Happy 5th Bay City Anniversary

Today (19th May) marks five years since Linden Lab introduced the Bay City regions on the Main Grid back in May 2008. Today is another big milestone for Bay City community and this historical occasion will be awesome. It’s time to come together and celebrate 5 fantastic years of Bay City.

Bay City 5th Anniversary Event Schedule: 

• Parade staging starts at 12pm SLT at Bay City – Harwich bandshell
• Parade starts at 12:30pm SLT
• Parade ends at North Channel at 1:20pm SLT
• Live music starts from 1:30pm SLT to 4:30pm SLT
• Performers: GoSpeed Racer and three great live acts 

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Latest Updates

• 4:50pm SLT – End of coverage 
• 4:40pm SLT - Conga dancing takes place 
• 4:30pm SLT – Fireworks are being set off to mark a very successful event today in Bay City
• 4:20pm SLT – A new group notice has just been sent out

Thank you to everyone who made out anniversary such a success! Our performers, our parade block captains, Ever for work above and beyond. Those who tossed into the hat to provide some great performers, and all our marchers, viewers,and partiers. Thanks for making Bay City’s fifth so great!

• **2pm** SLT – Over 40 avatars in North Channel all dancing to the LIVE DJ music 
• 1:35pm SLT – Live Music is underway at the main stage in Bay City – North Channel – large audience! 
• 1:15pm SLT – Gathering at the main stage (over 40 avatars)
• 12:52pm SLT – Parade reaches VRC
• 12:37pm SLT – Parade is moving down route 66! 
• 12:30pm SLT – Parade is ready to ROLL!
• 12:25pm SLT – Groups start to form for the parade
• 12:10pm SLT – Over 30+ avatars have arrived
• 12pm SLT – Happy 5th Birthday Bay City!!!
• ** Parade Staging event has started and will last for 30 minutes ***
• 11:55am SLT – 5 minutes and setting up has started for floats
• 11:50am SLT – 10 minutes and counting!!! (over 20 avatars have arrived)
• 11:45am SLT – Apparently Draxtor Despres will be filming videos – keep a watch out for Drax
• 11:40am SLT: Excitement is building up with just 20 minutes left to go!
• 11:20am SLT – Visitors start to arrive in Bay City – Harwich region – 40 minutes and counting!
• 11:10am SLT – 50 minutes left to go until the event opens at 12pm SLT
• 10:53am SLT – Bay City 5th anniversary is now being shown on the SL Login Screen (Number 2 listing) and group notices are being sent out about today’s 5th anniversary celebrations.
• 10:40am SLT - Booster Packs are now available in the North Channel – Fairgrounds region.  Primtastic Blimp has been apparently spotted flying around Bay City!
• 10am SLT - 2 hours to go!
• 9am SLT – 3 hours to go and Bay City is rather empty at the moment. Final preparations are going well and everything is set.

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The 5th Bay City parade travels down route 66

Celebrating five amazing years of Bay City in Second Life

Live performer on stage in front of 40+ avatars 

Latest Snapshots

• View my snapshots of Bay City SL
• View my snapshots on my SL web profile

Bay City 5th Anniversary Parade Route Map

History of Bay City 

• Bay City – Second Life Wiki
• Bay City – SLWikia 

Happy 5th anniversary Bay City!

New InWorldz Desert Island opens

The InWorldz Desert Island has been revamped today and now there is a new welcome point for new residents when they arrive on the grid. The new InWorldz Desert Island looks very impressive and it’s very exciting to explore the new welcome area. It’s open to the public now and it’s going to be very popular in the coming years than the old welcome area I think.

There has been already positive feedback on the new look revamp of the island. Most love the relaxing atmosphere and garden feel to the island which I agree with totally. Woooot!!

Visit InWorldz Desert Island to explore the new look island!

New areas to visit

• New welcome point with new info boards
• New Freebies Tower with 4 floors with new viewing area on top
• New Building Learning Center
• New music/events hangout
• New bowling lane
• And much more!

New InWorldz Desert Island Map

New Welcome point when new residents arrive. Very colorful trees and more seats around the island. 

Snapshot from above showing the new InWorldz Desert Island showing the different areas. 

Snapshot of the new Freebies tower with a new viewing area at the top.

Explore InWorldz – check out the new Landmarks Board with many places to explore on InWorldz!

Stay tuned for more great things soon from InWorldz. Like the new look ?

Second Life Extensions on Google Chrome

On Google Chrome Web Store I did a search today for “Second Life” extensions and I was surprised that three results that showed up which you can add to your Chrome browser. Very interesting to find out there are ”Second Life” extensions on Chrome and I’m not sure other browsers have any SL related add-ons.

Results for “Second Life” extensions!

