Is This MJW Thing For Real?

I can't tell. Honestly, I can't.

Some of the posts from people purporting to be MJW members seem quite odd to me. It's almost like they're supposed to be an "upper class" looking down on we peons.

And for whatever reason, every time I see Metaverse Justice Watch, the "Lollipop Kids" song from Wizard Of Oz pops into my mind:

We Represent The Justice Watch
The Justice Watch
The Justice Watch
We Represent The Justice Watch
And We're To Keep An Eye On You

No.

Not it's not for real?

Does it mean that it's just some sort of odd game some folks are playing?

I wouldn't call it "odd." But yes.

No, it isn't for real, regardless of whether they seem to think so. Their original officers (with the exception of one token 'buddy') were picked so that the Lindens would look at them and think "Wow, lots of high tier holders there, we'd better do as they say or we'll lose a lot of money!"

The officers don't even agree with or like each other, and the group has already imploded. You'll hear some (who think we can't read for ourselves) trying to claim that the implosion was caused by some griefing malcontents trying to ruin the group, but that is fiction. While there certainly are griefing malcontents who would love to see them all fall on their asses, the implosion occurred directly between their two most well known and vocal officers.

Yes, it is real. It was real from the start, and is still real to some of us still in it. And the things it stands for are still real, and are now being represented by other groups as well.

I'll be glad to talk with you about it in game sometime, DogSpot. I'm usually on by around 9 eastern.

coco

Beg to differ with you, Huns. It is assuredly 'odd.'

It is 'odd' like my aunt who thinks that, if she goes to the beach, she will be shot at by Russian submarines, hidden and submerged, just offshore.

It is that kinda' 'odd.'

We'll see.

I'm not a big fan of groups with agendas, fwiw.

No, it's not real, since it's gonna achieve exactly zero of its stated objectives, and yes, it's a game. It's called SL, and the participants of MJW want to play SL politics, like some others play SL socializing-at-clubs or whatever else it is you like doing in SL.

It's not a game it's a platform.
fo' real

"Nothing is really real unless it happens on television."
Daniel J. Boorstin

Guess what, Jesrad. I HATE politics. Always have, probably always will. I'm in these groups for the ideas they espouse, not to play politics. I hate politics and don't do anything the slightest bit political in my real life, and have no INTEREST in doing anything political. (Though I would if I saw rampant injustices going on.)

The meetings are tedious to me, and this nonsense now going on with the MSJ is totally ridiculous to me.

But the ideas themselves - those aren't tedious or ridiculous to me, and are always worth fighting for. Moreover, before all is said and done, through any and all groups, however it happens, many of these changes for more justice and equal opportunity will come to pass.

coco

P.S. I don't have to like everyone in a group, or agree with their every last viewpoint, to agree with most of the things they are trying to achieve, and want to work with them to do so.

For example, I keep supporting Lynn Lippman's take on the GOM thing, though she consistantly interacts with me in an antagonistic fashion on the forums. What we have in common is our position on the GOM thing, and whether she likes me or not is immaterial to me. The important thing to me is to try to ensure that the GOM situation doesn't repeat itself.

It is real. There's no dev imposed game in Second Life so we have to create our own. This politically-based RPG has been around for a while but has, to date, only been played by one group at a time. Suddenly it's all the rage and several versions have sprung up with people vying for power by convincing the group to adopt their rules of play.

It's kinda fun if you don't have anything else to do inworld. But only play one version at a time, unless of course you want to create a new political umbrella game to try and unite various factions.

How 'bout it? Granted, I am primarily reading transcripts, but it is very tiring separating the chaff. And looking at the transcripts, it is hard to believe some of the characters aren't simply playacting.

Warning lights are flashing down at Quality Control
somebody threw a spanner and they threw him in the hole
there's rumors in the loading bay and anger in the town
somebody blew the whistle and the walls came down
there's a meeting in the boardroom they're trying to trace the smell
there's leaking in the washroom there's a sneak in personnel
somewhere in the corridors someone was heard to sneeze
'goodness me could this be Industrial Disease?

