My Statement on the MJW Thing

As you all know by now, last night was the Clash of the Goliaths and the MJW fell into disarray.

I just got done reading the transcript of it someone posted, to catch up on what went on after I left and before I returned. Last night I was pretty tired, and the minute I got on the game, I was hit by two notecards (I never did have time to read them) and IM's from various interested parties, and a big argument going on in the MJW channel.

The last time the officers had talked - which was only late the night before - it was agreed, at my urging, that all meetings would have enough advance notice for all interested parties to attend. It was agreed there would be one initial officers meeting on Sunday - giving all officers a reasonable time to get on and receive the notification (I believe at least two still were not present even that night, night before last). And there would be two meetings each week thereafter for everyone in the group, one at a time good for Europeans, and one at a good time for those in the U.S.

It was agreed that we would work toward having elections, even though such isn't required of any group in SL, and even though we were not purporting or intending to be any kind of government. We agreed that legitimate elections would be a good idea.

This was where we left it late Friday night. I sent out the notices, working with Anshe on the wording, and ok, so all that was fine, and the next thing I had to worry about was attending was the officers' meeting on Sunday. I understood this would be to make sure all officers were ALL okay with all this, and then the regular group meetings would start.

Last night - Friday - I get on late and discover two notecards from Anshe, about having general elections on Sunday. By this time, I was aware that she considered Prok to be detrimental to long-term group efforts and to building alliances. Meanwhile, Prok had started talking to people on the group channel to protest what looked like a rushed paste-up, non-legitimate election, to be finished by Sunday, which was the day we were supposed to have the first real officers' meeting, much less elections or anything else. And I don't fault him for doing that at all. I might have done it myself, had it been me.

Apparently, Anshe had intended this announcement of elections - which she'd sent only to officers - to be something for us to merely discuss, rather than a final announcement of these elections. Unfortunately, there was apparently nothing on the notecards to suggest to Prok or others that this was just a proposal, rather than a done-deal announcement of elections to be held on Sunday.

Indeed, it seemed impossible to me that we COULD discuss it, much less implement the election and have it over with on Sunday afternoon, possibly even BEFORE the first officers meeting to which all officers could reasonably hope to have had enough advance notice to be able to attend.

Well, this made me pretty cranky. I had apparently sent out those announcements of the three upcoming meetings, yet I could well have not logged on until Sunday and then that unbeknownst to me and to other officers, elections had been held, and we would not have even known to RUN; we would be out, and making time to attend a Sunday afternoon officer's meeting with not even a point to doing so.

I argued during the gathering last night that the precipitousness of all of this was ill-advised, in addition to being a waste of my time in sending out announcements of meetings for the entire group. Anshe could no longer work with Prok, and wanted him out. I wish she had known this before she began. Whether I sympathize with or understand with Anshe's feelings, and I do understand her position and agree with much of it, there was obviously nothing considerate about scheduling an open election even before both the officers' and the members' meetings. And better just to get with Prok and fight it out the two of them, rather than doing it this way. And even if it was just a proposal, it is dysfunctional to rush through proposals, elections, and whatnot before even the officers have a chance to find out what is going on, much less the members.

Also, Anshe typed up the notecards regarding this election that was to take place by Sunday with the help of someone not an officer. Thus, he knew more about what was going on than the other officers did.

When these points were brought up last night, Anshee agreed that it might require more time, and asked when would be a good time to hold elections, and so forth. But by that point, I wasn't in any mood to be helpful with any suggestions. I had expected we would all make suggestions during the agreed-upon OFFICER'S meeting, on a Sunday - not sit there and give suggestions just because whatever officers were on - and members - had been lucky enough to log on and find out all this was going on in time.

Regardless of interpersonal arguments or antagonisms, regardless of who's right in what or wrong in what, no organization can function this way.

So that's what happened from my point of view. Basically - one big battle of the Titans. Combined with what still looks undeniably to me like a certain element of skullduggery. Neither of which is at all helpful toward forstering the goals of the organization.

OK. So I was pretty cranky and disgusted with the whole thing last night. Then - reading the transcript a little while ago, the humor of it struck me. It really was a pretty entertaining transcript, including the part where I accidentally typed something like "u nea b sgiykdbt be tii riysged". Reading it - rather than being in it and leaving in disgust - was actually kind of entertaining.

But even last night, I knew that a lot HAD been accomplished. By me, by Prok, and by Anshe. The ideals and desires as roughly outlined on the notecard struck a chord with all the officers, and a large number of sincere members, as well. Like Mulch, I, too, was excited about the possibility of members as diverse as Anshe, Prok, and Aimee actually pulling together in a sincere effort to try to bring about good changes for all of us.

