There are interactive pets with functional AI's now, on the grid? Interesting. And news via Dr. Mason on the adult continent of Ursula--far be it from me of accusing any Linden of possessing a sense of humor, but it seems there just might be a reason behind the name, and it's not because of Ursula Andress--or "Ursula Andrews", as Blondin first said.
It may very well be due to Ursula von der Leyen, a current conservative German politician, who has a knee-jerk reaction to Kinderpornografie--in that, she sees it everywhere--who spearheaded an effort to...how did they put it on the Wiki page...
"She advocated the initiation of a mandatory blockage of child pornography in the internet through Internet service providers via a block list conducted by the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany."
So, in essence, the ageplay hysteria; the not-so-occasional attacks on dolls, small furs and short avatars; the reason I now have a "Back off, she's a doll, I am not an ageplayer" section of my picks now in the profile...all her fault.
And now they're naming a continent after her.
Wonderful. So now, not only are the Lindens cocking up the grid with the half-assed adult continent concept in the first place...but they will again be pissing off Germany to do it. Just dandy.
Can Lindens be impeached? Or are we just allowed to follow them around when they're being stupid and tell them so? Like, CONSTANTLY? Would that help?
back to back in a parking deck
I was pretending to count the stars
and that wine was going to my head
and all I could hear was my heart
Dyri from Taisgeal Clachan wrote in, thanking me for the mention, and telling me they're soon to come off of hiatus, Alarick and him; in fact, they're two or three songs from finishing their first album. This is wonderful news and I will be waiting most impatiently. I've been listening since, off and on, to the songs now on their MySpace page, and what I said before remains true--instrumental pieces, thick and rich with mood, driven on by reverb and a spine-curling bassline, like watching storm clouds ride in along the seacoast. Beautiful, beautiful stuph.
back home we started writing maps
of all the places we'd never been
and in the end I let myself collapse
into the kind of love I'm in
So it's a good time to go back to the Celtic music entry and cover some of the new folks mentioned. People like Fiddler's Green, who play what they describe as "speedfolk"--fast exhilarating versions of traditional songs, like The Night that Pat Murphy Died, a fun grinning romp through Pat Murphy's wake.
Tarry Trousers
Queen of Argyll (compare that version with Silly Wizard's much more traditional Queen)
Folk's Not Dead (BWAHAHAHA...)
They have a MySpace page. They're German. And they're a HELL of a lot of fun. Give 'em a listen.
And have I mentioned Enter the Haggis yet? Canadian bad boys, fierce musicians armed with tradition and youth to fight the good fight, and keep the old songs remembered.
One Last Drink
The Litter and the Leaves
And this is an odd one--"Murphy's Ashes" performed live, but overdubbed with the studio version of ETH playing the song. But hey, it works.
And this must be seen to be believed--a really wild salad and a "bottle blowing" contest. Hee!
They can be found at enterthehaggis.com.
and the first kiss came only after we decided not to
and this bliss came only after we had lost it all
so maybe the only choice we've really got is
how to take the fall
whoa, ohhh...
how to take the fall
Also mentioned in the comments were Maidens IV, who are mostly traditional (two fiddles, guitar and bodhran, how can you not be traditional?), but incorporate modern rhythms in the mix.
Here they're performing live at Mayfaire Renaissance Festival in 2007; here they're playing what looks like an indoor concert; and their site calls them "One of Ohio's premier Irish ensembles".
Ohio has a lot of Irish ensembles, then?
But they put heart and soul into their work, and they're lovely to hear.
Another one mentioned was Homeland, another Ohio band with Celtic edge; they're hard to get a good feel of, because their YouTube offerings (recorded by fans) possess such abysmal sound quality. But they also have a blog, and at the very least, you have to go to their home page, hit the play button on the Homeland Radio widget, and listen to "Mrs. McGrath". Simple, nearly unadorned instrumentalists.
They also have an official MySpace page.
yeah, the first kiss came only after we decided not to
and this bliss came only after I had lost it all
so maybe the only choice we've ever gotten is
how to take the fall
whoa, ohhh...
how to take the fall
Finally, a reader known only as Tony hit me with a whole bunch of Celtic metal/"bagrock" bands, namely the Bluehorses out of Cardiff, Tartanic out of Houston (who apparently broke up since December of '08), The Mudmen, and Prydein.
Bluehorses:
Waes Hael
Blackleg Miner (for how impressive this is, you have to hear Steeleye's take on it too)
Tom o'Bedlam (and compare that to one of my favorite versions, Heather Alexander's Bedlam Boys)
Skyclad
The Mudmen:
5 O'Clock
The Highlander (and perhaps their biggest claim to fame to date: pairing this song with a wrestling duo in the WWE)
Drink & Fight (pitch is off, it's a bad recording, but the swell and launching promise is worth it)
Underdog
Tartanic:
performing live in Texas at a RenFaire
performing live in SoCal's Pleasure RennFaire
Sack of Stones
Prydein
Bagpipe Rock
Minstrel Boy
Run Runaway
Stairway to Scotland/Auld Lang Syne (live)
Lastly, on my wanderings to proof out this entry, I ran across Laurie Anderson again. Still out there. Still recording missives from the edge of society. Wonderful to hear. I'm going looking for the "Homeland" album now.
(And damn it--I made a new tag! WOE!)
(Lyrics transcribed from listening to the song on Juliana Finch's site; I'm also amused that on a search for footage of Juliana, or more mention of this song, I wandered onto Grace Buford's YouTube channel; she's known to more of you as Cylindrian Rutabaga. And can her fiddler play--Whee!)
08 May, 2009
once upon a century, wistful oceans calm and red
A lovely cyborg avatar was seen on the Not Possible in Real Life blog. I must remember to link that in the blogroll somewhere...and take Miss Neome to see the av.
Miss Oriana Pooley sent out a missive to more than one of the groups to which I belong, giving out a SLUrl along with the staggering "information" that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing, live, at the Gothic Fair.
As Fawkes is a fan, and couldn't be in world, I set off to find out what this was, and exactly what she meant when she said "live in world".
What I found? A mall. And above that mall was the convention center where the so-called "Gothic Fair" was exhibiting.
Queen was playing on the land stream. And all I found was lag.
I was understandably irked:
[19:29] Emilly Orr: Oriana, that was a very crude marketing ploy, in addition to being very annoying. I'm not impressed, and I'm not happy about the loss of fifteen minutes' build time to run down something that was lagged into the next century, featuring a music stream that was not only *not* live, but nothing remotely "gothic" in nature. I'm disappointed.
Some few hours later, her response arrived:
[20:42] Oriana Pooley: (Saved Fri May 08 20:33:39 2009) ok.. sorry
I want to storm back to the IM box and say that's not good enough, but, as I get the marked feeling she has no idea what she did wrong, it would be a waste of pixilated outrage, at the least.
Caught at Herbalys, or at least their satellite store in the Red Queen sim, the curious specimen of Narcissus Cathodis. I'm fascinated by how this plant developed; I may have to purchase a seedling and look into its care and feeding.
Mr. Albert Beerbaum is quite the botanist with previously unknown grid-based plants; you can find his main store in Ratin, with examples shown of his entire botanical line. (Also a few candles and mad science flasks to round things out.)
I had a feeling I should organize, as the dress was not, in any way, ceasing to fight me. I turned to my tags as a--I thought--handy distraction.
I soon realized, how'ver, that as much as I may have wanted to kill every tag with five or fewer entries, some of those really fit that category. So I dropped my sights to four. Then three. Then two.
Absinthe was a category that had two, and I sighed, admitting defeat. All right, let's target posts that, after all this time, just have one entry they tag.
Surely that will work, right?
Bling for example. The one entry under that title fit equally well under "shopping and offensive so I let it go.
Duchamp only had one entry as well, this one. As Duchamp has been renamed at this point, I'm removing it, and letting love and loss guide as tags.
In this mostly photographic entry, I realized I could replace Burning Life with art and build, with no effort whatsoever.
The Edison tag I'm keeping; ditto the one for Evocative--not the least of which is I need to go back and edit that post, but also, I want to add in more trips to the Evocative sim at some point.
Fishing also will likely get more entries. I miss fishing.
I removed Lovelace as a tag because I couldn't figure out where, exactly, I mentioned Lovelace in the post that used to reference it. Lunitarium is going to be added to; and I can't think of a better descriptive tag for the one Mondserrat tag than...Mondserrat. And the post on orbiting really needs an orbiting tag...in fact, I still need to answer that question.
I am fail at tag organizing.
I managed to remove poetry; Sector 7 stays but will likely only ever have that one post; and I want to do more shoes posts because they're fun.
I took out Sleepy Hollow, even though it really deserves at least two of the haunted-house posts at this point.
I took out Southend, Tombstone (I replaced it with the roleplay tag), I want to keep the Tusk tag, but I eliminated updates.
Oh, and the cookies tag? Damn it, I have to keep that one. Because it relates back to this entry, which is important for me to read back on, if only once in a while.
So I can at least make it two: here's another recipe.
Pumpkin Cookies Recipe
These cookies are soft and moist. Be sure to let them cool completely and to store them in single layers separated by wax paper, or they will stick together in one large cookie mound.
Ingredients:
* 1 cup butter, room temperature (225 grams)
* 1 cup packed brown sugar (225 grams)
* 1 cup granulated sugar (225 grams)
* 1 cup pumpkin puree (225 grams)
* 1 large egg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5 ml)
* 2 cups all-purpose flour (450 grams)
* 1 1/3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats (275 grams)
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup of pumpkin seeds (225 grams)
* 1 cup dried currants (225 grams)
Instructions:
1 Preheat the oven to 350° F. (Gas mark 4, 180 C, Circotherm 160--pick what works for you.)
2 Beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3 Add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin puree and beat for another 3 minutes.
4 In a separate bowl combine the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cardamom and cinnamon and whisk together. Slowly add it to the butter mixture until just combined, being sure to scrape down the sides and bottom once or twice to ensure even mixing.
5 Fold in the pumpkin seeds and currants. Drop spoonfuls of dough on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 13-15 minutes. Allow to cool on the tray for a minute or two to set, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Makes 4 dozen cookies.
You're welcome.
All in all, after a few hours, I managed to only eliminate nine tags. Still...it's a start.
Miss Oriana Pooley sent out a missive to more than one of the groups to which I belong, giving out a SLUrl along with the staggering "information" that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing, live, at the Gothic Fair.
As Fawkes is a fan, and couldn't be in world, I set off to find out what this was, and exactly what she meant when she said "live in world".
What I found? A mall. And above that mall was the convention center where the so-called "Gothic Fair" was exhibiting.
Queen was playing on the land stream. And all I found was lag.
I was understandably irked:
[19:29] Emilly Orr: Oriana, that was a very crude marketing ploy, in addition to being very annoying. I'm not impressed, and I'm not happy about the loss of fifteen minutes' build time to run down something that was lagged into the next century, featuring a music stream that was not only *not* live, but nothing remotely "gothic" in nature. I'm disappointed.
Some few hours later, her response arrived:
[20:42] Oriana Pooley: (Saved Fri May 08 20:33:39 2009) ok.. sorry
I want to storm back to the IM box and say that's not good enough, but, as I get the marked feeling she has no idea what she did wrong, it would be a waste of pixilated outrage, at the least.
Caught at Herbalys, or at least their satellite store in the Red Queen sim, the curious specimen of Narcissus Cathodis. I'm fascinated by how this plant developed; I may have to purchase a seedling and look into its care and feeding.
Mr. Albert Beerbaum is quite the botanist with previously unknown grid-based plants; you can find his main store in Ratin, with examples shown of his entire botanical line. (Also a few candles and mad science flasks to round things out.)
I had a feeling I should organize, as the dress was not, in any way, ceasing to fight me. I turned to my tags as a--I thought--handy distraction.
