can't call it a problem if I never let a play drop

Information from Shakeno Tomsen:

Stop. Using. PNG. or. 32-bit TGA. For. Opaque. Textures.

Why? Most people don't see it but SL has an automatically enabled option to convert ALL these textures into alpha masks, and it SHOULD be disabled. It makes content creation a hassle because you can't choose what should be alpha blending and what should be alpha mask if it is on, requiring you to use workaround features for it...
...BUT: Disabling this feature will probably cause a lot of objects go into an alpha sorting trainwreck in your client. That is because said textures were uploaded with an unnecessary 32-bit/transparency layer that SHOULDN'T BE THERE, and now it doesn't attempt to fix it automatically, showing what the textures truly are like.

To solve this, please upload your opaque textures as 24-bit TGA and disable the option "Render alpha masks when 'Advanced Lighting Model' is enabled/not enabled". Not only they will be correct in a visual manner, they will also require less data to download and process.

Thank you sincerely.

Now I need to figure out which textures I've uploaded that I want to go through the hassle of this...

And this from a random profile that I found relevant:

Safewords are valid in SL because it is psychological and emotional space we are trying to achieve and a relationship we are trying to preserve. And because of RLV. Surrender is surrender and it is vulnerable.

Green: Go Sir! Goooooo! I love this!

Yellow: Slow down Sir...let's figure this out I'll hint gently. And maybe you have the right idea in the first place, but let's negotiate softly.

Red: Instant stop. I guarantee I will leave BDSM forever if I violate a redlight, a RED. Safewords can save lives. No longer Sir....I'm coming to the rescue.

Tapping out/Snapping: During gagging, or combinations. It means the gag comes off.

Use your safewords, they can even protect a friendship. Safewords between trusted friends can prevent misunderstandings.

BDSM is to develop trust, intimacy, and provide an avenue of utter surrender, as well as foster greater self control.

He's not wrong.

Next, why I got rid of STATIC's Nightmariner's Lantern (at least for now):



Because it REFUSES to stop launching itself into midair and spinning like a mad dervish!



It makes no sense to me.



Seriously, every time I rez one out, it goes COMPLETELY mental.

And now, some random cat pics to round this out.



What is the fascination with staring at walls? Can someone answer that for me?



Because I don't get it.

your misery and hate will kill us all

(Roleplay entry, because of where it is, but this one is also very, very real.)



It's not where she wants to be, to be sure. And also of a surety, she is very clear that today, at least, she only has one person she wants to talk to--Jeffery the bartender. Because he has that superlative house red on tap.



She wonders, too, once she's downed the first glass, and walked out with the second to a secluded spot on the beach to sit, the power of words. And accusations. And how quick trust can break. She sits, listening to the surf, breathing.

Because this wasn't the first time. And because there was warning. And we are still here again. This shouldn't have happened.

She sighs, realizing the glass is empty again. She ponders getting a third, and decides against it, walking back to her little office. Looking around the place she's started to consider a comfortable working space, counting up the cost of trust lost and bitter, contentious untruths.



The books, certainly. Those will go, packed up to return to the Gearhaven library. The worktables, definitely.



The altar in the corner can stay for now, and the map, until she's ready to take it down. But she's clearing the desk of everything until she knows more.



She walks downstairs, and out the doors, and then looks back at the small shop. Duke Hiro's banner...should she leave it up or take it down? She'll have to ask, she thinks. That should be his decision.



She ports to the Black Moth, parked just out of sight, and on the flight back to Gearhaven, she sends a wire for one of the Gray Area's crew, when they return, to stop by the office and return the crates to the flagship.

And we'll see what happens from here. I had a few more entries to do on events there, and happenings thereon, but...we're tabling that for now, I think. Until we know more. Until the distrust and the blatant violation issues are addressed.

she tried her best and now she can't win it

all my friends say "when you gon' play?"
I'm always too busy, I don't need to stay up late
but I change my mind when I see your face
'cause I trust you

It's here. We're here. Void stars, it's...there was no time. There was so much less time than I thought.



now it's on like Revlon, middle of the night
gimme just a minute, man, I'm higher than a kite
and I can't come down, but I know I'll be all right
Because I trust you

I...trust. The trust has not left. The trust is firm. There is still a fixed star to my wand'ring bark. That has not changed.

Everything else has.



when you say "hey, come on,"
I know I really, really want to
I trust you

That's never been the problem.



when I stay, I know I really ought to go
but then I trust you

And that, I should never have done. I knew better, but I pushed it aside. I knew the rules, but I didn't want to think about them. The backlash started before we ever got here.



I trust you
I trust you

The backlash was still a slow, persistent hum from the last time this misunderstanding flared.



Why are we here again? I did want to know, do...want to know. But...now it no longer matters. There's no going back, no rethinking, we are now on the far shore. Oceans of misunderstanding between us. There's no ship bound for home.



when you say "hey, come on"
I know I will because I trust you
I trust you

Now nothing matters.

I like to think that I am reasonable
but I can't tell you why I'm down on the floor
I check my hair, but I don't know what it's for
I know tomorrow that I'll trust you some more

Now I start crawling across broken glass. Glass I shattered. Glass I watched others shatter. Doesn't matter, it's still in my way.



when you say "hey, come on,"
I know I really, really want to
I trust you

And it's the only way out. At least it's on brand.

when I stay, I know I really ought to go
but then I trust you
I trust you
I trust you
I trust you

Maybe I do need a keeper, just so I won't get more cracks across the glaze. Though I have so many at this point, it's hard to discern my original pattern anyway.



I keep on making bad decisions cause I

I just have to keep going.

I keep on drinking what you're giving cause I

I just have to keep going.

I keep on making bad decisions cause I


I just have to keep going.

I keep on drinking what you're giving cause I--

I have to get out of here.

(Pictures taken at Death Row's mainstore (South), POST's mainstore, After the Fall, DarkRadiance and Little Bat's mainstore. Song is "Trust You by Rob Thomas.)

calls me on the phone, tells me all the ways that he's gonna mess me up

Picking up on yesterday's post, more on the TPV policy revisions.

From Hitomi Tiponi on SL Universe:

My belief is that they see all this work going into TPVs and they'd rather try and persuade users to work with them on developing LL's viewer (i.e. lots of stuff being developed for them for free along the lines that they want) - after all they no longer have a viewer development team as such, just Oz to co-ordinate open source input.

This is all part of the ongoing policy to transform Second Life from being a community to being a product with customers.

I think this is entirely on target. Which is unfortunate, because this is something I would dearly love to be proven wrong on--that the current rulership of Second Life, Linden Lab, do not want an immersive, creative playspace, but instead, want Farmville with microtransactions, bought landspaces, and larger, more complicated user icons.

Latif again:

That cannot work right there. Oz Linden's only real competence is alienating the best opensource developers and making them never want to contribute to Linden Lab again. They would have to find someone with more clue than arrogance for the task Oz is doing.

And as much as I like the way Oz Linden thinks, and tend to put him in the slim and narrow section of "good Lindens"...I can't disagree with this either.

Sean Gorham:

All the development work goes into third-party viewers because very few people think LL have a clue about developing their own viewer. This policy change is the equivalent of LL taking their ball and going home. Yes, this will end well.

This, too. Sean's right; this sounds petty and ill-thought-out, but then, what decision have the Lindens made for the past twelve months that has been well thought out? Seriously, now. Introducing mesh? The big land sale, which saw mainland further abandoned, and estate owners crushed by the weight of tenants rushing for cheaper land? And those are just the first two off the top of my head. The Lindens are not thinking things through, and that's the problem.

Latif later linked to an audio recording of the viewer meeting; keep in mind that that is an .mp3 link, so either save it as you'd save a normal linked .mp3, or click on it and let Quicktime (or whatever else works for you) load it for you local. But that might have more information on what's actually intended, and not intended, with these changes.

Latif again, later on:

I read this as "no new cool stuff allowed if it didn't come from LL".

And I don't think he's wrong, but damn, what a restrictive, depressing world this is going to become.

Ilana Debevec:

Then again, would this mean that NON-MESH viewers will soon be verboten? (Affects how others see you, either properly dressed or wearing boxes/blobs)

It's a good question. With the quotes 70% adoption rate of mesh-enabled over non-mesh-enabled viewers, that's a good figure, but if the Lindens want 100%, this might be a good way to do it.

