SLCE Stand Opens! | Coming Soon - Easy Passport Content Changer | Events & Announcements | New Locations

SLCE STAND OPENS

We're happy to announce that our stand at the Second Life Community Exhibition is now complete and open to the public. We're pleased and proud to have been asked by the Lindens to be part of this important initiative. The SLCE is intended to help new arrivals in SL find "their people" in our virtual world and introduce them to in-world communities they can join. Older residents are also welcome and may well find new friends and activities. At least one of the stands was for a community your Editor didn't know and the exhibition will be expanding and changing in the months and years to come.

We hope you'll stop by and take a look at the BBB's charming and secluded garden. If you have friends who haven't yet bought into the fun of virtual bureaucracy they can get themselves a special starter passport to try out our system to see if they like it. It holds a limited number of stamps but they'll all transfer to a full passport when they're ready to commit. There's a very cute "My first stamp" for them to collect but there's nothing stopping existing passport holders from collecting it too! 

Our thanks to Teresa Firelight for designing the stand and leading our team of builders.

Here's your taxi! 

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COMING SOON - EASY PASSPORT CONTENT CHANGER

Easy Passport Content Changer is a self-service tool made by popular request for our Version 3 passports to allow easy modification of your name, address, sex, species and photo.

The process is simple and quick. Here is a step-by-step walk-through of what you need to do. 

• Collect a passport changer (PPC) HUD from a dispenser at the BBB HQ or BBB embassy. This is to ensure only you can change your passport.
• Wear the PPC-HUD - this will show you all your passports registered for your avatar uuid (some people have multiple passports).
• Select the passport you want to change from the  drop-down list, and click.
• Change whatever fields you want modified, then click "Save Changes"
• Retrieve a "redelivery" blank passport template from a dispenser at the BBB HQ or the relevant embassy for the passport type you want to change. Go to a sandbox, rez the blank template to ground. Then click on the front page, wait a moment for the passport to be filled in and take it back to your inventory. You can now delete your old one.

All the stamps you've collected will be retrieved from our database and reappear on your pages. In some cases, you might need to flip pages to trigger this. 

Watch our Events & Announcements section for news of when the PPC HUD-dispensers are in place. Coming very Soon®!

Article, illustrations and tool by Robert Rhodan

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EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals and you're having an event or would like to make an announcement, just let us know and we'll be happy to feature it here. Please drop a notecard on the Editor, Dave (Lord.Junibalya) in-world or use the Email the Editor link in the sidebar to send us your information, posters and/or photos.

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New article in Parade of Homes Review

Over at our sister publication Teresa Firelight has written a new article on landscaping one of the new Mediterranean Linden Homes.

Read all about it here.

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New location for old stamp at Titiana Consulate

The Honorary Consulate of Titania permanent stamp terminal has been relocated to the library on the ground floor.  This is not a new stamp, just a new location. 

Henry Hutchence, Hon. Consul

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AmandaT Tamatzui interviewed in real life about her art in RL and SL

Readers will be familiar with BBB stamp designer and RL/SL artist AmandaT Tamatzui (Amanda Tomasoa in RL). Recently she was interviewed by Sarah Ritchie on Artpreneur Spotlight, which is an inspirational video interview series that digs into key aspects of an artist’s art practice. In the course of the interview, Amanda talks (among other things) about her art adventures in Second Life®.

The full interview is behind a Patreon paywall, but Sarah has kindly given Amanda permission to feature it here in The Gazette. 

SL machinima-maker Rizzo has made a promo video for Amanda's SL gallery, mentioned in the interview. Watch our New Locations section for news of a passport stamp there!

You can visit the in-world gallery here. 

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NEW LOCATIONS

All three new stamps this week are for events. "Let's Play" is a ten day Relay for Life fundraising event at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds with lots of games for people to enjoy as well as events, parties and great performances by some of Second Life's best! The stamp won't be in place until the event opening, but this is the last opportunity to announce it. 

Freedom Rock is another of the many SL American Cancer Society events hosted by Camping for a Cure. There are tons of events, raffles, live music, and more for you to enjoy. 

On 24th Feb at noon SLT is the opening party of a "mesmerising exhibition exploring our personal relationships with artificial intelligence." You can dance to the music of DJ Anjoux Herbit as you explore captivating photos, amazing digital art and thought-provoking installations created by generative AI.

Bellisseria Playground Let's Play at Bellisseria BE Event: 29 Feb to 10 Mar 2024
Freedom Rock for AMC PE Event: 1 -17 March 2024
AI & I Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art CDS Event: 24 Feb 2024

Please feel free to leave comments. We welcome feedback! The comment form asks for an email address but that's entirely optional. Just leave it blank if you prefer.