I soon realized, how'ver, that as much as I may have wanted to kill every tag with five or fewer entries, some of those really fit that category. So I dropped my sights to four. Then three. Then two.
Absinthe was a category that had two, and I sighed, admitting defeat. All right, let's target posts that, after all this time, just have one entry they tag.
Surely that will work, right?
Bling for example. The one entry under that title fit equally well under "shopping and offensive so I let it go.
Duchamp only had one entry as well, this one. As Duchamp has been renamed at this point, I'm removing it, and letting love and loss guide as tags.
In this mostly photographic entry, I realized I could replace Burning Life with art and build, with no effort whatsoever.
The Edison tag I'm keeping; ditto the one for Evocative--not the least of which is I need to go back and edit that post, but also, I want to add in more trips to the Evocative sim at some point.
Fishing also will likely get more entries. I miss fishing.
I removed Lovelace as a tag because I couldn't figure out where, exactly, I mentioned Lovelace in the post that used to reference it. Lunitarium is going to be added to; and I can't think of a better descriptive tag for the one Mondserrat tag than...Mondserrat. And the post on orbiting really needs an orbiting tag...in fact, I still need to answer that question.
I am fail at tag organizing.
I managed to remove poetry; Sector 7 stays but will likely only ever have that one post; and I want to do more shoes posts because they're fun.
I took out Sleepy Hollow, even though it really deserves at least two of the haunted-house posts at this point.
I took out Southend, Tombstone (I replaced it with the roleplay tag), I want to keep the Tusk tag, but I eliminated updates.
Oh, and the cookies tag? Damn it, I have to keep that one. Because it relates back to this entry, which is important for me to read back on, if only once in a while.
So I can at least make it two: here's another recipe.
Pumpkin Cookies Recipe
These cookies are soft and moist. Be sure to let them cool completely and to store them in single layers separated by wax paper, or they will stick together in one large cookie mound.
Ingredients:
* 1 cup butter, room temperature (225 grams)
* 1 cup packed brown sugar (225 grams)
* 1 cup granulated sugar (225 grams)
* 1 cup pumpkin puree (225 grams)
* 1 large egg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5 ml)
* 2 cups all-purpose flour (450 grams)
* 1 1/3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats (275 grams)
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup of pumpkin seeds (225 grams)
* 1 cup dried currants (225 grams)
Instructions:
1 Preheat the oven to 350° F. (Gas mark 4, 180 C, Circotherm 160--pick what works for you.)
2 Beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3 Add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin puree and beat for another 3 minutes.
4 In a separate bowl combine the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cardamom and cinnamon and whisk together. Slowly add it to the butter mixture until just combined, being sure to scrape down the sides and bottom once or twice to ensure even mixing.
5 Fold in the pumpkin seeds and currants. Drop spoonfuls of dough on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 13-15 minutes. Allow to cool on the tray for a minute or two to set, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Makes 4 dozen cookies.
You're welcome.
All in all, after a few hours, I managed to only eliminate nine tags. Still...it's a start.
but keep in mind penalty fits the crime, and it deals no softened blow
(Scroll down for the list of radio stations. Thank you ever so.)
Had an odd moment earlier, at Silent Sparrow's not-so-secret sale.
I remember this when it came out. I remember this, and the all of eight other items she had at the time, in a little satellite store in the original Steelhead sim. I remember really liking this, not knowing if I could afford it, but having to go to her main store anyway, which was all dark brown wood and open to the night air, the panels for the clothing on display full bright (there was no glow back then, remember).
I'm standing in front of this now, and realizing how far the grid has come, in a lot of ways. Hells, that's Panache hair she's wearing. I don't even know if Panache hair is still around; more to the point, that hair was very nearly--or might indeed have been--made before the advent of flexi prims!
This was the first thing I ever bought from Silent Sparrow. I was (I still am) deeply in love with My Chemical Romance's Welcome to the Black Parade. The album with the same name was released on September 11th, 2006. I'd been on the grid exactly two months and one day.
I saw this and knew I had to take it home, for all that it's gone with so very little over the years.
I'm slightly tempted to give in to nostalgia and buy a new copy. Save for I'm doing my best to get down below 60,117. I always held 60K as the impossible barrier, in terms of lag, redmapping and crashing; and boy, I wasn't kidding. I have to get back to at least 58K again!
This next bit's mostly for me, because notecards have been failing in world left and right:
Alternative:
- XRM Radio (Alternative)
- Classic Alternative
- Magnatune Alternative
- Big R Radio - 90's Alternative
- Live from Mexico City: RadioPepito (modern bands)
- Tormented Radio (indie/alternative)
- Fracture Radio (indie/alternative) (new address!)
Had an odd moment earlier, at Silent Sparrow's not-so-secret sale.
I remember this when it came out. I remember this, and the all of eight other items she had at the time, in a little satellite store in the original Steelhead sim. I remember really liking this, not knowing if I could afford it, but having to go to her main store anyway, which was all dark brown wood and open to the night air, the panels for the clothing on display full bright (there was no glow back then, remember).
I'm standing in front of this now, and realizing how far the grid has come, in a lot of ways. Hells, that's Panache hair she's wearing. I don't even know if Panache hair is still around; more to the point, that hair was very nearly--or might indeed have been--made before the advent of flexi prims!
This was the first thing I ever bought from Silent Sparrow. I was (I still am) deeply in love with My Chemical Romance's Welcome to the Black Parade. The album with the same name was released on September 11th, 2006. I'd been on the grid exactly two months and one day.
I saw this and knew I had to take it home, for all that it's gone with so very little over the years.
I'm slightly tempted to give in to nostalgia and buy a new copy. Save for I'm doing my best to get down below 60,117. I always held 60K as the impossible barrier, in terms of lag, redmapping and crashing; and boy, I wasn't kidding. I have to get back to at least 58K again!
This next bit's mostly for me, because notecards have been failing in world left and right:
Alternative:
- XRM Radio (Alternative)
- Classic Alternative
- Magnatune Alternative
- Big R Radio - 90's Alternative
- Live from Mexico City: RadioPepito (modern bands)
- Tormented Radio (indie/alternative)
- Fracture Radio (indie/alternative) (new address!)
- The Cape Radio (This is under alternative, only because 'Superhero Eclectic' isn't a category. This is fan-based radio for the City of Heroes Virtue server, and they're weird and wonderful, but they play a little bit of EVERYTHING, so they're hard to categorize.)
Offbeat/Miscellaneous:
- SomaFM Tiki Lounge
- Magnatune Punk
- Supernatural Radio Network (mostly talk, not songs)
Resident Streams:
Miss Autopilotpatty Poppy's stream (eclectic, mostly Wednesday and Thursday evenings, but may get music on it at other times)
Jazz/Blues:
- Internet Swiss Radio, RadioCrazy Jazz
- Magnatune Blues
- Magnatune Jazz
- 1FM (Blues)
- Radio Dismuke (Big band/jazz)
Pagan:
- Pagan Pentagram Radio
- Pagan Radio Network
Ambient/Trance:
- SomaFM's Groove Salad
- Magnatune Ambient
- Magnatune Downtempo
- Magnatune Electronica
- Magnatune Technotronica
- Energy 98 (dance mix)
- Trance Channel/Digitally Imported (trance dance)
- Magnatune Experimental Sounds
- Magnatune Progressive
- Digital Gunfire (electronic industrial)
- Limbik Goa Trance (.ogg-encoded)
- Magnatune Technotronica
- Sun Radio Dance (Russian)
- SomaFM Drone Zone (ambient/space)
Goth/Darkwave:
- Vampirefreaks Radio
- Batcave Redemption Radio
- Roleplay-Radio (German)
- GothRadio
- Magnatune Darkwave
Classical/Baroque:
- Magnatune Baroque
- Magnatune Chamber Music
- Magnatune Harpsichord
- WFMT Classical
- Magnatune Classical
- Magnatune Classical After 1800
- AVRO Baroque
- Otto's Classical Musick
- Otto's Baroque Musick
- Magnatune Medieval
- WCPE classical (OGG encoded)
Radio Riel:
- Radio Riel (Main, 24/7)
- Radio Riel Events stream (operating only during scheduled events)
- Radio Riel New Babbage (steampunk)
- Radio Riel New Toulouse (New Toulouse, blues and jazz, may or may not run 24/7 given the day)
- Radio Riel Graceful (alternative programming/rental stream, not 24/7)
Classic Rock/Pop:
- AngelFire Radio's Classic Rock
- Magnatune Folk/Rock
- Magnatune Funk
- Magnatune Hard Rock
- Magnatune Rock
- Magnatune Pop
- Italian Graffiati ('classic Italian rock')
- .977, the Eighties Channel
- Russian!Radio Pop
- Magnatune Orchestral
- Oldies 104 (50's to 80's hits)
Metal/Industrial:
- Magnatune Industrial
- Magnatune Metal
- Magnatune Thrash/Metal
- Berserker Radio
- PAL Radio (dark industrial)
World Music:
- LiveIreland Radio
- Magnatune Middle Eastern
- Magnatune World Vocalists
- Magnatune Worldmusic
- RadioDarvish (Persian traditional)
- BuureRadio (Swiss folk music/chanting)
- Magnatune Indian Hits
- Magnatune Latin Hits
- Magnatune Flute
Soundtracks/Choral:
- Subsonic Radio (Disney park/theme music)
- ImaginEARing Radio (Disney soundtracks)
- Simply Soundtracks
- Magnatune New Age
- HappyDay New Age Cool Radio
- Magnatune Opera
- Ojibway Voices
- Magnatune Choral Voices
Vintage music/Dustbowl folk:
- KCEA Vintage broadcasting
- 1920's Radio Network (20's to 40's)
- WUMB Folk Radio
- Magnatune Folk
- Folk Alley
- Radio Folk
- Magnatune Piano Stylings
- Boot Liquor (American roots music)
- Heartland Public Radio
- Roots of Rock (weirdly, early country)
Seasonal/Holiday:
- Big R Radio - Top 40 Christmas
- Big R Radio - Christmas Classics
- 181.FM (Country Christmas songs)
- Radio Holidays Playlist
- 1.FM Always Christmas
- CRAGG - Cult Radio-a-Go-Go
- Weirdsville's Silly Halloween
Steampunk:
- KBeWM Radio: http://bewm.kbwmradio.com:8000
If you can think of anything you want on this list, toss it in the comments. I'll likely just note the post URL, and start giving that out.
