Four's Company, Five's a Crowd?

It's really simple Profsky.

We all read it here, we all understand what you are harping about.

You want a piece of the pie.

A big ol' chunk of the metauniverse pie.

But instead of investing your brainpower in creating something DIFFERENT or BETTER than what exists, you have decided that your creative content in SL shall be the harping, whining, and condemnation of anyone who creates the better pie crust.

Nevermind that you could create the filling. Nevermind that you could create a better piecrust.

You have an opportunity to create a pie, Provsky.

Or you can continue to criticize, sunder, condemn, and accuse falsely every person who does create a pie.

Sometimes you just can't run to the store to pick up a fresh pie. Sometimes you've got to get your hands dirty in the creative process to MAKE that pie.

If you would spend the hours you spend on the forums in a creative process, just imagine what you could create.

Until then, guess you'll have to settle for store-bought pie and whine about those who have "momma's down-home cookin" winning all the pie contests and those contests being rigged by the judges.

It's simple, really. It's really that simple.

Use your brainpower to read the recipe. Make your own damn pie and stop whining for pieces of other's pie. It's getting really, really old; and many are reading right through all of your words. "There's PIE there, I know there is -- now gimme my piece! I deserve that pie because I'm a member, too!"

Pied Piper of Second Life. Oh, we're following you. We can see right through you. Coz, you see, there's no filling in your pie. It's just crust.

Eboni, for the life of me, I can't understand why you've drawn any conclusion that I'm "miserable".

Oh, did you get the memo? When you posted awhile ago about my alleged "failed career" and "bitter divorce" and "perimenopause" -- did you realize that these RL details were from the *wrong* RL? That the google witch-hunters stalking me actually got the *wrong RL person on the Internet*? So I'm afraid you'll have to retract all that dreck.

Criticizing, analyzing -- these are normal things we do in New York City. Have you never read the New York Press, the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Nation, or for that matter, going over to Washington, DC, the New Republic? The National Review? These all contain bitter, sardonic, sarcastic commentary. This is our culture. It feels normal to me. I know to those in the fly-over states, and those in California, let alone places like Paris, France, Europe, this isn't the norm. Honestly, I often think that's the problem. It's just a cultural difference.

As for "torturing others" I guess you've never read all the nasty posts against me in the forums, seen the nasty IMs I get ingame, and the hatemail I get on my e-mail if you want to apply the word "torture" to me.

Monopolies usually exist if one of following conditions are met:

o One party has exclusive access to resources or the market that others don't have
o One party controls one platform or standard like EBay, Windows etc.

Both don't apply to land market since there is constant supply of new land that everybody can access. I dunno if Nexcom or Snapzilla can be called monopolies though. Basically any kinda website or database that becomes standard for something and has loads of content contributed by users has the danger of becoming one monopoly.

You have ignored this every time I have said it, so I will tell you this again. I know it blows a giant hole in your theory, so you will probably ignore it AGAIN, but here goes.

1) My site has no involvement in the pictures displaying on the front page of SecondLife.com. The images are not coming from the site. They are captured by Linden Lab before they ever leave their own servers. THis was their decision, and I found out about it after the site went live. CrystalShard Foo is the one who found out how they were doing this by doing some testing and noting the pictures appeared on their site before mine.

2) They chose to use the pictures going to my site because consent had already been given by proxy for the images to be in public view. Perhaps that was a bit of a stretch for them to do, but they did it anyway. It was their own choice, again, I found out after the fact.

3) In the next release, I have been told, there will be a checkbox giving permission to make your snapshot public on the SL.com page or not. This will apply to any snapshot going out of SL to any destination. I do believe the PG sim only rule will still applly.

4) What this means is if you want to get a picture of you in your raven avatar costume on the home page, then send an email postcard to your aunt Tillie in Fresno and it will show up there. THe same technique that is used to intercept pictures en route to my site will be used to capture pictures en route to anywhere.

5) Not that this is anyone's business, but after the launch of the new site, I contacted Robin and had a long conversation with her expressing some of my displeasure at not knowing about any of this. I was also concerned that it was the first step toward Linden Lab doing this themself. We resolved the issues I had, and she apologized for the lack of involvement with me on something that affected my site.

I know that doesn't jive well with your "I don't exactly buy that Cristiano didn't know", but I honestly did not and was quite bothered about certain aspects of it until I knew more information about it. I still think that Linden Lab has not commented on this enough and I have had to bear the brunt of explaining for them, which I should not have to do - but when people like yourself and Blaze constantly harp on it, I will not let you make misstatements about my site.

Make misstatements about SLExchange.com and watch how fast Anshe would push back against you - anyone would, and you are notorious for doing so. You have been particularly fixated on me. I imagine if Aimee Weber had a web venture you would be howling about it too.

