New World Notes

Get Well Soon & Happy Valentine's to Flickr Columnist Cajsa Lilliehook!

Image via Casja's Flickr

Hope readers join me in wishing Happy Valentine's and best wishes for a quick recover to Cajsa Lilliehook, New World Notes' indispensable columnist covering the best of virtual world imagery. She's currently home, resting and recovering* from a successful surgery last week, and hopefully will be back to writing Cajsa's Choices soon.

Meantime, here's some recent-ish romantic imagery posts from Cajsa to enjoy for the holiday:

Watch: Isabelle & Me Chat About the Metaverse on Cloud's Edge

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who joined us, especially Erik and Rosie in fluff form! We talked about a Second Life avatar in the Vienna Opera House, Bryn Oh on Steam, and too many VR headsets in Metaverse stories. Plus viewer questions and topics that quickly get racy!

Reviewing & Grading My Metaverse Predictions for 2022 on Quest 2 Sales, Blockchain, Linden Lab and More

Time to take a lot at what I predicted would happen in 2022, and compare it with what actually did:

Apple will not announce AR/VR products in 2022.

Yes. And I'm tempted to predict the same thing for 2023!

Second Life finally gets an official mobile app in 2022.

Yes, though kinda sorta. Some SLers aren't super happy about the gingerbread man avatar they have to use.

Quest 2 Install Base Remains Under 20 Million in 2022.

Probably. It was pinned at 15 million last October, and Quest 2 holiday says were reportedly down, so it's still likely hovering at just under 20 million.

There will be major government involvement over one or more Metaverse platforms.

Yes. Getting in right under the wire, this from December: Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges.

Four more predictions to review after the break!

I'm Not Leaving Twitter (Yet) But Please Follow Me on LinkedIn

I'm on LinkedIn and often post and chat with connections there. As for Twitter, well, I'm still there too, despite all the recent Elon Issues. Whatever's going on with Twitter the company, my Twitter network of people who are fun and interesting remains incredibly valuable to me. And long as that's the cast, I'll remain on Twitter too.

SL Merchants: Want Your Items Featured in New World Video's Holiday Special? Here's How!

For our next New World Notes video we're doing a holiday theme and trying something fun while chatting about Metaverse news -- we're featuring fun Second Life gift ideas. If you're a merchant interested in having some of your items featured on the show.

Submission deadline is by December 18, SLT.

And yes, we may feature some Adult-rated items, but only if they're totally hilarious and we can blur out the naughty bits. But PG-13 is generally preferred.

Here's how to submit them:

• Send it to the inventory of my excellent cohost and producer Isabelle Cheren
• Also send her a notecard with the item(s) price, a short description, and a link to the Marketplace and in-world store. We'll include those links in the video description and also in a New World Notes blog post.
• We'll feature our favorite items on next week's show, just in time for Christmas shopping!

Watch our last episode below!

Dutchie Black Friday Weekend Sale: 30% Off the Entire Adult Store! (Partner News)

From today until next Monday, everything in the Adult store of Dutchie (a proud New World Notes sponsoring partner), is 30% off. And who knows, you may get to meet Dutchie's elegant owner herself! [Click here to teleport] 

New World Notes Seeking Experienced Advertising/Bizdev Partners

As I plow away on writing Why the Metaverse Matters, I'm also planning to expand New World Notes' reach next year. And I definitely need help doing that.

Are you interested in being New World Notes' advertising executive and/or bizdev partner? Contact me via DM on Twitter  or Discord (WJA #3523) or even actual e-mail (wjamesau at Gmail).

This is an opportunity to partner with brands that New World Notes readers would find valuable, and ideally, would also become an ongoing partnership. (More on that below.)

New World Notes is the longest running and most read metaverse/virtual world blog with a primary focus on Second Life and its many spinoffs, metaverse platforms, and related technologies, often cited by major outlets like the New York Times, the BBC, Bloomberg, Wired, and others. According to Similar Web, we typically attract 150,000 visits a month (sometimes more, sometimes less). It's also the most-read general news/culture blog with a major focus on Second Life.

Blog Status: New World Notes Fully Back Online (I Think)! Let Me Know If Otherwise

Relieved that Typepad finally found the problem that was causing some/most images on New World Notes not to load. Apologies to anyone frustrated over the last few days! Speaking of which, if you see any other weird display issues, please let me know in Comments below or on Twitter. (Please specify device and browser you're using.)

As Typepad Continues to Break New World Notes, Here's an Open Forum

We are fast approaching a whole week of server problems caused by Typepad, New World Notes' blog service. I have a whole host of interesting and inspiring metaverse stories to share, but no point doing so when the images barely load.

If you are somehow able to reach this blog despite loading and image display problems, congrats! Please discuss anything even vaguely related to metaverse platforms in this open forum post.

SERVICE UPDATE: New World Notes Not Recently Displaying Due to Typepad Outages

The Typepad team is continuing to work to fully restore service. At this time, you may see issues such as blogs or images not loading, or you may encounter an error when logging into the application. We are working non-stop to address all remaining problems. #TypepadStatus

— Typepad (@typepad) October 31, 2022

Thanks to everyone who recently contacted me about New World Notes not loading or fully displaying since last week. That seems to be due to my blog service Typepad having trouble with server migration and maintenance since roughly October 21, further compounded by a DDOS attack on October 28. You can follow Typepad's Twitter for further updates.

Apologies for the inconvenience! Kinda wild that Linden Lab chose Typepad to host the original New World Notes blog because it launched in October 2003, shortly after Second Life launched commercially. (And I stuck with Typepad when NWN went independent.)

Further irony: At this point I probably need to keep New World Notes on Typepad, at least in an archive form, because at least 25% of daily traffic goes to old posts, even to posts originally published in 2003.