The Forums And Ll

Hello Forums!
I have a few things I need to say....

I have intentionally waited to hear what Philip had to say not just here but in the town hall meeting last night. I would like to thank Philip for taking the time and posting here, much appreciated again Philip nice to know your still down to earth as always.

Several things have come up in this forum some that obviously were way off track and some that brought ups some very interesting discussions (for me at least

Secondly I want to openly thank Bob for his eloquent words and speaking up on my behalf. Even when we disagree on the fundamentals of SL or our personal beliefs we do so with respect to each others posting and opinions. Both in world and here in the forums. Thank you for that Bob, it gives me hope that someday a meaningful debate will happen in these forums free from ridicule, deception and the intentional hurt now prevalent here.

Sigh

It has been brought up several times about my posting again to the forums after I posted openly that I had quit SL.

If you have a subscription of "any" kind, when that subscription runs out then your account goes dormant. Unless you call LL directly and demand that your account be closed immediately it won't. I used that time to "cool off" I did not go in world and I don't intend to go in world as Catherine Cotton. Why? I have ppl in SL I consider more than my friends, some are soul mates and as I have developed a reputation as a someone who frequently speaks out I do not want them to suffer the ramifications of being associated with me. In any negative way. There are some in this forum who intentionally lash out and hurt with sharp tongues purposefully and maliciously. Consider this the only way I can protect those I care about and you will understand my reasoning. Just today some very rude things were said, baiting and intentional words were used and again I felt I was being singled out for my singular opinion. So I stopped posting. I found it humorous that those same ppl then claimed innocence. I stuck back with words. Its a human response to fight back when your being attacked, and I make no apologies for it. I would rather have my dignity than let ppl hang me by the nearest virtual tree for my opinions. So no don't expect me to just take intentional insults and look the other way, I wont.
With that said I would like to again tell everyone why I feel I have a right to speak in the forums. When I quit SL I made a very clear and informed decision to virtual kill off Catherine Cotton, my hurt was so great over the things that LL allowed to be said in these forums I was disgusted and emotionally spent. I became burned out on SL its self, I felt I was being pulled in too many directions and could not cope any longer. I am not the type of person to tell anyone no (yes I am working on that). After a few weeks something happened....I missed SL, I missed the creative outlet it gave me, I missed it being the only area in my life where I really had any soft of social life. There was no way I was going back as Catherine so I created an alt. I have been in world, I have been creating, I have been having fun I needed to remember what I was fighting for. I needed to know if there was a place for the social me, the creative me. There is I made no attempt to contact those I cared deeply for I had put them threw enough and it wasn't fair to ask them to pretend, period. That is the way my mind works so to my friends I love you enough not to make you become a victim by something I may or may not say here in the forums by those who have taken their anger from the forums into the SL world.

I would like to ask LL something openly;

LINDEN LABS:
Please hire some ppl either from in world who you respect to monitor these forums. These forums give LL a bad name and most ppl don't feel like they can post here without being singled out and reticulated. I'm sorry Jeska but your not doing your job. You cant just edit posts, you need to ban some of these folks. Hell you got some serious stalker here, just look at who's been stalking my posts for over a year now. More so have posted the most vile things to me openly that I never hear in RL. Its really disgusting how it is let to go on this long. To be honest some ppl like me cant take a whole lot of emotional abuse. I have and will continue to leave the forums for those reasons.

Final points I would like to make;

Some in these forums would like all of SL to think that SL is a metaverse, no that is not true. It may be someday, but today its not.

Some in these forums would like all of SL to think that SL is nothing more than a Marketing tool, a commercial enterprise. It's not.