• Second Life Friends - Users can check if their friends are online from any web page, instead of having to go through the tricky Second Life dashboard.
• (157 users, version 1.0 & updated 10th February 2010)

• Second Life Marketplace Helper - 1.Favorite Store Registration 2.Open Link in a New Window 3.Search in Deep Directories
• (104 users, version 2.5 & updated 12th January 2013)

• ChromeLife - ChromeLife uses your secondlife.com credentials to display useful at-a-glance information about your Second Life account, without requiring your username or password. Supported features include: – Online friends – Display names – Linden balance – Groups – Desktop notifications – Custom CSS – Map links
• (79 users, version 1.0.6 & updated 11th April 2013)

A search for “Linden Lab” extensions showed up 1 result.

• SLWishlist.com adding sl marketplace - This is a tool specially for Second Life users. With just a click of a button you can add products in your SLWishlist while browsing Second Life marketplace.
• (30 users, version 1.3 & updated 14th March 2013)

A small userbase for these extensions and not alot of reviews either. I think there needs to be more extensions for Second Life and more in other internet browsers too.

50% off all private regions on 3rd Rock Grid

On the 3rd Rock Grid blog there is a new deal for the whole of May 2013 which is 50% off all private regions on 3rd Rock Grid which sounds very good  for new and existing region owners. There is a whole list of prices of Private Regions here if you are interested in buying a private region.

May Sales Event!

50% OFF All Private Regions!

As you may or may not know, 3rdrockgrid.com has been working very hard the past couple of months upgrading our equipment and moving our servers to a faster and more reliable datacenter. These changes have provided us with previously unheard of reliability and smoothness on our grid.

To celebrate we have decided to offer all private regions at a previously unheard of “50%” off* and no setup fees for the entire month of May!

These prices are good for new and existing region owners but does not apply to any regions already owned – new orders only.

Thats right! 50% off.
Any private region(s) you purchase during the month of May will be 50% off each month for the entire time you own your private region(s).

At these prices you can afford to have all of the land you have ever wanted!

Want to save even more??
If you pay for 11 months in advance, your 12th month is free!

There will be no setup charges however prices are “non-transferrable”. See below for more information!

These monthly prices will be good for the entire time you own your private region(s) and there are no setup charges. The only catch…. these prices are non transferrable. If you sell your private region(s) the new owner will be charged our regular monthly fees. If you give up or lose your private region(s) due to non payment and you later decide you want them back you will be charged our regular rates.

 

Upcoming RFL SL events 2013 to attend

This month there are many big SL Relay For Life events happening in Second Life during May 2013. Recently the Fantasy Faire finished in Second Life raised over 9,000,000 Lindens to help the American Cancer Society which is a new event record. Overall Relay For Life in Second Life have so far raised over $2,000,000.000 Lindens during the past 7 years which is fantastic and really worth celebrating.

There are many RFL events to look forward to between now and the end of the RFL season in August 2013.

Upcoming May 2013 RFL Events

• Halfway There Fair  > 18th to 19th May 2013
• Paint SL Purple > 19th to 25th May 2013
• 100th birthday of the American Cancer Society > 21st to 22nd May 2013
• 6th Annual Second Life Home / Garden Expo > 24th May to 2nd June 2013
• Breedables Fair > 24th May to 2nd June 2013

Which RFL SL events will you be going to this month/year ? 

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2013 Relay For Life season started in March 2013 and will last until August 2013.

This year marks the 9th year of Relay For Life of Second Life and the relay weekend on the main grid starts on Saturday 13th July through to Sunday 14th July 2013. The theme this year is Celebrating 100 years of Hope. There will be Wrap Up Party in August 2013 to end the RFL 2013 season.

• Check out the Relay For Life of Second Life SL wiki page for event details and historical RFL events.
• The main SL RFL website is worth visiting for the latest totals and teams.

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New dates have been published for InWorldz 2nd season of Relay For Life for 2013.

• IW Kickoff – 24th August 2013
• IW Halfway Events – 28th September 2013
• IW Relay Weekend – 2nd November 2013

A lot of events to look forward to and hopefully more new RFL event records being set in Second Life/InWorldz. Wooooot!!!!

New SL concurrency graphs show day and hour from May 2012 to May 2013

Tyche Shepherd has just posted some new graphs recently on SLUniverse Forums on the SL concurrency by day and hour from 3rd May 2012 to 2nd May 2013 which is very interesting. Tyche Shepherd reports that Saturdays and Sundays have a much higher SL concurrency level than it is between Mondays to Fridays which is understandable I think as it’s the weekend. The busiest hours is between 1pm to 2pm SLT which is surprising I think because I thought more would log in during the evening hours.

