The Yard at Honie Isle closing down on 27th April 2012

Yesterday evening (SLT) there was sad news posted in White Tigers Mentors group via group noticea and inworld group chat that The Yard at Honie Isle will be closing down in Second Life after 7 years. It’s sad to hear about closures in general in Second Life and it sometimes brings a tear to my eye when well-known locations shut down.

Closure dates

• Public access to Honie Isle will stop on Saturday 14th April 2012.
• The closure for The Yard at Honie Isle is Friday 27th April 2012.

———————————————————————-

The Yard at Honie Isle SLURL

Freebie,lucky chair,free avatars,mythical,gods,statues, Ladies,jewellery.boots,shoes,hats,Goth,belts,,flexihair,home,skins,shapes huds.textures, sexy,clothes,BDSM,furries,sounds.wings.party. Liberty.  Meeroos, meeroo

———————————————————————-

Here is the notecard announcing the closure of The Yard at Honie Isle in late April 2012.

Dear friends.

It is with great sadness, that we are writing this notecard to u.

As from the end of April. The Yard at Honie Isle, will be gone. 27th April 2012

The reason for this is……..both Min and I feel that the island is governing our lives, in more ways than one.
Plus we are no longer enjoying SecondLife anymore.

The years of dedication is beginning to take its toll on us. Its been 7 years, and in that time….we have helped countless newbies and residents, get started in SL. We personally feel over the years, we have provided an excellent service to the programme. Plus, we feel it is time that we start enjoying the time we have in SL instead.

Saturday the 14th of April. Public access will be removed from the island. This will give us time to collect up all the freebies and personal items. Then the island will be gone before the end of the month. Please would u remove any LandMarks to the island in ur folders.

Both Min and I have worked hard to provide everything a resident could possibly wish for. We set out 7 years ago, to make the greatest freebie place we could. WE feel that we have achieved this. Now its time for us to relax a little more .

Thank u for all ur support over these years. Both Min and I appreciate it. We have forged good friendships here and hope we shall continue to hold those friendships.

Real life is taking over much of our time now, and we cannot be here as often as we wish.

I do hope u will try and understand.

Thank u so much

Love Min and Till

Check out this kind message from Orange Planer.

Till Pierce said this via group chat yesterday evening…

The Yard is closing because after 7 years. The island has dominated both Mins and My life. We have put in many hours of work to provide a good service for SL. We have achieved wot we set out on SL to do. But there comes a time when the hard work and dedication becomes too much and we need a rest.

The last part Till said yesterday was this…

Yes it has been. I love the island that we have worked so hard for. But we cannot be here 24/7

When I logged inworld this morning and teleported over to The Yard at Honie Isle Till and CallieDel was there.

[03:47] V””V: aw ty for ur messages
[03:47] CallieDel Boa: Thank you for doing this, I hadn’t realized it was 7 years for you
[03:47] V””V: I have a message from Orange to put out too
[03:47] V””V: Yes Its been a long time
[03:48] V””V: I am tried of it all sis
[03:48] CallieDel Boa: Longer than I’ve been here, I hope you’ll still drop in.
[03:48] V””V: Yes, I need to find a new home
[03:48] V””V: somewhere for me and my roos
[03:48] CallieDel Boa: I can understand that. I haven’t been in-SL much myself this last year.
[03:48] CallieDel Boa: 5 years for me too
[03:49] V””V: Yes, its saddens me, but I have nothing left to give the programme anymore
[03:49] V””V: It used to be a joy to come online
[03:49] V””V: Now its a chore
[03:49] CallieDel Boa: When it’s no longer fun it’s time to move on.
[03:50] V””V: Yes
[03:50] V””V: I cant remember the last time I went out dancing
[03:51] V””V: I cant remember the last time I went exploring
[03:51] V””V: and if I did
[03:51] V””V: someone would call me back here for some reason or another
[03:51] CallieDel Boa: That can get old.
[03:51] V””V: I have been a prisoner here
[03:51] V””V: No more
[03:52] V””V: I have had my parole
[03:52] V””V: Out this month on a good behaviour bond. lol
[03:52] CallieDel Boa: I’d say you have, now it’s time to relax, explore, come and go as you wish
[03:52] CallieDel Boa: lol
[03:52] V””V: Yes it sure is
[03:52] V””V: I have enjoyed it
[03:53] V””V: But its time for the new ones to do their bit
[03:53] CallieDel Boa: Good point
[03:53] V””V: I have to go. Treacle wants me
[03:53] CallieDel Boa: Ok Huggggsss
[03:53] V””V: Hugs and ty for ur support and friendship
[03:53] V””V: both of u
[03:53] CallieDel Boa: Always Sis
[03:54] V””V: Dont be a stranger
[03:54] Daniel Voyager: thats ok
[03:54] CallieDel Boa: No way, yoiu either
[03:55] CallieDel Boa: I understand how she feels, but still sad

I know the SL community will appreciate the work Till Pierce and Min Ixtab the owners of  Honie Isle have done over the years and I think many will understand the hard decisions they had to make. I wish them all the best for the future!

