Four's Company, Five's a Crowd?

Yes, and if you look closely, it says Creator: Char Linden.

Ha. You said pretty succinctly what I was thinking. I have only to add that small companies grow into monopolies when they introduce a new product or service, or they do a better job of providing it than others. I have a problem with the concept that monopolies are always bad. Sometimes companies should be rewarded for their early vision and inventiveness in bringing new technologies and products to the marketplace. MICROSOFT has maybe abused their market position now and again, but without them there, would there currently be more than a relatively tiny number of people now owning computers? That's hard to say, but I can't see that Apple would have driven the market any more than they do now. Their corporate thinking and philosophy cannot be said to be in any way market driven.

I am aware that most of you have probebly missed the sign on the door, most probebly Prokofy, but the fact is... SecondLife is a virtual world. We do serious business outside. In here, we (or most of us) try to have fun.

The reason there's only one Snapzilla, Nexcom, and co' is because the people running it enjoy its operation.

The day it quits being fun, it will disappear.

The day someone else decide "hey, wouldnt it be fun to start my own e-mail based image host service?", there will be a new, competitive Snapzilla.

The only reason there's only one of each of these services, is because no one else bothered to do so just yet, or tried and got bored in the process.

Fun people, fun. 3 alphabetic characters. Not that hard to imprint into your cranium.

Prok, calm the heck down and stop treating this like an extension of real life.

One more thing, Prokofy - thank you for dimissing my hard work and efforts as being a pet rock - ie.. an expensive, pointless fad that doesn't really do anything at all. If it is so insignificant, why are you so fixated on the site? What I built is a site that documents SL in a way it has never been before, and created a visual history in the process, again, as a free service that many people enjoy and are very passionate about. What exactly have you done that has added to SL again? Rented some properties for profit? Sold some land? Put up a mall or two? I see.

Well, that's not entirely true. What helps your effort and would not help Joe Sneezeball's (b. 6/1/05) attempt to compete with you is the reputation and networking you've spent a couple of years developing. People go to Snapzilla partly because the name Cristiano Midnight is a known commodity. So the playing field is not equal at the outset.

But it can be, if Joe Sneezeball accumulates the same reputational and networking tools over a period of time. Or if he has a better product that he can somehow put in front of a public already sold on Snapzilla, that might work, too.

That's how capitalism is. It depends on reputation, networking, and general trust and popularity first; quality, merit, and the facts second. That's what Prokofy is complaining about, which is why I've always suspected that he's a closet socialist at heart.

mo·nop·o·ly ( P ) Pronunciation Key (m-np-l)
n. pl. mo·nop·o·lies

1. Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service: “Monopoly frequently... arises from government support or from collusive agreements among individuals” (Milton Friedman).
   
2. Law. A right granted by a government giving exclusive control over a specified commercial activity to a single party.
   
3. <LI type=a>A company or group having exclusive control over a commercial activity.
   
   1. A commodity or service so controlled.
      
   
   
4. 1. Exclusive possession or control: arrogantly claims to have a monopoly on the truth.
      
   2. Something that is exclusively possessed or controlled: showed that scientific achievement is not a male monopoly.
      
   
   

[Latin monoplium, from Greek monoplion : mono-, mono- + plein, to sell; see pel-4 in Indo-European Roots.] mo·nopo·lism n.
mo·nopo·list n.
mo·nopo·listic adj.
mo·nopo·listi·cal·ly adv.
[Download Now or Buy the Book]
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.




monopoly
A business that is the sole supplier of a particular good or service. Regulated monopolies, such as electric utilities, are generally restricted as to the returns they are permitted to earn. Other monopolies such as firms with unique products or services derived from patents, copyrights, or geographic location may be able to earn very high returns. Compare oligopoly.





Source: Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott.
Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.




monopoly
Of, relating to, or being a market in which there is a single seller of a particular good or service. For example, electric utilities nearly always operate in monopoly markets. Compare monopsony.





Source: Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott.
Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.


