Continuing my research into the classic Steamland sims which were derezzed over time, one loss in particular does tug at the heart strings. Back in 2009 through 2010, I had the pleasure of visiting a quite expansive Victorian themed sims named the Nation of Victoriana. After a bit of exploration, I was greeted by the jovial Mr. LittleBlackDuck Lindsey (BDL), the sim owner, and he provided my partner and I a detailed tour of his expansive 13 sim world. He had built an amazing and historically detailed representation Victorian society in the Nation, including a section dedicated to "tinies" (very small and anthropomorphic avatars - more on this topic in entries to come)! A gracious host, he provided his thoughts and backgrounds on the numerous unique areas throughout Victoriana which included a beautiful waterfront and Ferris wheel (which was a cutting-edge bit of work in 2009!)
However, during an SL absence I returned only to discover that the Nation of Victoriana had disappeared. Shocking to me as I had no inkling of any issues of problems, but fortunately, the full story of the demise of this Victorian gem was extensively documented in the Alphaville Herald and the Telling: Like it is blogs (both linked below). The short explanation of the departure of Victoriana is essentially during a Linden Labs (LL) maintenance update, the company failed to correct devastating permissions problems for Mr. LittleBlackDuck Lindsey, preventing him from properly maintaining the nation. To add insult to injury, LL refused to rectify their (expansive) mistake. The response to their mistake was essentially "... you'll just have to rebuild from scratch", which an incredulous response demonstrating a stunning lack of accountability. The direct consequence was a substantial loss of real-world money (estimated at over A$ 30k) to BDL, as well as losses and forced relocation to residents of the sims. For further details, I'll recommend a read of the linked articles, as they have the detailed response from Mr. BDL regarding the closing of the Nation of Victoriana, as well as additional information and analysis of the entire Linden Lab debacle. The last I had heard about the Nation of Victoriana was he had re-located onto the Inworldz Grid, which in turn derezzed in 2018, per the Hypergrid Business site.
A beautiful Victorian dream that was snuffed out way to early during the early Steamlands era, the Nation of Victoriana was significant loss to the early Steamlands and missed by those who had the opportunity visit it.
For more archived information regarding the Nation of Victoriana, please visit:
Victoriana and Tinytoriana leaving Second Life for Open Sim | The Alphaville Herald
Death of a Nation | Telling: Like it Is (wordpress.com)
Riding around the Nation of Victoriana (Our Virtual Trilogy)
