Catz Second Life

'Second Life' enters the world of mobile phones

2008-06-04T06:04:00.000-07:00

'Second Life' enters the world of mobile phones

SLB5 Second Life Birthday #5 - A glimpse into the future of Second Life?

2008-06-04T05:32:00.000-07:00

SLB5 Second Life Birthday #5 - A glimpse into the future of Second Life?

At Massively.comEverett Linden said the following:

“Everett Linden said...
Hey everyone...there's a lot of misunderstanding here, so let me try to articulate our policy here.

Child avatars are welcome at the celebration. However, we do respectfully decline the submissions we received to create exhibits for the event.

Goreans, role-players, and members of the multitude of international communities are all welcome, and I hope you come. “

Followed by many resident posting on the Second Life Blog Linden Lab somewhat awkwardly retracted the statement of Everett. At least I believe on the surface they tried to retract the statement without saying flat out that the child avatar community builds were welcome. Linden Lab is really good at saying a lot without saying anything at all. One of my biggest complaints. Simple is best, why is that so hard for them to understand.

Of course this leaves me wondering what exactly prompted Linden Lab to single out the Child Avatar community? I found it also very odd that Everett welcomed the Gorean community over the Child Avatar communities.

Child Avatars have made the news lately when some adult avatars were found to be having virtual sex with the child avatars. Keep in mind even the child avatars are in reality and real life adults. Don’t get me wrong I think that even role-playing child and adult sex, is wrong, and in my opinion perverse. Linden Lab did take it upon themselves to change the TOS and that type of behavior is now a ban-able offense.

Child avatars are allowed on the main adult grid. These folks are simply adults pretending to be children for a multitude of reasons. Reliving their childhood, having a family unit, playing as children ect. I am not about to judge these ppl as I know at least one of them and my personal experience was sitting with a child dinosaur and hugging and singing lullabies and it was all perfectly innocent. I made another human being feel loved if only for a moment and all it took was me sitting quietly with that person in their role-playing world. At no time was my encounter with this child avatar sexual in nature. Most child avatar communities are simply role-playing “family”, big deal.

However Linden Lab did single this community out and that raises a red flag with me. Especially given in the same statement that the Gorean community was welcome. The Gorean community is very much about sex but all of the literature in world is a direct copy right infringement. As the author never gave permission for his work to be copied in world. So what exactly is Linden Lab implying here. That families are not welcome in Second Life but that those who are; overtly sexual; BSDM, submissive and dominate and rip the work of real life authors are? Well that’s just wacky. Let me also state that I am not against the Gorean community either. Except the copyright infringement part. Those communities should be making up their own paperwork to live their Second Lives by.

Again I say at Linden Lab the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. Another fine PR mess.

It’s my opinion that Linden Lab is trying to hide the child avatar community from the media. “we know you exist we just don’t want the world to know you exist”. Linden Lab is also continuing to cleanse the grid by only allowing PG materials at their 5th anniversary. Unfortunately the majority of the grid is geared towards adult activities. I understand the desire on the part of Linden Lab to clean up their image hell I even agree that their image should be cleaned up.
My main concern is the perception of the community towards Linden Lab. Right now it’s a disastrous combination. The thought of Linden Lab making big announcements at the Anniversary bash makes me literally cringe. I am not looking forward to hearing about any sweeping changes. As every time there is a change it is to the detriment of the paying customer.

Cleansing the grid is only a matter of time Linden Lab has a need to be mainstream and appeal to the widest possible audience. Unfortunately those communities who are not deemed acceptable will be shoved in a closet and not spoke of in the future.

Proof is in the pudding or so they say;

Linden Lab now asks that we say “trade mark” every time we say Linden Lab or Second Life. We can no longer use the phrase “Your world, Your imagination.” We can no longer use their logo’s. Even though we were once very much encouraged to do all of the above.

Linden Lab took over the Gaming Open Market, and now they are in the residential themed community market. Guess they figured we were not doing a good enough job, Guess they figured they could do it better.

Guess they figure they know what is best for Second Life and who now belongs.

I already live under a government system, the thought of living under another one in a virtual world really doesn’t appeal to me. I do however see where Linden Lab is going with this. “We invite everyone to Second Life as long as you build what and how we want you to. We invite all different types of ppl as long as you do not speak out against Linden Lab. We love your imaginative spirit as long as it fits our long term goals. We value your input, but we will continue to do what is right for our company and the direction we wish to see the web go in. We need content creators and event managers as we have companies who will be needing your services. We want to see your fresh new ideas, so we can incorporate them into our web at some point in the future. Bring you’re A game, but expect to sit on the sidelines threw most of the big show.”

There are fair use laws. Linden Lab is based out of California, US. That is not a communist country.
Roughly 70% of Second Life is now international users.

Tread lightly Linden Lab you are either on the verge of a new social world or simply socialism.

Catherine

UPDATE: Gorean and BSDM also not allowed at the SLB5.
UPDATE: Some feel that LL is feeling political pressure to be a PG world.

A Kiss to Linden Lab

2008-05-31T03:44:00.000-07:00

I am sometimes criticized for my open disagreement with how Linden Lab runs Second Life. It’s not for lack of a host of reasons. Kiss - Keep it simple stupid is a motto I have used for many years and Linden Lab would be smart to plaster it next to their beloved “Love Machine”.

For the past 5 years Linden Lab has been begging the masses to build communities and projects on the mainland but they fail in giving any type of controls to the owners of these simulators. Owners cannot add a covenant like they can with estate land. Owners can put land into group land but then they must convince the renters to get a basic account threw Linden Lab at $9.95 per month and give the land owner their 512m of land via a contribution to the group. In the end the land owner has to dish out approximately an extra $100.00 per month for the privilege of having group land. Seems a bit half ass and backwards to me. After all Linden Lab receives no less than a heafty $1600.00 on average for every mainland simulator at their auction. In addition they also receive an additional $195.00 per month for each simulator. Now add to that an additional 30 Lindens per sub divided parcel for that parcel to be included in their somewhat broken search engine. In the end anyone wishing to start any kind of a mainland project has to be able to sustain that project for at least a year before they see any type of profit from their initial investment.

Ok even if one thinks that all sounds doable add to that mix Linden Lab and their decision to keep the land market flooded that makes the job just a tad bit harder. In recent weeks they put any hopes I had of starting a residential community on the mainland to rest once and for all. The dreaded Bay City was opened with a whopping 20 residential sims, which they are selling at auction on their web site, advertising both on their web site and in world and are offering free texture packs to boot.

Just how bad do they want ppl to start projects and communities on the mainland? Seems to me they don’t want ppl to do that at all. They are showing threw force that they are the new content providers and they are running the entire show not just supporting it. In the end I for one have hard feelings twords Linden Lab as I cannot sell my mainland simulator even at cost these days. But they are receiving upwards of $1000.00 for a 1024m plot of land in their Bay City. To keep things in perspective there are 64 plots on a simulator at that rate they are set to make a whopping $64,000US per simulator and people like me are set to lose our initial investments of on average $1600.00 plus any tier fees we have to pay while our land goes unsold.

If Linden Lab was serious about wanting ppl to run communities and projects on the mainland they would give us the Estate tools we so desperately need to make any sim wide project work. Instead they do not give those tools to ppl on the mainland.

Keep in mind Bay City is attached to the mainland and Linden Lab has the Estate Tools up and running in Bay City. Bay City is after all run by Linden Lab.

Unfair? Disadvantage? Yes and Yes. When Linden Lab wonders why people are not investing their time and energy on mainland projects and communities they need to realize it’s a simple matter of a Kiss; Keep it simple stupid.. Either that or they will be met with ppl saying “Kiss my ass.” Which if you haven’t guessed by now, is exactly what I am saying.