Well. Not "good". This might be one way to do it.

Anyway, back to the comments. From Andromeda Rage on the allowance of non-mesh enabled TPVs:

Nope, Oz said that's a matter of viewers simply not keeping up. I think the general gist I'm getting is that if you want to log in with an outdated viewer, that's fine, that's your choice, but be prepared to see a lot of broken stuff in the future.

Inventing brand-new inworld features without LL's approval is what this policy change is about.

Sounds plausible. Also sounds entirely possible, that people will start to lose functionality on certain things, over simply not being able to see them, as "old-style" viewers get more and more outdated. A slow, grisly end, to be sure, and not a fun one.

Samantha Poindexter:

I can see why the Lab wouldn't want to keep being forced to come up with better implementations of popular features, but from a user's perspective there's much to be said for TPVs being able to demonstrate where the demand is...

Which, to be purely logical and corporatist for a moment, is something the Lindens should be tracking, rather than restrict implementation of all new features until the Lindens are finished playing grabby grabby with the shiny things. Parcel Windlight, f'rinstance--the Lindens never even conceived of customizing Windlight settings to the point people did--that was nearly entirely from the community. By the same extension, the Lindens never conceived of custom Windlight settings per parcel, not just per sim.

Under this new revision, in fact, this very sort of 'user preference' selection is killed at the root. I'll offer an example. Say a viewer came out that allowed all shoes to make noise when they struck a surface. (Shhh; I know there are shoes that do that, I'm talking about hypothethical coding wherein all shoes would make sound.) High heels would clack, metallic gravboots would thunk, animal paws would get soft padding sounds...et cetera and so on. And this was a feature that would affect others beyond the user--anyone else within 20 feet, say, could hear the shoes--be they paws, hooves, fetish heels, spacesuit boots, whatever--and react (or not) as they chose.

This kind of development--and likely, developed just for those specific sub-groups on the grid--would not be allowed under the new policy. So what's left? Looking more and more like the official viewer, until there's really no need to have one over the other--which I suppose is the true end goal here.

And, as pointed out on SLU, SecondLie on Twitter pretty much nails the heart of all of this, quickly and succinctly. (He also has excellent comments here, here, here, here, here (one of my favorites), here (also very well put), here, here, and here. He's been on a roll.)

And did I ever link to this blog? Not so much for the content, which I've covered in this entry and yesterday's, but for the three updates listed at the bottom.

Joshua Nightshade chimes in:

Custom attachment points that only work on one viewer and make things float bizarrely for everyone else are the sort of problem they have decided to end. Custom functionality for yourself that doesn't utilise exploits? I don't think that's what the policy change is about.

I am wholly in agreement on the extra attachment points controversy. Had that exploit of the code actually worked, and worked consistently, I doubt it would be a problem worth addressing. But I'm not the only one past tired of seeing women come in with their tails sticking out of their ears, two hairs clashing badly with each other, their collar protruding from their right eye...In Emerald, and later in Phoenix, the extra attachment points could not be seen unless you also ran Emerald, and later Phoenix.

What's the good in a system that shows you perfectly to yourself, but not to others? In this regard, yes, I think it is important to restrict what a viewer can do--not just what a third-party viewer can do. Is this the right way to implement that restriction? Well, that's the point, isn't it?

Casey Pelous comments:

LL's history of rules enforcement pretty much illustrates "capricious."

And along with that capricious enforcement, I'd also add scattershot--because some offenses get a ban, while others with the same offense don't even get noticed. We never know how seriously the Lindens will take any potential action, frankly.

Penny Patton:

I'm trying to give Rodvik time to implement changes, and honestly from what I've seen he is trying it just takes a while. I've been saying for years that LL has built up so many bad decisions that even if they pull a complete 180 it will take years for them to put a dent in the mountain.

I think she's right here, too. Even the best management team is fighting the apathetic drag of former bad decisions, and a resentful population more than willing to protest any new change because most of the other changes have been bad. This is a draining, stressful situation to be in.

Joshua again:

When LL made the viewer open-source, the original point of it was that they would solicit patches and help from other people to improve the official one. For a variety of reasons, many of which being managerial incompetence and Rob Linden in particular, this did not pan out. People submitted patches, LL did nothing with them. People asked for ways to get their fixes into the viewer, LL ignored it. People got fed up and started releasing their own viewers and we are in the state we have now.

Pretty much. And if the Lindens hadn't dragged their collective feet to this degree, and instead, worked with community coders to implement the best patches--well, would we even have viewer 2.0, which was an outsourced project written with zero input from even Linden-level coders, at all? I really don't think so. This is Linden-level willful blindness; it has nothing to do with anyone who's developed a TPV.

Arkady Arkright offers an interesting perspective:

This 'shared experience' wording worries me. What it doesn't say is 'other user's experience'. I would read 'shared experience' to mean 'I have to see and hear the same as every other user in my vicinity'. Features like Phoenix's permanent derender would be disallowed, as no other viewer allows you to log-on with stuff already derended - thus making my experience different to that of a user on the official LL viewer - i.e. 'non-shared'.

Interesting. Let me test understanding on this supposition, because this seems to go larger than the new policy points themselves: would this interfere with muting people? If what they truly mean is everyone must see the same things, in exactly the same way, and affect no other resident's experiences...would muting also be disallowed? (Visual or otherwise.)

Now, I'm not saying this just to engage in rampant hyperbole--I mean, that's always fun, but think this through: A harsh, literal reading of the new revisions would mean that anything, no matter how small, that affects any other resident's user experience would potentially be disallowed. Now, even to me, obviously the Lindens don't want to do this. But if parcel Windlight settings are disallowed, if "forced" media plays are (and have been) disallowed, wouldn't muting also be disallowed? After all, if I mute someone, I am interfering with their user experience in SL.

I'm not saying x must equal y here; it's clear to me, from everything I've heard so far, that the Lindens are not interested in slash-and-burn, all-or-nothing thinking here. But I don't think the future is all "oh, we'll adjust just fine" either.

Shyotl said:

The bigger issue is that having these new features necessitates using a viewer that's a complete mess. Seems most users have decided it's not worth the tradeoff. Who's fault is that?

Ooh! Ooh! I know! *raises hand*

Actually, forget raising my hand, everyone knows the answer to this. The problem is that it doesn't matter what the majority of users think. Any program a company pays through the nose to get, they then because stubbornly attached to using, even in the face of overwhelming common sense. Is viewer 2 the best program for the job? Of course not. Is viewer 2 ever going away? Of course not; it cost too much.

Han Held commented:

More likely, the motivation is financial. It's hard to use windlight as a lure for ppl to buy estates if they are able to get the same functionality by editing the parcel description a certain way.

Which is true, but is the Lab more motivated to selling independent estates, or reclaiming mainland? They seem completely split on this issue.

Adeon Writer offers up a visual interpretation. It may or may not be accurate, but it's amusing and well worth at least a casual perusal.

eighthdwarf again:

The problem is that Ll has seen that TPV dev hobbyists are more creative and competent than their own PAID devs, and they can't have that. If they admitted it, it would mean admitting to have burned a huge amount of money for worthless or low-quality things instead of listening to the userbase.

This is not just a fault with Linden Lab; this is a fault with every large corporation on the planet. And, to a certain extent, humanity at large. We spend of our resources in one area, we become committed to supporting that area--not because it's "right", not because it's better than other areas, not because it even makes logical sense--but, simply and solely, because we spent our resources and therefore must continue to trudge this path. To turn away, at any point, would mean admitting we were wrong in the first place.

For most of us? Admitting--and accepting--we were wrong is very, very hard to do. No less so for the Lindens; in fact, it's often more so for corporations, because they can't just throw a press conference and say, "Oops, our bad, we'll fix this." For the most part, they have to change all underlying architecture that is pushing them down the wrong path; this could also take into account changing staff, changing vendors, changing their basic corporate culture.

And people get entrenched, people get comfortable. It hurts to sit on the radiator, but after a while the nerves are dead and it's fine. Besides, it's cold outside. Why would they move?

