First of all a big thanks to those residents who have already filed move request tickets; since the doors opened we have had 700 requests for a move to Zindra and have been working hard to process those as fast as we can. In light of the feedback we've had so far we're going to be making some changes.

The parcel sizes being requested have been larger than expected and many of you have specifically requested coastline, so we have decided to open up more of the Zindra landmass, earlier than planned. Later today there will be an area opening up to the East of the existing Zindra regions and over the next few days another area to the South will become available too.

We're doing this to provide more choice for those with pending requests and to give you time to review your choices we will not be processing the move request tickets for the next few days. So those of you with pending tickets have some time to look over the new areas and comment your existing tickets if you change your mind. If you are happy with the choice you have already made then you can leave your ticket as it is. We are processing the tickets in the order they arrived and you can be assured that commenting on a ticket will not drop you down the list.

Please be aware that the new areas will not be fully finished when they first appear, so you should expect parcelling and smoothing of the terrain to be taking place over the next few days. We will begin processing the tickets once more on Wednesday 8th July so be sure to comment on your tickets by then if you want to change your request.

This means we will also push back the closing date to Friday the 24th July, after which we will no longer accept any new requests for the free relocation to Zindra but will continue to process any requests that are still pending.

You can help us process your ticket faster by making sure we have all the information we need, including a clear description of the Adult content and where on your parcel we can find it (if this information is not there now, you can add this information by adding a comment to your existing ticket).  Also, make sure we have the SLurls for both your current and requested parcels.  If you're unsure of how to make a SLurl, see this article.

Remember, as we said previously this first phase of migration is for commercialized Adult content: parcels that sell an Adult product or service. To identify whether the product or service you provide is Adult, please see this article.

So to summarise:

• We are adding more Land for people to choose from.
• To give everyone a chance to see the new areas we will not process any more requests until Wednesday 8th July.
• If you do decide to change your request, please add a comment to your existing ticket with the new choices as SLurls.
• The closing date for new requests will be moved back to Friday the 24th July.

In this post:
—Second Life Birthday Survey Released
—Thanks to you all
—Some Event Statistics
—Teens Crash-Land New Region at SL6B

—Gates Remain Open til July 6th

— We have a short survey online where you can tell us what you thought of the Second Life 6th Birthday celebration. It's only 10 questions, but it will really help us make things better next year. Your comments on a similar survey last year were very helpful as the Resident staff prepared for this year's event, and we hope that those of you who made suggestions last year were pleased to see some of them implemented in 2009.

Please tell us what you thought here.

— Thanks so much everyone, for your amazing participation. Thanks especially to the Resident staff, who together put in a truly terrifying number of hours to organize this event. There were at least 50 of you. (I think I'm missing a few infrastructure builders— let me know if so.) And thanks also to all the exhibitor/builders without whom there would be no reason to celebrate! The Lab is proud to have been a partner, and pleased to be able to donate the land.

— First Week Event Statistics:

• Resident Staff: 50+
• Mentor/Greeters: 68
• Exhibitors: 300+
• People who helped build those exhibits: 899
• Futurist & Android Stage DJs: 103
• Main Stage Live Musicians: 100+
• Regions: 20 (plus one from the Teen Grid)
• Scheduled Events: 815
• Unscheduled Events: LOL
• Unique visitors: 17,712
• Hours spent: 23,662
• Countries represented: 140
• Advertising kiosks placed: 698
• Event Calendar page views: 23, 260
• People who caught Alien Gift Thieves: Only 94!
• Most Aliens caught by one person: 139

— If you haven't yet noticed, the industrious people on the Teen Grid have sent an entire region across the age gap for our amusement. The Region is named (appropriately) SL6B Teen. It has appended itself to the side of the main event, and can be reached by a causeway from SL6B Polaris. It's a lovely piece of work, and the Teens are undoubtedly the Future of Virtual Worlds. Come see how they are going to knock you off your pedestal, gramps.

— BUT WAIT!
It's not over yet! The gates will remain open at the SL6B regions for your further exploration and reflection. If you haven't managed to see it yet, do drop by The Paradox for a journey across "Dallier's Hope". The regions will remain open til around July 6th.    

Last Monday the new adult continent known as Zindra was officially opened to the public. After a week of comments and feedback, we'd like to take this opportunity to update the community to some small changes we hope will make the transition from the mainland and the migration to Zindra a bit easier. An updated map of Zindra to showcase the addition of double primmed areas has been attached.

1) How do I claim a plot if nothing is parceled?  The original idea behind keeping a majority of Zindra unparceled was to allow more freedom for the Residents in their ability to request land. We realize now though that a lack of parcel boundaries has made this task incredibly difficult. In an effort to provide a bit more guidance, the Department of Public Works will be hard at work the next few days carving Zindra into smaller, more recognizable plots. Please, take some time and re-visit the landmarks you've identified for the migration as they may have changed slightly due to the new parceling. You can view property lines by selecting View > Property Lines. After a brief pause you should see land boundaries shown in red.

2) Why is all the waterfront protected land? The DPW have been actively patrolling the coast line and creating more parcels which will include beach and water.

3) What's the status of X parcel, or Y piece of land? IM Michael Linden, he can adjust parcel tags for clarity. The parcels labelled Special Ocean, Special Water, etc. are just late additions to the land available for Residents.

4) Why can't we terraform the land? In order to protect some of the builds and Linden land, terraforming and join/subdivide will not be allowed in the city areas. However, the rural regions will have the usual +/- 4m allowance as well as the ability to join and subdivide land. 

5) Is there enough Zindra to go around? Yes! There is plenty of land that is still offline. If we need to bring it up then it will not be a problem.

6) When will the tickets be available? The ticketing process will open on Monday, the 29th at 10am PST. They will remain open for 3 weeks, closing July 20th at 10am.

7) When will I hear back from Linden about my ticket to move? We ask that Residents be patient as we are expecting a flood of requests. Submitting a ticket to ask when the first ticket will be addressed will only prolong the process as it increases the support load.

8) I own a large parcel and/or have a bunch of stuff on my parcel that I don't own but need to have with me in my new location. We have an answer for you!  If you are willing to move to a Private Region (not part of the Mainland) we can essentially peel your parcel (terraforming and all) off of the current mainland region it calls home and put it on a brand new Private Region (note that this won't work for moves to Zindra, as those regions exist and are terraformed as a whole).  If your parcel is larger than 16,384 m^2, you can request movement to a Private Region instead.  We will discount the Private Region setup fee (normally US$1,000) based on the amount of land you own.  For example, if you have 32,768 m^2, you would pay $500 for the setup fee.  If you have 49,152 m^2, you would pay $250 for the set-up fee.  The regular monthly land fees of $295 will be charged 30 days after the move. There will be a separate ticket type specifically to request this sort of move.

9) Are child avatars allowed on Adult land? Child avatars are allowed on adult land as long as they are account verified like any other Resident. Those choosing to represent themselves with a child avatar do not represent a minor as the account holder. Not all adult land is going to be hosting adult content either. There is plenty of protected land on Zindra that will technically be adult but safe in terms of content. This however does not change any prior policies regarding child avatars. Sexual ageplay is not allowed anywhere on the grid, regardless of rating.

For additional information, please visit the Zindra Wiki Page