Catherine

Auctions: Closed Auctions
Item Price Closed
Bay City parcel 3T - Handa (236,106) 1024m L$215,010 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3X - Handa (235,79) 1024m L$160,010 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3DD - Handa (237,55) 1024m L$156,010 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3FF - Handa (235,32) 1024m L$150,010 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3KK - Handa (236,10) 960m L$235,310 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3BB - Handa (87,48) 1024m L$236,780 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3B - Tanelorn (92,244) 1024m L$121,010 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3HH - Handa (88,15) 1024m L$325,340 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3KK - Tanelorn (233,9) 960m L$110,000 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3FF - Tanelorn (236,32) 1024m L$109,000 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3DD - Tanelorn (236,56) 1024m L$101,790 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3X - Tanelorn (237,80) 1024m L$108,100 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3T - Tanelorn (236,106) 1024m L$106,640 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3O - Tanelorn (218,158) 896m L$105,030 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3P - Tanelorn (224,153) 1024m L$132,010 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3E - Tanelorn (221,230) 1152m L$121,080 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3F - Tanelorn (242,230) 1152m L$125,010 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3S - Tanelorn (168,114) 224m L$101,984 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3N - Tanelorn (157,157) 1280m L$170,000 May-30-08
Bay City parcel 3K - Tanelorn (154,179) 960m L$102,510 May-30-08
Ecliptic (128,128) Mature 65536m US$952.00 May-30-08
Upadhyaya (128,128) Mature 65536m US$952.00 May-30-08
Renrose (128,128) Mature 65536m US$952.00 May-30-08
Alleni (144,67) PG 3632m L$22,140 May-30-08
Meddledown (47, 40) Mature 7168m US$151.00 May-30-08
Kreisel (128,128) Mature 65536m US$957.00 May-30-08
Snicket (231,143) PG 512m L$3,010 May-30-08
Walcha Plain (16,167) Mature 1536m L$7,170 May-30-08
Philereme (22,34) Mature 2992m L$12,800 May-30-08
Pennyroyal (128,128) Mature 65536m US$957.00 May-30-08
Erazor (135,175) Mature 512m L$3,810 May-30-08
Marcell (240,113) PG 2048m L$10,010 May-30-08
Oswald (128,128) Mature 65536m US$921.00 May-30-08
Miliaco (8,113) Mature 1024m L$6,010 May-30-08
Dirac (128,128) Mature 65536m US$951.00 May-30-08
Cecropia (220,39) PG 3072m L$100,010 May-30-08
Cecropia (240,110) PG 1024m L$25,010 May-30-08
Laka (6, 23) Mature 416m L$5,510 May-30-08
Grojnowski (128,128) Mature 65536m US$951.00 May-30-08
Minotaur (80,239) Mature 1024m L$4,680 May-30-08
Ilgop (32, 220) Mature 4608m US$71.00 May-30-08
Clare (128,128) Mature 65536m US$957.00 May-30-08
Namhae (18,152) Mature 1040m L$6,010 May-30-08
Oathkeeper (75,106) Mature 512m L$3,210 May-30-08
Oathkeeper (73,78) Mature 512m L$8,010 May-30-08
Pesok (128,128) Mature 65536m US$957.00 May-30-08
Bluenose (120,120) Mature 512m L$5,010 May-30-08
Bluenose (120,144) Mature 512m L$4,020 May-30-08
Everfrost (215, 33) Mature 15360m US$251.00 May-30-08
Jallis (128,128) Mature 64656m US$901.00 May-30-08
Bay City parcel X - Moosehead (72,82) 1008m L$164,010 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3JJ - Handa (157,15) 1280m L$270,270 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3CC - Handa (160,44) 848m L$88,890 May-29-08
Bay City parcel U - Moosehead (54,99) 1024m L$144,100 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3W - Handa (116,92) 960m L$114,100 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3J - Tanelorn (159,205) 1024m L$88,510 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3D - Tanelorn (158,240) 1024m L$86,010 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3C - Tanelorn (128,239) 1024m L$88,190 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3R - Handa (93,117) 960m L$140,040 May-29-08
Bay City parcel L - Moosehead (12,160) 736m L$170,110 May-29-08
Bay City parcel Q - Moosehead (35,119) 1024m L$121,660 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3V - Handa (73,99) 960m L$126,110 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3I - Tanelorn (104,204) 656m L$84,110 May-29-08
Bay City parcel T - Moosehead (11,97) 1024m L$95,010 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3H - Tanelorn (89,221) 640m L$91,010 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3A - Tanelorn (30,238) 1344m L$136,430 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3Z - Handa (139,67) 960m L$78,850 May-29-08
Bay City parcel AA - Moosehead (89,66) 1008m L$150,010 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3II - Handa (118,17) 1024m L$268,490 May-29-08
Bay City parcel 3G - Tanelorn (31,218) 1344m L$130,010 May-29-08
Glaisher (128,128) Mature 60928m US$911.00 May-29-08
Demorgan (128,128) Mature 60816m US$900.00 May-29-08
Shiromani (128,128) PG 65536m US$971.00 May-29-08
Bellobas (128,128) PG 65536m US$966.00 May-29-08
Matamata (175,199) Mature 512m L$3,010 May-29-08
Helsing (232, 84) Mature 8064m US$141.00 May-29-08
Cliffoed (128,128) PG 61168m US$911.00 May-29-08
Darkover (240,231) Mature 1024m L$5,410 May-29-08
Lucasian (128,128) PG 60432m US$1001.00 May-29-08
Tortosa (201, 11) Mature 1760m L$10,030 May-29-08
Rimutaka Park (138,64) Mature 1024m L$9,240 May-29-08
Shiot (46,89) Mature 512m L$4,510 May-29-08
Clewis (128,128) PG 65536m US$2001.00 May-29-08
Ribbonbearer (71,46) Mature 896m L$5,760 May-29-08
Tholtfinger (194, 34) Mature 8064m US$152.00 May-29-08
Barrow (128,128) PG 65536m US$3051.00 May-29-08
Foundation (184,240) Mature 512m L$3,040 May-29-08
Passendale (222,15) PG 1024m L$5,770 May-29-08
Weisshorn (14,246) Mature 512m L$2,590 May-29-08
Driscoll (176,47) PG 1024m L$5,210 May-29-08
Jeonbuk (248,16) Mature 512m L$2,770 May-29-08
Noxious (122, 120) PG 6144m US$401.00 May-29-08
Milaniovic (176,207) Mature 1024m L$6,010 May-29-08
Seosan (208,216) Mature 512m L$2,510 May-29-08
Hallgerda (48,88) Mature 512m L$8,500 May-29-08
Great Pubnico (148,165) Mature 256m L$2,510 May-29-08
Homerlone (21,199) Mature 512m L$3,530 May-29-08
Kirkness (212,50) Mature 752m L$3,260 May-29-08
Madhupak (112,56) PG 2048m L$9,020 May-28-08
Froumo (143,115) Mature 512m L$4,010 May-28-08
Loon (15,72) PG 512m L$3,210 May-28-08
Asan (209,155) Mature 512m L$3,310 May-28-08
Saint Clair (240,152) PG 512m L$2,590 May-28-08
Sedge (248,16) Mature 512m L$3,010 May-28-08
Seogwipo (240,192) PG 1024m L$6,410 May-28-08
Shamrock (204,102) Mature 1184m L$8,270 May-28-08
Shatgogae (216,21) Mature 1024m L$5,010 May-28-08
Shetlon (207,215) PG 512m L$4,510 May-28-08
Shetlon (220,184) PG 864m L$15,010 May-28-08
Shikotsu (239,152) Mature 512m L$3,020 May-28-08
Clinker (20, 157) Mature 4096m L$28,010 May-28-08
Sarafina (247, 150) Mature 1024m L$5,010 May-28-08
Netherbeck (80, 82) Mature 4576m US$80.00 May-28-08
Quargar (95, 120) Mature 7040m US$202.00 May-28-08
Plumpton (128,128) Mature 63712m US$2227.00 May-28-08
Compotista (128,128) Mature 65536m US$2226.00 May-28-08
Routley (128,128) Mature 62160m US$991.00 May-28-08
Venn (128,128) Mature 60768m US$937.00 May-28-08
Wajo Hill (235,86) Mature 512m L$7,170 May-28-08
Bay City parce 4b - Molesworth (37,241) 768m L$146,740 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4nn - Molesworth (26,25) 896m L$402,230 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 3Q - Handa (37,138) 1056m L$125,010 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 3M - Handa (55,159) 864m L$110,030 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4ll - Molesworth (24,39) 896m L$180,010 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 3L - Handa (14,163) 1200m L$125,770 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4ii - Molesworth (25,56) 992m L$110,010 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 3U - Handa (8,92) 784m L$110,510 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4dd - Molesworth (25,73) 1024m L$102,410 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 3Y - Handa (27,76) 672m L$95,120 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 3AA - Handa (26,58) 992m L$110,010 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4y - Molesworth (24,93) 992m L$99,210 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4t - Molesworth (27,108) 1024m L$135,610 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4o - Molesworth (45,156) 1024m L$236,890 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 3EE - Handa (27,43) 1024m L$121,120 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4n - Molesworth (12,157) 1024m L$135,060 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 3GG - Handa (29,22) 1024m L$125,010 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 3LL - Handa (27,4) 768m L$155,010 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4q - Molesworth (119,151) 1024m L$150,010 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4r - Molesworth (150,155) 1024m L$125,010 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4m - Molesworth (164,181) 768m L$95,010 May-28-08
Bay City parcel 4l - Molesworth (178,195) 768m L$120,210 May-28-08
Coverdale (144,23) Mature 2048m L$12,010 May-27-08
Namhae (48,31) Mature 512m L$3,110 May-27-08
Fumb (208,199) Mature 512m L$4,110 May-27-08
Chilispoon (104,16) Mature 1024m L$45,620 May-27-08
Tangun (208,231) Mature 1024m L$4,930 May-27-08
Gorderonis (23,144) PG 2048m L$16,010 May-27-08
Sonamu (208,8) Mature 512m L$3,210 May-27-08
Moliman (120,240) Mature 512m L$7,510 May-27-08
Kananga (104,144) Mature 512m L$3,210 May-27-08
Elvarg (48,168) PG 512m L$4,220 May-27-08
Iwo Jima (240,8) Mature 512m L$4,110 May-27-08
Caso Milo (184,143) Mature 512m L$3,020 May-27-08
Schism (103,47) Mature 512m L$7,510 May-27-08
Namcha (173,214) Mature 512m L$11,300 May-27-08
Chalanties (240,80) PG 4096m L$25,010 May-27-08
Imolarto (176,15) Mature 1024m L$6,510 May-27-08
Manitoba (55,184) PG 672m L$3,010 May-27-08
Hubbard (24,176) Mature 1536m L$9,010 May-27-08
Sinaburoe (240,231) Mature 1024m L$6,510 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 4k - Molesworth (194,212) 768m L$133,020 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 4c - Molesworth (39,221) 768m L$132,010 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 3M - Tanelorn (54,160) 864m L$95,520 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 3L - Tanelorn (17,162) 1200m L$115,010 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 3Q - Tanelorn (36,136) 1056m L$125,520 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 4w - Molesworth (145,127) 448m L$80,010 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 4a - Molesworth (11,235) 1152m L$130,010 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 3U - Tanelorn (12,96) 784m L$85,010 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 4v - Molesworth (116,121) 1024m L$110,720 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 3Y - Tanelorn (28,78) 672m L$75,680 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 4u - Molesworth (87,120) 1024m L$250,000 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 3AA - Tanelorn (28,60) 992m L$103,970 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 3EE - Tanelorn (28,41) 1024m L$111,420 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 4aa - Molesworth (113,95) 448m L$95,010 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 4z - Molesworth (88,88) 1024m L$200,030 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 3GG - Tanelorn (30,23) 1024m L$125,010 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 4ee - Molesworth (80,62) 432m L$122,520 May-27-08
Bay City parcel 3LL - Tanelorn (36,6) 768m L$92,010 May-27-08
Anatoly (128,128) Mature 65536m US$1012.00 May-27-08
Atiyah (128,128) Mature 65536m US$1021.00 May-27-08
Lowndean (128,128) Mature 65536m US$2001.00 May-27-08
Alabaster (128,128) Mature 65536m US$2190.00 May-27-08
Crinkle (128,128) Mature 60992m US$922.00 May-27-08
Japarid (128,128) Mature 61152m US$1012.00 May-27-08
Leonhard (128,128) Mature 63428m US$964.00 May-27-08
Sutras (128,128) Mature 65536m US$997.00 May-27-08
Poincare (128,128) Mature 65424m US$1201.00 May-27-08
Mikhailovna (128,128) Mature 65536m US$1000.00 May-27-08
Kirkness (95,54) Mature 1088m L$10,110 May-26-08
Kirkness (146,47) Mature 1024m L$7,510 May-26-08
Jeonbuk (201,9) Mature 512m L$3,900 May-26-08
Hyun (229,233) Mature 512m L$3,150 May-26-08
Hyun (208,240) Mature 1024m L$5,160 May-26-08
Bristow (55,176) PG 512m L$2,360 May-26-08
Tigerclaw (31,12) Mature 512m L$3,310 May-26-08
Te Wharau (176,248) Mature 512m L$3,410 May-26-08
Ello (45,158) Mature 480m L$2,430 May-26-08
Grizedale (122,250) Mature 464m L$3,370 May-26-08
Sospiri (111,119) Mature 1024m L$6,010 May-26-08
Flathead (71,112) Mature 512m L$5,010 May-26-08
Tintafel (152,239) Mature 512m L$5,010 May-26-08
Timescape (150,135) Mature 512m L$2,360 May-26-08
Timescape (174,131) Mature 1024m L$5,010 May-26-08
Timescape (208,136) Mature 512m L$2,710 May-26-08
Great Pubnico (176,168) Mature 544m L$3,010 May-26-08
Camlann Tarl (168,15) Mature 512m L$4,120 May-26-08
Seogwipo (54,239) PG 512m L$3,810 May-26-08
Seogwipo (40,200) PG 1056m L$8,040 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4h - Molesworth (234,246) 912m L$280,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4s - Molesworth (239,149) 1200m L$205,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4oo - Morton (25,10) 800m L$87,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4x - Molesworth (237,109) 960m L$132,020 May-26-08
Barwise (128,128) Mature 65536m US$1000.00 May-26-08
Nemmers (128,128) Mature 60816m US$900.00 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4cc - Molesworth (238,85) 1024m L$175,010 May-26-08
Olexandrovich (128,128) Mature 61408m US$888.00 May-26-08
Benthem (128,128) Mature 61104m US$901.00 May-26-08
Saharon (128,128) Mature 65536m US$999.00 May-26-08
Suri (128,128) Mature 65536m US$999.00 May-26-08
Nevanlinna (128,128) Mature 65536m US$999.00 May-26-08
Rosser (128,128) Mature 65536m US$976.00 May-26-08
Schock (128,128) Mature 65536m US$1001.00 May-26-08
Rafail (128,128) Mature 65536m US$951.00 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4hh - Molesworth (237,58) 1024m L$152,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4nn - Morton (25,25) 992m L$132,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4ll - Morton (25,43) 896m L$112,910 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4kk - Molesworth (234,35) 1024m L$250,110 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4ii - Morton (25,55) 992m L$105,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4dd - Morton (24,77) 1024m L$101,530 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4g - Molesworth (149,248) 608m L$132,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4y - Morton (24,93) 992m L$121,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4f - Molesworth (133,231) 560m L$90,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4t - Morton (23,111) 1024m L$185,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4e - Molesworth (98,226) 1024m L$150,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4n - Morton (13,153) 1024m L$155,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4d - Molesworth (99,245) 1024m L$300,010 May-26-08
Bay City parcel 4o - Morton (42,155) 1024m L$242,510 May-26-08