Annual Survey Results | Coming Soon - our stand at SLCE | Events & Announcements | New Locations

ANNUAL SURVEY RESULT

We are grateful to those readers who took part in our annual survey. The results were interesting and helpful. Thank you.

One reader commented that s/he'd like to hear less in The Gazette about the BBB and more about our users. We wholeheartedly agree! The whole point of the Events & Announcements section, introduced last year, is to give stamp-issuing users the chance to publicise their locations, events and activities. The section is steadily growing, but many are still not aware they can make The Gazette their own on request.

If you're nervous about writing for publication, just send a press release and your Editor will craft your announcement. The press release can just be a list of key facts – the when, where, what and why of your event etc. If you've made an event poster, include a copy of that too.

We've already implemented a second suggestion; to make it easier to leave a comment underneath each edition of The Gazette. Our software previously required an email address from people leaving comments. This is a basic anti-spam tool but, as many residents don't like to connect their RL email with their SL identity, it was a deterrent, even though the address was never published.

We've removed the requirement. As it leaves us open to spam, we've also changed our settings so that comments require approval before publication. Your comment won't appear immediately, but you won't be plagued with spam while you wait!

Other suggestions included:-

• I would love to have some cute interactive things. Survey questions of the week about fun silly stuff like that. Also would be fun to have goofy Belli horiscopes and such. Reading about other SL citizens and how they spend their time on SL always interests me. Particularly long time SL users, the everyday people.
• I would suggest making it easier to find the archive. I always have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to get to this weeks article. Maybe have a link right at the top of the main page the links directly to the most recent posting????

The first one supports the first suggestion mentioned - that we should write more about our users and less about us. If the reader who made the comment wants to volunteer to be our astrologist, we're all for a horoscope section! The second suggestion is puzzling however. The Gazette is an old-school blog (weblog), which scrolls down as new posts are added. The current edition is always at the top. Perhaps our respondent has bookmarked not The Gazette, but one specific edition from which s/he then has to scroll? In any event, if you find yourself lost. clicking on the header image at the top will always take you home.

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COMING SOON - OUR STAND AT SLCE

Teresa Firelight is in charge of its design and she and the rest of our team have been working hard on preparing our exhibit for the Second Life Communities Exhibition. At the time of writing, it's awaiting inspection and approval by Linden Labs. Subject to that, it should be opening soon at the Welcome Hub. In the meantime, by way of a foretaste, here is the video that will be playing at our stand there.

Thanks to Robert Rhodan for doing a great job with this video. We hope it will introduce many more SL residents, old and new, to the fun of role-play bureaucracy in our virtual world!

Video by Robert Rhodan

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EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals and you're having an event or would like to make an announcement, just let us know and we'll be happy to feature it here. Please drop a notecard on the Editor, Dave (Lord.Junibalya) in-world or use the Email the Editor link in the sidebar to send us your information, posters and/or photos.

New Exhibit at New Kadath

We've recently expanded the Bellisseria display within the Maps of Second Life exhibit to include a chronological retrospective, as well as new maps donated by visitors. The larger format exhibit will only be temporary (six  other exhibits were removed to make room for it!) but for now it's displayed on the three southern walls of the Second Floor of the Lighthouse.

Here's your taxi

Juliana Lethdetter-DeCuir

Curator, New Kadath Lighthouse Art Gallery

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NEW LOCATIONS

Friendship City is home to a cyber city and traditional Japanese zen gardens. It's also the home of The Nines music club.

Kasada is a hangout originally founded as a german bikers' community in 2007, which closed in 2010. It reopened in 2020 and got a complete make over. It's now nature themed with a harbour and several nice places to relax, hang out and have fun. Rezz a boat and sail to the Blake Sea or just relax, have fun and meet others from all over the world.

The special Women about Women exhibition at the Black Tulip Gallery, which was announced in Events & Announcements last week opens on 18th February. The event will continue until 1st April. The stamp will be available from the opening day.

The final two new locations were actually in place for Valentine's Day, but the stamp applications were a little late, so sadly the stamps weren't placed in time. They're available now, however – and the stamps are very cute!

Lotus Flowers - Feel&Focus Gallery CDS Event: 15 Feb to 15 Mar
Friendship City - Neo Japan and Zen Gardens CA
Kasada CA
Black Tulip Women on Women Exhibition CDS 18th Feb to 1st April, 2024 NB: The stamp will not be available until the opening date.
Titania Valentine's Day BE Event from 14-29 Feb
Break-Up Room @ Bellisseria Commissary BE Event from 14-29 Feb

Please feel free to leave comments. We welcome feedback! The comment form asks for an email address but that's entirely optional. Just leave it blank if you prefer.

