Our 500th Stamp | Bellisseria Hidden Treasures: Mole Balloon Ride | New! Easy Listing of all your passport stamps | Letters to the Editor | Events & Announcements | New Locations

OUR 500TH PASSPORT STAMP

This week we issued the 500th unique stamp for our passports. This is a significant milestone on the BBB/CPCB journey and we are happy and proud to have reached it. Remember, our passport system is still only three years old. Our stamps are each personally designed and crafted by either the stamp-issuer or our in-house design team (or both). Ours is a hands-on bureaucracy run by real people trying to make SL more fun to live in.

The stamp that has the honour of being the 500th was already announced last week. However that was an advance notice. It was only actually issued a couple of days ago in time for the event it commemorated. It is the limited edition event stamp for the St Patrick's Day celebrations of our friends at Bellisseria Bike, Drive & Scoot!

Rocking Shamrocks Event Venue

Their Rocking Shamrocks Event was at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds yesterday. The event is already over, but it's not too late to collect this historic stamp. 

At our request, Gracie of Bellisseria Bike, Drive & Scoot has kindly agreed to place the event stamp terminal at their clubhouse for a further week, to ensure collectors get a fair chance to pick it up.

We at the BBB/CPCB would like to thank all of our passport-holders and stamp-issuers for making our quirky little mock-bureaucracy a success. We're all having fun with it and we hope you are too.

Here's to the next 500 stamps! 

---

BELLISSERIA HIDDEN TREASURES: MOLE BALLOON RIDE

When you think of Bellisseria, you probably think of lovely landscaped communities with homes for Premium residents. That is accurate, but not complete. Bellisseria is a nice place to live, but there is so much more to it. If you go out and explore, you are bound to run into some of its attractions.

I was cruising down the river that runs through the Chalet regions when I noticed a nice balloon. My first thought was that someone had rezzed one and accidentally left it unattended… I figured it would derez any second. But it did not.

So I came closer to inspect it. And I discovered the balloon was owned by Abnor Mole. Interesting...

On closer inspection I found that I could sit on it and ride the balloon. When I did, it gave me instructions on how to start and stop the balloon, as well as how to steer it. As it turns out, steering a balloon is not quite as straightforward as it sounds. You can turn it right or left, you can go up or down. But there is no control to go forward or back. You are at the mercy of the wind. It was kind of fun figuring out how to control the balloon and it provides an interesting view of the Chalet neighborhoods.

The balloon ride also came with some animations for riding the balloon and for falling out of it. One of those animations is named “Hang On,” and it looks like this:

Whatever you do, when you are up in the air on the balloon – do not “Stand.” I tried that. The balloon disappeared and I found myself hurtling to the ground, where I landed on my rear and now have a big bruise right where I sit.

If you would like to catch this balloon and try it for yourself, you will find it here.

Article and photographs by Teresa Firelight

Editor's Note: There's at least one more of these balloons available. It's near my favourite pub in Bellisseria here.

---

NEW! EASY LISTING OF ALL YOUR PASSPORT STAMPS

Anyone with a V3.00 passport can now easily generate a list of all their collected passport stamps in an external browser window. How does it work?

• A new HUD allows you to retrieve a fast-scrolling, personalised list of all your stamps, whether collected on your V3.00 passport or migrated to it from an earlier version.
• The list can be sorted by Location Name, Continent, Location Status (active, retired), Stamp Release Date¹,  Collected Date²
• Just wear the HUD, touch it and click on the personalised web link in chat.

A free copy of the HUD is enclosed with the in-world distribution notices for this week's issue of The Gazette. In a week or so, we will also deploy a dispenser at BBB HQ in Swordfish.

The HUD detects your unique avatar "key" and generates an access link with 32 random characters added, so only you can access your information.

Please note that we are using a clone of our Head Scripter, North's, master database that so elegantly solved our previous problems with losing stamps during failed teleports. The effective date of the report is indicated at the top. 

We had some very positive comments from our beta testers. For example Fuyuko said;

The HUD works perfectly. The link is generated really quickly and the list is shown right away. That the active stamps are linked with an LM is extra-sweet.

Kittensusie commented

That will be a great boost to the passport users

Dulcinea told us

I really enjoyed seeing the full list of the different stamps that I've collected, along with the links to their locations and whether they are still active or not. This is already a fantastic tool for people to use so that they can look back on their stamp collecting 'career' in SL."

We would like to thank our beta-testers for their work and for their helpful suggestions as to functionality and features. We incorporated most of their  suggestions in the final HUD and we hope you will enjoy using it.

Article by Robert Rhodan

Footnotes

¹ Where we don't have a release date in our database, the stamp will be shown as released on January 1st, 1970!

² The date of migration to V3.00 passport will be used as the date of collection

---

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

We received a note in-world from kittensusie Lander and Dulcinea Andretti, two of our users who kindly volunteered to  beta-test the new HUD announced above.

I've tried his new HUD and firstly, may I just say that Robert is a brilliant man. I love how he thinks of ways for us to be more self-sufficient when it comes to the kind of information we want to see and keep track of.

I really enjoyed seeing the full list of the different stamps that I've collected, along with links to their locations and whether they are still active or not. (Yeah, I am that kind of collection nerd!)

While checking back with me for my opinion on the beta HUD, he asked if I had any suggestions for it. I won't say what my specific suggestions were in case he chooses not to incorporate them into the finished product, but whether he does or not, this is already a fantastic tool for people to use so they can look back on their stamp collecting 'career'  in SL.

Dulcinea Andretti

******

A few weeks ago I was asked if I'd like to help beta-test the StampsOnPP HUD by Robert Rhodan (who btw is the human version of catnip!). So here are my thoughts....

1 - BACON!

2 - Do you want to see all the stamps you've collected or are looking for one particular stamp but don't want to flick through page after page? Then the StampsOnPP is the thing for you!

I've been testing the StampsOnPP for a couple of weeks now and I am really pleased with it. When you wear the HUD and click on it, you can sort the stamps by release date, collected, location name, continent or status. That brings up a link in Nearby Chat that will open up your web browser. It's as simple as that. You can even open up several links and go hunting for those stamps you are missing (I've collected a few like that).

This is going to be a great boon for all passport stamp collectors, just be aware that you MUST be using the V3 version (which is also much improved over the old style passports as you no longer need to get additional visa extensions).

So, if you haven't upgraded to V3 yet, DO IT! Then use the StampsOnPP HUD and see listings of all your stamps easily.

Thank you Robert Rhodan for making this HUD available :)

Kittensusie Landar

If you wish to comment on articles in The Gazette or any aspect of BBB/CPCB services, you are always welcome to use the comments function below. If you prefer to comment in-world, please feel free to write to the Editor for publication.

---

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other 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 or photos.

... Mikomim's Victorian Home7867 Filberty
est. 2/2023
I like a bit of everything in regards to design styles and often incorporate pieces from different periods. I enjoy spaces that feel lived in and that still maintain order and cleanliness. I don't think there is anything particularly unique to my decorating style. It's simply what I enjoy, want to come home to, and is a reflection of my tastes and interests.

*****

We are sad to announce the passing of our colleague AmandaT Tamatzui's RL father. All of us at the BBB send our condolences to Amanda, her mother and family. If you are currently dealing with Amanda on any BBB matters, please contact Robert Rhodan – her colleague on our stamp team – instead.

---

NEW LOCATIONS

The first new place to get your passport stamped this week is Sansara's Museum of Computing History. What could be more appropriate in a world that exists on, and can only by accessed via, computers! In any event, it's a great place to explore the history of computing and computer science.

We are happy to welcome another airport to the network of passport stamp-issuing transport hub locations. Blackslough Field Regional Airport is next to the Sea of Fables and is a great place to hang out and watch (or fly!) all types of aircraft. You can take a Sea of Fables hot-air balloon tour with up to 3 friends or ride a rocket pod to the associated (enormous) space station.

Speaking of airports, the SL International Airport (SLIA) complex is offering two new stamps from this week. One is at the heart of nearby Primrose Village and the other is at the village's roller-skating park. 

Museum of Computing History SN
Blackslough Regional Airport SN
SLIA Primrose Village NA
SLIA Park & Roller Skating Primrose Village NA

Sea of Fables Information Hub opens | Meet Hon. Ambassador Coughran Mayo | Events & Announcements | New Locations

SEA OF FABLES INFORMATION HUB OPENS

Sansara’s Sea of Fables is one of SL’s first and oldest community builds. It is a large protected ocean that people can sail on. It has several Linden Lab-owned islands with fun places to explore. This was pre-mesh, so they are all prim builds, but they are mostly very well done and interesting. It also has an underground labyrinth below the ocean floor. You can explore it and spend hours getting lost. It has sunken ruins and beautiful underwater gardens. It also has boat race courses and several rez zones. The Sea of Fables is quite an amazing area. Back in 2010 it was SL’s “hot spot,” but it is now mostly forgotten and unknown.