Have the jerks taken over Second Life?

2008-05-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

It’s taking more and more for me to even log into SL these days. Anything and everything seems to of gone downhill and fast. I find that I am getting mad nearly on a daily basis now. Sometimes it’s an underage player who obviously refuses to read anything. Sometimes it’s crashing over and over again. Sometimes it’s just teens in chat or adults trying to act like teens; it’s the usual sex talk. Hell it doesn’t seem to matter what group it is or even if the group has a purpose. Maybe I am just worn out. Maybe I am tired of trying to just live my decent SL. Maybe I am tired of trying to shut out everything that is ugly day after day; sometimes hour after hour. SL has become little more than a septic tank filled with bile. The good nice places are fewer and fewer as the land bots swoop in and destroy any meaningful attempt of a project, build or nice community.

LL themselves are little help these days over charging for land in groups, competing against it’s own residents who pay their salaries, giving bs none answers to phone calls, Philip when MIA, the new guy M Linden is an AD guy who gives a shit about an AD guy. He is here to make money, what’s to know? He will screw us too. Oh joy. 40% losses on land values nearly over night. No meaningful way to create any kind of stabilization on the main grid unless of course Linden Lab is making a profit at it and putting countless paying customers out of business. I think those running Linden Lab are idiots they can’t even understand why anyone would be mad that group land costs more than non group land. Get fricken real. They suggest you get ppl to get a $9.95 subscription and donate land to your group. They know it costs more the first month. But after that you might break even. Your going to get screwed the land market is crashing. Don’t believe otherwise. Buy a cheaper parcel and stay there.

There is no 5 year plan coming out of Linden Lab they probably believe they will be here. But Project Wonderland will take all of their “real business” corporate customers. They are already so far beyond Linden Lab it’s not even funny. Compare the two they make Linden Lab look like a porn infested wally world; you know the one; where all you find are skanks walking around talking to the carnies and all the rides are broken. Keep in mind you don’t have a right to be mad or say so on their blog just because you paid top dollar for your tickets.

Maybe it’s that when there is the slightest hint that any Linden employee help; that person is met with it is a verbal onslaught of insult and belittlement. It has become common place to openly insult and belittle the Lindens themselves. Those in charge of the grid are now the butt of most jokes. I used to stick up for those poor souls who spoke out and asked decent questions; but I just don’t anymore, I have grown tired of protecting the little guy against all the badies in SL. I am simply outnumbered by the thousands it seems at times. For all these reasons and many more. RL is a hell of a lot more calm, fun, and enjoyable these days. Not that my real life is a dream world but even as bad as it is sometimes; SL seems nearly a punishment instead of a nice place to create. Sadly SL is turning into nothing worth seeing and I have lost my will to even fight for anything decent in SL.

Welp we did not make it threw this weekend either.

2008-05-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

More problems over the weekend with Linden Lab servers and Second Life. All this just this weekend. Oh there are big problems brewing and the ppl are revolting in group chat. FAILED.

Asset server problems
Posted by Status Desk on May 11th, 2008 at 07:41 pm PDT

[7:39 pm pacific] We are continuing to have problems with our asset server cluster. Please avoid any kind of financial transactions or attempting to rez no-copy objects.

