RC Questions

You're right to disbelieve it. If they had ANY interest in what residents thought, they would know pretty quickly what we've been saying over and over. How could they possibly not know if they spent any time, any time at all, actually looking?

They're not interested.

I'd have more respect if they just said that. The lies and insincerity are far worse.

The Blues Brothers found a perfect way...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t101rO7WuAM

and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkkXHjQSyEI&feature=related

Maybe we are supposed to use smoke signals?

No 1 spot will be a psychologically important boost for everyone challenging the flawed Ursula project, especially considering the speed with which this spot was achieved. I'm sure if we all give it an extra push over the weekend we will be there by Monday.

^L^

If it's any help, i've just sent out a group notice to our 2000 or so Temptations Club group members to vote at http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-2727

Gomez

That's great Send them the SLapt Wiki too, for additional up to date info.
http://www.slapt.me/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

this might help them find their way around the jira

https://uncensored.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1478018

^L^

Smoke signals are good or perhaps a pigeon that might leave a calling card.

After all, Jack even ignored my offer of a face to face meeting with him down in Brighton. I suppose that was him showing his "listening" skills.

I have already placed 2 at our key TP points and attatched the notecard in the other one on SLX to the group message.

I think that would be me, and my choice of symbolism in hindsight was horrible, for that I apologize. I was much more concerned with getting the word out that this was happening.

I'm not always able to separate my emotions from my reactions and at the time I looked at it as two symbols based on whether SL should be mainly PG or mainly Mature, I was not looking at all the possible consequences of the changes as originally stated by LL. It wasn't until after reading several thousand posts that the more serious problems sunk in. It was never my intent to pit those in favor of the changes against those against, but I tend to look at things in black and white until the more subtle shades of gray are shown to me.

If nothing else my first protest item I started distributing on March19th started making people aware of the changes, that was my intent. I see none of the current protest items offering any more than a one sided representation of the issues. That I wholeheartedly agree with them is besides the point.

*HUGS*

Well, I did find it awkward. I could not wear either armband because I am a pg character fighting a battle about people's right to adult content.

LL was encouraging it though by the excuses they gave then not engaging in a dialogue when people presented them with options. So I would say they are more to blame for pitting a group against another than any of the individual residents.

In fact, "what we got here.. is failure to communicate. " http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fuDDqU6n4o

Do have a number of well aged relatives,
who will only listen to that which, they wish to hear.
Usually, that you agree with them!

but you're not a pg character. You're an adult, a real adult with the maturity and the strength of character to stand up and say something when you perceive an injustice. There aren't a lot of those around in either world.

As for LL, well they always blame us. It's a sign of immaturity, both in the company ethics and the people they employ. Unfortunately a lot of people believe their line and well, you can see the results.

Aww, thanks!

Something to watch for next week (maybe)...



(From Jack's office hours this week)

Lindal, you and I agree on just about everything. Therefore, let me take this opportunity to introduce a high-level concept.

If heroin were legalized tomorrow, would you rush out to the pharmacy to buy it? If it were perfectly legal for McDonald's to advertise with child porn, would they? Is Dell actively lobbying to legalize the offer of a prostitute with every notebook sold? If it were legal to starve your own child to death, would you?

Implicit in so many comments in this blog is the notion that human beings and human society are a seething cauldron of perversion that will go to hell the instant government regulation is loosened by a single stitch. In fact, the vast majority of people are quite conservative and polite. Social norms exert tremendous pressure on 'deviants' - far more pressure than any government can apply. It is difficult and therefore 'expensive' for individuals to go against the social norms of a community. In a multiple-iteration game such as Second Life, it is highly advantageous to cooperate with one's neighbors. Don't get hung up on details atm, I just want to get across the general concept that governments are not the primary source of regulation in human affairs. The primary source of regulation arises from society itself.

