Virtual Verse One Still Currently Unavailable

Since the beginning of February 2023 Virtual Verse One formerly known as SLuniverse.com has been offline. If you try to visit the website it redirects to cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi.

The message says “This page is currently unavailable” then below that it says “If you are the webmaster for this site, please contacr your hosting provider’s support team for assistance”. Snapzilla (SL Pics) is not working either.

Back in early January 2023 Cristiano Midnight was recovering from a serious medical condition. The site came back online for a while and since the start of February 2023 it’s been not available again. Virtual Verse One Forums was used by alot of residents from the Second Life community featuring many topics to do with Second Life and the metaverse.

VirtualVerse.One (formerly SLUniverse) has an active Discord server here: https://discord.gg/0hljC7t3rCEdFMCA

I think many are hoping now that Cristiano is still in good health and that he will make a full recovery soon. When the time is right I’m sure Virtual Verse One will come back online again.

I hope Cristiano is okay and gets well soon.

Virtual Verse One Offline

I will post more updates soon on my blog if I hear anything newer.

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SL Living Expo 2023 Opens 3rd March In Second Life

Visit the new upcoming 2023 SL Living Expo Relay For Life mega event which officially opens to the public on Friday 3rd March through until Sunday 12th March 2023. This event will be replacing the Home and Garden Expo apparently.

There is loads to look forward to including a art walk, decorating contest, music & performances, fun and games along with a vehicle show. Lindens will be at the SL Living Expo with some new special exciting events including bowling with the Lindens, dinner with the Lindens, Linden Auction Items and much more.

It’s not known if we will hear more about the Premium Plus Linden Homes at the SL Living Expo but it would be nice to hear the ETA on them. During the concierge user group meeting last week one of the Lindens mentioned that Linden Lab is actively working on the 2048 Linden Homes and they have some neat features. Guess the Moles/Lindens are sorting out some bugs/technical issues.

SL Living Expo is one of the Mega Events of Relay For Life of Second Life, which is part of the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life fundraising.  The SL Living Expo strives to bring together how we live, work and play in Second Life while raising awareness and funds for the American Cancer Society. 

Spread the word about the new SL Living Expo starting this weekend. Yay.

Linden Lab Update On Bonniebots

On Friday 3rd February Linden Lab posted a statement on the situation with Bonniebots on a number of threads on the Second Life Forums. Linden Lab will be making adjustments and changes very soon to address the issues.

Linden Lab have locked and shut down a number of forum threads relating to Bonniebots.

Here is the full statement by the lab below…

We know there has been quite a bit of discussion about Scripted Agents/NPCs lately. Linden Lab is committed to continuing its excellent track record of keeping your personally identifiable information safe and secure. We understand that there is a certain amount of information a “bot” service has been collecting and displaying on their third party website that is causing unease in our community, and we’re working on the best way to address these concerns.

Linden Lab is having conversations with the parties involved, however this should not be taken as an endorsement of any sort. We have spoken several times in an attempt to get a full picture of the situation. These discussions have been mutually beneficial, and will help us as we look to update our policy on Scripted Agent/NPC operation in Second Life.

We recognize the need for improvements in specific areas, so in the near future we will be making adjustments to policies where needed. We have seen many requests from the community with a wide array of suggestions, and we appreciate all earnest and civil engagement. Internal discussions will continue beyond the Scripted Agent/NPC Policy, and any programmatic changes will be communicated as those roll out.

Thank you to everyone who engaged in this topic and added your voice. While we have had to shut down several discussions that became unproductive, we have welcomed feedback through support contacts and have been using this feedback to inform our decision-making. We are listening, and are working to make sure that Second Life is a welcoming and engaging world for all our Residents (and their automata).

What do you think about Bonniebots ? Feel free to comment below.

Second Life Regions Report 2021 To 2023

Good news to start 2023 of with is that Second Life has been positively been growing since 2021. During the past few years Private Estates have increased by at least one thousand regions and Linden Owned regions have increased by at least 500 regions.

Hopefully region growth will continue though 2023 and I will be blogging any major changes during the yeah ahead. Stay tuned for those updates in (March, June, September and December 2023) on my blog.

Below are the region counts from 2021, 2022 and now 2023. More growth in 2022 it appears and hopefully there will be growth in 2023/2024. It’s not known if 2023 will any easier than 2022 was with the cost of living going up globally (risk of another recession). We will have to wait and see what happens.

Total Regions

• 3rd January 2021: 25, 555
• 2nd January 2022: 27, 231
• 1st January 2023: 27, 659 – (1812.66 KM)

Private Estates

• 3rd January 2021: 17, 024
• 2nd January 2022: 18, 332
• 1st January 2023: 18, 370

Linden Owned

• 3rd January 2021: 8, 531
• 2nd January 2022: 8, 909
• 1st January 2023: 9, 289

All data supplie via the Second Life grid survey.

New Grid Statistics 2023

Second Life Main Grid size as of 1 Jan 2023

Ownership	Total	General	Moderate	Adult	Offline	Total Area (km�)
Total	27659	2580	17254	7821	4	1812.66
Linden Owned	9289	1583	7299	407	0	608.76
Private Estates	18370	997	9955	7414	4	1203.90

I will be blogging about Second Life user concurrency levels from 2022 shortly.

New Last Names For The Winter Holiday Season

On 1st December Linden Lab officially announced another batch of new Last Names which are winter themed and are available for a limited time. As mentioned in the blog post these new winter themed last names may return next year for the 2023 winter season. I think these new winter themed last names suit the winter season very well and it comes on time with Christmas just weeks away now.

New Last Names:

• Tinseltail
• Elf
• Mistletoe
• Gingerbread
• Noelle
• Claus
• Blitzen

Below is a full list of current last names that are available:

Have suggestions ?

