AVENUE Magazine February 2011

Spruce Canning: What was your motivation to start 2ndHub and AvMatch and how does it contribute to the social fabric of the Grid?

Mason Kingsford: I was using Second Life way back at the end of 2006 and lot of the friends I had were really into the relationship aspect. I saw a lot of difficulty with people trying to find compatible partners or friends with things in common. I had the idea to create AvMatch as a way to help Second Life users find potential partners or friends more effectively. I already had the programming experience, so I set out to build AvMatch from scratch in order to tailor it specifically to Second Life users. 2ndhub came about a little later, after AvMatch was already established and growing.

2ndhub is in collaboration with my friend Taliesin Llanfair (SL name). The original idea behind 2ndhub was to create a site for web-enabled inworld scripted tools for aid of businesses. However, we also saw the need for a social platform for the users and thought that connecting social with the tools aspect would be a great companion site to AvMatch. 2ndhub is very open and you use your Second Life username, so it’s not an anonymous environment. In comparison, AvMatch is strictly private, and you are only allowed to share your identity with other members through the AvMatch mailbox or live chat feature. While AvMatch is really used to simply meet new people, either for romantic relationships or even just for friends, 2ndhub is more about sharing your Second Life experience with other users, while at the same time promoting any businesses or groups you may have. Both sites are ‘SL connected’ in that