THe FIC

Am I the only person who really doesn't care if there's an FIC or not?

Am I the only person who really doesn't care if there's an FIC or not?

conspiracy: a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose

I suggest we all use dictionaries before we use big words, otherwise we're going to upset another about assuming things that no one is assuming.

For the LAST TIME!!!!

It's FRETTED INNER CHORD!!!
*strums another power chord through a 40,000W amp
BwaaaaooooowowwowowowowowowowowwwwooowwoowwrrrrrrrrrdddeeeeeeonnoowwowwwonooowwwwoowwwOOOWWWwwwwwwwreeeaaarrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnnngwowowwowowowwowowowowowowowowowowowowowwowowowowowowowoyyeeeeooowwwwwnnwwowowowowowowwwwwwnn!!!

I have to disagree. The FIC does exist. Shall I name names? You've seen them, strutting around, full of themselves. Certain FIC are merely the oldest of residence, while others are close-knit families that live in their towers and look down at us scornfully. Still others, while not the first breed, have become FIC by achievements, almost always aided by Lindens on thier payroll, that have gotten unfair publicity and attention.

And the last type of FIC, are the socializers that seem to know everyone and are always saying something so clever and witty, tossing around humor and wisdom like their shit don't stink.

But added together, with thier secret communications and midnight meetings, they do indeed plot and control many of Second Lifes social, political and technical directions.

Even Philip answers the red phone when it rings. The direct line to his command center, that only the FIC members are privy to.

Oh ye newbs...if you don't think the FIC is watching and judging, then you are woefully naive.

The Feted (or Fetid) Inner Core, bravely exposed by Prokofy's words, does indeed exist. They are alive and well within the luxurious and hidden VIP lounges of SL. And they are watching..waiting..like bloated spiders in their webs. Watch out lest you become the entangled fly!


Edited: David Valentino has been suspended indefinitely, and is unavailable for future communications as of now.

Pathfinder says the FIC doesn't exist. We have it quoted here in his posts. I goggle my eyes when I read that. Pathfinder is new. He will come to this awareness in time. I hope the awareness is not accompanied by any harsh experiences. But come it will.

People say the FIC is Prokofy's fevered imagination. I didn't invent it, I described it. The debate is not over whether it exists, and not over whether it hobbles the game, but whether I have described it accurately, and whether it does in fact hobble the game in the way I say. I have not changed from my initial impresses of three or six months ago in this regard, and I have only amassed numerous anecdotal experiences reinforcing this perception, notwithstanding my special hugzy teddy bear from that Linden. (This special hugzy bear will be displayed in Tibet soon so anybody can come and see him and negrate me or scream that I am feted LOL).

Ingrid, you saw all that eye candy and shiny stuff, you wanted to make it yourself, and spent more money looking at it and making it, understood. So your instinct was to join the FIC. From where I sit, my instinct was to chronicle the horrors of the FIC, not join it. And it is not just because I'm a hopeless dweeb who can't fly straight or link prims even already put together for him by other people -- even if that is true. It's because my sense of justice is keen, and my experiences of injustice ample, and so I will go on crying out about this.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that story about the realtor (or the house-buyer or the hotel guest, it changes) who comes to the village and brings his problems and perceptions with him. I'd have LOTS of dollars! This story is always told by Ol' Tex, in his most earnest tone of voice, with a twanging guitar string or two accompanying it, round the campfire, home, home on the range, where the deer and the buffalo roam, where never is heard a discouraging word. It speaks to an ardent belief in homespin quaint wisdom and reworked villagey versions of the old Biblical adage about taking the log out of your own eye so you can see the mote (speck) in your neighbour's.

But...what if there was a different story? What if the visitor comes to the small village, and find that they are smug, insular, self-referential, besotted, feted, sitting on forever-subsidized 4096 acre plots of land, making state-socialist clone builds, getting state waivors on tier or purchase price, getting state developer awards, etc. etc. etc. What if the village you came to was not the homespun American village on the prairie with a free press, a village dissident (doubling as the town drunk some nights), a whore with a heart of gold, a noble native, the handsome stranger who brings justice, a crooked sherriff who has a moment of conscience, or whatever other cliches you can fetch up that become the voice of the people to correct evil? What if instead, the village was a tightly knit circle celebrating big builds by top architects, top designer jewerly, Linden subsidies, right-of-way for the scripterati -- well, everything we see in SL? What if it was just a very, very VERY different kind of village where it wasn't that you brought your nasty perceptions with you (from RL, from TSO) but that they *really exist* because they *really are a problem*!!! Huh, what if THAT were the case!

