The famous SIMs of SecondLife

According to the SL History Wiki, "Seacliff was the first land locked sim to be up for auction..." What is the difference between Avalon and Seacliff in this regard. Is Avalon a private island or mainland region? I have always thought Avalon was the first private island and that Seacliff was the first mainland whole region to be auctioned.

Seacliff is an island and has always been attached to the mainland via navigable waterways. Albeit, only on the southern edge at first before the initial inland sea was opened up by the Lindens and the restraining Grid walls were removed on the east, north and west region borders.

Avalon has always been completely separated from the mainland. The only way to get there is to teleport in. If Avalon has access to the private island estate tools I would consider it a private island and not part of the mainland.

The first private island.

I guess that depends on your definition of "landlocked".

Here's how I remember it:

Cayman was the first private island, won in a contest by Evie Fairchild. And it was definitely private. It was members-only access for a couple of months, and after showing up on the grid, it continued to have a first-of-its-kind security system, designed by Xylor Baysklef, that could prevent unauthorized access to the entire sim.

"Island" (renamed Avalon) was the first island sim to be auctioned off as a whole sim, and the first sim to include naming rights as a part of the deal.

Prior to that, Gibson and Darkwood were named by the groups rewarded them in a Beta-era community building contest.

The first two mainland sims to be auctioned as whole sims were, I believe, Indigo and Umber. Seacliff was in the second batch, introduced with the southern "continent".

Its amazing, you come into the forums as the actual owner and the person who
puchased the Avalon sim... anyway.

Avalon doesn't have any estate tools. Its a mainland sim. Just not connected.

It was the first sim to be deemed an island, with the only access via direct teleporting.

As I said, its not a private sim. Its a mainland island.

There's no such thing as bad publicity. Well, let me rethink that.
I think N'burg rocks. Never a dull moment.

No worries Fizik. Although I was here to witness the revelation of both Seacliff and Avalon, enough time has gone by that my recollections of the details has grown considerably fuzzy. I'm always eager to learn more about this world. I guess I have been looking at the differences between mainland and private regions as very black and white. Obviously there are some shades of gray.



The fact that Avalon is completely separated from the mainland, yet still part of the mainland, shows just how truly unique it is. I have been under the mistaken impression that Avalon had the estate tools. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Perhapsthe reference to Seacliff being the first landlocked sim to go up for auction was meant to illustrate the fact that Seacliff was completely surrounded by navigable water (yet still connected to the mainland on the southern edge). Isn't the term "landlocked" usually used to describe a country or particular area that has no access to the sea, like Kansas or the Morris region of the welcome area?



Ah... another shade of gray to dispel my narrow old-fashioned veiwpoint of how land has to be. The introduction of Cayman was before my time, but I remember wondering about it's uniqueness as a land region. I am guessing that Cayman, like Avalon, is also considered part of the mainland and lacks the estate tools. Cayman was awarded to a resident and Avalon was auctioned. It's begging to fully rez for me now.



And the light goes on! I remember when Avalon was called "Island." I knew that Darkwood was a special themed area, but I have always thought it was a Linden-started themed area, like Nova Albion, Boardman or DeHaro. I've recently learned more of the history of these themed area, like Gibson and Darkwood, and how they were awarded to groups who submitted ideas for themed regions. That's cool they got to name them. (I hope my days of being a dim bulb are numbered.)

So, there are private islands (completely cut off from the mainland with estate tools) and mainland islands (completely cut off from the mainland, no estate tools). I'm going to think of these places as gridlocked from now on.

So, which was the first real Private Island sim, complete with estate tools? I think only the Lindens could answer that for sure. Seems like a tossup between Krittania and the Schongebeits.

I have two all-time favorites: The old Atlantis, underwater stunning sim which I miss and wish I had taken photos of before it left. And Baron Grayson's Sanctum sim, always changing and always interesting.

Krittania was first; then Aleph and the two Schongebeits were added at the same time. (Incidentally, Aleph still exists. Hehe)

Sometimes I think about the Waterworld-ish build Krittania had at the end - that was stunning.

All the temporary sim builds have a footnote, too - like Chinatown, Neverland, Abraxas, Olde London, Backstge/Nowell giant livingroom, Foolish Frost's jumbo tree build in Techra... and others.

Backstage/Nowall was always the first sim I showed new residents in SL. I miss that sim terribly, especially the winter scene inside the couch.

Other sims on the tour: Numbakulla
Verloren, for the castle
The Ski Lifts in Voss and Wengen
The train on the northern continent (which is growing yay)
Chaos (explore underground)
Dragon Moon (Blade runner- ish)

What were the first sims devoted entirely to shopping?

What was the first sim owned by Anshe Chung?

Anshes came out after Brianna Dawsons 'Galleria Mall' Sim.

There was quite the controversy at the time over it - as I think they were partners during the creation of Galleria.

I'll never forget Backstage and when I realized I had landed inside a desk drawer. It was by far one of the best builds I've ever seen in SL. I miss going there now that it is gone.

For pure history's sake, I'd have to suggest the original Port Kar, which is long since gone. It was the first of the Gorean sims and set the mold for most that have followed since, both in architecture and in social organization. It was also very beautiful, and I'll never forget the haunting night the server died, with nothing but one ghost ship left floating in a whiteout that resembled a blizzard. I had dropped by to visit and refugees were fleeing all around me.

Port Kar also makes an interesting proof-of-concept for establishing a themed community within SL on a voluntary, rather than a commercial, basis. I hope to see other participatory cultures either emerge in SL or come to it, and take advantage of the opportunity to inexpensively create cohesive communities. This could be done not only by roleplayers but by very diverse organizations and subcultures with varying memes and aims. For example, a group might want to teach people about cultures that are now endangered or extinct in RL, or to attempt their revival.

I tried hard to play Tourist of Gor, and now I can't keep up with all the new builds and regions. But Port Kar was where it all started.

Yeah, I've been a fur since '93, so am aware of this. As for Furnation, I think it's a tad too new to have any historical value. Not sure how much t contributed, either, as opposed to, say, The Forest, or Tako, or The Wild, or a slew of other furry sims out there.

Aqua was the first sim intended to be a commercial district. It originally had an LL owned Avatar Central store at its center (there's a great recreation of it still in Aqua). It served as an anchor store and other merchants bought land and clustered around it. When LL tied prim usage to land ownership the Avatar Central stores went the way of the dodo. I purchased the land where it had been (it's now the central square park). Briana Dawson built the first large scale mall in Aqua. When she moved to a private sim I bought the land, turned it into a park setting, and invited many of the original Aqua merchants back to the sim.

Some of the oldest resident owned mall sims I know were Avalon, Galleria City, Midnight City, Centre Ville, Le Cadre. Galleria City was the first private estate mall island.

The first estate sim projects I initiated as partner:
- Galleria City (with briana)
- Montmartre (with Mae)

The first estate sim I fully owned:
- Centre Ville

The first residentially zoned sim:
- Midge (still on mainland, this was the precursor to Dreamland)

First Dreamland sims:
- Petite Gaule, Friesland, Midgard and Sorriesa

Crumbi!

Crumbi is to Second Life what Innsmouth was to Lovecraft's New England.