It also has some amazing privately owned areas that welcome visitors. There are marinas, airports, scenic coastal builds, forests – all sorts of fun things for people to explore. Yes, being mainland there are a few places that have ugly prims floating in the air – but most of the lands surrounding the ocean are beautifully built and scenic. Back in December of 2022, I bought a piece of land bordering the Sea of Fables and built my own scenic area called Seaside – and yes, you are most welcome to come visit it. 

A few months ago we started a project to try and build community among the land owners in the Sea of Fables area. Part of that project is building an Information Hub that represents all of the community properties, and also represents the amazing Linden Lab/Mole-built areas.

That Information Hub is the subject of this article. It is located here. The Hub itself is scenic, and you can walk directly to the Sea of Fables from it. As announced in this week's New Locations section of The Gazette, you can also get a passport stamp there.

You will find slide shows picturing the community-owned and Linden-owned properties that welcome visitors. You will find the Sea of Fables wiki page and a poster about the community and how to become involved with it.

The centre piece of the Info Hub is a large map with pins to mark interesting locations to visit. The green ones are community owned locations and the red ones are Linden-owned. If you click any of them you get a notecard about – and a landmark to – that location. If you prefer, you can click the Information Board and get a menu of locations. There will also be a Teleport board to these locations as soon as I get the bugs out of the script!

There is an activities board that gives you a notecard with landmarks to over forty locations with fun things to do. This includes things like rezzing a kayak to explore the ocean, bowling or dancing, or places to rez your own boats or planes, etc. At some near-future time, we hope there will be organised activities in the area (boating, flying, dancing, tours, etc.) and that we will have an events board to represent them.

If you haven’t been to the Sea of Fables recently, please stop by the Information Hub and see what this area offers. The Sea of Fables really is one of SL’s hidden treasures.

Article and photographs by Teresa Firelight

---

HON AMBASSADOR COUGHRAN MAYO

Last week we announced the appointment of Coughran Mayo as Honorary Ambassador to the Continent of Jeogeot. His Excellency has kindly consented to an interview with The Gazette and we spoke with him this week.

He entered Second Life® in February of 2007 and has served as Chief Administrator of Mindful Cove, a fledgling SL Community Gateway. He has also been involved with Nonprofit Commons since it was founded and has been a board member for the past two years. He told us;

I love to travel the mainland of Second Life®, mainly by walking the established roads or railroad lines, but I've found some great places by going "off the beaten path". I have a Linden Home (houseboat) in Bellisseria, but also have a relatively large landholding in Jeogeot, on the Gaenari region, where I have established a coffeeshop and a cigar club for residents to mingle and converse.

I enjoy wandering all of the Mainland but Jeogeot is a particular favorite among the known continents of SL. It is variously referred to as The Korean Continent, The Southern Continent, The Forgotten Continent and it has a rich history in the SL timeline. There is much to see and do in Jeogeot - we have remarkable planned communities, fun coffeeshops, breathtaking art galleries, beautiful parks and public spaces and much, much more.A well-established road system, and the Zany Zen Railroad provide easy ways to get around. I hope people will come visit!

I believe one of the greatest functions of Second Life is the ability for people to join in communities for recreation, conversation, or purposeful pursuits. I love the feeling of immersion that occurs when people get together. One aim for me as Honorary Ambassador is to encourage people to join the recently created citizens group and help us all work together to forge strong ties within Jeogeot and between us and Bellissaria, as well as the other Mainland continents.

There will be a formal inauguration ceremony and celebration at the embassy in due course. Watch this space for further details of that. We wish the new Hon. Ambassador all the best in his new role. 

---

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other 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 or photos.

Top collectors of passport stamps

We've decided not to publish named rankings of passport stamp collectors without the permission of the residents in question. We don't think there are data protection issues, but we're here for fun not litigation so won't be taking that risk! Far more importantly, we are well aware that some SL Residents are sensitive about any data pertaining to them and we want to respect that.

We can tell you that the resident currently in first place has collected 387 stamps out of a possible 469! Only our own test bot can beat that as she has the full set. We don't think that counts though, so she doesn't feature in the rankings.

In second place, with 345 stamps is former editor of The Gazette, the late Ms Fenella Allen. She's no longer active in SL but still logs on to do photography for us and is clearly still getting her passport stamped at new locations! The current editor is in sixth place with 308.

As the rankings stand, you will be in the Top Ten if you have 255 stamps or more. You will be in the Top Twenty if you have 213 stamps or more. If you are in the Top Twenty and would like to know precisely where you rank, just IM your editor Dave (Lord.Junibalya) in-world or email him using the link in the sidebar. He will be happy to let you know.

Those of us in the BBB who have access to the lists are very happy to see the names of so many of our supporters and friends. Thank you all for taking part in our mock-bureaucratic fun! 

*****

Thanks to all who attended last week's Mainland Community Alliance Party in Nautilus

Despite the announcement of the event here being a day late last week, there was an excellent attendance at the party at AmandaT Tamatzui's art gallery. Hon. Ambassador Freddie did a great job as DJ and much fun was had by all – including your Editor. Here's one of Amanda's photographs from the event. Thank you to all who attended and made it such a success. 

---

NEW LOCATIONS

The Second Life Environmental Corps (SLEC) continues to roll out its key infrastructure on the grid. This week its new location is the Incident Response Centre on Nautilus. Another active location, the SL International Airport now also offers a passport stamp at its bowling alley.

The Oasis Café and Park is a place to enjoy coffee and cake while relaxing in the tranquility of a peaceful park. You can try your hand at painting and yoga (best not at the same time) or just hang out and enjoy the scenery. There's another café in a park at the wonderfully-named Happy Zone No Bad Mood park. Take a walk through the park from the passport terminal to find the café.

Next is the Sea of Fables Info Hub, as to which please see our leading article this week for more information. If you drink coffee at all the new locations this week, you will never sleep. The next café location is Starborn Café near to the art gallery of the same name.

Finally, our friends at Bellisseria Bike, Drive and Scoot! are having a St. Patrick's day event at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds on 17th March (the big green day itself). The stamp will not be available until the day of the event but this was the last chance to announce it in The Gazette. Happy St Paddy's Day to all! Enjoy the craich.

SLEC - Incident Response NA
SLIA Galaxy Games and Bowling Alley NA
Oasis Cafe and Park JE
Happy Zone no Bad Mood SN
Sea Of Fables Info Hub SN
Starborn Café GV
Bellisseria Bike, Drive & Scoot! Rocking Shamrocks Event! BE 17th March 2023 (no stamp until the day)

Stamp Statistics | Around & About | Events & Announcements | New Locations

STAMP STATISTICS

Thanks to Robert Rhodan's expertise with SQL and extensions to our Chief Scripter, North Crannock's, passport master database for our new v3.00 passports, we've some stats to share with you. To be clear, many more stamps than these have been issued. Your editor's stamp terminals at his space station and art galleries each report more collected than the #1 location on this list! That's because the table below only uses data collected from the new v 3.00 passports. As they are still new and many of you have not upgraded yet, the numbers are relatively small. However, it's a fun insight, which will become more indicative over time. 

We could not collect stats from the earlier versions of the passport, so this adds a whole new dimension. The table below shows the top fifteen locations by numbers of stamps issued. It's interesting that so many are embassies. Perhaps that's because (apart from occasional visitors who stumble upon them) most people go there in full knowledge of our passports. Many non-Bellisserian residents actually obtain their passport at their local embassy so it's natural they then collect their first stamp from the terminal nearby.

We are open to suggestions but our initial thought is that the most useful information we could provide would be visitor counts over time, so landowners with our stamp terminals could see – for example – how their visitor count is affected by any events they stage. As our technology progresses, new possibilities emerge. We can't wait to see what the future holds!

Ranking	Location	Continent	Stamps issued
1	Heterocera Embassy	HE	101
2	Nautilus Embassy	NA	92
3	Jeogeot Embassy	JE	87
4	Satori Embassy	ST	87
5	Corsica Embassy	CA	82
6	Sansara Embassy	SN	80
7	Randelsham Forest	BE	66
8	SL19B Event	BE	58
9	Fantasy Community Center	BE	56
10	Chippewa Town Hall	BE	55
11	Bellis Blues Cafe	BE	52
12	Meauxle Bureaux	SN	52
13	Rungardvik	PE	52
14	Mt. Campion National Forest	HE	51
15	Party House and Gym	BE	51

---

AROUND & ABOUT

Second Life® is hard to explain to friends and family who are not residents. They understand computer gaming of course. It is by far the largest part of the global entertainment industry –  five times bigger than the movie business – so needs little explanation these days. They also understand online forums for interests like the arts, nature or photography. They probably use or contribute to such sites themselves. They may also enjoy hobbies or crafts so will know the fun to be had in building and creating.

SL, however, is none of those things – and all of them. It's just a virtual venue for whatever you have in mind. Even long-time residents like your Editor will often find people using SL in ways he'd never have expected. So answering the apparently simple question "What is SL?" is not easy. Like life itself, it's whatever you make of it! All aspects of human life are here, from the glorious to the sleazy.

