Some More April Foolery In, And Out, of Second Life

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

As longtime readers know, our April Fool article is something of a Newser tradition. And so, when yours truly unleashed his, some had an idea what to expect. But it looks like at least one friend of mine was gotten good, "I HATE APRIL FOOLS!"  Over the years, we've had a number. A few had no reaction, others were a mix of laughs, groans, and "You are SO going to get it!" The later of course is what I strive for. *grins*

 

As they've done for a few years, Linden Lab had one as well, their announcement of an HOA for Linden Homes.  This one got some chuckles too. Someone in the SL forums posted about an HOA officer badge available in SL. The giver was in the Grass sim just outside the Satanic Temple (which some under an HOA would say makes perfect sense). Just head to Grass (194/167/116), click the shield on the wall, add to one's chest and shrink the size (it was huge before editing). 

 

 

My time in Second Life on April Fools Day was limited, but I did head of one good prank in the Sunweaver area. I received a tip from Cynthia Farshore to get a look at Club Cutlass. I wasn't disappointed. 

 

 Cutlass had been made pink before for April Fool. But now, the whole place had been done into what she later called a "pink bunny slipper" as a poke at community leader Rita Mariner whom is less than happy about being the color. 

 

 The inside was pinkish as well. I just happened to see Rita as I stepped aboard, but she logged off right away. When I asked her for comment later on, she would only say, "Booooooooo!"

 

 No, these weren't the actual contest winners. Sadly real-life would keep me away from the event that night.

 

 My time in SL was short that day, but I did recall one yearly April Fool's related event: Ever's Night in Bay City which started out a way to honor a chaotic fun-loving local resident and has continued every year. 

 

 Dropping by, I noticed flames at a couple spots, one of the banks and a post office were aflame. 

 

By T.J. Hooker

 Real life would take me away, but as the night went on, so did the fires to more of Bay City, which T.J. Hooker would post pictures of in the community Discord. 

 

By T.J. Hooker

 "... the spirit of Ever Dreamscape is alive and well." 

 

By the following day though, the fires were out and all damage repaired, and life for the virtual world's largest urban area went on.  

 

While there was almost certainly more April Foolery in Second Life worth mentioning, I wasn't able to see any. There were some in gaming though. According to PC Gamer, the makers of Witcher announced they were doing a horse controller that looked like a kid's toy horsie. Palworld's makers earlier joked it was making a dating simulator based on the game, and this year the joke had a steam page (with the taglines "horror" and "sexual conrent"). And Blizzard announced they would be giving the players of dwarf characters in World of Warcraft the option of having tails. 

 

April Fools Day is not popular with everyone, and indeed there are some who have commented the world has been so crazy for years the unofficial holiday needs to be done away with. Yours truly begs to differ. I've always found humor to be important, and April Fools day is the perfect opportunity for a good joke. Yes, there are rules and some things shouldn't be joked about, and those in the media should make sure it's a joke nobody gets hurt over and later informs the audience it was made in jest. But this we've done.  And so we'll continue our April Foolery for as long as there's a Newser. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

 

Reader Submitted: Community Roundtalbe for May 20

 

By Zada Bury

My opinion about the "Roundtable" and around ... special at the moment.

It is awesome, Linden Lab remembers some of the good things from before around 15 years. Okay, there are still the user-meetings, but this makes me feel welcome. Anyway it's good for informations or an update about things ... and brainstorming - but less for some productive work.

It is the same as with "Forums": You might have a good idea (in your point of view) ... but first you have to dig trough 5 pages, if somebody was bring it up before (and how the reactions was) ... then you make your comment, head to sleep ... and can next dig trough 3 pages, if somebody was react on it.

I was came 60 minutes late to this event and was only read the last 30 minutes. The flooded chat was make the following difficult ... and participating would be even more hard. For luck there are some recordings. I took a few pictures.

A friend was comment it to me with the words "90% age-stuff, 5% Tilia, 5% mobile app". And the "age stuff" (foremost the updated ToS) is what put also some annoying load into these meetings lately.

