Farewell AltspaceVR, I love you

Lisa Kotecki
Jul 28, 2017 · 5 min read

When something you love goes away

This is one of the hardest status updates to write. Tears are streaming down my face and blurring my screen.

AltspaceVR is shutting down 8/3.

There are so many layers of grief. Perhaps layers of denial… This well-oiled machine we’ve been working so hard to create can’t be shutting down.

As I’m sifting through shock and realization, the hardest part of all is hitting me. We have to tell our community. I think that’s when I cried the hardest.

This post is dedicated to my team, and to all of you.

Happy Memories — First a big thank you to Eric and the team

I love all of you from the bottom of my heart. This wasn’t just a job for me. I have so many happy memories to take from team AltspaceVR. Thank you for coming along for the ride with my multiple office takeovers.

I won’t forget my first coup of the office with pink sparkle bands. Thank you Kat and Dom, for making sure I wasn’t a lone nut, and helping to spread the gospel of sparkle. That dream stayed alive, and with great pride I walked around the office seeing the bands shine and shimmer throughout to our very last days. Go team sparkle!

Our very first official meeting of the sparkle brigade.

Eric, thank you for offering us one of the best places to work in the valley over the last few years. We were one of the most diverse teams I’ve worked with across any industry.

Organizing Hawaiian themed day was one of the many themed parties I put together for the office. I love you team Altspace. We’ve done amazing work together.
I take credit for both having one of the best ugly sweaters in the office and organizing this photo shoot that goes down as one of the best company photos in the history of the company.

I’ve made lifelong friend and memories that I’ll tell (other people’s) grandkids. Your dedication to what we’ve created together is mind-blowing. I’m so grateful to all of you (that’s you too Jason and Road Team!). I love all your faces team Altspace.

Altspacers I effin’ love you beyond words:

Altspacers, none of this would exist without you. Thank you for bringing me into your world, for sharing your ups and your downs. I have so so many memories these past two years. I’m going to miss you and all of the complaining about features you’d like to see, and hear all the ways we’re doing it right. Please please please please stay in touch with each other. Please use Facebook and Discord and those Google Hangouts you created. Go on other social platforms and keep things alive. SDK devs — develop on other platforms. Just keep going. Social VR isn’t social without you.

I’m so lucky I’ve been able to witness and support so many things happen. I have a few of my favorite memories below:

There are too many memories to list, and too many names to list here for all the people I so care about. You inspire me to keep doing this. VR stole my heart. Altspacers, you’re keeping a piece of it with you. I love you guys, gals, robots, and sentient beings.

What’s next: we’re not saying goodbye, but turning the page to the next chapter

Now more than ever it’s more important to keep this alive, which is what I’m going to do. I’m open to what’s next on the work horizon in or out of social VR, and I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears peeled for interesting projects and organizations.

I also really want the dream to live on. The only way to make this thing called social VR work is if we keep showing up. I want to continue to capture stories of women in VR doing epic things, and to capture stories of industry and non-industry folk cultivating their craft using VR. So I’ll be taking my show on the road to other social platforms. I need a few weeks to regroup. This has been big news. I need time to be sad, catch up on sleep, and then get on out there. I’ll also be taking some time to put together a VR random show for all the people I’d like to talk to that don’t fit in a specific criteria. If you’d like to be a part of my Women in VR series, or have a pitch yourself or someone else to be on the VR random show or a guest for Women in VR please contact me here.

Let’s stay in touch! Here’s how:

Let’s talk on Twitter at @lisakotecki

We can chat Facebook

Or connect on LinkedIn

Or have an old-fashioned conversation via email at lisainvr@gmail.com

Team AltspaceVR! ❤

Lisa Kotecki

Written by

Social VR Community Lead at Facebook, formerly at AltspaceVR. Spontaneous dance parties have been known to happen in my presence.

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