With that in mind:

Linden Lab created a world whose PRIMARY function was to enable NEW communities to come into existence - communities whose members come from every country and culture on the planet. This is unique. It means that Community X may share culture X, even though its members come from Spain, Indonesia, Japan, Brazil and Canada. It means that Community Y may share culture Y, even though its members are young black males, young Asian females and middle-age white females. It means aircraft enthusiasts from every stripe of every society can form their own community, that gourmet cooks or textile salesmen or BDSM roleplayers or elves or Victorians or Romans or Samurai or Linux programmer can form their own communities - NEW COMMUNITIES - interactive, realtime, information-rich, symbol-rich, 3D virtual, self-selecting communities - free from the constraints of old RL communities (race, sex, age, gender, language, geography, culture, status, profession, education, physical appearance etc). Hence:


For Linden Lab, therefore, to assume the role of nanny - to impose a set of moral values and behavioral definitions on the NEW world of NEW communities - runs counter to the very DNA of Second Life. Why is this happening? Because Linden Lab now sees Second Life as an extension of RL. Linden Lab is catering to existing RL communities (universities, businesses, NGOs, etc.) - catering to the OLD RL communities.

In my opinion, Linden Lab is making a strategic mistake because Second Life is NOT a good method of extending RL (as so many RL businesses discovered in 2007). Second Life is a different beast entirely. Yes, of course, old RL communities can benefit from a presence in Second Life, but it is not SL's strength - not its primary value. The primary value of Second Life - its 'killer app' - is to provide a neutral space for new communities to form and flourish - to be a new 'country'. Therefore, by twisting Second Life to satisfy the needs of old RL communities, Linden Lab is undermining the 'New World' it created.

The point I am trying to make is that Second Life is a New World with new rules, not the Old World with old rules. It is ridiculous to argue about SL as if it were a glorified TV channel or 3D website or online public library or interactive movie - and don't even think about bringing up RL legalities because they are NOT the issue here. The issue is the very nature of Second Life as an entity: social, political, commercial, economic. Here in the New World, social norms operating within the market system represent a new framework of social self-regulation. In order for this to work, Linden Lab need only articulate a property-rights structure that minimizes the 'Tragedy of the Commons'.


The New Paradigm in Historical Perspective (or Why People Don't Get It):

There is a famous paper by the economic historian Paul David called "The Dynamo and the Computer" in which he reflects upon the conceptual lagtime for the implementation of new technologies. A brief description can be found at http://www.slate.com/id/2167909/. I believe the same problem afflicts Linden Lab concerning their strategy for Second Life.

When factories were first built with steam-powered engines, the factory was literally built around the engine. Machinery was connected to the central engine by leather drive-belts. When the electric engine was invented, factory owners removed the steam engine, installed an electric engine and hooked up the drive-belts again. It took 30 years before factory owners realized that the electric engine was an entirely different technology. Small, decentralized engines replaced one big central engine, electric cables replaced belts and pulleys and factories were built flat with machinery reconfigured in an assembly line. The new technology generated a new commercial and economic paradigm.

Before Second Life, a variety of IT platforms facilitated communication and social networking. These were essentially 2-dimensional platforms enabling crude information exchange (email, bulletin boards, chat rooms, graphics-based online games). Linden Lab had the brilliant insight to create an information-rich social ECONOMY - a significant advance over social networks.

Linden Lab created not simply a virtual world; they created a metaphorical world of user-generated content within a free-market property rights structure. Second Life became more than a platform; it became a new 'country'. Residents and entrepreneurs were not attracted by the platform itself, they were attracted by the ability to transcend RL restrictions and social norms, to join an open society and participate in new political economy. They didn't play Second Life; they immigrated to Second Life.


The Future:

Having created this New World, Linden Lab asks the question, how can we monetize it? The current strategy is to employ SL as an extension of RL, but why? The business model was already sound: sell (lease) and tax (tier) virtual land and take commission on currency exchanges. Brilliant. Profitable. Successful. Congratulations! Why then this need to cater to RL organizations? For what purpose? More revenue? Silicon Valley status? What?

Why not be happy with the miracle of Second Life the country? Sure, sell the server software in a box; let RL organizations create their own 'communities' and their own 'worlds'. Nothing wrong with this, but why bring them into SL the country when they can create their own worlds? This is truly baffling.

I do not yet have a clear vision of the future of virtual worlds (and if I did, I wouldn't publish it here), but my instincts tell me that the answer lies in the metaphorical nature of the new communities within the New World - not in facilitating the communications needs of RL organizations.

Perhaps the future is a metamorphosis of real and virtual into a completely new economy - an iconic economy that encompasses both the real and virtual worlds - a political economy with completely new social norms that evolve from within the New World of new communities. Yet, none of that is going to happen - at least for Linden Lab and Second Life - if the New World is reshaped to serve the Old.