Offbeat/Miscellaneous:
- SomaFM Tiki Lounge
- Magnatune Punk
- Supernatural Radio Network (mostly talk, not songs)
Resident Streams:
Miss Autopilotpatty Poppy's stream (eclectic, mostly Wednesday and Thursday evenings, but may get music on it at other times)
Jazz/Blues:
- Internet Swiss Radio, RadioCrazy Jazz
- Magnatune Blues
- Magnatune Jazz
- 1FM (Blues)
- Radio Dismuke (Big band/jazz)
Pagan:
- Pagan Pentagram Radio
- Pagan Radio Network
Ambient/Trance:
- SomaFM's Groove Salad
- Magnatune Ambient
- Magnatune Downtempo
- Magnatune Electronica
- Magnatune Technotronica
- Energy 98 (dance mix)
- Trance Channel/Digitally Imported (trance dance)
- Magnatune Experimental Sounds
- Magnatune Progressive
- Digital Gunfire (electronic industrial)
- Limbik Goa Trance (.ogg-encoded)
- Magnatune Technotronica
- Sun Radio Dance (Russian)
- SomaFM Drone Zone (ambient/space)
Goth/Darkwave:
- Vampirefreaks Radio
- Batcave Redemption Radio
- Roleplay-Radio (German)
- GothRadio
- Magnatune Darkwave
Classical/Baroque:
- Magnatune Baroque
- Magnatune Chamber Music
- Magnatune Harpsichord
- WFMT Classical
- Magnatune Classical
- Magnatune Classical After 1800
- AVRO Baroque
- Otto's Classical Musick
- Otto's Baroque Musick
- Magnatune Medieval
- WCPE classical (OGG encoded)
Radio Riel:
- Radio Riel (Main, 24/7)
- Radio Riel Events stream (operating only during scheduled events)
- Radio Riel New Babbage (steampunk)
- Radio Riel New Toulouse (New Toulouse, blues and jazz, may or may not run 24/7 given the day)
- Radio Riel Graceful (alternative programming/rental stream, not 24/7)
Classic Rock/Pop:
- AngelFire Radio's Classic Rock
- Magnatune Folk/Rock
- Magnatune Funk
- Magnatune Hard Rock
- Magnatune Rock
- Magnatune Pop
- Italian Graffiati ('classic Italian rock')
- .977, the Eighties Channel
- Russian!Radio Pop
- Magnatune Orchestral
- Oldies 104 (50's to 80's hits)
Metal/Industrial:
- Magnatune Industrial
- Magnatune Metal
- Magnatune Thrash/Metal
- Berserker Radio
- PAL Radio (dark industrial)
World Music:
- LiveIreland Radio
- Magnatune Middle Eastern
- Magnatune World Vocalists
- Magnatune Worldmusic
- RadioDarvish (Persian traditional)
- BuureRadio (Swiss folk music/chanting)
- Magnatune Indian Hits
- Magnatune Latin Hits
- Magnatune Flute
Soundtracks/Choral:
- Subsonic Radio (Disney park/theme music)
- ImaginEARing Radio (Disney soundtracks)
- Simply Soundtracks
- Magnatune New Age
- HappyDay New Age Cool Radio
- Magnatune Opera
- Ojibway Voices
- Magnatune Choral Voices
Vintage music/Dustbowl folk:
- KCEA Vintage broadcasting
- 1920's Radio Network (20's to 40's)
- WUMB Folk Radio
- Magnatune Folk
- Folk Alley
- Radio Folk
- Magnatune Piano Stylings
- Boot Liquor (American roots music)
- Heartland Public Radio
- Roots of Rock (weirdly, early country)
Seasonal/Holiday:
- Big R Radio - Top 40 Christmas
- Big R Radio - Christmas Classics
- 181.FM (Country Christmas songs)
- Radio Holidays Playlist
- 1.FM Always Christmas
- CRAGG - Cult Radio-a-Go-Go
- Weirdsville's Silly Halloween
Steampunk:
- KBeWM Radio: http://bewm.kbwmradio.com:8000
If you can think of anything you want on this list, toss it in the comments. I'll likely just note the post URL, and start giving that out.
07 May, 2009
we're only to Ohio, it's kinda getting harder to breathe
Wardenclyffe may fall!
Rumors of Second Life's failure, so says one resident, are just lousy journalism. And okay, fine, I agree with his points--but what about those of us who are on the ground, who do reside in Second Life, and still see warning signs of possible collapse? I don't think we're as easy to dismiss as people who never play at all.
What's missing in RL that keeps us logging into SL? It's a good question.
Edward has another very good question: you can use iTunes to make nuclear weapons? A friend answered--I hope only half-seriously--"Maybe it's the software?"
To which my return question is...you can use Apple software to make nuclear weapons??
Now, then. Normally I avoid, with a fierce and holy vengeance, stores with bad names.
The lost neko palace of Katt Krap started chipping away at my defenses. Now, I am dealing with the store known as Rotten Toe.
What a name. Rotten Toe. It's bizarre, it's unpleasant. But she makes things like this....
Do click for the larger picture that shows all the options available with this outfit. Let me tell you one more thing, that might convince you to go: in addition to the prim skirts, the full outfit, the wired petticoat, the skin and the shape....she wants only L$400 for the outfit.
The whole thing.
Here's where it gets odd, though: she seems mixed between the quirky "dark cabaret" gear, and pop culture gear:
like the Tamagotchi necklace.
But on occasion she ventures into the deeply disturbing:
This is...exactly what it looks like, apparently--a steel-frame apparatus for carving lines in your arm. I can't imagine why anyone would want such a thing--and I'll be quite honest here, I have quite the collection of 'wounded' layers from around and about.
And her "pigface" avatar...I can't imagine anyone wanting one, but it's up on the wall.
But drop by. Risk a visit. What's not disturbing is actually on the neat side.
Rumors of Second Life's failure, so says one resident, are just lousy journalism. And okay, fine, I agree with his points--but what about those of us who are on the ground, who do reside in Second Life, and still see warning signs of possible collapse? I don't think we're as easy to dismiss as people who never play at all.
What's missing in RL that keeps us logging into SL? It's a good question.
Edward has another very good question: you can use iTunes to make nuclear weapons? A friend answered--I hope only half-seriously--"Maybe it's the software?"
To which my return question is...you can use Apple software to make nuclear weapons??
Now, then. Normally I avoid, with a fierce and holy vengeance, stores with bad names.
The lost neko palace of Katt Krap started chipping away at my defenses. Now, I am dealing with the store known as Rotten Toe.
What a name. Rotten Toe. It's bizarre, it's unpleasant. But she makes things like this....
Do click for the larger picture that shows all the options available with this outfit. Let me tell you one more thing, that might convince you to go: in addition to the prim skirts, the full outfit, the wired petticoat, the skin and the shape....she wants only L$400 for the outfit.
The whole thing.
Here's where it gets odd, though: she seems mixed between the quirky "dark cabaret" gear, and pop culture gear:
like the Tamagotchi necklace.
But on occasion she ventures into the deeply disturbing:
This is...exactly what it looks like, apparently--a steel-frame apparatus for carving lines in your arm. I can't imagine why anyone would want such a thing--and I'll be quite honest here, I have quite the collection of 'wounded' layers from around and about.
And her "pigface" avatar...I can't imagine anyone wanting one, but it's up on the wall.
But drop by. Risk a visit. What's not disturbing is actually on the neat side.
05 May, 2009
and so we made our way with the mistake we made
So the Taser case hit the New World Notes this morning.
Reading through the case file (that's a .pdf file) is eye-opening, for more than one reason. First, I had (what I thought was) reliable information that Oni Horan, owner/designer of Necronom, had made something called the "Taser Collar"--and that had started off the lawsuit, when Taser found out.
According to Kanomi Pikajuna, this is not so, which is the first confusing point.
Two sections from the filing:
18. Upon information and belief, all of the Defendents that sell virtual weaponry like Plaintiff's real ones, under the mark TASER for use in the Second Life programs and grids, also sell adult-only explicit images and scenes, attached within Exhibit 2, thus attaching such content to the TASER mark. See Exhibits 2 and 3.
So Taser first is blaming Linden Labs directly, plus all named defendants (some of whom have been fired/voluntarily left, so are no longer Lindens). That's odd enough.
19. Upon information and belief, all of the Defendants that sell virtual weaponry like Plaintiff's real ones, under the mark TASER for use in the Second Life programs and grids, also sell unlawful drug materials, see reference to "crack den" in Exhibit 3, page 9, thus attaching such content to the TASER mark.
But here's the fun bit: they're also blaming Linden Labs directly, plus all named defendants, for the selling of illegal drugs.
The. Hell. I mean seriously, the hell? LL have made their share of mistakes, but--selling drugs? Drug dealers they're not.
This passage from section 37 is particularly telling:
37. Upon information and belief, the Defendants communicated amongst themselves and others,via mail, email, telephone, and/or through other interstate and intrastate mediums, so as to plan to nationally sell and distribute their applications directly into this district; and to pass-off on TII's TASER brand weaponry as their own via the web. Upon information and belief, the Defendants' actions to pass off TASER weaponry as their own, were false, fraudulent, or to induce fraud within consumers, which caused harm to Plaintiff by associating such weaponry with adult-oriented, nearly or actually pornographic images and references to illegal "crack den" sold on the same sites..."
All right. Everyone who's anyone knows that Taser International is sue-happy. They've done this over and over since formation of their product and the company. But this is unusual on a few fronts. Essentially, what they're saying is:
1. We found Linden Labs selling our product virtually; we want them to stop.
2. We found Linden Labs associating our product with sex; we want them to stop.
3. We found Linden Labs associating our product with drugs; we want them to stop.
Which is really, really odd, because--virtual drugs count now? Virtual sex does, sure, but--is it just the Crack Den as a name they're objecting to, or the fact that someone in the Crack Den is hawking virtual drugs along with virtual Tasers? What's really going on?
Man, I'm asking that a lot these days.
And it gets worse--at the bottom of page 25 of the complaint from Taser International? They're hitting the Labs with a cease-and-desist under RICO provisions, as well.
Now we're treading in serious legal waters. People have gone to jail under RICO provisions. Assets have been widely seized and held for the duration of trials. Employees have lost access to payroll, or equipment used for corporate gain, or both--in essence, no one gets paid, no one can work on-site--which is severe indeed.
More telling, though, is that banks refuse to loan funds to companies convicted of, or under indictments for, RICO offenses. Which means potentially Linden Labs could not borrow funds for anything to do with Second Life.
This? Could be huge.
(I will say one more thing: read through the last few entries on Kanomi's blog. They're priceless, especially the "Talk with A Linden" one.)
Reading through the case file (that's a .pdf file) is eye-opening, for more than one reason. First, I had (what I thought was) reliable information that Oni Horan, owner/designer of Necronom, had made something called the "Taser Collar"--and that had started off the lawsuit, when Taser found out.
According to Kanomi Pikajuna, this is not so, which is the first confusing point.
Two sections from the filing:
18. Upon information and belief, all of the Defendents that sell virtual weaponry like Plaintiff's real ones, under the mark TASER for use in the Second Life programs and grids, also sell adult-only explicit images and scenes, attached within Exhibit 2, thus attaching such content to the TASER mark. See Exhibits 2 and 3.
So Taser first is blaming Linden Labs directly, plus all named defendants (some of whom have been fired/voluntarily left, so are no longer Lindens). That's odd enough.
19. Upon information and belief, all of the Defendants that sell virtual weaponry like Plaintiff's real ones, under the mark TASER for use in the Second Life programs and grids, also sell unlawful drug materials, see reference to "crack den" in Exhibit 3, page 9, thus attaching such content to the TASER mark.
But here's the fun bit: they're also blaming Linden Labs directly, plus all named defendants, for the selling of illegal drugs.
The. Hell. I mean seriously, the hell? LL have made their share of mistakes, but--selling drugs? Drug dealers they're not.
This passage from section 37 is particularly telling:
37. Upon information and belief, the Defendants communicated amongst themselves and others,via mail, email, telephone, and/or through other interstate and intrastate mediums, so as to plan to nationally sell and distribute their applications directly into this district; and to pass-off on TII's TASER brand weaponry as their own via the web. Upon information and belief, the Defendants' actions to pass off TASER weaponry as their own, were false, fraudulent, or to induce fraud within consumers, which caused harm to Plaintiff by associating such weaponry with adult-oriented, nearly or actually pornographic images and references to illegal "crack den" sold on the same sites..."
All right. Everyone who's anyone knows that Taser International is sue-happy. They've done this over and over since formation of their product and the company. But this is unusual on a few fronts. Essentially, what they're saying is:
1. We found Linden Labs selling our product virtually; we want them to stop.
2. We found Linden Labs associating our product with sex; we want them to stop.
3. We found Linden Labs associating our product with drugs; we want them to stop.
Which is really, really odd, because--virtual drugs count now? Virtual sex does, sure, but--is it just the Crack Den as a name they're objecting to, or the fact that someone in the Crack Den is hawking virtual drugs along with virtual Tasers? What's really going on?
