Defining the FIC (Seriously)

So what you're saying is that there was never a FIC in the past, but yet we should thank Prokofy for preventing a FIC from ever forming in the future?

That's a very wise way of looking at it, Aimee.

I can think of some for you Aimee, but most use 4 letters...

Truly though, the example of Kendras is sad and shouldn't have happened.

Well, except that being put into the directory in the first place is subject to a selection process that isn't described anywhere. For all you know, all the people complaining have applied to be in the directory and be turned down. There are a few things listed in the criteria which could be pointed at, but I think it'd be a bit paranoid to do so.

Also, there's a few missing from there. (There's no Nexcom or Gnat Technologies for instance.)



Well, but there's another factor there.

Bear in mind, we're talking about the Lindens - the people with access to the raw servers on which SL runs.

If they wanted to, they could make a clone of their Linden avatar appear next to every person or gathering of people on the grid and all speak different things.

If they wanted to pick someone to pose for a picture, they could create a huge white box on a local server, and make every single avatar registered in the game (even those not logged in) appear inside it, doing whatever pose they want. ("We need avs, lots of avs!" )

I agree you have to show up - but SL doesn't really have any geography. It's just a bunch of coordinates and network connections. As ordinary users, we tend to play that it does, but Lindens have no obligation - nor any particular reason - to do it. If they're depending on meeting people in particular places on the grid, that's a choice they're making, because that geography isn't real. They can meet anyone who's connected to their server if they want, and if they choose not to, the reasons for that choice can be considered.

That's true. We have very little idea of the considerations that go into whether one will be accepted into the directory or not, and my direct questions about that some months ago were ignored. But at least ithe DD is a step in the right direction.

I suggest some of y'all get past your animosity for particular individuals enough to recognize that maybe things which bring about equal opportunity to all should be a threat to none.

Unless, of course, you fear competition.

I don't know how to find it or if I could get to it now, but I listed what must have been four or so advances in equal opportunity in that thread I posted.

Those sorts of advances - in fair play and equal opportunity - I really have no idea why anyone would be against them, or why anyone would even go so far as to maintain that someone who is for them must be a talentless individual.

Anything that revolves around favoritism and back-room deals should be replaced by more open and equitable processes.

coco

Nobody has said they are against it, quit manipulating what people are saying to fit the framework of that picture you wish to paint and foist on the rest of us. Most people are simply saying that the hypotheticals that folks like yourself and Yumi love to throw around are just that - unproven speculation.

THAT is what people are saying, and I am sorry for you that you cannot see the difference, and have it so ingrained in your head that things are "unfair". But then, as you told me, you've been at this equality war since you were in grade school. That's all well and good, but just like everything else in life, it can go to far, as we see in your example, watching the police blotter religiously, et al, it's obsessive and unhealthy not only for yourself, but the community as a whole, because you drag your bogeymen into the SL public eye and flog them eternally.

Second hand rumors of Linden cybering, back-room deals, et al, it's all just a bunch of suppositions that simply cannot be "proven". What can be proven however, is a meeting that took place with you, your friends, and the Lindens, in which landowners were presented as being a level above the rest of us, and that they should somehow be treated more like "equals" to the Lindens. The ultimate hypocrisy, given the history of claims that others seek preferential treatment, by the person who started all this crap and whose ideas you are an adherent of.

"Fear competition"? You are an awful, cynical person Coco, and you are the master of back-handed insults.

On proof, Katy, let's have your "proof" here. Why would we have to contact you in Yahoo if you're so damned convicted in your beliefs? What are you afraid of? I smell someone who isn't really convicted, because she knows that her allegations are unprovable, and is therefore afraid to post that smack here. Shameful, especially for one sworn to uphold truth and justice.

Remarkable though it may seem to you, Nolan, I do have a point of view. I read the posts and commented on them.

coco

You know, it would be one thing if all this crap you toss around was provable, in any way, but it isn't, and you just don't see that you do FAR MORE DAMAGE to the community than you do help, by circulating these contentious, specious and unprovable theories constantly. You're just one of a small group of people who have done nothing but foster an atmosphere of contention and division on these forums since you came on the scene. It's not lost on me, that folks like you and Yumi spent a grand total of a couple of weeks or less in SL before coming onto the forums and making broad and sweeping judgements about "how things are", based on speculation.

Did you ever stop to think for a moment, given that you admit to being a watchdog for equality for most of your life, that maybe, just maybe, sometimes you overreact, and the problem lies with you? That maybe you have grown so used to your self appointed role in society, that you could possibly be taking it too far sometimes? The term busybody extraordinaire comes to mind. That's one danger of becoming too sure of one's self whilst thrusting one's self into every situation you think may be unfair.

I am fully aware that you have a point of view, believe me.

I'll admit that I did do that. But I am trying to avoid doing that now. What I have tried to say in my posts is to clarify the original definition of FIC, and to say that the Developer's Directory doesn't disprove its existance. That doesn't mean that I agree with the theory, or that it's true; if I tell you what the word "racism" means, that doesn't mean I agree with racism; and if I tell you that "the fact we see the Sun moving in a circle doesn't disprove that the earth is flat" that doesn't mean that I believe the earth is flat, only that that argument doesn't disprove it.

I did at one point believe in the FIC, but I'm no longer so sure, but I'm keeping an eye on it because - as I mentioned - I'm interested in this kind of social dynamic.

It's a simple thing, Nolan, fair play and equal opportunity. Most people love it, want it, thrive on it, hold it up as a high ideal.

coco

There is no such thing as equal oppertunity and trying too hard to enforce it is one of the things fucking up the world.

kthxbye

There you go again, speaking for others. You speak for Coco, and no one else. My, how you love to do that. Base your arguments on words like "everyone", "most people", "everywhere", "anyone", etc.

What *I* don't love, want, or thrive on, is the harm done to real issues which become obscured by all the wailing and gnashing about unprovable theories.

Many times in my life, I have heard groups, like feminists for example, scold other women who actually set the movement back, because they embrace and propagate over-the-top notions, which do the issue more harm than good.

And so you see, folks... even those people who fit the "FIC" definition do not coexist in perfect harmony... this rather precludes efficient conspiring .

over a year later and these threads are still geting more than 6 pages of responses. time for some cowbell.

More Cowbell!!!

P.S. - Ingrid, I read your forum title as Dismemberist

Did you hear of someone who applied and was turned down? If so, I'd be interested to hear about it.



The meeting to which I referred wasn't a Linden meeting and there were no Lindens there. It was an opportunity to network with other content developers.

BTW, in case you've overlooked it, I've hired a few SL content creators myself. So, really, I'm exactly in a position to tell you what it takes to get hired to do work in SL.

No. No, of course not, but it might happen...

YOU CAN SKIP PAGE 7 IF YOU WANT, ITS IN THE TIME-OUT CHAIR.



Whatever Ingrid wants, Ingrid gets.

wow. who needs a girlfriend when you have a cowbell. It's looking like he's never going to stop! It is a live feed?

Here's another from a slightly different angle.

Oh yah baby!!!

Beat that thing!!!!

Beat that thing!!!

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Page 7 of this thread is now going to entirely consist of this image. We will return you to your regularly scheduled thread on page 8. If this was a real discussion, this image would be followed by detailed instructions on how to get funky and/or down.