Thread about War and "Political Parties"

Who are the other people at the top of the screen? Other than Aimee and I think Obscuro Valkyrie, I have no idea who they are or how they were chosen. We have had to look at the same header for ages now - it is time that it is redone anyway.

actually I dont look at the pics..... this whole thing seems a bit rediculous

There is no "mystic inner cabal." There is, however, my point of view, which I outlined above, which y'all don't share.

Anyway, I was just tossing ideas out. Maybe the time isn't right for all that.

Meanwhile, I want to table most of this in favor of the organization many of us CAN get behind, the voluntary thing I talked about in the other thread.

April Firefly and I have named it "Second Life Citizens for T.A.C.T." T.A.C.T. standing for "Towards a Civil Tone." Or Towards a more Civil Tone, or something.

We think this might help some things around these forums, and if it doesn't, well I don't see how it could hurt.

Those who wished to abide by the guidelines of the group could join, and then put in their signature "Member of Second Life Citizens etc."

The only guideline we have so far is no profanity. Now some people may like to pepper their posts with profanity, for emphasis, but we think it sets a more antagonistic tone, and they don't have to join. Not that I am loftier than those who do, or anything (God knows I curse enough around my friends and family); just that we don't think it helps discourse on the forum.

Those who agree would join, and put that in their siggies, and would agree to not use profanity, if they ever even did. I would even promise not to say "pissed off" anymore! (You wouldn't have to, lol, that's not really profanity, I don't think.) And everyone would try to follow the other guidelines, though we haven't come up with them yet, hopefully they would just be a few basic ones. That way at least all of US with that in our siggy would be consciously trying to do better, and it might spread.

Then I thought we could come up with some other helpful guidelines, but they would have to be very broad, so as not to hinder freedom of speech. For instance, I would still want pretty much the entire conversation we had above to still be able to go on. That was a pretty civil conversation, I thought, even though we disagreed, and the ideas are controversial.

But we could use more help with those guidelines. The only disadvantage to this group I can see is people might think we were trying to be "holier than thou" or something, but I think it is worth the risk.

Well, one other disadvantage; it would open us up to the criticism that, "You don't live up to what you say, look what you just did here." To which I would suggest our only response be NOT to argue with them about it, but just to say our motto is, "We're Trying." Cause, you know, nobody's perfect, especially when we get mad. But that we TRY to live up to reasonable guidelines; I think that can go a long way.

Whatcha think? April and I could use more than just ourselves in this mini-movement towards a more civil tone in the forums, and in figuring out what other guidelines would be good.

coco

No, in modern politics, parties are formal organizations designed to accumulate public support for positions on issues, for policies, or for leaders and/or candidates. Factions are like-minded groups without formal organization who generally operate together by principle or by social networking.

For example, in American politics, until Andrew Jackson's presidency in 1820s, there were no political parties, but there were factions such as the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans. Neither faction needed great appeal to the public because voter participation was high only among the small, elite, land- or business-owning or professional classes -who ran the government anyway. Jackson's revolution was to organize the Democratic Party and tap the numerical power of the lower classes for his own agenda. The elites could only respond by organizing their own party, the Whigs.

There are factions within political parties, such as the older Progressive wings of the Democratic and Republican Parties, or the Christian right in the present-day Republican Party. But that's not what's being discussed here.

I know of no parties in Second Life in the common definition of the term used by historians, political scientists, and others. (Although I think I remember reading something about Ulrika trying to start a "Social Democratic" party of some kind.) There are groups, of course, and there may be factions; I'm not sure - hence my earlier post.

Hope that clears it up for you.

I think we could all work towards a more civil tone without creating a separate group. Couldn't it be more of a unifying of Second Life rather than exclusive or inclusive? I would hate to have the next group of newbies to look at us the way some people look at the supposed FIC.

As for the signature, I'm pretty partial to my current one and wouldn't want anyone to change on they already have.

Also, not to be too harsh but it would have been nice to let me know during our in-game conversation that you would be posting this here. It was somewhat of a shock to find this post had evolved from what I assumed was a casual conversation.

Good luck Coco.

Oh! Well, I thought we had agreed on all that.

Never mind, then.

coco

Coco, we can do something towards creating a Civil Tone. Or did I say something that offended you? Why do you say never mind? We talked a bit and then I had to go eat dinner.

You obviously have good intentions. Don't give up so easily hon.

It has nothing to do with whether or not someone's a good person. It's about pictures and profiles fitting the particular image the marketing team feels will sell more SL accounts (or even, at this point, to attract more content creators prior to the impending big mainstream marketing push). Do you think when an advertising firm makes a soda pop commercial they pick the actors based on who's "good," or is it based on fitting as closely as possible the image they figure their target market will find attractive?



Well, yeah, of course, but the marketing team's job isn't to cater to current members; we're already hooked. The avatars pictured and profiled are not chosen for their own benefit. Their images happen to be useful marketing tools for LL. Heck, they didn't even put designer credits on the photos this time around.



Everyone has a chance. Some of them are inworld working toward that chance right now instead of messing around on the forums. I'm not defending the status quo. I'm just explaining it.