Based on past 12 months to yesterday Saturdays and Sundays have higher concurrency then the rest of the week (this is significant at the 95% confidence level)

13:00 and 14:00 SLT (1 – 2 pm) are the busiest hours – again this is a statistically significant finding at the 95 confidence level

These charts illustrate the mean concurrency over day of week and hour of day. This analysis is based on sampling SL concurrency at 5 minute intervals over the past year.

Great work Tyche and I’m sure many are happy to see new graphs. Very interesting overall and I really do find metrics interesting in Second Life/OpenSim. All graphs below are created by Tyche Shepherd which were uploaded to the SL Forums and SLUniverse Forums.

• Click graphs for larger views! 

Second Life mean concurrency by day of week 3rd May 2012 – 2nd May 2013

Second Life mean concurrency by hour of day 3rd May 2012 – 2nd May 2013

Time of day within day of week

No major differences between days but on Fridays and Saturdays the 13:00 to 14:00 peak continues into 15:00 , and as expected the 2 hours spanning 23:00 Saturday to 00:00 Sunday tend to be busier than the same time on other days

I think it would be awesome to see the graphs in a year from now to compare the SL concurrency levels from May 2013 to May 2014. Again great work Tyche for providing these new updated graphs.

InWorldz hits 75, 000 total users milestone

Today InWorldz reached another big milestone of 75, 000 total users according to the InWorldz Login Screen. This is another step closer to the big 100, 000 total users mark (expected in 2014 or 2015?). There’s around 350 new residents joining InWorldz each week apparently and that number is expected to rise quicker when physics is fully in place soon. InWorldz is still growing and breaking new records on a regular basis.

New milestone reached of 75, 000+ total users

InWorldz Historical numbers so far

• “The first 1, 000 took almost a year.. the second 1, 000 just a bit over a month..”
• 2, 000 members – 14th May 2010
• 5, 000 members – 20th June 2010
• 10, 000 members – 12th August 2010
• 20, 000 members – 21st October 2010
• 25, 000 members – 12th December 2010
• 30, 000 members – 1st February 2011
• 40, 000 members – 15th July 2011
• 50, 000 members – 15th January 2012
• 55, 000 – 20th April 2012
• 60, 000 members – 18th July 2012
• 70, 000 members – 25th January 2013
• 75, 000 members – 3rd May 2013

Future Predictions…

• 80, 000 members – July/August 2013
• 90, 000 members – January 2014
• 100, 000 members – Mid 2014

NEW: It’s worth looking at Constanza’s blog where you can find new weekly posts on the InWorldz metrics. Graphs, latest region/users stats and much more!

InWorldz Links

• InWorldz Website
• InWorldz Forums
• InWorldz Twitter (latest #InWorldz tweets)
• InWorldz Facebook

Why Do I Blog Meme

A great challenge was started recently by Strawberry Singh to answer questions about blogging about Second Life which has started a domino effect across the SL blogosphere. This is my Blog Meme below!

1. How long have you been blogging? Since 18th December 2007
   
2. Why did you start blogging? I started my Second Life journey on the Teen Grid starting from the 31st October 2006 and back then the grid was very tiny. There was more blog coverage on the main grid of Second Life and nothing really on the Teen Grid so I decided to make a WordPress Blog about Teen Grid news, developments and events. I transferred to the main grid of Second Life when I turned 18 years old in December 2008 then continued reporting on big news and big events in Second Life which I enjoy doing.
3. How many times a week do you post an entry? Depending on the latest SL/OpenSim news its anywhere between 3-6 posts a week.
4. How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis? Hundreds on Google Reader (includes SL/opensim forums and social networks on a daily basis).
5. Do you comment on other people’s blogs? Sometimes if it’s interesting and if it’s going to have a impact/change Second Life.
6. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? Yes, on WordPress Stats page on a regular basis. I normally get over 8, 000 hits per month with a average of 200-500 views every day. I’ll love to have more this year and future ones.
7. Did you ever regret a post that you wrote? Nope.
8. Do you think your readers have a true sense of who you are based on your blog? Yes, I believe so.
9. Do you blog under your real name? Nope. I just use my Second Life name.
10. Are there topics that you would never blog about? Not really. I’ll blog about interesting SL happenings and I’m always open to new things to blog about.
11. What is the theme/topic of your blog? Second Life and OpenSim news.
12. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why? No. I use my blog. Plurk, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google+ and SL web profile to communicate with SL friends.
13. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging? It give me confidence and something to be proud of mostly. Its a great way of informing and communicating important stuff to my SL blog readers.
14. So, why do you continue to blog? It’s good fun to write about Second Life events and news. It’s addicted and It’s going to be hard to stop any time soon. I’ll continue to blog for many years to come covering a whole range of interesting topics hopefully. My hope is that more readers will read my blog and continue to give me feedback like in previous years.

Thanks for reading my SL blog over the years and being part of my SL journey so far. Please FOLLOW MY BLOG on the right hand side and stay updated on the latest grid happenings. Thanks very much again!