Second Life user concurrency 2012 spring update

The last post I made about the Second Life user concurrency was back in late November 2011 where the SL concurrency levels were below the 70, 000 mark during 2011. During 2012 the daily SL concurrency has mostly stayed the same like it was back in 2011 with peaks around the 66, 000 mark with lows of around 32, 000 at any given time during the week. So I think we are not going to see any increase during the next few quarters unless something the lab does something to get more users and remain inworld for longer etc. The mean and median peak concurrency seems to be around the 50, 000 mark currently.

I would like to see the Second Life user concurrency stay between 70, 000 and 75, 000+. The levels were higher in previous years but the user concurrency trend was flat in 2011 and now in 2012 so far.

Check out these graphs from the SL Grid Survey to see the comparison.

(Below) Maximum Daily Concurrency

(Below) Minimum Daily Concurrency

(Below) Seasonal SL concurrency

This month the total count of main grid regions dropped below the 30, 000 mark for the first time since January 2010.  Second Life signups have dropped below 20, 000 per day since the 4th quarter of 2011. It’s interesting that signups dropped alot during the new year with the odd peak now/then. I think RL holidays do effect the Second Life user concurrency & signups among other things. Something needs to be done to keep users logged inworld for longer. Perhaps more press conferences, big events and more mention of Second Life in the coming months will increase signups. Perhaps many are logging else where like on OpenSim instead of the main grid which may effect these SL user concurrency numbers.

My hope is that things will increase/change in the coming months for Second Life.

Next update will be in July/August 2012.

Linden Helper and Greeter Regions turned off

According to New SL Sims in the past week it seems Linden Lab have turned off two Linden Helper Islands and two Greeter Islands which is a real shame because the beta program could of been a big success in Second Life. I first noticed Linden Helper and Greeter regions back in early November 2011 where many new residents were directly teleported to after signing up. There were Lindens helping answering questions from new residents but then in January 2012 everything went quiet with the regions being inaccessible to anyone. I guess the beta program failed in some way or another!

It could of worked out if both Lindens and volunteer groups came together to help new residents but that didn’t happen sadly. Linden Lab have turned off the following regions…

• Linden Lab HQ 5
• Linden Lab Meeting 1
• Linden Lab Meeting 2
• Linden Lab Meeting 3
• Linden Lab Meeting 4
• SL Work Hub 1
• SL Work Hub 2
• SL Work Hub 3
• SL Work Hub 4
• Welcome Island 27
• Welcome Island Clone2 

I guess things didn’t work out in the end.

 

 

Spaceport Alpha, Spaceport Bravo & NASA CoLab sims closed down

UPDATE

According to Katherine W Prawl there is good news about the ISM project in Second Life. Because of a recent accepted donation, the ISM team should be able to bring back the sims online when payment issues are resolved. ”ISM is coming back (as soon as we get the account straightened out)”. This is really good news and I’ll look forward to visiting ISM when it returns. YAY!

————————————————–

It seems like Spaceport Alpha, Spaceport Bravo and NASA CoLab sims have already closed down this year. I was planning to visit the space sims again in Second Life this week but I found that the main ones I wanted to visit are no longer on the grid which is really sad news. I searched for the regions on the weekly New SL Sims in past week thread on the SLUniverse Forums and all three were listed there.

• Spaceport Alpha – been offline since mid January 2012
• Spaceport Bravo – been offline since mid Janaury 2012
• NASA CoLab – been offline since early February 2012

Today when I looked at the map it shows the remaining active space regions without the three Second Life space sims listed above. The teleports and SLurls failed straight away which is a real shame to be honest. To see these historical Second Life space locations disappear from Second Life completely is heart breaking.

• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport Alpha/47/82/23
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/42/75/27
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/NASA%20CoLab/244/110/23

The snapshot belows shows a map of the space regions back in July 2011.

Check out my blog post called Space exploration places in Second Life 2011.

The snapshot belows shows a map of the space regions back in July 2010. Since then various regions have been disappearing and it’s very alarming to see it so empty in the (above map).

There has been no explanation as to why these space SL sims have suddenly gone from the grid. If anyone knows why? Please feel free to comment. Thanks!