Aimee's got a distinctive, funky, hip avatar -- it's photogenic, and likely to appeal to a certain segment of the market. Plus, she's got a successful and fun (looks fun, anyhow) business inworld selling cool stuff, which is another thing that's likely to be attractive to prospective members.

Tiffany Weary . . . what does she look like? What has she done that's interesting and noteworthy? Does she have something for sale that I might like? Would I want to be like her? She's just a made-up example name with no personality. Whereas Aimee is, even just looking at a photo of her avatar, clearly a unique and interesting, real person with charisma. She's a good choice for the marketing team's purpose.

Instead of getting upset about the marketing team going about its work in the standard way, perhaps you should try approaching the community management team (it's their job to deal with existing members) with a proposal for some sort of member spotlight corner.

OK, so it's a bad idea to use a broad sampling of residents on these web pages. Don't know why I ever thought of it.

coco

P.S. Why does everybody use the term "upset?" I'm not upset. I just think it would be a good idea if everyone had an equal opportunity to enjoy the excitement of appearing on one of the web pages. Apparently there are lots and lots of reasons why not.

But Coco, everyone does have a chance. Who knows, your AV maybe the next one to be on the webpage. I'll repeat my offer, I can make some poses and we can submit some photos of you for the webpages. Let's work towards a Civil Tone together. We can do this.

Maybe upset is the wrong word but I think they are trying to be helpful.

I think one of the guidelines of TACT should be to propose solutions, not just problems. Yes there are problems but we can't fix them without solutions.

Let's work on some poses and get those pictures taken. Let's go around to look at random people in-world who might not know about the forums or the webpage or both and take snaposhots of them

You know one more idea, we could start a fansite for TACT. I have webspace I would be willing to use. We could put up pictures of your AV along with anyone else who wants to be posted. I'm excited by this idea.

i thought this thread was about factions in sl. is the connection to avs on the website that there is a small faction (fic) that is over represented on the website, and a large faction (non fic) that is not? at least this makes it very easy to distinguish who is fic. not me!

Yes, that's his name.

Is this middle school? I have never seen so many JELLIS whiners in my life. Good Grief.



One of my favorite designs I made in There is currently on the There homepage. The picture I believe was surely chosen at random. Do I care? Not really. Has it helped sales, yes. Do I care? Not really.

Do you really think a lot of people want to be on the webpages? It is not one of my goals. My avatar is already a star *bows* and I am not desperate for attention. I would think most people are pretty secure in their avatar lives and not so desperate for attention and acceptance as to pout and whine about not being on pages that people don't pay that much attention to. I could be over estimating the self esteem of others, but I hope not. There are only a few people that whine and cry about this over and over. Does it really matter?

Yes, we are all sweaty shoes.

Well, see, you guys wouldn't have to BE in my political group.

Fortunately.

coco

But it would be nice for a group such as TACT to be open to all members and to practice Civility. Don't you think Coco?

Yes, Sebastian, I think so.

coco

Umm Actually that was me Coco, sorry about that. I had another screen name open in another browser, I do that sometimes for cutting and pasting quotes. I don't usually post under Sebastian.

But as he/I was saying, TACT should be open to anyone. I'm hoping it's more of a state of mind and not some sort of faction.

No, no faction at all, April. Sorry for the inherent confusion in this thread - I just get carried away with my ideas sometimes, and, not posting in General anymore, I have no place to put an open invitation to T.A.C.T. for discussion of that. Having both ideas presented in this same thread isn't very good.

1. My ideas about political factions or whatever, and the group I might want to make, EOP.

2. Me saying hey, never mind that for now, it's time might not be right, but what about T.A.C.T.

3. The two getting mixed up.

Ima start a new thread.

coco

I think there's always a good time for Towards A Civil Tone. Don't give up Coco. You are trying to do good and that is always hard and it's always it's own reward. I thought of another guildeline. Tell me if this sounds silly. Positive Ratio. When posting on a daily basis, try to post one or two posts of either encouragement to another poster or a post telling of something positive that happened inside of Second Life. It could even be about something new you've learned on the boards.

For insance, the other day I figured out the little v or check mark next to a thread title in the message listing will take me to the first unread post. I know this sounds silly but for months now I've been clicking on the title and then clicking on read first unread. Now I can do it in one step.

I'm sorry you feel you have to limit your posting. I feel you have a lot to share and you have deep convictions. I wish you would rethink your aversion to AR'ing, your input in that service could help get this board back on track.

GREAT BIG GIANT HUGS TO COCO and EVERYONE ON THE BOARDS TODAY! (Even those just reading)

No, Ingrid, that is not his name; I just noticed his name in the general thread.

But thank you for being snide and trying to screw me over for being an honest person who takes what people say at face value. You are just so clever, aren't you. What do you do, just follow me around waiting for something like that to say?

***
The above paragraph is an example of what I would refrain from saying if I had signed on Second Life Citizens for T.A.C.T.

Since I haven't, then (edited)

coco

I do like that one, April.

coco

You're organizing a T.A.C.T. group, but not signing on for it yourself?

I will if others do. I don't want to be the only one to set up its guidelines.

coco

Clearly this Marcus Forsetti must be stopped. He is a menace to us all.