As we approach summer, I have several announcements to share, including what’s been brewing in the first half of the year.

Community Management Update

Running a community as tenured and popular as ours requires an incredible amount of work and dedication. With recent changes like shutting down Seaside, plans to expand Columtreal campus, and completing the inaugural year of Backwaters, it was time to rethink our structure and scale for the future.

Acknowledging Our Team

First, I want to thank our current and past staff who have volunteered countless hours to maintain our community. They are on the front lines daily, often in thankless roles. Without them, we would not have a safe space to play.

Evolving Management for the Future

Looking ahead, as our roleplay community evolves and Second Life introduces new features like the mobile app and revised adult policies, our management approach needs to evolve too. Our new HUD and updates to the website will also play a proactive role in helping players navigate our extensive guides and utilize new technology for better moderation support.

The team structure has been simplified into two roles: admins and moderators. The admin team will handle major functional areas, including player issues and abuse cases. Moderators will support the community in-world, ensuring safety, answering questions, and managing technical aspects.

• Columtreal Campus: Buffy (Sabrina Morningstar) will continue to lead the campus. As an admin, she will build a core team to support daily operations.
• Backwaters: Hell (Kit Absithe) will step into the admin role to realign group leaders and build on the community foundation we established last year.
• Factions: Blue Noel will support factions across Crack Den and Backwaters, ensuring harmony between faction leaders.
• Events: Poppy will lead community engagement in-world with events and activities, including leading storyweavers. She is also stepping in to support businesses while I develop new tech to transform this area.
• Discord: Piper will manage our community engagement off-grid, innovating to create a more enjoyable atmosphere on Discord.
• Mentors: Julian will lead the mentor program, easing the onboarding process for new players and ensuring the growth of our community.

Promoting Our Community

Our community is vibrant and creative – it has the tenure and stories that are unmatched across the Grid. PRIDE this year has been amazing to watch unfold through the month. I’ve been working with Loz to kick off a social campaign to raise awareness of characters and soon our fictional businesses. I’ll also work with Daiyu, Poppy, and others to layer in articles, major events, and other calendar items into our social program. We will do it in an elevated way to match the quality of our stories.

Here is our amazing trailer made by a very special artist – Teal did an incredible job teasing our story, and we will be doing a big push this summer to promote it.

Backwaters and Beyond

It’s been over a year since the launch of Backwaters, and we’ve seen steady growth of dedicated players. Hell has consistently led community-building events and is now stepping up as an admin to realign group leaders. We’ve set up a special council channel on Discord to foster open communication.

Call to Action

I urge all leaders and players to set aside differences, reset expectations, and rebuild relationships. There’s immense potential in the story and growth of Backwaters, and I am committed to seeing it through. Our new Story HUD, featuring unique elements for Backwaters, Hathian, and Columtreal, will be released in the next few weeks.

Columtreal Campus Updates

Look out for build updates and general modernization, including new social and business locations, as well as updates to the shotgun homes. New features in the upcoming Story HUD will make the campus even more immersive.

Shuttering Seaside

Following the new “no child avatars on adult region” policy, we immediately removed Seaside from search. We will decommission various youth elements from the Crack Den soon. Long term, I am committed to creating a new region with appropriate maturity settings to reboot youth/family RP, but it won’t happen on our current sims.

My last ask is to continue being patient with us as we work through transitioning. Stay tuned for more updates and thank you for being part of our community!