There are 3 kind of people or groups ...

1) There are the users of Anime-Avatars, and I can understand their concerns.

Anime and Manga is an often false interpreted art-style. Here it needs some broadly open communicated "guidelines" or similar by the Governance-Team - maybe not hard "rules" but more a list of ideas, so you can get the meaning right. Oh and if your character is a "1000 year old demon that lives in the body of a child", you are still violating the ToS.

2) There are the creators of Child or Teenager Avatars and the problems with the "Modesty Layer".
And I can understand their mutters.

In my eyes, the "Modesty Layer" is a "toothless tiger which causes many problems and work with no real success". It is one of these "good thought at first", but "the results may vary" ... or not pay out.
Each layer on the body can be "overwritten" by worn clothes ... or putting a texture on without the enforced undies. Even one solution to "let out the sections in the mesh" (there would be a hole in the body) could be overwritten with a fitting mesh-item. There would be a clear rule like "painted or structured genitals or body-openings and so on" are not allowed,  and done.

And there are ...

3) People in child-avatars, which whining about, them are not longer allowed to enter adult-rated lands ... and I lost any understanding for them.

First at all: Maybe them need a reminder, it takes maybe 30 seconds to open the inventory, right-click an outfit and change to an adult appearance. There is the "General" and the "Moderate" rating, you still can play a child.

About these people, that are whining "their family home is on adult" or "their store": It comes at first in my thought "Why is that on 'Adult'?" No idea, how to describe it, but maybe "over-rating"? For a normal,  full adult but private experience, "Moderate" fits well and is enough. "Adult" is only a must for advertised adult stuff and businesses. Why are you choosing for your family-home "Adult"? Also "our shops", most would fit on mature - and the last I would want is an adult person represented in a child-avatar, which does the customer-support in some store for adult stuff!

Ok, maybe you were choose a home on Adult because of "whatever".

Option 1: The family-kid fast turns 18+ ...
 

Option 2: Move to Mature-rated lands - there are massive places available, even also abandoned lands, which often can be bought for only 1L$/m2 trough the support.

This doesn't feel good? I have been running since 15 years a place for adults, and in this time I was need to change or move 3 times about "changes" - so stop whining! If you wanna cry about your freedom and so: The (equaly) adult areas in real-life, you would be faster tossed out as a child than you can say "I only wanna look something" ...

But there is one last thing, which goes under since a while, and that is dangerous: "Sharpening the age verification" to ... "protect the (underage real-life) kids".

Sadly anytime there is discussion about "child avis," it's messed up and merged with "protection of (real-life) kids." I would guess, 99.9% of the users of child avis (so: affected by the ToS-change) are adults, which Roleplay as a child - and I will not judge them ... getting the youth back, get the intact family them never was have or to early lost in real life ... all are legit reasons. But they have nothing to do with RL-kids!

I must say, here we are sadly back to the time before,  15 years ago. Around 15 years in 2009, there was also the discussions go on, how to protect kids from adult stuff with verifications. That time was a lot tried out - but the problems have not changed. But now the ideas have the ability to destroy and might cause Second Life to close!

First at all: With the so called "Industrial standard" ... eg "Yes, I am 18"-Button you can gain on the Internet access to more explicit content, than SL might offer. Most don't know this, but behind this "Button" is more going on than you think - Protection Software on the Computer can read so called "Metadata" out and block even unknown pages ... surely the parents have to activate it. A normal (adult) user without such software will experience no blocking.
 

Blocking kids from content they should not see are honorable intentions. But: If Linden Lab decides to make the access for users more difficult, here is a reminder: We are not longer in 2009.
Nowadays there are a lot of, and also on the same level, if not also above, competitors against Second Life. Why should someone offer massive critical personal data to gain adult access in SL, if them can get it everywhere else with just the "industrial standard"?

"VRchat" for example is "beloved" by everybody. Steam loves them, because them have no adult content. Twitch loves them, because them have no adult content. The parents loves it, because their ToS say, them have no adult content (if them read it). But surprise: There is adult stuff! Sure, it's forbidden by the ToS, and everyone loves VRchat about this forbidding. But it is still there.

