Essential community news..... in a blog?

No, to prove unequal behavior, you would have to show that in every other instance such a statement resulted in editing the post and action. Then you would have to prove that Flipper's post was not edited for the reason's you assert, rather than as a result of an oversight, or general inconsistency, or any other reason.

Your logic is flawed.

In the immortal words of Woody the cowboy... "If the boot, fits..."

Briana Dawson

Congratulations, by the way, for rather spectacularly derailing your own thread.

This should never have been a sticky in the first place anyway. As usual, Lindens foul up, no action happens, and I get the blame for other people's shortcomings.

Lewis

Those pesky Lindens.

I have found in my many years on this planet we call earth, that in fact The truth hurts and many can't handle the truth.

But it does call attention, wonderfully to robins blog

OH but that is the exact thing you are protesting

*slaps forehead* "DUH MY BAD"

Yep, and all the people attacking me because, once again, I challenge a Linden Lab decision.

So it's true... many SL players are sheep...

Lewis

You challenge every decision Linden lab makes.

because Lewis is always right and everyone else is always wrong!!

heres asheep for you

I would not call them attacks I would call them simple truths

please Mr Nerd show us how many posts you have made that did NOT Attack a linden lab policy , change of some sort or where you disagreed with the vast majority of Sl residents in these forums.
I have not the time to do this my self now but having read a good deal of your posts just off hand I would have to say that 95-99% of all your posts had something negative to say about the subject at hand in any particular thread.
negativity will never bring upon positives it will however bring upon despair to the poster and the readers.
and it is your own negative postings in these forums that bring out the negative side of people who reply to your threads.

So I say to you Mr Nerd bring something positive to these forums and I am sure you will see positive feedback.

I would also like to point out Robins signature line to you
You must Be the Change you wish to see in the world.
- Mahatma Gandhi
This does not mean you must challenge every thing you see as wrong with negativity and despair but rather do something constructive to bring upon the change

look here flowers are positive

Quotes by famous people are meaningless to me. Anyone could have said them, and a famous person saying it does not add or detract in any way from a few words.

As for "being the change"... LL are the ones that need to change, if they are ever to turn around this game of theirs to being profitable.

I would suggest that you keep an eye out for me in game, and ask to see what I am doing "positive" towards the SL experience. I happen to enjoy building and the social aspects of SL (when I am not trying to concentrate), and would be more than happy to show you or anyone else some of the creations I have made. Sure, maybe not the best of their type ever invented, but as we practice we improve, do we not?

Lewis

First, a disclaimer: The following statements are discussing the nature of your posts, not your person.



People disagreeing with you, no matter how strongly worded, is not an attack. If you get emphatic responses, it's merely a reaction to your own extremely emphatic statements in your posts. What we say to you, I consider mild, compared to the the attacks you make on the character and motivations of people you don't even know. You dismiss the contributions of others, and it is insulting to people who've worked long and hard in SL to be told 'SL would be better off without them', or 'you only do it to suck money out of SL'. You have said this to people who have made some of the finest contributions to SL.

Look at your statement above. You complain about being attacked, then you turn around in the same breathe and call us all sheep for our opinions.

It's worth considering, that in my time here, I have never seen Flipper reply to anyone in the way he replies to you. He generally seems to be very positive, kind and helpful. I can tell you from personal experience, he is someone who goes out of his way to help a newbie. Maybe time for some introspection, reflecting on what it is about your posts that can so exasperate such a positive person.



Why on earth would we bother? Whatever positive you may contribute, it is overwhelmed by a Tsunami of negativity. I cannot recall a single positive opinion expressed by you on any issue. Every single change, every topic, every aspect of SL, draws a negative response from you, even solutions to your own grievances. Look at your ludicrous reaction to hardware banning. After screaming blue murder about the griefing opportinities of open registration, LL promptly introduces a highly effective way of ensuring banned persons stay banned on any account, and are you happy? No, you attack LL once again, for 'invading your privacy'.

You talk about community, yet your posts are extremely divisive. You insult people from the community, demonise members of the community, ad nauseum. This is the reason you get a strong reaction from me. You seem to have no intention of actually discussing anything on these forums, you cannot accept the opinion of anyone else from the community on these forums, unless they are in total agreeance with your statements.

You don't just criticise LL either. You talk about them in an unnecessarily derogative manner. You may not agree with their policies, decisions, or direction, but why do you find it acceptable to call Philip Linden an idiot, to say he's smoking something, that his head is up his arse and the like? Tell me where it is acceptable for a customer to insult people in this manner. Sure, you can complain about a service, but try calling someone names like this whilst complaining about your telephone service. You'll hear a resounding 'click' as they hang up on you.