Coming Soon | Events & Announcements | New Locations

COMING SOON

Our preparations for B5B are proceeding well. Our build crew is hard at work setting up the temporary offices there of the BBB, Parade of Homes and The Gazette. With the kind permission of our beloved Moles, we've also placed a Tardis landing spot in a public park near our offices there, so that SL's Time Lords can visit in their preferred style. Just look for "B5B" in your Hands of Omega or Novatech  time ship's navigation menu. Be aware though, that while your ship can already land there, you'll be barred from entering the B5B regions until the event opens.

This annual party to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of Bellisseria is always great fun and we look forward to meeting many of you there. 

In breaking news, the BBB has also been invited to participate in the new venture at the Welcome HUB as reported in The Gazette (and many other places!) last week. Visitors to the Second Life Community Exhibition will soon be able to learn all about our in-world bureaucracy-for-fun and be introduced to its wonderful community of users.

They'll even be able to sign up for a passport at SLCE itself! In that respect there'll also be a new product tech-guru Robert Rhodan has been working on in secret. 

No date has yet been fixed, so watch this space for a formal announcement of the opening.

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EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals and you're having an event or would like to make an announcement, just let us know and we'll be happy to feature it here. Please drop a notecard on the Editor, Dave (Lord.Junibalya) in-world or use the Email the Editor link in the sidebar to send us your information, posters and/or photos.

...TessaPaige Jupiter's The Jupiter Spa / Jupiter Projects
est. 1/2024
Welcome to Jupiter Spa! Please turn on ADVANCED LIGHTING. Step into Bellisseria's Mediterranean oasis, blending indulgence and relaxation. Enjoy personalized grooming, a Tanning Bed, virtual fitness, medical roleplay, massage and more! Open 24/7 for all your Spa role-play needs.

...Daysees's My House
est. 1/2024
My rooms have light and candle switches.

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A new article in Parade of Homes Review

Our sister publication, Parade of Homes Review, has just published an article called Landscaping a Mediterranean Home (Part 3) - The Natural Look by Teresa Firelight. In it, Teresa looks in detail at how her neighbour Laureen Trueheart landscaped her Mediterranean-style Linden Home.

You can read the full article here.

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Here's your taxi.

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Here's your taxi. 

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Alone on Valentine's Day?

Come to the Break-Up Room for reading, chocolate, wine and map-watching to see if your ex has a new green dot merge. Seek advice for the lovelorn from Marge, our chatGPT in residence. Special gifts!

Here's your taxi.

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Valentine's Day event at the Titania Consulate

Pick up a special Love-in-Idleness Potion, look for the Polar Queen and find other Valentine gifts around our new location. Be sure to Ask Bottom anything for amazing Shakespearean rhymes!

Here's your taxi.

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NEW LOCATIONS

The Valentine's Day Celebration in the CDS this year will be at the Thermae on 11th February at 1pm SLT. Amid all the romance, don't forget to collect your event stamp!

The Vital Spark is a little public office with parking lot, accessible on route 3.5 on Heterocera, which is intended to be a working spot and hangout place.

Alors on Sansara is a hangout with a beach, forest, and a waterfall that feeds a tranquil pond. It also has road and waterway access.

Valentine's in the Thermae CDS Event: 11th February 2024 at 1pm SLT
The Vital Spark HE
Alors @ Sansara SN

Please feel free to leave comments. We welcome feedback! The comment form asks for an email address but that's entirely optional. Just leave it blank if you prefer.

SL Community Exhibition | Events & Announcements | New Locations

SECOND LIFE COMMUNITY EXHIBITION

It's clear from such initiatives as Second Life® University and the Welcome Hub that the Lindens are intent on addressing SL's oldest problem; the steep learning curve for new users. Too many potential residents have logged in to SL out of curiosity, failed to see the point of it and left; never to return. Unlike the massive multiplayer games it superficially resembles, our beloved virtual world has no simple, understandable objectives. It's a platform for pretty much any shared activity you can think of and – unless they  find "their people" fairly quickly and get involved, it can often make little sense to new arrivals.

Every newbie who shrugs and leaves is not just a lost commercial opportunity to Linden Lab. He or she is a lost friend, co-creator or community activist.

Many of the Lindens' recent initiatives fall into the category of "onboarding"; helping new arrivals find their way and increasing the chance they decide to stick around. The latest idea is a new part of the Welcome Hub called The Second Life Community Exhibition. Under the banner;

Find your place. Find your people. Find your community!

it showcases various SL communities such as Drivers of SL and Caledon. Any SL community can apply to be represented there on a rotating basis. We think it will prove to be an excellent resource and recommend you visit. Even if you're a long-established resident, you might just find some more of "your people".

