I am part of the "minority of hardcore "Second Life is not a game!" users" and am concerned about the gamification of SL. What assurances do we have that this game element is not going to impinge on business, event and educational uses of SL?

"There is a huge learning curve for mesh and much different than prim modeling. I look around today and there are so many amazing artists in SL creating beautiful things in mesh.” And it was in the same years that, with the introduction of mesh and the loss of non-profit pricing (later flip-flopped) that we saw numbers fall and the community change radically. Rather than the inclusive world of do-it-yourselfers 2006-2009 or thereabouts, there was a shift towards a world of consumers and sellers. I don't recognize the place anymore and it no longer feels like "home". I have almost no interest in Sansar, and they clearly have no interest in a community music series host that has been coordinating live music in SL for 11 years as I was turned down as a beta tester.

I'm wondering about the invasion of tip jar con artists I am seeing lately. They seem to position themselves harmlessly in front of tip jars, dancing or running about like hapless noobs but are really trying to intercept tips. They never show up at the start of a concert, only in the middle. They don't answer IM's and in fact often poof if they are asked to sit down.

I'm not going to switch from Phoenix (which works for me) for something that people keep giving me various horror story reports on until I see any reason to do so. Mesh? Sheesh...do we need it? Is anyone working on it at Linden Lab anymore? I'm not getting the Glitch comparisons here. It's a fun little game but very 2 dimensional. It's not much evolved over the look of IMVU. Cute, though. But far from the sophisticated build and scripting capacities of SL.

The links in this post are not working.

Every application cannot inhabit the territory of Facebook and Twitter, serving the lowest common-denominator of social media. I wish Linden Lab would understand that they have positioned Second Life to serve a niche market of virtual world enthusiasts who are motivated to learn and use a fairly sophisticated array of tools to create, share and play within a virtual world that has no real competing product on the market today. They have a golden "bird in hand" and are giving it up for the two "birds in the bush" they hope to capture by dumbing down the experience and interface. Second Life is nothing without the lively content created by individuals, non-profits, and educators within Second Life. Since this news has come out, every content creator I have spoken to has indicated some plans to explore other platforms.

I hope you'll be covering classical music as well! Music Island will be presenting the Second Life debut of Operatic Tenor Kain Scalia in concert this Saturday, Jan. 23 @ 1:30 pm. The program of favorite tenor arias and leider is available on the Music Island site at: http://musicisland.ning.com/events/kain-scalia-tenor On Sunday Jan. 24, Violinist Izabela Jaworower takes the stage in a program featuring the sonata form http://musicisland.ning.com/events/izabela-jaworower-winter

I think that the idea that relationships that exist in meatspace are more important than those that exist online has to be challenged directly. I know happily married couples that met online and earlier than that I knew one couple that met as school pen pals and corresponded for decades before finding a way to meet. You don't have to be disabled to have a need to connect online. It is often difficult for us to find people who share our interests and with whom we find connections. Some of us are more at ease in text than speech. Why is a love letter on paper more important than the creation of a lovely romantic simulation in Second Life? I'm sorry but if RL relationships are destroyed by Second Life relationships, I am quite sure that the RL relationship was in deep trouble to begin with.

It's a neat video but it's too bad to hear that so much post production was needed.

Innovation InfoIsland is opening on Saturday October 3 and Music Island concerts has arranged for 3 wonderful hours of music as part of the festivities. Young Zeid, violin @ 12 pm, AldoManutio Abruzzo @ 1 pm and in the evening Cindy Ecksol with bring some down home fiddling, songs and autoharp to the jazz stage at 7 pm. Throughout the day there will be tours and talks about the various projects selected to be part of the project.

So often in discussions about Second Life Music, the several active classical music venues are forgotten. My own Music Island project is more than 2 years old. Benton Wandelich's Music Academy includes classical Music as part of his offerings, Early Music is alive on Renaissance Island, thanks to Thom Dowd, and Clarissima Schumann has launched a new beautiful venue and series this year on her personal island. While most popular venues offer many hours of recorded music for every hour of live music, our series, at Music Island is dedicated to the presentation on one live event each week.