so I spent all my buttons on an old pack mule

Why yes, I was an idiot, I commented on the JIRA That Would Not Die, because...because gods, it was starting to get under my skin.

I am so sick of hearing of this JIRA, I am waiting for the day when it falls into obscurity, and I have been sitting on my hands not to say anything...but Solar, I can't let this go.

http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php#tos4

And I quote:

"4. SECOND LIFE IS A VIRTUAL WORLD SERVICE

4.1 Second Life is a virtual world service consisting of a multi-user environment, including software, websites and virtual spaces."

You're wrong; Boyd's right; now can we all get on with our lives? If either of you have points to make that contribute to rational understanding of the web profile in terms of bug reporting, please contribute, but otherwise...just let this JIRA go to sleep again. Okay? It's up way past its bedtime.

And I'm sorry, already! I really am, but...gods, the petty bickering, the fact that it's going out to everyone still watching on the list...it just gets me.

I'll try to let it go again.

A moment in time in City of Heroes:

[NPC] PPD Cop: How do you feel about wearing colors that are strangely similar to that of a target? You don't really blend, you know that, right?
[NPC] Longbow Sergeant: Absolutely.

It's worth noting that the Longbow costumes are red and white.

More from the Escapist. Now from page 11!

Toriver: Did James enter into a contract with The Escapist regarding fundraising? From what it sounds like with the T-shirt and PubClub deals, he did.

Does that contract specify any required or prohibited use of the extra money, other than "Save Extra Credits"? THERE's another biggie, and something that needs to be determined. From what I gather from James' statement and The Escapist's response, when they agreed that the money be used to "save Extra Credits", James seems to have interpreted "save Extra Credits" as only "save Allison's arm", while The Escapist interpreted it as "save Allison's arm AND use the extra money for more episodes". That's where James is coming from in thinking that The Escapist is stealing 75% of the donated money; as long as The Escapist owns the IP for Extra Credits, that means that any future episodes made from that extra money would have to be published on The Escapist, and that James could not take the series elsewhere. Now, it makes sense to me that if The Escapist wanted to use the money solely for the sake of Extra Credits, and IF The Escapist has the right to that money, it may have been worthwhile for them to use the money to pay what was owed to the team in back pay, and if any money was raised beyond that, work together to decide what to do with the money from there. But, if The Escapist does not have control of the accounts and the meaning of "save Extra Credits" was not clearly defined, then James can really do whatever he feels falls under "save Extra Credits" with the money, and while The Escapist has the right to complain about it, all they can really do is ask James to cover whatever costs were arranged in the fundraising deal and pay him the back pay, which seems to be what they did.

Goldshadow: Even though the whole story isn't out yet, I know my response. Escapist, it's time you and I parted ways. ZP alone will not hold me here anymore. And even if James is telling an exaggerated story, it doesn't change the fact that Escapist took money raised for a surgery.

That's just not right. Anytime. Ever.

aashell13, some hours later: Companies go bankrupt all the time. Judging from the number of contributors claiming that Escapist is in arrears, it would seem like a much larger financial problem exists.

When a company files for bankruptcy the judge normally prioritizes the company's list of obligations according to who would be most hurt by not getting paid. Employees are usually at the top of the list, with subcontractors and creditors at the bottom. So, depending on what kind of contract the contributors had a lawsuit might not make much difference.

evilneko: Nothing will be clear until they release the emails...or they go to court and it all becomes a matter of public record.

marurder: The Escapist will find it very VERY hard to take the moral high ground when the opening salvo from EC was "you wanted money/claimed that money donated" was part of the fees meant to be paid. The decision by EC to allow the Escapist to pay others was a courtesy, not a full contract, the Escapist should have planned to honor all payments in full anyway.

I like Extra Credits, they have built A LOT of goodwill here and elsewhere and it is purely the fault of the magazine that they are leaving. The reaction from the users will be punishment enough, but should this go to court I expect that this magazine would have hell to pay in the immediate to medium term.

kouriichi: From all the facts ive heard, ive sided against The Escapist in this matter. If one person says, "im not getting paid right", id pass it off as an accounting error or just some bad blood between him/her and the company.

But if 4 or 5 people start talking about not being properly paid, theres something going on. James may have said, "I dont need the pay right now, worry about others", but that doesnt mean you say, "Ok, we wont pay you for anything you do." And if your [sic] not paying someone, you better be using that money to pay someone else.

The Shade: Unacceptable, Escapist. Unacceptable.

Seives-Sliver: Well...I am guessing shooting yourself in the foot doesn't hurt so bad, unless you do like the Escapist just did and used a friggen rocket launcher. Good job guys, Escapist, you have failed me.

AquaAscension: Shady. That's the word that comes to mind. Why would the Escapist hire people if they knew they had a money problem? Where is the money coming in from ads and publisher's club going? Is this why top 5 mysteriously disappeared without a mention? Has Escapist been taking their shows out back and shooting them, hoping that no one in the neighborhood heard? I'm confused and curious at the same time but in a drastically drawn-down manner. I'm worried that this stunt will cost so much that the Escapist will fold - become no more. If there are such cash problems that the artists can't be paid... It's almost as though Escapist tried to do too much (or their head honchos tried to get too big too quickly)...

This reminds me when I worked for a Dojang (Tae Kwon Do, Korean martial arts place of study for any who cared/didn't know). The bosses paid their workers a veritable pittance and drove around new BMW's. Shipped in top talent from Korea to instruct and barely paid them a living wage. Expanded and couldn't cover the overhead then asked the students to cover their oversight. Empty morals and lack of ethics not to mention keeping on some bad staff made for the place to be somewhat terrible. The students were great and those who worked hard like I did made it what it was - but this just shouldn't be the case here. So - is there a lack of money or is that money going to nice cars/hookers and blow instead of where it ought to go?

Samurai Goomba, some hours later: What the escapist thought was not what the situation was, and they used a VERBAL AGREEMENT to justify not paying the Extra Credits people for EIGHT MONTHS.

No employee in real life, working for a real-life company would stand for that.

SeriousIssues: James was only rushing for his payment after Allison got hurt, this does not negate the fact that he agreed to wait for needier artists to get their payment first. After the fundraising, Allison presumably has her surgeries' price covered, thus "saving" a part of Extra Credits.

But the extra money that still remains will not save Extra Credits. Instead, James chose to weasle out and start some independant publisher, not to continue working on extra credits, covering Allison's wages with the money. No, not at all, the money donated to save Allison has actually been pocketed somewhat by the organizer, not the Escapist. They saw that James was pulling a little weasely move on them, making his own project.

Then he brings in a sketchy business manager to try and stiff Escapist. Now, Escapist should've been paying their contributers, yes, but that is not as wrong as James and his "Business Manager" hijacking the excess funds of the fundraiser and rerouting them into some fishy publishing company instead of the show the whole fundraiser revolved around.

Some good questions and good comments, and more appearing to chime in on all sides. Next up, page 13!