I blame Sugar

Communists don't count.

(Being a moderator) It's like being a gardener; you pull out the weeds and nurture the plants with the greatest potential. I could pull out all the weeds but then the soil would wash away not to mention that some of the weeds have pretty flowers too. I know it's tough coping with the moderation policy, it's no easier here, things aren't shades of gray, they are Technicolor. Because of this complexity I don't pass most locks along for Linden Review and when I do it's for something serious. Getting locked out of your account for something done on the forums is rare; we have a tiered punishment system, you don't get to the suspension level without being a repeat offender or doing something really heinous (like posting an exploit that crashes the grid or enables theft).

Social system need mechanisms in place that can relieve pressure, without them in the right places the system explodes and people die, either in riots, revolution or war. The RA forum fills a part of that niche. I don't like people dieing, and if that means allowing people to march in the streets thats fine by me. Giving them a voice and making them a part of the system helps. But if it turns into a recruiting party for a war or a riot thats not good, I have to step in and try to cool things down.

Doing a job like this brings you in contact with people who base their thinking off different fundamental truths. It makes you think about the nature of humanity, the strengths and failings of societies. Take two friends, then get along fine for years then find out they disagree on a core issue; they become angry and unhappy. Should it tear them apart? Should they fight to the death? Should they agree to disagree? How they choose to solve the problem is up to them but there is a glimmer of hope, they have years of history, they haven't change who they were and it wasn't a problem before. The same things are happening in SL but with entire groups of people. Each one of these big debates leads to entire groups of people becoming unhappy, it tears the community apart, it sours the mood on the forums, it leads to more confrontations and the pot may just boil over. The worst part is that most debates come in cycles and if we forget about them we risk the pot boiling over again. Part of the job is to keep the lid on the pot; it means not pulling out all the weeds, it means reminding people of the past, it means allowing people to march in the streets, it means setting up barricades to keep it from turning into a riot, it means being a responsible member of the community.

It's all a balance between freedom and protection from our selves. Balance may not be the right thing and I may not be the right person but it looks like a good thing to aim for. It's my pledge to do the best I can and strive for better.

-------

On Topic:

I wonder if SL casinos owned by Native Americans are exempt from the new rules?
*clamps hands over mouth then sighs*
I predict four more months of debates x_x

Wow, i was sure it was going to be locked when i saw strifes name as the last post.


Very glad its not, this is a cool thread.

First time I have ever been aroused by a moderator.

All your chocolate belongs to us... ermm me!

Morwen.

Curry is the born evil it self.... it tastes far too good! Only garlic is better...


Morwen.

I prefer garlic and lots of it. I drive everyone nuts at home cause i pile it in my food

Trick is.... feed garlic to all in the house and there is no problem. Only poor visitors .

But to be honest, throughout the week I have to be a bit careful with garlic. Most customers don't really like someone with a garlic breath O.o

Morwen

I'm lucky i work for me and the people that i hire have no choice but to put up with my umm garlicy umm charisma or they dont get the job

Course the guy yesterday his eyes were watering he blamed it on allergies but it was just as he passed by my desk .. think i eat to much? lol

I also love the smell in the house so i pour it in because of that too. I make things like sphagettii sauce etc and its just not right unless it has like 10 pounds of garlinc in it

everyone likes it though they just uh can't eat it on a weekday when they have to deal with the public

Strife, dude, you rock. You're probably a lot more patient with us unruly people than you have any right to be.

Re: Indian gaming; I'd think the servers would have to be located on the reservations.

we have curry lol in the u.s., and many many indians (from india) too. in santa barbara, CA, last time i visited the only movie theatre in town showed Bollywood flicks only. And i think Cisco will be changing its corporate language to Hindi soon

but truly, the curry in london is, mostly, better. and we don't have much in the way of indian food kiosks ... yet .... *mouth waters*

but my two favorite shopping malls have indian places in the food courts, so curry's gone mainstream here ... mmmm..... samosas .... onion nan .... jalfrezi .... korma ... vindaloo ... chocolate .... *faints*

But.... but.. but we do now have the Accounts server/company now in the UK charging overseas ppls transactions fees... do you think that will balance that loan interest??

No chance, see the Linden Blog, yet another update this morning -

Interestingly it does say games of pure skill are allowed, examples chess or scrabble etc. It seems that anything that involves a dice or random generation of numbers (as part of the game) is not allowed (in capital letters)

Its certainly not beyond SL software to devise a chess game, there is a working example in the Caledon Group of Islands. On from that I could see rows of games requiring a payment to play, a reward for the winner, and a cut for the landowner.

But before you lot rush out to develop such sites I can see it could simply become a game between two computer software chess programmes.

PS Re sugar.

I see Sir Alan Sugar of Amstrad fired himself the other day when he sold out to Sky. Anyone see the TV show "The Apprentice"?

Great show, good entertainment, pure skill, lots of money

That format "might" be adaptable for SL........

Do a search on Stephane Zugzwang, he owns The SL Chess Club and holds regular tournaments. You'll find many chess clubs/groups/boards around.

Awesome!!!!!

Now that is what I've been waiting for...

Thank you very much for the info.

As the law stands right now I don't believe they can. That was part of the Jack Abramoff scandal. He was a heavy lobbyist for Indian tribes. People mistakenly believe the Indian casinos can do as they plaease, but the are still regulated by IGRA and the individual States. If a Stae does not allow gambling , there are 7 that don't I believe , Idian Casinos are not permitted. Even if the the Laws are changed, the individua; States will still be able to forbid Internet Gambling within their borders.

Could you pawn your bishop if you were low on $L?

Yeah ihave chess and checkers and a few others on a multiboard. No one every uses it though...

They had more with which to absorb the loss. People are cheap anyway, there's no shortage of them - I'm talking about infrastructure and industry.


As for Ghandi - If 150 years of violent protest wasn't going to work, non-violent protest had no chance.

And yet more and more people long for no voilence....

The problem is ,even Non Violent protests require energy. You have to eat or else all you have are a bunch of people passed out on the street, blocking traffic.

... often how I feel at the end of the work day... can I non-violently protest work by sleeping at my desk?

That probably would go by unnoticed. Try sleeping on your boss' desk.

Gandhi was dealing with a civilized people whose consciences could be touched and whose leaders would have to respond to their pangs of conscience. Similarly, with Martin Luther King.

A Gandhi-like response to a Hitler (or Stalin, or Pol Pot, or Saddam Hussein, or Kim jong Il, or fanatically murderous Islamofascists, or whoever will appear on the world stage next) would only keep the gas chambers filled to capacity and the firing squads busy 24/7/365 - and it would have been Hitler (or those like him, see list above) who wrote the history of what happened. Gandhi (or MLK) and his followers would be recorded as the bad guys!

Someday, I hope, all the powers that be in the world will be at least nearly as civilized as the British, and Gandhi-like strategies will work universally. In the meantime, it will be necessary for the foreseeable future to be able to do with moral monsters what the human body's immune system strives to do with invading diseases: Destroy them, with as little collateral damage as possible.

You don't reason with a Jeffrey Dahmer. You stop him.

Funny how this topic keeps coming back to food...