Owl Dragonash, a well-known figure in the SL art world – and one of the nicest residents you could ever hope to meet – has had a try at answering the SLexistential question over at her blog Owl's Eye. You might find it useful to share with your SL-curious friends! If you think Owlie has missed anything, feel free to submit an article to us here at The Gazette, setting out your own answer. 

Not everyone in SL will be a user of Discord, but it's becoming a more and more important communication channel. At the BBB, it's now the main way our volunteer staff keep in touch with each other as we go about our cod-bureaucratic work. Several of us have also become involved in the lively Discord Channel of the Mainland Community Alliance – an SL Group founded by Emm Vintner (emmalee.evergarden), which is;

...focused on the revitalization of the Mainland through the enrichment, beautification and promotion of Mainland projects and initiatives.

It's a good way to keep up with the various MCA activities, including the excellent Rails, Trails, and Sails social events, which are great for those of us who like to travel through SL in less banal ways than teleportation. Sailing, biking, driving and horse riding are all more fun when done with others - in SL as much as in RL.

If you're on Discord, we'd suggest signing up. If not – and if you're lucky enough to have a free slot – just join the group in-world in the usual way.

---

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other 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 or photos.

 

New Honorary Ambassador to Jeogeot

We are pleased to announce the appointment of  Coughran Mayo as the new Honorary Ambassador to the SL Continent of Jeogeot. Further details will follow. In the meantime, we congratulate His Excellency on his appointment. 

*****

New article at Parade of Homes Review

Teresa Firelight is continuing her series on modular kitchens for your SL homes over at our sister publication The Parade of Homes Review. 

*****

The Limoncello Arts Theatre

On the 21st floor of the LG Tower, which houses part of the collections of the Limoncello Art Gallery, there is a theatre space designed for poetry readings and other artistic events. Like the gallery itself, it's a non-commercial space. If you would like to use it for an event or meeting associated with the arts, please contact Dave (Lord Junibaly) the gallery owner, in-world. He'll be happy to make it available to you and to give you rights to rez any signage etc. you may need for your event. 

The Limoncello Arts Theatre

As a location that issues our passport stamps, The Limoncello Art Gallery is entitled to use this Events & Announcements section of The Gazette. So any events you organise there can be publicised here, free of charge. 

*****

The Easter Holidays are coming

If your SL home is listed on Parade of Homes and you plan to decorate it for the holidays, you can request a special seasonal PoH listing so visitors can enjoy your work. Just apply by using this web form, where you can also upload additional photographs. This temporary seasonal listing won't replace or affect your permanent PoH details. 

*****

More good news for passport stamp afficionados

Flipping through the pages of your passport to check if you already have a neat stamp you saw in the Gazette Online Travel Guide (GOTG) or the StampFinder HUD (StaFi) can be tedious, but we have a new solution! You can now use this web form to request a list of all your passport stamps. The list will be delivered in PDF format and will be available only to you via a secure link.

 

Here's an example of what it will look like. 

 

click to enlarge

Please note that this only applies if you have upgraded to V3.00 of our passports. Please don't submit more than one request per quarter, so as not to burden Robert unduly. We hope you'll find this a useful service. It's certainly yet another argument to upgrade your Bellisserian or CPCB Passport to V3.00. Please give the service a try and let us know what you think!

---

NEW LOCATIONS

Living in SL Expo 2023 is a new mega-event for the American Cancer Society / Relay for Life, replacing the much-loved Home & Garden Expo. You can read all about it at the ACS website. The BBB is happy to support such a great cause and delighted that holders of BBB/CPCB passports will be able to collect a special event stamp when they visit.

Last week we announced a new stamp available from the SL Environmental Corps training facility. From this week, you can also collect one from the SLEC's magnificent new Headquarters. There's a lot of information there and it's well worth a visit.

ATG Garden is a new location provided by Uri Morpork and landscaped by our very own AmandaT Tamatzui. It's a peaceful little spot with a swimming pool and game table next to Amanda's art gallery in Nautilus.

There's a lot of action in Nautilus this week. Our next new stamp-issuing location is also on that continent: a live music venue called The Wherehouse. 

Our staff photographer happened to visit the magnificent baroque stately home at Schlossberg Salem this week and ran into the owner, Kαrℓ-Ąℓεxαηɗεr vσn βαdεn. We're pleased he accepted her suggestion to install a stamp terminal. He's been working in this project for many years and we hope you enjoy it when you stop by to stamp your passport. Stamp designer Robert told The Gazette; 

The Margraviate of Baden (German: Markgrafschaft Baden) was a historical territory of the Holy Roman Empire." The "Greif" is a heraldic animal for Baden, so that is why I depicted it on the coat of arms

Amanda unfortunately didn't make her announcement in time so it's too late to recommend you attend the Mainland Community Alliance party at her Gallery – again – in Nautilus. We hope you received your invitations via in-world groups and Discord and had a wonderful time. If not, the beautiful Event Stamp remains available for the next two weeks, so you still have chance to collect it. 

Living in SL Expo PE Event: March 3-12, 2023
SLEC SL Environmental Corps - HQ NA
ATG Gardens NA
The Wherehouse NA
Schlossberg Salem PE
Mainland Community Alliance / Party @ATG NA Event: 3rd March

Farewell to Boo & Fi | Events & Announcements | New Locations

FAREWELL TO BOO & FI

The Bellisseria Bureau of Bureaucracy (BBB) is an-all volunteer organisation that exists to foster community and create fun things for SL residents to do. It was originally created to serve Bellisseria, but soon expanded to serve all of Second Life®. The BBB is best known for its passports and passport stamp system. This allows people get their own personalised passport then run around to all sorts of interesting places to collect stamps for it. The BBB also issues driving licences and car registration plates. It also provides a postal service, a listing of beautifully decorated homes open for guests to tour (the Parade of Homes), a regular weekly publication known as The Gazette, embassies to promote connections between Mainland and Bellisserian residents, fun activities and other assorted goodies.

The BBB is the vision and “brain-child” of Boo Rojyo. He got caught up in the excitement of the new release of Linden Homes in early 2020. Boo and his RL wife, Fiona Jogiches, both loved Linden Lab’s vision to create a community. They wanted to be a part of promoting that – and thus the BBB was born. It started small, but rapidly grew.

Three years later, the BBB is well established and Boo and Fiona’s RL has changed. After some soul searching, they decided it was time to retire, step away from the BBB and focus more on some RL things. Their official “last day” at the BBB is Feb 28, 2023.

I caught Boo before he could slip away and he granted me an interview. So here it is:

When did you first start the Bellisseria Bureau of Bureaucracy (BBB)?

It began in a very small way back in January 2020

How did this come about? Or what gave you the idea?

I can't recall exactly. Bellisseria was very new and I got caught up with the buzz of community it seemed to encourage, so wanted to do something. I love travel in both RL and SL, so passports seemed a fun idea. That is the first thing that BBB started with. It grew from there into many other things.

What made you choose the name “Bureau of Bureaucracy?”

I chose it because it sounded grand and silly at the same time. However, over the last three years, I've probably lost tendons in my fingers repeatedly typing ‘Bellisseria Bureau of Bureaucracy.’”

I know the BBB has done many projects… some short term, such as events, and others long term ongoing projects. Please share one or two of your favourite projects, and why you liked them?

The BBB 2^nd Anniversary celebration event was great. I remember hanging around the Fairground and just taking in the sense of community. I'm also very proud of the collaboration with the Drivers of SL and our BBB rally. The navigation HUD for that is still available to try at the BBB HQ. You said two and it's now three, but The Gazette is another great accomplishment that I just have to mention. This one is all the better because it is not of my making  [Aww shucks, Ed.].

If you had to choose one BBB accomplishment that you are most most proud of or pleased with, what would it be?

The BBB is going to survive my departure, as there are some great people determined to make it succeed. I believe that creating something that outlives my personal input is my greatest accomplishment.

Other than your RL wife Fiona, who were the first BBB staff members you recruited to help you with the project? And how did you go about doing that?

We're going back in the mists of time now. Roughly simultaneously, quite a few people got involved. Pru (Prudenceanton) and Gingir Ghoststar showed instant support and publicity. Bel (Jezebel Bailey) and Sun (Dark Sunflower) were keen contributors, as was North Crannock. I really don't think the BBB would have developed like it has without any of those being involved.

Speaking of your wife and long time BBB staff member Fi., how did you two meet?

We met in RL shortly after the dinosaurs exited the earth. We both stumbled on Second Life® in 2006, and with some time on our hands we quickly grew to love it.

You and Fiona are long time Bellisseria residents. So pls share what your favorite house style is and why?

I'm definitely a Houseboat fan. Fiona loves quite a few styles, but she is very fond of the Victorians.

Is there anything you would like to say to the BBB staff as you step away for a well-deserved retirement?

