March 2013 – Page 3 – Ciaran Laval

March 19, 2013

2013 SL Buddy Walk Charity Fair Opens with a Charity Flair!

This years 5th annual Buddy Walk that promotes Down Syndrome awareness opens with a flair. Along with the musical entertainment many Second Life Merchants have chipped in with exclusive items.

A few of the limited time exclusive donated Items

Items such as the following pictured —

Pure Poison – Love Stacked Bracelets (R/L)
Pure Poison – Rock Studded Earrings

adoness – lilitha dress – comes in two colors, red and blue, at 120L each

Demise of Flight – Buddy Walk Group Pose

These are just a few of the many items that I will be sharing with you. The Buddy Walk will run through March 31st. Get these and other exclusive items only available at the Buddy Walk .
More reviews to come daily.

Jez

March 17, 2013March 17, 2013

Tyche Shepherd’s Awesome Mainland Census March 2013

Tyche Shepherd has published the results of her mainland survey for the first quarter of 2013 over at SLUniverse : Mainland Census For 2013. The results reveal that three mainland sims have disappeared from the grid, all homesteads and all bordering The Blake Sea.

Unlike private region surveys, mainland doesn’t change much in shape or size unless Linden Lab launch something like Linden Homes or they auction off new sims, which doesn’t really happen these days, so the figures don’t change much in terms of the number of sims. There are currently 6,726 mainland sims on the grid, in December 2011 there were 6,723 so not much change over the last year or so. Tyche’s census also doesn’t include around 360 sims which are made up of help islands or Linden Realms.

Where the mainland census does see changes is with regard to things such as the total number of parcels, the number of owners and the amount of abandoned land. This survey reveals:

Number of Parcels – 14,5238 (Down 2.2%)
Unique Owners – 67,405 (Down 1.8%)
Abandoned Land – Between 51,388,816Sqm and 55,615,680Sqm or 11.7% to 12.6% (Up from 10.6% – 11.6%)

Abandoned Land has increased by somewhere around 66 to 70 full regions since last quarter’s census, giving an overall total of 784 to 840 full regions. Abandoned Land has been on the increase since September 2011.

Continue reading “Tyche Shepherd’s Awesome Mainland Census March 2013”

March 14, 2013

LL Offer Tier Discounts To The Select Few Educators And Non Profits

Hamlet Au over at New World Notes has broken a very interesting story regarding Linden Lab offering discounts to selected educational and non profit customers: Linden Lab Quietly Offering 50% Discounts to Select Non-Profit & Educational Groups Who’ve Given Up Their SL Sims.

Inara Pey has excellent additional coverage: LL offer discounted regions to educational and non-profit organisations on the QT.

I have a deep and passionate interest in education, both professionally and recreationally. This is not a good way to go about encouraging educational institutions to come back to Second Life, but I suspect Linden Lab know how badly they dropped the ball when they removed those discounts and that many wouldn’t come back even if hell froze over. The reason it’s not a good way of enticing educational institutions back is due to how vague the qualifying criteria for educational discounts is, indeed the criteria is almost non-existent, this isn’t how business planning works and at this stage of the year, many educational institutions are deep into business planning for the next academic year.

I suspect this is why Linden Lab are apparently targetting the recently departed, rather than the long departed, the recently departed are more likely to be able to make a business planning argument for keeping a Second Life sim if the costs are reduced by 50% or not being increased by 50%. However for the longer departed, they will look at such news with scorn and it’s hardly likely to improve their mood over the tier change Linden Lab made.

Continue reading “LL Offer Tier Discounts To The Select Few Educators And Non Profits”

March 14, 2013March 14, 2013

2013 SL Buddy Walk

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2013 SL Buddy Walk!!!!
March 17-31, 2013 • World Down Syndrome Day Celebration
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SL Buddy Walk

The Buddy Walk® was established in 1995 by the National Down Syndrome Society to celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness and to promote acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome. It is also the world’s most widely recognized public awareness program for the Down syndrome community. Last year in RL there were over 295 Buddy Walks world wide.

The Second Life Buddy Walk is done in conjunction with the NDSS (National Down Syndrome Society) and takes place around World Down Syndrome Day

Myths and Truths About Down Syndrome Continue reading “2013 SL Buddy Walk”

March 13, 2013

Bring Inworld Items To The Marketplace

I’ve largely been supportive of Linden Lab’s efforts to bring advertising to their website. One area where I remain unconvinced is with regards to the dashboard, which I feel should remain unhindered. Another area where I’m not convinced it’s a good idea is the SL Marketplace.

One reason why I’m not convinced the SL Marketplace is a good fit is because people are already paying to advertise their wares there. However I do welcome Linden Lab’s blog post wherby they announce their intention to allow Second Life residents to be able to buy advertising space on their properties, Second Life related adverts are a good fit for any of their pages really. The devil will of course be in the detail, but the concept has potential. Inara Pey has a good blog post about LL’s announcement: Linden Lab Comments On New Advertising Moves.

However I often read people suggesting they use the SL Marketplace like a catalogue and teleport inworld to buy items. I think there’s potential here for extending the marketplace to have a catalogue section, such as an inworld items category, whereby a merchant would pay a listing fee for a limited time inclusion in this category.

Now you may wonder why they wouldn’t just list said item on the marketplace in the first place, well, when it comes to no copy items, they’re problematic, Direct Delivery doesn’t support them for a start, you’re better off buying the no copy item inworld and picking it up really, which is how sales of breedables often work.

Continue reading “Bring Inworld Items To The Marketplace”