Second Life – Page 81

March 16, 2015

A Cautionary Tale Of Why Virtual World Income Is Very Much Taxable

Linden Lab have been asking certain residents to supply tax and account information for over a year now. These requests have caused confusion and annoyance for Second Life residents who were not familiar with such requirements.

I should point out here that there are different triggers for tax and account information requests, whereas there does appear to be a lot of overlap, they are not both solely for tax reasons. The blog post I’ve linked to above and the links there provide extra information and it’s information that Second Life and virtual world business owners beyond Second Life should pay attention to.

Another issue with Second Life, virtual worlds and many online money earning opportunities is that people at times seem to think their income is outside of taxation, it’s not. Although obviously your local laws will take precedence, taxation is an area you should pay attention to.

As an example I’m going to highlight a case, albeit at the extreme end of the spectrum. The Wall Street Journal reports : How Cheating on Your Taxes Can Lead to Prison. This is a tale of woe that involves a US citizen opening a Swiss bank account and not declaring he had over $10,000 in said bank account, which is apparently a legal requirement in the USA.

However later on he was advised by a lawyer to declare his past income, in what the linked article describes as “Quiet disclosure“. However he failed to declare his income from Second Life, which between 2007 and 2013 was estimated at over $140,000. This has proven to be a very costly mistake, in more ways than one.

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March 14, 2015

The Lost Unicorn Gallery Is A Sight To Behold

The Lost Unicorn Gallery in the sim of Ethereal is nothing short of stunning if fantasy art is your thing, and it is my thing. I’m a big fan of the fantasy theme. The parcel description sets the theme :

A fabulous selection of SL fantasy themed artwork created by the best artists in game. Elven castle overlooks a beautiful and magical forest below. Landscaping by JenniferMay Carlucci-Lectar.

This is all helped by the stunning picturesque beauty of the surrounding area.

The Gallery works on a rotation system, as the notecard explains :

The main list you see on this sign is a complete list of ALL the ongoing artists in the gallery. However, they are not all showing work at the same time due to space. Therefore, we do an artist rotation every 2 months. I will post this list here so you all know who’s showing at the time you visit. We will also continue to have our 2 featured artists exhibiting their work in the 2 front rooms every month (new ones each month).

This therefore means you may see different artists displaying at different times.

The current showcase artists (until March 22nd are :

Freyja Merryman
Luka Henusaki

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March 13, 2015

Jordan Reyne’s Fantastic Sound Rocks The Mango Yacht Club In Second Life

Jordan Reyne this evening rocked the Mango Yacht Club in Second Life with her unique sound. The good news is that Jordan is scheduled to rock Second Life even further this weekend with more gigs before going on a real world music tour in Europe.

Jordan belted out several tunes to an eager audience and allowed them to vote on which cover song she should perform, there was only one cover song in her set, the rest of the set was original material from Jordan herself.

Jordan doesn’t just stand there and play music either, she interacts with her audience, which was very well exemplified by the above vote on which cover song she should perform.

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March 12, 2015March 12, 2015

Second Life Residents Start To Pay Their Respects To Sir Terry Pratchett

One of the first things I did when I joined Second Life was to look up a group for Discworld, thinking that Second Life would be an ideal venue for such a group. Alas that didn’t go very far, despite there being many fans and surnames of Weatherwax and Morpork not being uncommon.

In October 2008 Terry Pratchett visited Second Life. The visit was to promote his book of Nation, but many people wanted to talk about Discworld. A couple of Lindens sneaked in to listen to him, he arrived on stage :

TerryPratchett Morpork: Hello everybody! Sorry, I’m new at all of this kind of stuff and so can anyone tell me how to get the rocket launcher? …and I’m not really into all of this YourTube into MyFace kind of stuff!

Michaelx Beerbaum: Question is if Second life will appear in one of the books?

TerryPratchett Morpork: As far as I am concerned, my books are Second Life.

Having thought long and hard, a quiet voice piped up :

Ciaran Laval: Do you think Moist Von Lipwig would have managed the banking system better than those currently in charge?

TerryPratchett Morpork: It seems that, primitive as it is, the Discworld economy is considerably more stable than the one here. And, come to think about it, Moist’s solution to the problem was not a long way from what has been done over here…

He was talking about real world economies not Second Life. Upon hearing of Sir Terry’s death today I decided to visit a location where fans do gather, the Time and Space sim and already they have start to erect a tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett.

They are also getting plenty of visitors, whom like me, want to visit locations whereby fellow fans may be around.

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March 11, 2015

The Mystery Of The Secret Interview With Xiola Linden

I was exploring the glorious streets of Meauxle Bureaux, home of The Linden Department of Public Works. I was strolling along, minding my own business, when a horse drawn carriage pulled up alongside me, the door opened and a voice ordered “Get in, your presence has been requested“. Cautiously, I entered the carriage, only to find myself immediately blindfolded.

After a journey of not inconsiderable time, I was bundled from the carriage, taken through a door and sat in a chair, “Gray of The Lab from San Francisco sends his regards“, a voice whispered in my ear and then the blindfold was removed. The room was in darkness but slowly illuminated with light. I heard footsteps, a woman’s footsteps by the sound of it. My hunch was correct as shortly a woman stood before me.

“Xiola Linden, Second Life Lead Community manager, pleased to meet you. The word on the street is that you want to ask questions,” she said.

Somewhat taken aback, I wondered where I was. Had I been taken to the top secret location that the Lindens deny exists, Area 51 style, was I in LindenWorld? I asked the woman claiming to be Xiola if she had ever been to the top secret LindenWorld HQ that us mere mortals can’t visit?

“If I told you, I’d have to ban you. 🙂” she replied.

This told me two things, one was that I was not in LindenWorld and two that this really was Xiola Linden, only a lead community manager would talk of the ban hammer in such a fashion. The further fact that I’d met Xiola before confirmed the truth, I had been smuggled into a secret location, to conduct a secret interview with Xiola Linden, which I am now at liberty to be able to share with you all.

Xiola Linden has been at the forefront of Linden Lab’s renewed vigour for good community relations, she can be found on Twitter, Flickr, the official Second Life blog, at inworld events and more. Whereas it would be grossly unfair to give Xiola all the credit for these renewed good community relations, she is certainly a star attraction. However what of the team itself, I asked Xiola how many people are in the community team?

“We have a small dedicated community team whose job is to focus 100% on our communities, but there are many people outside of our team whose jobs of course include caring about about the community, interacting with users, and keeping their eyes peeled for community-related issues. It’s good to know too that many Lindens spend time inworld on alts (I know I do!) so you may be interacting with a Linden and not even know it.”

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