You will have noticed a couple of new menu options at the top of the page. For Retailpalooza, we’ll post about that closer to the date. The SML Compendium, though, is something that’s been needed in the SML system for a very long time.

The biggest issue with the SML system is the learning curve, especially for the first 10 or so levels of Strength. Time and time again we have watched new folks walk away from SML, saying that it’s “Too confusing”, and they are right. Way back 4 years ago now, if it wasn’t for David from Ashford Gym helping me out with a quick 30-minute mini tour of what SML was all about, I would have walked away as well. The fact is, the SML system is not for the people who want a “quick fix”. The SML system needs dedication, and time…LOTS of time.

In order to ease people into that dedication, the Compendiium was written. A 7-part mini instruction booklet to help new folks ease into SML, while at the same time showing them the most common hints and tips to level up that little bit faster.

Since the closure of Woodland Grove, it’s given myself, Fenny, and Lizzy a lot more spare time during the early evenings before we head out to the various clubs we usually dance at, and with that spare time, the Compendium and the Fitness Factory and Park project started.

Now for the bit some folks in the SML community won’t want to hear. SML is dying.

It’s not been a quick death, it’s not been happening suddenly. It’s dying because of one word. Entropy.

The SML community, for the most part, is literally top-heavy. The vast bulk of the people taking part in SML are at strength levels of above 500. Now, do a little experiment here. Go to Maelstrom Gym and look at those image boards that show all the people who have taken pics of themselves reaching 1000, 6000, or 9000+ strength. Now, look at those names and ask “Have I seen them in SML recently?”. I can tell you the answer now, for about 90% of them…the answer is no.

This is classic entropy. As folks at the higher strength levels leave…no one is coming in at the bottom of the strength scales to eventually replace them.

SML is simply not being marketed or advertised anywhere, at all. In its earlier days, it was done via word of mouth, but back then, the concurrency rate of logins for Second Life was on average, double what it is now. Word of mouth no longer works. This is where the overall arcing plan for The Fitness Factory starts.

The Factory is already in the Destination Guide, and I advise ALL of the large gyms to do this as well. The way the Factory has been built and laid out is to make it easy for newbies to figure out how to use the system. I even made a teleport board to all the equipment incase they get lost…cause lets face it, the Factory is big, probably too big.

We already have three spotters and Fenny is currently rising her way up to Strength 500 to become the 4th spotter. Not bad going for a gym that’s only been open for just under two months. If you want to be a spotter in The Fitness Factory, drop me an IM!

That’s not enough, though. It’s nowhere near enough.

SML needs fresh blood. Some of you may have seen in SML chat a slight spike in new folks asking about SML. They came in before the Compendium was finished. Most of them came in via The Fitness Factory’s first stage of a media blitz, which will be done in stages going into August/September. We will be chatting with SL magazines, bloggers, machinima makers and more to introduce SML to the wider audience. Something which has not been done before.

Going into August and September, the Retailpalooza idea that Fen had come up with will start. One of those sales events (Like Uber/Equal10 etc), but with booth prices locked and guaranteed to stay at that rate no matter how popular the sales event becomes…and who is going to be the major sponsor of those monthly sales events? You guessed it…The Fitness Factory. Most of those sales events bring in hundreds, sometimes thousands of people, and the Fitness Factory’s logo will be front and centre.

We plan to bring in 20 to 25 new people, who will be regular users of SML, per month. Every month. That doesn’t sound like a lot at first, but after 3 months, you are looking at around 60 fresh faces, going to the gyms, doing the dailys…more than enough to replace the people who are leaving.

To wrap this up, this last bit is directed to dev, the owner of the SML system. It’s time to take V2.0 of the HUD out of beta and implement those ideas you had two years ago. To the casual onlooker, it looks as if you are just running SML in “Maintenance Mode”. Well, over the coming months, you are going to have a fresh influx of new people in SML, and with it, a small percentage will be buying the gym equipment and spending cash. It’s time to update the HUD and the system.