And then...Mikey:

And by alienating said bunch of devfurries they've killed the point of developing a TPV.

Wait, what?

I actually had to go back and find the original Nightshade post, because I admit, I'd just started skimming his to get back to less bitchy content later down the thread. I had to go back several pages before I found the comment in question, and even with context, I don't get it. This is the comment, with the lines before and after for reference:

It is a problem, but it's not a problem because other viewers are "better." They aren't, at least not to me, but this is an irrelevant line of reasoning in any event because it's a subjective opinion.

What is not subjective is the risk to SL if a third party viewer continues to hold a significant portion of the userbase. Thankfully, this is a problem that LL has elected to correct.

Given the fact that SL itself is more important than a bunch of devfurries coding a viewer and whining on the internet, I think it's a good move of LL to make.

So...he's just talking about the Exodus viewer team? Or what? I'm very confused, here.

At this point, someone brought up Tateru Nino's post on the subject, and she finished with a very succinct and damning line:

It’s a small change to the policy, but it makes Linden Lab’s development priorities and development timelines your own – however you still don’t know what they are.

Yes. The only real difficulty with this is we've rarely known what their real goals are, at least since Philip Linden left. (The first time.) This revision to established policy just reinforces that with a sharp and razored edge.

And this to me was worth lifting a screencap from SLU; it's in the comments of Ms. Nino's blog, but here, for reference:

(from the miscellaneous album)

So...sure, that's funny on the face of it, but think about what's really going on here:

• Qarl: People are asking me about this new policy. What should I tell them? (Interpretation: Oz, I need an answer from you I can safely pass on.)

• Oz: Tell them to talk to us, not you. (Interpretation: You don't rate an answer from me. Tell anyone asking you to ask us. We won't tell you any answer we have.)

That, right there? That is scathing contempt of Qarl, a former Linden. Was this what Oz actually intended? No idea. But how it comes across is damning; beyond that, it's chilling. If they'll treat a former employee like something not even worth washing off their porch after a storm...what chance do any of the rest of us have?

What's the point of trying to communicate with the Lindens at all...ever?

From Argent Stonecutter:

Other ideas that seem like they would break 2k: per-parcel muting, so you can put "block #parcelid" in your description and nobody on your parcel can see the adfarm next door; extended linden trees, using prim parameters to modify linden tree details, so you can take the gum tree and apply a different leaf texture to it.

If these things do break 2k, then that's a problem.

From Trinity Dejavu:

From the wording of 2k and what was said by Oz at the TPV meeting, they absolutely do.

And from Argent in response:

That's not just wrong, it's daft.

I agree. Unfortunately, by Tuesday or Wednesday, it won't matter.

In the time I've been trying to bring myself up to speed (let alone anyone else) on this issue, the SLU commentary has swelled from three bare pages to--at this point--ten, with more comments flying in as I type this. While there's disagreement among the denizens on SLU, for the most part the overwhelming consensus seems to be:

• no one has any clue on the real reason this is happening
• TPVs have more power than the official viewer at present; LL wants to take that power back
• and this policy will, in addition to breaking TPV content, break actual Linden content

Yeah. Well. So that's not going to be fun...

Oh, and Urlai.com thinks I'm a senior citizen who's just thrilled beyond repair and wanting to spread the joy around. The hell.

Well, I suppose it's better than Google analytics, who think I'm an 18-24 year old young man who likes rock music, gaming, and outdoor activities. (At least, until I moved to the shiny loaner laptop--now, I hit the Ad Preferences Manager and see "No interest or demographic categories are associated with your ads preferences so far." I suppose, give it time, it'll think I'm a 40-year-old Peruvian businessman into beekeeping, or something.

I could surely never know if what you say is true

(This is continued from part I.)

So, picking up where we left off--Lance's response to Kelley:

Kelley, if you go to "privacy options" of your profile, you can limit every single bit of it to be visible only to logged -in residents or even friends, and you can disable the feed completely.

The only thing that you cannot hide at all is your username/display name, and your rez date. If you don't even want other residents to be able to see that your account exists (and they really do not see anything else if you set your options right), what the beep are you doing on a social platform anyways?

And he's got a point there, too.

And then the fighting really started. From Kelley again:

For the Nth time, it is NOT a social platform. It is NOT a social network. It is a virtual world. Get that through your skull. They are nothing alike.

I don't care if you want to call it a social network, it does not meet the criteria or definition of being a social network. It is, and always will be a virtual world. The fact that you are social in the SL grid doesn't make it a social platform!

Well, and this is the issue, isn't it? I mean, not that it needs to be paraded on a JIRA, but is Second Life a social platform or a virtual world? I personally stand behind the fact that it's a virtual world, because it's listed that way in the Terms of Service:

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.

Pretty much, for me, that answers that. But it does have social aspects, obviously; it's not the IMVU "life is a chatroom" concept, it's bigger than that, but the Labs are also trying to add social features to their profile system, so...yeah, it has aspects of both. But as much as I'm not really keen on joining Kelley's side, in this, he's right: the Labs say it's a virtual world, it's a virtual world. End trans.

Ripping Fishnet's entire statement needs to be read and appreciated, but here's the highlights:

When I signed up under my original account, Second Life was NOT marketed as a Social network.

True.

The terms of service when I joined considered all information shared private information. They did not tell us when they first made our profiles public and on the web. If they had, allot less people would have been upset when we found out for almost two years they had exposed our Real life tab on the original version of web profiles without telling us.

Also true.

What Yoz is not telling us here is that even with stuff "hidden" it is possible with google and other search engines to retrieve cached versions of the hidden pages. That is a huge security risk.

This is a problem, I grant you, but again--if you didn't want any casual stranger reading it on your profile, which can be opened with one click in virtually any browser--why'd you put it in there in the first place? At that point, it's not anything to do with net privacy, it's all bound up in discretion. As in, having none.

Having your username and rezdate on the web where anyone can find that you use this service ruins the fun for many of us for three reasons:

What does anyone's rez date have to do with it?

1) In many countries, web services have to have explicit options and agreements before they can share ANY part of your profile, even your username. As the courts have already smacked LL, google, and many others for in the past, this doesn't just mean checking that you read the TOS.

Maybe, but at least as far as I can read, the Labs are covered here, at least under the revised, current ToS agreement.

Sites like Facebook, Linked In and Myspace get out of requiring a separate explicit consent because they explicitly market themselves themselves as being services that share your real life information.

Um...hold up a minute. I mean, yes, I get what's being said here, but the Labs actually state--more than once, and in more than one way of putting it--to not use anything personally identifiable on your profile. From Linden Lab's Privacy Policy:

Except under certain limited circumstances set forth here and in our Terms of Service ("Terms of Service"), Linden Lab does not disclose to third parties the personal information or other account-related information you provide us, such as IP address, without your permission.

And note, what they mean when they say "personal information", they mean credit card numbers, bank statements, street address, license numbers, real name, or incorporated name. They don't mean "29 F 5'9" 113 lbs Brooklyn Heights". That's not personal identification.

From section 9 of the Linden Labs Terms of Service:

Our Privacy Policy sets forth the conditions under which you provide personal and other information to us. You understand and agree that through your use of the Service you consent to the collection and use of your information in accordance with our Privacy Policy. If you object to your information being used in this way, please do not use the Service.

And people, there's their legal out. "If you object to our use of your information, you are free not to use our service."

Someone can connect your user name to your real life name.

I'd say this is complete crap, save...yeah. It's happened. There are net names I don't use on the net anymore because of the history behind them. There are people who use the same name everywhere they go, from SL to Facebook to Guild Wars to chat rooms, and yeah--someone can easily track that kind of trail, if they're motivated enough to do so.

Had I known that LL would create web profiles and release user name to the whole web (they originally had NO privacy options) let alone everything on there including the real life tab that I had put information in naively believing the promise that only people logged into Second Life could see, I would have chosen a different username... if I had even joined Second Life at all.

Without going into Miss Fishnet's personal tragedy (and believe me, I do empathize completely on that score), she has reason to feel this way. And I do not want to be the one saying, "Well, it's the way you dressed", because that cheapens the entire argument. But I do have to say this again--if you wouldn't walk up to some random guy on the street corner waiting for the light to turn, and tell him what's on your RL tab, then for the love of all gods, don't put it on your RL tab. How is this hard?

