This week the lab have added five new SSPE regions on the east coast of the Chalet sub continent in Second Life. The new regions are SSPE2218, SSPE2219, SSPE2220, SSPE2221 and SSPE2222. Currently these new regions are closed for public access while the Moles add new Chalet Linden homes and new Houseboats down the east coast.
Chalet new east coast development happening now
Cthulhu is being landscaped and is being prepared over the days ahead. The Moles are working on a number of SSPE regions at the moment in the log homes, chalets and fantasy homes sub continents. I think work could be finished before the end of 2021 with new Linden Home themes launching during 2022.
Cthulhu being worked on nowPreview of SSPE2218 and beyond
In October 2021 I will blog again on this new SSPE area and any newer developments going on. Stay tuned for that.
Here are the latest Second Life grid statistics as of Sunday 26th September 2021 via the Second Life Grid Survey. Since early July 2021 Second Life is still showing strong positive growth in new Private Estates and new Linden Owned regions. This is very good news and hopefully this positive upward trend will continue for many more months to come.
It’s gone from 24, 147 total main grid regions on 20th January 2020 to 27, 220 on 26th September 2021. Wow! 🙂
Most of the recent region growth has come from the new Fantasy sub continent which opened in early August 2021 where hundreds of new regions were added on the grid. It’s expected hundreds of more Linden home regions (new themes) will be added within the next 12 months or so.
If the total main grid regions count surpasses 28, 000 then it would be like 2012/2013 levels again which would be great to see. If it reaches 29, 000 or 30, 000 then that would be amazing.
September 2021 Region Stats
Ownership
Total
General
Moderate
Adult
Offline
Total Area (km)
Total
27220
2621
16909
7682
8
1783.89
Linden Owned
8867
1576
6882
408
1
581.11
Private Estates
18353
1045
10027
7274
7
1202.78
As of 26th September 2021
Second Life Grid Statistics on 4th July 2021
Total: 26, 946 – (up from 26, 504 on 11th April 2021)
Private Estates: 18, 316 – (up from 17, 864 on 11th April 2021)
Linden Owned: 8, 630 – (down from 8, 640 on 11th April 2021)
Total Area (KM): 1765.93 – (up from 1736.97 on 11th April 2021)
My next Second Life Grid Statistics blog post will be published in late October 2021.
The Mirror Pond region over at the new Fantasy sub continent in Second Life is being worked on by the Moles. In early August 2021 the Mirror Pond region was empty and now there are new fantasy Linden homes surrounding a big pond in the center. The Moles are still working in the area and may take some to finish. In recent weeks work is still being carried out across the Bellisseria continent and now newer developments are happening. Yay.
3 out of 5 of the blank regions last month the Moles have added new Fantasy Linden homes, small isles, a new bridge and more. It’s worth having a look at the latest new developments.
Fantasy Sub Continent Status Check
Mirror Pond – Moles working on new developments – As of 27th September
Fairstone Quarry – New Linden Homes and new bridge – As of 27th September
Toad Pool – New Linden Homes and small little isles – As of 27th September
The Cthulhu region now has new home place markers for new Chalet Linden homes to be added in the days ahead. New houseboat markers have been added near the water on the east side.
SSP Development Area
No major SSP changes to report this month. There have been active Mole activity in many regions here during the last few months or so.
SSP Development Area – 27th September 2021
Spread the word and keep a look out for new developments.
The monthly Governance User Group meetings have now ended according to Tommy Linden. The Governance user group has been removed from the User Groups wiki page today and on the Second Life Public Calendar. Tommy Linden has said this on the Second Life Forums today “at this time there is no scheduled user groups for Governance, the majority of questions asked at the user group meetings are questions that we are just no going to be able to answer“.
Tommy goes on to mention “information regarding action taken, DMCA, or other Resident specific information that we will not discuss due to privacy policy, or it being outside the scope of the Governance team“.
The monthly Governance meetings were useful really for those that wanted to discuss issues around in-world abuse, abuse reports, forum reports, marketplace reports etc. It’s a shame they are no longer happening.
Tommy Linden and the Governance team are exploring other better options to share updates etc. It looks unlikely Governance user group meetings inworld will return anytime soon.
On Wednesday 22nd September Linden Lab announced an additional way for Second Life residents to protect their accounts. The Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is now available to all residents and it provides an extra level of security.
MFA is an industry standard and there is now the option to opt-in by visiting the MFA status page.
The blog post reads this….
Today we’re introducing an additional way for you to protect your account!
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is now available to all residents on their accounts. MFA is an additional step to prove your identity before gaining access to sensitive information or actions on your account. It provides an extra layer of security to supplement your username and password. Widely adopted by many products, MFA is an industry standard.
How does it work? You can learn more about MFA, find out what you’ll need to do, and activate it in the knowledge base article!
You will need to take action in order to activate MFA. It is entirely opt-in. Go to accounts.secondlife.com/mfa/status and get started!
Note: MFA adds protection only to your accounts.secondlife.com login. MFA does not affect how you log in to the SL Viewer. If you activate MFA, you should continue to change your password regularly and choose strong passwords.
In future releases we plan to extend MFA’s protections to additional pages on secondlife.com, the marketplace, and the viewer. We are also exploring an email-based implementation.
There is a useful FAQ on the MFA Settings page worth reading through.