Man, I'm asking that a lot these days.
And it gets worse--at the bottom of page 25 of the complaint from Taser International? They're hitting the Labs with a cease-and-desist under RICO provisions, as well.
Now we're treading in serious legal waters. People have gone to jail under RICO provisions. Assets have been widely seized and held for the duration of trials. Employees have lost access to payroll, or equipment used for corporate gain, or both--in essence, no one gets paid, no one can work on-site--which is severe indeed.
More telling, though, is that banks refuse to loan funds to companies convicted of, or under indictments for, RICO offenses. Which means potentially Linden Labs could not borrow funds for anything to do with Second Life.
This? Could be huge.
(I will say one more thing: read through the last few entries on Kanomi's blog. They're priceless, especially the "Talk with A Linden" one.)
04 May, 2009
she said, there's one thing you gotta learn, is not to be afraid of it
Cyberlandia arrives.
I love these people--and it's giving me grand ideas for in-world fashions...
Australia is very scary, where even simulated cartoon child pornography is concerned. Do keep in mind, I don't agree with the rising tide of Simpsons cartoon porn--not the least of which is, all the participants are a) underage or b) BRIGHT YELLOW or c) BOTH...but with ageplay already off the menu on the grid, does this mean litigious Australians will now be looking for short avs? Or, say, dolls?
This from Lady Serra, though it's been heard around the grid this morning:
There are some rumors of some nasty gift scam going around right now... as you all know these rumors could be true or might not be, the good thing about these rumors is that they remind us that accepting inventory from unknown sources isn't a good idea. Right now the item in question is called "Life Shop AO" Have a great night!!
The key part of that is, don't accept random inventory items from people you don't know. Period. If they're not in IMs with you, speaking rationally, and telling you they're going to be sending you something, don't accept. It's that simple, whether or not the "Life Shop AO" exists or not.
And my world's staggering a tad bit: I'm agreeing with Prokovy Neva. I may need to lay down with a cool compress until the feeling goes away...
On that similar note of potential sanity loss...you don't need your sanity anyway.
Yet another puzzle piece in the larger picture of why the Lindens are picking now to "clean up" their image: The U.S. Air Force is now in a partnership with Second Life for MyBase, which will expand later this year into actual operational lockdown (currently MyBase is open to the public). Later, the Navy and the National Guard are also planning jaunts inside SL, and are setting up initial spaces for virtual training.
Alas, what forsaken shame the proud name of Hax has earned recently. Prior to now, the very name Hax invoked islands spewing lava, entire civilizations destroyed, maddened bees and rampaging turkeys, slaying all in their path.
Now? It's also known for ripping creators off. And not even well-done hackwork, at that--poor, shoddy, forgot-to-remove-the-prim-creator's-name, hackwork.
All I have to say is, tinker Hax, you should be ashamed of yourself. Apologize forthwith to Miss Marat, and perhaps also to Mr. Denver Hax (for tainting the name of the Destroyer of Worlds). Or change your last name. It's up to you.
"Too dark?" the login screen asked. "Want to override the night and make the sun come out?" I think I still have a higher-than-average level of cynicism in my system; I rather took that as a direct slap in the face over the formation of Ursula. I'm sure it's just me...
We finally finished up the s.i.c. sim hunt tonight. It's over three of the sims this time, similar to the other ones--grab the HUD from the stall just off the main strip, track down ten small black boxes, about the size of...well, I was going to say a human head, but you'd have to flatten the head, then spray-paint it black, and at that point...really, you're better off just finding the ones there.
But as usual, quirky new details have been added whilst we were away. This sign for instance. (Click for the larger size, with the full set of signs haphazardly nailed to that signpost.)
The prize at the end of the hunt? A gun.
A BIG gun.
That sets things ON FIRE.
I'm sorry I don't have many images of the gun itself--I admit, I was rather more distracted than I expected by things exploding around me.
To wit: Miss Allen on the hoverbike outside of the Lunitarium grotto, cocking the gun...
...and the gun going off, and the grotto afire:
(We're behind that large patch of white glow, which is the plasma burst the gun first launches before the incendiaries fire. Also, in the first picture, Miss Allen is actually under the hoverbike, with the barrel of the gun aimed straight up.)
Lastly, Miss Allen showed us all a new innovation of Miss Pandora Wrigglesworth, her "Happy Missile":
I suppose it does look happy at that. Check in at Curio Obscura, see if she's still offering it for sale.
Also, Miss Allen:
looks really, really good on fire. (Though I wouldn't suggest just blindly whipping out flamethrowers as an alternative to a polite greeting, just so you know.)
It still remains a very well-done, amazingly detailed sim, start to finish. Or set of sims--s.i.c. spans five sims now! All through donations. It's just phenomenal. I've said this before, but if you've never considered a visit--do drop by, at least once. It's quite the experience just wandering around.
I love these people--and it's giving me grand ideas for in-world fashions...
Australia is very scary, where even simulated cartoon child pornography is concerned. Do keep in mind, I don't agree with the rising tide of Simpsons cartoon porn--not the least of which is, all the participants are a) underage or b) BRIGHT YELLOW or c) BOTH...but with ageplay already off the menu on the grid, does this mean litigious Australians will now be looking for short avs? Or, say, dolls?
This from Lady Serra, though it's been heard around the grid this morning:
There are some rumors of some nasty gift scam going around right now... as you all know these rumors could be true or might not be, the good thing about these rumors is that they remind us that accepting inventory from unknown sources isn't a good idea. Right now the item in question is called "Life Shop AO" Have a great night!!
The key part of that is, don't accept random inventory items from people you don't know. Period. If they're not in IMs with you, speaking rationally, and telling you they're going to be sending you something, don't accept. It's that simple, whether or not the "Life Shop AO" exists or not.
And my world's staggering a tad bit: I'm agreeing with Prokovy Neva. I may need to lay down with a cool compress until the feeling goes away...
On that similar note of potential sanity loss...you don't need your sanity anyway.
Yet another puzzle piece in the larger picture of why the Lindens are picking now to "clean up" their image: The U.S. Air Force is now in a partnership with Second Life for MyBase, which will expand later this year into actual operational lockdown (currently MyBase is open to the public). Later, the Navy and the National Guard are also planning jaunts inside SL, and are setting up initial spaces for virtual training.
Alas, what forsaken shame the proud name of Hax has earned recently. Prior to now, the very name Hax invoked islands spewing lava, entire civilizations destroyed, maddened bees and rampaging turkeys, slaying all in their path.
Now? It's also known for ripping creators off. And not even well-done hackwork, at that--poor, shoddy, forgot-to-remove-the-prim-creator's-name, hackwork.
All I have to say is, tinker Hax, you should be ashamed of yourself. Apologize forthwith to Miss Marat, and perhaps also to Mr. Denver Hax (for tainting the name of the Destroyer of Worlds). Or change your last name. It's up to you.
"Too dark?" the login screen asked. "Want to override the night and make the sun come out?" I think I still have a higher-than-average level of cynicism in my system; I rather took that as a direct slap in the face over the formation of Ursula. I'm sure it's just me...
We finally finished up the s.i.c. sim hunt tonight. It's over three of the sims this time, similar to the other ones--grab the HUD from the stall just off the main strip, track down ten small black boxes, about the size of...well, I was going to say a human head, but you'd have to flatten the head, then spray-paint it black, and at that point...really, you're better off just finding the ones there.
But as usual, quirky new details have been added whilst we were away. This sign for instance. (Click for the larger size, with the full set of signs haphazardly nailed to that signpost.)
The prize at the end of the hunt? A gun.
A BIG gun.
That sets things ON FIRE.
I'm sorry I don't have many images of the gun itself--I admit, I was rather more distracted than I expected by things exploding around me.
To wit: Miss Allen on the hoverbike outside of the Lunitarium grotto, cocking the gun...
...and the gun going off, and the grotto afire:
(We're behind that large patch of white glow, which is the plasma burst the gun first launches before the incendiaries fire. Also, in the first picture, Miss Allen is actually under the hoverbike, with the barrel of the gun aimed straight up.)
Lastly, Miss Allen showed us all a new innovation of Miss Pandora Wrigglesworth, her "Happy Missile":
I suppose it does look happy at that. Check in at Curio Obscura, see if she's still offering it for sale.
Also, Miss Allen:
looks really, really good on fire. (Though I wouldn't suggest just blindly whipping out flamethrowers as an alternative to a polite greeting, just so you know.)
It still remains a very well-done, amazingly detailed sim, start to finish. Or set of sims--s.i.c. spans five sims now! All through donations. It's just phenomenal. I've said this before, but if you've never considered a visit--do drop by, at least once. It's quite the experience just wandering around.
03 May, 2009
a suspended ring or the mode of laughing, pebbles drawn from a heap
Welcome to the Carnivale Amusement Park. This is a really fun place.
We went there primarily to ride the Alice in Wonderland ride. Give yourselves lots of times for things to rez in--almost everything near the Alice ride is a sculpted or scripted object. You know the rules--wear a low-lag outfit, if you can, detach your gadgets, wait for everything to rez in, then summon a gondola. Set world to midnight and get into mouselook, and sit back and enjoy.
Kanic Huldschinsky did most of the sculpts (at least, inside the ride), and Roxxy Rhode narrated a vocal track for the ride of the Jabberwocky poem, and her whiskey-rough intonation oddly adds to the whole experience.
This is yet again one of those marvelous rides that perfectly preserves the feeling of chain-drawn track rides, complete with the slow jerking turns along the track, and the occasional sensation of "We're not gonna make it, we're gonna FALLL--"
There are a lot of wonderful touches about this ride--about the whole park, actually. A lot of thought, a lot of love for the traveling carnival, for amusement park rides, went into everything in Venusian. But most importantly, the people behind the Alice ride really know the books, and the movies, and love them all.
A really intriguing aspect of everything? The Alice ride to start with, but everything in Carnivale? He rents the rides out. For L$20,000 you can have any ride in the park, it won't expire--put it up, take it down, put it up somewhere else. For L$3,500 you can have the Alice ride for a week--put it up, seven days later it deletes. You can rent the rides.
Imagine the possibilities for fundraisers--for parties with a lot of guests--for themed events. You'd have to make sure you had a lot of prims available on your land, but even so--it's a great idea.
Currently? All the rides are half off through his rezday. So if you're interested, go and take a spin through Alice's world--wander the rest of the park--and, if you want to take something home, you can.
How cool is that?
We went there primarily to ride the Alice in Wonderland ride. Give yourselves lots of times for things to rez in--almost everything near the Alice ride is a sculpted or scripted object. You know the rules--wear a low-lag outfit, if you can, detach your gadgets, wait for everything to rez in, then summon a gondola. Set world to midnight and get into mouselook, and sit back and enjoy.
Kanic Huldschinsky did most of the sculpts (at least, inside the ride), and Roxxy Rhode narrated a vocal track for the ride of the Jabberwocky poem, and her whiskey-rough intonation oddly adds to the whole experience.
This is yet again one of those marvelous rides that perfectly preserves the feeling of chain-drawn track rides, complete with the slow jerking turns along the track, and the occasional sensation of "We're not gonna make it, we're gonna FALLL--"
There are a lot of wonderful touches about this ride--about the whole park, actually. A lot of thought, a lot of love for the traveling carnival, for amusement park rides, went into everything in Venusian. But most importantly, the people behind the Alice ride really know the books, and the movies, and love them all.
A really intriguing aspect of everything? The Alice ride to start with, but everything in Carnivale? He rents the rides out. For L$20,000 you can have any ride in the park, it won't expire--put it up, take it down, put it up somewhere else. For L$3,500 you can have the Alice ride for a week--put it up, seven days later it deletes. You can rent the rides.
