Ex-Second Life Newspaper SLNN Now Covering Golden Grrrls?

Metaverse loses another news source as SLNN changes ownership and direction

by Tenshi Vielle

SLNN's coverage of the Second Life world has gone missing and is now feared dead. For nearly two weeks, the formerly Second Life-oriented news service's web site has been unresponsive.

Readers attempting to access current or past articles are greeted with an ominous message:

"BANDWIDTH EXCEEDED. The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later."

Google responds in a similar fashion:

"This Account Has Been Suspended. Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible."

There does not appear to have been any moves made to remedy this problem, suggesting that SLNN has moved on to another, better world - a twitter news world, where selling ads and paying reporters are just a distant memory.

Could the SLNN be pointing the way forward for the mainstream media - which is also suffering from diminished ad revenue and flirting with new media?

 

Is Bea more interesting than M Linden?

The SLNN.com twitter account appears to have stopped covering Second Life news. Their latest article is about the death of famed Golden Girl Bea Arthur. Even worse, SLNN's most recent tweet was 24 hours ago and redirects to seanpercival.com while the SLNN Twitter webpage (http://twitter.com/slnn) still maintains that it is property of SLNN.com.

In an attempt to find out what happened, I spoke with a source who wishes to remain anonymous. "AFAIK, Doeko sold it and the new owner did nothing with it, but I'm not sure," says the source, "Maybe Marvel Ousley sold it. No clue whether it was Marvel or Doeko, but either way, they let it die."

 

Comments

[Sigmund Leominster]

Alas, the SLNN appears to have died quite a while ago. On December 26th, 2008 (http://sigmundleominster.blogspot.com/2008/12/whats-happening-at-second-life-news.html), I tried to contact Garrett Bakalava, the editor, but no luck. Another nudge in January was similarly unsuccessful. Then, the "Account Suspended" appeared on March 22nd, 2009 (http://sigmundleominster.blogspot.com/2009/03/another-sl-newspaper-folds.html). At that point, I was prepared to accept the demise.

Let me know what else you find Tenshi ;)

[Orion]

Oooh nooo!! Not Bea! My fav drag queen-esque actor of all time!

[Adric Antfarm]

They have been for a while.

[Nomad]

Bea Arthur was the alpha Golden Girl
she'll be missed

[Adric Antfarm]

I'm worried about that other award winning blog that is down as well.

[At0m0 Beerbaum]

This just in, people losing interest in a hype bubble!

[Inky Typist, Newspaper Editor]

In the future, all news stories will be famous for 15 minutes. And all news stories will be 15 words.

13 of the words will be about farts or being kicked in the balls.

[Jimbo Quality]

bea arthur died?
how come no one told me?

[Troy McLuhan]

A few months ago, I was getting email notifications of replies to some comments I made on an SLNN article a long time ago. When I went to see what the replies said, they turned out to be spam comments (e.g. a pile of URLs). Apparently, SLNN wasn't keeping their comment spam filters up to date. I then looked for the most recent article and it was in October or November, 2008, I think.

SLNN used to be pretty good. I remember they covered some of the science-related events in SL, which is more than I can say about any of the other SL news publications. I guess something went wrong (and it wasn't SL - which continues to grow).

[Doeko Cassidy]

Hi all,

For further information, SLNN was sold by me early 2008 to Garret Bakalava (editor). At the same time Marvel Ousley (editor) left, as well as our sales rep and the graphics artist. Ever since it has gone downhill. I'm personally very sorry to see that the new owner was not able to get it on the rails right. Luckily, other reputable newshouses are here to take its stead.

Regards,
Doeko Cassidy