What was "Burning Life"?

I've heard rumors and half-whispered stories in the darkness of something that happened in SL once, called "Burning Life". I'm going to guess, from its name, that it was something like the Burning Man festival, yes?

What exactly was it? WHEN was it? Will it happen again?

It was drama.

Yep, it's been an annual thing, yes it was inspired by Burning Man. The last one was a drama-filled mess though, by many accounts - lots of politics and suggestions of favoritism, unwanted PC-ness, too much power give to people ill-suited to wield it, that sort of thing. I wasn't involved in any way nor did I attend, that's just what I heard on various forums including this here one.

Have a look here:

http://vburn.org/

It's an annual event to celebrate the spirit of lag in Second Life.

Basically the Lindens open up a mini-continent where residents are allowed to build something similar to the theme of the real life Burning Man. I think the main problem with the last one was that the decisions on things like giving out parcels and controlling what people build seemed too inconsistent and unfair. Initially they gave control over everything to... some random person it seemed and the Lindens had to rush in and save it from self destructing.

Having not seen the inner workings, I really enjoyed it last year..

I forget if it's held just before or after the RL Burning Man, either way early Autumn or late Summer I guess, but two years ago was absolutely wonderful, with all sorts of creative interesting builds that really seemed to take advantage of what SL allows you to do. Last year seemed less creative unfortunately, maybe because it was almost too big in comparison? The SL B-Day builds seemed to have more dynamic things to me... Either way I'm looking forward to it!

"Burning life" is when you spill hot coffee on your lap

Well there I was thinking "Burning Life" was a lifestyle magazine for arsonists...

It is held just after. Late September last year, IIRC.

There's a very unofficial blog at http://burninglife.com/ that has videos of the burning of the man, photos of the temple burn, and snapshots of other things from last year's BL. Oh, and I believe it recounts the drama and politics, if anyone cares to drag that through the mud again.

"If" they have it, they need some of these ppls to be there!
Discover Garden of NPIRL Delights- Presen, Rezzable Explore (231, 34, 60)
Awesome sim opening, deff a great walkabout
teleport to rezzable explore secondlife://Rezzable%20Explore/234/30/60
(but yah last yr BM was kinda sad) :?

I had a project build on Burning Life last year (first timer). Yea, it was quite a nauseating drama spectacle, but I just ignored it and concentrated on what I was doing. MOST of the other people out there were doing the same, and there were many wonderful builds there, and I learned a whole lot from them. It was totally worth it and I plan on being there again this year.

As usual the squawking minority made a whole lot of noise, but still...they were the minority.

I spent a fair bit of time at Burning Life last year and I hope to have an 'installation' of some sort at BL 2008, I need to think up something clever, eye catching, wierd and silly

http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Burning_Life

I've attended in the past, but never shown. I've started to work on someting for 2008, though, assuming there is a BL.

The main reason I'm asking is, the way I heard it described, it was like a major all-invited festival. Similar to the recent "Day of Rememberance" thing, with people from all over the grid leaving their typical haunts to hang out at a specific place and meet other people. I really liked Rememberance Day, and I think there should be more grid-wide events like that. Of course, drama and politics aren't cool - I'm sure such events can be held without those things intruding.

Burning Life was a building festival where, essentially, you put your name in a hat, and a certain number of people drawn at random earned free parcels of land for a few weeks to build on. At the end of the festival all of the land was wiped.

The drama.. well, let me describe what happened at the previous event. One entrant accidentally entered her alt as well as herself, and both won places. When this happened, she announced that she would give up one of the places because it was unfair she should have two. However, other entrants then protested that she should give up _both_ of her places because she had twice the chance of getting one that anyone else had. Eventually, she did this, but then built a build over a friend's parcel that would "travel" across the sim. Again the other entrants protested that she was sidestepping the entry rules, but nobody was really willing to police parcels to make sure entrants didn't let friends build on them, so it ended up stuck there..

That is what it is, Dakota. An before that will be the SL 5th birthday party, which should be jes around the corner now.

Mari

I spent a fair bit of time at Burning Life each of the last two years. From my spectator point of view both were quite enjoyable. I was unaware of any of the drama and problems until just now. I'm hoping it happens again. (the festival not the drama, lol).
If I could come up with a good idea I love to do a build for BL08.

I attended the closing festivities when it was last on - there was a great party afterwards. I would recommend it - hope it's on again.

Sooo... any word about this yrs' Burning Man?

As far as annual events that lots of people hang out at... The Birthday thing will happen first. It is in June right?

Burning Life is a huge Festival, and all Residents are Invited to go and enjoy it.
Residents (And Lindens) can go, and get a Plot of land where they can exhibit a build.
There's lot's of Live Music.
2007's was in October, if I remember rightly.

Send me a Private Message if you'd like to talk with me regarding it.
There's lot's to know, and I can't post it all here

Meghan Dench
Burning Life 2007 Communications Team Lead.

I'm sorry, but my reaction to burning life last year after cruising thru the area was, OMG, this is a rather ordinary sandbox collection of stuff. Nothing like some of the truly wonderful builds of the previous year. I hope the organization might give a few proven creators an invite to the event. Oh, and for any of you planning on hitting the RL black rock desert this year, I'll be out there again on the playa. Welcome Home!

I kinda felt dat way about Burning Life last year too. At least it did't seem as grand as the previous year. I jes assumed it was all the troubles behind the scene.