NWN update on "Impeach Bush" controversy-- please post actions here!

I started Prop 905 (see sig below for link).

<sniff>

Hamlet, what is my call to action? chopped liver?

Standing round of cheers and huzzahs for Jake! He made a very important point - that debate is action, and important action - and said it a lot better than I could have even thought it through, much less said it. (Though obviously his side of the debate is the wrong one. )

coco

Last chance for action summary!

Now that Lessig's put to bed, I'm finally writing that update. If any concrete actions have been taken by Residents, please post them here by THE END OF TUESDAY.

well Hamlet, Ive come to the conclusion that my best way of handling it is to ignore them, just like any other misbehaving child. They can only bother me if I allow them to, and I dont allow them to bother me so I will just sit back and watch till the temper tantrum subsides.

Or ironically and unintentionally relocate the Iraq War Memorial to land adjacent to the maroon's signs. (I promise to get back in world tomorrow Toy and finish the build)

It took me so long to write this I wasn't even a Linden anymore when I finished! But it here it is:

UNIMPEACHABLE OFFENSE
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2006/03/unimpeachable_o.html

All hail Emperor Bush!

Ya know.. I'm still a firm believer in my idea that always got ignored because it was so damn simple and not one of the "ingenius" resident controlled psudo-censorship ideas that seemed to get praised.

My idea was simple: Have the land sale tools reconize the ban list and prevent those banned from buying the land.

Thats it, its that simple. If we had that, we wouldn't have had a 1/3 of the plots we had at the peak of the whole ordeal because people would see the name slapped to the signs early on and prevented him from purchasing the land he needed. Its not a hard concept, it doesn't violate the TOS, and its such a simple change to the code it could be done in the next basic patch.

If as you say in your blog we hear less people complaining about the Bush signs, it's because people are tired of shouting at walls. Since LL has clearly refused to do anything to correct the situation, what is the point of complaining. And about taking actions? On the one hand, we can't because most actions we could take would be a TOS violation and we would get banned. On the other hand, the passive actions are not available to us, like filtering out those signs from our views.

Maybe people are getting used to those signs over the horizon, or they reduce their viewing distance to 64m...

One thing is for sure; land near water sells for more, land around Bush signs sells for less.

My opinion is that the furor has died down because:

* People who were early SL adopters were more likely to be of an activist mentality. Your average person is not like that, even about things that they feel strongly about. Nor are many people spectacular at organization or self-motivation. In other words, the activism in the world is rather diluted now, compared to then.

* The world is much larger now, so it is harder for people to hear about organized movements (especially if they are the sort that hangs out in their own land and doesn't pay much attention to the rest of SL).

* On a related note, remember that the forums are a fraction of the population ... which doesn't mean that the annoyance isn't representative, but rather that the world at large isn't where these protests were widely known and discussed. I suspect your average person in SL is just as annoyed by the cubes, but is left wondering why the hell Linden won't do anything.

* Yes, people get tired of talking to brick walls. Linden refuses to do anything in the short term, and their long term solution (e.g., zoning tools) is so long term as to be irrelevant for the purposes of this debate, given the speed at which this became a problem.

* As such, the annoyance has not evaporated. It has merely changed. It has become fuel for bitterness and cynicism, directed primarily at Linden for tolerating/being fooled by what is seen by many as a deliberate attempt to hamper others' enjoyment of SL, not-very-subtly hiding behind "free speech" so as to produce this exact result (i.e., no response from Linden).

* From my perspective as a very minor land owner, it seems to me that this issue has somewhat accelerated the degradation of the quality of the landscape on the mainland and the abandonment thereof.

The cubes have demonstrated the problems that extreme lack of constraint in building a shared space can cause (as well as the lack of recourse one has to deal with them ... basically, "Don't like it? Pay extortion or move...". Many people simply don't want the mediocre results that come with that level of anarchy.

They want, ideally, an environment shared with people who have a roughly similar (or at least vaguely tolerable) vision, and if frustrated in that, to "own the view" to the extent necessary to filter things they don't like out of their environment (reasonable expectation or not). As we move toward the private sim/metaverse paradigm, they'll eventually get both.