Yes, the Labs should have at least made a blog post about web profiles that pointed out the security flaws. Yes, they should have made a larger deal about it when we did protest. And yes, the wheels of progress have ground very slow indeed where web profiles are concerned, but on the other side, you can restrict what information you give out now. You don't have the default Facebook/Twitter buttons. These are good things, needed things.

Though yes, those things could have been implemented sooner...

She finally ends the statement with saying:

For the record, I am one of those that wants to have the option of not even having my username and join date accessible on the internet at all. There is absolutely no reason that these cannot be contained to only LL servers that are only accessible from within SL.

And this is what I don't get. Forget the SL-is-not-the-internet argument, because it both is and is not and that circles around and back again, we don't need to go there. But this is my concern: that Second Life, by virtue of being Second Life, is somehow "safer" than the net at large.

Really, people? You really think that? Are you high?

No one, no one on the grid, not even the Lindens, knows every single heart and soul in SL. They can't. It's an impossible task. And even someone who thinks they know most of everyone is wrong. There's a vast number of users of SL, even if they only log in once in a while.

Can we know, for an absolute surety, who the person we talk to is? Are they male or female? Do they share our race, our religion, our beliefs, our geographical location? Are they single, married? Do they have kids? Do they have a job? Do they have a pet? Are they over the age of consent for their country of origin?

And if we can't guarantee solid, factual answers to these questions, what makes us think they'll be honest about the hard stuph? Like, have you ever abused a partner before? Have you ever been to jail? Have you ever driven home drunk? Have you ever killed someone?

Case in point. One of my friends, RL, he's a wonderful fellow. He's short, unassuming, thinly built. He wears thick glasses to correct a slight drift in one eye. He's been a computer programmer most of his life, and though he wears a Star of David, because his family is Jewish, he considers himself a deist, if he has to define it at all.

If you saw him on the street, you would think geek. You might even think he codes for a living. He's not strongly muscled. He dresses casually, and his idea of formal is a crisply laundered polo shirt, or--if he must--a plain black and white tux. Which he's rented for the occasion.

You certainly wouldn't guess that on his person, at all times, are three knives, a single-use taser, and a registered concealed weapon--that is always kept maintained and fully loaded. You wouldn't see him and think he's capable of killing someone with a shrimp fork. You wouldn't see him and think he was one of the deadliest, most accurate snipers our armed forces ever had.

That drift in one eye? He got because he clocked so many hours with that eye fused to a scope. But you'd never know it to look at him.

In Second Life, we don't even have that option, because that option is taken away by the virtual--and while we make just as large a statement by the avatars we pick as by the words we type, all we have to go on are those words. And if they're not accurate, then we're trusting blindly.

I'm not saying never trust, that's not the point. I'm saying there's little functional difference, in my opinion, between the wider web and Second Life, in terms of community alone. Since people can get your profile info with a single click in SL, and you don't know everyone who clicks your name, the same thing, I think, holds true on the web.

And wau, this spun out into its own little thing. Okay. Time for part III.

roll off the grass and let the insects breathe

A few days ago, a column from Shamus Young's Twenty-Sided Tales blog was linked to me that I found extremely relevant, in the wake of the RedZone debate. I highly recommend that everyone reading this, go read that, but I'm doing something I don't normally do and quoting large bits of the original.

First understand that what made Shamus write that column was an unrelated comment to another column entirely, from a reader called Blurr:

"I am very much against Facebook integration on other websites. I know I can't be the only one. I tried a while ago to figure out how to block Facebook when I'm not on the main Facebook website, but couldn't find anything.

"My concern is that because this 'like' link appears on blogs all over the place, Facebook can get a pretty good idea of my browsing habits. I am against this on principle."

Now, I'd heard this before. And even having read the column, the first reaction my brain has to his words is Wau, he's a loony. But then I read on:

"If a page has a Facebook button on it, then Facebook knows you were on that page. We don't know what they do with that info, but we know they have it."

The hell.

From the embedded link originally in that quote:

"But data about the user is sent to Facebook regardless of whether the Like button is actually activated.

Which is all quite scary - but not too surprising, given Facebook's reputation for snooping on its registered users.

What becomes really scary is realising how Facebook can track your movements even if you haven't signed up to its fake-friend collection service for lonely teens and sad divorcees.

Even if you don't have a Facebook account, you are far from immune from prying eyes, as Roosendaal explains:

"When a user does not have a Facebook account, there is no cookie and no user ID available. In this case, an HTTP GET request for the 'Like' button doesn't issue a cookie.

"However, when a site is visited which includes Facebook Connect, this application issues a cookie. From that moment on, visits to other websites which display the 'Like' button result in a request for the Like button from the Facebook server including the cookie."

Which means Facebook has swiped another batch of valuable data without asking for permission."

And that article goes on to mention that, if we aren't assiduous in clearing our cookies, Facebook's cookies have a two year expiration date.

And every time you hit a page that has the Facebook "Like" button as an embed, does that add on another two years to the life of the cookie? Or does it just create a 'later expiration date' for the so-called "new" cookie--which uses the same data/user ID as the previous one? That, I don't know.

From that same link:

We'll assume that, as you're reading this rather than laughing at Lolcats, you know a thing or two about cookies. They are helpful to users and of immense value to marketeers, allowing them to bombard you with targeted advertising based on your browsing history.

But with an increasing proportion of sites turning to the likes of Facebook in order to increase traffic and revenue - and let's face it, 500 million people is a pretty attractive audience for anyone - isn't it time we started putting our collective foot down about the way in which our every move is monitored?

What's really ironic in all of that? That column has a 'Like' button.

Okay, so that's all kinds of unnerving and creepifying, but I should point out again--Google does this, too. They track where they've been to figure out what ads we may be most interested in. And they do it without consent or requiring permission, just like Facebook. So why do we not have just as many personal privacy issues with Google?

First, because they haven't gotten a lot wrong, while Facebook has. Second, the Google CEO has never come right out and called users of Google's services stupid for using the service. That's pretty damning, even if it's from Zuckerberg's immensely younger, Harvard-attending, spoiled self.

But I digress. Back to Young's original column:

"The problem is with web cookies. A cookie is a small text file created by your web browser. It stores 'name / value pairs', which is fancy programmer talk for stuff like this:

username=PresidentSkroob
password=12345
last_visit=March 24, 2011
mobile_user=no"

And before anyone sneers at the password? What we learned from the whole Gawker debacle is that people pick some pretty dumb passwords. The top three on the analyzed list, after all, are "123456", "654321", and "password". Yeah.

"It lets websites store information on your computer. These files are keyed to the domain name. So, Facebook can only read cookies created by your visit to Facebook.com and The Escapist can only see inside of cookies created by your visit to escapistmagazine.com. The information contained in a cookie is sent when you visit a site. So, if I previously visited Facebook on this computer, it will send my Facebook cookie, which will let Facebook have my name and (if I so choose) password. That way I don't have to log in every time I visit the site, and it can know ahead of time if I want the lightweight mobile version of the page or the all-singing, all-dancing, graphic-heavy full version. If I go to another computer, it won't have a Facebook cookie on it, and so I'll have to type in my name & password to log in."

Which, frankly, is as it should be, in my book. But we are creatures of habit. We don't want inconvenience, we want comfort (occasionally, and usually, to our detriment). People (and I am one of these people), when given the prompt to save a username/password combo, will generally choose to do so. (Were I on a shared computer, I might not be so blithe about this, but I'm on my own computer. I have this feeling, false and intangible as it might be, that because it's my home computer, that I'm the only user who will see these saved password prompts. (Which is as may be, depending, but some people forget and hit the save option on shared computers, simply out of habit. But again, I digress.)

"Even if I tell FB not to save my password, it still saves my username. That username gets sent when I load the page, even if I'm not logged in. See, that little button at the bottom of this page is actually a little sub-webpage. It's a little window with a Facebook page inside of it. (Same goes for the ads on the right. That's a sub-window with a Google page inside of it.) When you visited this page, your Facebook.com cookie (assuming you have one) was sent to Facebook. Facebook sees your username, and because of how HTTP headers work, it also sees that you visited from shamusyoung.com. Ergo, Facebook knows you were here. Of course, this only applies to webpages with Facebook features. Facebook has no way of seeing where else you might go."