If Second Life now makes it more difficult to access, at all the competitors' offices, the champagne bottles will popping, and SL might die out and close.

Also this "sharpening" does not solve two issues: 

 

1) No matter, how difficult SL will make it, people that are aware about possible data-loss will be scared away or have more problems with it, but the kids will find it it almost easy to break it: Them just need a short moment to borrow their parents data, ID, whatever ... and then they are in. And them have a super-easy access to this stuff.

2) Parents expect from "the Internet companies" to protect their kids. But it is the duty of the parents to lock their kids computer. It is the duty of the parents to take care for their kids activities. The "child protecting parents" which demand by Internet companies to protect their kids, they just expect from 8,000,000,000 people, these raise their child - but it is the duty of the parents directly ... and not for all other people on the Internet!

So Linden Lab would be good at the point to take care, their page is detected by such protection-software. They also can "aggressive" communicate it to present them done something and being a good company which takes care for that theme. But beside of that, better hands-off from the actual verification way.

Otherwise Second Life might not make the quarter century mark. It's been 21 years now and it's still alive and it is working - a sharpening might close it before the 25th birthday.

(click here if the video does not play)

Zada Bury

Looking Back: The ToS Content Creator Controversy

 

 By Bixyl Shuftan

It was ten years ago this month that Linden Lab made one of it's most controversial moves in Second Life's history. It started out as what at the time was treated like a normal Terms of Service update in September 2013. But it included the following ...

[..]you agree to grant to Linden Lab, the non-exclusive, unrestricted, unconditional, unlimited, worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, and cost-free right and license to use, copy, record, distribute, reproduce, disclose, sell, re-sell, sublicense (through multiple levels), modify, display, publicly perform, transmit, publish, broadcast, translate, make derivative works of, and otherwise exploit in any manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your User Content (and derivative works thereof), for any purpose whatsoever in all formats,[..]

Thus started the Terms of Service Content Creator Controversy. Among residents of Second Life, the reactions of many was suspicion. Just what was the Lab up to? That they had the right to modify and copy content was understandable, to back up and fix any items that got damaged or glitched. But to sell or resell and "exploit in any manner whatsoever," that was giving some the impression Linden Lab planned to up and sell some of the things people made, either as part of an "exit strategy" to make money from the content if they ever closed Second Life or just simply up and taking and selling things just to make quick bucks.

Before too long, word got around. And not just among Second Life residents. One texture website that had been allowing Second Life residents to download it's content for use began stating they could no longer allow that given the latest ToS from Linden Lab, accusing them of greed and were showing a lack of respect for it's users, "as soon as you upload your model or texture, they can do literally anything they want with it." When calling the Lab, they got only "nameless, canned replies … Apparently they don't care about this problem, so we don't see how we can come to a solution."

 

It wasn't long before the Lab would issue a statement that would appear on a number of blogs, saying the Lab would continue to respect the rights of content creators.

“As evidenced by Second Life’s extensive history, functionality and well-documented policies for providing a platform on which users can create and profit from their creations, Linden Lab respects the proprietary rights of Second Life’s content creators. We regret that our intention in revising our Terms of Service to streamline our business may have been misconstrued by some as an attempt to appropriate Second Life residents’ original content. We have no intention of abandoning our deep-rooted dedication to facilitating residents’ ability to create and commercialize such content in Second Life. In fact, we strive to provide Second Life’s residents with evermore opportunities to do so.”