Article and Photo by Gazette Staff

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EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals and you're having an event or would like to make an announcement, just let us know and we'll be happy to feature it here. Please drop a notecard on the Editor, Dave (Lord.Junibalya) in-world or use the Email the Editor link in the sidebar to send us your information, posters and/or photos.

...Radioactive Rosca's Radioactive Log Home
est. 11/2023
My new Log Home @ Bellisseria, near Moose Tracks Station, Reel Simple region.

 

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New exhibition coming soon at Black Tulip Gallery

The exhibition will feature artworks by Talullah Winterwolf,  AmandaT Tamatzui, Milena Carbone, Mareea Farrasco, Tani Thor, Hypatia Pickens, Kirle Adamski, maghda, Scylla Rhiadra and ilyra chardin. Watch New Locations in The Gazette for the event stamp closer to the time. Here is your taxi to the gallery. 

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BBB Calendar 2024

We apologise that we're a bit late with this announcement but the 2024 BBB Calendar is now available.  It takes up just 1 LI in-world when you hang it in your home or office and is resizable. It uses Media on a Prim (MoaP) and automatically changes calendar page on the first of each month. You can also turn the pages manually using the Next Month / Previous Month buttons.

Any content updates during the year (e.g. new photos) will automatically appear on clicking SHIFT-REFRESH while hovering your cursor over the calendar.

Designed and made by our very own Robert Rhodan, the calendar features photos of the Bellisserian Embassies on Mainland continents, as well as our headquarters, The Gazette's editorial office and Bellihub.

You can pick you your copy from the dispensers at BBB HQ or any of the Bellisseria Embassies. All the SLURLs are in the sidebar to The Gazette. After touching the dispenser, you'll find a new folder BBB 2024 Calendar Giver in your inventory. You can Rez the BBB 2024 Calendar object from there, resizing it to taste. Be aware that you may need to walk around the object to find the side with the content on! Please be sure to have media enabled on your parcel.

Product development, article and photographs by Robert Rhodan

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New BBBug Group Gift

Available from BBB HQ we have, thanks to our kind donor Jules Catlyn, owner of [SURPLUS MOTORS], a brand new group gift for BBB User Group members. We love it and we think you will too. Jules told The Gazette;

My two biggest passions are vehicles and making people smile. 

This gift involves both of those passions as her vehicle is making us all smile. We look forward to seeing  our users rez their new buggies outside our HQ and set off to explore. Thank you Jules!  

Happy motoring – and don't forget to get your driving licence before you venture onto public roads.

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The BBB Thanks You

We had a wonderful time at the various parties for our fourth birthday. We'd like to thank all our users who partied with us. We saw more of some of you than we ever had before at the "lingerie, towel and thongs" party at the Zindra Embassy! We also got into a limerick fest at the CDS party. That may give rise to a competition in The Gazette in future - for limericks with an SL theme!

Here are some pictures (with our thanks to Moon Adamant) from the CDS event on the marketplace in Neufreistadt. You can see more of the CDS event at their Flickr feed. Our editor is keeping his promise (made so party-goers didn't feel too shy about the dress code) not to publish pictures of the Zindra party. If you weren't there and are curious, you can find Amanda's pictures of the event on her Flickr feed. 

The Nautilus event had a nautical dress code and was DJ'ed by His Excellency Freddie, the Hon Ambassador, in flawless Top Gun-style dress whites. The BBB's tech-genius, hard-working innovator Robert Rhodan, was super-smart in Naval uniform too. 

The Gaeta event was in the wonderful park donated by Her Excellency Dulci, the Hon Ambassador at the rear of the embassy. Dulci hosted for her robot DJ, who had excellent musical taste. A wonderful time was had and the guests' various takes on the "quirky" dress code were a delight. 

Our embassies are excellent party venues and it's always great to see them in active use. Please feel free to let us have ideas for events to stage at them. If the ambassador feels your suggestion promotes the relevant continent and/or its relations with Bellisseria s/he may just make it happen!

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NEW LOCATIONS

The Club is a newbie-friendly music venue, which has been going strong for thirteen years. It features live DJs between 0400 and 1000 SLT every day and is a proud sponsor of Relay For Life. It's on the positively-named region of Yes, so who can say "no" to that! Please note that this is an entirely new stamp design for an old  location.

The Dragon & Griffin Library Café describes itself modestly as "Just a quiet place to hang out". We always appreciate residents who give up their precious Linden Homes (in this case a splendid new one in the Mediterranean style) to provide a community resource. Go have a read, a coffee or a snack and don't miss the bar in the garden. It's a very relaxing place to meet with friends.

The Club PE
The Dragon and Griffin Library Cafe BE

Please feel free to leave comments. We welcome feedback! The comment form asks for an email address but that's entirely optional. Just leave it blank if you prefer.