move along, move along, like I know you do

And the struggles for understanding and presentation grow worse around SL5B.

CodeBastard Redgrave mentions this:

"I have spent 2 lives in SL starting in '04. During those times I spent as a volunteer on many levels. Through this, I valued the true nature of a world owned by its people. SL5B is a turning point where many SL citizens are going to be discriminated against. Therefore, I am bowing out of my management roles for SL5B but will stay within the group to advise only. I am deeply ashamed to be promoting SL5B while others in the community are pushed aside. We are all RL behind the avie.-- Ariel Otafuku."

So that's now two organizers down...

Everett Linden said in a follow-up comment:

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.

Yes, welcome to attend, but not to participate with builds. I don't see that that's an improvement.

Now, as it stood until May 25th, the blog post was fairly clear on who'd be accepted:

"Who do you hang around with in Second Life? What are your communities’ traditions and signature characteristics? Are you proud of your sexy blue fur? Your excruciatingly detailed tea ceremony? Your murky environments? Your sculptures? The help you’ve given to others?"

The problem seems to have been, what happened after everyone applied, and Representative Mark Kirk started complaining.

Solomon Devoix states:

'"LL, in its infinite wisdom, has forbidden SL 'childrens groups' from having a build/exhibit at the 5th birthday celebration. Oh, child avatars can attend, but they're forbidden to contribute. Way to go, LL. Trying to set new standards for politically correct cowardice?

Speaking of standards... why do the TOS and Community Standards shake the finger at discrimination if LL, the author of those documents, is going to freely engage in it?

Hypocrites and cowards. Every one.'

I do hope that you will give me reason to rescind this statement."

Dusan Writer weighs in with a very effective post on the topic, and the children of Second Life, meanwhile, have decided to hell with all the controversy, they'll have their own celebration.

From the notecard I was sent, since I think it needs a wider audience:

First, the backstory.... in case you haven't heard by now, Linden Lab has decided that including the sl kids communities in the SL5B (second life's 5th birthday) celebration) is too much of a liability (http://dusanwriter.com/?p=536 for more info) and thus, we are not invited to help contribute to the celebration...so we're making our own! Enter the "Kids5B" group! We have decided to get a group together and make something that's going to be even bigger and better--and inclusive of ALL of the SL kids communities!

So now down to business. First of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone that came to the meeting today... it was so incredibly great to hear about everyone's ideas, and after a looooong discussion, I think we finally have a direction to go on. So here's what's going to happen.

As you all know, we have a sim for the event. Here's the link:

Alton Icarus (Editrix note: I can't give out the link here; apparently, as it's not open to the public yet, I can't make SLUrls for it.)

One of the biggest points we kept hearing over and over is that we want to make sure that everyone in the child avi community is represented, so we decided to come up with an idea of having the sim divided into four parts:

a. a BEACH theme. being organized by BOBBY OFFCOURSE.
b. an URBAN theme. organized by RAI FARGIS.
c. a FOREST theme. organized by GABRIEL CANNING and MYRTIL IGALY
d. a VILLAGE and ENTERTAINMENT AREA, organized by KOFFEEKID SMALLS.

there is also the possibilty of a 5th sky area, if there is interest in organizing that, contact me (bobby offcourse) and i'll give you the details. If you're interested in helping out financially, please direct any linden transactions to DANIEL REGENBOGEN (and thank you in advance!). FL0 CALE is coming up with a sweet logo for the group, and LOKI ELIOT is helping with mapping out the areas.

So this is how it's going to work. We are encouraging everyone who possibly can to help out in any possible way, be it building, scripting, or just an idea that you think would be really cool but you don't know how to pull it off yourself, to get in touch with the people listed above. We need both ideas and people to help, build, script, or however else you can get involved. We really want this to be inclusive of ALL of the varied kid avi communities out there, and we need everyone's help to make this happen!

Our goal is to have this sim open at the same time the "other" SL5B celebration, so those dates are 23 June 2008 until 30 June 2008. So we don't have much time. We have a lot to get accomplished and not a lot of time to do it, so we're all going to have to pull together and make this happen--and soon! If you want to stay in the loop (and we hope you do!), search for the "KIDS5B" group and join it. The group also has a blog at http://kids5b.blogspot.com/. Also please pass this notecard around to anyone who might be interested in helping.

We've got a lot of amazing ideas and we really want this to happen, but we can't do it without all of your support!

Another follow-up on how ludicrous the whole concept is from Ars Technica; within a week, bet me, there will be more blog and site buzz than even I can keep up with!

And Vint Falken reminds me there's now a JIRA issue open on the topic. Vote for it, please.