Close The Grid Already!

Just now it struck me, right there on the front page of secondlife.com - the noobish avatar of Philip Linden pointing at the reader like a latterday Uncle Sam, saying ‘YOU might be a LINDEN!‘ I don’t know if Uncle Philip often gets to visit the grid, but if he can, I invite him to play Mentor for an hour or so and explain to all those new Residents we are so desperately trying to interest in staying longer than a day that yes, SL is great, there is so much to see and to do, but you know, Search is down and so is Map, teleports are shakey at best so you had better stay here on Help Island and bore yourselves to an untimely death.

Seriously, the best advice given to anyone right now is to switch off and try again tomorrow, without any guarantee that the grid will be better - if it’s up. With inventory losses running high, abuse reports not working because the people finder won’t run and Linden dollar transactions at your own risk - if at all possible - shouldn’t they just close the grid to prevent further mayhem?

Anyone entering the world now can be considered a loss. They won’t be coming back - only a true fanatic will hang on by their teeth and in order to become such an addict you need a little bit more than Orientation and Help Island - if they get that far, that is. And older Residents facing inventory losses - some are paying for the privilege - might also call it quits. Close the damn grid already, that’s called damage control.

And eh… I can be a Linden? Who in their right mind would want that?

12 Oh: “I Love This Sim”

The surprise couldn’t have been bigger. On the plot of land formerly occupied by the 12Monkeys casino in Topgol a small wooden church has arisen. Owner 12 Oh, looking like an old and angry man, rolls around it in a wheelchair, clutching a 12Monkeys box which says ‘Click box to load website!’ It is sad to see him like that, broken, clutching a lost dream.

But things in Second Life are often not as they seem. I had a short conversation with the man all of us hated because of his laggy, noob-pulling gambling emporium. Lost dream? He, at least, came out on top.

On Free Speech and Gambling

There is a fine American saying: ‘I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it.‘ Today at Help Island and Orientation Island I witnessed how people struggle with that idea when gambling aficionados peacefully if loudly protested the new ban on ‘wagering’. While Amber and Iridium Linden were very clear about everyone’s right to protest, some of my fellow Mentors thought it better to try to (violently) remove them, send abuse reports, insult them or (quite unjustly) throw the ToS at them.
I have no love lost for gambling. I hate SL casino’s for the ugly, laggy, camper-infested, cheap structures that they are. I don’t visit casino’s, I don’t spend money in them, I do not associate with them. But everyone, from the lowliest camping newb to the most-paying, land-owning ueber-avatar, has a right to voice their opinion. Money does not buy more freedom than others - SL is not an Orwellian fiction.

So then, on to my opinion. Whereas I am against banning any words from any in- or off-world function of Second Life, I do believe that Linden Lab is correct in closing down gambling establishments because of real world laws. It is of course lamentable that RL is infringing on SL in such a way, but those who believe SL to be a completely lawless, unchartered new planet are living in a dreamworld. It would be all the harder on them if the US authorities decided to take action instead of Linden Lab.

Rather than the next step in banning words - ‘gaming’ had already become the new ‘gambling’ - and thus stifling more of our freedom of expression and making it harder to market legit products and services, this step makes sense. The next step should of course be to unban the words associated with wagering, so I can, for example, host a talk under the title of ‘life is a gamble’, and, more importantly, so LL can use Search to actually find illegitimate activities, instead of forcing the organizers to go underground.

And yet… this bodes ill for the future. Are we going to remain largely free in SL or is more restriction going to follow? Are we slowly descending into an entirely child-proof Disneyworld? We need to remain vigilant about these matters and we need to stand up for the freedoms that we have now. And if need be, protest - no matter what some of my fellow Mentors might think about it.

(comments closed due to high volume of gambling site spam, 5/200

Can’t Say “Teen” In Events

Linden Lab calls it’s grid for minors Teen Second Life, but you can’t use that name in the Events calendar. Here’s a couple of attempts at posting an Event - when will the fun ever stop?

 

#1 - What is the future of Second Life? If it’s to be the rebirth of Internet, is Linden Lab going about it in the right way? The original Internet has weathered the storms of negative publicity it encountered in the beginning unscathed, but LL seems to be less resilient and reverts to censorship, far-fetched identity verification plans and a “Teen” Second Life.

Is LL showing the way to the future or have they relinquished their spot among the avant garde due to lack of spine?

Discussion Hour

Tomorrow: what is the future of Second Life? If it’s to be the rebirth of Internet, is Linden Lab going about it in the right way? The original Internet has weathered the storms of negative publicity it encountered in the beginning unscathed, but LL seems to be less resilient and reverts to censorship, far-fetched identity verification plans and a “Teen” Second Life which, predictably, is immensely impopular.

Is Linden Lab showing the way to the future or have they relinquished their spot among the avant garde due to lack of spine? Tomorrow, 12 PM SLT, 21:00 CET, on board MS Parkkade in Tamarind Bay.

Repubblica Wants To See You Both

On the website of one of the main Italian national newspapers I found the following article (translated):

Real Life and Second Life

Here Is My Avatar

Rome - The 3D metaverse that was created in 2003 by the Californian company Linden Lab, populated by millions of users, gives everyone the possibility to live in a digital world with a new face and a different look.

