BREAKING NEWS: Second Life Sold by Linden Labs to Chinese Corporation

(**Update** - April Fool ;-) )

Today in a stunning development, Linden Lab announced they had sold Second Life to China’s Baidu Corporation. In a brief printed statement released to the press, CEO Mark Kingdom stated the deal was reached after several weeks of secret negotiations.

Baidu Inc. is a major communications company in China, owning the top search engine there. It made a profit of over $600 million in 2007. It made the news recently as the company most likely to profit from Google’s troubles with the Chinese government.

On it’s blog, Mark Linden stated, “Letting Second Life go was not an easy decision. But Linden Labs has always prided itself on being on the forefront on the development of the technologies of virtual worlds. With Second Life becoming increasingly complex, we came to the conclusion we could not continue to both continue to be so and run our grand experiment. While we shall continue to improve Second Life, it will be through business deals with Baidu as new technologies become available.”

Baidu also had a statement on the Linden blog, “We welcome Second Life into Baidu ... As we have helped bring the Internet to China, so we hope to guide the virtual residents into a righteous harmonious band. ... We should remind that our company operates under a set of rules that require reverence and respect to the wise and honored statesmen of our government. Those whom run about in virtual reality in their boxers using their words as fists with no regard for the respect of their betters are asked to cease such behavior so we will not need to take actions all will regret.”

One of the Lindens supposedly stated that following the sale, Linden Lab will be cooperating with Facebook to make a sequel to the "Farmvile" game, but this is unconfirmed.

Details are still coming in about what is clearly a turning point in Second Life.

To go to the Linden blog post and comments, Click Here.

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Protests start on nautilus sims

Many are angry upset and confused over the Linden turnabout on the open sims - it seems LL have grossly under-estimated the market for them and now are backtracking fast and those with openspaces are the ones who will have to pay for their mismanagement - click the image to join the protests.
There is also a JIRA - as yet unassigned where you can vote if you disagree with these proposed changes. You can also follow the argument in the FORUMS
One protested stated his reasons:

[13:36] ****: they do pay attention[13:37] dana Vanmoer: apart from raising publicity - which obviously all eyes are on this subject - what do you think this will achieve?
[13:37] ****: there are lindens watching us at this very moment I know this for a fact

Feeling of trust are almost completely gone in Linden Lab and many are whispering conspiracy this coming just a couple of weeks after Linden Lab open the new region for residents.

At the same time came the news that Infinity Lindens office hour was over run with protesters also and those estate owners looking for answers:

Some were actually forthcoming in that Infinity did admit LL is looking into grandfathering.

Simone Stern has the full transcript from Jacks emergency office hours this morning and rather than make another copy THIS LINK will take you there.

In both Jacks and Infinitys office hours there has been a lot of two way conversation going on - that LL are to blame for this mess is undeniable BUT I would like to point out that the price increases are a way off and there is time for LL to find a better solution.

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The Lava fights back!

I was informed of a terrible accident at Boxapixels, the land owned by our friend Lord Leafblower, right next to our outlet there so I teleported over as fast as I could before the evidence could disappear!
It seems the lava around the 'Pit' has started to shift - I spoke to Lord Leafblower about the accident:
dana Vanmoer: what would you say was the cause of this accident?
Lord Leafblower: new physics engine? extreme gravity?
Lord Leafblower: hmmm
dana Vanmoer: nothing to do with substandard building materials??
Lord Leafblower: might be :D
Lord Leafblower: dont trust mega prims
dana Vanmoer: As the man responsible for visitors' safety what reassurance can you give that this is an isolated incident?
Lord Leafblower: watch where you are f***ing going - would be my advice :D
dana Vanmoer: that is not very reassuring
Lord Leafblower: nope =) but I will hire some noobs to shovel it up.
dana Vanmoer: Do you see any other parts of the landscape disappearing under the lava?
Lord Leafblower: maybe the sln shop, the lava is progressing in that direction.
dana Vanmoer: and you assured us it was safe this time !!!!!
Lord Leafblower: must have misunderstood me
dana Vanmoer: Do we get a refund if it disappears?
Lord Leafblower: no u have to pay to have it dug out
dana Vanmoer: This is sounding less and less like a good place to set up shop
dana Vanmoer: Do you have any details on the errrrm deceased? Had he been drinking in the club?
Lord Leafblower: I think he was flying after under the influence of the jack daniels available at the club. but I take no responsibility. Some people say they heard him shouting "screw you leafblower!!!" :D
dana Vanmoer: you think he was trying to get you shut down? A suicide mission?
Lord Leafblower: maybe was flying to the club and lost control. who knows. but he obviously has some pretty heavy-duty fireproof clothing on. gotta watch for the crazies.
dana Vanmoer: unfortunately not enough to save his life
Lord Leafblower: well he is poking out from the waist down, so maybe he is not brain dead.
dana Vanmoer: are you expecting the family of the dead man to sue?
Lord Leafblower: well its hard to tell - u know I went to welcome island, and there were thousands of his relatives. might be a cult or something. just keeping my eyes open for bland faced guys in white tees and jeans. :D

If the family of the poor unfortunate man would like any details they can contact us at our office at this location we would like to extend our sympathies and help if we can:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Boxapixels/129/44/22

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Welcome back! It's Party Time!!!!!!