Except...yeah, they kind of do. Why? Well, assume I went from shamusyoung.com to that UK link...which also has a 'Like' button. Say I went from there to a link a friend sent me, and rather than spawn a new page, I just popped in the URL and went from there. If that one also had a 'Like' button, while in the main three different cookies were created to send back to Facebook, in the specific if anyone's looking at the aggregate data at some point, they will see that my chain went, unbroken, from site 1 to site 2 to site 3.

As long as I am traveling from sites with 'Like' buttons to OTHER sites with 'Like' buttons, Facebook knows everywhere I've been.

And remember, I'm not even sure how my cookies are showing up to Facebook, because you can't kill a Facebook account once opened. (And I opened one for the purpose of getting what is now an incredibly worthless piece in an armor set for Runes of Magic, got creeped out within a scant few hours, waited out my eight days until the I had documented delivery of the piece of armor code, and then got out. And while I've never been back, and have no intention of going back...any cookies generated at sites with the 'Like' button may just track back to my former Facebook account, and not as 'future user' placeholders.

(Which is creepy enough just on its own.)

"It's important to point out that this is not some nefarious new thing Facebook is doing. Everyone uses cookies. This site remembers the name you use in the comments because that stuff is stored in a shamusyoung.com cookie on your computer. Google uses them. Battle.net uses them. Blogger.com. My Space. Youtube. The Escapist. Google. Yahoo. Blogspot. Wikipedia. Twitter. Anywhere that you log in knows at least your username and the last time you visited."

As I said with the Google example, yeah--a lot of places does this. In fact, secondlife.com does this, because I've set it up to remember my username and password. Just like the Second Life forums (or at least the old ones--I haven't sent in a comment on the new system, and...I'm not sure I'm going to). Just like a lot of places I go to...and most of which, to be honest, have Facebook 'Like' buttons.

"The reason people get worked up about Facebook is because it's so ubiquitous. (And because the founder of Facebook is reportedly a complete douche.) Nobody cares about Yahoo cookies because Yahoo isn't lurking in the corner of every page on the web. The problem isn't that Facebook is more hostile to privacy than other sites, it's that Facebook naturally has access to data that other sites don't, because they're less popular."

I hate to have this come down to some sort of popularity contest, but he's right--Facebook goes farther because Facebook has a lot of users. It's akin to CBS getting the highest-rated show on the airwaves in a certain time slot--they can then take those numbers to the advertisers, and say "See? If you buy ad time for this program, more eyes will see your ad."

That's actually kind of the point in marketing and advertising--to get those numbers, so you'll be funded--through advertising, through direct contributions, through users signing up for subscriptions, whatever. In this breakdown, it doesn't matter a whit whether you're secondlife.com, yahoo.com, or chillygirls.com--your job is to get eyes on your work, the best ways you can. (And yeah, before anyone hunts it down? That last one's real. And really NSFW.)

"If you're really concerned about this, there are things you can do. You can set your cookies to be deleted every time you close your web browser. It will make it impossible for Facebook to see where you are, even when visiting sites like this one."

And he's right, we can, save...this is that comfort vs. security thing again. We can set our browsers to delete all cookies saved every time we close our browsers down. (And some people go farther.) But for most of us, we want that comfort and convenience--so we allow the cookies, we allow push messages on our mobile devices, we allow sites to remember our usernames and passwords--because it's just so much bother if we don't, right?

"For a blog like mine, word of mouth is life. You need a stream of new users just to replace the ones that wander off. Some people get mad and leave. Or lose interest when I change focus to something outside of their sphere of interest. Sometimes they just get tired of me. It happens."

Absolutely. Case in point: I adore Girl Genius. I adore Looking for Group. (Hells, I even have a Richard doll sitting in my bookcase.) But have I read either of those strips the last month? No, I have not. Will I get back to them? Absolutely, because I like both strips. But my attention wandered, I got busy, I lost the time for casual webcomics reading...it happens. To everyone.

"There is nothing I can do to directly draw in new readers, short of forum spam and link-begging on more popular sites – which is one of the most labor-intensive ways of wasting one's time. No, I need word of mouth, and the Facebook Like button is the perfect tool for the job. It's governed entirely by readers. People press it when I do something they like. That action will appear on their Facebook page and attract their friends, who probably share a lot of common tastes and interests. It takes my best material and promotes it to people who are most likely to enjoy it. Even if I was willing to pay money for an advertising campaign, I wouldn’t be able to find something as effective as that little button."

Which is Shamus Young's very polite way of saying, That Facebook 'Like' button isn't going away, people. Deal with it.

You can't please everyone all the time, and the truth of the matter is, this is the internet--so you're going to have people you purely can't please, because for whatever reason, their greatest thrills in life are contrarian ones--arguing dubious points, protesting change in any form, and demeaning anyone who doesn't agree with them. (And, save for the last, I fall into that camp, sad to say--because I protest a lot of things that aren't necessarily going to change--for me or for anyone else--and I do love a good argument.) And even counting those people, you're going to make decisions--as individuals, as companies, as corporate entities--that are designed to lose you people, sometimes. (Do I even need to say Dragon Age 2 at this point?)

So for a lot of bloggers, columnists, newspapers, companies, corporations and even world powers--getting those extra eyes in makes all the difference. And one of the best ways for people to get those eyes in? That 'Like' button.

Which is depressing, but I think Shamus Young is also speaking for Second Life by saying that 'Like' button is going to stick around. It's our choice how to deal with it on our end.

I want to mention one more thing before I close this entry, which is Rock Paper Shotgun's "No Oceans" campaign. I don't know if it will go anywhere, but I think it's a worthwhile goal--getting everyone, internationally, on the same page for game releases would cut down a lot of torrenting of games, and, more to the point, get everyone accustomed to playing together, and being able to play together--which would diminish some game piracy (not all, but even a little will help), and hey, while we're at it, maybe foster some stronger international friendships, what the hell. Spread the word.

(And yeah, on that column? There's a 'Like' button.)

as long as you don't fall through the cracks in the road, you'll make it home

Back to Search Engine Watch for the latest update on the ongoing disconnect between the employees in the Labs--where I swear they're now synthesizing meth in their off time--and the residents on the grid. And it's the height of morbid tragedy, to me, that Axi's "Tinfoil Hat" theory is starting to sound like a reasonable and accurate description of what's going on.

Meanwhile, there's another whole controversy brewing beyond the Jira That Will Not Die (more on that in a bit), in the SL BDSM community. Namely, the issue of consent.

For anyone not in the community--and I'm not judging either way--one of the things which is paramount, online or off, is "consent" as a concept. Consent is vital. Consent means things have been talked out. Consent means when things go too far, the games stop until consent is given again. Consent, therefore, is kind of the lynchpin of all the games, sexual or not.

With RedZone, the Institute says, we are not given the option of consent. They are taking that very vital power out of our hands. We cannot consent to being scanned; we cannot consent to our IP digits being stored; we do not consent to our IP digits being matched. This, at its base, is in violation of what BDSM stands for, behind the value of the letters themselves.

Now, I admit I'm of two minds on this. First, let's take Google. Google scans my IP all the time. It remembers what I search for, and how I search for it; it stores that information so that the next time I search through Google, I get better-targeted search results. On the side, Google also does a thriving business selling my information to advertisers.

However, and this is an important however, it is not my exact name. They sell what I search for; they sell the general location (not specific!) of where I am. All Google knows about me is the town and state I'm in; the things I search for most; and that's what they sell on to advertisers interested. (For an example, this is why I've been seeing ads for the last week about shops that sell ankle boots--because I spent the better part of the week before trying to hunt down reasonably supportive ankle boots that weren't stiletto heels, that were also not slouch boots. Damn ankles.)

Let me state this upfront: this is not a bad thing. Is it a violation of privacy? Maybe. But I always have the option to use another search engine, or to travel through a proxy masker. If I really wanted to preserve privacy, as zFire himself has said, I wouldn't be on the internet.