Anshe I don't think you are a monopoly, though you are the largest presence in the land business by magnitudes, and the most visible. I am curious given the fact that SLExchange.com has far and away the most content for selling items how it also is not in danger of becoming a monopoly. I know there are competing sites - but SLExchange dwarfs them in content and traffic. If you want your product to be visible to the largest audience, you have to use your site. This fact benefits you financially and gives you the clout to set commission rates and fees.

I am slso not sure that a monopoly can apply to a free service. The Second Life Herald has the most content and is the only viable SL newspaper, but they are not a monopoly. To use the term monopoly so broadly is doing a disservice to non commercial web ventures.

The difference is, usually those publications contain some substance based in reality, as opposed to bitter, paranoid musings from online gamers with too much time on their hands.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. And quit yer whining!

Um, you're never read Alexander Cockburn in the Nation lol?

Honestly, Ingrid, if you are here answering my posts, one can only ask questions not only about your having too much time on your hands, but also ask questions about whether you, too, are a paranoid gamer who feels a sense of constant, untiring vigilance in wanting to protect her world from scorn and encroachment.

Anshe Chung:

Thank you. That's my point exactly, said in one sentence.

Stop hectoring harranging and pillorying me! This is a witch hunt going on here! Why are you answering my posts?

And unlike you, I enjoy my time in SL. I don't feel threatened or angry. It's a fun hobby. You should try it some time freak.

No, Cristiano, it's not that I ignore it, it's that I don't find it persuasive, because as I said, you exist in such a symbiotic relationship that you can no longer see it.



Cristiano, Cristiano, Cristiano. Why must I explain this one billion times. The ONLY way currently to get the pictures I'd like on the LL-owned site of SL it to SEND THEM TO YOU. You are currently the ONLY frequency I can turn into on this radio. You're it. That's all there is. I can't type "ftp.tripod.com" or [email]info@mysite.com[/email] or anything else.



So, other sites could do the same thing. But, why would they? And why would Linden labs bother to promote this anywhere else? They have all they need.



You're told that, are you Cristiano? Well, we're not! See, that's what I mean by the symbiotic relationship that is so intertwined you've ceased to notice that you are not like other mortals. You're told...by whom? And why?

Now, did the thought cross your mind that their "changing" of this might be at least in part due to their realization, postfactum, of what a feting they'd awarded you? Did it perhaps occur to them that not everybody who wants to put pictures on LL's sites wants it also to go to SLuniverse.com, or have the opportunity to get on SL's front page without having to go to Sluniverse.com?

Did that not occur to you? It sure occured to me. I don't know what their thought processes were, but they were obviously given some pause at the notion that just one person got to control the airwaves in that fashion.

Otherwise, there's be no need to make that change, would there?

So I was a little bit ahead of the curve and a bit premature, hmm? That's all. LL itself will wind up doing the same thing I wanted them to do all along, which is to make it possible for ANYONE to send a picture WITHOUT HAVING TO BE HAMSTRUNG into a Sluniverse.com relationship to do it. Especially given that you can bloc people's IP's any time you wish.




Yes, IF they put this in, I will get to be on the front page not because you like me, but because I can just mail something out to my Aunt Tillie. This is what I have been after all along, Cristiano, it's a simple, non-personal, generic issue: The same technique that is used to intercept pictures en route to my site will be used to capture pictures en route to anywhere

Now why was that so hard to admit? Was it that you hoped that no one would ever have the use of that same technique to write to their Aunt Tillie AND get on the front page but WITHOUT YOU? That's exactly my point -- and while you are saying it's all taken care of in the next patch, well, um...how many times have we heard about that in our patchwork world?




You were concerned that Linden Labs would make a picture display site like yours? Well why not? Most MMORPs do that.



I suppose your private dealings with LL on your joint project are just that -- your private dealings. Except you and they are public figures with high visibility in a game world where reputational enhancements control market share in a very exaggerated way, in ways they don't in RL.



I pointed out that SLExchange.com was top in the field, had little dissent (except possibly from a giant controlling also the blogosphere and the private island market, too, secondserver.com). What, that's something that Anshe has to push back against? Anshe isn't touchy and hysterical about her pride of place so she doesn't comment. You are, so you do.

Why would Aimee Weber need her own web site when she has this one?

In the future, Second Life’s postcard user interface will contain a checkbox asking postcard senders if they’d like to publish their images publicly. Until then, Cristiano Midnight has been kind enough to grant us permission

Uh, Pendari, that doesn't tell us WHEN, for one -- I do certainly recall reading it back in the day.

MORE to the point, it doesn't tell us this all-important detail: whether or not our emails addressed TO ANYBODY ELSE EXCEPT CRISTIANO WILL ALSO GET TO BE ON THE FRONT PAGE.

dUH.