I commend and appreciate Mulch for that, and also all the members who sincerely wanted to see improvements made in the areas of fairness and equality, transparency of disiplinary actions and more rights of defense for individuals accused of misconduct, no special treatment or benefits for individual businesses, and more input from the business sector (businesses of all kinds) in Linden decisions which affect their businesses, and other such concerns people have.

In fact, reading the transcript, including the part after I had left, I was heartened by the sincerity of all those who really do want to work for these improvements, whose comments were virtually lost among all the bickering and political talk.

I still remain interested in seeing these things I consider improvements come to pass, and I am still interested, as are Mulch and many others there, in helping make our desires known. The Lindens are willing to listen to everyone's concerns, including that of any group with concrete suggestions to make. None of us should ever listen to those who would tell us to shut up; that it's the Lindens' platform; and that if we don't like every last bit of it exactly as it is, we should vote with our pocketbooks and leave SL.

Do we want that? If that is what we truly want, then what we are wishing for is the decline of SL - both in decline of subscriptions directly, and in decline of the happiness of the subscribers. No one should EVER tell anyone not to work toward what they want for an society - in this case SL - they love and enjoy and wish only to enjoy more, and to BE more enjoyable for more.

I'm willing to work with any group, and any number of groups simultaneously, whose agenda and goals share a commonality with my own, regardless of whose group it is or who is in it.

As always, I'm willing to work with Anshe, or Prok, or anyone who is sincerely interested in changes such as these, to the extent I have time available, and to the extent that the group is logically organized, with regard for everyone's input in a reasonably timely fashion, than the chaos has transpired with MJW these past few days.

But at least the issues have been raised. They are valid ones, and probably, for the most part, not too much to ask for. And basically, all we have to DO is ask! The Lindens will do what they can to accomodate everyone, and if there are those of us with ideas of how to improve justice and fairness and equal opportunity for all - and it is obvious there are - I can guarantee you the Lindens are not exactly going to fall over laughing at our suggestions. They are going to listen, and try to work with us to achieve those ends that can make SL a better place for all of us.

coco

Exactly when and to whom did you send notices about future meetings, elections, et. al. from your meeting on late Friday night (or do you mean Thursday night?). As a member of the group, I did not receive a notice from anyone regarding these issues. I was surprised with two vote proposals on Friday morning when I logged in. Other than that group communication was limited to the officer's free-for-all last night (Friday/Sat.)

Other than that I agree with you and would be interested in working towards the goals set forth in the first notecard from the MJW group (with hopefully a different group name or not as a group at all, but rather as individual account holders).

It was Thursday night. I sent an individual IM to all the officers regarding the Sunday officers meeting. (Which was absolutely the soonest I could agree to having it, since even that was short notice.)

I also sent out notices to all the members in the form of a proposal, as Anshe said to do it, giving the times of the meetings on Monday and on Tuesday. I asked if this should be done via a group IM (I've never tried that and still don't know if that works) or via a proposal. She said a proposal, with a quorum of 1, and a 3-day time. I figured none of it mattered because it was really just an announcement of meeting times, rather than a rule proposal or something.

If you didn't get this, I don't know why, but it may be one of those proposals you said you saw? But it wasn't anything about elections; it just told of the upcoming meeting times.

coco

Actually very late on Thursday night, I think around 1 am on friday morning when I sent the notices.

Ok, yeah, it did come as a proposal, requesting elections with a 2/3 vote, which I think I clicked "Later" on. It was quickly followed by a proposal from Prok, countering it. Confusion abounds.

I just want to say that I think that the basic ideas behind the groups proposals were sound.

I do think there are things in SL that need to be addressed, and fixed.

The website pics, Lindens modeling for SLer's businesses, etc.

The basic differences I have with some of the MJW activity/members:

-I do not see these issues as indicative of some pervasive, chronic condition (FIC). I see them as acute problems, which, when viewed from a cynical angle, give some folks the impression that there is some rampant favoritism problem.

-I found Anshe's opening address to the Lindens extremely distasteful, self-serving, and arrogant. No one, not the person who stops in one night a week to play Tringo, nor the person who wants to play war in Jessie, have any less stake in SL. Period. That type of thinking is the stuff RW wars are born of, so it's no wonder people were screaming bloody murder over it. It was patently absurd and pretentious. Equally the NDA thing. No one SLer or small group of SLers should ever be privy to more LL policy info than others.

