Advances in Equal Opportunity: Where We Are Now

But Jauani is depriving other posters of the right to be offered the same deal! That smacks of favoritism!

I'd like to know as well. I was not successful because of some sandbox philanthrophy or the blessings of the Lindens shining down upon me. As in RL, success is a combination of hard work, perseverance, and often times luck and timing. There is value to being in the right place at the right time. To expect that it is an all or nothing thing is unreasonable. One person may get an opportunity because someone took notice of their work and helped them. Another person may get an opportunity because they invested their own money to establish a space for their work. A third person might wallow in obscurity because they did neither.

There is no structure in place that will ever guarantee the success of all or even that all will be equal. Life is not equal or fair always - it is what it is. You can work to remove unreasonable barriers (for example, not hiring someone simply because they are a certain race, gender, etc..) - but you can't ever guarantee that all will have every opportunity given to them, except at the expense of opportunities. Not every film ever made will be nominated or even considered for an Academy Award during its release year - does that mean that no film should receive any award?

And she didn't even need the to be listed in some compendium of forum posters.

No. But I'm glad that those opportunities that have been opened up are now opened up to me. Before, I couldn't possibly try out for something I didn't know existed.

Now I can. So I'm happy.

coco

I am happy that you have been able to also. What I am not happy about is you labelling the opportunities that others have received as problems that needed to be fixed.

No, we don't. You know perfectly well I can't function without access to the building, textures, etc. forums.

However, I will make you a counter deal.

I will stick to all the parts of the agreement I laid out - posting only in the forums I listed (classified, building, hotline, textures, and the like).

And it won't cost you anything.

coco

Abolish luck!

You may well not have done, because you were a newbie over a year ago.

Now that there are a number of players who are so well established they can have large amounts of "spare" land that's paid for and that they can experiment with, some of them are - in the spirit of helping - giving out sometimes quite large lots of free building space on this land to newbies.

Now, as I've said, it's great that they want to help new folks. The problem, however, is that all the new folks who don't recieve that are disadvantaged - not because they've lost out on something that they "should" have had or anything like that, but simply because they now have to compete in the market against someone who's had such a major advantage.

You can't really deny that having a 4096 sq'm area (or more) for free, without rent, sub or tier, and classified and Find listings isn't an advantage.

Now, yes, you can sidestep that. That's what I, in fact, did - I teamed up with someone who did get that advantage, and as a result, I've had some reasonable successes - not anything massive, but more than I expected given my relatively short time in the game. But I can't help but know that if I hadn't happened to meet up with that person and help them out when they were starting - which again was a chance occurance - I'd still be in Morris now. Equally, I can't help but think about any of the other new folks who might have missed out because they didn't get any equivalent of even what I got. If I could help them, I would, but I don't have the resources to do so - and, of course, I'd be propagating the same problem even as I tried to alleviate it.

You can also overcome it by work. Problem is, the guy or gal who got the big freebie can work too, and they have a much bigger psychological motivation to do so, and will have a lot easier time getting practical results and feedback (including, but not limited to, money).

And I have never said that people succeed purely because of "sandbox philanthropy".

What I am saying is that the fact it exists creates a two-tier system of those who recieve it and those who don't.



So in other words, you are agreeing that there is indeed a structure that keeps down certain newbies - there must be, because no other structure can exist?

So instead of relying on the kindness of strangers, why not buy the land yourself? I don't have any land anyone gave to me for free - I pay $292 a month in tier and spent several thousand dollars buying my land. People always point out what other people have and say "oh that is not fair, that is why I am not a success" because that is a far more convenient excuse than "I am not doing everything I can do to be a success". It is not an unfair advantage, as the opportunity to own land is available anyone who pays the money to do so. If you find someone to subsidize you, then congratulations - but that cannot then be looked upon as you using an unfair advantage.

It is amazing how even philanthrophy can be labelled as a problem. It is the same mindset that bashes people for giving away items for free, because then someone else can't sell the same thing.

Nice attempt to twist my words, but that is not what I am saying. I am saying there is no structure that can be put in place to guarantee success. There is nothing that keeps down certain newbies except their own short sightedness and inability to adapt and innovate. If you go into things thinking "I can't do this because other people already have" then you won't do it - but you can't blame those who already have, you can only blame yourself.

That's perfectly true.

However, the people who did not have to pay for the land would still have an advantage.



I am not labelling philanthropy as a problem. The problem is the need for (or the value of) it.

Telling people who want to build they need to pay several thousand dollars out of the gate is not reasonable. And before someone says anything about "startup costs" - just because they want to build, doesn't mean they want to run a business. I can think of several locations that were obviously build just because they were fun to build, not to make back costs.

People who want to build don't need to spend several thousand dollars out the gate, or pay triple digit tier fees monthly. It depends completely on the scale that you want to build at. Again, Second Life is a luxury, not a necessity of life. If you can't afford to get the amount of land that you need on your own, then you need to seek out other sources of assistance. This is open to anyone - anyone can try to find someone to assist them. I guess I dont' see how this is a problem. It is only a problem to those who don't try, and it falls more into the "sour grapes" category than it does a legitimate problem that is holding people back.

yeah i think you made that deal a couple of times before with yourself and broke it each time. i'm hoping cash will make it binding.

you can function just fine reading the building and textures forum. if you employ the search feature you'll find most questions have already been answered

I just love these helpful and informative "Where We Are Now" threads!

.

That's about the size of it alright.

Coming to a blog near you, a giant ranting entry about how we are all trying to keep equal opportunities out of the hands of newbies, and god bless Cocoanut for her brave efforts in the face of the FIC.

I 4M TEH FAMOU2!!!!
N NO8OD4 HELPDED ME!

kthxbye

Uh huh!

I nominate 'kthnxbye' for the best internet speak ever.

That sentence alone would have been a very elegant response.

I'm not going to get too involved in this, but essentially -- people bitch too much.

Though I'd change "has" to "have."

At least Don Quixote was entertaining.

Hear me now,
O thou bleak and unbearable grid,
Thou art FIC and debauched as can be...

wtf?? that was rude. Geez!

Yes they were! Just because they were not spelled out didn't mean they opportunities did not exist.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.. STOP trying to make LL some stupid ass gaming company that doesn't give a twit about its customers. They are small company doing what they can. And personally I think they do a damn good job dealing with all the bitching and moaning they have to put up with.

The day you make them cold and callous like you, is the day I kiss this world goodbye.