The caretaker was crucified for sleeping at his post
they're refusing to be pacified it's him they blame the most
the watchdog's got rabies the foreman's got fleas
and everyone's concerned about Industrial Disease
there's panic on the switchboard tongues are ties in knots
some come out in sympathy some come out in spots
some blame the management some the employees
and everybody knows it's the Industrial Disease

The work force is disgusted downs tools and walks
innocence is injured experience just talks
everyone seeks damages and everyone agrees
that these are 'classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze'
on ITV and BBC they talk about the curse
philosophy is useless theology is worse
history boils over there's an economics freeze
sociologists invent words that mean 'Industrial Disease'

Doctor Parkinson declared 'I'm not surprised to see you here
you've got smokers cough from smoking, brewer's droop from drinking beer
I don't know how you came to get the Betty Davis knees
but worst of all young man you've got Industrial Disease'
he wrote me a prescription he said 'you are depressed
but I'm glad you came to see me to get this off your chest
come back and see me later - next patient please
send in another victim of Industrial Disease'

I go down to Speaker's Corner I'm thunderstruck
they got free speech, tourists, police in trucks
two men say they're Jesus one of them must be wrong
there's a protest singer singing a protest song - he says
'they wanna have a war to keep us on our knees
they wanna have a war to keep their factories
they wanna have a war to stop us buying Japanese
they wanna have a war to stop Industrial Disease
they're pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind
they wanna sap your energy incarcerate your mind
they give you Rule Brittania, gassy beer, page three
two weeks in Espana and Sunday striptease'
meanwhile the first Jesus says 'I'd cure it soon
abolish monday mornings and friday afternoons'
the other one's on a hunger strike he's dying by degrees
how come Jesus gets Industrial Disease

Nice Dire Straits reference, Siggy.

----

To everyone in this thread, I want to emphasize again that this thread wasn't started as a troll.

I thought so - very appropriate in the context of the last week or so

Some are playacting, Gabe.

It is easier, though, to be in the meetings than to have to read their transcripts afterwards. At least I can spend time in the meetings working on my inventory while I listen.

coco

I'm sure I'll be the 3343rd person to point this out, but isn't creating a politically influential group by drawing members with large land holdings... a bit of an aristocracy?

I know that some of the group members are serious. To anyone who feels that they deserve more power and influence in SL simply because they have more Lindens, please IM me in-world so that I may describe, in graphic detail, the many things you may do to yourself... with a corncob.

Interesting. I definitely got the feeling from some of the recent MJW posts that the posters felt they were sort of above us "peons".

Seems to me that aristocracy is an apt description.

Oh, believe me, you're right about the peon business. MJW was founded upon the premise that certain individuals have a higher "stake" than other individuals in SL, and thus deserve to hold greater sway with Linden Lab. (This, of course, is gross and wrong.)

Currently, the original leadership of MJW has fractured. What remains is kind of a... caricature of bad lobbying and internal strife. A less than funny joke.

Don't worry, you no longer have anything to fear from MJW.

That was not the premise MJW was founded on. It is what Enabran thinks it was founded on.

I'm not a large land owner and don't have a great deal of anything. But the ideas are important to me, because I have a stake in this game because I play it and care about it. (Just as I felt about TSO.)

For example, I don't even know anybody in GOM, and never use GOM. Yet that struck me as an all-wrong thing, very badly handled, and lacking in guiding principles that would foster equal opportunity and benefit us all.

Is there some law that says just because I don't have a lot of land I can't be in a group and agree with its ideals and goals? Or because I'm not a big wig on GOM, or SLBoutique, or something? Yet I was an officer in that group, and am still a member in it. Waiting for certain people to get the heck out of it.

coco

You were invited for damage control and as the token "every man." It's like when a new TV show launches, they have to include at least one minority in the cast in order to be taken seriously (this rule went into effect just after Friends went on the air).

you are not authorized to represent MJW in public. i ask all readers to disregard any misrepresentations cocca might put forth in this forum particularly since her very membership to the group is under heavy ongoing reconsideration by the stakeholding officers.

let us be clear on the terms -

stakeholder
people who have a stake in sl, be it a financial investment, a content creation investment, and/or a social/emotional/spiritual investment. some stakes can be bigger or healthier than others but stakes nevertheless.

tourists
people with no vested interest in SL. generally they people passing through sl who may or may not decide to create a stake for themselves in sl. they are often very new players. but sometimes they stay longer and become griefers or trouble makers. for example group coups that push out the founder and force the founder to create their own group, such as the Prokocoa Coup of Labour Day Weekend 2005, can be considered acts of griefing. the less obvious tourists are hard to spot except by the trained.

if you are unsure of your status, an MJW officer will be happy to help you that you are indeed a tourist.