May 1st 2007 saw the publication of the very first Prim Perfect, celebrated that evening with a party in the town square on Venice Island. The magazine was forty-eight pages long—but into that space we managed to cram a Reader’s Home of the Month, a Region of the Month, a Designer of the Month, a Home of the Month, a commitment to running Charity News, and information on how to advertise and how to get copies of the magazine. There was even a sort of editorial, rather pompously called a Credo. And the credits were tiny—the whole magazine was produced by just four people. And, in true Second Life fashion, two of them were me.
Four years later, these elements still appear regularly—albeit sometimes in different form—and fortunately for my sanity, the credits are far, far longer!
Over the last four years I’ve been blessed to work with some amazing and talented people—our first Design Manager, Perry Applemoor, and our first Advertising and Client Relations Manager, Diva Regina, both of whom raised the magazine to new heights—a tradition well maintained by the people who took over from them, Winona Wiefel as Design Manager and Aisling Sinclair as Advertising and Client Relations Manager. And I have a brilliant and totally dependable deputy editor now, the awesome Ceejay Writer, who maintains my sanity and ensures I do get some sleep. Sometimes.
Another stalwart of the team has been Qwis Greenwood. She began back in the days when we ran a treasure hunt that involved trekking all over the grid looking for clues. Qwis had the job of visiting each participating store and writing about them, almost on a daily basis, something she did superbly. Then, last year, she took over the Pathfinder project—and has been instrumental in shaping it in new and exciting ways.
There are dozens of other amazingly talented people that I could name who have played a vital role in creating the magazine over the last four years, including writers, photographers, and those hugely invaluable people—the copy editors and proofreaders. And there have been the designers and creators that we have been privileged to work with—to say nothing of those people who have dedicated their Second Lives to helping others through fund-raising and education. It has been a privilege to work with you all.
So… what do we have in store for you this month?
For our birthday issue, we’ve decided to explore a community that is close to the heart of a surprising number of Prim Perfect staff people—the art community of Avalon, where a number of us make our home. And for this special birthday issue, several of us who live there share our homes with you—PJ Trenton, Aisling Sinclair, Tricia Aferdita, Rowan Derryrth, Ethan Westland, and me, some of us writing about our own homes, and others written about by Jedburgh30 Dagger, Eva Bellambi, and Suzanne Bisiani.
Logically enough, our Region of the Month is Avalon, and Linus Seetan explores the background to this fascinating region while Rowan Derryth looks for what—and who—puts the Art into Avalon. Jedburgh30 Dagger interviews Tricia Aferdita in her role of Estate Manager, while Java Jetcity seeks out Ten Places to visit in Avalon.
I mentioned the Pathfinders program earlier. This issue sees the start of an exciting new phase in the program.
Each year we choose three new Pathfinders who will receive a year’s worth of mentoring to help them deliver their young business (and you can read how one of our first Pathfinders, Aarcher Zenovka, has recently opened her new and expanded store in News from the Grid). This month we will introduce you to three new Pathfinders—and Qwis Greenwood explains what the year will hold for them, as well as the business grants that that they will be getting from Prim Perfect.
In addition, this year we identified a new type of business people who applied for the Pathfinder programme. These were people who already have a business up and running but who are finding it hard to build sustainability and lift it to the next level.
We have selected three of these businesses to be our Trailblazers and, over the coming year, they will be working with us to develop a series of seminars and marketing experiments to help businesses grow. You can meet the Trailblazers inside the magazine!
Once again, this month, we have free Prim Perfect gifts for you—among them gifts from our Pathfinders so that you will be able to see the kind of work they are currently undertaking. And there are birthday gifts too! Of course, gifts are only available in Second Life through our inworld Intellibook version, but see below to discover how you can get your inworld copy too.
This birthday issue also celebrates the launch of our new Prim Perfect headquarters, located in Costa Rica. Ethan Westland explores the amazing new building while Triicia Aferdita looks at the architect behind the build, Dijodi Dubratt.
This month’s Designer Linden Home was furnished by Maxwell Graf of Rustica, and Beq Janus explored Max’s Meadowbrook home with its Mission style furniture (you’ll see this amazing collection elsewhere in the magazine too!) and learned some of the tricks Maxwell has employed to create something so stylish that uses so few prims. And Beq has also been finding out all about Max’s new venture into clothing too.
In Charity News, Beq also brings you the latest news from Relay for Life in Second Life for 2011, while Tricia Aferdita looks at how Second Life responds to disasters with a review of the response to the Japanese earthquake and its terrible aftermath.
Then there’s all the latest from the Designing Worlds and Metaverse Arts shows on treet.tv and news of the most recent bargains from Spruce Up Your Space, while our team of talented photographers, led by PJ Trenton, Twisted Lemon, Tricia Aferdita, Wildstar Beaumont, and Raven Haalan bring you some of the most artistic eye candy from across the metaverse! And Annechen Lowey (assisted by photographs from Winona Wiefel) gives sound advice on how to avoid the nightmare of losing the clothes you are wearing!
All this with News from the Grid and more!
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So how can I get Prim Perfect?
If you prefer to read the magazine online but not inworld, there are choices. Firstly, there’s the wonderful Calaméo system, which allows you to moves smoothly through the pages, giving you the feeling of reading a real magazine. You’ll find Issue 32 here – and please do leave a comment!
But, if you like to download your magazines to read as you commute to work, or in the bath, or wherever, you can also obtain a standard pdf for downloading and printing.
It is available through SL Marketplace (just search on the site for Prim Perfect). This will deliver you a copy in the form of an Intellibook that you can rez and read inworld.
We also have subscribe-o-matic kiosks throughout Second Life (these are taking over from our older vendors) – so you can just click to subscribe. You’ll be sent a copy of the latest issue, and then you’ll receive your issues regularly!
Another inworld option is to buy from our inworld vendors (located at various stores). Sometimes we have had problems with these, but you can help! If you see a vendor still selling an earlier issue, contact primperfect@gmail.com, and we’ll send someone to update it.
Or you can have it delivered to you each month as an IntelliBook, by joining the Prim Perfect Readers group inworld. It costs nothing to join and, apart from delivering the magazine each month, we won’t overload you with chat or messages!
In addition to delivering the Intellibook version of the magazine, you’ll also get a link to the online Calaméo version of the magazine, so you’ll be able to access that too.
How to Join Prim Perfect Readers
- Inworld, open Search.
- Search Groups for Prim Perfect Readers.
- Click to join
So … enjoy! And let us know what you think of our new edition!
Prim Perfect 
Happy Birthday!