On my return, I’ve found that Brenda and Elbag seem to have sold the Eden Estate and it’s now owned by Loretta String.
I know the mechanics of SL have probably required a lot of stuff to be non-transferrable (a bug bear of mine since I started in SL because, if I can give clothes away to friends in RL, why have I never been able to do that in SL with many of the items?) but Eden now resembles a wasteland…
I don’t want to be too harsh, since this change has only happened in the past couple of weeks, and rebuilding/rejuvenation will take time, but…wow!!! It looks like some sort of pixellated nuclear war has taken place.
I’ve no idea if it’s coincidental, but many of the islands are now uninhabited. It feels like a mass exodus in some locations! Howie’s home remains intact, and I messaged him to find out his plans, which are to sit tight until the rent is up for renewal and assess his options then because (a) he hasn’t a clue how to renew rent right now and (b) suspects that there will be a rent rise as a result (‘as in real life, so it is in Second Life when new owners appear. I’m not expecting a rental reduction, put it like that’ was his response)
The jewel in the crown of SL naturism…denuded, if you’ll forgive me that description 😦
Ella
the sl naturist 
There are a few things you need to know before you can understand what has just happened to Eden.
Back in 2010, when we decided to create the Eden Naturist Estate, Elbag Gable wanted very much for his new sims to be connected to the islands of the huge Fruit Estate, which was owned by someone called Equinox. This would give us full access to all the best sailing waters. But the condition Equinox imposed was that she was the registered owner of all the new sims, as a safeguard in case Elbag ever decided to sell them again. So, every single Eden sim that Elbag bought was paid for by giving the money to Equinox so she could purchase the sim, making her the owner, and then she set Elbag up as the estate manager. He would also be responsible for paying the monthly tier.
Elbag did rent out many of the sims which became self-financing, but he also has several public-access, full-sims whose tier he paid without taking any rent. These includes the Eden capital sim, Naturopolis, the Eden Arts Centre, the sim-sized Lost City golf centre, the SLCG headquarters on Eden Tern, the Poseidon Sailing Centre… and all the North Sea Sailing sims.
Then a few years ago, Equinox retired from SL, but instead of letting Elbag buy the sims that he had already paid for once, to allow him to become the official owner, she sold them all to her estate manager, Loretta String. So, Elbag continued to pay the tier (which amounted to well over a million Lindens a month – yes, you heard that right!) And he still wasn’t the official owner.
But last month, Elbag had a sudden heart problem and he was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery, and he was kept in for several weeks. As a result, he missed the monthly tier payment. He has occasionally been a few days late in the past, but never for this long. Because she was the sim owner, Loretta String became liable for payment of the tiers. So, she reclaimed the full Eden sims, emptied them out, flattened them and put them up for sale. She also reclaimed all the Eden residential islands. When Elbag recovered from his operation and returned to SL he was greeted by the wastelands you discovered.
Almost ten years of constant improvements and developments had been destroyed in a couple of days. He tried again to persuade Loretta to sell him the sims he has already paid for so that he became the owner. She still refused.
All the tier paid by the residents of all the old Eden sims are now going straight into Loretta String’s pockets. They are her tenants, now. Loretta (and Equinox before her) never allowed naturism in the Fruit Estate and so it’s unlikely to be allowed to continue in the remains of the Eden isles.
I had the unpleasant task of having to reclaim all our structures, wildlife, rocks, waves, trees, bridges, waterfalls and other landscaping from all the Eden sims, which also included the airport and the marinas and other distinctive landmarks such as the Eden statues at Gateway. No sooner had I started than Loretta asked me to cease removing them and leave it all intact. She seems to think that if you evict someone from their home, you get to keep all their furniture.
I’m still considering what to do about it.
Wow! Brenda!
Thanks for the info, and I’m sure all of us who used/use Eden are grateful to get the facts about what has happened.
I also imagine I speak for the entire SL naturist community in wishing Elbag a speedy recovery.