Main Entry: mo·nop·o·ly
Pronunciation: m&-'nä-p&-lE
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural -lies
1 : exclusive control of a particular market that is marked by the power to control prices and exclude competition and that esp. is developed willfully rather than as the result of superior products or skill —see also ANTITRUST Sherman Antitrust Act in the IMPORTANT LAWS section
2 : one that has a monopoly


Source: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.


monopoly

n 1: (economics) a market in which there are many buyers but only one seller; "a monopoly on silver"; "when you have a monopoly you can ask any price you like" 2: exclusive control or possession of something; "They have no monopoly on intelligence" 3: a board game in which players try to gain a monopoly on real estate as pieces advance around the board according to the throw of a die [syn: Monopoly]


Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University


monopoly

monopoly in InvestorWords


Source: InvestorWords, © 2000 InvestorGuide.com, Inc.

Man, I knew it. I knew it from the start.

He's an anti-capitalist.

I think it is less about reputation and more about innovation, honestly (though reputation can help or hurt a project, especially a negative reputation). You are right in that a copycat site would have a hard time. However, that is not preventing anyone from going above and beyond what I have done. Is that always the key to success? No. we know the best technology does not always win out. There are no guarantees of any project being a success, but there are factors that help it.

There is a first mover advantage in any space. The other web shopping sites are arguably better sites overall than SLExchange, but the site has established relationships and succeeds in that space because of it. What Prokofy resents the most is what you just nailed the head on - that reputation, experience, hard work, and social networking plays a part in success. To deny that is to deny human nature.

No, Seth, I'm not a socialist at heart, and you're part of the way right about how to see this. The reputational assets that a Cristiano Midnight can gather at the dawn of the Metaverse are intangible benefits that others coming in will never have. Too bad. They can build a better mousetrap just like everybody who came 100 years after Alexander Graham Bell built better mousetraps.

My point is that if Cristiano has sewn up the airways and the Linden tie-in with a front page, it's sewn-up. It was never auctioned off, or licensed, like a RW telecom license. It was just taken. Now, it seems like nothing. Who cares? Cristiano is a nice guy. He has a great site. We all use it. But we've also just handed him the keys to the metaverse's snapshots forever, haven't we?

Do we have any doubts that when/if Linden Labs "open sources" their software, they will "open-source" it along with Cristiano's Snapzillas? That's what I'm talking about.

A critique of the process by which some -- no matter how wonderful they are and how great their accomplishments are -- are handily grabbing the assets of the metaverse on the ground floor -- is about promoting capitalism, not socialism, Seth.



Capitalism of this type cannot function without a) a free press b) an independent judiciary c) checks and balances -- all of which are missing in SL as you know making it possible for groups to sezie the reputational gold without merit.

And no need to get all hurt about my pet rock comments, Cristiano. For ME it is a pet rock sometimes. It is a huge sink hole of money -- huge amounts of time and labor -- for something that in and of itself is just a rock, something that could sink like stone -- but which has life and viability only because of the meaning I invest in it. It's not to make any of your work or achievements appear frivolous, or to somehow privilege mine as being "better". For you to touchily take this comment about the "pet rock" to heart -- despite the dozens of references I've already had in my posts about viewing the whole things as a pet rock MYSELF (i.e. a fad for which many people are paying a ton of money but which might pass), you're just intruding your own need to have a constant stream of praise, unable to tolerate criticism from just one person.

I'm not going to use this thread to toot my own accomplishments. They are considerably greater than the peckish and impoverished way you've portrayed them. And your willingness to slam another's projects so handily, in what is a generic dispute about ideas, when you have not been slammed personally, is one more reason why I don't want you, Cristiano, to take over the Metaverse. At least if people are going to take over the Metaverse, let them be broadminded and not so touchy.

I suppose its a question of why a small business is in business. After Dark is a small family business. We don't honestly do it to get rich. We do it because we love creating and particularly love creating together as a family. After all you don't need to be filthy rich to have fun with loved ones in SL. We feel in no way crippled by any monopolies. Since we are not in it for big bucks I really question how a monopoly could cripple us.

I've read one of them - the one regarding removal of bonus - and agree with you there. Just had no reason to post to it, been well discussed on its own.

I've seen the other arguments regarding the pooling of tier for mainland use, and agree with that philosophy (sp?) as well. Though is hard to consider doing that for mainland right now without proper tools, hence my move to islands until then.

I'm still waiting on a response as to my mention, for why you'd think tools that are avail in-world already and/or from multiple sources (at least regarding chat and vendors), do not counter your argument? I cannot answer in regard to pics, as said I use Photobucket when I even do post what I save on my PC and keep private.

Perhaps I'm an anomaly here. If so its easily enough taught.

