SL 2011 year recap on what happened

It’s near 2012 now and its time to look back on what happened during 2011 in Second Life . Check out the month-by-month recap below of news and events that rocked 2011…

January 2011

• The 1000 Avatars Project was featured on the Second Life Destination Guide on 7th January
• New Web Based SL Profiles introduced by Linden Lab on 8th January
• The Gnubie Store closed down In Second Life on 10th January
• Rod Humble started the new job of being CEO of Linden Lab on 20th January
• Teen Grid officially merges with Main Grid on 21st January
• Jessica Lyon announces partnership with new OS Grid “SpotOn3D” on 25th January

February 2011

• Mega Prims disappeared across the grid on 2nd February
• Rodvik Linden Meet and Greet on 4th February
• Linden Lab changes Office Hours to User Groups meetings on 9th February
• Bay City Teen and Main Grid regions merged into one big land mass on 10th February
• Linden Lab announces new SL Community Platform on 16th February
• RedZone HUD was forced to ask to reveal alt accounts on 25th February

March 2011

• Tribute to Sabrinaa Nightfire, Talented SL Artist who sadly passed away on 6th March
• Linden Lab Calls Facebook “The Best Place” to Find Second Life Content on 8th March
• Big buzz on the blog post by NWN called Second Life Users Hate and Fear of Change on 16th March
• Linden Lab introduced basic mode and advanced mode for the viewer on 18th March
• VWBPE 2011 was a big success this year between 17th & 19th March
• SL Fashion for life raised 4.7 million Linden dollars on 24th March
• BURN2 Spring Event opened with great joy and excitement from the SL community on 25th March
• Ormand won Pop Art Lab Machinima Expo 2011 on 28th March

April 2011

• Linden Lab launched a new Dash Deal Test Program for Marketplace Merchants on 6th April
• Linden Lab announced SL Viewer Beta with Enhanced Avatar Physics on 7th April
• There was sad news when AM Radio announced closure of his regions on 10th April
• Tateru Nino announced that Second Life user-concurrency falls to lowest levels in two years on 10th April
• Feathers Boa announced an early retirement from Second Life on 13th April
• Linden Lab launched new interactive Second Life signup pages on 17th April
• Linden Lab is worth roughly $232M, according to Sharepost on 25th April

May 2011

• Linden Lab changed the Welcome Screen on 3rd May
• There was mass deletion of staff user pages from Second Life Wiki on 9th May
• Bay City celebrated it’s third anniversary in Second Life on 13th May
• SL was listed on 11 most influential online worlds of all time via PCWorld on 17th May
• Facebook removed hundreds of SL FB avatars accounts on 20th May
• Linden Lab announced the new Search project viewer on 25th May

June 2011

• Linden Lab hosted a load test event to help test/break SL group changes on 2nd June
• There was outrage over disputed logo SL8B on 13th June
• A second Second Life for Duran Duran on 16th June
• SL8B opens & Second Life turns eight years old on 23rd June
• Lost Gardens of Apollo shuts down in SL on 26th June
• Linden Lab introduced new SL avatars in the Library on 29th June
• Rod Humble talked about virtual goods during Bloomberg Interview on 30th June

July 2011

• Paisley Beebe calls it quits on 2nd July
• Treet.TV announced big changes on 7th July
• Google+ suspends avatar accounts during the summer on 8th July
• Firestorm surpassed LL V1.23 viewer usage  on 15th July
• Relay for Life weekend & Relay For Life raised $371, 670 US dollars between 16th-17th July
• New SL social web profiles went live on 26th July

August 2011

• Meeroos master account blocked by Linden Lab on 1st August
• Announcement of Abbotts Aerodrome closing on 2nd August
• Brinda Allen passed away in her sleep on 11th August
• SLCC 2011 keynote highlights on 13th August
• OWN Network Documentary on Second Life on 16th August
• SL Viewer 3 comes out of beta with Mesh on 23rd August
• SL Relay for Life 2011 Raises $375K From 115K Donation on 29th August