Imagine the possibilities for fundraisers--for parties with a lot of guests--for themed events. You'd have to make sure you had a lot of prims available on your land, but even so--it's a great idea.
Currently? All the rides are half off through his rezday. So if you're interested, go and take a spin through Alice's world--wander the rest of the park--and, if you want to take something home, you can.
How cool is that?
what you see is never what you're gonna get
The World Hopscotch Federation will not be happy about this!
And onward we still go. I'm going to try to wrap it up in one, and then back to...gods, ANYTHING ELSE!
So. We start on page 296, with a comment from Argent Stonecutter quoting Blondin Linden:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blondin Linden
Because Dreamland is owned by Anshe Chung - even the parts that are public.
Yes, I know that.
What I don't know is why that matters. When Random User teleports to Random Store on a PG parcel and sees Something Nasty on the Adult parcel next to them, are they going to care if the estate is owned by Governor Linden or Anshe Chung?
Linden Labs is avoiding that problem on the mainland by making it a "continent-wide" restriction. The thing is, that leads to the most disruptive part of the scheme ... forcing people to move. If the adult restriction was allowed to be per-sim (or per-parcel), then far fewer people would need to be moved, and a good deal of the disruption would be avoided. Why isn't that an option?
And it's a damnably good question, that--why haven't they provided these controls? Is it that difficult to restrict per sim or per parcel? Coding-wise, I mean. Wouldn't that solve everything, or at least, the "Adult" content issue?
Mystique Chambers on page 298 notices a trend:
I just had an odd day. Big companies that I have loved going to their sims, closing. Selling everything and packing. Some condensing many sims to one. Some theme sims closing completely. I got word that a few more sims just gave notice of closing. Doesn't Linden labs see what is happening here? Or are they blinded by what they feel is a right move.
I am talking of long standing businesses that have been around longer then me and I've been here for over 2 years.
I'll go her one better--I'm noticing sims and businesses closing that sell nothing remotely close to what's been discussed for "Adult" content. We're losing people, good people, while this debate rages.
Ceera Murakami's explanation later down that page is very worth reading; I'm quoting what starts it off:
Blondin, are you completely unaware how ineffective and incomplete and just plain unreliable the implementation of "Per Parcel" age verification is today?
I'd have to say, yes, Blondin has no clue how unreliable the current system is.
Can we please get a Linden spokesperson who actually plays the goddamn game?!?
Milla Janick comments on search revisions on page 299:
I believe if LL actually had complaints from genuinely outraged users over inappropriate search results, something would have been done long ago.
She's not wrong, I think they would have, too.
Jaereth Enoch, on the same page, agrees:
You can't write morality into the game by the lowest common denominator, which is precisely what you're trying to do. You're going to end up harming far more people than you intend to 'save' via your methods.
Doesn't seem like they're planning to stop any time soon, but I do agree.
Couldbe Yue on page 302:
I don't know about bankrupt, but certainly since the open sim announcement LL has consistently week on week been contracting. The grid was around 31,000 sims when that announcement was made - now it's down to around 26k.
And more closing each week...maybe each day at this point.
In the middle of that post, and all the why-are-you-DOING-this hysteria, a small little drop of major WTF fell. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the concept of Linden Labs forcibly changing the sim name that the Czech company owns to placate someone in America trying to seize right of contest. The. HELL.
Nearly nearly done, now on page 311, Professor Milos says this:
'Slavery' in the form you reference - that of forced labor, where human beings were (e.g. the colonial slave trade), or are (e.g. human trafficking or bonded labour), treated as the property of others, restricted of freedoms, unable to leave and deprived of, for example, monetary compensation or even their lives - has nothing to do with what I'm assuming you are referencing in SL, that of virtual (sexual) 'slavery' and/or the consensual power exchange contract between a submissive and a dominant using SL as a medium to enjoy it with.
Which is really a whole other debate, but essentially, this boils down to:
1. What he says is true.
2. Most people (who have no understanding of BDSM or D/s relationships) don't care; to them, it looks like slavery and it's appalling.
This won't resolve, regardless of what the Lindens do or do not; it just won't. Some people won't listen; some people have closed minds; and some people on both sides of the debate are clueless.
Bottom of page 311, Shockwave Yareach says:
But don't make the mistake of thinking that flashing dots on a video screen are real. No video game is real, just as no fictional book is real. And anyone who thinks that real laws need to be used against imaginary characters needs serious mental health, whether they wanna ban the Goreans for involuntary confinement, or have Col. Mustard (ret) arrested for that killing in the [parlor room] with the candlestick.
So. Damn. True.
And the very last post, on page 312, is from Blondin Linden, unsurprisingly enough:
Hey Everyone - after 300+ posts, I think it's time to close this thread. But fear not! We'll be opening a new one and trying at least once a day to answer some of the most common questions. Head over to "Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions"
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?p=2375407#post2375407
...and here is where your trembling reviewer ceases to review, and, having done going through the thread, is now MOVING THE HELL ON.
Good gods. I may come back to comments from emergent threads, but this whole 300+ rant-in-progress has been insane. And it all boils down to:
Residents: Don't do this!
Lindens: Everything's fine.
And maybe, that's the way it's always going to be. With every Linden decision.
And on that pessimistic note, I'm leaving for greener non-rant-driven pastures for a while, settle my head (and my level of cynical depression, it's risen to unconscionable levels over these last two posts).
I'm left with the thought that Blondin Linden (and most of the Lindens, really) must not get out much. That it's a wide wild grid out there, full of surreal, entertaining, baffling, horrifying, deranged, unbalanced, gorgeous, distressing, and ultimately amazing things...and the Lindens aren't looking at a tenth of it as they live and function likely entirely on Linden-owned lands.
Which tells me--maybe the best thing out of all of this is Blondin committing himself to exploring the grid, determining what is and is not adult content. (And, to that end, the Maturity Ratings guidelines FAQ is out--with the codicil that anything listed there may change.)
As for the rest of them...the total disconnect from the rest of us has been made manifestly clear. If we didn't know before, we sure as hell know now.
[21:03] Lalinda Lovell: i have a thought, after the mature continent opens and people have to age verifiy, will people get auto ejected from mature groups if they dont verify?
[21:03] Nagash Demina: Who the hell knows.
Really.
And onward we still go. I'm going to try to wrap it up in one, and then back to...gods, ANYTHING ELSE!
So. We start on page 296, with a comment from Argent Stonecutter quoting Blondin Linden:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blondin Linden
Because Dreamland is owned by Anshe Chung - even the parts that are public.
Yes, I know that.
What I don't know is why that matters. When Random User teleports to Random Store on a PG parcel and sees Something Nasty on the Adult parcel next to them, are they going to care if the estate is owned by Governor Linden or Anshe Chung?
Linden Labs is avoiding that problem on the mainland by making it a "continent-wide" restriction. The thing is, that leads to the most disruptive part of the scheme ... forcing people to move. If the adult restriction was allowed to be per-sim (or per-parcel), then far fewer people would need to be moved, and a good deal of the disruption would be avoided. Why isn't that an option?
And it's a damnably good question, that--why haven't they provided these controls? Is it that difficult to restrict per sim or per parcel? Coding-wise, I mean. Wouldn't that solve everything, or at least, the "Adult" content issue?
Mystique Chambers on page 298 notices a trend:
I just had an odd day. Big companies that I have loved going to their sims, closing. Selling everything and packing. Some condensing many sims to one. Some theme sims closing completely. I got word that a few more sims just gave notice of closing. Doesn't Linden labs see what is happening here? Or are they blinded by what they feel is a right move.
I am talking of long standing businesses that have been around longer then me and I've been here for over 2 years.
I'll go her one better--I'm noticing sims and businesses closing that sell nothing remotely close to what's been discussed for "Adult" content. We're losing people, good people, while this debate rages.
Ceera Murakami's explanation later down that page is very worth reading; I'm quoting what starts it off:
Blondin, are you completely unaware how ineffective and incomplete and just plain unreliable the implementation of "Per Parcel" age verification is today?
I'd have to say, yes, Blondin has no clue how unreliable the current system is.
Can we please get a Linden spokesperson who actually plays the goddamn game?!?
Milla Janick comments on search revisions on page 299:
I believe if LL actually had complaints from genuinely outraged users over inappropriate search results, something would have been done long ago.
She's not wrong, I think they would have, too.
Jaereth Enoch, on the same page, agrees:
You can't write morality into the game by the lowest common denominator, which is precisely what you're trying to do. You're going to end up harming far more people than you intend to 'save' via your methods.
Doesn't seem like they're planning to stop any time soon, but I do agree.
Couldbe Yue on page 302:
I don't know about bankrupt, but certainly since the open sim announcement LL has consistently week on week been contracting. The grid was around 31,000 sims when that announcement was made - now it's down to around 26k.
And more closing each week...maybe each day at this point.
In the middle of that post, and all the why-are-you-DOING-this hysteria, a small little drop of major WTF fell. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the concept of Linden Labs forcibly changing the sim name that the Czech company owns to placate someone in America trying to seize right of contest. The. HELL.
Nearly nearly done, now on page 311, Professor Milos says this:
'Slavery' in the form you reference - that of forced labor, where human beings were (e.g. the colonial slave trade), or are (e.g. human trafficking or bonded labour), treated as the property of others, restricted of freedoms, unable to leave and deprived of, for example, monetary compensation or even their lives - has nothing to do with what I'm assuming you are referencing in SL, that of virtual (sexual) 'slavery' and/or the consensual power exchange contract between a submissive and a dominant using SL as a medium to enjoy it with.
Which is really a whole other debate, but essentially, this boils down to:
1. What he says is true.
2. Most people (who have no understanding of BDSM or D/s relationships) don't care; to them, it looks like slavery and it's appalling.
This won't resolve, regardless of what the Lindens do or do not; it just won't. Some people won't listen; some people have closed minds; and some people on both sides of the debate are clueless.
Bottom of page 311, Shockwave Yareach says:
But don't make the mistake of thinking that flashing dots on a video screen are real. No video game is real, just as no fictional book is real. And anyone who thinks that real laws need to be used against imaginary characters needs serious mental health, whether they wanna ban the Goreans for involuntary confinement, or have Col. Mustard (ret) arrested for that killing in the [parlor room] with the candlestick.
So. Damn. True.
And the very last post, on page 312, is from Blondin Linden, unsurprisingly enough:
Hey Everyone - after 300+ posts, I think it's time to close this thread. But fear not! We'll be opening a new one and trying at least once a day to answer some of the most common questions. Head over to "Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions"
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?p=2375407#post2375407
...and here is where your trembling reviewer ceases to review, and, having done going through the thread, is now MOVING THE HELL ON.
Good gods. I may come back to comments from emergent threads, but this whole 300+ rant-in-progress has been insane. And it all boils down to:
Residents: Don't do this!
Lindens: Everything's fine.
And maybe, that's the way it's always going to be. With every Linden decision.
And on that pessimistic note, I'm leaving for greener non-rant-driven pastures for a while, settle my head (and my level of cynical depression, it's risen to unconscionable levels over these last two posts).
I'm left with the thought that Blondin Linden (and most of the Lindens, really) must not get out much. That it's a wide wild grid out there, full of surreal, entertaining, baffling, horrifying, deranged, unbalanced, gorgeous, distressing, and ultimately amazing things...and the Lindens aren't looking at a tenth of it as they live and function likely entirely on Linden-owned lands.
Which tells me--maybe the best thing out of all of this is Blondin committing himself to exploring the grid, determining what is and is not adult content. (And, to that end, the Maturity Ratings guidelines FAQ is out--with the codicil that anything listed there may change.)
As for the rest of them...the total disconnect from the rest of us has been made manifestly clear. If we didn't know before, we sure as hell know now.
[21:03] Lalinda Lovell: i have a thought, after the mature continent opens and people have to age verifiy, will people get auto ejected from mature groups if they dont verify?
