be found in the SLurls lists at the end of this piece.
Note that teleport boards are available at the centre of all Exhibitor regions for easy of moving between them.
Adult Exhibitor Regions And Adult Shop and Hop
2024 sees the Adult content and groups exhibitor regions combined with the Adult Shop and Hop regions and the Once again, the celebrations include Adult content and groups, with exhibits at the event, with four dedicated regions – separate to the main exhibitor regions – open to visit. These have a dedicated Teleport Hub sitting kitty-corner admits the four regions, and I’ve also included individual region SLurls at the end of this article.
SL21B Last Names and Physical World Merchandise
To mark the event, Linden name available a special series of SL21B themed last names focused on the theme of “elements”. Also launched to mark the event is a range of SL21B merchandise for the physical world, including t-shirts, baseball caps, tote bags, laptop sleeves, pins, mug note books and more.
During the Second Life birthday celebrations over the last few years, there have been sessions referred to as Meet the Lindens. Held daily, these provided opportunities for people to hear from and put questions to Linden Lab personnel, generally with questions submitted beforehand.
For 2024, these sessions will be replaced by series of special Town Hall sessions, and the second of their new Community Round Table events, featuring members of the Lab’ senior management team. On Tuesday, June 19th, the Lab provided details of these events, together with information on the SL21B live music events and performances, and I’m combining the information here for ease of reference.
Community Round Table and Town Halls Sessions
All events at the SL21B Aquatorium.
Date and Time
Event
Tuesday June 25th 13:30 SLT
Town Hall: Product and Engineering:
Senior VP of Product & Engineering Grumpity Linden.
Director of Engineering Second Life Server & Viewer Signal Linden.
Director of Engineering Web & Platform Kali Linden.
Senior Product Manager Sntax Linden.
Product Manager Kyle Linden.
Wednesday June 26th 13:30 SLT
Town Hall: Product Operations:
Senior VP of Product Operations & Marketing Patch Linden.
Support Operations Manager Keira Linden.
Product Operations Manager Derrick Linden.
Creative Producer Izzy Linden.
Thursday June 27th 13:30 SLT
Town Hall: Philip Rosedale interviewed by Brett Linden.
Community Round Table with Linden Lab Executive Chairman Oberwolf Linden and Senior VP of Product Operations & Marketing Patch Linden.
Questions for any of the above events can still be submitted through until Friday, June 21st, 2024.
Live Music Events and Performances
Over 500 live performers are lined-up to perform across four stages at SL21B between Friday, June 21st and July 1st. The complete schedule can be seen below.
SL21B Dates and Theme
June 2024 will mark the 21st anniversary of Second Life opening to public access – and to mark it, Linden Lab has announced the 2024 Birthday celebrations as being marked across an entire month – from Friday, June 21st through until Sunday July 21st, 2024.
Dates
Friday, June 21st through until Sunday July 21st, 2024.
Theme
This theme for Second Life’s 21st birthday (SL21B) has been given as Elements, which the Lab describes thus:
This theme invites us to explore the fundamental components that make up our vast virtual landscape and the diverse communities within it. From the fiery passion of creators and artists to the fluid adaptability of our social environments, from the solid bonds within our communities to the fresh breezes of innovation that propel us forward, “Elements” is a celebration of the core forces that shape our experiences in Second Life.
June 2024 will mark the 21st anniversary of Second Life opening to public access – and to mark it, Linden Lab has announced the 2024 Birthday celebrations as being marked across an entire month – from Friday, June 21st through until Sunday July 21st, 2024.
Theme
This theme for Second Life’s 21st birthday (SL21B) has been given as Elements, which the Lab describes thus:
This theme invites us to explore the fundamental components that make up our vast virtual landscape and the diverse communities within it. From the fiery passion of creators and artists to the fluid adaptability of our social environments, from the solid bonds within our communities to the fresh breezes of innovation that propel us forward, “Elements” is a celebration of the core forces that shape our experiences in Second Life.
For the last several years, the birthday celebrations have included a series of sessions called Meet the Lindens: opportunities for people to hear from and put questions to Linden Lab personnel, generally with questions submitted beforehand. In 2023, these Meet The Linden sessions morphed into Lab Gab sessions, and this year they are being referred to as Town Hall meetings, all to be held live at the SL21B event, and which will include the second of the Community Round Table events, at which questions can be specifically put to members of the Linden Lab leadership team.
It is not clear as to who will be representing the Lab at each of these sessions, or when the sessions will be held. In the announcement that they would be taking place, the Lab only promise details to come and indicate:
The founder of Second Life Philip Linden and Executive Chairman Oberwolf Linden will be among the participants, which also include many leading executives and team leads from Second Life’s Product, Engineering, and Product Operations departments.
However, the blog post does include a link to a form those wishing to ask questions of the Lab can complete and submit, which includes the opportunity to indicate to whom the question should be addressed, if required (although a little difficult outside of the usual suspects for these events given that, as noted, exactly who will be attending them has yet to be announced).
BUT – if you do wish to submit a question, then hop over to the form and do so, and note that it will remain available until Thursday, June 20th, 2024.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 