But how are we different in this our second life? Send us a picture of yourself and your avatar (with respective names) and, if you want, some words about yourself.

A selection of pictures will then be published on Repubblica.it and in the [printed Friday supplement] “Venerdì”.

Send to iniziative@repubblica.it

Trust the ever fashion conscious and technology savvy Italians to start an initiative like that! I must say that I don’t think that sending a few words in anything but Italian makes any sense, but you could try. I am certainly going to send in my RL/SL mixed picture!

…ehhh… Daniel?

You know, I don’t know what’s worse. Being told by Robin that she really doesn’t want to have a certain conversation, or just standing in a cornfield to wait for one of her colleagues who never shows up. Apart from being a loudmouth with a not-so-succesful shop in Second Life, I also have a real life, with a real and busy and at times very demanding job, whereas for Daniel, Second Life is the job. So if I take time away from my busy RL dealings, it would be nice to know that it’s for more than a chat with Wyn, however pleasant that may be (/me nods at Wyn).

I won’t be the one complaining when someone is late a few times. But Daniel is habitually late and today he wasn’t there at all, and he left no note. Maybe he was sick, maybe he simply forgot, maybe he overslept - but maybe there’s a certain arrogance behind it towards Residents. ‘I’m busy now, they can see me next week‘. I can’t know for sure but with someone who is late so often, it sure seems that that’s the problem. And for someone who is director of Community Affairs, that is a big problem indeed.

POSTSCRIPT - Daniel IM’ed me in-world a few hours after the planned Office Hour (I had IM’ed him to know if we were at the right spot) and cited a very good reason indeed for his absence: a sick child. So let me wish the kid speedy recovery and apologize to Daniel for the incriminations above. Seriously - I should’ve waited before posting this.

Robin Has Enough Of It

As I ran into another, as yet unclarified issue with posting my last Discussion Hour to the Events calendar, where my text* was refused and refused again until I had whittled it down to a single sentence, I decided to once more ask Robin for a clarification. Instead I got this:

Laetizia, I really, really don’t want to have this conversation again.

Well me neither, honestly. I am sick and tired of the subject and all the conflicting signals I have been getting around the Discussion Hours these weeks. But out comes the background:

I know you don’t agree that we should do this, but I’m afraid our lawyers disagree.

Right. Well I can’t argue with lawyers - everyone knows that is an impossibility. They don’t deal with language in the way a professional like me does, but in a deceptive way, to find loopholes and cover asses. So that’s what it’s all about. The Dutch say that you are contaminated by whom you deal with, and to illustrate that ancient wisdom, allow me to highlight one more point Robin made.

Laetizia Coronet: Robin, there is no list of forbidden words/ letter groups in Events?

Robin Linden: There’s no list of letter groups anywhere.

Laetizia Coronet: Robin, now really! I have proof of there being one. [I]n a test with Classifieds I got a notice saying ‘loli’ is a banned letter group. Now if that is one, there is a list.

Robin Linden: Loli isn’t a letter group in this context, it’s short hand for a role-playing character.

Note how she doesn’t mention words and instead sticks to the letter groups to debunk that and thus ignore the main question. Objection, Your Honor! No wonder she wanted to talk about voice instead - it’ll take away the ease with which we can read back and pick apart her slippery statements.

Prejudice and Reality

It’s odd, isn’t it, how Second Life confronts us with the importance of visuals when assessing other people. Even when confronted with things we will never see in real life - talking teddybears, flying humanoid cats - we appear to automatically have a preconceived idea. For some reason I seem to have to think that tiny furry avatars are intelligent. I have absolutely no idea where that comes from - and it doesn’t work for the giggly kind with the pacifiers - but there you have it. Maybe I think that being tiny means to at least have some experience in Second Life, maybe I think the average truck driver or garbage collector would never choose such an avi - and maybe I have simply seen too many sci-fi and fantasy movies with Yodas and the like.

And then there’s the ‘untouchables’ - a dark, devilish avatar with lots of wings and what have you is simply not inviting, so I tend to leave them alone. What doesn’t help is a group title with any of the words Lord, Master, darkness or doom in it. You know the sort. And each time I do speak to those kinds of people I am surprised that they actually speak like any of us.

But then - I met a fiery red, naked devil who turned out to be a friendly Vietnam veteran (and so at least fiftysomething). I met a newbie in almost perfect ‘griefer look’ - and he’s a British psychotherapist. One of my oldest friends has a plethora of imposing, ‘tricked out’ avatars and he’s a soft-spoken Buddhist.

I guess prejudice is ingrained in human nature deeply. And I think the trick is to allow yourself to continue to be surprised by the inaccuracy of it. And that’s as true in real life as it is in Second Life.

Discussion Hour

This week the topic will be ethnicity in Second Life. Do you have an avatar with non-Caucasian (i.e. non-European) looks? Are you of a different ethnic backgroud in real life? Why are African avatars so rare? Why doesn’t Linden Lab offer an African type avatar to newbies? Issues abound…

Tuesday, July 17th, 12 PM SLT (21:00 CET) on board MS Parkkade in Tamarind Bay.