Thank you for your continued patience and support in this matter.
[RESOLVED] Asset server problems
Posted by Status Desk on May 11th, 2008 at 12:40 pm PDT

[12:39 am - RESOLVED] Our asset problem has been rectified now. In-world activities should no longer be affected.

[12:02 am - UPDATE] Logins are now being restored and you will now be able to return to Second Life. Please be patient if this takes a little time as there may be a number of residents trying all at once. It looks like the asset issues is slowly resolving but we’re monitoring this at present and will advise shortly. Thanks.

[11:41 am - UPDATE] Logins to Second Life are being restricted while we investigate.

[11:33 am] We are receiving reports of our asset storage cluster failing. Symptoms you might see include failure to rez, open notecards or photos, access your inventory.

Please refrain from trying to rez or work on builds at this point in time.

We’re investigating and will get back to you with information as soon as possible.
[RESOLVED] Second Life Traffic Issues
Posted by Status Desk on May 9th, 2008 at 12:31 pm PDT

[6:10 p.m. Pacific] The Second Life traffic issues have been resolved. Thank you for your continued patience

We have received many reports that traffic calculations are showing incorrectly in some private regions and land parcels. At the present time, we are working to update traffic so that it displays properly. Updates will be posted here as more info becomes avaialble. Thank you for your patience.
[RESOLVED]Partial grid disconnect
Posted by Status Desk on May 9th, 2008 at 10:40 am PDT

[10:40 a.m. Pacific] Full grid interconnectivity has been restored. In world transactions are safe again. There may be a couple of minutes of slow logins. If you’ve been having trouble getting in, please be patient and try to ride a login all the way through, rather than disconnecting and retrying.

[10:08 a.m. Pacific] Two of our server facilities have abruptly lost interconnection. We’re investigating as quickly as possible. Meantime, symptoms include login failure for some residents, and some transaction failures in world. Please do not rez or transfer valuable (no-copy) assets until we give an all-clear.
[RESOLVED] Asset storage cluster problems
Posted by Status Desk on May 9th, 2008 at 04:49 am PDT

[RESOLVED 6:15AM PDT] Asset servers are coming back online and logins have been restored. It may take a little time for things to return to normal as the system tries to catch up, but it should be doing so as we speak. -Chiyo

[UPDATE 5:35AM PDT] We presently have someone on site working to diagnose the problem. We currently have logins restricted to employees only. We will have more information as it becomes available. -Chiyo

We are receiving reports of our asset storage cluster failing. Symptoms you might see include failure to rez, open notecards or photos, access your inventory.

Please refrain from trying to rez or work on builds at this point in time.

Our Ops team is investigating, and we will keep you updated with all new information that becomes available as soon as we have it.
New Release Candidate Viewer: 1.20 RC6 is available

Are we crashing again?

2008-05-09T10:12:00.001-07:00

Yes. Partial grid disconnect

[10:08 a.m. Pacific] Two of our server facilities have abruptly lost interconnection. We’re investigating as quickly as possible. Meantime, symptoms include login failure for some residents, and some transaction failures in world. Please do not rez or transfer valuable (no-copy) assets until we give an all-clear.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 10:10 am

A few min. ago I noted 49k online. Failing to log in after several attempts I now see 44K online within 5 min. I do believe the grid has crashed and burned again. It must be Friday!

Virtually Free repost of article by Wagner James Au | June 2008 Print Edition

2008-05-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

Virtually Free

An online world embraces regulation.

Wagner James Au | June 2008 Print Edition

In February, subscribers to the virtual world of Second Life awoke to a surprise: The garish, skyscraper-sized billboards they had learned to tolerate as part of their three-dimensional landscape were about to be vaporized, the site’s creators announced.

Billed as “Your world, your imagination,” the five-year-old Second Life has been offering subscribers a sprawling realm of user-generated simulated mountains, oceans, and sky where participants can build and interact as “avatars,” alter egos they control and customize. Thanks to the world’s virtual currency system of Linden dollars (which can be exchanged for real U.S. dollars at fluctuating rates) and the ability to buy and sell parcels of land on Second Life’s two main continents, a thriving, free market economy has taken root.

That economy has included a lot of advertising, much of it ostentatious. So Linden Lab, the company that developed and owns Second Life, announced on its blog in February a new rule prohibiting advertising on Second Life’s mainland continents if it impairs a neighbor’s view. The rule was especially directed at advertisements erected “to deliberately and negatively affect another resident’s view so as to sell a parcel for an unreasonable price”—i.e., to pressure that neighbor to sell his virtual land. It was a vague prohibition that would require a high degree of hands-on regulation by the Lindens (as company employees are known to Second Life users, who are in turn called residents). As such, it was the latest in a long series of intrusions on what once was arguably the purest libertarian economy in existence.

Linden Lab’s experiment with laissez faire began at the end of 2003, when the company first started selling virtual property to its users, encouraging them to buy and sell to each other with Linden dollars. Before then, the company had carefully nurtured its small early user base with frequent cash and land handouts, planning activities with the cloying enthusiasm of a metaverse Hillary Clinton.

After the creation of private property rights, Second Life quickly became a place where free minds and free markets predominated. Users could make millions of Linden dollars as real estate barons or fashion designer magnates, or spend time in kinky virtual sex clubs or art communities. As long as they didn’t interfere with other people’s liberties to do likewise, the company really didn’t care what people made of their alternate-universe lives.

The world did retain some occasionally left-leaning regulations, perhaps owing to the fact that Linden Lab is based in San Francisco. (The company’s user rules, for example, included European-style prohibitions against hate speech directed at gays and minorities.) But for the most part, staffers adhered to a principled hands-off policy that would have done Milton Friedman proud.

In 2005, when one landowner first began peppering the world with ugly billboard towers, residents protested. The Lindens generally refused to intervene. “It’s not for us to decide the relative merit of construction in Second Life,” Linden’s community manager, Daniel Huebner, told me back then. In 2006 company founder and CEO Philip Rosedale refused to intercede against Ginko, a virtual “bank” with a high rate of return that many residents accused of being a Ponzi scheme. That same year, some residents protested “age play”: simulated pedophilia with avatars who look like they’re underage, though the actual people behind them are over 18. Company Vice President Robin Harper replied that it would be forbidden only “if this activity were in public areas,” implying that it was still permissible in private.

The reversals started last year. Age play and other vaguely defined “broadly offensive” behaviors were universally forbidden in May 2007. This policy was announced shortly after a German television crew presented evidence to Harper that avatar-based age players were also using Second Life as a conduit to exchange real child porn photos. Age play was creepy but arguably harmless; when real-world molestation entered the picture, the moral equation changed.

But the changes didn’t stop there. Gambling was prohibited in July 2007. Unregulated banks were banned in January 2008. The February prohibition of exploitative billboards was preceded by the debut of a “Linden Department of Public Works” dedicated to “improving the experience for residents living on or visiting the Linden mainland.” The Lindens were restructuring their universe into the communitarian society it had been in early 2003, when early residents regularly received welfare payments and public works projects to make themselves useful.

Did the Lindens reject laissez faire as a failed experiment? Maybe. From the summer of 2007 to early 2008, the number of active users gradually plateaued at a population of about 550,000—large, but nowhere near as large as tightly regulated virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft or Habbo Hotel, which boast millions of users. Complaining about the ugly casinos or sexual perverts they had to share Second Life with, many residents voted with their feet and left. The number of participants willing to buy virtual land from Linden Labs also dwindled. Offered a fully free society, the market plainly rejected it. So the Lindens went with a mixed economy.

But there is an alternative explanation. As all this was going on, the company kept dropping hints that it was about to let enterprising programmers and companies link their own virtual-world servers to the “official” world. If and when that happens, users would be able to host virtual Second Life islands on their own servers but still remain connected to Linden’s mainland. It’s possible, then, that Linden Lab’s new regulations are part of the preparation for an open source era, when Second Life’s most controversial residents will be able to run unregulated banks and have public sex in adjoining nations.

The Lindens might not be ending Second Life’s libertarian era as much as creating a gated community in a far larger metaverse that remains fundamentally free. Then again, gated communities may be libertarian on paper, but considering all the conformist regulations required to get and stay in one, few would say they are libertarian in spirit.

Wagner James Au is the author of The Making of Second Life: Notes from the New World (HarperCollins). He blogs at nwn.blogs.com.

* If Bay City is any indication; I would say James is on the money this time.

Second Life (STATUS) UP, DOWN, PROBLEMS

2008-05-09T06:12:00.001-07:00

Listing of problems and issues with Second Life
Downtime, teleport, database, event, groups and various service issues.
4/26/08-5/09/08

May 9, 2008, 5:48 am May 9, 2008, 4:55 am We are currently experiencing trouble with the asset server. Logins to Second Life will be blocked until we can clear up the problem. Please see http://status.secondlifegrid.net for updates.