Everyone wants to say to me that I go about this all wrong, that I shouldn't be so pointed or sharp, that I shouldn't mix metaphors or causes, that I should pick my battles, that I should stop writing such long posts, that I should stop shooting myself in the foot -- believe me, I've heard it all, and taken a lot of condescending and paternalistic crap from a lot of people. But by God, even if I didn't do it in a fashion you find comfortable, I got you to think about the central core of trouble in this game: people who refuse to give up the idea, like this Linden clone mall developer, that he should pick the content and the people who showcase, not the free open market, that he should use his Linden subsidies for a perch, that people who enable the company to have flashy things on the website get to dictate the game's technology and direction. Why? You can't say you want to be the WWW of virtual worlds and create a virtual conservative, closeknit, self-perpetuating village suspicious of outsiders!

When I first began these debates, the expression of disbelief I would most often hear would be like this "You can't attack my friend because she's my friend, even if she's wrong" or "You can't attack that person, they make jewelry and you don't make jewelry so you are shit". They couldn't see that this very issue is the problem.

People don't understand why I don't want to be celebratory of a little village where little craftsmen get to make and trade their little bling, oohing and ahing and taking pictures of each other in their bling all the while. It's because I want SL to become something much bigger than that, and it can't if it is merely a nation of craftsmen. It's just not enough. It's just not enough if it is a nation of shopkeepers. Not in the modern world. It has to be a nation of craftsmen, shopkeepers, shoppers, and many other kinds of people in between, all with equality, and all with respect.

conspiracy: a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose

I suggest we all use dictionaries before we use big words, otherwise we're going to upset one another about assuming things that no one is assuming.

The fact is, Prok and I should be ignored

..

Thanks.

The broader base you are wanting for has brought about the "entertainment" and "dog's breakfast" feel you seem to be experiencing. You are unsatisfied with the size of SL yet you offer no real answers to this perceived malaise that you are diagnosing SL with. You do not realize that the very thing you are calling for, more subscribers, will water SL down more. I don't have a problem with that myself, to a point. You apparently do ("dogs breakfast" yet seem to be misidentifyng the source. What is it you want LL to do specifically?

You can moan about the "FIC" until the end of time, what is it you really want? What are the key steps you feel LL should take to correct the problems you perceive? Is your issue with SLers or LL? If it's with LL, which is what I tend to believe, then hassle them. Write them emails. Do feature suggestions. Point out technical in the tech section. Beating on the same drum, with no real proof nor solutions, month after month, is not going to get you anywhere but misunderstood, and not taken seriously.

However, in SL there have been a couple of instances that I feel were pretty pointlessly FIC. Events that were not in event calendars, but by invite only, that sort of thing.

To be honest, though, I don't think it's a big problem. I think it's a problem worth mentioning but I really only defend the point because people are arguing it doesn't exist, which is so obviously not the case.

I find it funny that people aren't saying over and over again - "yeah we know FIC is a problem, no kidding". Instead they are saying, "you're hallucinating", which obviously I feel is wrong.

No, not at all. In fact, I think more amateur content designers can do wonders for SL. I am a huge fan of wikipedia, for example.

I just think the tools for collaboration need to be improved. Better zoning, shared inventory folders for group builds, that sort of thing.

Well, I don't need proof that people are petty and human, and I shouldn't need proof that people are going to tend words elitism. The argument shouldn't be .. does FIC exist, but rather, do we have processes in place to avoid FIC? Are we appropiately avoiding FIC?

Most cases, I think so. Forum moderation has generally been very anti-FIC.

However, in SL there have been a couple of instances that I feel were pretty pointlessly FIC. Events that were not in event calendars, but by invite only, that sort of thing.

To be honest, though, I don't think it's a big problem. I think it's a problem worth mentioning but I really only defend the point because people are arguing it doesn't exist, which is so obviously not the case.

I find it funny that people aren't saying over and over again - "yeah we know FIC is a problem, no kidding". Instead they are saying, "you're hallucinating", which obviously I feel is wrong.