Linden Village

In commemoration of her sixth rezday, and now feeling the effects of age (time being what it is in Second Life, and her arrival on the grid having been prior to six years ago to begin with), Grandma Ziki gathers all the Young and Newborn Residents around her for storytime as she sits in her rocking chair.

"Now then, children," she begins, "today's story is about a place called Linden Village, and it's where many of us used to go to say hello to the Lindens." The children look up at her with doubt and furrowed brows, and one young boy blurts out, "That's not true! The Lindens are just a mythological creatures." "No, no," Grandma Ziki reassures them, "there really were Lindens who were there, and you could locate them by their blue dots on the map!"

"Blue dots?" asks one girl incredulously. "Oh yes," replies Grandma Ziki, "and Linden Village, you see, was built way back, years ago, for a special purpose. Here, let me read what the Lindens had to say: 'The Linden Office and Village is a project to create opportunities for Residents to communicate with Lindens in a creative and collaborative setting. We want to increase our approachability in a public way, have a central place where we can distribute inworld information, and have a nice place to hold public meetings or classes in Linden-designed areas. We are also using this as an opportunity to further support the efforts of the Live Helpers, Greeters, Liaisons, and all Lindens working to communicate with Residents.'" "But..." begins a boy before his voice trails off.

Well, OK, I'm sure the path was paved with the best of intentions. Nowadays, Linden Village stands as a relic—and, frankly, a rather sad-looking one at that—of an era when you really could see Lindens milling about and socializing with people. And many Lindens had homes there, too, as each was offered a parcel of land. The main landing point for the Village sets you down at the base of a temple constructed by Michael Linden in 2005. It was a lovely place with an art gallery and balloon rides (now forlorn and broken). A notecard one can obtain there, written by Pathfinder Linden, explains that the Village is the "surrounding area is where Lindens can build whatever they like, creating their own completely personalized spaces to meet with Residents. This space also gives us an opportunity to spend more time inworld as part of the community of Second Life, learning firsthand about issues that Residents deal with every day." Hmmm. Well, as I said, best intentions.

And what are all these images? Well, they're what are left of many Linden homes (but also some in use!). The earliest areas were around the sim Ambleside, but as need grew more plots were added in sims toward the north, stretching up in a column toward Cirano. In fairness, some Lindens do still use their plots—for example Baker Linden's land, fifth image here with the quaint farm and trees, is quite charming and current. But others, such as Dan Linden's plot (second image) are either littered with prims or more often empty. If you're the inquisitive type, you might want to grab your walking stick and head out on a trek of all these Linden lands, so I've created a quick list for you. Many plots are or were owned by Lindens who have now left the Lab. (And quite possibly I may have missed a few locations—and they do change once in a while, as in the past year some plots have actually been cleared. And I'm not poking around the sky, either.) The majority of lands in Linden Village remain unclaimed.

Kona Linden's house, vacant except for a bear: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/45/241/33

Jack Linden's house on a plot called Jack Lived Here (a nice plot, too): http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/83/241/35

Cyn Linden, an even nicer plot than Jack's, but empty: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/120/241/30

Don Linden, a nice house: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/222/129/28

Dee Linden, a furnished home, nice place: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/189/132/26

Mia and Lexie Linden, a joint place nicely arranged: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/219/98/36 — and Mia has a tiny spot of her own, too, with objects about Magellan Linden: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/195/102/29

Kelly Linden, empty: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/166/76/30

Lotte Linden, whose home is quite welcoming and offers you absinthe: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/246/64/28

Dan Linden's place, littered with prims: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/163/27/30

Samuel Linden's place, a blue tile base for a house and a stray prim: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/107/27/29

Amber Linden's gazebo: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/99/81/23

Ethan Linden's vacant shoreline: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/55/61/23

Rowan Linden's hobbit house with a few stray prims: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ambleside/132/146/25

Where, you might ask, is Philip Linden? He has a forest, Philip's Forest (lowest image), the description of which says, "Come and find me here." If your browser permits, cam underground, where you'll spot his old meeting place, now for some reason hidden away: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waterhead/225/15/33

Callum Linden's land is mostly submerged—perhaps he had a home over the water: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waterhead/248/71/22

And Hamlet Au, formerly Hamlet Linden, has a plot in the Village area too, although it could really use some attention: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waterhead/219/74/24

Nyx Linden has a frame structure: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Borrowdale/81/212/33

Aura Linden has an island all to herself (third image): http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Grasmere/157/211/25

We're banned from Betsy Linden's land, but you can still see inside the parcel: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hawkshead/22/129/35

Patsy Linden has quite an interesting place with pitchforks, tree stumps and frogs: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beaumont/203/112/29

Enkidu Linden's plot is a bamboo grove that says, "The Place Where Which Linden Occasionally Was At": http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beaumont/147/48/24

Garry Linden has quite a striking Japanese-themed mountaintop: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Levenhall/161/100/63

Bacon Linden has a well-built house: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Levenhall/81/104/26

You can visit Sabin Linden's "Super-Sexy Shindigs": http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Levenhall/105/37/25

Teeple Linden has a display of bears from 2009 at his plot (fourth image): http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Levenhall/223/97/22

On the largely deserted sim Longfellow, CeeLo Linden has a large home: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Longfellow/109/224/25 (and to the south is a plot from which we're banned, curiously abandoned by Ombwa Pivot in 2012, whoever that is)

In Denby, Simon Linden has a big place with a pirate ship: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Denby/216/43/33

I mentioned Baker Linden's place above, the hands down winner for style and landscaping: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Denby/226/83/36

Brett Linden's place: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Denby/48/44/24

Patch Linden's place, a nice hobbit house: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Denby/170/115/27

Only a single plywood prim marks Bender Linden's home: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hanley/214/105/26

Coyot Linden's land is empty: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cirano/93/166/25

Alexa Linden's land is empty: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cirano/99/108/25

Kyle Linden's land is mostly empty: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cirano/216/213/24

Drofnas Linden's land incorporates a treehouse owned by Alexa Linden: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cirano/157/207/23

And Bundah Linden's land seems to have some curious scripted things going on (image immediately below): http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cirano/41/223/23

There are things other than Linden homes around Linden Village, and some of those are well worth a visit. At Kirkby, you can visit the Second Life Wall of History, created for SL's second anniversary. At Waterhead, learn about Real Life Education in Second Life, or what it used to be, at least. You can visit the Second Life Planetarium, which quite astonishingly suggests you make a contribution to Governor Linden to help support it, and above the Planetarium investigate early tutorials for learning how to change your appearance, chat, grab and move things. In Beaumont is Jeremy Linden's Community Tools User Discussion Space where I remember attending meetings. Other historic sites include Pooley Stage in the sim Pooley, and other locations in nearby Brampton and Borrowdale.