The Unofficial Second Life® Fashion and Shopping Blog

…but no one is home.

As previously indicated, Linden Lifestyles is not currently updating. We have no immediate plans to re-launch. Our archives remain merely as reference. Comments are turned off.

Thank you for your readership, support, input, creativity, patience, and kind attention.

Friends and Loyal Readers,

As of August 8th, 2008 Linden Lifestyles will no longer be updating active content. The time required to maintain this project simply hasn’t been a luxury we’ve got in pocket these days. The site will continue as a reference archive for existing and new readers, but there will be no new reviews or updates following August 8th. In the past, we have had periods of hiatus and/or slower posting paces, but this time we’re finally pouring the last few drinks, closing the doors and sweeping out the sawdust.

As of this posting:
1. Content creators should no longer send samples for evaluation to reviewers;
2. Any new advertising will be on the understanding that this is an archive only-site;
3. Current advertisers have the option to finish out their number of impressions, or request a refund on remaining impressions.

In addition to the above, as of August 8th, 2008:
1. Comments will be turned off on all entries;
2. The Linden Lifestyles Flickr Group will no longer be approving new images;

We may be posting a few final entries before the closing date - just to get it out of our systems

We cannot thank you enough for the support that you have shown as a community for a bunch of girls playing virtual paper dolls and writing about it. It has been a delight to squee with you in prim lust these last two years. While we move on to new projects, we hope you will continue to enjoy the goodies the grid has to offer and share them with friends in the name of fun and prim vanity.

Kindest Regards,

Sabrina Doolittle
Salome Strangelove
Linden Lifestyles Staff

(note: Salome is bad at math. Our last day will be the 8th, not the 5th as originally posted.)

Due to some recent confusion, I’d like to take a moment to clarify our blog policy on event notification and press releases from third parties and how we handle them here at Linden Lifestyles.

While we are always honored to be included by those people who notify us of their upcoming releases, events, and/or projects, we do not necessarily feel obligated to promote all of these as though we were a news outlet. We are a blog about shopping in SL and we do not necessarily focus on latest releases, etc., but on things we find, wear, and enjoy. Certainly, news and new releases are part of our content, but not our focus.

During a conversation I had recently, it was implied that Linden Lifestyles should feel duty-bound to pass on information regarding SL events regardless of our personal interest in them. Putting aside my private annoyance at being told what I should feel obligated to do, I don’t feel it serves Linden Lifestyles or our readers to turn this blog into a cut and paste farm of daily announcements. There is always some new product release or event taking place in SL - that’s what keeps the community exciting. While our pace may have slowed in presenting information, what does appear on these pages are the things *we* enjoy or are interested in and remaining genuine with our readers is the only duty I feel any blogger has to their readership.

For, now, our official stance is that we will blog events and share news that meets our criteria for inclusion. Our criteria is best defined as:

1. Paid advertising/promotion (ie - the stuff that pays the server bills);
2. In the instance that we are blogging the content of the event/announcement because it interests us personally;
3. For charities or causes that we feel deserve a mention on our webspace;
4. In instances where we have a personal interest in the event/announcement.

In RL, the business of promotion includes things like building-up consumer interest, generating product buzz, and paying for strategic advertising. In SL, most promoters seem to think that putting up a few store signs, dropping notecards, and spamming groups means their job is done. More often than not, these meager efforts are done in hastily worded, unprofessional last-minute spasms. It’s not my place to tell anyone their job, but I’m not going to reward that kind of lackluster practice by pimping for them, either. Even in the cases where the promoters are doing all the right things - the subject matter simply might not appeal to us. There are lots of SL blogs and voices offering variety to readers; none of us should feel obligated to blog anything we don’t feel like blogging.

I do understand that our readers would like to hear more from us, and hopefully, we’ll be adding some fresh new voices to keep Linden Lifestyles relevant to our ever-loyal base. Any person blogging here, however, will have no obligation to content other than their own interests. My theory is that personal interest keeps expression genuine. Otherwise it’s all just a bunch of squee-on-cue, and while I have no issue with the squee, it’s the on-cue part that gets annoying.

So while we welcome news and notecards aplenty of all the ins and outs of fashion and shopping fun, we look upon such notification as the opportunity to discover things we might be inspired to blog about and not as an obligation to blog something we were told to be interested in. I am thankful that the majority of our readers and in-world associates seem to understand this position, but I figured an official posting of our policy might help prevent any future confusion.

Thank you for your kind attention.