Venice Island

I am not looking for comment and I will not respond to this thread beyond this release. I am placing this release everyplace I can. The person involved in the harassment has decided to go to the press and I do not fear that at all. I just plan to beat him to it so I can get back to running the sims and doing the work I should be doing...thank you

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This is a story of how a sim which began with the intentions of replicating a real life Renaissance city started with its atmosphere, its architecture, and its landmarks and, along the way, also generated the political intrigues, back-biting and personal feuds that characterized its historical precedent.

Melody Regent was the driving force behind the creation of SL’s Venice. Her original idea was to build a sim which both satisfied commercial needs and was attractive to visitors. It had to be fun, different, and unique. Gradually, the elements emerged – alleys, a central square, an original way of touring it all and those extra ingredients that brought the dimensions of mystery and romance which are central to so many of the best experiences in SL.

She talked to two other friends who expressed their interest in getting involved and the various ideas eventually came together when Melody’s RL husband suggested that the all-important tour should be along waterways. It was the perfect solution – gliding along canals in a gondola, wandering in St Mark’s Square, looking out over the city from the top of the Campanile. Venice was born.

Another of Melody’s friends, Genius of Gloucester, whom she’d known since her earliest days in SL, was eager to be involved. He had some experience in SL business and so the four friends formed a partnership, FourPlay. The agreement was that Melody would create, run, market and handle all the administrative aspects of the sim and that the other three members would share the cost of the start up at $600US each and pays any tier not generated by the sim. Any profits would be split four ways but the real incentive was not the money, but the enjoyment of owning a sim.

The building was a complex, extended process with many phases and changes. Melody designed the layout, organised and managed the project, and did most of the building. Genius did much of the terraforming. He also bought the structures which were modified for the original build and persuaded a friend to lend the group some land to allow them to set out and retexture the buildings. Very soon after the opening, a community began to form and a special culture and ethos began to develop. But, as with all projects, experience brought lessons and it was decided that the communal central space needed to be enlarged, using a brand new texture for St. Mark’s Square. One final rebuild followed, using unique textures acquired by one of the partners who lived in Italy in RL and went to Venice to take shots of the actual facades, arcades and buildings. There have been modifications since and the partners are always ready to make further changes to enhance the realism of the Venetian experience but, in essence, this was the final build.

The community has grown and strengthened. Each partner has a little niche there and each contributes in a particular way. Genius helped with some of the technical matters, such as the excellent teleports which he established. More staffers were employed to help with building, promotions and events and, as they were paid with shop and/or living space in return for their services, they became part of the Venice family. The sim was a product of cooperation, mutual respect, unity of vision and a commitment to achieving the goals which had been agreed at the outset.

But it had not been trouble-free. Whereas most of the progress had been made through willing collaboration and creative partnerships, one feud – at a purely personal level – had placed a strain on relations at several phases. It had developed between Genius and Melody. This is not the place to speculate on motives but Genius provoked frequent arguments on various topics, usually related to finances and focusing on the fact that he and two of the other partners had invested actual cash, while Melody had not. He seemed to discount the fact that this was part of the original agreement and that she had conceived the idea, designed and built the sim and subsequently overseen its day to day running and development without any remuneration. It was clear that this was a clash of personalities which went beyond the specifics of the sim itself. At the outset, for example, it was agreed that there would be no commission splits, but Genius soon began to question the arrangement.

Melody was soon aware that the frequent arguments were triggered by some personal agenda which had nothing to do with the sim, and that they were being aired in such a way that the sim itself and its community were being affected by them. She had always tried to maintain the professionalism of her own attitude and respect that of the staff who ran it and the vendors and residents who relied on them to make it a pleasant, interesting place to be, but it became more and more obvious that the actions and public pronouncements of Genius were undermining those efforts.

The whole feud has now reached a stage where Melody feels the need to take action to protect Venice and its community from the attacks. Genius has recently made a public claim that she has stolen his money and his sim. Her efforts to deal with the petty, personal disagreements by keeping them between herself and Genius have been thwarted by his apparent determination to slander her, undermine her reputation and convey the idea that she cannot be trusted. Since she is effectively the figurehead of the sim, such imputations affect not just her personally, but Venice itself.