I'd like to name you all if I could -- those that are here now, and also those that have come and gone. My memory over three years isn't perfect so I dread missing somebody out. So you all know who you are, and I'm constantly humbled you take the trouble to contribute to the BBB project. Pretty much everyone who becomes involved with the BBB leaves their mark; and I'd like to think the BBB leaves a mark (a good one) on each of them too.

Likewise, is there anything you would like to say to the Bellisseria community?

I'd like to say thanks for playing along with our pseudo bureaucracy, I hope you have had fun. Please continue to support the guys who've taken the trouble to keep the BBB going. I'm not leaving SL, so you can still talk to me. I imagine that I will be seen lurking around the occasional BBB event in the future, like the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Article & Photographs by Teresa Firelight.

---

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other 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 or photos.

ARTSVILLE FEATURES IN LINDEN LAB MOVIE

One of our passport stamp-issuing locations is the café at Artsville, a wonderful art gallery location co-owned by (full disclosure) a close friend of your editor.

As well as featuring it in Second Life® Destinations this week, Linden Lab has made a wonderful little movie about Artsville, which we hope will encourage you (if you haven’t already) to visit and take in the art shows before getting your passport stamped at the café.

Builds like this are what makes SL special to artists and art aficionados. Enjoy!

---

NEW LOCATIONS

We have a new nature location this week. Calland Countryside is a rustic and peaceful rural area on a private estate. You can shop, go fishing, hang out by the lighthouse or visit the mountain cabin. Our second new location is a fire station on the continent of Nautilus: Legion Fire & Rescue. If you want to get involved in SL fire-fighting, the application forms are right outside.

Dealing with a different kind of emergency, the SL Environmental Corps is a wing of the SL Coast Guard (SLCG) with a mission to enhance environmental awareness. The Codfather has a jollier connection to the sea than the SLCG. It's a beach pub and music venue on Brehana's (Bre's) Ocean Bre's parcel (get it? We love a good parcel name pun!)

We also have a new airport in our transport network this week. There's no more appropriate place to get your passport stamped than Second Life International Airport, also in Nautilus. Finally our old friends at the Viking settlement of Rungardvik are now issuing a passport stamp from their fascinating (and very modern) museum of the Viking way of life. We think you'll enjoy your visit.

Calland Countryside PE
Legion Fire & Rescue at Avery Hills NA
SLEC Training Greenhouse SN
The Codfather NA
SL International Airport NA
Rungardvik Viking Museum PE

Mainland & Generic Passports upgraded to V3.00 | A BBB3B Surprise | New Bureaucrat joins the team | New Hon Ambassador to Satori | Events & Announcements | New Locations

MAINLAND / GENERIC PASSPORTS UPGRADED TO V3.00

On December 24th last year, we launched version 3.00 of the Bellisseria Passport, featuring a single HUD (no more additional visa pages required) and stamps served directly from our database so that teleport glitches can no longer cause them to be lost.

If you haven't upgraded yet, you really should. It's a great improvement and we've been getting positive feedback from users. Just head over to HQ and fill in the upgrade from from the board there.

The Generic SL Passport V3.00

We are now delighted to announce that the passports issued by our associated bureaucracy – the Continental Passport Control Board – have also been updated to version 3.00. These are the automatically-generated passports for SL's mainland continents and the generic version for SL's homeless, private island owners and estate-dwellers.

Just head over to your continent's embassy (or any embassy for the generic version). The SLURLs for the embassies are all in the sidebar. There you can get yourself a new passport and follow the fun instructions to transfer stamps from your old one to our database. Once you've transferred them from all your old HUDs, your whole collection – including stamps that are no longer available – will appear on your new V3.00 passport. 

The new passports also have fields for “species” and “sex” for more detailed personalisation. 

We're very proud of our head scriptor – North's – innovative technique of using your avatar's body as a data conduit to transfer the stamps. Try it. It will make you laugh! It may look a bit odd, but it's actually a clever way to link your avatar's unique ID to each of the stamps in your collection on our database.  We don't think it's ever been done before.

---

BBB3B SURPRISE

The BBB continues to celebrate its third anniversary. As another little gift to the community – in addition to the 2023 calendar and the eight BBB3B event stamps currently available at the embassies and our HQ – we've made a fun compilation of twenty-five of our favourite stamps. You can obtain it in PDF form here or from the Information & Resources section in the sidebar to The Gazette.

Some of the stamps have been made by (or in association with) the landowners concerned, but most were created by our in-house design team past and present; Sun, Robert Rhodan, AmandaT Tamatzui and our much-missed former colleague, Ghost.

The collection includes comments from the designers and some background stories on how the stamps came to be.

We've enlarged the images for the booklet, as the stamps on your passports are tiny (though in the Gazette Online Travel Guide, the StampFinder HUD and its associated webpage, you can always click stamp images to enlarge them).

As of today, the stamp team has issued three hundred and eighty unique stamps! We're looking forward to reaching the milestone of our five hundredth stamp sometime next year.

We think the personal attention and effort that goes into creating passport stamps tailored to the locations makes collecting  them all the more meaningful – and fun. 

We hope you enjoy the collection, which includes some stamps from past events and defunct locations that are no longer available to collect. If you'd like a stamp of your own for your qualifying SL location, please send in your applications via the board at BBB HQ.

Article by Robert Rhodan, BBB Stamp Team.

---

NEW BUREAUCRAT JOINS THE TEAM

We are happy to welcome a new colleague, Laurelrose Anthony ("Laurel") to the BBB team. Laurel will be in charge of processing applications for Bellisseria Passports, taking over from Zoo.

Laurel arrived in SL after seeing a CBS This Morning story about someone who had given up an RL job to make money here.

Constantly amazed at the creativity of this virtual world, Laurel has tried very many things. She has made jewellery, modelled, was a cheerleader for SL football and a dancer for a small dance troupe. She has learned to use GIMP and Photoshop because of SL and enjoys "playing" with that.

Nowadays, RL takes more of her time than she likes. She still finds some time for shopping and is always looking for a challenge. A friend on the BBB staff mentioned that there might be a spot for her here.

Bellisseria has been a haven for Laurel. She loves to decorate so Linden Homes are a great pastime. She told The Gazette;

What better way to take that interest to the next level but to help the people who strive to make Belli a better place to be.

We are happy to have Laurel on board and look forward to working with her. If you have a moment, please stop by and say hello to her.

---

NEW HONORARY AMBASSADOR TO SATORI

We are pleased to announce the appointment of His Excellency Jarrod Beck as the Honorary Ambassador to Satori. Jarrod will take office immediately. We will announce details of his official inauguration ceremony at the embassy in due course. The Gazette asked Jarrod about his connection to Satori.

My favourite thing about the Satori Continent is its location. Not only can you explore the vastness of the continent itself by road or air, but you can also navigate along its coast by boat all the way to Bellisseria in the south or the Blake Sea and Nautilus in the North. The Mole Village is well worth a visit. Not only is it very quaint, but it is the home of the moles and the Department of Public Works. There are also teleports to various interesting locations in the main building there. Having water access to the Blake Sea, an airport and being connected to Satori’s route 8, the GTFO World Headquarters and Drivers of SL HQ is a great starting point for explorers of any kind. Bear Castle is home to over 550 Linden & Mole Bears, collected by multiple residents over the years. The embassy offers a tour HUD for all the Mole and Linden builds around the continent, so make sure to stop by!

Jarrod has been a resident of Bellisseria since the start and loves the fun and creative community that has evolved there He holds our Bellisseria Passport (now to be replaced by a diplomatic passport of course) and told us that;

The BBB, managed by dedicated volunteers, is a great addition – bringing together the Bellisserians with the rest of mainland in a bureaucratic, yet fun, way!

In his spare time, Jarrod enjoys exploring the grid, whether it be by horse, car, boat, or plane. When not exploring, he's usually decorating, landscaping or shopping for pieces he can use in his projects. He loves meeting new people and spending time with his SL friends. He told The Gazette;

I will do my very best to continue the great work my predecessor, Bijoux, has done. I am looking forward to working together with the BBB and Satori residents to promote our great community! I want to help bring Satorians and Bellissarians closer together so they can make new friendships and enjoy their Second Lives more fully. Team work makes the dream work!

We welcome Jarrod to Bellisseria's Corps Diplomatique and look forward to working with him.

Article by BBB Staff | Photo by H.E. Jarrod Beck

---

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other 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 or photos.

... Buunniee's My Rustic Home
est. 1/2023 "My inspiration was southwest,south of the border feel."

 

New article in Parade of Homes Review

Teresa Firelight continues her series about kitchens in Parade of Homes Review this week. Her second article on the subject is to be found here. Please check it out and comment.

---

NEW LOCATIONS

We have two new stamp locations this week. Baseball Guy has a stamp available at his MLB (Major League Baseball) exhibit featuring players who served in the US military.  The SLURL takes you to the main entrance so you'll need to find the exhibit on the baseball-shaped teleporter. We also have a stamp from a health & wellness centre in beautiful Bellisseria, where you can "Earn RP certificates in SL & RL safety, health and wellness, and more!" The centre commemorates Leighsa Carter (Lovewins2015 Resident). You'll need to head upstairs to find our stamp terminal.

