This term....Elitist....why is it HERE?

Ceka...if you subcategorize to shoes...I think you might have a legitimate example of an elitist class in SL.

Omg you lower me to a shoe person!!
I am boot a person!! hear me Rawr!

better yet just watch kitly do it

get'um kitly hehehe

It is the people who aren't paying the $8 a month that are doing the finger pointing. I pay my monthly premium, and I feel that XStreet should be limited to others like me who pay $8 a month. That doesn't make me elitist, but it makes the people who AREN'T paying $8 a month call me an elitist.

(by the way, I am not of the opinon that only premium members should use XSSL...I am undecided on that point personally. But that is what is basically going on over there)

I can't recall actually ever using that term and being serious, as that would mean that some other person(s) had managed to make me feel like i was less than them in my eyes.

I think we don't stay equal because its often outsiders who have the strongest influence in how society looks at us, especially when the general public has nothing to base their opinion on.

It is interesting to see who gets placed in these positions of being considered elite as time goes by and you see them come and go.

How people go about determining who should be considered elite or not is beyond me, but in societies like we have with SL, i would say group think often has a big part to do with it.

Oops i said "group think". But before you reply to those specific choice of words, please understand the political use of the word in relation to American political parties and its application in larger social settings such as SL, not the 'forum group think' drama use of the word.

Thanks in advance!

you mean people that have used payment info accounts shouldn't be allowed to spend at xstreet? or do you mean they should not be able to set up shop and sell from there?

By the way i don't look at designers in the snobby elite way..i look at them as artists and in the good elite way..

snobs i just think are snobs no matter what account they have hehehehehe

As for the question of why, I think there are some people who see SL as a social building game, along the lines of Farmville, and are going to object to that. That's probably just a wrong perception though as it's unlikely SL can succeed well as such (Farmville has all kinds of 'Harrison Bergeron' factors and social engineering).

I don't think the meaning of "elite" has changed in it's typical usage, but "elitist" has for sure. It's evolved from it original meaning into a more derrogatory term referring to a persons arrogant attitudes about their own position of one kind or another. For those who think they deserve better than an equal does, or that an equal shouldn't be allowed to enjoy something they already do. It's a referrence to the childishly selfish attitude of "me, and not you", or used to referrence people who try to guage someones social status by how much they own, how rich they are, how prim and proper they are, or who they know.

Here is one thread where certain merchants feel they are above others but its a long read though and there are many more threads as well

https://blogs.secondlife.com/thread/4048?tstart=0

But Dana - I just don't see that happening in SL. I see people saying that it is happening....but I don't see people acting in an elitist way, by definition.

I see some bad attitudes, now and then....one merchant called a friend of mine trailer trash once, and that merchant has a pretty profitable business (maybe - who knows - it appears that way).....but I think that was just someone having a bad day. If she were a true elitist...some other factors would come into play, that I don't see happening.

That's what I see. If you take your 300L stipend, as Ceka suggested.... you're talking about approximately $6 a month.

If that's the dollar amount that is used to separate people into classes, here, then it is either quite hilarious or very sad.

If there is a community that you can participate in, and not have to deal with a separation between supposed classes, it would be here. You don't really have to separate in real life, either....but human nature effects that. Yeah, I know, they dragged the human nature into here.

It sounds like you walk in the door, feeling as an equal....and so do I. Granted, there are individuals who have had huge successes in business, but I've done business with them, and in no way did they ever cop an elitist attitude....and in fact, quite the opposite.

I think that "group think" is way off base on this angle, and how they applied it to SL. Won't be the first time.

I'm elitist. I can't help it.
My dad was part of the "meritocracy" and my mum was super-cool.
I've got their genes. (And my mum's jeans - coz she had really excellent ones).

There's nothing wrong in being the elite in a world of mediocrity.

I'm Premium too...but I'm not a Premium Elitist Snob. I'm a Premium Egalitarian. I think EVERYONE should be required to pay a monthly fee, after a 30 or 60 day free trial period.

I seriously agree. SL needs some way to nudge out the people who use it for a few hours and then piddle off. Our fees are helping to run this place and I dont think any of us should be subsidizing tossers and dossers.

30 test period, then heave off. Unless you pay a minimal fee.

I've read that thread, three times now. It should be required reading for a merchant. Great discussion.

I don't see any merchants who have made comments that suggest they are "above others." There is someone with a pissy sour grapes attitude who came in and suggested "entitlement"....but other than that, it's a very good exchange of concepts and ideas toward functioning more productively in the current climate.

ETA: Clarification: I don't agree with all the comments made. But the exchange was worth reading.

And that just boils down to common sense.

You'd be surprised (or maybe not) at how many people become absolutely vitriolic if you suggest this to them. I made this comment once, I think on the offical Mentor mailing list, and I immediately got several extremely hateful IMs in world.

It seems so reasonable to me...everyone here has enough wealth to afford a reasonably good computer and a fast internet connection. Surely an additional $2, $5, $10 a month is not a make or break financial crisis?

But apparently, to some people, it is.

It's nothing to do with a financial crisis . . .

Pep ( . . . but try the domestic one that ensues after "you're spending *my* hard-earned money on a stupid game where all you do is cheat on me with tarty bitches - and you are not even sure what sex they are!"

Yiffing again, Pep?

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Pep (Not my style.)

Just jokes. From "tarty bitches". Anywho, I feel liek I should endanger myself by starting a thread demanding that people must "pay to stay".
I think it keeps out the riff-raff.

One of MY pet hates is people who "sample" items in grocers and supermarkets and delis syruptitiously. If any of you reading this sample nuts, olives or veggies just to get a free snack, you are CHEAP.
I mean stealing off the bins - not taste testing.
I think its teh height of cheapness. I really had - had - a bf who owned a yacht but who hoovered every wednesday night at the marina for free pizza. He could've afforded a chef for fu&k's sake. It may have tasted like crap but it was free. What a tosser! I had just turned 18 and he was a real nonce.
Taste-testing's different coz the supermaker knows your doing it.

I downloaded "There" last night to check it out. Judging from listening in on the conversations, it was being used mainly by kids. It seemed as though you needed to upgrade to premium and purchase some currency in order to do much of anything beyond chatting.

So if that is being required of kids....it could certainly be required in an adult platform.

There's nothing wrong with being the elite, but rule by the elite is a rather different thing. It's ironic that you'd mention meritocracy almost in the same breath; meritocracy is an interesting word because it has two different meaning: one that's "a society where those with most merit have power", but the other meaning (in fact the original meaning) is "one where access to merit is controlled by those with power". The classic example was the British school system, where politicians are famous for passing "levelling" laws affecting state schools, while themselves sending their children to private schools that aren't affected.

In SL, being a good artist or scripter or builder or musician or role-player or anything doesn't automatically mean that you're good at organizing and managing and generally having power over people. So just giving power to those people can be dangerous, and we're seeing the effect a little now, in a world that is swimming with excellent content but also with people wondering what they're supposed to actually do with it.

Maybe its because I am reading one persons comments in several different threads and this is the attitude they give off when reading their other posts as well, but it is an interesting read for sure