EDIT: I am going to place on hold my above stated feelings about Anshe. We spoke about the issue, and after some explanation and assurances given me, I feel it is fair to give her the benefit of the doubt, at least for now. I intend to attend her new group's functions, as an extension of an olive branch, until such time she proves to me that the feelings she conveyed to me last evening were other than in good faith. I look forward to hearing what she and her new group have to say.

-I found Prokofy's want to exclude content creators unless they agreed to agree with him on one of his pet issues to be highly disturbing, absurd, and hypocritical, when juxtaposed with everything that he has preached over the past year about the pitfalls of excluding ANYONE based upon their individual beliefs.

Yes, I realize that Anshe and Prok were not the whole group, and thank the stars for that. I think cooler and less self-serving heads should have had as loud a voice as they did, and hopefully now they will.

The fact remains, they were the loudest, and they are the ones who have the highest public profiles, so naturally a lot of attention gets paid to their words, especially when they place themselves in a position which appeared to most, as leaders of the effort.

In the end, the delivery, the classism, and exclusionary rhetoric, not to mention the short period of preparation, are what tarnished this for many of us watching from the bleachers.

Define the issues, don't let the issues define you.

The elections thingie went out to everyone?

I was just talking about my sending out notices of the upcoming meetings, which Anshe said should be sent out as proposals.

I knew nothing of the electing stuff, and Anshe had stated the notecards about the election were sent only to the officers, as things to discuss.

In any case, the thing I sent out was only to tell what time the weekly meetings would be held.

coco

This really isn't news to everyone who hasn't imbibed a few too many pitchers of Prokofy's Kool-Aid. Oh well, at least you've caught up. Some people get it in their first week, others take seven months. Everyone is different!

Well hopefully an initiative will eventually push forward that actually has equality and fairness in mind and have an opportunity to do something.

But it's easy to see how agenda and ego can tear something like that apart.. In this I think folks were lucky to see how quickly those things came to the fore.

oh, and everything Nolan said too.... good points.

no dang

sorry. I'm not going to blow my discretion about other people's things just to spell things out for Enabran. I hope I cought this in time

coco

I guess so. I don't see anything by [that party] in this thread. In any case, I don't see how that makes my remark any less true. (And if you want to say things directly to [that party] in the future without commentary by others, check out that nifty Private Message thingie!)

edit:



Guess not. Oh well. Gotta love that quote feature!

Terrific, Enabran. I say something I regret cause it might put another in an undesired singled-out spot, and you go and pull it out anyway, making sure that happens.

And if you had any sense of fairness, you know that I have praised the Lindens for their accessibility without fail during my entire time on SL.

coco

Lookie. Why don't you and me just meet up behind the welcome area somewhere and have it out with pistols at dawn?

I still don't even know what you're talking about, though. So if it's any comfort, your indiscretion is wholly lost on little ol' me.

I don't know but this whole thing seems rather chaotic and disturbing.

It seems to be too self serving. And like others pointing out, it could have been done without the condescending remarks.

I'm sorry Coco, but it seems like they all broke faith with you, judging from the hassles you went through. That was just not fair to you. I don't know how you can continue to support people treating you like this. You are a better person than I am.

/me hugs Coco

****


__________
A proud member of PIC = Pudding Inner Core
__________________

No, my office is behind the Welcome Area. Please don't come and grief me with the newbie pistol.

Any attempt to create a lobbying group, PAC, or whatever you want to call, is going to be exlusionary... it can't help but be by virtue of the fact that 95% of SL* (*genuine made up statistic) will have no interest in participating. Therefore any group that elects themselves as some sort of community representative will be only representative of its leaders and most active members.

What issues are so important that the already existing channels of communication are insufficient? Should LL have to put on a dog and pony show any time some group who desires it asks for one? That's fine as long as LL doesn't mind doing that, but how scaleable is it? There's only so many Lindens and only one Philip. Is it that people want a pat on the head after they've spoken an opinion that says "I heard you"? Really. I don't get it. This isn't really about people wanting more open channels of communication at all. It's about people who think that organizing might be a means of pressuring LL into being dictated to. Is that what we really want?

Maybe a better use of people's time would be to encourage more people to be active in the forums, and to vote. That at least would be more than just a feel good exercise.

Yes indeed! And one more thing, please please, don't you guys compare yourself to ACLU or Amnesty International. It denigrates these institutions and sounds so comical that you lose your credibility on the spot.