(Just added a "?" to the URL so the img tag would display, at least in my browser.)

K, does it work now?

The problem with Linden Lab is, that they stopped (or never started) to let circle their intellect around the world.

They started to set the world under pressure to circle around their intellect.

Means: they try it, but so far we don't follow.

Because, this cannot work. It worked never and at no point along any history.

LL started to think flat and in cartographic zones. Linden Lab has a new self-description:

dictator, censor and land-registry-office.

They think this would be "matured". They think it would make the Lab "mature". Grown up. Serious. But no, it makes LL only: boring.

LL lost all spirit and all courage with that dust-dry boring unsympathic and impertinent pressure attitude.

All became pressure. Day in, day out. No choices open.

Linden Lab gives from day to day more the impression, that LL is unable to think round, to think the globe, to think the sphere.

They think in borders, maps and lines. They do not think 3D. They think 2D. And they act 2D. Like warlords at a sandbox.

And that old thinking should improve the human condition? Really? Lol. Hahahaha. Phillip. Mark. Hahahaha.

Good joke. Rarely in my life I laughed so much.

The people (customers) did a social sphere and filled it with not only monetary values, but with spirit.

Societies are ruined fast, if they're falling into the hands of transient business-ideologists or polit-ideologists like the actual management.

LL need to know, that we, the creatives, the cultures, the individuals, the groups, the playful and passionate people are the immune-system of SL. If LL starts to sterilize SL, then is also the immune-system of SL dead.

Because we are also the immune-system against totalitarism and boredom.

If that immune-system is gone - if the dissidents are muted..., then good night SL and LL.

Thing will be called Second Boredom. Your deadly boring world. Your restricted to death boring imagination of nothing interesting.

Your new customers, Linden Lab, they will feel, like they would have to go to work, to a business meeting and to school.

Nice feeling, huh? Hehehehe. Do we not all love work, business meetings and schools?

LOL.

Hahaha. And yes, they deserve it! This bad feeling. This *no-fun* feeling to see boring bosses, employees and teachers even in SL.

We, in opposite to that, had some years long the *better* Second Life - the next generation will not.

Alexander- I'm going to try one last time, and then I give up.

You are continually arguing *in favor of LL's plan*. You quibble over a few aspects of it, but you refuse to accept that there are good arguments *against* it, (whether someone is offering a replacement plan or not). People on the other side of the argument get frustrated that you keep re-framing their responses to justify what you *want* to say, rather than responding to *what they are actually saying*.

More often than not, your arguments are constructed around the idea that since access to "adult" material is restricted to those over the age of 18 in the real world, that LL is justified, nay *obligated*, in doing whatever it takes to make sure that no children can access such content on SL, *once they are on the grid*.

LL's plan, the one that you advocate for, *starts with the assumption that there are *children* here who need to be *protected from something*.

What I, and many other are saying, is that children aren't supposed to be here in the first place! We are saying that LL's time and energy would be better spent *keeping the children from getting here in the first place*.
We're saying that any plan which starts with "well, there's kids here, so we have to babyproof the place" is a *losing* proposition- guaranteed to annoy *legitimate customers* to the greatest degree possible, while doing nothing to keep *any* children out of harm's way.

To which, you respond with a bunch of non-applicable examples of real-world control of the internet, and say that we're wrong- that restricting the access of children is perfectly possible. as if we weren't asking for that in the first place - restricting the access of children to SL.

You are *not* presenting evidence against our point. You are not even presenting evidence to support *LL's* point- which seems to be this.

"there's no point in trying to restrict access to SL, so we'll rig up a "Wile E. Coyote" plan that *looks* like we're trying to stop kids from getting in, but does nothing. Then, we'll inconvenience and annoy our *paying* customers by changing the very nature of our content rating system to make sure that the kids that *do* get in can only see "non commercial" porn and get into as much *free* trouble as they like. As long as they're going to be here looking at cartoon pixel sex, it'd be a damn shame to make them have to *pay* for it. "

Your arguments would seem to indicate that:

-You think that people who want to stop kids from getting into SL in the first place want to do *nothing*.
-People who think that LL are surrendering the *important* battle and planning to manage the *defeat* as best they can, are somehow in favor of giving porn to children.
-You believe SL to be a small town residential suburb with three primary schools full of toddlers that need protecting, rather than a community by, for, and of *adults*.
-You think that anyone who objects to LL's plan thinks that SL should be a non-stop hedonistic naked orgy party with no "PG" areas, and they think anyone who doesn't like that sort of thing is an incurable prude.