Still, even having said all that, I do see a difference between an advertiser buying an interest in ankle boots, and someone who's perched in the tree outside my apartment, taking pictures and listening for names being dropped. I do think scanning for alts on the grid is invasive. And I also think that IP matching is just about the most inane way possible to figure out who runs under what name.

I'm also reasonably offended behind the constant protests of "if you don't agree to RedZone, then you're doing something wrong". Why? Why is that always the conclusion? For example:

Of the alts I have (and they are few), I have never:

* stalked another resident (though I have used alts to avoid being stalked);

* harassed another resident;

* stolen ANYTHING (texture, prim, system layer) from another resident or place of business;

and the main thing, for me, at least? I genuinely do not believe that the majority of residents on the grid can report anything different. By and large, stalking is not that common; harassment is generally (though I grant not always) done under the original resident's name; and as for copyright infringement, anyone truly dedicated to copyright infringement is not going to be picked up by the RedZone system in the first place!

So what's it good for? Got me. Making money is my best guess...

The hour is getting late, so I will return to the Jira That Will Not Die later. (And at some point, whether the issue is resolved or not, I am by all the gods unwatching that damned thing, because I am really getting tired of all the email sent to me over it! This is not an opinions forum, people! The JIRA is for technical issues, not ranting!)

we're setting the fires to light the way, we're burning it all to begin again

I am trapped in this place, and do not know whether I trapped myself, or was led here. Were my own actions to blame, or the actions of the larger world? I listen to Leonard Cohen and Rufus Wainright, Black Veil Brides and the Indigo Girls, and reflect on fidelity.

In these moments I think, am very nearly compelled to think, of Sigyn.

There are those who say Sigyn is an insignificant goddess, and to be fair, there are personages in the Norse pantheon that are much more vibrant, much larger than any life, than she. It's also true that she is not known for any great pronouncements, any life-changing philosophies--save for her life. She changed by not changing. She changed by refusing to give up what she knew was right.

There is a lesson here. I'm just not sure what it is.


("Loki und Sigyn" (1863) by Mårten Eskil Winge. Originally oil on canvas.)

At times I feel alone; I am told that I am not. I cling to the words over the feelings, because my feelings have betrayed me in this time, my assurances about myself fall flat and empty, meaningless on such stark ground. But I endure. If nothing else, I endure.

There are tales that speak of Sigyn as if she was an alien to Asgardian culture, even though her lineage is known. There are rumors from later prophets that muse on this apparent contradiction:

"I know that. I see it, in the threads. You could no more harm her than I could." [Njord] sighed heavily and came to sit opposite the slender [Loki]. "But you're curious about her origin." The sea-king offered him a drink and settled back, eyes dark. "My son found her a few years ago, not long after this hall had been built. She couldn't have been more than four or five years old, a bruised, hungry, disheveled thing, crying in the forest. Ingvi found her when He was out walking. She tried to run from him at first but was too scared and too weak to get very far, and he has a way with children. He calmed her and brought her to me." He smiled a little, a smile tinged with pain. "We don't know where she comes from... I suspect She's..." he hesitated searching for a term in the Aesir language that would not be derogatory "forgive me, a half breed." He inclined his head to the man. "I've always suspected the child born of an Aesir and Jotun union," His mouth tightened "and abandoned as a result. She's delicate... and too gentle to thrive amongst the Jotuns and yet if she is indeed part Jotun, would not necessarily be welcomed by some of the more insular Aesir." He snorted. "I don't know. I could be wrong. She could not tell us." He admitted. "What we do know is that she was mistreated and abandoned."
~from the Jotunbok, "Loki and Sigyn's First Meeting"

Whether married in or of the same blood as the Aesir, or the Vanir; what is sure and certain is that she did not look the same as others in Asgard, nor act like them. Her province was flowers and fruit, plants and herbs; theirs was learning and warcraft, song and story. She could blend nearly invisibly into surrounding foliage. She may have possessed pointed ears, as Loki had; accounts vary, and vary wildly.

But what is clear is that she was perceived as Other, as Not of the Blood--though again, by marriage or adoption, fosterage or birth, she was in the same bloodline.


(Built in 1996 in Svendborg; Alpha Diesel on a total of 4000 bhp; 51 ton BP.)

I have felt Other most of my life. There have been very, very few people that I can say, honestly, even to myself if not to them: You understand me. There are fewer that I trust without hiding, without shielding, showing whatever I happen to feel at the time. Even in those moments, with people I would trust with a knife to my throat, I hide; I conceal; I misdirect.

It is my nature, and while I fight it, in times of distress it is more than what I do, it is who I am. Perhaps this is how it will always be. Perhaps no one has ever been able to see me and see the true face of me, the true feelings; because I am so adept at concealing myself away.

Sigyn--or so the stories tell--married Loki young; even if this is not true, she was reputed to look much younger than her actual age. I get the strong feeling that she was perpetually dismissed for this, sent from councils and conversations on the pretext that she was "too young" to understand.

Even after birthing sons. Even after demonstrating her own powers. Who we look like, we become; who we act like, we are.


(The barque Sigyn, built in Göteborg in 1887, now a museum ship in Turku, Finland. Sigyn sailed for several Swedish shipowners before being sold to Åland, from where she was bought to become a museum ship in 1939.)

I am struggling to understand. To make sense of everything. A follows B follows C follows D, but there are gaps, and there are shifting letters, shifting ground underneath my feet. It's my own instability that's being addressed, I know this, but how long do I wait for things to settle? How long should I?

And will they?

She bore him two sons, Narvi, the second-born, and Váli, named after Odin's son of the same name. They were strong and clean-limbed, but there was prejudice sunk deep, blood-deep, bone-deep in the Aesir. Having seen Loki's children with Angrboða, a female Jotun, and having named them monsters, they waited for Váli and Narfi to show traits of Loki's "monstrous blood".

Sigyn, for her part, was mostly pitied, or despised. Is it any wonder she did not socialize more freely with the society in Asgard? A child-bride sold as a pawn, at best; a monster in her own right, for not being 'of the blood'; what did she have in common, at all, with people who saw her in this light?


("Loke og Sigyn", painted in 1810 by Christopher Wilhelm Eckersberg. Originally oil on canvas.)

There are words straining to be said. There are ideas begging to be articulated, if only so I can see the shape of my thoughts by the flavor the words leave in the air. I waver between holding everything back and saying too much. I don't seem to be able to find a steady, middle ground.

The perception is that Loki lied, which he did not do. The perception is that he killed Baldr, which he did not do. The perception is that he was a divisive, unwanted, invasive element in Aesir culture, when in fact he was the blood brother of Odin, who loved him--at least, until Baldr died. Which, by fiat and prophecy, Baldr had to do to become the golden leader of the new gods. People--even the Aesir--forget this, and far too often.


("Loki and Sigyn during Loki's punishment", painted by Karl Franz Eduard von Gebhardt. Originally oil on canvas, this was a reproduction seen in Ebenezer Cobham Brewer's book, 'Character sketches of romance, fiction and the drama'. )

Histories fade, memories fade, everything gets confused, or maybe that's just me. I'm saying things out of order, I'm not saying the things I want to say, I'm saying things I don't want to say, and I have no idea if it's through artifice or genuine unknowing. All I know is, I just want things to work. To work out. And I have no idea how to do that.

Perhaps that's the first step in all of this: admitting that I have no clue about where I'm going, anymore, and what I'm going to do when I get there. Maybe it's also admitting I might need help in figuring it all out.

There are many ways to take a prophecy of oncoming demise. Some parents magnify all good things, reinforcing that it is simply the time that cannot be avoided; ensuring that their child knows love and joy and care until the end.

Frigga did not do this. She was fearful and arrogant; for her son was perfect, and he would stay with her forever. So she made the whole of the world bargain for her son--all save the mistletoe, because it was a parasite, and would never amount to anything. And Baldr grew up, brash and boastful, knowing nothing could kill him, knowing himself to be immortal.

All the time the drumbeat of the prophecy, that Baldr must die, that the natural world itself hung in the balance until he did. And that that very perfection, that bright shining gold of him, was supposed to fade, for death to sink into his bones, and make him humble, and thus he could rise and lead the new gods with a merry heart and an understanding nature.

