Ephemeral Creations

Recently someone at Linden Lab made a little oopsie - ok, it was a BIG oopsie. As a result of this error, thousands of SexGen products (probably more like tens of thousands) were broken. It only affected scripted SexGen objects  that were rezzed at the time, and then only ones purchased since February 2007 (I say ‘only’… did I mention tens of thousands of affected products? Yeah, I thought I did).

Needless to say, Stroker Serpentine and his manager, Andrea Faulkner, have been left with a customer service nightmare. Stroker has asked for help getting the word out about this problem, and what his customers need to do to get their broken products fixed. Lending a hand was the right thing to do - as a fellow content creator, I’d certainly wish for community help with something of this magnitude - so I’m quoting two important forum posts from both Stroker and Andrea below.

First, Stroker Serpentine’s post (which I originally found here if you want to read the discussion):

I am cross-posting this from other forums because I am lazy. I would appreciate any and all help (and/or feedback) in getting the word out. We have made notices to all our Support/Afilliate/Reseller Groups inworld. As well as multiple conference IM’s. Many have asked how this could have happened so here is the explaination. (Warning tl;dr)

Several weeks ago, I was called at home around midnight by my manager Andrea Faulkner. She had “that tone” in her voice that immediately let me know something was wrong. She asked if I was aware of any major grid malfunction or if I had *** off LL somehow. She told me to get my *** into SL so she could show me.

When I logged in I was bombarded by IM’s of “My SexGen doesn’t work” or “Menu not loading”. Andrea additionally cut/pasted similar IMs she was getting in email. I immediately knew what happened after this fiasco last year:

https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2008/06/17/responding-to-questions-about-the-dmca-process;jsessionid=A6BC61235E9524E09CC4A0D5D6E7A4D1

We had been blacklisted.

I rang up concierge and they were nice enough to expedite a ticket through to the DevTeam. The next morning Data Linden showed up and we isolated the specific script that had indeed been blacklisted.

He reversed the blacklist, but the damage had been done to anything rezzed in world.

It was a script we use to store the rotations and offsets in virtual memory. Of ALL the scripts it had to be THAT one. I was *** and wanted answers. I left a voicemail for Cyn Linden and Marty Linden (their attorney) and heard nothing back all day. I at least thought Marty would return my call as he knows Frank (my attorney) and would at least have contacted him. Nadda.

Finally, I emailed Philip. I have emailed him once in all these years. He responded within a couple of hours, and I voiced my discontent about the whole situation and he assured me that someone would be in contact. He apologized and seemed genuinely concerned.

The next day I get an email from Garry Linden whom said he had been apprised of the situation and wanted to help. He apologized profusely and we had a phone convo to discuss how best to stem the tide of IM’s we were receiving. Since this affected every item we had used the SexGen anim system in it apparently broke about 50 UUID’s and ten’s of thousands of items that were rezzed inworld at the time. There was no easy fix. We decided to just “deal with it” and provide personalized service instead of making some impersonal “Repair Kit” available on XStreet as Garry suggested.

(Commentary)

We have since been dealing with thousands of broken items built over 2-1/2 years. The IM’s don’t stop. I can’t tell you how hard it is to log in most days. I believe in my heart that our customers are the best on the grid. They have been understanding and supportive through all this mess. Plus, I have learned from experience that you live and die in SL based upon your reputation.

I suffered through all the comments over the years of “This is what you can expect from trying to build a business on pixels and spacebucks”. There’s a lot of truth in that I suppose, however, coming from a content business prior to SL, I also know it’s an honorable profession with many opportunities. Virtual property is a tangible commodity IMO.

What has really *** me off through this whole thing is that apparently ONE Linden had the authority to cause this damage. The script was blacklisted AFTER Linden Lab would have been closed. I am not particularly a “Conspiracy Theorist”, but this smacks of abuse and incompetence.

(End Commentary)

I would appreciate any help in getting out the word that we can fix this. It’s going to take time and patience on both ends. We’re still dealing with 100’s of IM’s at a time. Pixeleen (Alphaville Herald) did us a service by posting this story and the notecard:

http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2009/05/strokerz-second-life-sextoys-broken-repairs-underway.html

You can also get more info here (SLUniverse), if you are interested:

http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/30099-ll-breaks-sexgen.html#post700813

Initially, I felt it was best to keep this quiet and just deal with the consequences individually. I was concerned for the damage it would do to our reputation. Now, I just want to get it over with.

If you would like to link to this post (XStreet) please let people know that we’re willing and able to make this right. We’re giving free upgrades and gifts to try and salvage our customer base. For the most part everyone has been understanding, but sometimes we lose an IM or return.

The best way to get your item repaired and take advantage of the free repair/gift is to send an IM to Andrea Faulkner detailing the names of the item(s). If you do not get a response from Andrea within a day..please IM me.

Sorry so long, but I feel it is important to keep residents informed of just how fragile and susceptible your business is to adverse actions by LL.

Thanks.

And Andrea’s post later in the same discussion, which importantly points out that you should neither send your broken items back, nor send her notecards because they will get lost. Simply contact her via Im in world for a simple fix-it package:

I’m sorry, but given that this debacle effected every SexGen item sold since February 2007 that was rezzed in world at the time, there are literally thousands of people who have been effected.

Often, these people don;t even realize that they were effected until they try to move their SexGen to a new location, or they touch it and the menu operates, but no balls ever appear.

I simply do not have the time or resources to have each person hand me their SexGen, or worse, try sending it to me when I’m offline, and repair it myself and send it back. I have a simple kit with instructions that I can send to you if you message me, and you yourself can fix your item in about 60 seconds.