Yes. After they had already implemented the feature. What's your point? Before they used this email address, any pictures at all that were emailed out were able to be seen on the website. Since they realized that not all people emailing pictures to their mom or lover would necessarily want their pictures to be public, they came up with a temporary email address to use specifically for knowing which ones to put on the front page. After the update, you will again be able to use any email address and get your picture on the front page if you check the option to allow it.

"Back in the day" was a little less than 3 weeks ago. I included the link in my post. And of course you remember that thread. It is the one where you accused Cris of collecting email address from picture senders (which was false - but that discussion is on that thread).

And no, it doesn't say when, but if I searched enough threads/posts I'm sure I could probably find a "soon" in there somewhere. But that is splitting hairs really. Because it *is* coming in the future, as was stated.

I'm sorry you are pissed that you can no longer claim Cristiano was the only one to hear this special news. Actually, I'm not sorry, but that is neither here nor there.

You can get your own pics on the front page by sending them to SLpics, just like everyone else. How freaking dense are you? In case you hadn't noticed SLPics is not for profit and I'm sure costs Cris a considerable amount of money in bandwidth fees to provide this free service. The Horror! The evil insider monopoly! Way to appreciate generosity there Prok.

For the record I lived in NYC for three years and have lived in DC for eleven, and in all that time I've never met such a shrill ignorant blowhard. But you carry on with your "well that's the way we do it here in the big city. You must just all be bumpkins" bullshit.

It doesn't matter because Second Life is not the metaverse.

Hey, Prok, Bug says hi!

Hehe..Prok...do you ever sit back and read your own posts..like a thread full of them, and notice the desperate, bitter and unreasoning sound of them? If there are so many others, this multitude that see corruption and conspiracy with LL and SL, why aren't they backing you? Other than your alts I mean.

Thye simple fact is, anyone can create whatever they want within SL. If it's clever enough, talented enough, hits the right spot at the right time, or is just damn fun, it WILL be successful. Even without marketing. Word gets out. I've seen newbs barely out of their WA diapers come up with a great idea and implement it and be very successful. I run across new designers all the time that are putting out some fantastic stuff. New scriptors are constantly pushing the envelope.

It really just does come across as you being very bitter about other's talent and success.

If you want to run a business in SL, and have it be very successful, wouldn't you want to:

A. Create something the public wants.

B. Make sure folks know about it.

C. Sell it to them.

After reading this entire thread, the only real arguement that you have, or can prove, is that there are really successful creators and great ideas in SL, and you are pissed because you aren't one of them...

and D. Not be a complete asshole.

My god you are purposely obtuse, and it is sickening. You know full well what that sentence means, quit acting like a petulant child.

BTW, when did the pictures on the front page of SecondLIfe.com take on such holy importance, Prokofy? Unlike my site, which is viewed mostly by current SL users who are actually looking at the pictures and teleporting to the places shown, the marketing site is for non-SL residents anyway. Do you really think your picture being up there for the few minutes that it is there is all that important? My God, how did SL ever survive all these 2+ years without that feature? You have assigned so much importance to it mostly just to bash me.

As far as how I found out about the checkbox, in my conversation with Robin about my site, I asked the question myself of why they were taking the images only destined for my site - it came down to the fact that they didn't have permission from users for any others. Why wouldn't she tell me that they were opening it up once they had permission from users? The information had already been posted to the forums as well, I just had not seen it. I swear, if they had just taken any old image sent to friends and loved ones, you would be howling about that too. Saran wrap has nothing on your transparency, Prokofy.

The funny part is that because of Prokofy's technical ignorance, he once again made a claim that is just not true. Even if I blocked someone from showing up on my site, they would still show up on secondlife.com since they grab the pictures before the email is sent out of their servers. Never mind that though, it is more lurid to claim that I weild all this power over the front page.

Pretty much like I said. This entire fiasco is over SLPics. Nothing else. It never has been about anything else, or was supposed to be about anything else.

Want proof? Here's a fun way for you kids following along at home to verify what I'm saying.

Just try to poke at that "THERE IS ONLY ONE OF ANYTHING!" line a bit. The only response you will ever get to challenging that is that there is only one SLPics service that results in pictures posting on a the secondlife.com homepage. Anything else is ignored like the month-old brusslesprouts in the back of the fridge.

I think this thread is done.

that though, it is more lurid to claim that I weild all this power over the front page.

Um, duh, I'm well aware of that and said the same thing the last 10 times you tried to claim I didn't get this ROFL.

I'm talking about the ability to STORE and KEEP ON VIEW the pics after they leave the website.

That hardly requires a degree in rocket science to get a handle on.

Behold the incredible morphing premise!

Everytime you visit a website there's info stored... I even bet I have some of your info on one of my HDD. You were quite transparent about yourself back in the old AV Herald days. Point being the only way to prevent what you seemingly fear is to rip the cable out from your computer.