The whole of the world, Frigga risked, out of misguided pride.


("Sigyn: Lady of the Staying Power" was written by Galina Krasskova and published by Asphodel Press. A passage from the back of the book states "She gathers broken things, and people, to her breast to heal.")

I too, have pride, but it is steadily evaporating. There may be such a thing as an excess of humility; if there is, I'm not there yet. But I'm not sure how much farther I have left to fall, before a total loss of self-integrity.

Is that a good thing? I'm too close to it to tell.

Baldr held a challenge, his ego overwhelming his common sense--and not for the first time. He invited everyone, including Höd, who was blind. Höd was an amazing archer--what he fired at, he hit, with or without his vision. Admittedly, Loki knew this, and watched as he shot arrow after arrow at Baldr, while Baldr laughed.

Then Loki handed him an arrow with a point carved from the lowly, dismissed mistletoe, the single plant o'er all the earth that Frigga never bothered to extract the bargain from. Höd lined it up. Baldr urged him on. The Aesir watched as the arrow flew true--and struck, and killed Baldr on the spot.

The prophecy fulfilled, Loki slipped away, but his closeness to Höd did not go unmarked. Höd was not blamed--and why would he be? Baldr asked him to fire. But Loki was, all because he saw the loophole--and knew the prophecy must be fulfilled.


(From Skaldenmet, a German translation of the 1999 poem "Sigyn Talks To Her Husband" by Laura Gjovaag. Artist unknown; at a guess, pencil and ink on board, but I could be wrong.)

I am also tired. I am still far too fragile, but the air around me swirls with confusion and unease, and it's nearly all of my making. When the talks begin, what will I say? When the talks begin, will I know how to listen? When the talks begin...when will the talks begin?

Loki, sensing the change in the air, and his quick fall from 'tolerated' to 'abhorred' status, spurred on by Frigga, escaped to the mountains with his sons and his wife. He pondered ways in which he could be caught, for every form of escape he had. He was working on a way out of a fishing net, as a sleek-flanked salmon, when the Aesir climbed the mountain. Quickly, he transformed and threw the net in the fire, before seeking the stream and fins again; but alas, in this, he had outsmarted himself; Odin saw the net, pieced the making together, and caught him, held him in strong unyielding arms.

A cave was found, deep and dark. A serpent was found whose venom was so strong, it could affect the gods themselves. The serpent was trapped above three stone slabs, each pierced with a hole, set on edge. Dark magics were employed that changed Váli into a wolf; the abrupt, unwanted change drove him mad. He turned on his brother, Narfi, tearing him to pieces, and ran deep into the cave, never to be seen again.

And these gods, these bright and shining walkers of the Rainbow Bridge, drew out Narfi's entrails, using the entrails of Sigyn and Loki's child to bind him across the three raised edges of the stone, whereupon they tightened and turned into iron.

Imagine. Loki feels betrayal? Yes. Anger? Yes. Rage, and even hurt? Yes.

What does Sigyn feel? These people who have never accepted her as one of them, have just killed one of her sons outright, driven the other mad, bound her husband in magicked chains--and Odin had the audacity to turn to her, after, and say all she had to do was walk away from her husband--just walk away--and she would be accepted among the shining throng.

Tell us he is not your husband, he said. You will be a maid again, and live with us, and we will never refer to him more.

And Sigyn--pale, Other, different Sigyn--said no. You bind my husband, she said, I will stay with him. You reject my husband, you reject me. Go home to your wives, and your husbands; leave me to mine.

And there she stands, month into year into decade into century into millenia, time slowly grinding her to sinew and bone. She stands, holding a rough bowl above her husband's eyes, to catch the venom of the by-now maddened serpent. She only leaves his side when she must empty the bowl into the darkest reaches of the cave. And in those moments, only the howls of her husband can be heard over the howling of her transformed son.

The poison drips, adds to the burden
In my bowl. It fills with revenge.
You feel the drops when I leave
To empty the bowl
Falling into your eyes.
Your body shudders, shakes the ground
That you are held to,
Gripped by the last embrace
Of our son.

Laura Gjovaag speaks as if she were there; in that cave, in that trembling body. Enduring, enduring because it is all she has, enduring because it is all she can do. To protect her love and husband as best she can.

Do the gods see that you will break the binds?
Do they know the pain that will make you fight?
Do they care that I am the one who holds Ragnarok away?

But the gods do not think of such things. They think of the loss of Baldr, of the bright and shining golden son, whose loss has made Frigga bitter and grieving-grey. They think of justice done. They do not think that they, themselves, crafted their demise.

Oh, Loki, my husband,
My arms are tired.

And I can guarantee they do not think of Sigyn.

I think of her. In these moments when stress and weakness diminish me, I cling to that image, that image that has inspired so much art, so many different interpretations, as the world spins on. I think of her.

I am not that embattled lady, growing older in the dark; I am not driven half-mad by the will to stand and not lose my own sense of self to the howls in the black. But my soul is on its knees, and if this means I must stop, now, and not press forward, not keep walking at any cost...then that is what I do. I have the serpent's spite with Sigyn's guiding endurance; occasionally, I am the wanderer in outer shadow. But I will make this work.

And perhaps, the world will move to where I sit, instead of me walking forward in the world. And I will regain that sense of closeness, which is all I truly wanted. Perhaps that is my lesson in all of this reflection; that we have reached another time to pause, and reinforce, and sit, hands on knees, prepared for the universe to speak.

I'm waiting. This, too, is what I do.

(Poem © 1999, 2003, 2007, 2010, Laura Gjovaag, from A Dreamer's Sketch Pad.)

disconnecting, no one calls, the phone don't even ring

Sometimes, playing Echo Bazaar ends up a uniquely trippy experience:

A dream about a corridor lined with brass mirrors

In the dream, the mirrors on the left-hand side reflect you walking through a desert of ash, spiked here and there with the blackened stumps of trees. When you turn to your right, you fall out of bed. You open your eyes. Moonish light filters into the room: for a moment the floor beneath you seems to ripple, reflecting it like a pool of mercury. No, hang on, you're awake. This definitely just happened.

I've had nights like this.

At the turn of the century, a Danish painter named Vilhelm Hammershøi predated the Second Life effect of viewing the world over your avatar's shoulder. Notwithstanding the fact that he's apparently the go-to artist for 'serious literature' book covers, I find myself very comfortable with the view of the back of his wife's head. It seems natural to me, at this point.

And, following up on the current bans from yesterday and on Monday, this is by report the exact letter Hybrid Ansar got from Linden Labs as to why she was banned.

I guess that answers that.

[15:28] Tomoyuki Batra: The update is that they have changed Azriel's password so he can't get into the site or xstreet. He is getting ready to call them.
[15:28] Sakura Rajal: O>O what?

For those who don't remember yesterday's mention, Azriel Demain has been banned from Second Life. The thinking was this would only be for seven days. An additional email made it clear that the ban could be for seven days, or "indefinitely".

"Indefinitely" is a bad, bad word at this point.

[15:29] Tomoyuki Batra: They suspended Azriel for a week starting yesterday
[15:29] ZombieToy Fretwerk: wtf
[15:29] Tomoyuki Batra: because he had the words 'inspired by dracula' on one of his xstreet listings

Here's how we think it goes--Azriel has the listing up. Doesn't think to change it, because it's been that description for at least two years. Someone happens across it--who knows who? For all we know, it could have been a wandering Linden. This soul then reports it as a violation.

And Linden Labs freaks out completely and bans Az from the grid.

[15:30] Vylna Daviau: when Second life ADVERTISES - come on second life and be a vampire?

I should point your attention towards the current ad in the sidebar--it's been replaced with text-only, but the ad I had before for SL, if anyone remembers, was the one Vylna's referring to. Apparently it's okay as long as they don't say "Twilight" or "Dracula"...

(Though to that end, just as a side note...why haven't KayKay Stine, Xtasy Veil, Acekala Porthos, AngelinaJolie Laville, Azriel Watanabe, Caroline Tairov, Madonna Ohare, Sherry Moleno, MK Magic, TrishaNicole GossipGirl, TheCureAndTheCause Ghost, snoe Halostar, or Tristan Careless, just to mention a few who are quite blatantly ripping off the "Twilight" film series, been banned, then? There's no equality in the ban process? Or maybe it's that "Twilight" and "Avatar" are so much bigger than SL, and nobody will mind or notice, but Universal might sue Second Life for the "inspired by" line? Help me understand the thinking, here.)