[UPDATE] Asset storage cluster problems
Posted by Status Desk on May 9th, 2008 at 04:49 am PDT

[UPDATE 5:35AM PDT] We presently have someone on site working to diagnose the problem. We currently have logins restricted to employees only. We will have more information as it becomes available. -Chiyo

We are receiving reports of our asset storage cluster failing. Symptoms you might see include failure to rez, open notecards or photos, access your inventory.

Please refrain from trying to rez or work on builds at this point in time.

Our Ops team is investigating, and we will keep you updated with all new information that becomes available as soon as we have it.

5/7/08 [PJIRA] Support Portal Temporarily Unavailable
5/7/08 Second Life Downtime Maintenance
5/7/08 Database Issues
5/6/08 Event Posting Unavailable
5/5/08 Database Issues
5/5/08 Second Life Downtime Maintenance 05/07/08
5/5/08 Phone Support Down
5/3/08 700+ Regions Currently Unreachable
5/2/08 Logins and other db-related services slow
5/2/08 Some Webservers Not Showing Current Transaction History
5/1/08 Some regions not coming up or have broken region presence.
5/1/08 New Release Candidate Viewer 1.20 RC5 is available
5/1/08 Second Life In-World Service Issues
5/1/08 PHONES- Partial phone support disruption
4/29/08 Teleports and Region Crossings affected in-world
4/28/08 Rolling Restart planned for Wed April 30/Thu May 1
4/26/08 Database, asset server issues.
4/26/08 Group Payouts Delayed
4/26/08 Rolling Restart for 1.21 Server Deploy Wed/Thu/Fri
4/26/08 Inworld Issues and Logins

Looks like Philip Lindens visit to congess went over like a shit balloon

2008-05-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

Banning Second Life: Congressman Aims to Restrict Access to the Virtual World

Illinois Representative Mark Kirk has a bone to pick with Second Life and other social networking sites over what he feels is a lack of protections for minors who use them. He called upon the Federal Trade Commission yesterday to "investigate the growing vulnerability of children to predators on Second Life."

The congressman fired off a press release stating he'd sent a letter to the FTC's chairman asking for a "consumer alert" to be issued about the dangers of Second Life. Kirk claimed there are no age verification procedures built into Second Life registration despite the popular social networking service's claims of preventing children from accessing it.

Second Life Vixen"During the past five years, social networking Web sites like MySpace, Facebook and Second Life exploded in popularity," Congressman Kirk wrote. "As more kids flock to these sites, we've seen a corresponding increase of online sexual predators targeting children."

Kirk added, "Sites like Second Life offer no protections to keep kids from virtual 'rape rooms,' brothels and drug stores. If sites like Second Life won't protect kids from obviously inappropriate content, the Congress will."

Kirk seeks once again the passage of a bill called "Deleting Online Predators Act," which passed the House in 2006 but died in the Senate. The act would require schools and libraries to prevent children from accessing Second Life and other social networking Web sites unless it was for educational purposes and under adult supervision.

Linden Labs, the developers of Second Life, in turn issued a statement defending their creation. This statement, as it appeared in the Chicago Tribune, read in part "Members of the Second Life community, including Linden Lab staff, actively monitor against minors accessing the [adult portion of the] service."

The question here is obviously: how much of a real threat is Second Life, especially when you consider children run huge risks of running into sexual predators in unmoderated chat rooms and such? As Ars Technica points out, Second Life does, in fact, have age verification technology in place.

That being said, Second Life is not exactly the most G-rated of places online. Take this recent real-world lawsuit over the theft Second Life related "adult-themed virtual objects." This move by Kirk does seem to be a bit of a play to the cameras, but perhaps he does have a point that it is easy for kids to get into stuff online which is not age appropriate.

CREDIT - PC World contributor Nino Marchetti

Second Life Linden Lab Screws their Customers

2008-05-09T03:14:00.001-07:00

Sorry I don't know any nice way of putting what Linden Lab has done this week. Half of me wants to cry the other half wants to vomit out of pure disgust. When you are in business with ppl there is a certain amount of respect you should show and never give them a reason to mistrust you. This week Linden Lab not only angered the community but they became a direct competitor with their paying community.

Spotlight which is to replace the in world "Popular Places" is nothing more than a hand picked popularity contest meant to pit one paying customers against the other. They can add lovely graphics and make it sound good but real life companies will be on the Spotlight list along with residents Linden Lab itself hand picks. That does not wash with me simply because anyone who says anything negative about Linden Lab or Second Life will never be on that list. Anyone who has sucked up to Linden Lab in the past, gotten special contracts with Linden Lab or has been a ra ra fan boy/girl surely and most certainly will. That is a little childish and grade school popularity contest bullshit I want no part of. That kind of shit makes my stomach turn. I thought we were all adults and treated each other with some kind of respect; I was so wrong.

Bay City or as I like to call it "Bay Shitty" is a stab in the heart of every residential community on the grid. There have been smaller projects by Linden Lab before but nothing on the scale of 20 servers. Previous projects were geared towards helping new people get land. This latest move will put larger parcels in a city setting up for sale on their Auction page. Which is in direct competition with residents who try and run communities. Keep in mind a few things. Linden Lab under the guise of helping the community hired a few select ppl to build it at way below a fair wage to create this city. Those of course were several chosen buddies of theirs. I would like to also say those chosen where very vocal in the forums of past days and were very insulting to other paying customers. Which Linden Lab allowed. Disgusting behavior for a company that is suppose to be professional. Communities are still struggling to try and recover from the server price gouge then sudden drop making their land worth 40% less then what they paid for it. These ppl usually sit with half of their lots empty struggling every month to make tier. These ppl cannot put their lots for sale on the Linden Lab Auction site. There is no way for them to compete against Linden Lab. They will most surely lose revenue as a result of this move.

Fashion and Other Content;

I have no doubt what so ever that at some point in the future LL will take over these markets as well. Leaving Second Life to be nothing more than There.com. I have no doubt because it already started with Spotlight. What's next? Those who are on Spotlight will be asked to sell their goods in one of Linden Lab's cities where they have renters paying Linden Lab their tier.

Let's also not forget that recently Linden Lab told it's fan sites that they could not use the works "Second Life" or "SL" in reference to their product. Fine by me no one say Second Life again; let's see how long it takes before no one mentions their bullshit company at all.

I guess when Philip said he could really make some money if he started making content; he wasn't kidding. He was just waiting to step down as CEO.

I do run residential communities and I feel like I just got screwed. I no longer trust Linden Lab. I am angry because my monthly tier wasn't enough for them they needed what little I made in rentals as well. I can't even ask for a refund. The money I invested is gone. All I can do now is sell what I have and cut my losses. Or stay and pray everday I make my tier. In my heart I know it's just a matter of time and I am being replaced by the corporate machine. It doesn't matter that I spent the last 5 years developing content and helping new people with every question they asked. It doesn't matter that I was kind or helpful. In the end...all I see is the end.

Linden Lab Talk To The Hand

2008-05-09T03:10:00.001-07:00

I have to admit I am a little bit angry and tense today. I admit that because it will affect this blog post. Why am I angry and tense? Because I attended a LLTraffic group meeting in world last night and I was so angry by the end. I logged off and went to visit real life. We "discussed" well that in it's self is a lie, more like we were told my Jeska Linden how it would be and as far as gathering input. Well that was bullshit threw and threw. Here is how LLTraffic is going down. They are removing popular places. Without any input from the community, they decided that. Not that we will be losing anything but XXX shit anyways. So I was ok with that.

However the replacement is nothing more than the work of their new CEO M Linden's attempt at placing real life ad's in Second Life. Excuse me I pay for this service what right do they have to shove real life their products, goods and services in my face? Spotlight will be chosen from LL. Jeska Linden dangled the old "there might be real jobs for some of you at some unknown time in the future to help us decide what might be Spotlighted" Honestly they have been saying that about jobs for 4 years. Either offer me a God Damn job or shut the hell up. I am sick of hearing it every time I bring up a valid concern to the way LL runs Second Life. Why not they put Lordfly paper and Cory edo on the payroll for their public works project. Not to get too side tracked with that but I was also pissed to hear that Linden Lab was GOMing my Chicago idea in their new City. Yeah thanks for nothing, shall I send my textures now or do you already have them?

BACK ON TOPIC!

I am angry because I have never thought Second Life needed real life products and services shoved in our faces. Hell I thought we had a fantastic product where we could create a new world one that didn't exist yet. A eutopia. Well that was a pipe dream and I woke from that long ago. What I didn't expect was for Linden Lab to shove it down my throat. How do I avoid real life commercialism now? I have avoided going to those corporate owned sims, I have tried to form my own communites and projects. I have done the best I could to accept it. Then why today do I feel like the content creators just got sold down the river, got the shaft, were in fact screwed over.