Not everyone was up in arms. Some took the Lab's word without issue. Others felt what the Lab was trying to do was reword their terms to avoid legal trouble, but felt the Lab needed to fix the wording so there wouldn't be confusion over their intentions. Jo Yardly commented, "I hope Linden Lab realizes this is a big problem that damages one of the most important parts of Second Life; creativity." Shockwave Yareach was more critical, "Other companies manage to sell digital merchandise without making the artist surrender their rights to their creations - the only thing they actually own. If LL cannot accomplish the same thing, then not only do they forfeit the right to claim to be a visionary tech business, but they will forfeit the right to be in business at all."He felt unless the Lab corrected the issue, and soon, people would be looking for another virtual world 

 

In late September 2013, one performer the Newser had wrote about over time, Tuna Oddfellow, reacted to the ToS update by closing his Odd Ball in Second Life. "Dear Linden Lab -- it's been a nice eight years,"  his partner Shava Sunzu at the time would say, "but you just broke the social contract with me as a creator in Second Life BIG TIME." They would take the show to the much smaller virtual world of InWorldz. Other Second Life residents would also take an increased interest in the smaller virtual world, This included the Sunweaver community, which would get a couple sims there as a "lifeboat" in case Second Life was shut down. There would also be an InWorldz/Second Life connection center set up by Zia Larina and Nydia Tungsten. During the time of the controversy, InWorldz' numbers would grow. In May 2013, they were around 75,00 accounts. A year later, they would be 100,000.

 

Despite the criticism, the Lab made no move to reword it's Terms of Service. More people were speaking out saying while they didn't see the Lab as trying to rip anyone off, the way they worded things was causing people to lose confidence in them and Second Life.  One blogger would comment, "It is obvious that this revision of the ToS was, to say the least, short-sighted and ill-advised. But it is not obvious to the Lab." Hamlet Au of New World Notes would talk to a lawyer knowledgeable on intellectual property rights, who guessed that the wording came about partially from Linden Lab trying to put it's many products at the time under the same blanket policy. She called the Lab's moves, "tremendously short-sighted ... Linden Lab's refusal to understand the needs of its customer base is far more troubling to me than its poor contract drafting." She felt all the Lab needed to do was just change ten words in the ToS in regards to content creators, "All they need to do is limit their license to uses within the scope of their business purpose. People might still be mad, but then it isn't nearly as stupid a license grant." Aeonix Aeon called the move as part of an "exit strategy" by Linden Lab, feeling it's leadership at the time didn't like the lack of control that gaming companies had over their product and were seeking to seize some away from the residents. 

In mid-October 2023, there was a discussion about the controversy by a Second Life Bar Association Panel. Kylie Sabra, one of the hosts, felt the move wasn't new compared to what other Internet companies were doing. But she called the language "sloppy drafting," and noted half of Instagram's users had dropped out following an uproar over one of it's terms of service changes. The other host felt Linden Lab wasn't as customer friendly as it used to be. While lawsuits were a possibility, they felt the best course with the Lab was a peaceful one.

Kylie Sabra would go on to found the "United Content Creators of Second Life," or UCCSL, with the purpose of protecting the rights of builders and designers and other makers of content, notably in regards to the Terms of Service controversy. Eventually in late October, the Lab would sent them an email about their concerns. They stated they were "currently reviewing what changes could be made that would resolve the concerns of Second Life content creators," but had no wish to have an active discussion with them, "We believe that it would be more fruitful to avoid further debate of the assertions made to date regarding the intent and effect of our updated Terms of Service ..." 

 

Kylie was initially optimistic, paying more attention to that the Lab was saying they were going over changes. But as the weeks and months went by, there would be no change. She would write to the Lab, but would get no more responses from them. But on January 30, 2014, she came to the conclusion the Lab was not going to do anything, "... it is clear to me now that Linden Lab has no intention of making any change to the Terms of Services. ..." She would step down as head of the UCCSL less than two months later, feeling she had done all she could and that the Lab had caused lasting damage with it's relationship with comment creators, "we will never again feel that we are partners in this endeavor with Linden Lab: We will never again trust so blindly as we once did."

 

But behind the scenes at Linden Lab, change was going on. In the middle of January 2014, the Lab's CEO Rod Humble stepped down. He would be succeeded in February by Ebbe Altberg. At the VWBPE conference in April, he finally addressed the controversy, saying more in his hour than the Lab had stated in months, saying he was looking for a solution. Finally in July 2014, close to a year after the controversy began, Linden Lab finally changed the wording of the Terms of Service in regards to content creators. While some of the wording seemed a little iffy to some people, most residents were satisfied. And so the issue was over.