MLB Military Veterans Exhibit ST
Leighsa Carter Health & Wellness Center BE

Meet the Ambassadors: Update | FAQs | Zoo takes a break | Events & Announcements | New Locations

MEET THE AMBASSADORS: UPDATE

Satori Embassy

(click to enlarge / scroll full-size)

• 
• 

In the last seven issues we've met the Hon. Ambassadors to the SL continents of Corsica, Gaeta, Heterocera, Jeogeot, Nautilus, Sansari and Satori. There are changes in progress in our Corps Diplomatique, so I'd like to wrap up by bringing you up to date. 

1. After completing their first term, two ambassadors have stepped down because of RL commitments. Jack Vincent (Hon Ambassador to Corsica) and Yukiko Yeshto (Hon Ambassador to Sansara) have both resigned at the end of their first term.
2. Her Excellency Bijoux Barr has transferred from the Satori Embassy to take over the Corsica Embassy from Jack. She has also kindly agreed to continue to look after Satori until a new ambassador is appointed.
3. His Excellency Freddie Harrington (Hon Ambassador to Nautilus) will also watch over the Sansara Embassy until a new ambassador is found.
4. Her Excellence Fiona Jogiches (Hon Ambassador to Gaeta) originally planned to complete a second term. Unfortunately there some RL changes have limited her time in Second Life®, making it difficult for Fiona to fulfil her duties. Her last day as ambassador will be February 28th, 2023. Gaeta is important to us and will not be abandoned. Look out for an announcement in The Gazette soon. 
5. Her Excellency Hon. Ambassador Dariah Raynier (Heterocera) will serve a second term. She remains active, and – for example – has arranged a tour for today (February 11th) at Noon SLT. This is a Ranger-Led tour of Mount Campion National Forest. It is a different tour than the one she arranged last year and traces the route the Bear Paw Tribe took as they migrated around Mount Campion while telling their story. Everyone is welcome (whether or not you live on Heterocera). If you would like to attend this tour, please arrive here by 11:50 AM SLT today.

The remaining ambassadors are planning to meet soon to discuss the future. They'll pool their first year of experience, look at what works well, and come up with a plan. We look forward to learning how they will move forward with the Embassies.

Article by Teresa Firelight | Photo by staff photographer

---

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

In the three years of our existence as Second Life®'s leading bureaucracy we've become accustomed to answering your questions about our work. We decided to collate the most frequently asked questions. You can now find that FAQ file in the sidebar. We hope you find it helpful. 

Please don't be discouraged from contacting us directly though. At our Headquarters there are indicator boards to show which of our bureaucrats are online and you are always welcome to contact us with praise, constructive criticism or questions. As volunteers, one of the main rewards for our efforts is the fun we have meeting you all. So don't be shy! If you have other questions you think should feature in the FAQ please click on the email the editor link in the sidebar.

---

ZOO TAKES A BREAK

Zoo riding off on her bike

One of our most hard-working bureaucrats, Zoo, is leaving the BBB for an extended break. She has been with us since March 2021, taking care of the individually-processed applications for our various products. She's been the heart and soul of our bureaucratic operations;

Zoo told The Gazette;

Since I joined the BBB, I've had a great time. It was a joy to be part of the original team, who every day try their best to contribute to the SL experience. I very much enjoyed making and issuing our passports, licences and licence plates and receiving the nicest reactions in return! I have made 916 passports, 352 licences, 296 registration plates and took care of 364 update requests.

Though it's fun, it also takes up a lot of time. I also have an RL job to do. Increasingly I've felt I need a well-earned break. So I've decided to cease my BBB activities at the end of this month. I don't want to burn any bridges on my way out, so let's just call it a long break. Who knows what the future may bring! I wish you all much joy and happiness in your SL. Don't be a stranger when you bump into me around the grid!

We all love Zoo and are immensely grateful for all she has done during her time with us. We wish her all the best for her future SL endeavours and our door is open when she's taken that well-earned break!

In the meantime we are lucky enough to have found someone to take over Zoo's workload. She is in training at the moment and we will announce her appointment shortly. Our bureaucratic work will continue unabated!

---

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other 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 or photos.

 

Kitchen Feature in this week's Parade of Homes Review

Teresa Firelight has written an interesting new article at our sister publication, the BBB's Parade of Homes Review. It is all about low-LI kitchens to beautify your Second Life® home. Check it out. It's the first of a series of articles on the subject so remember to bookmark PoH-R.

*****

Parade of Homes Yard Signs

 

We love the fact that so many SL residents are prepared to open their homes for others to enjoy. The Parade of Homes provides interior design inspiration to many. It's frustrating though when we set out to explore the homes on the list and find that owners have forgotten they signed up to the scheme! Or even that they've given up the home and the new owner is unaware it's registered. We've encountered locked doors and active security orbs (some even in breach of the Bellisseria Covenant!). 

 

We're a fun volunteer service for residents, not a police force. We don't want to enforce the covenant or even our own rules. We'd just like to remind you that if you join Parade of Homes, you need to leave your home open to visitors. You should also place the yard sign that indicates to passing avatars that your home is open. If you've lost yours, you can obtain a new one from BBB Headquarters. 

 

Of course, if you no longer want to leave your home open, that's up to you. Just follow the link at Parade of Homes Review to leave the scheme. We hope you don't because we love visiting your homes, but it is your decision always.

---

NEW LOCATIONS

We are delighted to welcome back The Embassy for Peace & Human Rights. It was formerly in Bellisseria, but has now relocated to Nautilus. We are strictly apolitical here at The Gazette but human rights (properly understood) are beyond politics. They are – almost by definition – the fundamental beliefs of civilised mankind. If you find such things as freedom of speech, due process or the presumption of innocence controversial, we're not going to worry about offending you. The embassy's stamp has been redesigned to reflect its new location. Why not pay it a visit?

It's been a while since we had a new stamp from a Linden Department of Public Works location, so we're happy to announce you can now get your passport stamped at Bellirock Beach in Bellisseria where the dirt roads of the log homes give way to navigable waters full of stilt homes.

The name of the beach reflects the fact that Bellisseria has been spelled out in rocks there by Moonstruck Mole.

The Embassy for Peace & Human Rights NA
Bellirock Beach BE

 

Founder to Retire from BBB | Meet the Ambassadors: Jack Vincent | Events & Announcements | New Locations

FOUNDER TO RETIRE FROM BBB

Boo Rojyo, the CEO and Founder of the Bellisserian Bureau of Bureaucracy will retire from the BBB at the end of this month. In announcing this to his colleagues, Boo said;

My RL has changed quite a lot in the last year. The time I can dedicate to the BBB, or SL for that matter, has become quite limited. I've really loved all the BBB projects and activities, and the friendships it has brought, however it's time I moved on. I have tried reducing my BBB responsibilities, but I can't stop myself getting involved. I've decided therefore to make a complete break from the BBB. My plan is to cease activities as the 'boss' by the end of February.

Boo's PA Fiona Jogiches will also leave at the same time. The Gazette will publish a tribute to Boo and Fi before they finally leave. For now, all of us at the BBB would just like to thank them for all they've done – for us and for the SL community generally – and wish them well for the future. We are going to miss them. 

At a meeting of the BBB Board this week, Bel (jezebel.bailey) our former CEO was reappointed to that role. The bureaucratic work of the BBB will continue. 

---

MEET THE AMBASSADORS: JACK VINCENT

We are continuing our series Meet the Ambassadors. We interview each of them so you can get a feel for who they are and what they do. This week we meet Ambassador Jack Vincent. The series will wrap up next week with a summary article.

Jack is the seventh and final ambassador in this series. The interviews for all seven were done at the same time almost 2 months ago. Since then, some RL stuff has made it necessary for Jack to step down at the end of his first one-year term. But we still want to cover the work he did during his term.

What SL Continent are you an Ambassador for? And where can people find your embassy?

I am Ambassador for the continent of Corsica, located in the region of Timescape. The embassy can be found here 

Please share your favorite thing about this continent. And do you have suggestions for places to visit?

Corsica has some amazing things, such as an elaborate and beautiful Italian Style build.

My favourite feature is the Circuit La Corse, a road that connects the entire eastern part of the continent. I wish the other sections of Corsica could have such an interconnected road.

How long have you been an ambassador now? And what motivated you to become an ambassador?

I have been Ambassador to Corsica for a year now! I was motivated by a desire to learn more about Corsica and its residents and history while at the same time helping to inspire others to want to explore the continents of both Corsica and Bellisseria.

What was the most special event you either held at your Embassy or sponsored for your continent?

My favorite was the opening of The Decks, where I invited Bellisserians and people from other continents. It was a great way to highlight another region of the continent of Corsica instead of just the regions that are traditionally known.