See, I get all IMs, my e-mail catches them, but notecards and items offered DO get capped and FOREVER lost… so do NOT send me notecards or objects.

Just IM me, and I swear to you on the lives of the Jonas Brothers (die, die, die) that I WILL get back to you in a matter of hours with a sure fire cure. And yes, you will still get a free gift for the headache. And YES… if the fix I send you fails to work, I will most definately and assuredly fix your toy in person or give you a replacement. Not to worry, we stand behind all our products FOREVER. You are NEVER screwed if you buy from Strokerz Toyz.

*hugglez*

Andrea Faulkner
Manager and Lead Tech
Strokerz Toyz
Eros LLC

Best of luck to you, Stroker and crew.

The Make Him Over Hunt starts today, and Ephemeral Creations is store number 26 in the chain. This hunt focuses specifically on the guys with gifts made for men, and unisex items.

Our gifts include a silver cross necklace fitted to the unique shape of the male neck in Second Life^®, and a nice, simple unisex pair of stud earrings in silver with jet cabochon stones.

Look for the prim golden male symbol hidden in the store; it’s not far from the landing point.

Happy hunting, guys!

It’s the last day of Ephemeral Creations’ Easter Egg hunt. Come join in before it’s over! One of our eggs contains an exclusive gold and silver egg pendant, which was designed just for this hunt (shown below).

See our original article for full details.

The eggs will remain out until past midnight.

Happy Easter!

Hidden around the Ephemeral Creations main store are five golden Easter eggs, each with a little something inside for you. It’s our Easter gift to the residents of Second Life^®.

One of the hidden gifts is this detailed,
limited release gold and silver Easter egg pendant,
which features a sculpted egg.

Here’s a closer look at the egg.

The treasure eggs will be out through Easter weekend. We hope you enjoy the hunt!

Just so you know what you’re looking for, the eggs are this size.

Peace,
Arkesh Baral

To celebrate the first release of our new Menagerie Bangles series, we have included a new free gift for our update group members. Stop by the Ephemeral Creations main store and wear your Ephemeral Creations update group tag to get your gift from the group display. As always, you’ll find it on the far west wall of the store by the 7Seas fishing hole.

This gift is meant to go with the other bangles sets in the Menagerie series, and is only available to our group members; it will not be offered for sale. Stop by the store to check out our latest bangles release, and mix and match different left and right Menagerie sets or singles for fashionable fun!

Ephemeral Creations is pleased to announce the first release in our new Menagerie series of bangle bracelets. Available in fashionably fun, wrist-filled sets or in single bangle accent packages, every item in the Menagerie line is meant to work together. Have some mix and match fun with a left wrist adorned by one set, and the right draped by bangles from another set.

With this initial release, we offer four multi-bangle sets, and six single bangle packages. Each full set is named after its theme, and features a wrist full of great bangles, while the singles sets include the same single bangle in five different metals or metal accents (black, silver, gold, copper, and steel) fitted for both left and right use. All Menagerie sets are mod/copy/no transfer so you don’t have to worry about breaking them if you want to make modifications or just need to resize them - just remember to keep a backup copy.

And now the pictures!

First, the full sets:

Just like a giraffe’s neck, this is currently
the tallest stack of bangles in the series.
~~~

Stripes, stripes, stripes. The zebra herd wanders the
grasslands under crisp, blue skies.
~~~

With a steely gaze, the gator glides silently through silvery, moonlit water,
only its golden eyes shine through in the night.
~~~

The python lies in a circle, wrapped around your wrist;
her scales sometimes shimmer in the light.
~~~

And the singles sets:

Mix and match different left and right sets or singles for fashionable fun!

Demos are 0L$ in the Ephemeral Creations main store.

Peace,
Arkesh Baral

End your St. Patrick’s Day in Second Life^® the perfect way - in Ephemeral Creations’ “Lucky” sheer catsuit or crop top and tights sets!

Our shamrock covered lingerie sets include fully sheer versions, and modest “covered” versions (covered versions shown here), so you’re sure to have the look to suit your sensibilities. Also included are two shades of green.

For your convenience, each set also includes undershirt, shirt, jacket, underpants, and pants layers, and is copyable for ease when making outfits.

This St. Patrick’s Day, say “Pinch me anyway!”.

Get yours in our main store.

Also, find our box of St. Patrick’s shamrock t-shirts in our main store for just 1L$.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I wanted to take a moment to welcome InQConnections to the Second Life^® blogosphere. They’re the newest SL-related fashion feed site on the block, and have set up a very well organized and easy-to-use website for all of their feeds. Not only do they cover fashion, jewelry, skins, hair, and so on, but they also devote sections to feeds for events, and for home decor in Second Life. Fabulous!

Stop by their site when you have a chance.

Recently, I briefly spoke to the founders via IM, and they were not only nice, but so helpful that they made a correction to my listing right on the spot. So, a thank you also goes out to InQConnections!

I wish you the best of luck and much success with your new venture.

Peace,
Arkesh Baral

Ephemeral Creations offers our new “Nubia” full jewelry sets in either gold or silver. Each set comes with 8 mod/copy pieces to adorn you from head to toe!

~~~

Best worn with little or nothing else, the Nubia jewelry is both sexy and low prim (so it won’t lag you out when you slink around Second Life® wearing all the pieces).

8 Pieces Included:
Neck Piece (chest)
Wide Wrist Cuff (right lower arm)
Bracelet (left lower arm)
Arm Band (left upper arm)
Thigh Band (right upper leg)
Knee Band (right lower leg)
Ankle Band (right foot)
Tall Ankle Cuff (left lower leg)

Like with all of our demos, the full Nubia demo set is 0L$.

Find the Nubia sets in the Ephemeral Creations main store.

~ Peace, Arkesh Baral