Primfeed.com – A Flickr replacement for Second Life?

For some years now the once-ubiquitous image hosting service Flickr seems to have been gradually trying to squeeze Second Life content out.

With changes to policies relating to free accounts ability to have private photos and no longer able to include links to Second Life Marketplace or Store locations, it being seen as Commercial Use.

While not being able to have many images marked as Private is an inconvenience, not being able to include store links without a Pro left many SL Flickr “bloggers” (Flickr is an image hosting service not a blogging platform) stranded.

Timeline of changes:

  • 1st November 2018 – 1,000 image limit announcement Source
  • February 5, 2019, photos and videos over the free account 1,000 item limit will be at risk of deletion
  • 17th March 2022 – only allowed 50 private photos Source
  • 1st May 2022 – Free accounts not allowed Moderate or Restricted images.Source

That last point is a big issue because a lot of SL content is of an adult nature so many images of the virtual world don’t meet the requirements of Flickr’s “Safe” rating. It resulted in a bit of an exodus of SL residents from the platform.

The intention was apparently to make Flickr an archive of safe content “forever” and aimed at photographers rather than images from platforms like Second Life. Of late Flickr seems to have been enforcing the rules rather indiscriminately, resulting in at least one large inworld store setting their entire image catalogue to Moderate to prevent any issues. This of course inconviences their customers, who now need a Flickr account to view the images.

On 17th of May I heard about a proposed alternative to Flickr especially for Second Life residents. The name for this new site: Primfeed.com

It’s creator, Luke Rowley (also the founder of easyblogger), says that the platform will offer:

  • Original quality picture, up to 8k.
  • No issues with Marketplace or in-world links. – Adult content allowed.
  • Maturity ratings, General, Moderate, and Adult for posts as Second Life, allowing you to specify what type of content you want to see in your feed.
  • An AI tag to specify if a picture is modified or generated by an AI. – The social media will be dedicated to Second Life, thus content not related to Second Life will be heavily restricted, but not totally.

Also unique to the platform is that it will be linked to your avatar:

“Your account on Primfeed will be linked to a Second Life avatar, and you will have only one account per avatar, to prevent imposter, and fake accounts.”

In the list of features above, Luke says there will be a tag for AI generated content, however in a later X Post (Tweet) he suggested AI generated/enhanced product ADs will be banned.

Those could be seen as two separate issues, but I see them as one, they’re aspects of the same issue. If it’s going to be a Second Life focused platform that’s what it should be, no AI content. AI generated content has its place, such as a fun header of this post or specific audiences and markets, but on a Second Life specific image gallery isn’t it.

I believe in this time of an obsession with AI everywhere, the initial stance on AI content on the platform will have a dramatic effect on its overall success. Saying “No” from the outset may provoke some negative feedback to start with, but I believe in the long run it will lead to a more SL-Relevant content collection.

The site is currently still under development and looks very promising so far and comments on social media certainly seem to reflect that opinion. Many people, including myself, are very excited about this project and waiting eagerly for its launch at the end of June.

There is a preview video of what the site may look like at this link on X (which totally refused to Embed here.)

If you’re interested and want to make a suggestion or offer ideas, you can use this form.

Update 10th August 2024: The platform launched with allowing AI content so long as it was tagged as such. I guess this is a reasonable compromise, because trying to keep the content out altogether would be a moderation nightmare. At launch it wasn’t possible to filter this content, but it has now been added. You can opt to show “AI Content” and “Render Content” as well as obviously Maturity ratings in your settings. Lots of other improvements have been made in the short time the platform has been running and it’s quite an impressive achievement. Signing up with your Second Life avatar account makes it very easy to get set up quickly. If you have at some point changed your avatar name, you may find that your registered account shows the original name (mine showed AvaDelaney Resident), you can fix that by clicking a board inworld to update it.

Currently content on the site isn’t visible without a Second Life account, I can see this as both good and bad. Good in that the platform is kept SL focused, but possibly bad because it can’t be used to attract new Residents. However since that is not the point of the site, it’s not much of a downside. Given the actions of Flickr mentioned above, primfeed does seem now, with it’s updates, to be the much needed alternative platform.

Reblog: The Company of Faire Folk welcome you

The Fairelanders of Fantasy Faire gather to explore other realms in Second Life. I shall definitely be attending!