In an interview in October that year, Ebbe Linden's opinion was that the problem was what Linden Lab intended in the Terms of Service update, but "the way it was rolled out." But for the residents, this was another example of how the Lab had a way of needlessly making them mad, either intentional or not. While later Terms of Service changes would occasionally be met with questions and criticism from the residents, notably in June 2015 when the Lab ordered all third-party currency exchangers to shut down, this would be the last time one would result in such a huge outcry. Just why Linden Lab dragged it's feet on the issue for months, we residents can only guess. Maybe the Lab was feeling "ignore it and it will go away," or maybe they didn't truly realize what a mess they had on their hands. If so, Kylie Sabra and others are deserving of thanks for keeping the issue in the headlines for as long as they did. 

 

In any event, the issue was certainly a reminder that content creators in virtual worlds, and other places online, should have their rights respected, and to dismiss those is telling them they're not really wanted. And here in Second Life, nobody wants that.

Bixyl Shuftan

 

April Fools in Second Life

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Newser's April Fool joke article got some chuckles, one calling it "short and sweet and almost believable." Another just commented, "Good one!" Zada Bury added to its believability by putting a link of her youtube in the comments. Unlike some past fooleries, there were absolutely no complaints. Some might see that as a sign of the joke not being funny enough, but it still got laughs. The only remark from the Lab was by Cosmic Mole,  "No comment."

But this was far from the only April Foolery around.

Once again, the Lab decided to get into the act. Their jab at Facebook/Meta last year was a tough act to follow. But they did. Starting Friday night, UFOs began appearing over Bellisseria. One resident stated they were built by Magic Mole and owned by Abnor. There was much chatter and mock panic in the Bellisseria group, "you said moles. i wasn't expecting UFOs!" "aLiEn LIfE fOrm DeTEcteD.. ExTerMiNaTe! EXTERMINATE! aTtentIon alL pLaneTs oF the AgNi FedErAtiOn.. wE hAve aSsumED cOnTRoL!" 

 

"Poor Hiiro is being lasered to death" "take me now aliens, I'm ready." "The one near me is not sending me tractor beams. nobody wants me. (sad)" "Most have moved along but that one is just obsessed with Hiiro." "Oh no, they got me. Goodbye cruel world. Bury my inventory with me." "Maybe those ufos are manned by bonniebots?" "Now there are Chinese balloons moving in." "an UFO, owned by ABNOR MOLE, beamed me above my Linden Jouseboat .. is it cnsidered as sexual harrasment .. any lawers avaiable here ? ..  and why this happened First of April hmmmmm? ... Thank you of correction .. I was assaulted by SLURPY v1.0 on last day of Marchh .. HEEEELP" "(name), have you welcomed your new alien overlords yet?"

The craft weren't truly saucer-shaped, but thick disks, resembling robot vacuum cleaners and were christened "roombas" by some Bellisserians. "Unidentified Flying Roomba." "How do you get them to clean your house?" Some had lit tendrils waving from one end, which a few joked were alien tentacles. Various residents would take pictures and post links in chat. Gemma Cleanslate would also take a few, and pointed out one to me that she had come across.

The UFOs, and mock panic and other chatter continued for some time. "WARNING hUmaN! PrEpAre to be tRansMogRifiEd!" "Find someone who can yodel?" And people continued to log in not knowing what was going on, "Hi - there's sapceships flying trying to shoot the houseboats (laughter) - how do we get rid of them?" "They could be scanning the area for faults or maybe to check peoples orbs coz some have it set lower then it suppose to be like 2 seconds." "I guess that's what I get for being a squatter in one of the Mole homes (not own-able by residents)."

Over time, people had to leave, "I need to get back to real-life. Have fun everyone and don't get probed by the Slurpies." And after many hours, the UFOs went away as fast as they appeared. 