InWorldz reaches 50, 000 registered users milestone

InWorldz has now reached a big milestone hitting the 50, 000 total registered users mark. Congratulations to InWorldz and this is now another giant leap for InWorldz. This is really exciting and I believe there will be a 50k party to celebrate this amazing milestone.

50, 000 total users

1000 total users

InWorldz users milestones so far

• “The first 1, 000 took almost a year.. the second 1, 000 just a bit over a month..”
• 1, 000 members – 16th February 2010
• 2, 000 members – 14th May 2010 (growth chat)
• 5, 000 members - 20th June 2010
• 6, 000 members – 29th June 2010
• 7, 000 members - 4th July 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
• 100, 000 members – Early 2014

Continue to watch the growth via the InWorldz Login website.

SL economy 2012 will be about the same as it was in 2011

Snickers Snook created a interesting SL poll at the beginning of 2012 asking the SL community what they think the state of the SL economy will be like in 2012. The poll closed a few days ago and 66 residents voted altogether apparently.

Final poll results

• Better than 2011 – 20 votes (30%)
• Worse than 2011 – 18 votes (27%)
• About the same – 25 votes (37%)
• Don’t know – 3 votes (4%)

It’s interesting that most of the votes went towards “about the same” and not really towards “better than 2011″. I hope that the SL economy 2012 will be better than 2011 and things will pick up again. In the next few weeks the lab will release it’s Q4 SL economy results for 2011 which tell us how well Second Life performed in the final months of 2011.

• January 2012: Expected in next few weeks (Q4 2011)
• October 2011: The Second Life Economy in Q3 2011
• August 2011: The Second Life Economy in Q2 2011
• May 2011: Q1 2011 Linden Dollar Economy Metrics Up, Users and Usage Unchanged

 

CNN island will be closing in Second Life before 2011 ends

I have just heard that CNN island will be closing in Second Life before the end of the month (2011 ends). Apparently there will be a special farewell party at 2pm SLT at CNN island today (29th December 2011) in Second Life.

Janey Bracken posted a post called Farewell To CNN in Second Life about 19 hours ago which is really sad news to end 2011 on. Nicole ireport and Henry ireport the CNN producers (sl avatar names) will be going ahead with the closure of the island officially in a matter of days/weeks.

There is a free to join group called SL iReporters which was used for resident reporters who want to contribute to CNN SL iReport. There was special events and occasional announcements about CNN iReport in Second Life. Reqular meetings were hosted on the island by CNN staff where good discussions could take place about many topics virtually/real life. CNN inworld presence will be greatly missed by the SL community when it goes officially. The CNN SL submissions were amazing over the years and I enjoyed reading them.

Snapshots from CNN island today!

CNN report on the closure 

It was with a little sadness that I heard the news from CNN producers Nicole ireport and Henry ireport (their avatar names! but CNN producers in real life none the less), that CNN Island will be closing in Second Life. It has come as no big surprise to be honest, as the hectic politics of today’s real world leaves CNN people with little time to cover everything, let alone a fun thing like Second Life.

It’s been great, I owe both Nicole and Henry a lot, as I started to write seriously by using the CNN ireport pages back in 2008 when they started the SL project. Today at a meeting at CNN Island Nicole said “We set up shop here in 2008 because we wanted to see what it was like to participate in a real-time community, in a virtual world no less. We didn’t know what to expect. The prospect was a little scary, to be completely honest.”

“We’ve realized that there’s a whole culture in-world, and we met so many people and acquired amazing threads and dance moves. Our comfort level grew, and we really feel like we’ve come to know you. It’s been a few years now and we’re thoroughly appreciative of this community we’ve had a privilege to be a part of. We are all proud of what we accomplished here and excited about the future. Just wanted you to know that.”

She added “We wanted to let you know that we’ll never forget our meetings, amazing hair and of course the incredible figures on our avatars. (lol!) We wish we looked like this in real life. It’s truly been one of my favourite projects at CNN, and I think others will agree.” It’s been fun for us too Nicole and I think I can speak for a lot of other ireporters too!

Nicole and Henry told us that there will still be Second Life Assignments, so nothing has really changed except their visits in-world. There are still some of the finer points to work out, but CNN will let us know very soon what else is happening. There will be a farewell party on CNN Island on Thursday at 2pm SLT and it would be nice if as many of the SL ireporter group could come along and show Nicole and Henry our appreciation for all the time they shared with us in SL.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/CNN%20iReport%20Island/128/128/2

Farewell CNN in Second Life!

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!

