Goodbye, forum hatefest.

Catharsis: In Aristotle's Poetics, the "purging" or "cleansing" of terror and pity, which the audience develops during the climax of a tragedy.

I know this will be torn to shreds, turned around, misinterpreted and picked apart by the very people I am complaining about, but I have to say it before the forums close.

To all LL bashers and forum whiners:

GET OUT OF MY GAME

I have been a resident of Second Life for over a year, and I have never once run up against ANYTHING that would prompt me to maliciously bash LL on their own forums. Yes, I've filed my share of bug reports. Yes, I get annoyed when we have a few hours of downtime. These things happen, particularly on the internet, and even more often with the gaming industry. I have been a computer gamer and internet afficionado my entire life, and SL has never yet thrown me a situation I haven't seen elsewhere. I think of these minor hardships as facts of life. If you want a polished, perfect game, go play Nintendo.

This negative energy is why I feel so much pain when I page through the forums. The constant whining has reached a spam-like level, rivaling even the legendary *ingo event posts. There are some posters (some much older than myself) who seem to be eternally miserable, and whom I have NEVER seen post a positive comment about anything. If LL makes every day of your second life a living hell, don't whine about it; just get the hell out of my game.

I don't care if the Lindex shifted by L$20 over the course of one week. Give it at least a month or two before you tell me the sky is falling.

I don't care if one newbie/furry/gorean/teen griefed you once or twice. This is called the internet. If you network two people together, eventually one will grief the other. A very large number of internet dwellers turn into 12 year olds when they realize they're anonymous. Griefing happens to everyone, and there's no way to permanently eradicate it.

I don't feel much sympathy for you if SL is your sole source of income and LL accidentally broke your product. Yes, I'm sorry for the loss of your hard work, but what makes you think you can rely on a company with an unprofitable business model for long-term cash? The money I make in SL stays in SL. If I didn't have to pay tier in U.S. dollars, I wouldn't even use the Lindex. If I stop making money, I'll tier down, but I won't leave. I won't even make a sympathy announcement about it on the prevailing forums.

Finally, don't you DARE tell me SL is "unplayable" because of some minor inconvenience like a couple hours of downtime each month (or even each week), or because of the lack of L$50 stipends for basic accounts. You can make more than L$50 each week by sitting on your virtual ass at any in-world game show and exercising your brain. You might even have fun while you're at it.

I acknowledge that there have been causes for legitimate complaint over the course of my life here, and I don't mean to cheapen those truly sad stories. I am as upset as anyone at the banning of respected content creators and the breaking of some truly spectacular projects. The fact of the matter is that those true stories get lost in the static of daily drama, and because of that, I cannot blame LL for shutting down the hate machine.

I love SL. I love it more than any computer game I have ever experienced. It has its problems, as all constantly developing projects do, but I love it anyway. If you love SL like I do, with all of its failings, I urge you to find a new place where we can support each other through our legitimate triumphs and hardships. If your avatar has nothing but hatred, pessimism and suspicion, I have these five words for you: get out of my game.

-Gerami Fizz

fixed.

I've been in SL longer than you have. so it was my game first. bye bye!

I was wondering when the fanboi syndrome would kick in.

For reference, yes I realize that I was whining.

If you don't understand why it's different, I probably can't convince you otherwise. Those who agree with me will agree. Those who don't probably won't be swayed.

Gerami...I might know some very tasty cheese to go with that lovely little whine you have there.

Is it jalapeño cheese? It feels like flames.

Whining to stop whining. Interesting.

Phil?

Fight fire with fire.

Perhaps instead of a whinescraper, which was immensely satisfying to write, I should have posted a question instead.

I touched on this in the original post: If you see nothing positive in LL or SL, what keeps you here? Do you contribute anything to society? Does the society contribute anything to you?

Enlighten me, but please, try to stay civil.

No one's said there's nothing positive in SL. Those who feel that way have long left.

Rather the frustration many of us feel is the wasted potential.

SL has the potential to be a great many amazing things. That potential is destroyed by LL's incompetent management and desire to control rather than create.

The problem is with the "If" part; why do you assume there is nothing else? I may say "ow" when something hurts but I don't go about the rest of the day announcing,
"I'm fine."
"I'm fine."
"I'm fine."
"I'm fine."
"I'm fine."
"I'm fine."...

Also, you might want to consider that people with little invested are more likely to be apathetic and, consequently, not very vocal. Might not complainers be the ones most involved rather than the least?

See, this is the kind of post I wish there were more of.

When someone posts "OMG something changed SL is forever destroyed!", I usually can't even bring myself to finish reading the post. I've read it 100 times before, and it doesn't bring anything new to the table.

Thanks for the civil response.

You're welcome douchetool.

I for one, have to agree with Gerami. Too many whiners & complainers. I dont even know where this "increase in griefing" came from as I haven't noticed any increase. Asshats exist in all online activities. Deal with it.