[15:31] Tomoyuki Batra: yesterday he was able to access xstreet and secondlife.com
[15:31] Tomoyuki Batra: now he can't.
[15:32] Tomoyuki Batra: that means no transferring of moneys from xstreet into second life for tier, sim, anything else
[15:32] Rayven Zelmanov: How can they do that to him???

Well, pretty much because they're Linden Labs, at this point. But what Azriel is most worried about is that tier, which is due on 2 August. And he doesn't get in at the earliest until 8 August. What happens on the second when tier isn't paid?

[15:32] Tomoyuki Batra: that means he can't pay his vendor spaces
[15:32] Tomoyuki Batra: that means no creating, no new releases, nothing
[15:32] Rayven Zelmanov: totally unfair
[15:32] Tomoyuki Batra: this basically screws him completely because this is his rl livelihood.

I've been saying for most of eighteen months now, that the end goal of Linden Labs' new management is to finish user-created content, once and for all. Because they seem to want a safe world, a sanitized world, a world that's flirty enough for adults and bland enough for the tweenybops and hot and cold running events for everyone else. Where money comes in and doesn't go out and everyone on the planet has a Second Life account.

This isn't a bad dream...well, actually, yeah, it's kind of an absurd and ridiculous dream that's completely delusional, but compared to, say, placing a private ad for a young man to slaughter and consume, well, it's a small fluffy happy dream. More power to them.

But the Lindens--old or new--still don't live in their world. They keep failing to understand the basic premise--if people are banned from creating; if people are turned solely and wholly into consumers of existing content; who's making that content? And if it's turning into that kind of game, where everyone has a choice between the jeans and the green t-shirt or the magenta disco dress, then we might as well be playing the Sims.

[15:33] Tomoyuki Batra: this could mean the end of falln if they keep going.

If Azriel Demain is permanently banned for something that was easily correctable, and it turns out to be entirely Linden-contrived, no one else noticing at all--that means this entire thing could have been avoided with a phone call, a personal note, hells--a notecard or IM sent in world.

This may well be the worst PR disaster the Labs have ever suffered, because--and especially so soon after the mass lay-offs--it will mean pretty much anyone is fair game. That no one is sacred anymore. That it doesn't matter how many sims we might own, we can go down on a whim.

This is not what the Labs want us all to be thinking.

When we were having this discussion this morning, there was at least one fellow who didn't get it, and kept making inappropriate comments in the group.

[15:34] VIKTOR Faerye: chill out ppl , just get the stick right out of ur asses

Tomo finally bounced him. Me being me, I couldn't leave it there:

[15:50] Emilly Orr: We did try to warn you. Apparently you don't listen.
[15:50] VIKTOR Faerye: cmon i have things to do here and that window keep coming
[15:51] Emilly Orr: So close it. That stops the window from popping up. Instead, you've now irritated the highly stressed partner of Azriel, who has banned you from the group and from the store. Consider it your lesson in being polite on SL.
[15:53] VIKTOR Faerye: lol i dont even know why i was a member,so how can i tell u i dont care

Yeah, I should've dropped it there. But I am stubborn when frustrated, and I am frustrated in so many ways at present.

[16:02] VIKTOR Faerye: why ppl is so hostile these days, i just was trying to have fun
[16:02] VIKTOR Faerye: i dont even know wat the problem is
[16:03] Emilly Orr: Azriel Demain, the owner of FallnAngel Designs--the group you got kicked from--got banned by Linden Labs for using what they consider to be a copyrighted word in a description on an XStreet listing.
[16:03] VIKTOR Faerye: wats the word_

(As it turns out, actually, it was the "inspired by", not so much the "Dracula", near as we understand things now.)

[16:03] Emilly Orr: It is now July 29th. He was told he was banned yesterday. This gives him seven days before he will be able to log back in--IF the Labs don't make it a permanent ban.
[16:04] VIKTOR Faerye: but wat was the word he used
[16:05] Emilly Orr: On the 2nd of August, tier is due for his sims. If he doesn't pay it in in-world currency, there are two ways that Linden Labs can deal with this. One is to pull funds from his personal checking account, which means certain longer-term RL plans will be scotched; the other is to declare the sims defaulted, return everything, and reclaim the land.
[16:05] Emilly Orr: Which word?
[16:06] VIKTOR Faerye: damn he is in some trouble then
[16:06] Emilly Orr: Yes. And you came in with your sense of humor and pretty much stomped on Tomo's last remaining nerve.
[16:07] Emilly Orr: Do you understand why this is a little big bigger than 'damn, people, chill, pull that stick outta yer asses' territory?
[16:07] VIKTOR Faerye: lol poor tomo im sorry bout him too * no kidding *

Go figure. He's sorry now that he's been bounced from the group and estate-banned. Some people.

[17:21] Emilly Orr: Did they tell him anything about payment on his sims?
[17:21] Tomoyuki Batra: they just kinda said 'oh well'
[17:22] MichaelE Eiren: don't they WANT their tier??
[17:22] Emilly Orr: This is a PR nightmare, but I'm not entirely convinced the Labs care.

This is the exact listing from XStreet's current "Report Item" policy:

Report Item

Before you continue to file a report, please review the following:

Are you having delivery problems with an item? Is this a general complaint better handled by Customer Support? Please DO NOT use this tool. Instead contact the Customer Support team directly.

Contact the Customer Support Team

Do you want to report an intellectual property violation? If you are an intellectual property owner with a complaint about a marketplace listing, contact the Intellectual Property team directly.

Contact the Intellectual Property Team

If the above situations do not apply to your complaint, then use this tool to report basic listing issues. Examples include: miscategorized listings, adult content, wrong language, listings for real-world goods or services, non-item listings, item or keyword spam, re-listed items, references to other e-commerce websites, anti-competitive or abusive behavior, or other Second Life Community Standards violation

It sounds like "inspired by" anything isn't even an issue, by what they're looking for. What they're looking for according to this would be:

• adult content in non-adult listings
• item or keyword spam in the listing
• re-listing the same items with new names
• referencing websites not XStreet/SL Marketplace
• abusive language or "gaming" tactics used in the listing
• assigning listings to the wrong category
• using the wrong descriptive language in the listing

Maybe the Labs are just that nervy, but if they're telling him he can't re-enter SL, or use any SL-related services, until August 8th...he's going to lose all four sims.

FallnAngel Designs at that point will be a dead fashion house. Does Linden Labs really want this?

One last thing: on this YouTube video (don't ask, Fawkes is dragging me through Phineas & Ferb), they list the allowable use section of the Copyright Act of 1976:

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for 'fair use' for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

Does that matter a whit in terms of DMCA provisions, or Linden Labs' own internal Terms of Service? Not a lot, no, per this section:

2.6

Linden Lab may suspend or terminate your account at any time, without refund or obligation to you. Linden Lab has the right at any time for any reason or no reason to suspend or terminate your Account, terminate this Agreement, and/or refuse any and all current or future use of the Service without notice or liability to you. In the event that Linden Lab suspends or terminates your Account or this Agreement, you understand and agree that you shall receive no refund or exchange for any unused time on a subscription, any license or subscription fees, any content or data associated with your Account, or for anything else.

Yeah. Like that. So according to that passage, it may not matter why Azriel was banned, just if the Lindens will let him get back on. But this is making a great many of us nervous about many things--creating in world; living in world; and staying in world.

It is becoming a very, very hostile Second Life.

In other news, there's news on MyWorld--is it the next Second Life? Or the next Facebook? From here, it's hard to tell. All we know so far is it's an international social game--there are no avatars, but there are vehicles--be they cars, trucks, planes or trains--that one can use to compete in mini-games.

[23:59] Poppet McGimsie: this really happened: a friend of mine was teaching a logic class, and explaining how two negatives can make a positive, but two postiviers can never make a negative, and someone in the class said (very sarcastically) "yeah yeah"

Showed them, huh? And that's all from the cheap seats for tonight. Ta!