I'm pretty sure that you don't mean those things, but I can only respond to what you *say*, and what you *say* indicates that those are your starting points



My own argument against LL is simply this. They have chosen to implement the *least* effective aspects of both internal *and* external controls.

They are trying to combat burglars by leaving the front door wide open, sticking land mines under all the sofa cushions, and then putting a sign on the front lawn saying "warning- land mines under all sofa cushions!"

What they *should* be doing is locking the damn front door, and putting in an alarm that *catches* the burglars in the act and calls the police- because land mines under the sofa cushions not only hurt the burglars, but they hurt the people who *live* in the house, and who just want to sit on the couch and watch television.

Now, by arguing against that, and *for* the LL plan- you are effectively saying, "I disagree with that plan too! The sign in the front yard should be much bigger, and there should be land mines under the *chair* cushions as well."

As long as SL is *supposed* to be 18+, then the main effort should be in keeping the children *out*. Not just out of some of it, but out of *all* of it. Period. If LL is to be taken at their word, and they do not plan to have an "all ages grid", then they should be concentrating on keeping children *out* of SL. Anything else is winking and nudging.

By all means, let us come to some sort of reasonable method of content segregation, so that people who want an All-PG experience can have one, but a *reasonable* method would be the one that inconveniences the *fewest* people, not the most.

Changing the definition of "mature" land affects 3/4 of the grid. "mature" sims outnumber "PG" sims three to one.

Explain to me again how that is inconveniencing the fewest people again?

LL is doing the absolute *wrong* thing in all respects. there is nothing about this plan that does what they *say* they want to do. Nothing about this plan protects children *or* the people who want an "all pg" experience from *anything* except having to spend money to see cartoon sex in the house (or on the lawn) next door.

it is a *bad* plan. it should be junked in favor of one that *works*. Defending it is illogical unless what you *want* is for kids to be in SL and be able to access all the *private* porn they like.

^V^

Well, there was also an initial "What do you mean *I* have to move? Why aren't *they* the ones who have to move?" Attitude from a lot of us as well.

I personally think that herding the "PG lovers" into the gulag is just as bad, but I *do* think that with there being 3x the amount of "mature" land than there is "PG", that making a PG only land mass that is a voluntary free swap to anyone who wants it is the only fair thing to do.

I don't want to anger people or offend them, but neither do I want to be unable to use my land the way I like.

It seems to me that the people who got swindled in land sales were the folks who bought PG land next door to a Mature sim. They really should be able to trade it for something that protects their experience better. The "Mature" folks already have 3/4 of SL- they don't *need* any more land.

^V^

I understand your point LIndal, but I'm not sure that you understand mine.

It is *okay* to have "adults only" venues. it has nothing to do with slapping porn up all over the place. It has a *lot* to do with the fact that keeping kids out is a lot easier than controlling where they go once they are *in*.

It also has a lot to do with the fact that Sometimes, kids aren't the best company to have around for some activities- anyone who has ever participated in "bring your kid to work day" knows that!

LIke I say in another post, I agree that there should be better zoning in SL, and since "mature" already has 3/4 of the land, it seems only fair to let "PG" have some more, and let the folks who have come out on the wrong side of a zoning dispute- for example, people living on PG sims across the border from a "mature" sim- get a free swap to a more "protected" area where such things won't be possible. As they clear out regions, re-zone them mature, and allow people to zone their parcels whatever they like. presumably, the folks who don't mind having something prurient next door, but don't indulge themselves will buy the newly mature parcels.

little by little, you expand the new "all PG" area to the size it needs to be and add to it as needed.

and you don't have to displace/devalue the land of 3/4 of the the grid.


^V^

Apparently that job is vacant. Maybe you should apply:

http://lindenlab.hrmdirect.com/employment/view.php?req=31835

Community Communications Manager

Department: Marketing

Job Summary:

The Community Communications Manager is an articulate collaborative individual who is responsible for ensuring Resident Communications are consistent with Linden Lab corporate goals and messaging. In addition, the Community Communications Manager will provide insight into the Second Life community with an eye towards cultivating a fruitful discussion among Residents and Linden Lab.