[21:03] Nagash Demina: Who the hell knows.
Really.
we all need the little sisters
I so wanted to make one last post and then get on with this. This was not to be, partially because Blondin Linden brained me midway through the last entry.
This is the latter half of that entry:
Blondin Linden finally resurfaced on the thread, nearly one hundred pages past the last time he replied; he started his usual bit of picking the easier questions or the non sequiturs to answer first. But Valerius Constantine asked about unlucky chairs--you know, the red ones you sit in that then either electrify, behead, or stake your av, before tossing you the prize?
This was Blondin's reply on page 295:
Are you selling unlucky chairs or using them? Are they in your club or in your house? Sounds like something that would classify as Adult but I'd be happy to drop by and take a look if you'd like to pass me a LM.
And here I've hit, not my first, but perhaps my most telling moment of stark, brutal, incomprehension.
The Unlucky Chair premiered in stores and in sims two Octobers ago, I believe; and many of us flocked to them to see what would happen when we sat down. Some designers mixed apple cauldrons with Unlucky Chairs; some mixed them with regular Lucky Chairs for the amusement factor. It was treated as a Hallowe'en gag, never a serious deathing; and so far beyond what even "cartoon violence" entails, it staggers me to consider it in the same vein as some of the other sims/concepts that have come up as "Adult" content.
This is a page featuring American entertainment software ratings (about the closest comparable ratings system I could find to SL). This is how they list things out:
Essentially, there's nothing in there for anyone to be offended by--they're quick little programs, brightly-colored, fast-moving...perfect for the baby with the four-second attention span who, mysteriously, finds themselves in front of a computer screen. Cheerful, perky, virtual pablum.
I admit, the "Bratz" as a concept sort of stretch the definition, but boiled down, the "Everyone" rating is free of nudity, sexual content, drug references, and if there is violence, it is of a broadly cartoon nature--think, less violent than Tom & Jerry cartoons--and can easily be understood as not connecting to real life.
Now we're getting somewhere. The plus 10 adds more in the way of mild violence--be it superficial cartoon-style, or somewhat deeper "fantasy" violence, mild language--think, the occasional "damn" gets through--and minimally suggestive themes. In that case, we're talking sight of occasional cleavage, short skirts, or makeup, in general--nothing more extreme than seeing Aunt Sofia come over and cross her long tanned legs in the living room, basically.
"Fantasy" violence, by the way, is defined as violence committed against humans or non-humans in a purely fantasy context, so, though it can be violent, it is clearly distinguishable from actual real-world violence.
The "Teen" rating brings us clearly into PG-13 territory--there may be violence, there may be "suggestive" themes, crude humor, you'll start to see a little blood here and there. Interestingly enough, this level also counts in "simulated" gambling, and "strong language"--if used infrequently.
I'm told the Teen rating is basically the rating for World of Warcraft, which, considering, doesn't really protect teens from much.
But then, considering the media world in which teenagers are steeped on an hourly basis...nothing will.
And now we hit "Mature", and BioShock. A lot of parents bought this for their teenagers, or the teens bought it themselves, and the parents didn't care, before they ever realized the game pretty much starts with a mad doctor eviscerating women.
The official rating guidelines make this equivalent to R-rated films, mostly--moderate to intense violence, blood, gore, horror, strong sexual content, casual mention of drugs or actual drug usage, and strong language. This is where they want the adults to play. (Problem is, so many parents equate video games to harmless fun--and the games are far from harmless, these days.)
And finally, the "Adult" rating, which means, in game terms, eighteen and up--like Runes of Magic, like Second Life. This level may--and usually does--include "prolonged" scenes of "intense" violence--in other words, beat-downs, bloodspatter, up-close-and-personal shootings, you get the idea--and/or graphic sexual content, as well as nudity--generally female, but we're starting to see a lot of male nudity now, as well.
And admittedly, this--and the game quoted--is just here as filler to get all the categories down; the "Rate Pending" rating is just that--the game has been packaged and put to press, but the ESRB hasn't sat down and looked it over yet--so games in this category of pre-release but post-press could conceivably go anywhere.
Okay, so let's break this down further, for exactly what each category defines:
So. Violence (rated Teen); Fantasy Violence (rated Teen); Cartoon Violence (because everyone lives through the Unlucky Chair experience, so rated Teen); Animated Blood (rated Teen).
Yet, Blondin wants this to be clearly marked "Adult" in nature. Which would mean (by these guidelines) the Unlucky Chair would have to offer wounding that would persist after the avatar stood up; removal of limbs; evisceration; shock or shooting effects that resulted in particle blood from the avatar, not the device; screaming on behalf of the avatar with the avatar clearly and reliably seen as being in pain by any reasonable observer/player...
...in other words, we're talking virtual and extreme death again, with or without sexual components, and the Unlucky Chair? Just doesn't go that far.
What on earth are the Lindens debating for "Adult" content, then? And why is there such a divisive split between Blondin Linden and Jack Linden? I'm not crazed about ignoring the announcements of any Linden, because it's their game, but--I'm getting a strong, strong feeling that we can no longer trust Blondin to tell us the truth.
And that is an extreme loss of faith in the process. And that is very, very dangerous.
This is the latter half of that entry:
Blondin Linden finally resurfaced on the thread, nearly one hundred pages past the last time he replied; he started his usual bit of picking the easier questions or the non sequiturs to answer first. But Valerius Constantine asked about unlucky chairs--you know, the red ones you sit in that then either electrify, behead, or stake your av, before tossing you the prize?
This was Blondin's reply on page 295:
Are you selling unlucky chairs or using them? Are they in your club or in your house? Sounds like something that would classify as Adult but I'd be happy to drop by and take a look if you'd like to pass me a LM.
And here I've hit, not my first, but perhaps my most telling moment of stark, brutal, incomprehension.
The Unlucky Chair premiered in stores and in sims two Octobers ago, I believe; and many of us flocked to them to see what would happen when we sat down. Some designers mixed apple cauldrons with Unlucky Chairs; some mixed them with regular Lucky Chairs for the amusement factor. It was treated as a Hallowe'en gag, never a serious deathing; and so far beyond what even "cartoon violence" entails, it staggers me to consider it in the same vein as some of the other sims/concepts that have come up as "Adult" content.
This is a page featuring American entertainment software ratings (about the closest comparable ratings system I could find to SL). This is how they list things out:
 | "Harry and the Haunted House: Follow Harry and his friends as they search for their baseball in the old house down the street. Is it haunted? Harry D. Rabbit, his dog Spot, and his friends Earl Earwax, Amy Fourpaws, and Stinky embark on an adventure when Harry hits Stinky's ball into the old house down the street. Join them and find out what the scariest thing is in the old house. Kids love the Living Books with great stories, beautiful graphics and tons of clickable hotspots. Text is highlighted as the story is read increasing reading comprehension and confidence. Kids can also click on individual words to hear them read. Choose to have the story read to you or play in the story. You can interact with the story in English or Spanish." |
Essentially, there's nothing in there for anyone to be offended by--they're quick little programs, brightly-colored, fast-moving...perfect for the baby with the four-second attention span who, mysteriously, finds themselves in front of a computer screen. Cheerful, perky, virtual pablum.
 | "Bratz Rock Angelz: You get the chance to live the life of a Rock Angel as you help Cloe, Jade, Sasha, and Yasmin start their own fashion magazine. The search for the perfect scoop will take you around the globe, where famous places and famous people make for amazing adventures." |
I admit, the "Bratz" as a concept sort of stretch the definition, but boiled down, the "Everyone" rating is free of nudity, sexual content, drug references, and if there is violence, it is of a broadly cartoon nature--think, less violent than Tom & Jerry cartoons--and can easily be understood as not connecting to real life.
 | "Master the magic in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire™. Enjoy a new spell-casting system that controls every flick of the wand. This time, you're able to play through the game as Harry, Ron, or Hermione, and team up with up to two other friends to combine magical skills that will produce more powerful spells, compete in the Triwizard Tournament, rescue your friends from the Black Lake, and navigate a magical maze." |
Now we're getting somewhere. The plus 10 adds more in the way of mild violence--be it superficial cartoon-style, or somewhat deeper "fantasy" violence, mild language--think, the occasional "damn" gets through--and minimally suggestive themes. In that case, we're talking sight of occasional cleavage, short skirts, or makeup, in general--nothing more extreme than seeing Aunt Sofia come over and cross her long tanned legs in the living room, basically.
"Fantasy" violence, by the way, is defined as violence committed against humans or non-humans in a purely fantasy context, so, though it can be violent, it is clearly distinguishable from actual real-world violence.
 | "Alien vs. Predator: Extinction: On a cold, distant planet, the war against extinction is on, and your command skills will determine its outcome. For the first time ever on Xbox®, control an Alien hive, direct a Predator clan, or lead an elite squad of Colonial Marines to fight for the survival of your race. Experience the Alien Versus Predator™ universe from the perspective of the Aliens, the Predators, or the Colonial Marines in seven unique missions customized for each race. Control never-before-seen Aliens, Predators, or Marines, and upgrade your weapons and abilities to gain a tactical advantage. Do you have what it takes to win this ultimate battle of the species?" |
The "Teen" rating brings us clearly into PG-13 territory--there may be violence, there may be "suggestive" themes, crude humor, you'll start to see a little blood here and there. Interestingly enough, this level also counts in "simulated" gambling, and "strong language"--if used infrequently.
I'm told the Teen rating is basically the rating for World of Warcraft, which, considering, doesn't really protect teens from much.
But then, considering the media world in which teenagers are steeped on an hourly basis...nothing will.
 | "BioShock is the "genetically enhanced" first-person shooter that lets you do things never before possible in the genre. Turn everything into a weapon, biologically mod your body with plasmids, hack devices and systems, upgrade your weapons and craft new ammo variants, and experiment with different battle techniques." |
And now we hit "Mature", and BioShock. A lot of parents bought this for their teenagers, or the teens bought it themselves, and the parents didn't care, before they ever realized the game pretty much starts with a mad doctor eviscerating women.
The official rating guidelines make this equivalent to R-rated films, mostly--moderate to intense violence, blood, gore, horror, strong sexual content, casual mention of drugs or actual drug usage, and strong language. This is where they want the adults to play. (Problem is, so many parents equate video games to harmless fun--and the games are far from harmless, these days.)
 | "It may not be a splashy leap forward, but Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: As in previous installments, here you play as a thug with problems you must steal and shoot your way out of, but the problems this time are disconcertingly more realistic. You play as Carl Johnson, known on the street as CJ, a likeable criminal type who has just returned to his hometown, Los Santos (a fictionalized Los Angeles), to find that his mother has been murdered and that the police have framed him for another murder. Reunions with his friends and a troubled relationship with his brother set off a sprawling, complex plot line, taking place at first in the immediate Los Santos area but eventually spilling into San Fierro (based on San Francisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas)." |
And finally, the "Adult" rating, which means, in game terms, eighteen and up--like Runes of Magic, like Second Life. This level may--and usually does--include "prolonged" scenes of "intense" violence--in other words, beat-downs, bloodspatter, up-close-and-personal shootings, you get the idea--and/or graphic sexual content, as well as nudity--generally female, but we're starting to see a lot of male nudity now, as well.
 | "In a Kingdom ruled by insanity, a new hero rises in Arcania – A Gothic Tale®. After a war-like past, the tides are once again turning … and an entire kingdom's future is at stake. The once-beloved hero King has gone mad and now a young fisherman is chosen by fate to fulfill his destiny." |
And admittedly, this--and the game quoted--is just here as filler to get all the categories down; the "Rate Pending" rating is just that--the game has been packaged and put to press, but the ESRB hasn't sat down and looked it over yet--so games in this category of pre-release but post-press could conceivably go anywhere.
