~I Think Some Are Missing The Point...~

I'll probably get flamed for this by certain people but I really don't give a damn as I feel the need to state my opinion here. Like it or hate it so be it, that is your decision. Maybe it is just me but I see SL and LL as 2 different entities. I see SL as being all of us being a part of the world. I see SL as a place I can go to have fun, build, see my friends etc. Seeing all the negativity and protesting planning that is going on in here is very disheartening. I see LL as behind the scenes doing whatever they do, but we are SL, we are the ones that really make it all possible and that's what we should celebrate.

I made the statement in another thread about how I thought it wasn't too cool to protest SL's Birthday. To elaborate my feelings on this, I mean that we should be celebrating SL in general. Celebrate the fact that there is this platform where we can pretty much do anything we want, we can fly, we can build, we can shop, we can meet all different types of people. I am not a huge fan of certain things LL has done such as updates on my only day off and now the lack of verification in acct making, but I am not going to hold it against SL and protest on it's birthday. I'm going to celebrate the wonderful friends I have made that I would have never met if there were no SL. I'm going to celebrate the creativity I see everywhere and how I can express myself with my av and what I have been able to build. I'm not going to dwell and only see the bad things lately with LL. Would you not celebrate a friends birthday because you didn't agree with something their parent did? I doubt it, if so you wouldn't be a friend.

I was planning on going to check out the celebration later when I got online but now I'm thinking against it as I don't feel like going and seeing a bunch of people with sour expressions on their faces wearing protesting gear and hearing snarky comments. That doesn't sound like a good time to me. I guess it all depends on how you as a person sees things. If you all wanna protest and shut down SL websites and cause a bunch of tension for people who want to have fun then go ahead, because you have a right to express yourselves. That's the purpose of SL, to be able to express yourselves, within the TOS of course. I'm just saying that it shouldn't be a time to slam LL, it should be a time to celebrate SL and the great times you have had, and will have.

Think about why you are here and what keeps you here and celebrate that...

Well said.

Aye! *stamp*

Very well said, I agree

Well, I'm new here but I read in another thread that protests at B-day celebrations have almost become a tradition at this point? It certainly won't be a first for an MMO.

I tp'ed over there for a sec to see, and there were just a group of people off to the side, sitting quitely on a stand. You wouldn't even know they were there if you hadn't been looking.

I support the right to protest in RL and SL. The constitution isn't dead... yet. The nature of protest is to get attention from the entity or people you are protesting, it would be pointless to do it where no one noticed or cared.

It wouldn't ruin anything for me... if I could log on, lol.

good point, your right.

I do understand your reasons, but understand that we are not here to ruin your fun.

Nobody here has a sour look on their face. We are all having a grand time right now. If you can get onto the grid, come out and join us. If you believe that our silent protest is wrong, come out and show your support by not being silent.

We all intend to listen to their speeches and then go celebrate the rest of the day.

We just want to drive home the point that opening up the registration process so wide that anybody can get in without any checks what so over is a bad idea. The situation that allows kids onto the grid is what we want changed.

Come join the party (ours or yours) it's a lot of fun so far!

huh

I'm confused, who has a point?

At least its a peaceful protest, think about it,...you're on the internet...it could be worse.

And what better way to get attention than shutting down community sites that show your point exactly....We are SL,...so listen to us. I agree with stien, protests rights and all that...if you cant take the heat, then the protest is workin

Plus, everyone was having a good time lagging out to bad music. So the only sour faces I see are the ones without a decent video card, or a decent taste in music.

I think the grid crash affects people's enjoyment of SL far more than a few of us exercising our democratic right to protest, remaining well within the boundaries of the community standards.

Pity the moron who crashed the grid didn't feel the same.

Lewis

Is that a fact? Somebody purposefully crashed the grid? It seems like you know something, so do spill the beans.

Unfortunately I have no more information, but considering that everything just suddenly went down unannounced, it would be a safe assumption that someone deliberately crashed the grid about 45 minutes before the "big speech", knowing that it would disrupt the day's proceedings.

I was there for about 20 minutes with 100 or so others who were still around - then my client decided it had had enough and ping stuck at 10,000 both sides, presumably disconnected. So I just logged, now I can't get back in.

Lewis

ZsuZanna - I've spent some time working on stuff for the birthday celebrations myself (a lot less than others of course, they have done far better than me) but it seems absolutely appropriate to me for people to protest there in a civilised manner.

Because the celebration is about residents, about people, about everyone who's gone to make SL the place it is today. You can't exclude actual people and what they want and what they're thinking from that. It's not about the content, it's about the people who make the content.

It's a possibility, for sure, I just hate how everybody talks in absolutes all the time like they know things as facts. Would be a perfect time to do it though, absolutely, but at this stage it's supposition I guess.

It wasn't just your comp, Lewis. I looked at the TV for a moment, looked back and my mini-map was red. Red as in, "Oh, look the server just died," red. Everything else looked normal except that I wasn't moving slowly anymore, or moving, period.

I was there to both protest and to actually enjoy the celebration. Save for some more hostile people, none of which were protesters, it was really fun! Just idly chatting, explaining to people, twas all good as far as I could tell.

Exploiting the resident celebration in an opportunistic fashion to further their own cause....is what it is.

Wasn't there a guy who protested Bush and put up some signs on his own property? He was pretty quiet and just sat his signs around. It wasn't very well received either. Some say he was extorting people. I don't know, I don't know him. Do not confuse this comparison in any way to support of land sign griefing.

I just don't support greifing in any shape or form, no matter what it's being called to make it palatable.

The OP put it really well, as did P2 and a few others.

Ain't that The Truth.

--
Relativism is for families.
Absolute is for mixed drinks.

It would also be the perfect time for an angry existing resident to use an unlinked alt to bring down the grid to prove their point about the evil of newbies too.

There will never be time to celebrate with griefers taking pot shots at our heads constantly....If protesting bothers you just wait and see what results from LL's decision to do away with age verification. Its an open door for griefers and little kids to get in game...people keep mentioning griefers but dont think of the harm presented to kids now.
SL is a fun game and theres alot of great people in game...its also an adult playground and no place for children. LL thinks they can implement things to stop griefers but I very seriously doubt the effectiveness of any tool they implement because of the wide array of things people can do to grief. Scripted objects are what we all think of when we think of griefing and that is a majority of it but words and annoying behavior and giant avitars jumping in the middle of a pizza crowd and the list could go on....but lets just say childish behavior cannot be stopped. Its going to get worse and LL's decision to stop the vote for on the age verification proposition and to deny it is just insane when they had ...I believe I heard right....an 8:1 ratio voting to bring it back. So lets all go ahead and protest because because even a vote that was nearly unanimous didnt get thier attention...what better forumn to get thier attention than at thier 3rd anniversary celebration?

Bugger, you got me there. That's what I get for not re-reading what I had written

Absolut is for mixed drinks though, to be precise

Zoe, I *so* hope it wasn't an 'angry resident' going berserk with a disposable alt. That would just look so bad.

I would hope not either, Alazarin. However, with there will be no way to ever know.