SL user concurrency stays below 70, 000 during 2011

Looking at the Grid Survey SL user concurrency graphs at various times during 2011 it seems like the SL user concurrency has remained mostly below the 70, 000 mark. The median and mean average in 2011 seems to be around 47, 000 to 51, 000. 2011 has not been the strongest year for SL user concurrency but it’s going to be interesting to see if 2012 SL user concurrency gets any better or no.

Lets look at the numbers and graphs from the Grid Survey from 2009 to 2011.

2011 started high around the 73, 000 mark then it dropped monthly until mid August 2011 where the user concurrency started to pick up again steadily. The maximum daily concurrency this month seems to be around 62, 000 to 67, 000.

I think the numbers have dropped this year more than any other year due to bots, camping and other factors.  It’s hard to tell what will happen during December but hopefully more residents will be using SL during the christmas period into the new year 2012.

The minimum daily user concurrency in 2011 shows averaging around the 32, 000 mark compared with higher figures in first part of 2010 due to bots etc.

Check out this interesting Trends & Seasonality graph!

• What are your views on SL user concurrency during 2011 ?
• Any user concurrency predictions for 2012 ? 

Linden Helpers update FAQ

During November 2011 Linden Lab have been testing out a new Linden Helpers beta program to assist new residents get started with the basics of Second Life. The lab have created and updated the official Linden Helpers FAQ page this week which is worth reading. My first visit to Greeter Island was on the 11th of November 2011 and since then many new residents have been helped.

Important key questions about Linden Helpers

• Who are Linden Helpers? Linden Helpers are available for live inworld chat to help new Residents between 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. (PST)  Monday through Sunday.
• Are Linden Helpers replacing or ending Resident Help Network (RHN)? Not at all
• Can I volunteer to become a Linden Helper? Not at this time.  The Linden Helper program is currently in beta and is not accepting applications.

I have noticed there are new orientation boards around the center hub where new residents teleport in and there’s new orientation content in the surrounding greeter huts now.

Inside one of the Greeter huts

 

I hope in the future Linden Lab will allow applications from the SL community like the past SL mentor program.

Snapshot showing both Greeter Islands at 3:37pm SLT on 29th November 2011

Plurk, Twitter and Facebook most popular favourites for SL social networking 2011

After one week of SL residents voting Plurk, Twitter and Facebook are the leading the way for this year’s most popular favourite social networks SL poll. These are the most popular sites that SL residents hang out and socialize with each other. Still Plurk, Twitter and Facebook remains good places to find out the latest news etc from the Second Life community.

This year there were 211 votes in total and Plurk wins the number one spot with 60.85% (129 votes). Followed by Twitter in 2nd place with 9.43% (20 votes) and in third place Facebook with 7.08% (15 votes). Last year Plurk won by 65% (41 votes), followed by Twitter in 2nd place with 14% (9 votes) and in 3rd place came Avatars United with 10% (6 votes).

Here are the results of the favourite SL social network poll 2011:

 

(Click above to enlarge image)

SL Economy, Q1 Metrics 2011

BK Linden published Q1 2011 SL Economy Metrics on 6th May 2011.  Overall not that great in growth terms for the start of 2011. I see that there was no metrics on the Second Life Marketplace performance which is a shame. Many areas of the SL economy showed decline during Q4 and this year it seems to be flat again during Q1.

Rodvik Linden published Improvements to Usability including recent developments on the new resident experience, viewer basic avatars, login screen and return of the Resident Help Network. I was hoping to see growth in usage hours, update on SL concurrency and for the SL Marketplace. It’s going to be interesting to find out what the Q2 2011 SL Economy metrics will be. Hopefully by then things have picked up and not another set of flat sl metrics.

Here’s the highlights of  Q1 2011 SL Economy Metrics

Efforts to improve operating focus and cost structure have resulted in two consecutive quarters of strong cash flow and profitability with Q1 2011 the most successful in Linden Lab’s history.

In Q1 2011, measures of the size and strength of the Second Life Linden Dollar economy improved slightly while users, usage and world size were consistent with the last few quarters.

Positive 

• There has been a positive trend since the new registration experience was introduced on April 11.
• The value of the Linden dollar has continued to improve from Q4 2010 and is at its highest level in the last 6 quarters.
• The US dollar value of Linden dollars held by Residents of Second Life has increased for the third consecutive quarter.
• In Q1 2011, the LindeX Volume was at its highest level in the last 6 quarters.

Staying the same

• Average monthly repeat logins have been virtually unchanged over the previous 3 quarters.

Flat

• Similarly, user hours have remained consistent over the last 3 quarters.
• World size has also stayed within a 1% range over the last 3 quarters.