September 2011

• Jessica Lyon announced the Phoenix project turned one years old on 3rd September
• Pop Art Lab celebrated it’s 3rd year anniversary in Second Life on 4th September
• Firestorm Beta 3 with Mesh Support on 6th September
• KirstenLee Cinquetti announced that her viewer will be discontinued on 8th September
• Weekend deal: Second Life premium memberships discounted on 9th September
• Metaverse Week in Review turned four years old on 12th September
• Help People Island closed down after six years in Second Life on 24th September

October 2011

• Grendel’s Children celebrated it’s 5th birthday party in Second Life on 7th October
• Linden Lab joins Plurk SL community on 7th October
• Luskwood celebrated it’s 8th birthday party in Second Life on 17th October
• Linden Lab releases new Viewer 3 user interface on 18th October
• Builders Brewery big glitch hits 16, 700 group members on 20th October
• SL Shakespeare Company, Primtings, and sLiterary Closing on 22nd October
• Video game-designer and Maxis co-founder Will Wright now a Linden Lab director on 25th October

November 2011

• First annual InWorldz Dreamz & Visionz art festival opened on 1st November
• Linden Lab finally responds to Bring Back Last Name Options on 1st November
• Gracie Kendal reached the big milestone of 2000 avatars on 3rd November
• Official Second Life Facebook page reached 200, 000 likes milestone on 6th November
• New Linden Helpers Beta program launched on 11th November
• Save 50% when you sign up for a Premium account on 24th November
• SL user concurrency stays below 70, 000 during 2011 on 30th November

December 2011

• FJ Linden no longer with Linden Lab on 12th December
• Translation failed message on 14th December
• SL Last Names are coming back hopefully in early 2012 on 13th December
• Kirsten’s SL Viewer Development Ends Because 1000s of Its Users Declined to Help Fund It on 19th December
• Exodus SL Viewer: Appealing Successor to Kirstens Viewer on 26th December

SL Predictions 2011 Check List

Here are my predictions I made last year for 2011. Time to see if any came true or not..

• A new Linden Lab CEO – Success - Rod Humble started in mid January 2011 as the new Linden Lab CEO.
• Mesh will be officially launched - Success - Mesh was still being developed during the first half of 2011 until 23rd August when Mesh went live across the grid. Mesh is now in many well known viewers!
• Groups will be raised from 25 to 40 - Success- Linden Lab enabled 42 for the groups limits in early 2011.
• Teens introduced to the Main Grid -Success- Linden Lab merged the grids together on 21st January 2011. 
• Major TPVs will switch over to using Viewer 2 based code - Success -
• Educational organizations leave SL cause of land increased prices - Success - There were alot of Educational organizations that left Second Life due to funding/land prices etc during 2011. 
• More residents moving to OpenSim grids etc - Success – In 2011 there have been more regions created than there was last year and I believe there has been more interest about OpenSim grids this year. OSGrid reached the 10, 000 regions milestone this month which is incredible. 
• More press news and projects from Linden Lab -- Success – There have been various press updates this year through the inworld LL press group. Linden Lab launched Linden Realms, Viewer 3, Mesh, 42 groups, Greeter project, new web SL online profiles, new search and more this year. 
• SL concurrency to reach 100, 000 users online - Fail -SL concurrency numbers failed to reach 88, 000 or more this year.
• LL ends Viewer 1.23 support  - Fail – Still no confirmation about this year about Viewer 1.23 support ending. It’s no longer under development (2009) but it’s still available to download via the SL wiki. 
• The SL Economy will hopefully grow stronger  - Fail - Remained steady and flat in 2011 but not much growth as many expected it would be.

Second Life predictions for 2012

• Early SL Predictions for 2012 - Me
• 7 Important Second Life Predictions For 2012 - Eddi Haskell
• My Predictions for 2012 - Second Thoughts
• 11 Predictions for 2012 for MMOs, Virtual Worlds, Social Media - Second Tense
• More will be added soon here!