I was very disappointed to hear that Linden Lab will not be hosting a big birthday centralised party for SL9B this year. Instead the lab wants the Second Life community to host their own events to mark SL9B around the grid in June 2012. I have always enjoyed every year visiting the birthday events, seeing all the great builds and creativity all in one place. I guess it’s the end for Linden Lab events with the SL community which is not good at all and I say this because in the past few years I have noticed Linden Lab doesn’t host big events like they used to.
Events (including regions) axed by Linden Lab in recent years.
- Burning Life
- Winterfest
- Snowball fights
- Valentines
- Halloween
- Linden Prize (2011)
- SL Birthday (2012)
Second Life’s 9th Birthday is coming up in June! This year it’s all about you — the denizens of the grid, the sultans of Second Life and connoisseurs of creativity— and we want to highlight the many unique and innovative ways the community has made Second Life their own.
This year we will focus the spotlight on community events. No one throws a better event or party than the Second Life community! If you’re having an event to celebrate Second Life turning nine, we want to know about it!
Submit your event or party information to the Second Life Destination Guide by emailing editor@lindenlab.com with the subject line “SL9B Event.” Some events will likely be featured on Second Life social media, so keep an eye on Facebook, Google Plus, Tumblr, Plurk and Pinterest! If you take snapshots at any of the events, share them with us on Facebook for a chance to be chosen as the Pic of the Day.
Let’s get the party started!
There is mixed views on the SL Forums and SLUniverse Forums about this announcement on SL9B.
- SL9B via SL Forums
- The SL9B Fail via SL Forums
- SL9B via SLUniverse
SL Birthday Historical Links
- Second Life Birthday Celebrations
- Historical maps of SL birthdays
- SL Birthday statistics
- Past snapshots of the Second Life birthday cake
- Linden Lab CEO birthday keynote addresses and photos from the past
- SL Birthday themes from the past
I would like to see the SL community organise something like BURN2 for SL9B which would be interesting and I think is really worth doing this year. 4-6+ regions would be a good amount depending on if anyone wants to help fund (costings) the event like BURN2.
What are your views on SL9B ?
Daniel Voyager 
Add to your “events axed” list the “Linden Prize”, which was not an event of course, but was also an annual tradition every Summer. Axed without a word in 2011.
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Thanks Hera, added to the list.
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Looks like Relay for Life and all the related team events are the things to do this year.
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Seems to be that way with fewer LL events. 😦
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Another sign they want our cash and nothing else… time to move on?
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radar6969: I don’t think the lab cares much anymore.
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Look like LL want our cash and dont care about anything else… Maybe it’s time to move on?
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Sometimes I think it may be time to move on.
2012 seems to be the year the lab removes the good stuff from the grid. 😦
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I was dreading this when I got the notice in the SL birthday group. Them is silly buggers! I dare say! Maybe a grid wide party can be held to commemorate the community reaching a forced adolescence? Or is it more like we are being weened?
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I was dreading this news too after previous events during the last few years were axed forever by Linden Lab (list above).
Yeah that would be nice to have a grid wide party in good venues/places.
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I wouldn’t call it time to move on. But still, this is a disapointment. I had actually been thinking of getting a spot for SL Newser too, as SLN had for a couple seasons.
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Its a major change in Second Life and a big mistake to be honest with you. I was hoping SL9B and SL10 was going to be something big. It’s going to be interesting what will happen in June and who will support the birthday.
Blog/tv coverage for the birthday just won’t be the same now. 😦
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Problem with this approach is, the denizens are scattered all over the grid. If a hundred people build things, they are so scattered that nobody will see them. Having the birthday bash in one place at one time gives a single place to visit. it’s a special event that gives LL more exposure even with those outside the SL crowd, as blogs and reports flow out about what they saw at SL birthdays.
