Even the venerable Straylight sim is getting the Halloween treatment! Thanks to Kriss Lehmann for pointing it out to me, else I'd not have seen it. As you'll see in the gallery, apparently a race of spiders has taken over a good stretch of the forest, and an eerie green glow is emanating from afar. But wait! All is not lost! Make your way to the reception area, and look! A jaunty Halloween party awaits all who enter!

I took advantage of the festivities to chat up a fellow canine and enjoyed the orbiting witchkitty on her broom. There are likely more fun things to be seen, but I'm a wolfie on a mission, I am. Go check it out for yourself!

(Thanks, Kriss!)

What do Casa del Shai, Wilted Rose, CKS Designs, Daphne Molinari, ETD, Immortelle, Kyoot Army, Last Call, Le Cadre, Nymphetamine, Punch Drunk, Refuge, SiniStyle, Straylight, and TRUTH have in common? They all own groups on one of the fastest growing services ever to hit SL. I cannot stress enough how this device will shape our virtual future.

MSo Lambert, of Synthetik, sought to fix a serious issue that affects all of us - the 25 group limit. Before Subscribe-o-Matic, residents had to choose which groups to leave on a weekly basis in order to make room for more important groups. Now they can just click to subscribe and go on with their business.

For business owners, this means so much more. They are able to see who their subscribers are, when they signed up, what location they signed up at, manage their messages, send notecards, items, and pictures, or just make a simple announcement. In just two short months, the subscriber base has grown to over 19,000!

MSo is continually making improvements upon the service. Some of the features in the works are HUDs that will let you manage your subscribed groups and messages, raising the subscriber limits for the price ranges, integration with third party products and vendors for group discounts and sales, and statistics for the group owners! For a complete listing of all of the customers, you can visit the directory. To find out more or get the system to try for free for 14 days, you can visit his store in Glenn.

Straylight sim is not just a forest full of magical flowers and beautifully modeled sculptie trees. This land is, above all, a fresh new approach to developing interesting lighting and a fantasy-like immersive environment. The creator, Kriss Lehmann, is planning further developments and has opened a flickr group for those who love the experience he designed.

The content here has a great level of detail, from the ground textures, to the trees, waterfalls and scripted creatures/plants. My favorite feature is the plethora of stray light rays everywhere. They explain the name chosen for the sim and add warmth to the atmosphere. Definitely put this build on your "to explore" list!