 

And somehow, there was no sign of Elvis the whole time. 

There were other examples. For those who missed Team Firestorm's April Fool last year, they did it again. 

 

At Caledon Oxbridge University, there was a joke announcement about a class on griefing, "How to Grief."

Hello fellow evildoers. Join us for our How to Grief class! Learn how to cause trouble and aggravation for your fellow residents. Amaze and delight the two friends you still have left.

Bwahahahahaha!!!

The Sci-Fi con, which was going on, decided to get in on the act. There was a "debate" of sorts between people roleplaying characters from the planet Pandora of "Avatar," some as "Na'vi," others as spacefaring humans. There was also a moderator, trying to explain things to the audience, "after the humans on earth began space explorations, Pandora is the first world humans found with sentient life. They found a world lush with life, a thriving but dangerous ecology. And they found resources that changed the economy and life on earth. They were met with resistance by an indigent species known as the Na'vi, and they abandoned their first wave of acquisition. ... they've returned with better technology, and a greater interest in the resources of Pandora. Our panel today is to discuss what the mission of the current reach out truly is. What should be the status of Pandora in the scope of the interplanetary community?"

There were actually two groups of humans, "Lt. Colonel Derek Bowman representing the RDA," and a scientist from a different group, "Jadelee Hendricks representing the PCI is under contract through the UN with the Pandora Conservation Initiative as a senior technician and also as an avatar driver. The Na'vi call her a dreamwalker." She explained that part of her purpose was to try and repair the damage caused by the first humans, and were doing so only after getting permission from a Na'vi tribe to man an abandoned facility.

But the roleplayers didn't count on numerous tinies coming over with protest signs, "HUMANS WRECK PLANETS!" "No humans on Pandora!" "Leave Pandora to the Na'vi!" "Stay, stay, stay! Stay at home!" Eventually, some of the humans started to get nervous, such as the camera crew, "this is bad, very very bad. Let's get out of here!" So did the Colonel, "Things are getting rough here, need cover and extraction ASAP." Probably the best reaction was from one of the blue aliens, "This is a rather strange ritual, Keyeung. At least most of the beings here seem to be on our side."

 

 

For fans of Grendle's, it's time for the store's yearly April Fool's area to open up.

Welcome to Grendel's 11th Mostly Annual April Fools,  ... See the iMax, play board games, lob apples, swim with the fishies, visit the dinosaurium, enjoy wild and crazy art, run a real game of minefield, learn the Secret of Linden Success, and knock over Toadhenge a few times! Fireworks every Linden night ~@~ 5:27, 8:27, 11:27, and 1:27 both am & pm.  Take the rockets from the store!  Touch everything, trust nothing!   Brought to you for mostly the 11th time by Frog-n-Cat Productions!  

To get there, head to the Grendle's entrance at Avaria Tor (133/135/305). Jump on one of the three nearby rockets (actually sit on it), and you'll appear at the entrance of this special area. Feel free to look around, but not everything is as it appears and surprises are around every corner. As Toady herself says, "touch everything, trust nothing."

 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Avaria%20Tor/133/135/305

Finally, there was the April Fool that was played on the Sunweaver community. Club Cutlass, the community's airship club, had disappeared, leaving behind the dance floor, music board, and other furnishings and decorations hanging in the air. Anyone just simply teleporting up would likely end up falling to the ground and going "splat" Wile E. Coyote style.

Exactly what the explanation was, there's some confusion. Supposedly Cynthia had taken it down for a slight renovation. But Rita was saying "Our pirate ship got pirated by pirates!" 

But the club wasn't the only thing taken down. So did stretches of railway, and the Farshore Field Airport. Cynthia's April Fool was pretending to be upset at something and taking away her items in protest (which someone else did for real in the community over a decade ago). But everything will soon be back to normal.

There was some more funnery later on deserving of mention, such as the "Slime A Linden" at the Sci-Fi con. And there was the War Thunder game's April Fools, as well as "War of Warship's" April Fool's "Training Assistant" Grapply, "It  looks like you're trying to dodge a torpedo" and more. But this is all I have time to write about for now.

