Category Archives: Changes

SL Viewer Interface to Change

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Well… this should be interesting. We are getting a new Viewer Interface by the end of October or there about.

It also explains why the viewer development team has basically disappeared. While the Lindens were proclaiming they would never do another Hide and Develop project without user input, our new CEO having messed that fiasco has the Lab apparently doing exactly that… we’ll see how it works.

The announcement is at SLUniverse. This is an expansion of the recent SL Forum announcement of New Things in SL. The information is about a week old. Finding these gems of information in odd places plus some stats someone posted in the  SLUniverse thread about how many have read the SLUniver forum vs the SL Forum shows the Lindens have yet to figure out how to communicate with the users.

Viewer Evolution User Group Closed?

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Communication?

Once upon a time we had a group that dealt with the evolution of the Second Life Viewer. Esbee Linden ran the group for a time then left Linden Lab. After she left Oz Linden ran the group for a time. When Esbee came back to the Lab Oz dropped the meeting. Presumably it was Esbee’s to deal with.

Office Hours – User Groups

The User Groups page used to have a Viewer Evolution User Group (VEUG). That has been removed. Some of the meeting archives still survive. Some links for VEUG now forward to the Open Development User Group (ODUG) or so I’ve heard. I haven’t found any links left.

The ODUG meets Wednesdays at 1:30 PM SLT/PDT. See the User Groups page for location.

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Second Life Chat Load Test

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In the forum an irritated resident was asking for an update on chat. I too am frustrated with chat. So many of my group-chats never post. I get an error message. But, looking for an update I see there is a glimmer of hope. There is a chat load test scheduled for June 2 on the ADITI grid for the… new system (?)… or may be just the changed existing text system.

Thursday, the 2nd of June, 2011 @ 4PM PT see: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/GroupChatTest

The Lab was working on a change over to XMPP Chat. Unfortunately testing revealed that XMPP Chat did not solve the chat problems. The pre-roll out code for XMPP was actually rolled to the main grid some weeks ago. The XMPP Chat code was even added to the KirstenLee Viewer. It was in use on the ADITI grid and looking like it would roll to the main grid. Then went down a black hole with only a slight mention in an office hours meeting that it had not met SL’s needs and chat was being rethought.

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Land Purchase Changes

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I’m not big on buying land in Second Life. So, I have no idea if this is an improvement or what. Vogy Linden has posted in the Second Life Blog → Land and article about the changes in how land can be purchased. The big change is one no longer has to go through support to buy land. That is probably a good thing. The process is now executable in-world.

 

Start by looking at the Mainland on the World Map, and enabling the check box “Land for Sale.” When you find a parcel that you might be interested in, check out the owner. If the parcel is owned by Governor Linden and marked, “Abandoned Land – For Sale,” then you can purchase it by clicking on the “Buy Land,” button.

The post is here: Announcing an Easier Way to Purchase Abandoned Mainland Property

More information is here: Linden Lab Official: Purchasing Abandoned Mainland Parcels – FAQs

SL Community Help

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Some of you know about the changes that have been going on in the resident run and volunteer help groups. Some months ago Linden Lab disbanded the existing Linden run help groups because stats were showing new users getting help from the group were less likely to stay in Second Life. So, some other type of user support was/is needed.

With the forum changes we are seeing an effort to reshape the community and support systems. We have a new knowledge base and an answers section in the community forum… blogrum… wikrumog… whatever that thing is we have now. Also the team responsible for getting it working is having open meetings, office hours. You can find them at: Community Tools User Group

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Second Life Land Auctions Gone?

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Changes have been made in how abandoned land on the main land is handled. I’m not into buying SL land so, I’m not sure exactly how it has been working. However in the Simulator User Group the Lindens were discussing changes to the system. (link)

When tier is not paid land goes into an abandoned status. For three days the land is in a BUY BACK grace status. The owner can buy the land back for L$0 cost. The precise timing is a bit fuzzy. As I understand once the computer systems mark the land abandoned, the counter starts. No one knows exactly when the counter starts, or at least they didn’t say. As best I can tell there is no way for a resident to predict when someone will abandon land, unless the owner tells them. Even then I suspect there is no way to know when the computer will update the land’s status.

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Second Lifes Linden Groups

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Second Life Communications

Listening - By: vagawi @ Flickr

Since long before I found Second Life residents, users, have complained about poor communications between Linden Lab and users. In 2010 Phillip Rosedale proclaimed that would change and the Lab would be more open. That has been happening and there have been problems. So, more changes are coming.

 

Contacting Linden Lab

Some time ago I wrote an article on how to effectively contact the Lab. Contacting & Influencing Second Life. Things are starting to change and eventually the information there will be way out of date.

This article is sort of the transition phase of how to connect with the Lab until we know more.

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Second Life Group Chat Upgrade Coming

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We are getting closer. In Oz’s office hours meeting Gez Linden, the project owner, explained the next steps for moving forward on Group Chat. Soon a Group Chat Project Viewer will be out. Code will be available. An in-world group will be started for the project. The first testing will be on the ADITI (Preview) Grid in a couple of weeks.

Some ADITI sim’s are already using XMPP group chat. Once the Project Viewer is out the next level of testing can begin. The first release will be trying to achieve parity with existing chat. Once the new chat is doing everything the current chat can, the code can be rolled to the grid. We should see a big reduction in chat lag. Plus, the new XMPP chat will be separate from the SL SIM servers. So, we should see less region lag too. Continue reading →