LL needs to think of SLxB as advertising. LL needs to think about keeping this event if none else in order to increase the numbers of new folks coming in. Heck, LL just needs to think. While I personally won’t go back to the party until LL changes back some of its disasterous decisions which make me less interested in SL overall (and certainly not in a partying mood), I don’t dispute that it’s a fantastic marketing mechanism for LL. And they are penny-wise but pound-foolish to shut it down. Because if they think all the rest of us are going to care enough to make stuff for the bday when LL doesn’t care enough to, then they are quite mistaken.
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I agree about about having one place to host the birthday celebrations and I think its worked alright over the years. There are still problems that could of been sorted better including region crossings/lag and restarts.
It’s a big mistake the lab decided to pull out this year. If they wanted to do it then why could they not wait until SL11B then say its now your event sort of thing.for the next 10 years etc.
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Wow.
I’d say whoever’s last out the door remember to turn out the lights;
But its already getting kinda dark in here as it is.
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I guess it is now in 2012. In 2011 there was hope but that hope is starting to go down hill.
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Remembering our Kids5B event: yes, the residents can organize better events than LL. Still this move is utterly stupid, LL giving up another powerful instrument of publicity and a chance to show their paying customers that they still care about them. For a while I thought LL was more and more run like from a high school kid out of his parent’s garage. Now I don’t think that anymore. It would be too insulting. For high school kids.
Sorry, have to stop typing. Have to run to the doctor. My neck hurts from all the disbelieving shaking of my head…
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I agree. Its a major loss.
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Move on, yes, but keep a toe in “The Old Country.” Or main build is now in OpenSim, but I think we’ll have a tour of the SL version of “The Fall of the House of Usher” in June…if the university hosting it has not left SL at that point XD
Agreed–LL is focusing on projects that bring in cash without supporting the community. But one wonders if they have any choice, with land mass shrinking and more and more turmoil about SL’s outrageous tiers.
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I want to know what products LL are working on thats more important than SL.
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@Joe: they do have a choice. Or actually, they don’t. If your company is in trouble with shrinking income and unhappy customers, you can’t boost the income by reducing more and more nice little things. To make money, you have to put in money. LL is still concentrating on the symptoms instead of the reasons for the decline in land mass and customers.
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I don’t like this move and others would say this too.
Removing/axing things that the SL community loves is just not right at all. There must be other ways around the issues.
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I’m really disappointed that Linden Lab are no longer hosting the Second Life birthday event and the SL community feels sad about this decision overall.
I’m sure for the SL9B week in June 2012 the SL community will do something special to celebrate 9 years. It would be nice to see around 4-10 regions if possible that is SL community driven for SL9B. I know BURN2 works really well every year in Second Life which is community supported.
Last year I decided to gather stats I could about all SL birthdays because its good to have a historical record of it. If anyone knows any stats then please contact me so I can add it to this blog post..
https://danielvoyager.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/second-life-birthday-statistics-so-far/
Here are all the themes from all SL birthdays since SL1B…http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Second_Life_Birthday
SL1B – Second Life First Year Anniversary Gala
SL2B – Giant museum displaying various large builds, pictures of SL over time
SL3B – Hooray for diversity and Looking towards the future
SL4B – “era” of SL
SL5B – SL Culture
SL6B – The Future of Virtual Worlds
SL7B – Unexpected Collaborations
SL8B – Magic of Second Life
Check out my snapshots of SL birthdays…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielvoyager/collections/72157626959149450/
SL9B & SL10B perhaps we could come up some themes and ideas/plans?
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And LL continues to build walls between themselves and the residents of SL. Would it really have been that much of a distraction and cost for them to participate in this?
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It isn’t just that Linden is pulling out of in-world events…that could be just a matter of “You’re grown up now and can manage on your own”. What I’m seeing on the maintenance log is an increasing number of “unscheduled maintenance” events; ie: Breakdowns. I think Linden is trying to maximize profits by minimizing the upkeep costs, and in a Virtual world that is an invitation to disaster. I hope I’m wrong, but IMHO Linden Labs seems to be cutting corners right and left for no apparent reason.
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@Kyllein F: It seems to heading that way with events no longer supported by the lab.
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@Crim: I know, that’s a real shame. They can’t afford it anymore so they leave it up to residents to do it.
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