What is your favorite thing about Bellisseria that you tell residents of your continent?

I love to follow the Bellisseria Boat Parade HUD and take tours around different parts of Bellisseria. Even though the group no longer has a regular time everyday that they gather for the parade the HUD is still available.

What do you like to do in your spare time (or when you are not busy with your ambassador duties)?

I love to go listen to DJs and attend art events. Club Nuit's events are usually fun and have great builds that they change for every event. The Vordun Museum and Gallery is a great art gallery.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people do not know.

I used to be a “fire fighter” in SL, and we would “put out fires” as a group. That's pretty much all I can say about that!

Do you have anything else you would like to share?

I would just encourage every resident of SL, no matter where you reside, to explore the mainland continents and encourage others to do so as well. It really helps to give people a sense of being connected by and to the land.

Article & Photo by Teresa Firelight

---

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other 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 or photos.

Join the BBB!

If you are interested in volunteering to work for the BBB, please contact Bel (jezebel.bailey) in-world.

---

NEW LOCATIONS

Kot Community Center is located just off Route 9A in Jeogeot. You can enjoy a game of tennis, swim in the pool, watch a movie or do some yoga. There's free parking for four hours, so you can also use it as a base to explore further. We were lucky enough to meet owner Elise Fugazi when we visited to take our photo and she told us; 

I want to show others that community does exist in mainland and that there are many places in Jeogeot and other continents that people can come and enjoy.

The centre is a project of Elise's organisation Beautify Mainland. Apart from her own builds, Elise does design work for other mainland residents. 

Kot Community Center JE

BBB3B | News about Bonniebots | Linden Homes Stats | Meet the Ambassadors | Events & Announcements | New Locations

BBB3B

The first of our passports was issued in January 2020 to our founder, Boo Rojyo. So the BBB is three years old this month. Last year we celebrated BBB2B at the Bellisseria Fairgrounds, but this year the occasion is passing off more quietly.

We're not allowing it to pass unnoticed however. If you visit BBB HQ you will find a special event stamp terminal on the garden terrace to the rear where you can obtain an elegant commemorative BBB3B stamp for your passport.

And, as they say on the shopping channels, there's more! You can collect different celebratory stamps at each of the Continental Embassies. All the SLURLs you need are in today's New Locations section (below). They'll also be – of course – on your StaFi HUD. So why not see who can be first to collect them all? Let us know in the comments as soon as you've done so. Your date-stamped comment will be proof of your achievement. 

We at the BBB and CPCB are volunteers. Nobody here makes a Linden penny from our work. We do what we do just to make Second Life® more entertaining and to encourage people to explore this wonderful metaverse of ours. Our stamps are to be found all over the grid. We're happy that our passports are now available to everyone in SL so even more people can join in the fun of touring SL and collecting the stamps to prove it.

Happy birthday to us! We thank you for all your enthusiastic support over the past three years of bureaucratic hijinks. Here's to the next year, and beyond.

---

NEWS ABOUT BONNIEBOTS

Last week we reported that the BBB is working with the team behind the Bonniebots to use their systems to track our stamp terminals in-world. That way – even if it slips the mind of a landowner to tell us about a moved or deleted terminal – we can keep the Gazette Online Travel Guide (GOTG) and our in-world StaFi (stamp finder) HUD up to date. 

As last week's issue went to press – sooner than we expected – the new system went live. Our stamp team has now toured the locations it flagged up and updated our publications.

The BBB Stamp Terminal Status Page

We would like to thank the Bonniebots team for their prompt assistance. A link to the stamp terminal status page is now in the sidebar to The Gazette. Our stamp team will monitor it regularly for any changes.

Please check out the Bonniebots' website. You may be surprised what you can learn from the up-to-the-minute, publicly-available data they've collated there.

We are aware the SL Forums have been full of animated discussions about the Bonniebots. Some Residents have expressed concerns and the Lindens have taken an interest. New World Notes reported on Wednesday that Patch Linden – following his own comment on the forums –  met with the Bonniebots team to discuss the service and Residents' privacy concerns.

At that meeting, the Bonniebots team agreed to alter their system to provide certain opt-outs. Until those are in place, they have suspended the avatar search function and removed merchant names from the MarketPlace sales rankings. 

---

LINDEN HOMES STATISTICS

People often ask statistical questions about Bellisseria...such as… “How many regions do we have?”, “How many Bellisseria homeowners are there?”, “How much of Bellisseria is unoccupied?”, etc. Now with the aid of the Bonniebots (see previous article) some of this information is finally available.

Lets start with the big picture. As of 5:30 am on January 24th, there were a total of 38,178 Bellisseria homes and 41,724 of the pre-Bellisseria old-style Linden Homes. Of those, 30,616 Bellisseria and 15,103 pre-Bellisseria homes were occupied. That means that 7,562 Bellisseria homes were unoccupied, giving a vacancy rate of almost 20%.

We can't be really specific about Houseboats, Trads and Campers because these three styles are often mixed together on the same subcontinent. Bonniebots report their findings by regions (some of which are mixed) and in summary by subcontinent.

We can determine however that Houseboats, Stilts and Victorians are among the most popular, with a low vacancy rate. As Trads infrequently appear on the Land Page, we can safely assume they are also popular. Trads are mostly on the Old Belli, Squishy Pickle and Pickle subcontinents, which all have extremely low vacancy rates.

The Chalets and Fantasy Homes had the highest vacancy rates (52% and 55% respectively) and Sakurasseria was close behind with 49% vacancy. You could probably have gathered that from the Land Page, because there are always Chalets, Fantasy and Sakura homes available. However you might be surprised to learn that, while Newbrooks are usually available, only 25% of them are unoccupied).

Our source for this article is this Bonniebots page. Please be aware that this is dynamically updated on a daily basis so numbers will change from day to day. Here is a screenshot of the summary report at the time of writing.

Article & Photograph by Teresa Firelight

---

MEET THE AMBASSADORS: YUKIKO YESHTO

We are continuing our series Meet the Ambassadors, in which we interview each of them so you can get a feel for who they are and what they do. This week we meet Yukiko Yeshto.

Yukiko was the ambassador to Sansara at the time of this interview. She has had some demanding RL stuff come up that makes it necessary for her to step down at the end of her first one-year term. She has done an outstanding job and this interview covers her term of office.

What SL Continent are you an Ambassador for? And where can people find your embassy?

I am Ambassador for Sansara and the embassy can be found in the Hennepin region.

Please share your favourite thing about this continent.

Sansara is the oldest Mainland continent. It has quite a few historical locations to discover, many active communities and beautiful spots to visit. You can hang out there or live in (and be a part of) them. Sansara also offers a huge winter area named 'the Snowlands'.

Do you have suggestions for places to visit in your Continent?

There are too many to pick from! I'd always recommend you start by traveling along the protected routes and coasts. The best surprises come when you stumble over a hidden gem. Sansara has many of those. 

When you explore, please be careful not to enter private homes by accident. Always check the land description to make sure the place is open to the public.

A few of my personal favorite spots include Moorcroft, Bay City, the Snowlands, Chamonix City, Ipperwash Cliffs National Seashore, Sea of Fables, Bay of Space Pigs, Ice Bay, Mare Secundus, The Point West Waterfront, the L-shaped lake and Micronesia, the ANWR Channel (which connects Sansara with Heterocera), and the Gateway International Airport & Axel Harbor (which connects Sansara with Bellisseria).

How long have you been an ambassador now? And what motivated you to become an ambassador?

I started about a year ago. Before that, I was already working with the BBB for passport stamp collection tours, which enhance my Mainland tours.

I considered the Ambassador position as a great opportunity to combine with my intentions of supporting the SL community spirit by offering exploration tours. I see those as one of countless ways to connect with people by sharing an adventure.

What was the most special event you either held at your Embassy or sponsored for your continent?

I struggle to pick something particular because each event and collaboration has been special in its own way. What all the events have in common and what stands out the most for me is the enthusiasm and creativity that each collaborator and supporter put into offering something fun and unique for the SL community. I love the sparkling joy that each attendant brought to and spread at the events, and the many friendships that have grown over time. It's the shared community spirit that makes every event special.

What is your favorite thing about Bellisseria that you tell residents of your continent?

Again, I struggle to pick favorites, because there is too much to choose from! But I would have a few recommendations as a starting point. For Linden Home owners, especially first-time home owners, I'd recommend the Parade of Homes as a source of inspiration for decorating your house and garden. If you enjoy exploring, join travel groups, visit homes open to the public like cafés, or stop by the themed community centers. Another fun activity is to go on the hunt for the easter eggs hidden by the Moles.

You can learn something about SL history, too (Magellan anyone?), or experience a surprise. For example, have you found out about the talking stone's secret at Molehenge yet? And, of course, you can collect stamps with your BBB or CPCB passport. As an avid traveler, I also enjoy the fact that Bellisseria connects all the Mainland continents.

What do you like to do in your spare time (or when you are not busy with your ambassador duties)?