The sheer volume of your negativity draws a reaction. We could sit on our hands and ignore a few posts, but over 2000? It's an onslaught. You can't even let a positive thread like Foolish's wonderful 'The Future of SL' go by, without weighing in with 'this whole vision of Philip's is wrong and stupid'. Is that a positive contribution to the community?

Why should we acknowledge your in-world contributions? Why is you content so special, of so much more worth than the content of others you dismiss with the likes of 'you're only in it for the money'. It is extremely insulting to people who have reaped the rewards of their hard work and creativity for you to judge them in this fashion, to dismiss the hard work, skill and imagination that they are being rewarded for. You seem not to consider that they may do all sorts of things for the community that you aren't aware of. Not everyone bignotes these things, it's somewhat tacky. Personally, I choose to assume the best of people as a default mode - you seem to choose the opposite.

You would be surprised. You once presumed to ask me when the last time I logged on for money was, without ever meeting me or knowing what I do. Yet while you have been demanding your stipend, no matter what it's effect on the community and the economy, I've been giving mine away for months to charitable causes. I turned away high-paying commissions to concentrate on building an art gallery, for free, for the artists of SL. Yet you write me off as being all about money. You do the same to others whose contributions far outweighs mine.

Many of us create things Lewis, many of us add 'to the experience', as you like to put it, in all sorts of ways. Yet you seem to devalue our contributions. So I ask you, why should we value yours?

No reason at all, but if you don't take me up on my offer then you'll never know, will you. Doesn't bother me one way or the other, to be honest. I can happily continue my Second Life in the way that I am without letting anyone who annoys me get in the way of that.

The offer remains, whether you choose to accept it or not.

Lewis

Dude, I've made you the same offer previously, to illustrate to you how you can misjudge others. You chose to totally ignore it. You do not extend this courtesy to anyone else before you judge them. Example: The whole SF 'focus group thing'. You looked at their profiles, if they mentioned any kind of enterprise, you dismissed the lot of them as being 'all about big business'. Hypocritical. You are asking for an opportunity you afford no others, as I pointed out in my previous post.

Interesting that you chose to focus only on this section of my post. It's an easy way out, as far as I can see... 'either Fade meets my demands to come see my work, or I discount his opinion.' Why don't you try addressing the more uncomfortable parts of my post? Why won't you address your negative contributions? My whole point was not about your in-world positve contributions, but your entirely negative contributions to the community on these forums.

I will take you up on your offer, however at some stage. However, it must be reciprocated. I have tried previously to look you up in-world, with the intention of a friendly discussion about our vastly divergent outlooks and opinions, to see if the gulf could be bridged at all, you've never been on. Yes, I will accept your offer: things to note, I'm in Australia, so our timezones are opposite, and anytime that corresponds to East Coast night time, I'm with Ylusive, and all else can go to hell as far as I'm concerned during that time. So, when the opportunity arises, yes. Be prepared to see what one person with the same join date as you can achieve by putting his head down, working hard and being positive though. I single handedly disprove most of your statements about the barriers for new residents.

Till then, then.

I am not complaining about having to wait for a page to load. I am saying that I don't want to read through all of the non-essential information in a blog, just in case there is actually something essential in it. The word "essential" has a meaning, you know, and I don't think it is what Robin thinks it is. I read the blog and while it's a very nice blog, and I agree that people should be made aware of it, nothing in it is "essential," as I understand the meaning of the word to be. It contains information that is nice to know, but nothing you can't live without.

Oh, and some general advise: if someone annoys you, just ignore them. That is what grown-ups do.

You don't have to read the whole blog though. The relevant section is easily identifiable, and easily read in isolation from the other non-essential information. It really does take no longer, and in no way forces you to read anything extra.

Regarding your advice: It is not a question of Lewis annoying me, if that's what you are referring to. We disagree, often strongly, but this is a forum, where differing views are discussed. We have always been able to discuss our differing views, and we have always been able to drop it for a moment and exchange a joke, as recently as yesterday. I do take strong exception to some of his statements, however that is no measure of immaturity. Neither of us are afraid to express our differences to each other, and it has never extended to any actual animosity to each other, no matter how it may appear. I can handle the heat, and I do believe so can Lewis. There are also plenty of times when I let something pass, and I'm sure he does the same. I've also stated that I respect his ability to voice his opinion regardless of any response and regardless of how unpopular it may be.

I just don't often agree with him, and he doesn't often agree with me. We're not afraid to discuss it however. I believe that is what grown-ups do. I see no reason to shy away from a frank discussion with someone who is equally frank. We have discussed this on the forums before, when he posted that he was copping a lot of flak in-world, I was the first to say I thought that sucked. We both agreed that an opinion on the forums should not translate to in-world animosity. If I ever saw him in-world, I'd stop and have a friendly chat with him. He can be quite funny at times, he often makes me laugh, in a good way. If either of us really got that bothered by it, we do both know where the ignore button is.

