Beta Members - Olderst of the Old

Awww, just give Michi a good scratch behind the ears. That always chills her right out. A good belly rub will put her to sleep too.

hey! who let you post here? get lost Noob! go find your own thread!

*slinks off with cabin on head*

Hey, you kids, get off my lawn.

*Raises hand* yay for being old...or older!

hehe, i still feel like a noob

Selador and Eggy: No, this is absolutely something I felt before this thread, which is why I responded.

I'll admit that I'm a curmudgeon and I do come unglued sometimes, not always with the best of rationality. (In some sense, Devlin is right that at times, I just need to calm down.)

But overall, I've felt that in the community, there is an automatic mark of respect given to beta users, that is ascribed, not achieved. As if some sort of accomplishment has been made.

Truly, barring people who just showed up yesterday, I think a LOT of us have shared in the blood, sweat, and tears, it's taken to make it through the development of SecondLife as a world. As I've said, I *DO* remember taxes, and errant taxes. I do remember paying to rez prims, I do remember paying to teleport. I've had to muddle through maddening bugs, and have likely filed more bugs than some (agreed:not all, by any stretch) beta users.

Being called a "newbie" or "n00b" after that, is pretty insulting. In all of the "beta" threads of the past, most of the things that have been brought up in reference to 'the old days', are pre-1.2 artifacts, not beta artifacts. Indeed, some folks remember a time before there WERE taxes, forget WHEN there were taxes.

It's the divisiveness that bothers me. The line in the sand - I'm not vapid and 'clueless' to a majority of SL's history and what took us to where we are today. I remember the smallness of community back when I entered at 1.0, and I believe this is what the 'beta users' reflect on. A time when Lindens hung out with residents regularly - a time when you could recite all of the sims from memory and didn't have to "zoom out" to see the map.

And indeed, it's a good feeling to reminisce about that, as long as you don't stand there and say that it somehow makes one better than another. And furthermore, the true "line in the sand" from when SL went from 'small to big' isn't really a line at all. It's more like a blurred gradient.

We don't even know if several years from now, folks will be waxing nostalgic about the "pre 2.0 days".

Indeed, even then, I believe the beta users will gain even more respect and standing as time goes on. But I don't think it's right to kick sand in the face of folks who have been here for the long haul; whether they were here when the software version had a ones place or not is not some magic determinant.

Indeed, is someone who joined one day before the end of Beta considered 'the oldest of the old', and one day after the end of beta, a "clueless n00b"?

I'd like to meet those two hypothetical people in world and compare their experience and sense of what SL is gone through.

If it's vastly different, I'll stand corrected and humbled.

I think most people dont really go around advertising HEY LOOK AT ME I WAS IN BETA TELL ME HOW LEET I AM!!!
My experience with in-world fandom is that the people who go WHOW OMG ITS EGGY do it more because they see my little forum icon in every thread.
Its only human anyway. I was like that. I am still like that. I still consider it an honor to be Catherine Omega's friend and I treat her with a great deal more respect than the average person. Ditto for Fey Brightwillow, Steller Sunshine and hell, most people older than me

If there's an automatic mark of respect accorded to all beta users, I must admit that I'm completely unaware of it. Most people I know in SL - alpha, beta and post-beta - are sensible enough to judge people on their own merits. Personally, I respect some post-beta people an awful lot more than one or two of the beta players I've come across. Judging someone's personal qualities on the basis of which date they discovered an online community, seems faintly absurd to me.

Please allow me to repeat myself from another beta thread:

yea what Eggy said.

You dont need to focus on the beta crowd to find people who want to be LEET. Its an across the board kinda thing.

fen-

Michi,

You probably get out and about in the community much more than I do, so this might be something you have experienced repeatedly and of which I am completely unaware.

It seems very silly to me if this attitude exists.

Apart from that, I agree with everything that Viola said.

I look at it like this... it's like we're in an airport milling around the baggage return waiting for our luggage. You know how you spot the other people that were on your plane and you feel you have something in common with them that you don't have with everyone else there? It's not because of anything other than the fact you shared the ride there. You might even wave at one or two if you were chatty on the plane. That's how I feel about the people whose names I've seen around me in world and in the forum for the past year. It's not a better or worse thing, it's simply familiarity. There's a comfort in that as the world continues to grow exponentially and the number of unfamiliar names and faces begins to outnumber the familiar ones.

I respect the people who have been here a long time and have contributed a great deal of their time, energy, & more to help make this community what it is today. Like Newton famously said, we jump on the shoulders of titans -- or something like that -- and onwards we go, but I have great adoration for the groundwork, the foundation that has already been laid.

As often is the case with me, it's gonna come down to the individual.

Peace. Yo.

all that being a beta means is that you were involved in testing the product before it was ready for commercial release. now you get to pay for the privilege of testing the product for a fee!

i don't think less of anyone for not being a beta. but i do think more of anyone who is one ! (hint: that was a joke). that being said, this is a thread about celebrating betas, not placating Noobs. there's a seperate thread for that.

I'm 20 and yet... this makes me feel extremely old. Thanks.

Extremely old and very chic too Dave!!

*raises hand* Early May '03, I believe ^_~

Xylor

You're like the dude who made a magic machine that can rez peanuts the size of a couple of sims... whoa. I salute you.

Actually, although I'm a beta member.... i believe the best things i've 'contributed' to the sl economy came after 1.0....

Personally, if there should be a 'dividing time' or significant flux in the game.... i think it would be 1.2 more then when beta ended. i don't think there was anything special really added for 1.0 other then the credit cards getting used

--Water

I had another av in beta. Early may '03.

lol nvm i already posted here

I dont think it works unless you shake a broom at them Wednesday


Oh, and beta here too.

chip, i dont no how to cut and paste ur post or i would. it bears repeating. thats exactly right. i had not formed a good thought about what it all means. recognizing people who have shared the trip. in a growing sea of strangers. very well put.

marilyn

I arrived as beta ended.. not sure that counts lol

Nice to see this thread again.

Damn, so many people I still haven't met!