If I didnt need my "SL Fix" I'd leave for a year then come back & see what's new. I dont even play games online like I used to! Do you realize just how many patches N stuff I had to download??? Over 5 GIGABYTES of patches for 3 games!! You wont hear me complain (much) about SL Updates & having to download a measly 20-50 MB file for it.

I also dont care about an "economy". Its a nice plus but eventually it'll go all FUBAR, whether by LL, the Feds or the Residents.

I like meeting new people! I like meeting new people from other countries! I'm more social here than in RL and its fun!

The way I keep telling people about SL, the more I sound like an annoying Born-Again Xtian. I like it here THAT much!

I come here to have fun WITHOUT having to shoot someone to do it.

To paraphrase Gerami: "Get out of OUR game"

*OUR as in community.

You bring up a good point, and I agree with you on the bit about the people with the most invested.

However, if you knew someone who constantly complained about how awful their life is, and who threatened suicide every time a new law was passed... Would you assume they where happy just because they don't have to say they're happy? What if that same person witnessed breakthroughs in technology or acts of humanity that greatly impacted his life, but said nothing about it?

True, people may talk about the good times less than the bad, but when it's -all- bad, it can be a tip-off that something's wrong.

This is a forum! You don't know that they're miserable all the time! I think the extreme type you describe is very much a minority. I know that, personally, I'm not reticent when it comes to expressing a complaint or criticism but I would not be described by those who know the whole of me (that is, outside the forum) as negative at all.

(Evil, yes, but not negative. )

I agree with the core of Gerami's message, and often find the relentless negativity & LL bashing a downer.

At the same time, however, I respect those who have opinions contrary to mine, and recognize that they have just as much right to voice them as I do. This post, as well intentioned as I think it was, is akin to erecting a Synagogue in Tehran.

When I started posting in these forums as a newbie, the climate was very, very different. Sure, we had plenty to complain about, and did. But criticism of LL was more the type that you'd do to a family member. Posts that made harsh attacks on Linden Labs were usually met by a flame fest of folks defending them.

Now the pendulum has shifted the opposite way.

It’s rather ironic that the SL's own forums have actually become hostile to those who still vehemently support LL.

I wish I could find the source for this.



Once there was this... amusement park company that wanted to make a really good roller coaster.

So, what they did, was they asked people what sort of roller coaster they should make. What kind & so forth.

Well, they got a lot of vocal responses. The people that were most 'into' rollercoasters responded, and they called for a really big, fast, wooden rollercoaster.

So the company made this incredible rollercoaster.

Only to find that the average customer got sick just looking at it, and found it too extreme. A regular "good enough" rollercoaster met their needs better than this.

The vocal minority weren't pleased either, of course. It wasn't big or fast enough for them.





I think the average SL customer is fairly laid back, a good person, balances first life with second life effectively and doesn't much appreciate all the vitriol in forums.

In fact, the great majority of in-world regulars I know consider the forums to be a hatefest and won't get involved here for that reason.

The great majority of in-world regulars regard SL as a chatroom as well with not much vested interest in its survival.

And there's nothing wrong with that, but those who have real-world money and time wrapped up into it are perfectly entitled to being critical when their real-world money and time is jeopardized by bugs that bring the grid down, rendering customers unable to shop, that could've been seen and fixed if someone in development spent 10 minutes actually testing the grid before pressing the button.

Or when LL starts selling L$, undercutting the value of the L$ and meaning that prices for content will have to either be raised or everyone take a loss.

Or how they still have yet to create an actual system to protect content creators from copy-cats or even hacks that allow you to break the permissions. It's infuritating that I can still copy no-copy items using a hack I discovered and reported two years ago.

So while the average user might not complain, they don't have as much invested in here as the complainers do.

Despite the zealotry of my original post, I'm actually pretty happy with how the discussion has turned out. I'd much rather see people exchanging ideas than exchanging insults.

If I terribly insulted anyone with that first post, I apologize. I just really wanted to get that off my chest before the forums closed.

And you had a medium with which to do it. Good or bad in people's opinion that medium will be altered in a way that this will not be possible after Friday.

In that essay you wrote saying how glad you are these areas of the forums are closing you missed out on the biggest fact of all. They gave YOU the chance to say all that and "get it off your chest"

Think about that a minute and maybe you will understand why we are so upset over all this.

By the way, nice to meet you. Chances are I never would have been able to say that "in world" as if you were standing in front of a store saying all that I would have likely just passed you by. Here I read it. I did not agree with all of the points you make but I heard you out.

THAT is the culture we are losing here...

I for one love second life. Where else can you use your Xcite! Fisting Attachment(tm) on a chinese escort one day and see her become a successful, internationally acclaimed businesswoman within a year?

It's like Pretty Woman meets It Could Happen To You meets Intercontinental Scatwhores III.

edit: Post 69! F'ing HAWT!!!!!!!!!!

This is the best post ever. Reality. Do with me whatever you want, I'm yours.