More great things to come!

Server Side Baking supported TPV viewers so far, update 1

The latest developments on server side baking on third party viewers. SSB renders clothing layers, avatar’s skin, tattoos, alpha from the client side to the server faster. Linden Lab are testing server side baking for official SL viewers which is due to be released hopefully within 2-4 weeks.

As of 25th April 2013

• Firestorm Viewer 4.4.0.33720 has added support for Server Side Baking
• Singularity Viewer 1.8.0 has added support for Server Side Baking
• Cool VL viewer supports Server Side Baking
• Catznip Viewer R8 has server side baking support (SSB)
• Kokua Vewer latest build includes experimental code
• Nirans Viewer 2.2.0 Alpha (2656) contains the update SSB (Server Side Baking)

More updates will be published soon.

NCI 8th Birthday Party Event 2013

NCI (New Citizens Incorporated) in Second Life will be celebrating it’s 8th birthday party and there is a special event taking place this weekend. On Saturday 27th April 2013 from 11am at NCI Beach in Fishermans Cove and the event will feature live music, djs, contests to celebrate the years of NCI in SL. The theme for the 8th birthday is “Out To Sea” which sounds fantastic I think.

Brace Coral founded NCI back in April 2005 and today NCI in Second Life is truly one of the best organizations on the grid for new residents. For many years it’s been featured on the SL Destination Guide under Newcomer Friendly section inworld. It’s really worth visiting if you have not been before!

What is NCI ? 

NCI is a voluntary association, dedicated to providing information, education and assistance to Second Life users (new and old), in order to maximize the benefits that they can gain from Second Life. NCI believes that new users who are better educated, supported and prepared benefit all of Second Life. NCI does not operate for profit and is not motivated by any desire for monetary gain.

NCI Birthday Event Poster 2013

Event Schedule Lineup 2013

Euro TIme
11am-2pm
Dance
Hosted by Wellington Beam
Live DJs Ajira Gallindo & Imnotgoing Sideways

Costume Contest
Hosted by Ginger Lorakeet
Costume Theme: Starter Avatars

Noon-1pm
Toob Race
Hosted by Wellington Beam

US Time
4pm-7pm
Dance
Hosted by Beverly Montgomery & Krystal Devonshire
Live DJs PJ Devonshire & Christine Grigorovich

6pm-6:30pm
Toob Race
Hosted by Krystal Devonshire

Costume Contest
Hosted by Ginger Lorakeet
Contest Theme: Edwardian Formal

7pm-8:30pm
All Ages Blitz Building
at NCI South
Hosted by Gideon McCullough

NCI Links to Bookmark!

• NCI Blog
• NCI Forums
• NCI Wiki

Fishermans Cove is a great place to visit for new residents for Help/Classes/Freebies in Second Life!

New to Second Life? New Citizens Incorporated is a community-run portal offering help, education and support for new Residents.

Will you be attending NCI 8th Birthday Party Event 2013 ? 

Official Second Life Facebook page hits 300, 000 likes/fans

According to PageData, on 13th April 2013 the official Second Life Facebook page reached another big milestone of 300, 034 likes/fans which is incredible I think. It seems there’s between 700 to 800 new likes/fans every week. The official Second Life Facebook page was created on 23rd April 2009 and reached 100, 000 during late 2010. Stay connected with the latest updates from Linden Lab on the official Second Life Facebook page today!

Facebook for the SL community is at number one for social networking for SL updates and discussions. There’s huge interest on the Facebook page for SL and still the page continues to grow in terms of new likes/fans per week. In comparison Second Life has a presence on other popular social networks:

• The official Google+ Second Life page has +4,435 friends/followers. 
• The official Twitter Second Life page has 34, 571 followers
• The official Flickr Second Life group has 15, 862 members
• The official Plurk Second Life page has 494 friends/341 fans

Second Life Facebook page stats 

• 111, 000 – February 2011
• 140, 434 – May 2011
• 200, 000 – 6th November 2011
• 250, 000 – 21st April 2012
• 290, 361 – 26th January 2013
• 300, 034 – 13th April 2013

Total Likes since 18th March 2013

SL Likes page stats

 

Apply for SL10B roles today

68 days left to GO!

It’s official that the resident run SL10B community event applications are now OPEN. This year is very special because Second Life will be celebrating it’s big tenth anniversary. It’s time for everyone in the SL community to come together and be part of this amazing 10th birthday celebration.

SL10B roles available:

• Greeters
• Exhibitors
• Performers
• Exhibitor Assistants (EA)
• Stage Managers
• Moderators
• And more! 

Full details about SL10B roles, please visit:
APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN! | SL10B

Deadline for SL10B applications is 20th May 2013.