LLTraffic had nothing to do with Traffic they wanted to introduce ideas about verifying my age, sex, race, income. What are my buying habbits, do I turn left or right when I enter a sim. That is none of their damn business and if I wanted anyone to know that information it would already be in my profile. It's for marketing purposes and don't let them fool you into thinking it's for the greater good. It's good for the corporate bottom line and nothing more.

Jeska Linden declared that bots were ok and she even thought some were fun. Sorry Jeska but you suddenly sound very out of touch. If we all had bots why would we need to log on to do business in Second Life. Bots drain resources and are free accounts, they add nothing to the economy but they take resources from it. Linden Lab thinks this is a good thing. Are they high? Who's on the crack pipe? Wake up; copy bot did nothing for the community and free account bots will do even less. These bots accumulate data. What data? Who's data? For what purpose? Are they so naive that they think these bots will only be used for the good. Right, and other lies.

Provoky Neva is turning her back on Linden Lab and Governor Linden. Other communities have declared them selves independant states of Linden Lab and Second Life. I am doing the same, no more will I attend and participate in any Linden Lab function. No more will I support their ideas and charities. I will take care of my own communities and help them to suceed my energy and spirit will go into what I build and every time there is some problem, bug and downtime I will be screaming the loudest. I am sick and tired of being told what wonderful plans Linden Lab has for Second Life only to find out it was another botched release, something more we never needed that drags ever computer to a wimpering crawl or some fantastic idea that just ends up being a way to figure out what real life product they can sell me.

TALK TO THE HAND LINDEN LABS I NO LONGER BELIEVE IN YOUR YOUR LIES OR YOUR BROKEN PRODUCT SECOND LIFE.

I will take care of my community because you Linden Lab; don't have the man power,or a clue as to their wants and needs.

Perhaps if I had made out with Pathfinder Linden like resident Joshua Nightshade did at the last Second Life Community Convention, SLCC 07, perhaps things would be different. Sorry my body and soul are not for sale Linden Lab.

Catherine Cotton
Martin Magpie
et al.

Second Life (STATUS) UP, DOWN, PROBLEMS

2008-05-09T02:29:00.001-07:00

Listing of problems and issues with Second Life
Downtime, teleport, database, event, groups and various service issues.
4/26/08-5/07/08
5/7/08 [PJIRA] Support Portal Temporarily Unavailable
5/7/08 Second Life Downtime Maintenance
5/7/08 Database Issues
5/6/08 Event Posting Unavailable
5/5/08 Database Issues
5/5/08 Second Life Downtime Maintenance 05/07/08
5/5/08 Phone Support Down
5/3/08 700+ Regions Currently Unreachable
5/2/08 Logins and other db-related services slow
5/2/08 Some Webservers Not Showing Current Transaction History
5/1/08 Some regions not coming up or have broken region presence.
5/1/08 New Release Candidate Viewer 1.20 RC5 is available
5/1/08 Second Life In-World Service Issues
5/1/08 PHONES- Partial phone support disruption
4/29/08 Teleports and Region Crossings affected in-world
4/28/08 Rolling Restart planned for Wed April 30/Thu May 1
4/26/08 Database, asset server issues.
4/26/08 Group Payouts Delayed
4/26/08 Rolling Restart for 1.21 Server Deploy Wed/Thu/Fri
4/26/08 Inworld Issues and Logins

Old Quotes

2008-05-09T02:27:00.001-07:00

I'm going to dig up some of my old Quotes and post them here; mainly because it thrills me to see how this shit turned out.

Quote:
"Matt; Marry Me :D . Seriously tho it is refreshing to read that not everyone is of the same mindset and ppl are noticing the rappant commercialism. Not all commercialism is bad, a lot has to do with the delivery from LL.

Once LL decided to flaunt commercialism to the fortune 500 and focus on corporate america within SL, the majoritiy of subscribers became “potential customers” and little else. To believe differently at this point would be nieve. SL is still one hell of a fun 3d building tool, which affords one to get instant feedback. For that reason I strick around and create. The commercialism can no longer be avoided as once promissed by LL. Which could potentially lead to the fun SL everyone has enjoyed thus far.

For LL to believe as they apparently do now, that ppl would not only log in but also pay to log in to be “sold” goods and services. Is not only and end to fun in SL, but a poor business plan. We already have the www, ppl want more. If LL cannot deliver on their promiss to be the next “metaverse” soon those who have cheered them on will revolt. Who could blame them. Ppl don’t like being lied to.

I fully expect LL to take the direction of “There.com” and begin to market user created content themselves. Thus putting those types of businesses within SL out of the loop. More so I expect just like advertizement and uploads there will be a cost associated with your product being endorsed by LL.

Cat Cotton

October 25th, 2006 at 11:08 am

Cat Cotton

“Which could potentially lead to the fun SL everyone has enjoyed thus far.”

Correction:

“Which could potentially lead to the end of fun in SL, everyone has enjoyed thus far.”

End Quote

Spotlight this Linden Lab

2008-04-29T00:29:00.000-07:00

Spotlight; No thanks; I can see what it is already; all the corporate sims will be listed and a few resident projects sprinkled in to keep it “fair”. No thanks, tell your corporate clients to !@# me.

Cat Cotton from the LL blog tonight.

I want to make one thing perfectly clear for those of you unfamiliar with where my heart is in SL. My heart is and always has been with those of you just starting out and struggling to make it in Second Life. I have spent the past 4 years trying to help new ppl have a little bit of a leg up. I do this without thanks and I expect none. What I do however expect is a fair playing field. I am not nieve enough to think that money does not talk. However when I see such blatent bullshit I really have to say something.

Spotlight who exactly?

For shits and grins I clicked on the official link of what Linden Lab dreamed up as a great example page for their "Spotlight" search function.

Hot Spots:

* Reuters

* HealthInfo Island

* Weather Channel Island

* Greenie Invasion!

* H&R Block Island

* Capitol Hill

* Privateer Space

* CSI:NY

* Abbots Aerodome

* Visit Mexico

Yeah right, cus when I think of online entertainment I automatically think of politics, taxes, the news about the war, the weather and heath information. What the hell is that shit? Well I will tell you what the hell that shit is. It is simply Linden Labs way of marketing their corporate estate owners. Ya notice a couple of us regular ppl mixed into the bunch for the "fairness" factor. Oh please I would bet money the new CEO M Linden had a hand in this one or some at Linden Lab is a real ass kisser trying to make brownie points with M Linden. Given the fact that M Linden ran a digital ad agency I for one am not suprized by this lastest move. I am however repulsed by the idea that some blind players lets call them sheep are being led down this path and Linden Lab thinks we are too stupid or unconcious to realize we are all being lead to slaughter.

Linden Lab is gearing up to sell us out to corporations willing to invest in their 3dweb. Don't buy into it folks or SL will be nothing more than a clever ad ment to sell you anything they can. My responce?

Spotlight; No thanks; I can see what it is already; all the corporate sims will be listed and a few resident projects sprinkled in to keep it “fair”. No thanks, tell your corporate clients to EAT ME.

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/04/28/second-life-showcase-popular-places-and-the-future-of-traffic/

Quote of the day

2007-09-12T05:45:00.001-07:00

Second Life will "soon" launch an internal search mechanism, Rosedale says -- but won't say when. Now, you can't search for much of anything on SL -- can't look for people, events, nothing. That will change

Philip Rosedale aka Philip Linden

We will let ya know when SL is ripe for the picking - Said the Ad man.

2007-09-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

So I was reading an article today and happened upon this gem from an Ad man via NY. Seriously unimpressed with how big business has stepped into the virtual world of Second Life; I keep these quotes to remind me how arrogant and ignorant the Ad men are to how Second Life "is".

-----

"We have counseled our clients to stay away [from Second Life] for the time being," said Drew Neisser, president-CEO of Renegade, a New York-based integrated marketing agency. "The quick-hit PR route is now closed, so marketers need to carefully consider why they want to be in Second Life and make sure they have a sincere commitment to the betterment of Second Life."

Neisser pointed to issues such as technical glitches, security concerns (for example, hackers breaking into presidential candidate John Edwards' virtual campaign headquarters on Second Life) and difficulties attracting a sizable audience.

"There are a lot of other ways to engage your targets online and offline that may in fact be more cost-effective and more rewarding than Second Life," he said.

However, he added, "We are monitoring Second Life on a continuous basis and will let [clients] know if and when the time is ripe for their participation in Second Life."

----
Dear Ad Man;

Second Life is a unique world unlike any other; you wish to market your real life products to a very large customer base....that's all fine and good but do you even realize the majority of Second Life users enter the Second Life world to escape your corporate reality?

No I didn't think so; or you wouldn't be failing so miserably.

Cat

Cristiano Diaz has gone off the deep end again!

2007-09-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

Not that this is the first time Cristiano has lashed out as Philip Linden or Second Life or even Linden Lab for that matter. However one of these days calling Philip an "asshole" is bound to get this guy into hot water. Well we can always hope so anyways. Sorry Cris but I dig Philip, I dig Linden Lab and I adore Second Life. Someone should give this guy a virtual pop in the chops!