Hope your April Fool's Day went well,

Hat Tip: Gemma Cleanslate, Liska da'Lantros, Toady Nakamura

Bixyl Shuftan

"Hug a Linden" And Other Valentine's Day Happenings

 
By Bixyl Shuftan

Valentines weekend had numerous events, too many to list, but here are a few.

Friday February 11, the Happy Vixen had it's Valentine's party, with the theme being Red and White. But pink certainly didn't hurt.

 DJ Scratch Musikat's rendition of Cupid had him with something resembling a bazooka instead of a bow. Guess sometimes with love and romance, it's time to break out the heavy artillery.

Saturday had the "Love Boat" cruise at Bellisseria, further details and pictures in the article here. 

 

Also that day was Frolic Mills' "Where Is My Damn Valentine."

The event was part stage play, and part fashion show.

That night, Club Cutlass had it's Valentine's Day dance.

DJ Cynthia really put her heart into the party. Shockwave was one of a few cupids in the event. 

There were quite a few V-Day looks in the party.

On Sunday Feb 13, I heard the Bellisserian Bureau of Bureaucracy had set up a "Valentines Cards BBB Post Office."

There are FREE Valentine Cards for you to send via the BBB Postal Service. It's simple to use.
Ideally you have the BBB mailbox at home. However if your loved one doesn't have a mailbox it still works (but you'll have to hint to tell them to visit the post office:) )

The mail system works all over SL, not just Bellisseria.

The location was at Oh Cay (159/135/2300)

Sunday night had a couple events with Valentine-like themes. First was a formal party, with DJ Jazzy playing the tunes.

The event was won by Dusk Griswold (above), Miyuki Naidoo, and Maliit Shiriki-Elysian (MaliitCoyote Resident). Unlike most parties at "The Vix," staff could enter this one. 

The following event was "Sheer and Sexy," of which there are no pictures available, that can be shown.

Monday was February 14, Valentines Day. And thus was the Linden event, the "Hug a Linden/Dunk a Linden" at the Isle of View.

There were a few dozen in the two locations apiece, and the lag upon getting there was bad.

But slowly improved.

And the people around the hugging and dunking booths, Lindens, Moles, and regular residents, came into view.

A few took a lot longer to rezz.

Avatars of many kinds, and outfits, were there.

Obi Linden had a rose.

Hobbes Linden had a box on his head at one point, for some reason.

Peter Linden was dressed spiffy. 

Garfield Linden got my attention. Yes, he was an orangish cat, but also a tiny. Not many tiny Lindens around.

Gemma Cleanslate was over at one point, taking a break from greeter duty at the One Billion Rising.

At the hugging booths, Patch was among those giving them out.

 So was the popular Strawberry Linden.

Well, Strawberry's not afraid of mice, at least when they're five feet tall, sentient, and have opposable thumbs.

But not all the Lindens were being hugged. At the dunking booths, one could take a baseball and give them a free bath.

Grumpity Linden volunteered at one point.

Gemma's turn to toss a few baseballs.

Her target was Signal Linden, whom was having a "last meal" of an ice cream sandwich.

Star Mole, in a gryphon avie, also took a try.

Dion Mole was hamming it up, going about wearing a small kissing booth. 

Dreaming Mole, with Vanessa Linden in the background.

Tommy Linden.

Hobbes Linden at the hugging booth.

The furry Linden had one fan encouraging people.

Grumpity Linden tries out the hugging booth.

Derrick Linden at the dunking booth. 

Itsa Mole.

And Cosmic Mole.

It was an interesting time at the Isle of View.

Also that day was a Valentines Day party, for merfolk, underwater at Union Passage.

Chickaboo, one of the senior officers of the Safe Waters Foundation, was there. 

At the Happy Vixen that night was a Red and While party.

Gil Ottared would be the winner that night.

Eventually, it was time to go home. It was nice to relax. But it was nice to have fun at all those events. 

Bixyl Shuftan