That part was not meant to be directed at you. Sorry.

NP

My main problem at hand is with people who complain and whine almost constantly about an issue or change, no matter how small (you'll notice this is the only time the clouds gather around my posts, heh). Many of these people fail to recognize the difference between whining and constructive criticism. Constructive criticism points out a possible flaw in a situation while also offering ideas towards improving the situation. A good example of this was the wonderful criticism and feedback we got concerning the new SLBoutique design and search; we take these seriously, and the people making them were very helpful in ways they thought the complaints they had could be addressed.

The only ideas towards solutions I've seen from much of the forum whining brigade involves things like completely eliminating the economy, which is just so blatantly trying to provoke a reaction, it can only be called what it is: trolling. The same thing goes for people who refuse to call Second Life anything but "a game" - it is incredibly insulting, and the worst form of trolling. Linden Lab (no 's' - it's singular - not plural) create Second Life, and have said repeatedly that it is a virtual world or a platform, but not a game, although it can be used for entertainment and may contain games within it (much like the WWW). They get to decide, and they have.

Calling this world of infinite possibilities "a game" repeatedly reeks of trolling, arrogance, and self-serving propaganda. I will continue to call a spade a spade, attempt to stay as positive as I can (although I don't agree with every decision LL makes), and try to avoid getting sucked into certain people's downward spiral of negativism: I apologize to anyone I've annoyed by allowing my passion for the virtual world of Second Life to get in the way of trying to keep on smiling. Fade and crucial, thanks for reminding me to stay level headed.

As for the participation of my wife, I think it's safe to say that anyone who has met us in RL or SL know we're two very different people with very different opinions. Just because we happen to agree on this one opinion - with about 99% of the community - is inconsequential. In another thread, someone made the claim that (not verbatim) "in six months [they] could make the game (UGH) of Second Life better for everyone, much better than Philip Linden could". That comment's arrogance in and of itself says more than I ever could.

Regards,

-Flip

Flipper, if you were not level-headed, then I was even less so, however, I don't believe we were. My issue with constant negativity, is partly that the really important issues will get lost amongst all the unnecessary complaining. If we bitch about every single little thing, it's a bit of a 'boy who cried wolf' situation...

That and the fact that I am passionate about SL and it's possibilities, and my belief that there are many truly creative, clever and wonderful people here... we should celebrate that, and give credit where credit is due... and that goes for Philip and all the Lindens too. A company that listens to it's customers and communicates to the extent that LL does is a rare beast indeed. I'm not sure I've ever seen one in the wild before.

As someone who is rarely able to leave the house through illness, SL has done amazing things for me. It is often the only way I can interact with the world, the only way I can keep on doing what I used to be able to do in RL... create, interact, communicate. It is far more than a game to me... whenever someone says 'get a real life', or it's just a game, it just kinda hurts, it's like a slap in the face. I honestly don't know where I'd be without it, and I know I'm not the only one here in this kind of situation. Consequently, I am overwhelmingly positive about SL and problems along the way, amount to nothing in comparison. As far as I'm concerned, the fact that SL allows me to continue being active in life is testament to the wonder of Phillip Linden's vision. Bring on the metaverse!

That really doesn't disprove or prove the *lies* you see. Flipper called you on your incessant whining and supported his evidence with zOMG your five most recent posts whining about this that or the other thing. All you proved was that through some clever deduction that *someone* received a warning for using the word *moron* so since Flipper called you a moron this proves everything. Wrong, it only proves he called you a moron. It doesn't prove anything beyond that. So what was your point again?

Indeed as Flip and Fade have so very nicely put and so much better then i ever could. It's the persistent winning and complaining with out any constructive criticism that makes folks see red.

another very perplexing aspect of your posts is when you reply to some one you consistently pull out one small part that may have a shred of evidence that helps your opinion and you use that to prove your point. Completely ignoring the rest of there post that pokes holes and or disproves every thing you previously stated.

Lewis you have some very opinionated ideas please use those ideas and put them in a constructive way. I can't guarantee every one will agree with them but I can guarantee they will be received in a more positive manner. and a discussion of the topic on hand will ensue instead of the thread going off topic as this one has.

Plus some of the statements used like "it is a fact that..." and "its true because...." used to bolster opinions as incontrovertible universal truths is highly pompous and self-inflated.

Oh gawd, i think im going to try to kill my self....again, I actually agree with Lewis. *shoots self*

Lewis does have a point here..

Wait a minute, I can't do this.

Briana Dawson

This is a good point as well Lewis. You do seem to have a holier and more righteous than thou attitude and about being right and everyone else being wrong.

Briana Dawson