In the meantime, private islands are the obvious alternative.

I suspect it got ignored because it does nothing for people who already have one next door. (i.e., the ones already most annoyed by it)

Yeah I was one of those people. I erected a giant wall he couldn't build around to annoy me as many have. But at least if he was banned from buying plots by the players we would have prevented him from expanding so easily wich would have discouraged him from expanding so much. Its a shame I wasn't thinking about extra unneccisary controversal tools like so many others.

Hamlet,
One of our group members built a very nice screen of Buddha and bodhisattva images to block the dreaded signs over our public group land in Zoe.

Putting up a screen was our solution to try and keep the Himalayan theme of the group land. We've had no trouble with griefing. A few abuse reports were filed awhile back, as the Impeach Bush prims actually hang over onto our land and we took objection to, in principle, subsidizing the unwanted prims with donated group land tier. All replies from LL were form letters, noting the issue resolved and directing us to police blotter reports that could not be located.

If "Impeach Bush" is a political statement, it is a lame one. That said, we have nothing against the alleged sign griefer -- if it's allowed, and it riles people, someone will inevitably do it, which is basic human nature -- but have real concerns about LL and its management of the issue.

More to the point, "Impeach Bush" underlines several fundamental SL weaknesses, several of which are outlined in my otherwise apolitical blog,Flying Monks. "...It's absenteeism in Second Life that's become most worrisome, the disregard for solutions that governments in RL tackle every day. Linden Labs, I say this will all sincerity: I have received clearer information on public issues while working as a journalist in Communist China."

In short, SL is not the internet, an open network, but a semi-closed society, for better and worse. Either way, it deserves active cultivation in policy and in-world governance, especially the realm of civil society -- non-government, non-business organizations and community bodies -- that help deliver the equivlent of rich content in real life. "Impeach Bush," like camping chairs and other non-essential content are symptoms of imbalance, of a world not realizing its potential.

Consequently, I spend less on SL. Again, I've tiered down in SL not simply because there are ugly prims in-world, but because LL has mismanaged the issue, thereby eroding confidence. Therefore I don't own land beyond what's neccessary for our group, the Milarepa Land Trust.

Good Luck!

The final piece reads like propaganda designed to support Linden Lab's policy of allowing extortion.



The entire article was written to support the "nothing was done" thesis with every bit of action listed being dismissed as not counting as meaningful. It's terrible, useless jouralism designed to make the Lindens feel good.

Hamlet, I took a proactive approach to the "Bush Guy" by not putting 16 sq m plots on the open market. At one point, he had the market in these plots crippled and rather than sell them at excessive prices, I donated them to the neighbors.

Lately the signs have been coming down and the plots are being resold. Ignore a person long enough, they get weary of paying tier which was intended to grab attention.

If the attention seeking adult that is responsible for placing these signs is an American citizen he can boo hoo his way to court and say LL was picking on him.

You need to really look at the whole entire picture of it all. What normal adult would go to this extreme to irratate ppl for attention? I can reply having had child psych. He was not given the proper love and attention growing up.

He apparently has learned along time ago to do outrageous acts for the attention he desired. Maybe he became a practical joker? a class clown? a rebelion? who knows? but the best solution to this everyone is ignore him. Dont buy his land, dont IM him, dont give him want he wants, dont post here, dont vote over him.

It is sick but he is gloating in this sorta stuff you are just building his ego and steam. he is simply a lil boy inside trying to fullfull a loss.

GoldieFawn Fielding aka self proclaimed child development specialist.

Agree. It could have been written to emphasize how MANY things were done. How this and that person tiered down. How another tried petitions, etc.

And what happened to those people who brought their own signs to Linden headquarters? Seems to me I recall those being deleted plenty fast enough.

I guess Hamlet expects people to somehow work miracles. It's the Lindens' game, and they wanted this stuff in it. After a certain point, you realize there is nothing you can do. What does Hamlet expect us to do?

coco

Nice job, Hamlet. About what I would have expected.