Thank you Philip for addressing these two very key points last night at the town hall meeting;


"Philip Linden: We aren't passing any kind of judgment
Philip Linden: on what people should or shouldn't do with their time in SL
Philip Linden: we are simply making gradual steps toward the state of affairs that Second Life,
Philip Linden: as a platform,
Philip Linden: is designed for.
Philip Linden: The meaning of jobs and games and fun and socialization,
Philip Linden: and everything else here.
Philip Linden: Is created by you, "
Philip Linden: I don't want this to become this huge world where we all do some similar job
Philip Linden: for the Linden Lab 'empire'.
Philip Linden: That isn't our thing.
Philip Linden: We want the jobs and purpose to come from you.
Philip Linden: I think this may get lost a bit in the debate....
Philip Linden: it isn't and shouldn't be our choice...
Philip Linden: whether clubs or events prosper or wane.
Philip Linden: the idea is you decide it."

Some ppl in these forums would like everyone to think that LL is against SEX in SL, again not true;

"You: Bianca Baggio: If you want everyone in SL to enjoy themselves then why take away their fun and pleasure because you think we should have more "educational" events and they are the only ones that deserve reimb. you are passing judgment in a way..isn't this really about cleaning up the SEX in 2nd life that has gotten so out of hand
Philip Linden: Again, as I said at the start.
Philip Linden: We don't determine what is fun...
Philip Linden: I suspect that many folks will find ways to fund these experiences
Philip Linden: privately.
Philip Linden: I know some folks are doing that now.
Philip Linden: I have no opinion about sex in SL.
Philip Linden: That is not our concern ... whether to 'clean up'. "
Some would like you to think that a certain group of ppl run SL, the rich, the oldies
LOL they do not, SL is a collective of the individuals that make up/create the world. There is room for everyone Apparently! Don't believe everything you read 1/2 of the forums is BS.
Some rumors have been started about LL selling on the GOM, again not true.
"You: Danny DeGroot: Any chance of floating the Lindens For Land program against GOM or something similar?
Philip Linden: Lindens for land?
Philip Linden: I'm sorry I don't understand... what is that?
You: paying land tiers in $L
Philip Linden: Oh... OK.
Philip Linden: well the challenge with doing that is twofold...
Philip Linden: one is clearly it takes away income from LL,
Philip Linden: because we can't change the L$ into US$.
Philip Linden: But I think the bigger problem is that it makes the amount of money
Philip Linden: removed from the economy highly variable....
Philip Linden: we would have to vary some other supply or something,
Philip Linden: to match the % that program was used.
Philip Linden: But I agree I'd like to see L$ usable for everything.
Philip Linden: The problem is we'd need a fair way for Linden Lab to turn hard cost items (like those) into dollars.
You: Surreal Farber: Question for Phillip: Are there any figures on what percentage of people are in world as opposed to those in the forums?
Philip Linden: Good question.
Philip Linden: I don't know current data on forum posters versus in-world people.
Philip Linden: If I had to make a rough guess I'd say that something like 10-20% of folks are using forums.

You: Elle Pollack: Q: I trust you guys to not trade $L and $US internally, but I know some people are dubious. Can you think of some way to make that transparent, or is that already meant to be handled by the regular economic reports?
Philip Linden: Hmmm.... good issue.
Philip Linden: Well I can't think of how to do that in an auditable way...
Philip Linden: without giving away other folks privacy...
Philip Linden: like we can't publish the name of everyone who trades currency, for example.
Philip Linden: But I can tell you.... clearly this is a fundamental principle.
Philip Linden: we don't trade on the market.
Philip Linden: and won't without telling everyone what we are doing...
Philip Linden: like I said earlier...
Philip Linden: that is why we can't change L$ to $USD."
and lastly LL and EBAY...
I personally think it is a collaboration between LL and Ebay, one that LL said would not happen. I also think something should of been said along the lines of an apology for this somewhat misleading collaboration that is now in its "test" phase. With that said here is what Philip said on the matter;
"You: Laura Skye: question for Philip, u just said u are not trading, your trading on ebay
Philip Linden: We do not trade our currency anywhere.
Philip Linden: Not GOM or IGE or Ebay.
Philip Linden: If you are referring to auctioning the featured listings...
Philip Linden: in the find menu.
Philip Linden: that is different...
Philip Linden: I have posted about that...
Philip Linden: it is simply an experiment in how to give folks who don't have high dwell
Philip Linden: more uniform access to the finder.
Philip Linden: So that they can advertise SL content.
Philip Linden: Using an auction provider to sell the spots was like 1 hour to set up...
Philip Linden: our auction software won't do that kind of thing.
Philip Linden: I'd rather fix bugs that extend it for a test. "
In closing I will say I have always spoken up for what I felt was the good of SL, I make no excuses for it and I do not apologize for my words. I feel everyone should have a right to speak in these forums. My hope really is that someday a meaningful discussion will take place where ppl are adult enough to know that spam and intentional rude posts are not allowed in the conversation. More so that as a collective we will make sure that those types of posts are not given credit or acceptance into a debate. I thought this would be possible in SL as we are all adults but we have a long way to go before that will happen.
No they didn't break my spirit, they did however bruise my faith a bit
I have said my peace, may you find yours
Catherine

