Changes to Chilbo’s Community Model
Sunday, June 12th, 2011
The original Chilbo Welcome Center, circa 2006.
First, the Backstory: A Brief History of the Chilbo Community
The Chilbo Community was founded in 2006 as a mainland community that sought to connect local landowners and help newcomers to virtual worlds like Second Life. What began as a simple Welcome Center with helpful information and freebies for travelers eventually blossomed into a community of fellow learners and explorers. The Welcome Center was transformed into a Town Hall and we went about meeting our neighbors and helping newbies with gusto.
By 2007, we owned a majority of land in the Chilbo sim, purchased from exiting First Landers, and by 2008 we owned part of the neighboring sim in Madhupak, and began offering “Starter Homes” for no cost to help newbies learn in a safe space.
Greater Chilbo plot map, 2009
Over the next couple of years, the community continued to grow – at its peak, Chilbo Community members held lands in 11 sims, and the community group covered infrastructure and housing for over 50 Starter Homes. We eventually began charging a nominal fee of $50L per week just to cover listing fees, but we remained committed to helping new users, educators, artists, and those generally interested in using virtual worlds to serve the public or to improve or enhance real world endeavors.
During the golden age of the Hype Cycle and for years after, thousands of newbies visited Chilbo and learned from our community members, and many hundreds of users lived in Chilbo for a time. We always felt it was a tremendous success if a former Chilbo resident found their niche and moved on to explore their passions elsewhere on the grid, as our goal was not to make money or grow beyond our means, but rather to help people discover what virtual worlds could make possible, and to have a safe and welcoming place to learn.
Changing Times, Changing Perspectives & Needs
Many things have changed in the five years since we began, not the least of which is the position of virtual worlds in the ecosystem of social media and online games. In 2006, virtual worlds were touted as The Next New Shiny Internet and a panacea for all sorts of online interactions and everything in between. We ourselves were still learning what was possible with platforms like Second Life, and we enjoyed helping others learn with us.
With time, however, it has become clear that virtual worlds have a place in the ecosystem, but at least in their current form, can’t and don’t encompass all of the wide variety of ways that people want to interact and engage with each other online. Many of us still very much enjoy our projects and passions in Second Life, but for some of us, our professional work has moved on to other platforms or our personal time to spend in world is simply less than it was before.
Greater Chilbo on the Jeogeot (Southern) Continent Map, 2010
In addition, since Chilbo was formed all those years ago, many Resident help networks in Second Life like New Citizens Incorporated and the Builders Brewery have fulfilled the newbie helping mission on a much larger scale than Chilbo ever did or could do. There are a plethora of tutorials and resources for newcomers, both on the web and in-world, and the need we once filled is better met elsewhere, these days.
Because of these changes, the interests and activities of the people in the Chilbo Community have also changed. Most of us are now considered “Oldbies” and our time in-world is spent visiting with friends and working on the things that still inspire our passions. Few of us are interested in continuing the level of management and administrative overhead that rentals and newbie-helping entails.
We began to implement some changes in the the last year with the goal to make the community more sustainable for its long term dedicated members – we scaled down our community owned land and began to ask members of the community to help pay the costs of their use rather than having most of the infrastructure subsidized by a handful of people. We still offered Starter Homes, but asked for rent amounts that were at least closer to market prices (though still less than most). But even with these changes, we still find that the community has not yet reached that sustainable point where everyone is comfortable with their level of financial support and time investment, and so we are moving forward with the goal of a sustainable and manageable community that meets the needs of its members.
Offering Group Land for Purchase, Removing Rentals & Some Community Project Locations
The next step in this journey is to remove the Starter Home rentals. We will be phasing out all the newbie homes and offering those who rent in Madhupak the opportunity to purchase land from the group at discounted rates. Those who still wish to rent should speak with Tara Yeats or Maggie Larimore, who offer rentals in nearby sims.
For those who are donating tier to cover land and prim use, you will have the option to remain as a tier donor or purchase the land you use in Madhupak sim as a full landowner. We will work with each member of the group to find the solution that works best for you, but beginning on August 1st, we hope to have completed the removal of rental units and anyone who has not purchased a plot will need to donate tier at a level that fully supports your prim use.
Community projects that have been subsidized by group tier will also be phased out to make room for those who want to purchase land. This includes the removal of the newbie freebie shops, the Community Annexes, the Community Home, the Chilbo Public Library, and other projects not directly supported by a community member. We plan to better utilize the new Town Hall to consolidate some of these resources, including a smaller subset of freebies, library resources, and items from the Community Home that will fit well in the Town Hall. We’ll also be portioning off part of the Town Hall to serve as a History & Museum Center to house artifacts from Chilbo’s history. If you have items to contribute please contact Fleep Tuque.
Portions of the Freebie Stores, Public Library, and Community Home will
be moving to the new Chilbo Town Hall.
Finally, we will ask each and every member of the Chilbo Community to tally their prim use and fully cover the cost of their projects with tier donations only. Rental units require time and effort to maintain, and we want to phase out their use entirely. As much as we would hate to see long term residents and projects go, we’re no longer in a position to subsidize as many public projects as we once were, and it seems only fair to ask residents who have long since grown past the newbie stage to pay the full cost of their use, as many of us do (and then some!).
Future Facing, Community Minded
The future of Chilbo is no less bright than it was 5 years ago, our needs have just changed with time. We continue to welcome new users and new members, though perhaps now we would seek more experienced and mature (as in seasoned, not “adult”) Second Lifers, and would rather point newbies in the direction of NCI or one of the many other helpful locations that exist on the grid. We are still committed to exploring Second Life and using the platform to improve the virtual and physical world, and we still welcome artists, educators, students and the wide variety of people who find outlets for creativity in Second Life. If you are an Oldbie looking for a great community of passionate, experienced Second Lifers, there’s still no other place on the grid quite like Chilbo and we’d welcome you to buy land nearby and connect with us.
As we look forward, we intend to have many more years of enjoying each other’s company and the community we’ve created, but hopefully with a bit less overhead and administrivia, and a lot more time for fun. :)
Fleep Tuque
Founder & Executive Director
Chilbo Community in the Mainland of Second Life