My spare time activities actually don't differ much from what I usually do. I enjoy exploring, creating, brainstorming event ideas, and connecting with other residents and communities.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people do not know.

I would have a hilarious answer to that but it has to remain a secret until the end of my SL days, I'm sorry.

Do you have anything else you would like to share?

I'd like to thank each and every one who puts their time and effort into making the SL community thrive and prosper. It doesn't matter how big or small your contribution is, if you are an event organiser or participant, location owner or visitor, or whatever other constellation you could think of. Every little spark of joy counts, and I'm looking forward to make more lovely memories with the community!

---

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other 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 or photos.

Bearpaw Tour in Mt Campion National Park

The Embassy of Bellisseria to Heterocera invites you to a new nature tour in the Mount Campion National Forest. 

On Saturday, 11 Februrary 2023 at 12 noon SLT, a guided tour will follow the paths of the ancient Bearpaw tribe. The tour takes about 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) to complete. It visits several parts of Mount Campion National Forest as it traces the migration of the Bearpaw tribe from the flatlands to the higher elevations. It will tell the story of how and why this tribe migrated and it will take you to a number of breath-takingly beautiful locations in the park. And if you are a BBB or Continental Passport holder, there are two passport dispensers along the route where you can collect some passport stamps.

The tour will be guided by a ranger, giving explanations. Please join us at the meeting point a few minutes in advance of the start time. 

******

New Parade of Homes change form

You can now modify your entry in the Parade of Homes database easily using this change form. It will allow simple changes to your entry. It also now displays some typical use cases for a simpler understanding.

 

Applying for seasonal category entries • Easter (Mar..Apr) • Halloween (Oct..Nov) • Xmas (Nov..Jan) using the change form will create a duplicate of your permanent entry – just with different photos! Seasonal deco entries will be auto-removed without affecting your permanent listing.

 

Entries listed for the Christmas seasonal decorations section have now been auto-removed. If your permanent entry is missing, sending in the change form will "restore" the entry with different photos.

 

*****

... Fay Starlight's Tumbletown Falls
est. 1/2023
Hidden behind the Drunken Mouse Pub, lies a hidden falls where a little chalet stands deep in the forest!

... Gingir Ghoststar's Linden Newbrooke Modern Home
est. 11/2021
I'll be moving at the beginning of March, so come see before I move again!

---

NEW LOCATIONS

The Baseball Exhibit Gallery and Museum is at Sekmet on the Continent of Satori. Having visited both the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Field of Dreams Movie Site in RL, we can say this SL version captures the spirit of America's Pastime well.

The rest of the new stamps available this week are all time-limited editions in celebration of the BBB's 3rd Birthday (BBB3B), as explained in our leading article (above). Enjoy collecting them all and, once more, thanks for your support of our recreational bureaucracy during the last three years. We hope you've had as much fun carrying our passports and other bureaucratic products as we have had making them for you.

If you have friends who don't have a passport yet, your visits to our HQ and embassies to collect the stamps will be a perfect opportunity to sort that shameful situation out. If they live in Bellisseria, teleport them to our HQ and help them fill out the application form for the full-on bureaucratic experience. If they live on another mainland continent, teleport them to the relevant embassy and they can get one – fully-automated – there and then. If they're rich and live on a private island (or poor and homeless) tp them to any embassy and they can immediately get the generic SL passport.

The fun of exploring our virtual world and collecting stamps to show the cool places you've been is open to everyone in SL. All your friends can be "victims" of the gentlest, kindest bureaucracy ever!

Baseball Exhibit Gallery and Museum ST
BBB3B Event Headquarters BE
BBB3B Event Sansara SN
BBB3B Event Satori ST
BBB3B Event Heterocera HE
BBB3B Event Jeogeot JE
BBB3B Event Corsica CA
BBB3B Event Nautilus NA
BBB3B Event Gaeta GA

Meet the Ambassadors: Bel | Bonnie Bots | Events & Announcements | New Locations

MEET THE AMBASSADORS: BEL

We are continuing our series of Meet the Ambassadors. We interview each of the ambassadors so you can get a bit of a feel for who they are and what they do. And this week we will meet Jezebel (Bel) Bailey, who is our newest ambassador. She has taken a few months to really become familiar with her continent and has become passionate about it.

What SL Continent are you an Ambassador for? And where can people find your embassy?

I am the ambassador for Jeogeot, and you can find my embassy here

Please share your favorite thing about this continent

There are several areas of Jeogeot that I really enjoy. I particularly like the geometry of how Jeogeot was constructed – it is perfect. We have plains along the coastal waterlines, hills in the center landmass and isolated mountains. The ocean floor provides slopes, sand, and oceanic vegetation. It is like a painter's canvas, and it has so much that can be imagined and completed.

Jeogeot was the 3rd continent built, and is known as being the last in the 'Old World'.

Do you have suggestions for places to visit in your Continent?

Pyri Peaks is a great place to visit. It is like taking a walk down the rabbit hole with Alice. Start your journey going through the train tracks into red pulsing light and follow where it takes you. But be careful, as you may run into Explosives that the moles left from when they were building.

As you explore more thoroughly, be careful of moving objects like drifting stones. Come visit for further exploring. We also have an active (semi) volcano.

How long have you been an ambassador now? And what motivated you to become an ambassador?

I have been an ambassador for 4 months. I was previously associated with the BBB, and recently came back to it. This time I wanted to contribute in a different capacity. And the role of Ambassador was perfect for me.

What was the most special event you either held at your Embassy or sponsored for your continent?

I have started Jeogeot Citizens Group, and recruited one of Jeogeots as a co-owner and co-leader. This will help build community among the Jeogeot residents, and I am looking forward to seeing this unfold.

My favorite embassy event was dancing in a beautiful garden area that Boo built for my inauguration ceremony. We all enjoyed the dance so much we stayed there all day.

What is your favorite thing about Bellisseria that you tell residents of your continent?

I love Bellisseria -- it is what made me continue as a premium member. I love the attractions and sights that Linden Lab has put into Bellisseria. I also love that all SL residents can visit and enjoy them, because you don’t have to be a premium member to visit and enjoy the public Bellisseria areas. I love the community that has been built around Bellisseria. In fact, that community is what originally attracted me to the BBB.

I also love that Bellisseria is an option rather than something forced on premium members – because they can spend their land allowance on mainland if they prefer. So the people who live in Bellisseria live there by choice.

What do you like to do in your spare time (or when you are not busy with your ambassador duties)?

I play cards a lot because my sl partner enjoys that. In my other life, I have been building a new addition to the house. I also help take care of and spend time with an elderly lady who got Covid and Shingles and just needed a little support, I help others around the lake and just LOVE where I live.

Please tell us one thing about yourself that most people do not know.

I may take a long time to get things done but its usually worth the wait.

Do you have anything else you would like to share?

Here is it – a brand new year. I plan to host events in the Jeogeot Garden and learn more and become more active both in Jeogeot and the BBB. Secondlife is an endless experience of changing ideas and creativeness. If you can imagine it, it can be done.

Article & Photo by Teresa Firelight

---

BONNIEBOTS 

The BBB recently came into contact with a team of Second Life® residents who are releasing some interesting tools for finding unoccupied Linden Homes, abandoned land, sandboxes etc. Their product is a great addition to the BBB Home Finder HUD, which finds vacant Linden Homes in Bellisseria.

The team is using a special technique they call Bonniebots. As they explained it to me;

The Bonnies are all bots that collectively visit every region at least once per day to gather publicly available information and display it on our website for anyone who is interested. We try not to stick around for too long so we're usually in and out in about 20 seconds!

The data includes popular and trending regions with higher accuracy than the Lindens "dwell" stat offers plus popular and trending attachments, abandoned land on the mainland (to help ordinary users level the playing field with the land barons who have private bots), marketplace purchases, and a text search for profiles of users active within the last few weeks to help find like minded people.

We've recently added a search feature for Linden Homes, which may be of specific interest to residents of Bellisseria, along with a few high level statistics on home ownership for the data nerds out there. You can find the Linden Home search feature here. 

The idea is that SL is huge, like really huge, and a lot of people joining or returning after being gone a long time might not necessarily know what's up. We hope to alleviate that.

They are keen to stress that, though some people have a knee jerk negative reaction to bots and assume the information gathered will be sold, this is not true.

No information the Bonnies gather is sold, nor is it used for profit in any way. All data gathered is presented on the webpage. It is a completely not for profit project. Some people understandably fear that the Bonnies are stalking them. After all, everywhere you go, there they are. However they have no way of actually doing that. Besides, it would be a waste of the project's resources. If a bot was stalking someone, it wouldn't be able to collect grid-wide data

We see these tools as a valuable resource. We may be able automatically to check whether our stamp terminals are still active, for example. We might even be able to detect relocated terminals, which haven't been notified to us (as sadly sometimes happens). We also plan to apply them to the Parade of Homes Listing in a similar way.