Well firstly We apologise for the delay in getting us back - but we hope you will find it was worth it!
Have a look around sl-newspaper and discover the new way we are bringing everything to you. Above you can find the navigation - all main news sections are on buttons - other information can be found in the text links beneath them. Each section also has a short description in the header to give you some idea of what they may contain.
Along with the new look newspaper we have 3 new vendors for you to use at home or in your shop/club/mall.
These vendors reflect our new style - but don't worry if you prefer the older versions they will still work and are still available. Click the box cover on the left to go get yours from SLeXchange.com or pick them up inworld at our main locations. All of our vendors are free and copy, transfer enabled so you can rez however many you want to and also give to friends.
With the help of ArtiZan and the personal help of Zanara Zenovka we also wish to help you free up group space by using a subscriber group instead. This will enable us to easily keep you up to date and let you know of our events without having to take up a precious group space.
Find them in these locations:
Sunrise Fair
Head Office
Zurich City
A single click will join you up and then you will free up one more group!

Finally IT'S PARTY TIME!
Join us tonight to celebrate with a fun, sexy and adult party at the Playboy Mansion - I will put the Landmark here BUT be aware it will not work until 2pm SLT tonight!
Playboy Mansion
We will be entertained with a special selection from DJ Qwark Allen to keep us in the party mood - its a pool party so come 'dressed as you are' or 'DARE to bare'!
Hope to see you all there!!!
Feel free to let us know what you think of the new look in the comments here!!!!

JamesT and Dana

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BREAKING NEWS: new land store is open!

Today, Linden Lab announced that the new land store is open for business!

This new feature has been announced for a long time already, and had to be postponed weeks ago. There has been much debate about the new reduced pricing that was announced at the same time as the new land store. Through the land store, only complete sims/regions can be bought (normal or openspace), not smaller parcels.

Through the history of announcements of this new land store, residents have been bounced back and forth between happiness and sorrow, because of the way that Linden Lab has handled these changes. First they announced the new land store, then they took the old land store offline, then they announced that the introduction of it was postponed, and after that they re-opened the old land store with the new prices. And now D-day is finally there it seems.

But ...

They say it is in beta-phase (still testing), which seems to be understandable. The old land store was in beta-phase for years without ever changing. However, you need to submit a support ticket to be granted access to the land store. And even worse: you have to promise to buy land, before access is granted! You have to activate a tick box on the support ticket page which says:



The problem with is that even though you can actually submit the ticket without activating that tick box, it is unclear if access will be granted if it isn't activated. And what would happen if I would promise to buy a new region, but not do it? And no time-frame is mentioned to do it in. Several people have asked about this in the comments on the announcement, but no responses have come in yet. Imagine that you can't access a website like Amazon.com, without promising to buy at least 1 book.

UPDATE: Linden Lab said in a personal chat with us that they will approve tickets even without agreeing to buy. We now have proof of that; my ticket just got approved.

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BREAKING NEWS: Land store closed, new store launch postpone

Today, Linden Lab announced on their official blog that the launch of the new land store, with drastically reduced prices, will be postponed by a few weeks. Linden Lab did not give a new date for the launch.

In the meantime, the old land store has been closed down indefinately to prevent people from ordering new regions for a price that is too high. Of course another reason for this is that the Concierge Team has been overworked for a while already and has had to deal with a lot of stress. Hopefully this will give them a bit of rest.

Rumour had it that Linden Lab had a lot of trouble with the payment system behind the new land store. This would be the reason for the new delay.

However, this does not take away all the protests (for example during Linden office hours) and upset residents. If anything, it will make it worse. After being haunted by devaluation of investments first, and now not even the possibility to recuperate, this is a heavy hit to take for anyone who owns 1 or more (or even many) sims.

We at SL Newspaper are pretty sure it's all for good reasons, but it is yet another blow to the economy of Second Life and the larger companies are already withdrawing from the SL world to look for other alternatives. The new land store, in combination with the 40% drop in sim prices, was supposed to be a way to draw more companies and investors to Second Life, but the opposite seems to be going on. Especially if you add that to the serious problems with performance and stability of the past few weeks.

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Ad Farm policy causing grief at Ancapex new branch

The opening of the new mainland branch at Caldbeck should have been a happy occasion but, with the new policy on ad farms, instead caused consternation and anger:

'Protest Against Adfarm Policy

We have been informed that both ROBO Marx and Tyrian Camilo have been warned by Harry Linden that even having "For Sale" signs on land is a violation of the adfarm policy. This is too much, too far. Enough is enough.' IntLibber Brautigan

Tyrian Camilo: i have a premium tree on every parcel for sale, and intention is to increase parcel value! thus that ALSO breaches the policy!

What's it all about?

"Despite the title of this blog post, the phrase 'Ad Farm' is a bit of a misnomer, so to be clear up front, adverts themselves are not the issue and we don't want to stop legitimate advertising or use of small parcels for promoting events or stores. For the purpose of this post, 'Ad Farm' will apply specifically to advertising or content that is intended solely to drive an unreasonable price for the parcel it is on, usually by spoiling the view of others. We have heard the feedback, read the comments and blogs and so we are making some changes to address it."

read the full blog post HERE

Hard on the heels of this new policy Tyrian recieved this email:

'Hi, Your account is in violation of the Ad Farm policy. Please clear your plots of any visual spam/land sales notices. If by Monday, your plots still are violating the policy we will clear all plots and suspend your account. Regards, Harry Linden.'

Tyrian states:

"I don't ad farm, but the policy is too vague and broad!

hell even the nicest land i've ever had falls under the ad farming policy.

Bottomline is that i have done everything possible to be an honest ad network, and nice to neighbours, do what i can to support arbor, do what i can to stop ad farms from appearing (yes, i've bought A LOT of land on the sole basis of preventing ad farms!)"

Whether Tyrian is guilty or not here is beside the point when right on Linden villages doorstep is a small plot of land 2560sqm set for sale at L$80,000 more than 3 times the average land price and right next door to the new Ancapex building, the huge for sale signs in full view of Linden Village!

Many would agree with new policy and some ad farms are a blight on the secondlife landscape, but maybe LL should be concentrating on the ones right under their noses!

Dana Vanmoer

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