Boardman was opened to the public on Tuesday, May 20th at 4:00 p.m. as a zoned sim with an appeal to new residents. Tailored with pre-fabricated homes for the residents to use and an Open Market for them to easily sell their items. It was advertised as a "no-hassle" and "inexpensive" way to buy land and set up a home in Second Life. Residents were also encouraged to use "I AM" signs, which would give a notecard with information when clicked, to easily find fun neighbors and tell others about themselves. Parcels in Boardman were and still are limited to one per resident.

By the time 2004 rolled around, Boardman seemed to have failed as an experimental Linden-zoned, suburban area. The Lindens had relaxed their rules about the use of Linden pre-fab houses only and the sim fell into disrepair. Many of the road pieces had disappeared, and much of the land was unused and unwanted. Land dealers at the time indicated that it was a hard sell to get people to buy land there for even as low as 3L$ per square meter.

In early 2005 a group of Second Life residents decided they wanted to see this unique sim brought back to life and began to slowly buy the land as it became available for purchase. In addition to resident efforts, Jack Linden, a liaison who had replaced Haney Linden in early 2005 as the watch dog of the zoned sims, redid the roadwork, planted new trees and completely overhauled the old market in the center. By the end of 2005, Boardman was much improved and home to an active little community.

The sim Brown (added later along with the other Color Sims has a similar layout and roadwork, also debuted as a suburban zoned sim.

Historical LandmarksEdit

Open Market - A place where anyone can give or sell items.

ImagesEdit

Some pictures of Boardman taken in 2005:

LinksEdit

SL Forums: Official announcement of Boardman by Haney Linden