Okay, so let's break this down further, for exactly what each category defines:
* Alcohol Reference - Reference to and/or images of alcoholic beveragesSo. Those are our operating guidelines. Now, using those, for games like Second Life, would the Unlucky Chair include:
* Animated Blood - Cartoon or pixilated depictions of blood
* Blood - Depictions of blood
* Blood and Gore - Depictions of blood or the mutilation of body parts
* Cartoon Violence - Violent actions involving cartoon-like characters. May include violence where a character is unharmed after the action has been inflicted
* Comic Mischief - Scenes depicting slapstick or gross vulgar humor
* Crude Humor - Moderately vulgar antics, including bathroom humor; also called Mature Humor
* Drug Reference - Reference to and/or images of illegal drugs
* Fantasy Violence - Violent actions of a fantasy nature, involving human or non-human characters in situations easily distinguishable from real life
* Real Gambling - Betting, or betting-like behavior
* Intense Violence - Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons, and depictions of human injury and death
* Mature Sexual Themes - Provocative material, possibly including partial nudity
* Language - Mild references to profanity, sexuality, violence, alcohol, or drug use
* Lyrics - Mild references to profanity, sexuality, violence, alcohol, or drug use in music
* Mild Violence - Mild scenes depicting characters in unsafe and/or violent situations
* Nudity - Graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity
* Partial Nudity - Brief and mild depictions of nudity
* Sexual Violence - Depictions of rape or other sexual acts
* Some Adult Assistance May Be Needed - Early Childhood Descriptor only; in other words, babies cannot always find the "on" switch for the machine, and may need help guiding the mouse. (Babies need to play on computers, though? This has always mystified me.)
* Strong Language - Profanity and explicit references to sexuality, violence, alcohol, or drug use
* Strong Lyrics - Profanity and explicit references to sex, violence, alcohol, or drug use in music
* Strong Sexual Content - Graphic depiction of sexual behavior, possibly including nudity
* Suggestive Themes - Mild provocative references or materials
* Tobacco Reference - Reference to and/or images of tobacco products
* Use of Drugs - The consumption or use of illegal drugs
* Use of Alcohol - The consumption of alcoholic beverages
* Use of Tobacco - The consumption of tobacco products
* Violence - Scenes involving aggressive conflict
* Animated Blood - Cartoon or pixilated depictions of bloodWell, let's see: for beheading on the Chair: animated (particle) blood and effects, also animations that involve the avatar's head inverting while a spinning saw blade (also equipped with particle blood) hovers through where the 'neck' would be. For staking on the Chair: animated (particle) blood and effects, also a large stake thrust through the 'chest' of the avatar, complete with animation to make it seem as if one is held up by the stake from the chair. For electrocution on the Chair: animated electrical effects surrounding the 'body' of the avatar, while animation causing flailing within the electrical effects is shown.
* Blood - Depictions of blood
* Blood and Gore - Depictions of blood or the mutilation of body parts
* Cartoon Violence - Violent actions involving cartoon-like characters. May include violence where a character is unharmed after the action has been inflicted
* Fantasy Violence - Violent actions of a fantasy nature, involving human or non-human characters in situations easily distinguishable from real life
* Intense Violence - Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons, and depictions of human injury and death
* Mild Violence - Mild scenes depicting characters in unsafe and/or violent situations
* Violence - Scenes involving aggressive conflict
So. Violence (rated Teen); Fantasy Violence (rated Teen); Cartoon Violence (because everyone lives through the Unlucky Chair experience, so rated Teen); Animated Blood (rated Teen).
Yet, Blondin wants this to be clearly marked "Adult" in nature. Which would mean (by these guidelines) the Unlucky Chair would have to offer wounding that would persist after the avatar stood up; removal of limbs; evisceration; shock or shooting effects that resulted in particle blood from the avatar, not the device; screaming on behalf of the avatar with the avatar clearly and reliably seen as being in pain by any reasonable observer/player...
...in other words, we're talking virtual and extreme death again, with or without sexual components, and the Unlucky Chair? Just doesn't go that far.
What on earth are the Lindens debating for "Adult" content, then? And why is there such a divisive split between Blondin Linden and Jack Linden? I'm not crazed about ignoring the announcements of any Linden, because it's their game, but--I'm getting a strong, strong feeling that we can no longer trust Blondin to tell us the truth.
And that is an extreme loss of faith in the process. And that is very, very dangerous.
02 May, 2009
six times two is lemon
One for all the old-school gamers out there--the ten most shameful RPG dice. *cackles*
And a vastly different take on why blanket bans on words is a bad thing.
And look! Little steampunk wonders for your desk! Whee!
Lastly, Virtual Mobility and Studio Wikitecture won the Linden Prize--they designed a sensor-driven system for fully disabled people to enable them to control avatars in Second Life. Virtual walking around? Weirdly, it helps more than you think.
Back to the grind, I think: it's sheer perversity that keeps me going through this. No pun intended.
Grady Vuckovic on page 278:
[Every time] I think I've worked this out, I read just [a little] bit more, and everything doesn't make sense again.. according to Linden Lab's own website, 'Content, communication, or behavior which involves intense language or expletives, nudity or sexual content, the depiction of sex or violence, or anything else broadly offensive', all apparently is intended for Mature parcels. Yet now all of that is intended for the Adult parcels. So if anyone less than that is for the PG areas, and anything that includes that is for Adult. What is going to be in Mature? O.o Nothing?
Wondered that m'self, actually.
Valerius Constantine on page 282:
In order to do that without a legal nightmare, LL has to segregate *all* adult content, not just the "most extreme". which is why Blondin's comment about "removing adult content from the mainland" is so telling. That is the plan. and I'm pretty sure that the eventual plan is to herd everyone into the the "adult continent" and then change the TOS and either remove Ursula from the main grid, or to simply say "All this content violates our TOS- we're shutting it all down" and BYe-bye Grownup SL.
Which is what I'm hoping won't happen.
Aeslyn Dae from the same page:
So, what *is* the real, underlying reason? To me, it appears very much that they are either (a) clearing decks to sell up, or (b) clearing way to make profit themselves from access to "Adult" content. When it's all in one walled off area it'd be a short step to charge extra subscription fees, extra tier, and so-on and so-forth.
She's not wrong.
Kate Spengler on page 283:
Forget porn though, look at where [Second Life] came from. Do you *really* think suits would want to trust an idea that came from hippie-land? Philip based it on the ideals of Burning Man. What Mitch wants to do with this continent is in direct opposition to those founding principles.
And this one made me think. I know Burning Life is a large part of SL culture, and I've heard a lot of theories as to what actually started SL off and going.
But, even if it's just a part of the founding principles, Burning Life? Well, think of those principles. The paradigm of the gift economy--make, give, exchange, bring back, make again, ideas flowing like streams into one river. You influence me influence them influence her influence him....flowing, interweaving, art, music, dance, creation.
Giving of the spirit, giving of what you have, approaching life with open hands, open hearts, wired and ready for the experience...
Yeah. I can see why Mitch Kapor isn't 100% behind that, if true.
Ceera Murakami's entire post on page 285 deserves a look, but I pulled out this bit in particular:
Some of these encounters may offend you more than others. Some may not offend you in the slightest, and may even mark that person as a potential new friend.
Should they all be [segregated] into little communities of similar tastes, just so someone won't be offended by seeing them? Doesn't work that way in most of the Real world. Why should SL have to be that intolerant?
Why, indeed? As many of us have said, we thought the point of Second Life was second chances, and, more importantly, deliberate choice--to do things differently, to live more openly, to embrace more of life in the virtual, in the hopes that that will translate (or has translated) to the real. Why this insistence on shutting down part of that community, that concept?
Arishia Nishi on the same page:
Please consider unintended consequences, some of which are showing up on this forum. This decision might validate and embolden those with an external locus of control. Please consult with social psychologists before you proceed.
Will they? Likely not. Should they? Absolutely.
Ceera Murakami again, from the same page:
A three post transcript of the [brown-bag] meeting is burried way back in this thread. I read the whole thing... Lots of people asked pointed questions, and Blondin stonewaled them on everything. The only point that Blondin raised that seemed useful new information was that they don't expect to have a working definition of what is affected until at least another week from now. And yet they stick stubornly to their assertion that even without a valid definition of what this witch-hunt will run out of town and isolate on the pornotopia continent, tat it will still only affect 2% to 4% of the mainland content.
Can't define what they are hunting, yet they claim to know just how much content will be affected? That is pure BS, to me.
Didn't correct this one, because I was adding in "brown-bag" to refer to the meeting she's talking about--and that link goes back to the blog posting that lists all of the "brown-bag" meetings to date. But spelling errors or not, this is a very valid point--you can't define exactly what it is that constitutes "Adult", yet you know it only comprises 2 to 4% of grid content? Something's up.
Wynochee Leshelle recommends protest on that page as well:
All in all I recommend to everyone, to *not* move. Not a single millimeter. General strike, no one moves - and they cannot ban thousands of customers, it would ruin them - so: strike, resistance and ready.
I don't think that's the best solution to the problem, honestly. Because they can ban thousands of customers. They're convinced they'll get more. They don't have to keep the accounts they have.
Mystique Chambers vents some understandable irritation on page 285:
This move "when" it happens is going to take time. I can't be prepared in a day. I will need time to get everyone "legal Adults" that work for me. Yes, some have been working on it. We've had open discussions on "where do we go from here?". But everything is on hold awaiting word.
And IF I chose to buy a Private [sim] will it still be as strict as the Adult mainland. Is this just effecting Mature mainlands now? I have a lot of questions that need answering and not a dang linden around to ask. No one has answers. Anyone else trying to take this and be serious and preparing? What should I do NOW to prepare for this?
She's not the only one with these questions. She's also not the only one not getting answers.
Shockwave Yareach also has a great comment on page 289:
So this move will a) negatively affect thousands of people, b) make some percentage of them quit (a number are already cashing out), c) not eliminate the potential of seeing an orgy in the mainland, d) worsen public relations rather than improve them, and e) render most of mainland an empty, uninteresting ghosttown, useful to nobody at all.
All for the sake of some prudish busybodies who won't spend dime one in SL in the first place. Me, I drop a considerable amount of coin here and have been for years. So if it's between me and some company that hasn't spent anything here, SL should take the cash it has now and be grateful for it. Grace is when you dig for worms and find gold. But what is it called when you dig for gold and find only worms?
Generally? Means the gold rush is over.
Couldbe Yue from page 289:
One hunt organiser says on the blog that porn shops are not allowed tp participate.. wtf?? they don't even bother to say what they consider porn. I'm sure that gangster/biker whore outfit shops are allowed though.
Another says they only want shops that are kid safe. I'm sorry but I thought the grid was supposed to 18+. I was almost tempted to AR that organiser for encouraging underagers to be here.
We've hit some strange sort of internal limit regarding the grid-wide hunts. "No porn shops", but they won't give specifics. The "must be kid-safe" hunt ended up traveling through a *ton* of SL nurseries and birthing centers.
You know, that brings up another point to consider in all this: what is going to stop someone, who is fully age-verified, from transporting to Pornotopolis in a child avatar? And is that an instant AR in the making? It's not abuse if the name is verified, but would SL children be banned from the adult continent?
Would any of them want to be age-verified? I mean, yes, actual children don't get to go inside strip clubs...but SL children, that's a whole other issue. What's 'safe' for an adult in a child body?
Lindal Kidd from page 290:
Guess what? IBM *is* interested in making SL a corporate platform (shudder!) The problem is that doing so will, inevitably, kill it as the entertainment platform that it is now.
All right, I've said this before, I'll say it again--as far as I know, IBM is working/has been working on a corporate co-developed platform--for their employees only. They have island estates; certain of them are locked to outside transport, because they are internal corporate meeting/development areas.