MFA Settings
What is MFA? Authentication is how Second Life knows it’s you attempting to log in, by verifying the username and password you provide. When authentication involves only a username and password, it is known as single-factor authentication. MFA adds another layer of security. MFA is not unique to Second Life. It is used by many products.
Why might I want to use it? Activating MFA provides additional protection against unauthorized action on your account, such as changing your payment method, changing your password, or performing L$ transactions.
How does it work? MFA requires an authenticator app on your mobile device which generates secret codes (called “tokens”). When you log in, Second Life connects to the authenticator app to make sure the token you provide matches the one generated by the authenticator app. MFA adds protection only to your secondlife.com login. MFA does not affect how you log in to the SL Viewer (desktop app). Even if you activate MFA on your account, you should continue to change your password regularly and choose strong passwords. MFA is opt-in. You are not required to use it. You can turn off MFA at any time.
How do I set up MFA on my secondlife.com account? To turn on MFA you will need to: Install an authenticator app on your mobile device. We do not supply this app or directly support any third party app, but we have tested Google Authenticator with this feature. From your mobile device, connect the authenticator app to Second Life. On secondlife.com, enter tokens that the authenticator generates.
We will take you through these steps in more detail when you set up MFA.
How will MFA change how I use Second Life? After you turn on MFA, accessing secondlife.com will be a little different. Some pages may prompt you for a token in order to continue. Your browser will remember that you have been authenticated, but you will periodically be asked for a new token. If you use a new browser to access secondlife.com or you clear secondlife.com cookies, or if it’s simply been a while since you entered a token, you will be asked for a new token. You will never use the same token twice, so there is no need to remember it, write it down, or keep it secret.
If anyone has any problems then Second Life Support is the best way of resolving it before and after you turn on MFA.
In the near future Linden Lab plan on extending MFA’s protections to additional pages on secondlife.com, the viewer and the marketplace etc. Email based implementation is in the works apparently.
This is a special tribute post for remembering 9/11 that happened 20 years ago today. 2,997 lives were lost on Tuesday 11th September 2001 and they will never be forgotten. Thousands of people are still suffering today from the toxic dust. Many already have long term health problems with many diagnosed with cancer etc. RIP to all that have sadly passed away from dust over the past 20 years.
There will be many 20th anniversary 9/11 events happening today in Second Life. Time to come together and remember.
I was school in the UK when I first heard about the terrorist attacks and one of the teachers was told about what was unfolding live in New York. A tv on wheels came into the classroom where everyone was in shock then shortly afterwards the school day ended. I got back home that afternoon and turned on the tv to continue watching the live news coverage. It was really sad and it must of been terrible for those people effected on 9/11.
There was no social media back then on 9/11 and must were using dial-up moderns to stay connected. Most watched the news channels through their tv sets. Smart phones were not around so the best way to find out about everything was using the telephone/telephone boxes. Although evil acts of terror took the lives of thousands America stood tall shoulder-to-shoulder and the spirit of the nation prevailed since the attacks.
Remembering those killed on 9/11 from Ground Zero
President Biden will be on hand for part of the ceremony at the World Trade Center site later on today
On Tuesday 7th September Linden Lab announced details about the 360 Snapshot Tool which allows for the capture of 360-degree snapshots of inworld locations in Second Life in all three dimensions. This new feature allows you to see everything above and below your avatar which is really cool. The 360 snapshot can be clicked on and dragged around with. The snapshots can then be saved on the users local computer and then viewed or shared on social media.
The Second Life Project 360 Capture viewer is available to download which includes the release notes for reference. Once downloaded and installed go to World > 360 snapshot to use the 360 Snapshot Tool.
You can now take a 360-degree snapshot of a location in Second Life. Better than a simple panoramic image, the 360 snapshot covers 360 degrees in all three dimensions, allowing you to see everything both above and below your avatar as well, as though the image is projected on the inside of a sphere. Technically speaking, the snapshot is an equirectangular image projection. Better than a static image, the 360 snapshot can be clicked and dragged so you can move your ‘camera’ anywhere in the snapshot, at any angle, as if you are inside it.
Corky Linden will be hosting Skill Gaming User Group meetings starting Tuesday 14th September 2021 then every 2nd Tuesday after that. These Skill Gaming User Group meetings will be 11am to 12pm SLT over at Gaming Island.
The focus will be about the Skill Gaming Program mainly and how to be part of the SLSG Program. This is a good opportunity to ask questions about the processes, known issues or concerns.
User group meetings are hosted by a handful of Lindens covering different areas of Second Life from content creation, land, web, server, open development and more.
The Firestorm Project reached it’s 11th anniversary on 3rd September 2021 which is another big milestone. The Firestorm viewer is one of the most popular and most used third party viewers out there today. I personally use the Firestorm viewer for all things Second Life and sometimes I log into OpenSim grids. I think the Firestorm team have done a great job on maintaining and improving the Firestorm viewer with new updates through the years.
The Firestorm team have announced that there will be a big party happening at 11am on Sunday 26th September 2021. There will be epic gifts (some limited collectors items) from content creators from across the grid. More details will be announced soon on the Firestorm Viewer website.
Here are some happy memories from the past…
Firestorm Beta 2 – July 2011Firestorm support region – 2012Firestorm third anniversary – September 2013Firestorm 5th anniversary – September 2015Christmas Forest – December 2018
Daniel Voyager 