A Bonniebots search for our editor pulls together all his SL interests

Applied to the StaFi StampFinder (available from the BBB HQ) and the Gazette Online Travel Guide these tools could prevent disappointments in future when our users teleport to out-of-date locations and so improve the quality of StaFi/GOTG and PoH content.

The BBB is very excited to be co-operating with the Bonniebots team. As they said to us,

The reason behind it is to help Second Life thrive by bringing people together.

We couldn't have said it any better. That's pretty much our own mission statement!

Article by Robert Rhodan 

---

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other 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 or photos.

 

---

NEW LOCATIONS

We love a good travel hub location for our passport terminals. Where better to get your passport stamped than at a port or station? We have two new transport locations this week. The first is Fox's Marina at Yurim on the northern coast of Jeogeot, between Bellisseria's Southern houseboats and Fantasseria. It's a GTFO! hub for small ships, helicopters and seaplanes. The second is Smugglers Bluff; an airport on Ice Bay in the Snowlands of Sansara, which is also the home to SL Coast Guard Station Kania.

Finally we have a new location on Bellisseria. The House of Tea & Tarot is a Victorian tea shop so quaint we were tempted to spell it 'shoppe'. As well as enjoying tea and cakes, those of mystical inclination can gain insight into their future with a fully-automated reading of the tarot cards.

Fox's Marina JE
Smugglers Bluff Airport Kania SN
House of Tea & Tarot BE

2023 BBB Calendar | Meet the Ambassadors: Freddie | Events & Announcements | Out & About: Butter | New Locations

2023 BBB CALENDAR

The BBB 2023 calendar is available from BBB HQ in Swordfish. You can pick it up from a dispenser sign there. This year's calendar uses the same Media-on-a-Prim (MoaP) technique as the StaFi stamp finder (also available from BBB HQ). The advantage of MoaP is that any updates don't require you to collect a new object. A refresh will always get you the latest version.

Please note that the calendar prim is one-sided, so you may need to walk around the rezzed object, or rotate it before attaching it to a wall. Please check the instruction notecard which explains how to enable media if you have not already done so. New photos will be added over time. A refresh will show those on your rezzed calendar, with no further action required.

 

You can also use the calendar in an off-world browser window.

 

While you are visiting us at HQ please note the new improved StaFi (StampFinder) dispenser sign. StaFi is still maintained each week. You can wear it with the wonderful new V3 passport HUD; minimising both so as not to disturb your view. So you can easily rampage through SL on a stamp hunting tour; selecting cute stamps via the StaFi, clicking on its SLURLs to TP there, and then stamping your passport. All now (thanks to the V3 passport) without fear of either losing new stamps during teleports or picking up any duplicates!

 

Article by Robert Rhodan, BBB Stamp Team

---

MEET THE AMBASSADORS: FREDDIE HARRINGTON

We are continuing our series of Meet the Ambassadors. We interview each of the ambassadors so you can get a bit of a feel for who they are and what they do. This week we meet Freddie Harrington, who is possibly the most musical of the ambassadors. In addition to being an ambassador, Freddie is also an accomplished and popular DJ.

What SL Continent are you an Ambassador for? And where can people find your embassy?

I'm Ambassador for Nautilus and you can find my Embassy here.

Please share your favorite thing about this continent.

Oh, where do I start! I love the sailing, flying, and boating, including the different races and cruises that go on. I really love the surrounding estates and landscaping too. There is always something going on every day. I suspect it's one of the busiest continents.

Do you have suggestions for places to visit in your Continent?

Yes. I have a tour HUD for all the Mole and Linden builds around the continent and I recommend doing those. Also , Nautilus has some under water stuff for the Mers, etc. You can pick these up at my Embassy.

How long have you been an ambassador now? And what motivated you to become an ambassador?

I have been in the position for a whole year now. One of my friends suggested I apply and I was aware of the BBB and what they do, so I thought it would be fun to get involved and meet some new people too. I was a bit nervous as I didn't know Boo or Fiona personally at the time but both are among the best people I have met in-world and all the other BBB crew and Ambassadors are included in that too.

What was the most special event you either held at your Embassy or sponsored for your continent?

In the beginning, I did hold some cruises and parties. But I have found that because Nautilus and Blake Sea are so busy all the time, just getting involved in these activties is a great way to spread the word about what the BBB and Embassies do. I have been involved in putting out the music and even some set up for nearly all the Embassy openings-- but I will be a bit vain and say that my Embassy party was my favorite event on my continent.

What is your favorite thing about Bellisseria that you tell residents of your continent?

I love everything about Bellisseria. I came back to SL after a break of maybe 2 years and got myself one of the old Linden Homes. Then my friend invited me to her houseboat when Bellisseria was smaller. I loved it and I thought, “how do I get one of those?” I had to settle on a Trad though, because homes were in short supply at that time. 

I suggest that people visit one of the many community spaces. My favorites are The Drunken Mouse and Campwich. You can pick up a landmark list from my Embassy, which also includes some fun and also *secret places* in Bellisseria. I do love how easy it is to meet people with shared interests in Bellisseria too.

What do you like to do in your spare time (or when you are not busy with your ambassador duties)?

There are many activities that I enjoy doing in-world. I like to fly, drive, and sail. But I also like to rearrange my furniture, go dancing and get passport stamps. I like to do the “Drivers of SL” drives, and I enjoy taking also cruises by various groups. Sometimes I just want to hang around Bellisseria and chat with friends.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people do not know.

Oh that's a difficult one.....come back to me later. *winks*

[Since Freddie declined to answer the (above) question, I will share something for him. I had the darndest time getting Freddie to come in for his Ambassador Photo. It turns out that he is a little camera shy and does not enjoy having his picture taken in SL or RL. But IMHO, he is quite photogenic, and has no need to be camera shy.]

Do you have anything else you would like to share?

My bacon sandwich?

Article & Photograph by Teresa Firelight

---

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have one of our stamp terminals at your place and you're having an event there or would like to make any other 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 or photos.

Public Service Announcement re stamp applications

When applying for a stamp terminal using the application notecard form in-world, please note that it allows you tell us your ideas as to how the stamp should look. You can also provide any logo you may have for your destination that might inspire our design team in creating your stamp.

If you prefer, you can create your own stamp design to the specifications set out in the form. Remember it should look like a passport stamp! We make exceptions for event stamps, which can be more colourful, but permanent stamps should be in one colour capable of being applied sloppily by a bored bureaucrat using inky rubber!

If you choose to go that route, there is a separate place in the application form to send us your own stamp design. This is a completely separate thing from any logo or other image you may choose to send for inspiration. Please be careful not to confuse the two.

If you don't provide your own stamp texture, our design team will happily create one for you. That's how most of our stamps are made. They will ask for your approval before programming the terminals.

Please remember that the stamp team are (like all our bureaucrats) unpaid volunteers giving cheerfully of their time to provide a free-of-charge service and generally make SL more fun for you and your visitors.

We're proud of our results, which you can check out here.

Robert Rhodan | BBB Passport Stamp Team

***

... Bella Slade's House of Tea & Tarot
est. 1/2023
Victorian Tea House with a magical twist. Enjoy some afternoon tea with a Mole cream puff and a Tarot reading with working tarot cards.

---

OUT & ABOUT: BUTTER

This week, The Gazette's roving photo-journalist visited the Homestead Region of Butter. Its slogan is You Butter Come Back! and the owner, Mona Molinaxil, has done her best to ensure that you will. As she said in the Destination Guide earlier this month;

Things are always changing. New items are added, and areas that I get tired of or don’t like are changed. Being limited by LI limits forces some choices to be made. And that is not a bad thing, really. If you want something new, you might have to remove something old.

So you'll have reasons to go back to see what she's been up to!

The region is a small seaside town with a variety of areas maximising the scenic return from 5,000 prims. It has its own blog, with a handy map.  The blog states definitively that there are no rentals or private areas, but there were ban-lines around the farmhouse during our visit. This is probably the area that the Destination Guide reports is currently closed for construction so should reopen soon. 

There's a delightful little bistro, with inside and outside seating. The coastline has cliffs, beaches and rocky outcrops. There are a variety of buildings to explore and a campsite too. For SL photographers, it's a succession of excellent backdrops! On our second visit with a photographer friend, she took more photos than we spent minutes!

Photojournalism is hard work

It's an ideal, non-commercial, location for one of our passport terminals and we understand the suggestion has kindly already been made by one of our BBBug members so – fingers crossed. Stamp or not, it's well worth a visit.

---

NEW LOCATIONS

We have two new locations from our friends at The Nature Collective this week. TNC Off the Rails is a railway station and GTFO! Hub in a natural setting that meets the TNC criteria. You are encouraged to:

Come tend to the shared farm/garden, relax at the Railcar Coffee Co., and when you're done, rez your train and explore!

Gallery TNC is located on Route 2 on the Northern coast of Heterocera. It showcases TNC member locations as seen through the lens of artists and photographers.

TNC Off the Rails
Gallery TNC