With over 3 million accounts, Teen Second Life is in place for the younger people (13-17) in our world to enjoy the possibilities of another world. A safe environment where only teenagers, Linden and approved adults may enter the Teen Grid (TG) is a growing community of our young adults and future Main Grid (MG) residents.


On the brink of his eighteenth birthday I caught up with Teen SL Community manager, Daniel Voyager to asking him his thoughts about Teen Grid and his hopes and fears about his forthcoming move to the Main Grid. A hot and controversial topic at the moment is the merging of the two grids, I also took this opportunity to ask Daniel his thoughts, and gauge feedback from others about the proposed merge.


How long have you been playing Teen SL?

I've been playing Teen Second Life, since 31st of October 2006. For the first 2 months, I did not play much, but then in early 2007 to present, i've been playing alot. I've had 2 amazing rezz day anniversarys so far in Teen SL, which was 2 big milestones for me. The first rez day (31st October 2007) was excellent because my friend was a DJ in TSL so we had a big party underground, Blue Linden and Claudia Linden attended. The second rez day (31st October 2008), was full of parties. Here are some snapshots of my rez days

What appeals to you most about TG?

I love that the Teen Grid is a friendly 3D environment to be part of. I like the way people help each other in Teen Second Life to build, script, texture and mentor each other. There are some great places in Teen Second Life and some really historic locations worth visiting which keeps TSL active, I think. The education in Teen Second Life has really improved since beta stages of TG because of growth and opportunities this provides teens to learn and share ideas. Educators can benefit from this because this would leverage the power of new digital online media to engage students and provide opportunities that might otherwise not exist if there were no virtual worlds.


As you prepare to move to the main grid what are you looking forward to the most?

Well, I'm looking forward to a new exciting adventure, that's for sure. I can't wait to explore the all famous and interesting landmarks on the main grid, which i'm looking forward to at the moment to do. I'm looking foward to see what opportunities and possibilities there are over there, as well as content creations because I love seeing interesting builds and being inspired by that :). I can't wait to join the new resident experience help programs/groups on the main grid because I like mentoring new residents and I love giving out helpful knowlege to others on the Teen Grid. Finally, I'm looking forward to meeting new people (friends) in the adult world and socializing with them. WoooT. :)

Is there anything you are worried about?

I'm mostly worried about about leaving Teen Grid because I fear that the TG community will fall apart once I leave and it will be be hard for TG to pick up again, because i've helped the community in so many ways possible. I'm in the process on selecting residents that can take over and make TSL sucessful I hope. I'm also worried about what kind of adult content/mature/bad content there might be lying about on the main grid. Except from that i'm good.

What will you miss from Teen SL?

Firstly, I will miss all my TSL friends because they have been so helpful to me over the past 2 years in TG and I know that they will miss me badly, :(. I will miss helping people to build, script, learn the basics and knowlege of TSL. I will miss helping out with management for groups and land across TG. Because I won't be able to send group notices out to let people know the very latest news and helpful tips anymore.

I will miss TSL Linden Lab office hours because they are so much fun to go to, because the community and Lindens discuss really interesting topics. I will also miss mentoring and greeting new people at the Welcome Areas and new resident TG areas. The last thing I will miss would be not be able to upload any more TSL snapshots of my travels in the community onto my TSL flickr stream, keeping people informed on what's on. I have taken more than 6,000 TSL snapshots since early 2007 and I hope I have inspired people to carry on when I transfer.

There is speculation at the moment the two grids may soon be merged, what are your thoughts on this?

At this stage, I think the grids will be merged next year or by the very latest 2010/11.

I think Linden Lab wants a grid merge to happen...why?..because on July 3rd 2008, M Linden came to TSL to for the 5th birthday celebrations event saying this; "there have been alot of conversation about the topic about grid merge" and there have been alot complex issues to consider first before merging the grids". M Linden also said "We are working on it.", "And our goal is to better incorporate teens in a much broader way in the future".

This month Blue Linden said this at a recent TSL Office Hour saying "in the past year teens have given LL tons of great feedback on the idea of grid merge", "it's come in handy....we've gone over all of it here at the Lab and some of the idea are perfect" and finally "it's just a difficult process and we'll have to take the time to do it right".

I recently created a survey using SurveyMonkey in TSL called "Should TG be merged with MG", the survey was created for both MG and TG residents to have their say about the issue. In total, 100 residents undertook the survey and here are the results; 85% of residents want the grids to merge compared to 19% saying No it should not be merged. Teen Grid residents have now set up a group called "Grid Merge" in TSL, with over 400 members in the group and it's growing each day. There is another group set up in TSL against "Grid Merge" too. Finally, Linden Lab have been thinking also about a "All Areas Area" in TSL or something on them lines, nothing yet has been announced about that. We will have to see if Linden Lab goes ahead on this idea or not.


You can check out Daniel's TSL Blog on his blog.

I hope to interview Daniel again in the course of 2009 and find out how has move to the main grid has gone, and if his hopes and fears have been realised.