/120/67/59928/17.html#post630119

While the title of my post may make some of the "patriots" feel "proud to be an American Where at Least (you) Know (you're) Free," a third more attractive option of "working within the system" to make a change is curiously omitted, as if dissent is a bad thing.

The "vote with your wallets or shut up" argument mirrors this argument as the Lindens HAVE given us more options.

But those of us who tried to exercise those options were pretty much given the old "with us or against us" or "dissension = not supporting the troops" spiel given to "American Hating Traitors" of this day.

I am glad that free association and freedom of speech and freedom to assemble are protected in this country (for the moment) AND by LL. Myself, Coco, and many others also head down a path that few bothered to explore and instead of being thanked for helping expand the map of options, we dealt with the likes of those who would drive over memorial crosses because they didn't agree with who put them up.

In some respects I am sad how things turned out for MJW, but even though we hung separately as opposed to together, the sacrifice was not in vain.

And I am heartened that some recognize that pre-existing bias had more to do with how this situation was framed. And even if the bias was justified, there were some who put it aside to work for a greater good.

If anything comes from this long term in how group dynamics work to initiate change in SL, even though the ending was a farcical theater of the absurd, I am thankful that Prok and Anshe put aside their differences to start the snowball rolling down the hill, regardless of how petty and self serving their motives actually may have been.

For others who earned more aggravation than they deserved trying to clear roadblocks of the paranoid, working together does amount to something one small step at a time, and I thank you for persevering.

Any change starts with little steps, but the ground that his been covered in this controversy from all sides covers enough ground to make a new continent. I mean, Aimee and Prok officers in the same group working toward the same goals? Would you have believe such speculation a mere 1 week ago?

Philip encouraging people to come together to help grow and better the platform. To some this means nothing, to others the ramifications are so great it is the equivalent of seeing a satellite picture when you were a flat earth-er. Is there anyone that really thinks leaving SL is a better, more productive response than what the creator of the platform suggests; helping him make this place better?

I think I have called Prok and Anshe to task for the infighting and ulterior motives that destroyed everything, but I for one want to thank them for leading an expedition into uncharted territory. It is a shame that it is more likely to be their undoing that is remembered by most, but laying the framework that I know you both spent a lot of time doing, is worthy of praise, even if I think you made a lot of mistakes or if some (including me) now question your motivations.

I linked my response from the locked thread because many people deserve thanks for doing instead of bitching and I did my best to thank others there, but the team that started deserved some thanks because they truly did do something good for everyone, even those who fail to recognize the significance because of personal bias (which might very well be deserved).

Someone has to start the snowball and others need to clear a path and nourish it while it is small, and while the people who started it are but a dot on the horizon now, and those of us who worked to remove obstacles are not needed, we all are now rewarded with a snowball whose size grows by its own momentum (for instance the formation of a few other groups who want a voice).

Thank all of you who helped this snowball grow, even if I disagreed with you, think you are an idiot, or just plain don't like you. You still gave me and others an option to the "love it or leave it" mentality that is so popular in impeding progress.

Well Coconut your stand was about 13,000 too many words for me to properly digest and I admit to dying out in the middle of it. If you can condense it to one sentence maybe I can figure it out.

But if I may make an attempt:

United we stand, divided we fall.

Once again, I think Chip spelled out matters quite nicely. Nothing to add to this statement beyond three words: Polarization is bad.


Now this, on the other hand...

On encouraging forum attendance, I agree. Really it's one of the most effective communication channels, despite the drama.

Voting, on the other hand, doesn't suffer from a dearth of residents; it suffers from too little attention from the Lindens. At this time, I don't have a solution to that problem, other than simply adding manpower to the system.

I belive the current leadership of the MJW would say something like "'Tiz but a flesh-wound!" but many observers would shout back "Your arm's off!"

This assumes fandom of the Python, however.

"It" being MJW or the ideals on the notecard?

I am not currently in MJW but if some internal things can be mended to put issues before personalities, I for one would be happy to pick up and stitch back on the arm that may or may not be blown off.

I think in retrospect, despite its apparent failure anyone with a grip on history will realize this group was indeed a spark that ignited something, what exactly we just don't know yet.

I am on the fence now, I wish to continue on the notecard agenda but in order to do that from within MJW, some personality, internal structure, and mechanisms for MJW need to be examined and formalized.

I agree that encouraging greater participation in the forums would be ideal. Its like a community newspaper, and the Lindens do take the time to read what is posted so its a good method for communication.

Plus, as I know first hand, an issue discussed on the forums garners attention which attracts readers, posters as well as the Lindens.