Tag: Last Names

The lab are still working on Last Names

Posted on by Daniel Voyager

June 2019 Update

On 25th June at the SL16B Meet the Lindens event Oz Linden talked about Last Names in Second Life. The latest news is that the lab are still working on it by knocking it down one system at a time. Oz Linden did not mention any estimated time frames on it. Oz said “we are getting there” and “making progress”. It will be done in the future.

The lab are still moving forward with the idea but it is disappointing to hear it may take much longer to roll out now.  April Linden said this is a very hard problem to solve. I do believe it may be apart of the new super premium package coming out later this year.

Why is it taking so long ?

It’s because all of the Second Life services were built to assume last names would never change. All of these have to be found on the system and altered in the right way = one by one for changing last names to work correctly.

Brief summary…

  • When Last Names finally rolls out there will be the ability to pick from a list of names which will change from time to time
  • The lab will not be reusing previous last names like before
  • The lab are still working out if there should be costs involved (possible cost L$25-L$50 per change) and if there should be any limits for changing it often
  • Apparently new residents will continue to get the default “Resident” as their last name
  • If a friend changes their name the lab may include notifications for this

Full Video

At 28 minutes & 20 seconds the discussion starts on Last Names.

Other interesting updates from the session..

Bakes on Mesh & EEP

  • The lab are still working on Bakes on Mesh and it should make life more simpler
  • Firestorm bringing out EEP version very soon
  • New environment effects and new settings
  • There has been work on the backwards compatibility side

Web Based Viewer

  • A web based viewer for Second Life is possible
  • The move to the cloud is making progress
  • The new Cloud servers are way more faster
  • The 360 viewer is coming back
  • No plans for large region sizes in the cloud

Mobile Viewer Development

  • Early alpha version coming soon
  • Basic functions will include logging in and chatting in first version
  • Don’t expect it to be a full viewer for some time

There was a final question at the end on how many Lindens there are at Linden Lab?. Oz, April and Patch did not answer this question. I would imagine at least 300 – could be less or more than this number.

Ebbe Altberg who is the CEO of Linden Lab will be live at SL16B Auditorium today from 2pm SLT. I’m sure we will hear more about whats coming soon for Second Life and all the latest developments. There will be mentions of Sansar and much more.

Arrive early and there will be live stream of this event via YouTube.

Don’t miss it! 🙂

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The return of Last Names – April 2019 Update

Posted on by Daniel Voyager

Daniel Voyager @danielvoyager

Poll Results

Last week I ran a poll for 24 hours on Twitter asking everyone if they would like to see Last Names back on the Second Life sign up page. The poll received 57 votes and 93% say YES they want to see Last Names return again.

I think there is high demand out there from the Second Life community and most have been waiting for ages for this to happen however progress has been slow. As many know already when new residents that join Second Life today they end up having “Resident” after the first name and not a second name from a drop down menu like before.

April 2019 Update

Last Names was stopped around 8 years ago!

The lab promised this was going to happen last year at number 7 in the list via the fifteen reasons to celebrate Second Life 15th birthday blog post. Most of the list as of today has either been completed or near completion now.

7. The return of Last Names – You’ve asked for it (a lot!), so we will provide a way to customize your last name in Second Life! More details will be available later this year.

The last update I heard was back in September 2018 during a town hall gathering when Ebbe Altberg said that the return of last names to Second Life was still being implemented and work may not be completed before the end of 2018. It’s now April 2019 and still no announcements as such.

On 14th April 2019 I posted a photo of the new Second Life signup page via Twitter which is now live. Ebbe Altberg tweeted on 15th April saying “We definitely have higher priorities right now” so I’m thinking from this that Last Names probably won’t happen until 2020 or even later.

There should be a option to change the name after signing up to Second Life which could be a possible solution with a small fee. It’s probably going to work better as a premium benefit.

Blog Poll

Second Life Last Names Returning Late 2018

Posted on by Daniel Voyager

This week Linden Lab announced fifteen reasons to celebrate Second Life 15th birthday which takes place in mid June 2018. On the list there was mention about the return of last names which is expected to go live in late 2018. Before then there are many things that have to be fixed on the back-end before last names can return again.

Latest Updates

  • Apparently the plan is to allow people to change their first and last name whenever they want to. Users will be able to select their last name from a pre-set list of available names like the old system before
  • Unicode will not be supported when entering a first name
  • Once a name is used it cannot ever be reused again
  • The first and last name will not replace Display Names
  • The pre-set list with last names will regularly be changed to keep the fresh and the lab are thinking about last name suggestions from the Second Life community later this year.
  • There will be a cost to change your name if you wish to do that. The fee costs have not been confirmed yet

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