A recent example encapsulates the process. The sim was running well, the partners were making tier and even a little profit when, after one of his frequent arguments with Melody, Genius logged on to find that his house had disappeared. His response was to put a rhetorical question to Melody in group chat. ‘How does it feel,’ he asked, ‘to take the money from a friend to buy Venice.....and then kick the person that gave you the money out?’ In fact, there had been one of those familiar SL glitches and, when Melody checked and restored the island, his house was where it should be, perfectly intact.

But that was the trigger for a prolonged series of personal attacks. He drove renters away, harassed visitors to the sim, seemingly determined to make Venice fail in order to ensure that Melody failed too. The sim began to lose money and has now been doing so for six months. Melody sent Genius a notice saying that she would take his share of the losses and deduct them from the price of the sim. When tier is missed, Genius, as one of the owners is contracted to pay. So far, he hasn’t done so. Every month, the transactions were sent to him to show the losses that were being made. In all that time, Melody has been covering the $300 tier each month. Despite his claims, she has never ejected him from the group or banned him from the island. The fact that his share of the tier which is due is being deducted from his original investment means that, within a few months, he will no longer have any ownership of the island.

Melody’s previous experiences with him, however, suggest that this will not signal the end of his attempts to discredit her and destroy Venice in order to achieve this goal. She has no desire to air this dirty linen in public but his actions in involving (and disturbing) others in the group is forcing her hand. She has tried discussing it with him but it seems clear to her now that Genius is taking this outside the realms of the personal. She is still determined to work as hard as she always has to maintain Venice and manage its day to day affairs to the benefit of everyone involved with it and she has the overwhelming support of the members of the group. But, reluctantly, she has now accepted the need to make her own case public. Genius has contacted the press in SL and she has been contacted by reporters seeking her reactions to the story. By way of answer, she has drafted the following statement:

“This statement will appear in as many public places as possible. I will no longer attempt to keep a private matter private and I have informed Genius that all IMs and any talk between him and me will be made public.

My staff will not respond to questions except by referring them to me. I will continue to act in a professional manner and I will only accept formal interview questions. No names will be included in any of my statements without prior written permission from the individuals concerned. I am intent on defending my reputation for probity and consequently require all communications be in writing. There will be no voice conversations. If you would like an interview, you are welcome to submit a notecard with a list of questions. I will answer them in my own time and return the notecard to you. The only valid statements made by me will be sent on a notecard created by me and set to no modifications. If the card has a different creator than myself or is not set to no mod it could too easily be tampered with. I have one other way in which I can verify if a statement was made by me but I will only make this public if a fraud has been determined.

If this smacks of paranoia, it is because Genius has actually stated that he will stop at nothing to destroy me. I have no fears for my own reputation since everyone who knows me is aware of my integrity, but my staff is anxious that I should take these steps to protect not only myself, but the Estates. I have sacrificed much to bring this vision of Venice into being and maintain the dynamism, energy and joy which it inspires in those who live, work and visit there. I shall fight to ensure that it not only survives but flourishes.”

this is RA, NOT personal dRAma disputes

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we now return you to, The days of our lives.

(<>_<>

And this is precisely the kind of thing that I hope Chaos doesn't encounter. If you have an idea, save your money and go for it. Who needs this kind of crap from a partner, paying or not.

Oldschool.

Annabelle hates when people refer to themselves in the third person.

Drongle finds Annabelle's attitude quite amusing

I love the Venice sim. A truly terrific build...better go see it before this drama causes it to vanish forever.

Melody, this post was a bad idea, IMO.

Business partnerships can be tough, and I can imagine that in a virtual world are even tougher. I do sympathise when things like this happen, but feel that airing the laundry in public is not the way to go.

"This is not the place to speculate on motives but..." and
"I will continue to act in a professional manner " and
"This statement will appear in as many public places as possible." and
"She has no desire to air this dirty linen in public but ..."

All sound rather hypocritical, given the nature of this posting, which effectively makes sure that the issue is even MORE public than it was before and encourages speculation and reading between the lines.

Oh and since this is Resident Answers - what is your question?