Cristiano; Without Philip; there would be no you. k thanks bye :)
Read it here.

Angry Dear Philip: You're an Asshole KTHNXBYE
I was reading an article about Second Life on news.com, and stumbled across this:

Quote:
Originally Posted by cnet
Linden Lab, too, is a bit unapologetic about its technical headaches, promising that it has been working to eradicate them but encouraging both current and prospective residents to accept them as a necessary component of such an experimental medium. Second Life got to where it is, Rosedale explained, by not waiting for the kinks to iron themselves out.

"If we had had that sort of traditional 'stop, think carefully, seek feedback, listen to everybody' (mentality), I can tell you that as the entrepreneur behind this thing, even starting in 1999, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't have made it," Rosedale said
So in other words, we just need to accept worsening conditions, monetary loss, and the other myriad problems, because Philip has a vision and his crack team doesn't have time to stop and think and plan because they have a metaverse to build. We just need to shut up, pay their salaries, and play with our prim hair if it manages to rez. Pardon my French, but fuck that. What insulting, pandering tripe and a pathetic excuse for why the grid is so royally fucked.

If they had stopped to actually fix things instead of taking big bong hits off the Love Machine, SL would be on a solid foundation instead of the house of cards it now sits on. Congratulations on making it - so what if the entire thing now falls apart because you didn't bother to actually screw anything correctly except your customers. I would look for the middle finger smiley but it doesn't convey my disgust strongly enough right now.

Here is the full link:

http://news.com.com/Second+Life+The+....html?tag=item

Cristiano Diaz

reprint of the boston globe piece

2007-09-05T09:03:00.001-07:00

Finally an article I can get behind. This one finally nailed it on the head where all things Linden Lab are concerned. 2 million US$ per day being traded before gambling became illegal in Second Life. Hard to believe but that may be true; seems like a hot bed for money laundering if you ask me. However I am sure the Feds are very keen as to what is going on in Second Life these days. Anyways the unpopular Zen Linden also has a few things to say in this article I was not surprised to read his limited view of Second Life as a place to socialize and advertise. Yawn Zen get out more visit some of the role play, residential, and unique communities popping up in Second Life. Even Linden Lab might be shocked at how creative ppl are when they are NOT making 30KUS for doing a project.

Read it;

Even a virtual economy needs a Ben Bernanke
Zee Linden - the online persona of John Zdanowski, Linden Lab's CFO - manages the economy of Second Life. Zee Linden - the online persona of John Zdanowski, Linden Lab's CFO - manages the economy of Second Life. (LINDEN LAB VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS)

By Associated Press | September 5, 2007

NEW YORK - Just before a global credit squeeze roiled US financial markets this summer, an equally dramatic financial crisis threatened Second Life, the much-hyped online world.

On July 25, the company controlling Second Life said it would no longer allow gambling. Economic activity was cut by nearly half as gambling halls shut down.

That's a recipe for disaster in any economy, with job losses and a possible currency collapse, but the online world stayed on an even keel. That's in part due to the fact that few people make a living there. But Second Life's equivalent of Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, also keeps a firm grip on the currency.

It's just one example of how economists and virtual worlds are teaming up, to mutual benefit. Outside Second Life, a game company just hired its first full-time economist. Another economist, coming from the academic side, believes that just as virtual economies need economists, so economists need virtual economies - to experiment with.

The Second Life equivalent of Bernanke is John Zdanowski, chief financial officer at Linden Lab, which runs the online world. Using Second Life software, he spoke to the Associated Press in Linden Lab's virtual headquarters.

Before the gambling crackdown, "residents" exchanged about 2 million US dollars a day in Second Life. That dropped to $1 million shortly after. Gambling wasn't quite as important as those figures indicate, Zdanowski said. Second Life is more than an online Las Vegas - it's a place for socializing, games, advertising, and other activities enabled by a world where residents can, with sufficient skill, create almost anything they want out of thin air.

Gambling inflated the economic activity because it meant small amounts of money changed hands relatively quickly, often several times a day.

But the gambling shutdown was still a potential problem, because Second Life has its own currency. The Linden dollar is convertible to US dollars at an ostensibly floating exchange rate.

Losing even 10 or 20 percent of its real economy set it up for a currency crisis, as gamblers and gambling hall operators tried to cash in their gains for US dollars and put their money to use elsewhere.

If the exchange rate started to plummet, remaining, nongambling residents would also feel compelled to trade their virtual dollars for real ones, making the currency nearly worthless. Zimbabwe is currently struggling with that kind of hyperinflation. But in Second Life, that's not what happened.

"The reason it hasn't hit the exchange rate is that we were exercising one of the controls we have," Zdanowski said.

Linden Lab has for more than a year put a ceiling on the value of its currency. It's done that by selling Linden dollars on the currency exchange for around 270 to the US dollar, and that's where the exchange rate has stayed since then. In a year, the company has made about $5 million on this trade.

Like China, "we basically manage the supply of our currency so that the exchange rate stays fixed against the US dollar," Zdanowski said.

With visitors taking money out of the world because of the gambling shutdown, Linden Lab simply stopped selling its currency to compensate for the greater supply of Linden dollars for sale on the exchange.

Eve Online, an online science-fiction game, has avoided some of the complications of having an online currency by banning its conversion to real money. Yet the company this summer hired its first full-time economist to keep tabs on what goes on inside the game and to look at whether more complex financial institutions, like banks, are needed, and try to cultivate relationships with real-world academic institutions.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

LL Bans Cory Edo a 2nd time.

2007-08-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

Whoa ok now we all know I am not a huge fan of the electric sheep company and all it's inside deals but you know shit is pretty messed up over at Linden Lab when one of their darlings get's her ass banned not once but twice while trying to test some sort of a pay out system. Word on the street is that if you pay 5 ppl 5kL$ your ass gets flagged and you are then banned and so are they. Not only that but then if you dare to do it again expect another vacation from SL. Here are some quotes from Cory Edo I had to keep because most ppl wouldn't believe this shit.

Cory commenting on illegally logging in as an alt while her main is suspended. Which is against the TOS for LL btw. You cannot log on as an alt if any of your accounts are suspended;

For what I need to do today, it would involve redoing about 2 hours worth of work at least, plus reuploading a ton of textures, before I can even start doing the work I need to, which will be fun because its mostly texture uploads and any other account I have access to is pretty broke.

Yeah, I can make do if I have to, but its overall putting me in an insanely hobbled position since I don't have access to my inventory, nor do I have any other account with the admin access to ESC's projects that I tend to need.

LL doesn't work on weekends; but lookie Guy Linden was kind enough to somehow find out about this and take care of Cory. How nice to get such service! Go LL.
Yeah what about ppl who can't afford a concierge; you tell em Cory!

UPDATE: Guy Linden got me back in, thankfully. I'm still insanely pissed. This shouldn't happen to ANYONE. Me working for a dev company is probably the only reason I've gotten these situations taken care of, but its utter bullshit that unless you have connections you can get locked out for a weekend twice in a row over $L5000 in transactions. What's happening to people that don't have a concierge account?

---
Least Guy was in a talking mood, most Lindens are not.

According to Guy the only thing in my account was a note regarding my original suspension on August 10th, so either the first instance triggered twice, or I got popped for paying out $L5000 to 5 av accounts this past Thursday.

The Lindens have never all been on the same page; I blame their damn love machine lol.

Io: from what they've told me its payments to a number of avatars that does it, but don't put any weight to that statement because so far I've been told different stories from everyone at LL involved in this, including two completely different things from Robin herself. I am throwing up my hands in exasperation and letting my work take care of it because like I said if it was up to me right now I'd sell everything off and tell LL's autoban and their lack of internal communication to kiss my ass.

---
Ut oh not just Cory but her friend/employee got wacked too. Wonder if the girl knows anyone at LL who can get her back on line this weekend?

...and I just checked Search and one of the girls that got suspended with me last time because of the payout (a stress tester), who also participated on Thursday's stress test, isn't found in Search, so they tagged her again.

---
Robin Harper is in charge of PR she has no idea what is going on; backend wise.

Well according to Robin, first it was an automated system, then she said it wasn't an automated system. So their VP doesn't even know what the hell is going on apparently.

Say it with me....FIC.

Considering ESC's top three managers are at SLCC and one of them is on a panel with Robin today, this is already past JIRA stage I think.

---

Well connected = FIC (fetted inner core; group of ppl who consistently get jobs from LL over everyone else and nice perks like having their accounts unsuspended on weekends.)

Was Cory right? Probably; but I gotta say bummer for those poor souls who don't have any connections at LL or can't afford to have any type of concierge service.

Lucky for Cory her pals at the Electric Sheep Company were sitting on a panel right next to Linden Lab's Robin Harper this weekend at the SLCC huh.

