Saturday, July 16, 2011

Sarah Jane Luminario for Relay For Life event!

Holocluck Henly is taking part in Second Life's Relay For Life Weekend - Relay Weekend, an overnight event that unites SL community in the support - and memory - of victims of cancer. Holocluck has a luminario in honour of Sarah Jane Smith actress, Elisabeth Sladen. The luminario is by the Giant Snail Racing team campsite.

Relay For Life is the signature event of the American Cancer Society and has been active, and continually growing  in Second Life for 6 years.

If you're interested in placing a luminario memory, be it for someone close or someone you admired, there are lots more paving the RFL path. You could even honour Elisabeth yourself who as we know, fell foul to cancer. Follow the link if you are willing or able to give.

Worth popping by and giving some support!

SURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/RFL%20Spirit/132/239/23

Monday, July 11, 2011

Fans Against Intolerance

A frustrating little situation that hurt me greatly given the subject of the nastiness.


The Fans Against Intolerance is an in-world group looking to stamp out nastiness and bullishness through discourse, information and community support.

But my blog post isn't directly about the linked issue - that's been dealt with directly - but more a wider issue, one of how intolerance is used within the digital world of Second Life, or how it's used "out of world".

There is a wider issue here: "avatars" of people in Second Life shouldn't be using external blogs to make attacks and accusations that couldn't be made in-world for fear of breaching Community Standards Clause 1 , which deals with unfair defamation. Linden Labs should be looking at discouraging this - even if they legally can't stop it - as it's reflecting on their product, and reflecting badly. This is a popular tactic.

I would be very happy (in a real fantasy world) if this became policy. You could still blog as your avatar, but only within the frame of Second Life's terms of service, given that identity is in some part, reflective of their product. Of course this could most likely never legally work, so bullies exploit this moral loophole. And that makes it something only the community can address.

Digital bullying needs to be stamped out, and that can only happen if people refuse to accept it.

If you're interested in joining this group in-world, click here: Fans Against Intolerance. There are surprisingly few active anti-bullying groups in SL, but several that have been attempted. I encourage you to support this.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Welcome to New London!


New London Blog has had a little facelift!

So who are we?

New London is a group of Doctor Who and London fans ran by Kat Kassner and Laredo Lowtide. Kat's vision for New London is a fair and friendly working community that embraces all who are likewise fair and friendly.

The sim is non profit (in fact, like most sims in Second Life, it technically runs at a loss), with the in-sim company "New London Systems" helping to bridge the costs. If we break even, it's a rare and great day. Point is, the sim isn't here to make money, money just keeps it here!

There are a few Doctor Who sims in Second Life, New London doesn't consider itself "solely" a Doctor Who sim. We have as much iconic relevance to London as we do to Doctor Who, with Big Ben, Albert Hall, BT Tower, Tower of London, Tower Bridge and even the Millennium Bridge as sim landmarks.

While New London very much works to simply provide a sim people will enjoy, we do stretch our arms a little further. We have several in-world groups that support New London and we support them in return. The sim operates several Second Life groups to support a wider community than New London:

England in SL - a network for England based sims/events working together to promote their events and provide easy navigation for visitors looking to find great English focused places within Second Life.

Doctor Who? - a group for any Doctor Who fan!

FAI (Fans against Intolerance) - a new group to strength those who suffer bullying and antagonism and being ostracised in Second Life (and believe me, it's very prevalent, especially in Doctor Who sims)

So far as popularity goes, New London has gone from strength to strength. So far as traffic statistics go, we've been the most visited Doctor Who sim for the last few years with occasional notable exceptions. We're one of the top London orientated establishments as well. Statistics are never the be all and end all as to whether a place is good/interesting/worth visiting, but for us it's a nice acknowledgement the work we do here (and we work far too hard) is well received and enjoyed. In the end, that's all that matters. We're not suggesting popularity makes us the "best" Doctor Who/London sim, that's something for an individual decide, but we are proud of the fact we have entertained and enriched Second Life members.

So how do we entertain?


We're a sim which has always maintained regular events and entertainment. We have weekend music events, often with fancy dress and prizes. We cater for both the London and the Sci-Fi in how we theme these. We have live singers and a wide array of regular and guest DJs.

We also host "Radio Theatre", an audio drama establishment build in homage to the BBC building in London. There we put on a variety of dramas - some from Big Finish, authorised by Big Finish themselves (so please go to BigFinish.com and support their fantastic Doctor Who and beyond range).

We have a local pub that does occasional pub quizzes and music nights.

We have regular fishing events who enjoy using the New London Thames as a place to make a catch or two!

For the Doctor Who fan we sometimes put on Dalek/Time Lord battles in some of role play zones - we have several role play zones high above New London, including The Moon, Dalek Saucer, The Ood Sphere, the Maldovarium and even a Black Hole!

For those who want to shop, aside from New London Systems, we have a shop zone. You'll find lots of big names in Doctor Who SL merchandise from Novatech, Bad Wolf, DCL, HA! and 5th Dimension.

Every year we do annual events including the incredibly popular summer 3 day festival,Whofest in our New Greenwich Park and TARDIS Expo - where TARDIS makers from around the grid come together to show off their latest offerings.

We are also linked to Doctor Who online magazine Kasterborous.com, who have helped build a great Doctor Who Exhibition above our popular Freebie Factory!

In the end, we're just a group of Doctor Who and London fans looking to entertain, chat, have fun and enjoy Second Life.


So pop by. We have a friendly staff who are keen to ensure your time in New London is fun and grief free!