Cristiano, what you need to see about this "resentment" is that I *critique* a system that privileges reputation in a context where there is no free press. By that I mean no one can start a critical thead about any one person or company, without getting it closed for ROC violations. There is no way to challenge reputations that are in fact possibly ill-gotten or undeserved.

As for "experience" I'm going to refrain from LOL about what it means to have experience in a game, because I, too, believe I have "experience". But in this context, without the free press and judiciary, anyone is able to come along and nullify your experience and whatever your reputation is by slandering you falsely, and you will have no recourse. Your attempts to rectify the situation will be merely another ROC or TOS violation. You're definitely cornered on all sides unless you "get with the program". Even though you currently benefit from that state of affairs, I'm sure you're smart enough to realize that it is not in the long term benefits of our world, just as this kind of monopoly over granting of reputational status, granting of privileges, granting of economic access, is not good for Latin American countries from which people flee to North America to have more freedom.

Get it, Enabran? It's about being against the type of capitalism that is anti-democratic, anti-participatory, anti-rule-of-law, anti-everything but "me and my friends' businesses".

As for social networking, the closed, hothouse, fetid/feted social networking of SL is hardly a model nor is it really an open-system networking, it's much more like a secret society.

Ah yes, Comrade Neva, thank you for posting on the newspaper-wall. We must nationalize the businesses of these bourgeois capitalists and take away their ration cards.

If you weren't in such a perpetual bad mood, dear Prokofy, you could make friends too! Even Linden friends! People like pleasant people.

I never wooed anyone with a chip on my shoulder.

Alan, um, I'm not talking about Photobucket or Tripod, which I "self-taught" myself to use too duh, and use on my blog which is independent of SL.

Sure, anybody can take a screenshot, save it to their hard-drive, and upload it to some site somewhere on their own or commercial servers.

But that is not what I'm talking about. There is only ONE such service where you can *right in the game* pull up the in-game Linden e-mail function to send yourself or a loved one a snapshot on email, and type in "pics@sluniverse.com" and then *have it show up on the Linden front page if it is in PG" and then proceed on to Sluniverse.com

This is a great thing. I use it. But there can only be one great thing like this. Not too. Sure, someone else could come along and put the time and expense and reputational status involved in getting themselves and their Linden connections all set up. But who would bother, and why? The Lindens aren't going to start awarding this right to use their in-game e-mailer to just anybody, because their front page might then become overloaded.

In that sense, it was a scarce commodity, like bandwidth, or like television channels. That's why they are auctioned and/or licensed in RL. Here they weren't. It will have repercussions down the line.

I'm in a great mood, Enabran, and I don't have a chip on my shoulder -- geez, are you wearing a Prokofy Post Scanner on your wrist again??? Doesn't that thing get to be a nuisance sometimes going off all the time?

I have friends, but I don't feel any special need for making "Linden friends" any more than I feel any special need to make friends with the people who give me Internet or telephone service. So far, we've all gotten along fine without exchanging bears.

I realize that I always mentally conceive of this world as far larger and more tolerant than it is, and operate as if that were the case. Of course, I'm always brought to earth by discovering we're still in a little medieval village. It's ok, it there weren't people like me who began to live in a world as if it did exist, it is never brought into being.

So I will go on envisioning SL as an urban, pluralistic, democratic setting where anything is possible, even though daily I'm given evidence that it is a provincial, monopolistic, even fascistic setting where the motto really out to be "Our Imagination Your Adaptation".

... there you go, dropping the "fun" word again.

Where I have disagreed with Prokofy, blaze Spinnaker, and certain others in the past is in the implication that networking and other social factors constitutes a formal "conspiracy" and is by definition "bad". Where I have agreed with them is that there are groups of people who, often because of the reasons you've cited above, have a great deal of influence in SL, and among the Lindens - and it's hard for others with a different definition of SL (recreation or the creation of non-profitable art or work, for example) to have a "say". Why should they have a say? Because SL is sold as a place of unlimited fantasy. And for most real people outside of SL, fantasy, business, and modern consumerism do not fit together comfortably. Most people could not access the kind of influence those who play one kind of game in SL can.

That's one of the "social factors" we're both talking about. You say "To deny [the social factors] is to deny human nature." I agree with you. However, I'd also point out that redefining the social factors is not denying them, and so many of us claim that the metaverse is the place to experiment with precisely those kinds of definitions.