Unfortunately the time was moved by 4 hours to 5pmSLT instead of 1pm so I won’t be able to attend.

Group Join Link : secondlife:///app/group/f2188696-a522-50e1-d790-475934558c30/about

The Fairelands have faded back into the Mists for another year, but the Company of Faire Folk will be continuing to ride out … or walk, fly, amble, swim, or otherwise navigate as you prefer. This year, we are planning a series of off-season Tours, giving the Company of Faire Folk a chance to meet […]

The Company of Faire Folk welcome you

Blogger Challenge: Why I Relay

This is the first time I’ve written something like this and it really is a challenge, so please bear with me.

This is my 4th year as a Faire Chronicler and I’m proud to be such, but this year is very different. I previously have done this because it’s a great cause to support, obviously I’d known people who had Cancer, but previously not lost someone close to it. My Aunt passed shortly before this year’s Faire and she is missed. She was not geographically close to me, so seeing her in person was pretty rare, but I knew she’d be there on the end of the phone. I probably took that for granted because I didn’t speak to her often either. This may bring up the question of “how were you close then?”, the answer is that she had a great impact on my childhood. My family would visit theirs  and many happy summers were spent with my cousins when I was growing up. I could always talk to her, usually back then to complain about my mum, as youngsters and teens are prone to doing.

Obviously later we talked about more adult topics, but it was those summer years that formed a trust bond you think will never be broken, but her cancer did that far too soon. She was a shrewd business woman that passed that know-how onto my cousins, who have become successful in their own right because of it.

So I Relay in her memory, in the hopes that fewer aunts and mothers are lost to the dreadful disease of Cancer. I’d never cried for her loss until I wrote this, I’m not good at showing my emotions, but putting these thoughts on virtual paper has allowed me to let them out. The thought of her not being there at our family gatherings makes my screen go blurry.

I was uncertain what I might use as an image for this post, if any at all, but then I remembered one of her wishes; she wanted people to dress in bright colours at her funeral and her favourite colour was Blue, so I searched the Faire for something suitable.

Credits:

  • Dress: Constnace from UNA
  • Pose: Mist Magic 3 from Astalianda
  • Necklace: Portal: Rana Necklace

This post was featured on Second Life Community Blog on 7th May 2024

Quest Beginnings.. and straight to The End!

So this year we have a very quaint looking village for our Quest location. It looks far too safe, it must have a dark secret, surely? After all our Quest is called “The Seven Layers of Joy”, which to me isn’t dissimilar from “Nine Circles of Hell”, perhaps the Unweaver can’t count. I’ll play along and dress suitably for the setting and wait until something unpleasant happens..off to see the Bard Queen!

Harvest Home

I wrote the above early last week,but then I got carried away with the Quest and forgot to take pictures as I went along!

As it turns out, the layers refer to those of a big cake, so whether it is Hell or not depends if you hate baking or happen to be on a gluten-free diet!

Fortunately since then the Quest Express HUD has been released. For a 5000L$ donation this will let you skip as much or as little as you want of the Quest. Since the Faire is now into Extra Time granted by the Lindens, it’s just in time for you to whiz around and grab all those prizes!

You can grab the Expresss HUD HERE at Fairelands Junction.

I suggest you enable the “auto-accept inventory” option in your viewer before going to the end, to save to having to accept around 139 inventory offers. You’ll likely have to relog twice however for all of them to arrive, due to them all arriving so quickly.

Credits:

The Fairelands Masked Ball 2024

Yesterday was the second annual Fantasy Faire Masked Ball, as usual it was very busy. Held over two Regions there were over 150 avatars in attendance,all dressed in their best finery. As many will know it’s quite tricky to be in such an environment without computer stability issues. However I was able to capture a few images to show those that weren’t able to attend, or did attend but were unable to view the whole scene.

The Watcher in the Forest and the Taur Parade

It’s that time of year again, the Fairelands are accessible to the Mortal realm, she has mixed feelings about it though. They ramble all through the land wandering here and there, sometimes inadvertently trampling things in their haste to explore and purchase Faire trinkets.

The positive side of their visiting however is the energy they bring with them. From the little squeals and smiles as they see something they find beautiful, or the thrill of a purchase that brings them joy, all the way up to their noisy parties. All of this positive energy combined, by the time they depart, it will be enough to sustain the Fairelands until they return in a year’s time.