Submit your Last Names here

Linden Lab Announces New Second Life Membership Plan

On 17th November Linden Lab announced a new Second Life membership plan named “Plus” for $5.99/month (annual billing $65.99 USD per year). There are benefits to the new “Plus” membership over the free Basic membership including more increased groups of 50, weekly L$ stipend of L$150, ability to own mainland with 512m of land allowance and a wider selection of technical ticket types via customer support for non-account/billing issues.

European residents will no longer need to pay VAT charges on any of the membership plans which is good news. The lab have now reduced the price of owning land in Second Life which will help many residents during these tough RL times. The feedback since the announcement has been mixed again with many saying they like the new option and some saying it’s confusing.

Here are the benefits of all of the membership plans below. There are more benefits with the Premium and Premium Plus options (see below).

Here is the new land pricing table below.

What do you think about the reduced land pricing and new Plus membership option ?

Sign Up For The Second Life Weekly Email Newsletter

On Wednesday 16th November Linden Lab announced news about the Second Life Weekly Newsletter for the latest Second Life breaking news, events, videos and exclusive virtual experiences delivered directly to your email inbox. It takes only a few seconds or so to subscribe. Once signed up you will see the “Success! You’ve been added to the audience” message.

It’s a good way to keep informed on what’s going on from the lab. There are many Second Life bloggers that cover the news and I have listed some in my blogroll on the right hand side.

Here is the full blog announcement about the weekly email newsletters.

Are you looking for a way to stay informed about all the latest destinations and events happening on the grid? Do you want Second Life breaking news delivered directly to your inbox? Signup for our Second Life Weekly Email Newsletter! 

For a while now we’ve been sending a weekly email to a small group of our most active Residents and the clicks show that many of you enjoy receiving these exclusive updates directly in your inbox. If you have not been receiving these weekly emails from us, now is your chance to sign up for them! You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of any email.

Our newsletters usually include some of our latest videos of the week along with links to different events or destinations and an image from one of our Residents that is selected as the Fresh Look of the week!

For a chance to have your Destination featured, submit it to the Second Life Destination Guide.

For a chance to be featured in Fresh Looks, submit your image to the Official Second Life Flickr Group! Did you know we just hit ONE MILLION IMAGES AND VIDEOS in the group? All submitted by our wonderfully creative Residents!

Email isn’t the only way you can stay on top of all of our latest news. You can also follow us on various social networks along with keeping an eye on our community blogs.

Will you be signing up for the weekly newsletter ?

SL Christmas Expo 2022 Is Fast Approaching

The 12th annual Second Life Christmas Expo for 2022 will open to the public next week on Friday 2nd December through until Sunday 11th December 2022. The SL Christmas Expo 2022 theme is The Magic of Holiday Stories.

The SL Christmas Expo regions have arrived on the grid and now work is underway to get them ready for the big grand opening next week. The SL Christmas Expo is spread across 12 regions (Chapters – different holiday story) featuring more than 150 shops and more.

There will be live entertainment, live performances, special hunts, decoration competitions, photos with Santa and much more. The return of Linden Lights of Hope region showcasing Linden Homes from Linden Lab. There could new details announced about the next Linden Home theme during the expo.

SL Christmas Expo 2022 Regions

Please spread the word about next week’s SL Christmas Expo 2022.

Linden Lab Updates The Terms And Conditions

On Tuesday 25th October LInden Lab officially announced some new updates to the Second Life Terms and Conditions via the Second Life official blog.

Its worth reading through the terms and conditions page if your not familiar with it and feel free share it with others.

Whats New ?

1. “We clarified certain functions associated with the LindeX as well as the terms applicable to orders placed on the LindeX”.
2. “We added a section describing the terms applicable to your use of Stored Value Accounts, including your relationship with Tilia LLC”. 

The next update will take place on 31st October 2022. If you decline the changes then you have to close your Second Life account down.

Here is the full blog post with the new changes below.

From time to time, we make changes to Second Life’s Terms and Conditions in order to improve the documents, update and/or clarify policies, and keep the Terms current – all of which assist in governing your relationship with Linden Lab. Our next update will take place automatically on October 31, 2022.

Here’s what’s new in this update:

We clarified certain functions associated with the LindeX as well as the terms applicable to orders placed on the LindeX.

We added a section describing the terms applicable to your use of Stored Value Accounts, including your relationship with Tilia LLC. 

By continuing to use our services after the changes take effect, you agree to be bound by those changes. No further action is needed from you to accept such changes. However, if you would prefer to decline them, then you will need to close your Second Life account prior to October 31, 2022.

Here is the Second Life Terms and Conditions page.

Lab Gab With Patch Linden and Grumpity Linden

On Friday 21st October 2022 there was a special live episode of Lab Gab featuring Patch Linden and Grumpity Linden. There was a lot of topics mentioned during the live session and some announcements too.

I think probably the biggest thing to take away is the Premium Plus will be able to hold a Homestead regions ($109 a month tier for a Homestead) without having the need to pay for a Full region. Premium Plus subscribers in Europe will soon see the removal of VAT from all subscription options (TBC).

There was a update on Linden Homes including the first premium plus selection of Linden Homes will be the Ranch theme – launching end of 2022 / early 2023 release (more themes are coming soon). There are new plans to get new floor plans for existing Linden Home designs before the end of 2022.

The lab are working on mobile plans and apparently there might be some teasing of this option in early 2023. Speedlight is still a third party viewer and is not part of the lab’s mobile development. The avatar expressiveness project is still in the early phases of development (more in 2023). The lab will be rolling out some big improvements to a first-time avatar customisation process soon. New starter mesh avatars may be released in the next few months or so.

There was more projects and updates mentioned. If you missed the live episode you can catch up below in two parts.

Part 1

Part 2