They just grab any snapshot sent to [email]pics@slpics.com[/email]......

If you built another snapshots page and provided a service that people wanted to use I bet you could ask them if they would also grab snapshots going to your email adress..

You're right, Prokofy. The corruption is rampant. Rampant! I can't conceive of how you tolerate its pervasive presence on the grid.

To combat this, I would like to take all of your ideas and combine them into a single revolution:

1. All Lindens who have established any sort of personal relationship with end users shall be terminated. New Lindens are barred from speaking to residents except in a scripted capacity.

2. All Linden alt accounts with non-Linden surnames are hereby closed.

3. All monopolistic services provided by residents shall be seized by the new, more enlightened and incorruptable Linden Lab.

4. "The Little Guy," hampered previously by the anti-competitive practices of a few residents, will be able to bid to share in the management and profit-making of these monopolies.

5. Instant Messages shared by all residents will be monitored. Any collaboration detected between multiple residents will result in immediate suspensions for those involveed.

6. Any users of the Second Life efnet IRC channel are hereby suspended indefinitely.

7. All users who are intensely familiar with the workings of Second Life are suspended indefinitely.

8. LSL is hereby deprecated. LSL shall be replaced with "Rental Scripting," a four-function scripting language designed solely to facilitate rental business and totally lacking in any functions that may be used for abusive, pernicious purposes.

9. All new business ideas and projects must be cleared with Linden Lab and obtain individual, special permission before being undertaken.

This revolution, while creating a vastly different world than we are used to, is necessary and required for the growth of Second Life. I regret that I have scuffled so long with Prookofy on this matter. It is clearly the only way.

I think your mad at times Enabran

The two components necessary for the proliferation of FUD-based threads (like this one) are someone to start it and people to follow up with various posts in response. If you just have the first, but not the second, threads like this would die a quick, natural death.

As for my Sunday, I plan to take my kids to see the movie Madagascar, do a little shopping, come home and grill something tasty for dinner, and then probably do some work in Photoshop on SL projects. I hope everybody else in SL has a productive and/or enjoyable Sunday, whatever you plan to do... including you, Prokofy.

I have a better idea, Enabran, and it is SO much simpler than your 9-step Revo Program!

Stop selectively prosecuting people for free expression on the forums. Allow a press press. It's especially silly to go on maintaining this silly fig leaf when Adam is about to launch a thousand blog ships that will all freely, without fear or favor, comment on SL.

Really, the advent of Adam's service makes the TOS obsolete and silly.

To be sure -- and he hasn't answered this bit -- he might arbitrarily just ban my IP to make sure I never criticize anything, but then, I"ve always got my own samizdat blog on typepad.com which so far hasn't fallen into the Fetaverse yet.

See, with a free press -- and for extra credit add a free independent judiciary and a free independent and adversarial bar -- we could eliminate all that nasty, angry, restrictive, hateful stuff you want to do in your Tropico "You Rule" World -- especially that silly rento thing, since you are so woefully behind, my new especially commissioned rento script even makes toast for me in the morning and pours tomato juice and adds a slice of lemon (contact me inworld if you want to buy a copy).

Prokofy's arguments are so weak that I am surprised it generates such a heated discussion (by responding I also contribute to this).

Basically what he is saying is, because Google controls the search engines, Ebay the auctions, Microsoft the operating system, Intel the chips, (each control more than 90% of their respective markets) they "grabbed" these since nobody actually auctioned "search engine" idea or "how to make computer chips" design. It really is ridiculous at best.

It is interesting that he could not resist but make reference to Russia (are you Russian Prokof?) where state owned industries were handed down to Barons. It is like saying, Lindens gave the "sole" right to create a snapshot business to Chip or airways in SL is exclusively licenced to Nexcom or half of SL land can only be developed by Anshe or whoever. These things have zero similarities.

This is how capitalism works and there are times it is good to have certain companies/organizations controling 90% of the market, else mass markets can not develop. But the disruptive power of individuals have the ability to break into monopolies now. Real life examples: Linux and Skype (breaking operating system and telecommunication monopolies respectively)

Who is stopping you from competing with any of the four companies you mentioned? Just because they were smarter, faster, more creative or had more capital, or invested more time than "you", doesn't mean you have the right to bash them and complain about monopolies. Why are you complaing so much?

Oh, it's all a load of laughs until somebody gets hurt...then it is deliciously hilarious, eh?