One of their regular activities she likes to watch is the Centaurs Parade. Although these days it’s not just Centaurs, they have a whole menagerie of creatures making up their numbers.

For a long time they stand, waiting as their kin gather and their numbers grow, ready for their procession through the Forest. She must depart before they do though, that’s when she might be spotted, by one of the Taurs or more likely one of the Mortal observers also watching.

Watcher Outfit Credits:

  • Face Tattoo: PunkinBlend- Hatmehyt Tattoo Evo X (Green) – Faire Store
  • Skin Overlay: [Cubic Cherry] {Abyss} suit darkness JADE v2 (bom) – Faire Store
  • Skin: Druid [xx]+FGInc.+ Primal Spell (Event Item only)
  • Arm Tattoo layer: ~FHHS~ Growth- FLOWERS tint 100% – Faire Store
  • Clothing: Fairy Mermaid Outfit – Green – Crious Kitties – Faire Store
  • Necklace: Portal: Rana Necklace – Faire Store
  • Hair: Raven Bell – Nereid Hair –Faire Store
  • Pose: Astalianda – Moon Magic 2 – Faire Store

Featured on the Second Life Community Blog on 3rd of May 2024.

The Wiki Wizzard of Whispering Pages

Apparently Humans have these things called “Wiki”s, they’re meant to answer basic or frequently asked questions about a particular subject, in theory.

This Wizards answers are always right however, though she doesn’t know where they come from. She just opens one of her books at random and the answer to somebody’s question will just be there, even if she didn’t entirely understand what they were asking. Sounds great you may think, she knows everything, but alas no. None of her books will provide such answers to her own questions or questions about her. This is obviously most frustrating, things like “Where will my next meal come from?” would be very useful to know for a wandering Wizard, so she doesn’t walk a day’s journey in the wrong direction. The books do seem to impose certain other caveats too, if someone wealthy asks “Where can I get gold?”  it’ll likely say “You’ve got enough!” if a person in need were to ask, it would provide advice for them to earn it within their capabilities. So they don’t always provide the answers people wanted, more what they needed. This sometimes resulted in angry people, or grateful people that would provide her with dinner and a bed for a night or two.

What question would you ask?

(Inspired by a comment by Amaya in the Fantasy Faire Discord)

Credits:

Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Whispering%20Pages/38/128/77

Featured on the Second Life Community Blog on 29 April 2024

Faire Folk: Slick Salvage at Plankbarrow  Harbor

They call her “Slick” not because she’s particularly cool, fast or some shallow reason, it’s simply because her tail scales have a rainbow pattern similar to how the water goes when human boats pass by. It’s not a bad thing though, in a way it gives her an advantage. Her kin won’t swim near the wrecks of the human vessels for fear of getting their shiny scales stained. For her though that’s not a problem and it means she can search the wrecks for salvage in peace. Certainly the murky water of the old harbour isn’t pleasant, but the rewards of salvage can make it worthwhile. She’s heard a fresh wreck has been dropped in the watery junkyard, so it’s time to explore.

Credits:

  • Tail: Zen Child Designs // Brine – Odyssey Mer Tail Maitreya 1.1 – Faire Store
  • Tail Texture: Brine – Nouveau for Odyssey Mer Tail RFL Oil Slick – Faire Store
  • Arm Tatto: ~FHHS~ Growth-Stems tint black 100% – Faire Store
  • Hands Tattoo: ~FHHS~ Growth- FINGERS tint black 100% – Faire Store
  • Shoulder & Body Tatto: [n.a.p] Leaves Embrace – Faire Store
  • Face Tattoo: [n.a.p] Wildwood Paints v2 – Faire Store
  • Bra: Chorrai – Acantha (Legacy body version worn on Maitreya which fits fine) – Faire Store
  • Hair: Raven Bell – Luxe Hair –Faire Store
  • Skin: Draco [xx]+FGInc.+ Silver PG. – Faire Store

Location: Plankbarrow Harbor

The Forest Huntress

Standing on the lip of the valley the huntress raised her arms wide, looking to the sky and prayed to the God of the Sun and the Goddess of the forests for a successful hunt this day.

Credits:

(Note the Body Tattoo come in plain white for tinting to your choice of colour.)