Catherine

I have read some of the vicious replies to your posts and others. I think some of these people are seriously lacking in empathy or understanding.

You are going to start afresh you say, I can only wish you success and happiness with your new av.

Alexa

I think "Don't let the door hit you on the way out" sums it up much better.

Hang on a minute.

I thought you'd left SL ...

Catherine has decided to return to haunt those that didn't get converted by her spells.

That initial post was unreadable.

Can we keep her as a pet and teach her tricks like "paragraphing" and "putting quotes in quote blocks"?

Please?

Charlotte: U Rock!!!

Thanks Alexa Much Appreciated

Wow Charlotte, did you even read the post? She explains it there.

[ed. oh... you had problems with her writing skills... I see... its the big paragraph before all the transcript.]

-Ghoti

Did you read my post that said her post was unreadable?

Okay, mindless attacks aside, I'll be the first one to lose "nice guy cred" here.

Alexa, the reason people are so vehemently againstt CAtherine's postings 99% of the time is that they've all been burned, one way or another, by CAt's seemingly clockwork explosions on the forums.

The first time it was about commercialism when 1.2 hit... mildly understandable, she didn't want McDonald's to set up a sim. However, as the debate dragged on, and logic and sound reasoning were presented to her, she became more and more enraged. She used circular logic, personal attacks, and hurled violent insults at anyone that didn't immediately agree with her.

Then she announced her quitting of SL, and, after a few more potshots and a few threads (yes, multiple) announcing her quitting, she supposedly left.

Of course, there were 4 pages of "OH NOES DONT GO" type postings.

This was January of 2004, for a frame of reference.

3-4 months later she returned.

Once again, she was all bubbly, happy, swore that everything bad that had happened was behind her. A few welcomed her back, blah blah blah.

Several months later, she exploded again. This time about commercialism and greed. She posted rambling conspiracy theories, hurled indecent personal attacks, and basically went down in flames. Again.

She quit SL. Again. This time, only about 2 pages of genuine "OH NOES DONT GO" type postings were in her "main" goodbye thread.

This was... I wanna say May/June of 2004.

A few months later, she's BACK. She remains fairly quiet, makes a christmas thing next to my land, blah blah blah. Rips it down due to commercialism ramblings, puts it back up.

A few weeks later, I notice she has it for sale for some ridiculous amount (I believe it was around $L150,000 for a few hundred square meters). No biggie, I thought, she's just making sure no one will buy it (similar to making it 999999999).

I ask her if she's selling her land, she says yes, but won't come down on the price... oookkkaaay...

Then she makes a post on the forums complaining about ridiculous land prices. I call shenanigans. She's caught red-handed. Response? Artful dodging, conversation switching, and dismissal of negative comments.

About this time she got into a major argument with a former friend on the forums, and put his avatar (a very personal thing) all over the world, free to copy. Another explosion.

