Private Estate Losses Are Slowing Down

The good news is that net private estate losses in Second Life are showing a quite significant slow down. The bad news is that the losses are still too high, as is the damn tier.

As it’s Monday and I’m lazy we’ll go back in time to December 9th 2012. Insert funny whirly time travel music now. On December 9th 2012 Tyche “Statto” Shepherd reported:

A net loss of 33 regions this week with Private Estates down by 29 and Linden Owned by 4

Total number of Main Grid regions is now 28254 ( 21168 private estates & 7086 Linden owned)
29 new regions were added and 15 returned to the grid, with 78 regions removed (11 were renamed and 2 came and went since last report)

There were no significant Estate changes detected in what was a very quite week. The total net loss in private estates since January 1st this year is now 2689 , a decline of 11.3%

Now fast forward to December 1st 2013 when Tyche reports:

A net drop of 16 regions this week with Private estates down by 17 and Linden Owned up by 1

Total number of Main Grid regions is now 26403 ( 19424 private estates & 6979 Linden owned)
32 new regions were added and 8 returned to the grid, with 55 regions removed (14 were renamed and 1 came and went since last report)

Little changes in yet another quiet week , YTD private estate losses now 1568 (7.5%).

The point Tyche makes about another quiet week is interesting because recent net losses for private estates have been 17, 8, 13 and 30 whereas around this time last year those losses were 56, 25, 56 and 23.

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More News On The Blackened Mirror Season 2

Blackened Mirror poster should be here
The Blackened Mirror Poster

Season 2 of The Blackened Mirror draws closer. This Second Life based machinima drama will soon be coming to a website or maybe even a sim near you soon. The new season launches on Sunday December 1st and features names from Second Life as well as people who have worked on the stage, TV, film and radio.

From Second Life we have the likes of Saffia Widdershins of prim perfect fame. Saffia is the executive producer and director. Also from Second Life is the assistant director in the shape and form of Honour Macmillan …… wait wait wait, when did this happen? Nobody told me Honour was assistant director! Damn there’s an interview waiting to happen! Honour is also an excellent photographer and wordsmith as she knows there’s a U in Honour.

From the world of Film and TV there are quite a few actually, amongst them are; Scott Simpson (Second Life’s Zander Greene), who has appeared in over a dozen film and TV appearances as well as being a voice actor and a massive star in terms of Second Life’s Relay For Life effort. Then there’s Christy Grantham who has been in the acting game for over 25 years. Gameela Wright who has been involved in acting for over 15 years. Then there’s voice actor Juliet Cesario who has voice acting credits for Sesame Street amongst other projects.

Then there’s Peter Jurasik who played Sid the snitch in Hill Street Blues (Editor, mention the other role!) oh ok oh yes he played Londo Mollari in Babylon 5.

There are more people involved whom I haven’t mentioned, very interesting team involved in this.

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The Drax Files Episode 14 – Rose Borchovski

The Inevitability Of Fate

I suppose it was inevitable really that The Drax Files would change its signature theme tune one day, that’s the inevitability of fate. Which brings us nicely on to this latest episode of The Drax Files. Episode 14 features Rose Borchovski. All the images I post in this post … really don’t like the way that sounds (no time to change it EDITOR), anyway all of the images in this post are from Rose Borchovski’s art installation entitled “The Inevitability of Fate”.

The installation can be found at Two Fish, Cariacou in Second Life

SLURL: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cariacou/127/27/1026

Now back to the post! This week’s Drax Files is a visually stunning affair where Drax strolls through Rose’s world of art as if he’s some sort of trouble maker, you keep waiting for something to break, but it never does. This is quite an immersive episode, I could watch this with the sound turned down. However as sound is an important part of Rose’s work, I wouldn’t encourage you to do that if you visit her inworld installations. Also if you turn the sound down on the video, you won’t hear it … hmm I haven’t thought this through very well!

Changing Statue

However the real story in this week’s episode is Rose and her work. Additionally how Second Life is used to bring her work to life inside and outside of Second Life. Rose is also quite the storyteller, and as I’ve said previously, I’m a big fan of storytelling, in all its forms.

This episode kicks off with Rose talking about her creation of Susa Bubble, the girl who went to bed single and woke up double. Susa Bubble sprang to life because Rose wanted to write a story for her daughter, who at the time was very sick. The story itself is not all pink fluff, it’s rather dark in parts and demonstrates good and bad, it’s closer to a Grimm’s fairytale in many ways than a happy children’s tale.

Ballooning Pig

However one big theme from this week’s episode is the power of a virtual world such as Second Life to add an extra dimension to the artistic experience. The sounds, noise, 3D models and immersion within the Second Life art installation add extra richness to the exhibit, it’s powerful stuff.

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The Blackened Mirror Season 2 Starts Sunday December 1st

Noir, 1930’s detective thriller, sci-fi story, Lovecraft inspired, Steampunk laden is how some critics described season one of The Blackened Mirror. Some claim that some critics mean me but I can’t comment on that! However, season 2 will begin rolling out on Sunday December 1st.

Picking up where season one left off, which was on a cliffhanger, the new season will reunite the viewer with familiar characters as well as have more plot twists than a twisty turny thing.

Now if you’re not familiar with The Blackened Mirror, I’ll provide some links:

Website: http://www.theblackenedmirror.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/theblackenedmirror

The website has some fun ideas on it and is currently running a poll to see where you’d like to travel with some of the main characters.

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Questions About New Tax Requirements For Second Life Garners New Information

When Linden Lab recently blogged about new tax requirements people still had several questions regarding many matters relating to those questions. Chief amongst those questions was what exactly a transaction is.

Over at SLUniverse Desmond Shang has posted some details from a response he received from Linden Lab:

Thank you for contacting us with your concerns. As mentioned in the blog post Required Tax Documentation – Second Life, the reporting criteria for 1099-K is 200+ transactions AND $20,000+ in a calendar year.

Transactions are currently defined as sell orders placed on the LindeX and applies per person not per avatar. How that order is filled does not currently impact the transaction count. For example, if you place a sell order for L$5,000 and that order is matched with three different residents while being filled, it counts as one transaction.

Separately, IRS criteria on withholding taxes is only on the transaction count itself; withholding is only required if we do not have a valid W-9 or W-8BEN on file.

So that clears up what a transaction is

Continue reading “Questions About New Tax Requirements For Second Life Garners New Information”

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