Second Life heritage

The picture below is one taken recently by Cathy Curie of the first house ever to be built in Second Life, which, until recently, could be found in Welsh.



However, it has how disappeared. When enquiries were made of the Lindens, they felt that the maker, Steller Sunshine, had left sl and had either deleted the house or the land had reverted.

The Linden who was spoken to took a very philosophical, not to say dismissive, view of the situation, saying that second life was, by its nature, impermanent.

Are those of us who value the heritage of second life in such a minority, then? I think this is a very sad loss indeed, and that this building would have gained in value as second life became older and larger.

Why cannot the Lindens set aside a portion of land for such iconic buildings? Surely a single sim wouldn't break the bank - and at least we would have some concrete reminder of sl's history, apart from mere photographs.

Hey Selador... how recently did it disappear? I don't ever recall seeing it myself in my Second Lifetime. Steller's still in SL, too! (Something which is amazing unto itself.) Transience in SL lends itself to people stashing huge things in their inventories.

I am one for having an arranging an efficient setup: SL needs more historical museums -- I feel in time, this will become inevitable, given the scope and milestones achieved in the world. A ginormous temprezzer to recreate whole structures would be most welcome.

I talked to Steller around two days ago.
I have no idea what happened to the tree house, I was there the other day and I can tell you one thing.
It was now being owned by Paul Zeeman (second oldest player and a friend of Steller's).
A lot of its furniture was missing though.
Maybe Steller couldn't afford her tier and let some things go into Paul's hands?
Maybe it was actually Paul who left?

just curious how people know that's the very first house built?

one of the bestest things about sl is that things change all the time and even more so that we're able to change things ourselves any time. it might be nice if we used sl as a way to let go of nostalgia and ties to the past and our longing for how things used to be and focused on how things are now and how they can be in the future. sl is like a big digital ocean we're swimming in and even tho we might never see the same drop of water again we're still surrounded by water and every wave brings more new water. i like being a fish swimming in that ever changing ocean instead of a fish stick laying on the same frozen water all the time. just thinking with my fingers here and it's 3:30 am so my finger brains might not be working all that great.

^ I like that analogy, very colorful.

I think those old enough to have actually witnessed the house being built know its age.

Steller was the first player ever. She built the Governor's Mansion, the beanstalk, and the tree house.
That house was probably built on the alpha grid and dropped onto the new one. The Governor's Mansion certainly was, along with a bunch of her objects.
The beanstalk is a recreation of the first (non-linden) thing ever built... a vaguely similar beanstalk, built on the first day of alpha. The Lindens knew they had created a monster when the first thing they saw being built was completely unexpected

^ Metaphorical for what Second Life "grew into", eh? I find it so fitting. =^_^=

Eggy,

Thanks for the information.

Zuzi,

I can understand your point of view, but would ask you what the harm would be if those who do not share that point of view had a minute part of sl allocated for the preservation of what we feel to be important?

I remember that house....what an interesting, nostalgic thing to see. I never thought to look for it again.

Side note: Torley, had a lot of fun reading a bit on your website, interesting stuff I'm a psychiatric RN irl and frequently work with rather severely disabled autistic men & women. Best of luck to you in your adventures in SL & irl

please post pictres of the giant tree in shipley.

I must have missed the obvious again -- missed the boat on that house! Eeeps. Was just at Welsh, of course I didn't see it.

Thanks so much Solitaire, I'm happy ya let me know! Awww... *huggerz*

Torley,

<<Hey Selador... how recently did it disappear?>>

Sorry, missed this question.

So far as I know it vanished very recently, but I'm not certain.

I'd like to see an area designated to "heritage" builds. I'm a sentimental slob about these kinds of things. I went to see the Rivendell Project yesterday and it's so beautiful. It's been around a while (since beta?) and it will be gone on Wednesday apparently. Ayone who hasnt seen it should check it out in Dore.

I've met Steller, she's a nice person, I hope she hasn't left!

The Rivendell build will be gone? That sucks....one of my favorite places

Yep. Blah... Check it out:

/140/e0/36369/1.html

Wow - that's sad, I love Rivendale.

As Ingrid says, it would be great to perhaps have a sim dedicated to the earliest builds rather than just waking up one morning and finding that they have disappeared.

Just to Clairify about The Rivendell Project..

It is only a year old..more or less. When I had come to the DarkWood area in June of 2003, I had always wanted to do something vaguely related to honor an inworld recognition of LOTRs, but, at that time was unable until changes in the landscape permitted it. ..the first part, was the area on the hill, the small house, shrine and ring area..about six to months ago I aquired the larger area to make the entire build.

Most do not realize that the area on which I sit was the original DarkWood village, but with all that is changing and as we all do, change, I feel it is either time to move on or to make it into something else.

It started with my Original 4096 beta tier and grew to encompass twice that.

Thank you for your compliments and all the visits as of late. but one thing that we can always keep and that is pictures and I and others have a lot of them.

So watch for the future, cause if this and what others are capable of creating from their dreams, then wait and see what comes in a year from now..I am sure, our minds will be blown.

Soren Romulus, creator of Rivendell

Hey, if there were an island sim dedicated to be a museum to display anthropological Second Life material, would anyone pay admission? Or donate money?

It would be an excellent thing to have a museum sim, but it would still cost a bundle, and it would be a bit much for one person to donate and pay for every month.

I'd make a one time donation but tier every month would be tough. Stupid tier fees.

I'd be willing to contribute a one time donation too - it seems to me that having something like this would be an excellent overall feature to SL in that it would also be an excellent place for newbies to go to see the progression of the SL world.

If you have old or new screenshots that would be of interest to Second Lifers please join the Second Life group at Flikr and post them. I love seeing what people come up with.

Second Life at Flikr

Pictures of Rivendell, I'll send them in Osprey.

There's always the history wiki. Keep it updated and loaded with images.

Someone will have a link somewhere.

you'd have to ask a psychologist about real harm i guess. i don't think there would be any big obvious damage done by it but i think we'd be better off mentally if we didn't put too much importance on the past.

as far as keeping old stuff around that could be cool but it's also a lil bit of a slippery slope kinda thing since we're constantly "producing" the past. it's an inexhaustable resource (like garbage or spam) so any space put aside for preserving it is going to have to grow and grow and grow. so i dunno how practical that would be. maybe just a picture gallery would work?

My own problem with a picture gallery is that it's a flat, 2D representation of a 3D world. Doesn't allow for a myriad of things like an immersive exploration, let alone touching scripted objects and sharing this experience with friends. A lot of this vintage SL stuff is already taking up space on the servers anyway because it's nestled in avatars's inventories. So this would be a matter of voluntarily sharing what became private and making it available for public enjoyment again.

When I see a flat picture of a place in SL, my mind tells me I want to jump into it and be endowered by its depth in the fullest. I am frustrated to find out when said place is... g-g-gone!

Large-scale temprezzers, if possible, would be a viable solution.