Page elements added

2007-08-16T11:54:00.001-07:00

In the past I have been careful to state my political views. Mainly due to the fact I have found out things about ppl I respected that made me no longer respect them. Or call them friend for that matter. I thought about the day that Aimee Weber issued a "Jihad" or whats known as a "holy war" against me in the forums. I'm still pretty pissed off about her lack of caring or understanding my point of view and my loyalty to my family and my country. I was even more upset when I realized she lived in New York and thought herself funny or clever to make such a statement. I have always respected her work and drive. Well I did up until that point. During the time of her "Jihad" statement it was more than a little ironic that she should be working for a US Senator on the Millions of US project. I personally sent him a copy of her statement IW. He should know who he hires and their political views. Especially given the callus nature of some hand picked employees. I was a huge Aimee Weber fan; but make no mistake. I am not now. She should be ashamed of herself.

That's my stand. I support our troops, I support the American contractors, I support those in office who day after day make the hard decisions that help me sleep at night. War is hell but it has no place in a game called Second Life.

Catherine

Liverpool Philharmonic to play Second Life gig

2007-08-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Philharmonic to play Second Life. My only response is; Well that's great for the 40 ppl who might get to see it. If there are any more than 40 with bling, hair, 500 prim count boots. They will crash and burn just like ever other large event in Second Life. Not only do I know they will fail, they cannot help but fail. SL cannot and never has been able to hold more than 40 av's on a simulator without that simulator failing. Crash and burn. So why do ppl continue to even try to have these kinds of "big" events? Press, it's just good press. Well at least until the reporters all need to do a hard reboot.

My advice; yank the cord from the back of your computer and pop a DVD or CD of the Philharmonic in the stereo and skip this event. Trust me you will thank me later when your enjoying that glass of wine and not ripping your hair out.

Cat

Thank GOD they are not all mindless sheep!

2007-08-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

Arsheba Nasu Says:
August 14th, 2007 at 8:24 PM PDT

Let me set the record straight regarding the so-called Second Life Economy. There isn’t one. Not any longer.

You only need to look at the Popular Places list to see what the vast majority of active accounts in SL are doing. They’re camping.

The first and last impression most new sign-ups see is the camping farms. This is what Second Life has become, and Linden does not seem to mind at all.

These camping farms, largely driven by the too-good-to-be-true idea sold to advertisers that there is some value in advertising to zombies, have completely taken over not only the ebb and flow of the money supply, but also the overall trend that accelerates away from the days when real people spent real money developing real virtual content that real people wanted to find. Now all they can find is camping farms. And those who have invested large sums of time and money creating content, whether social or commercial in nature, are finding it more and more difficult to reach the few genuine customers left.

Businesses are gasping for air. All the methods of advertising and publicity that once allowed us to thrive, based on our own merits, no longer function. Does it really take the collapse of Ginko to make it obvious that the SL economy is in a death spiral?

The traffic-point system has been completely corrupted to the point that there is a seemingly endless supply of advertisers who have been duped into thinking it’s a no-brainer to fund these camping farms in exchange for Top-20 advertising. When one realizes the money was wasted, there are hundreds more waiting in line to advertise to the chronically AFK.

There seems to be no end in sight to the camping farms’ control of Search and Popular Places, and the air’s getting quite thin for the rest of us.

Joseph Woolley Says:
August 14th, 2007 at 8:39 PM PDT

Linden, since you don’t want to publish my blog regarding the land sales. I will repeat it here, if you keep it out again, i will publish it on the world wide web.

1st - forget about the good old day land price of average 2.5L per sqm. Linden stop ding first land sale of 1L per sqm now.

2nd - Forget about wanting to have land price below 5L per sqm. The lowest possible start cost for a sim now is 5.84L per sqm. Minimum bid of US$1250 plus Tier cost of US$195 equal to US$1445. Take that multiply by 265 linden, you get 382925 linden. Divide that by 65536 sqm, you get 5.84 Linden per sqm. This is assuming you can sell the linden at 265 linden after deducting all the necessary cost charge by lindex or other exchange. More often than not, you will sell at 275L.

3rd - Linden is the only one to really profit substantially. They remove the first land sale, then they increase the minimum bid to US$1250. They put out more land auction than now during period when the average land price is more than 10L. Check back few months. They just choose to put land as and when they can profit the most. There is no systematic approach.

4th - They are just pumping more sims into their pathetic infrastructure to gain more profit in terms of land sale but more importantly the tier charges.
They will be just happy that you keep buying the auction land. This greed is now starting to come back to bite them. More sims with items vs inadequate infrastructure = more bugs & problems = slower user growth.

5th - I dare them to be transparent about their infrasructure support. Eg. Sims per Server now compare to 1 year ago. The network bandwidth, database asset, etc, etc compare to 1 year ago. What have linden done to support the EXPLOSIVE growth in the number of regions. All of us premium users are paying to support them. Instead of providing good service to us, Linden is ripping us off by having indiscriminate land sales.

6th - Linden, if you are so “noble” compare to those land barons, then i dare you to stop charging for land sales, since we don’t own them legally anyway. Charge just the current tier. Can you do that? Nah, i don’t think so, cause you want to profit more & more. You guys are just getting farther & farther from when second life first started, but towards the bad side of it.

7th - Yes, linden control the SL economy. However the land price tanks, they can simply ignore it. So long as the auction land & islands keep getting bought and they keep getting the tier charges. My dear fellow SLers, this is the real BIG BUCKS. Not their so called SL economy or the Casino guys, the land barons, these are small peanuts.

FINALLY, I AM QUITTING THE SO CALLED PREMIUM USER, I NEED TO STOP BEING A SUCKER. good luck to you all.

SL Bank Fails, Oh MY!

2007-08-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

Bank Failure in Second Life Leads to Calls for Regulation
By Bryan Gardiner Email 08.15.07 | 2:00 AM

The recent collapse of Ginko Financial, a "virtual investment bank" in Second Life, has spurred calls for more oversight, transparency and accountability, especially when it comes to business practices in the metaverse.

Last week, Ginko Financial -- an unregulated bank that promised investors astronomical returns (in excess of 40 percent) and was run by a faceless owner whose identity is still a mystery -- announced it would no longer exist as a financial entity.

The declared insolvency meant the bank would be unable to repay approximately 200,000,000 Lindens (U.S. $750,000) to Second Life residents who had invested their money with the bank over the course of its three and a half years of existence.

750,000.00 US$ gone from users accounts, and no one knows the name of the guy running Ginko Financial. I can pretty much guarentee someone at Linden Lab, knows the name of the guy who funneled 750,000 GRAND threw LindeX this year. I can nearly guarentee this because the thought of Linden Lab not having a clue as to who would be funneling that kind of cash threw their game; makes me want to vomit in disgust at how piss poorly their company has been mismanaged. So my money is on Linden Lab knowing full well who the money makers are in their little world.

If you lost money threw Gingo Financial; well your a dumb ass. Handing your money over to a complete stranger. No I am not laughing with you, I am laughing AT you.

-----

New Product announcement! "Box of b ox", and only L$135. You loved "Box" and this is the follow up product "Box of box" more of that "wood like" texture you all have come to love. And our person plot in Itbeajoaken sim where we have managed to scoop up some of the atmosphere of Second Life. Quantities are limited so you must act fast. Please send L$135 to Martin Magpie and you will receive your "Box of b ox" within 7 working days. We expect like the famed "Box" this too will be come a collectors item.

Cat

4 years of Second Life

2007-08-07T08:20:00.000-07:00

After 4 years of Second Life I figured it was about time to tell my side of the things. Without interruption, without blatant insults, without worrying who I was going to piss off with what I had to say. To post without fear of being belittled or insulted.

My first thought before publishing this blog is "Now wouldn't that be refreshing."

-Yeah it would be.

I'm going to finally have my say and there isn't anyone who is going to be able to shut me up. I like that. I have heard all the comments I wish to hear; about what ppl think of me and fact of the matter is I no longer give a shit. Their reasons are so rediculous and so far "out there" for publically bashing me at every turn; I decided not to post in fourms any longer. Why would anyone subject them selves to that kind of treatment any further if they knew the end result.

I have been called every name in the book over my valid opinions of SL. I am tired of telling ppl they didn't change my opinion, to lighten the hell up and mainly "Why is only your opinion valid?"

Oh yes I have much to say but I won't say it all here and now. Instead this is my journal of Second Life and I will say everything I have to say in my time and in my way.

If the reader doesn't like it, I suggest they don't read any further. Because it's all going to be said. I no longer care who I offend, I no longer care to be "politically correct" I simply no longer care about being honest or true to anyone but me. I suppose the critics of me will have a field day, let them, I will not be reading their reviews of me. I have for the past 4 years to sum up their opinion;

"I am a worthless cunt who should die."

-for what? My opinion of a game called Second Life.

Tell me; who has issues? Quirky as I may be; I never wished anyone to die. I never said their lives were not worth living. I never lashed back without damn good reason.

4 years huh, at least for me this ends with my words of reason, and honestly.

Catherine Cotton