That's all. They aren't buying the grid or forcing anyone to "clean up"; they're content with leaving SL the way it is, and their islands being secluded off, just as any corporate campus of IBM would be secluded. And they've been here for years, guys; so this isn't some "sudden move" on the part of IBM.
At the top of page 291, Mark Dudek has a very good question indeed:
With the exodus of businesses, clubs, and some residents to the new continent, there is undoubtedly going to be a lot of abandoned land on the remaining mainland. Has there been any thought about reinstating First Land?
That is a really good question. Within thinking too long about it, I'd say most likely, the answer is no, but I'd love hearing the official Linden response to that.
More to come, I'm close to the end, but not...quite...there yet...
And a vastly different take on why blanket bans on words is a bad thing.
And look! Little steampunk wonders for your desk! Whee!
Lastly, Virtual Mobility and Studio Wikitecture won the Linden Prize--they designed a sensor-driven system for fully disabled people to enable them to control avatars in Second Life. Virtual walking around? Weirdly, it helps more than you think.
Back to the grind, I think: it's sheer perversity that keeps me going through this. No pun intended.
Grady Vuckovic on page 278:
[Every time] I think I've worked this out, I read just [a little] bit more, and everything doesn't make sense again.. according to Linden Lab's own website, 'Content, communication, or behavior which involves intense language or expletives, nudity or sexual content, the depiction of sex or violence, or anything else broadly offensive', all apparently is intended for Mature parcels. Yet now all of that is intended for the Adult parcels. So if anyone less than that is for the PG areas, and anything that includes that is for Adult. What is going to be in Mature? O.o Nothing?
Wondered that m'self, actually.
Valerius Constantine on page 282:
In order to do that without a legal nightmare, LL has to segregate *all* adult content, not just the "most extreme". which is why Blondin's comment about "removing adult content from the mainland" is so telling. That is the plan. and I'm pretty sure that the eventual plan is to herd everyone into the the "adult continent" and then change the TOS and either remove Ursula from the main grid, or to simply say "All this content violates our TOS- we're shutting it all down" and BYe-bye Grownup SL.
Which is what I'm hoping won't happen.
Aeslyn Dae from the same page:
So, what *is* the real, underlying reason? To me, it appears very much that they are either (a) clearing decks to sell up, or (b) clearing way to make profit themselves from access to "Adult" content. When it's all in one walled off area it'd be a short step to charge extra subscription fees, extra tier, and so-on and so-forth.
She's not wrong.
Kate Spengler on page 283:
Forget porn though, look at where [Second Life] came from. Do you *really* think suits would want to trust an idea that came from hippie-land? Philip based it on the ideals of Burning Man. What Mitch wants to do with this continent is in direct opposition to those founding principles.
And this one made me think. I know Burning Life is a large part of SL culture, and I've heard a lot of theories as to what actually started SL off and going.
But, even if it's just a part of the founding principles, Burning Life? Well, think of those principles. The paradigm of the gift economy--make, give, exchange, bring back, make again, ideas flowing like streams into one river. You influence me influence them influence her influence him....flowing, interweaving, art, music, dance, creation.
Giving of the spirit, giving of what you have, approaching life with open hands, open hearts, wired and ready for the experience...
Yeah. I can see why Mitch Kapor isn't 100% behind that, if true.
Ceera Murakami's entire post on page 285 deserves a look, but I pulled out this bit in particular:
Some of these encounters may offend you more than others. Some may not offend you in the slightest, and may even mark that person as a potential new friend.
Should they all be [segregated] into little communities of similar tastes, just so someone won't be offended by seeing them? Doesn't work that way in most of the Real world. Why should SL have to be that intolerant?
Why, indeed? As many of us have said, we thought the point of Second Life was second chances, and, more importantly, deliberate choice--to do things differently, to live more openly, to embrace more of life in the virtual, in the hopes that that will translate (or has translated) to the real. Why this insistence on shutting down part of that community, that concept?
Arishia Nishi on the same page:
Please consider unintended consequences, some of which are showing up on this forum. This decision might validate and embolden those with an external locus of control. Please consult with social psychologists before you proceed.
Will they? Likely not. Should they? Absolutely.
Ceera Murakami again, from the same page:
A three post transcript of the [brown-bag] meeting is burried way back in this thread. I read the whole thing... Lots of people asked pointed questions, and Blondin stonewaled them on everything. The only point that Blondin raised that seemed useful new information was that they don't expect to have a working definition of what is affected until at least another week from now. And yet they stick stubornly to their assertion that even without a valid definition of what this witch-hunt will run out of town and isolate on the pornotopia continent, tat it will still only affect 2% to 4% of the mainland content.
Can't define what they are hunting, yet they claim to know just how much content will be affected? That is pure BS, to me.
Didn't correct this one, because I was adding in "brown-bag" to refer to the meeting she's talking about--and that link goes back to the blog posting that lists all of the "brown-bag" meetings to date. But spelling errors or not, this is a very valid point--you can't define exactly what it is that constitutes "Adult", yet you know it only comprises 2 to 4% of grid content? Something's up.
Wynochee Leshelle recommends protest on that page as well:
All in all I recommend to everyone, to *not* move. Not a single millimeter. General strike, no one moves - and they cannot ban thousands of customers, it would ruin them - so: strike, resistance and ready.
I don't think that's the best solution to the problem, honestly. Because they can ban thousands of customers. They're convinced they'll get more. They don't have to keep the accounts they have.
Mystique Chambers vents some understandable irritation on page 285:
This move "when" it happens is going to take time. I can't be prepared in a day. I will need time to get everyone "legal Adults" that work for me. Yes, some have been working on it. We've had open discussions on "where do we go from here?". But everything is on hold awaiting word.
And IF I chose to buy a Private [sim] will it still be as strict as the Adult mainland. Is this just effecting Mature mainlands now? I have a lot of questions that need answering and not a dang linden around to ask. No one has answers. Anyone else trying to take this and be serious and preparing? What should I do NOW to prepare for this?
She's not the only one with these questions. She's also not the only one not getting answers.
Shockwave Yareach also has a great comment on page 289:
So this move will a) negatively affect thousands of people, b) make some percentage of them quit (a number are already cashing out), c) not eliminate the potential of seeing an orgy in the mainland, d) worsen public relations rather than improve them, and e) render most of mainland an empty, uninteresting ghosttown, useful to nobody at all.
All for the sake of some prudish busybodies who won't spend dime one in SL in the first place. Me, I drop a considerable amount of coin here and have been for years. So if it's between me and some company that hasn't spent anything here, SL should take the cash it has now and be grateful for it. Grace is when you dig for worms and find gold. But what is it called when you dig for gold and find only worms?
Generally? Means the gold rush is over.
Couldbe Yue from page 289:
One hunt organiser says on the blog that porn shops are not allowed tp participate.. wtf?? they don't even bother to say what they consider porn. I'm sure that gangster/biker whore outfit shops are allowed though.
Another says they only want shops that are kid safe. I'm sorry but I thought the grid was supposed to 18+. I was almost tempted to AR that organiser for encouraging underagers to be here.
We've hit some strange sort of internal limit regarding the grid-wide hunts. "No porn shops", but they won't give specifics. The "must be kid-safe" hunt ended up traveling through a *ton* of SL nurseries and birthing centers.
You know, that brings up another point to consider in all this: what is going to stop someone, who is fully age-verified, from transporting to Pornotopolis in a child avatar? And is that an instant AR in the making? It's not abuse if the name is verified, but would SL children be banned from the adult continent?
Would any of them want to be age-verified? I mean, yes, actual children don't get to go inside strip clubs...but SL children, that's a whole other issue. What's 'safe' for an adult in a child body?
Lindal Kidd from page 290:
Guess what? IBM *is* interested in making SL a corporate platform (shudder!) The problem is that doing so will, inevitably, kill it as the entertainment platform that it is now.
All right, I've said this before, I'll say it again--as far as I know, IBM is working/has been working on a corporate co-developed platform--for their employees only. They have island estates; certain of them are locked to outside transport, because they are internal corporate meeting/development areas.
That's all. They aren't buying the grid or forcing anyone to "clean up"; they're content with leaving SL the way it is, and their islands being secluded off, just as any corporate campus of IBM would be secluded. And they've been here for years, guys; so this isn't some "sudden move" on the part of IBM.
At the top of page 291, Mark Dudek has a very good question indeed:
With the exodus of businesses, clubs, and some residents to the new continent, there is undoubtedly going to be a lot of abandoned land on the remaining mainland. Has there been any thought about reinstating First Land?
That is a really good question. Within thinking too long about it, I'd say most likely, the answer is no, but I'd love hearing the official Linden response to that.
More to come, I'm close to the end, but not...quite...there yet...
01 May, 2009
but the plot is quickly weakening, and the drama's getting old
So, I've been watching this all day, and have gotten quite vocal (for me, on the JIRA). I've even gone so far as to make up a notecard of my initial post to Jack Linden and Blondin Linden.
I hate that it's come to this--that I feel I actually have to IM Lindens just to make sure I've done everything I can. It likely changes nothing, but--damn it, this is a strong ethical point for me I just violated! For me, contacting the Lindens outside of DIRE emergency that the specific Linden I'm contacting can fix--well, the system's failed somewhere, IMO. (I know, I know, not everyone's like this. But this is me we're talking about, not everyone else.)
More on the adult content issue and yet another theory of why the Labs are pulling this.
So there's a sale going on at Glass Earth right now, which features Hybrid's line of neko- and neko-influenced skins/HUDs/avatars/attachments. 50 L for nearly everything--check to make sure, there's one store that's moving on, not closing up--but for the most part, the entire sim goes away, they're selling off, and getting out of the game.
We're going to see this a lot, especially going into June, through August--and then I'm predicting about four to six months before it starts happening again (once initial sales figures come in from Pornodelphia). And then we'll see where we are, the Labs will see where we are.
VastPark is looking better and better.
[The more it goes on, the worse it gets--there's a petition pleading for "Ladyboy" (a term common to Asia, also called Kathoey in Thailand, to not be listed as an "Adult" word in itself. And I haven't decided whether or not to vote for this issue, but it sounds like a good idea; the problem would be, as I see it, in implementation.
[Because if the Lindens, after these last three weeks, still think most of their users want separated Adult/Mature/PG content...then they'd find a stunningly damaging way to cock up the content ratings proposal.]
I hate that it's come to this--that I feel I actually have to IM Lindens just to make sure I've done everything I can. It likely changes nothing, but--damn it, this is a strong ethical point for me I just violated! For me, contacting the Lindens outside of DIRE emergency that the specific Linden I'm contacting can fix--well, the system's failed somewhere, IMO. (I know, I know, not everyone's like this. But this is me we're talking about, not everyone else.)
More on the adult content issue and yet another theory of why the Labs are pulling this.
So there's a sale going on at Glass Earth right now, which features Hybrid's line of neko- and neko-influenced skins/HUDs/avatars/attachments. 50 L for nearly everything--check to make sure, there's one store that's moving on, not closing up--but for the most part, the entire sim goes away, they're selling off, and getting out of the game.
We're going to see this a lot, especially going into June, through August--and then I'm predicting about four to six months before it starts happening again (once initial sales figures come in from Pornodelphia). And then we'll see where we are, the Labs will see where we are.
VastPark is looking better and better.
[The more it goes on, the worse it gets--there's a petition pleading for "Ladyboy" (a term common to Asia, also called Kathoey in Thailand, to not be listed as an "Adult" word in itself. And I haven't decided whether or not to vote for this issue, but it sounds like a good idea; the problem would be, as I see it, in implementation.
[Because if the Lindens, after these last three weeks, still think most of their users want separated Adult/Mature/PG content...then they'd find a stunningly damaging way to cock up the content ratings proposal.]
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