THe recent debacle started on a rambling conspiracy theory/tirade on greed. Over the course of the discussion, she went back to heavy handed, negative assaults on people's character, used illogical reasoning, and basically refused to listen to anything. Another explosion. She ripped down her new christmas build, put up a big sign listing a dozen people that "ruined christmas", and announced, EVER LOUDER, that she quit.

Maybe a few posts about "OH NOES DONT GO", but the rest were "good riddance", specifically from the people she tried to charactere assasinate in-world.

She put her land for sale for an insane amount. It was "bought", albeit by an obvious alt account. When this was brought to the forum's attention, she lied and said, through her alt, that it wasn't Catherine and she also would be quitting, inexplicably.

Neither did. THe land was transferred back to Cat for a time, sold to someone else.

And then Cat laid low until now.

Now she's all bubbly. Again.

I cna handle negative attacks. I can handle personal tirades (I do them myself). But the number one thing that sets me off is using the "OMFG I QUIT" ploy to garner sympathy whenever the tide turns against you. It's absolutely incorrigable.

You think you can just sit there and lash out at absolutely EVERYONE and EVERYTHING for a good 4 or 5 pages, hammering out incessant, hurtful attacks. Then you plug your ears and go "la la la la" hoping everyone will go away. And when no one does, you "quit" in a display of showmanship that would rival any PT Barnum Circus. You sell your land. You make ridiculous postings. You post hurtful, hating signs. You shuffle your accounts around.

But you always come back, happy and insipid (Does anyone rememberthe happy thwacking fish? God...)

I hate bullies. I hate liars.

I won't back down to either as long as I have a forum account.

And that, dear Alexa, is why Catherine gets the responses she does.

Perhaps you will join in too once she explodes on you three or four times.

Awaiting the next supernova,

LF

Alby has been on mute since yesterdays postings.

Yah, we posted almost at exactly the same time. I edited my post to reflect that I had not yet seen your post.

FWIW, I saw your message, which is the exact same message to Catherine I've seen posted about ninty times in the last 2 days, with the answer just two posts higher on the page and thought you were just yet another person attacking the fact she decided to stick around.

I have nothing for or against Catherine, personally.

Seems there's alot of happy horseshit coming from all angles here. I'm bowing outta here before I get accused of being someone's alt or something.

-Ghoti

That's OK - English is my second language, so when reading posts I do appreciate a little bit of clarity so I don't have to strain myself!

HEhehehehe .... Thats a good one.. '

I absolutely agree!

Alby's posting are the closest thing to the word of God

She is ignoring God's word. As such, she will reap the wraith of the almighty.. ' hehehe

Lordfly is right.

I'll have to sell some supernova shades on slexchange, I'm sure we're due for another one. I was patient, like Lordfly, maybe even sympathetic intially, but now....eh, if you're going to go, just *GO*.

I hate wishy-washy. I don't hate Cath, but this behavior is just frickin bi-polar or something.

Thank you for your perspective on Catherine's posts LF. I still think generally people posting here can be incredibly harsh and abusive to those with whom they disagree but I guess that won't change.

Alexa

PS - How come when you mute someone on here that you can still see parts of their posts when quoted by others?

LF has been muted for some time now.

Reason: Before he wanted my land Grignano he was very hostile and rude to me on the forums.
He was very kind to me during the time, he wanted my land in Grigano.

After I sold him that land at a very decent price for both lots. He again was the same old LF to me on these forums.

I have nothing to say to LF.

ps I have muted and unmuted him before, but now he is on perm mute.

As for my menal state I was checked out, and I am just fine ty for caring.
Unless your a medical doctor and I am sitting in your office I dont think its a good idea to be offering medical advice. Haven't we heard all that before also?

I know Panda I saw

Hugz Ya.

Maxx I am sorry you feel that way. As I have often agreed with you on many things. Hating is a bad thing, I am sorry for that.

Cath

Alexa its because they dont have them muted.

Cath