Remember, when Evony launched, it was all grr-fighters-swords-kill-things?
Yeah, they've pretty much abandoned that angle entirely.
By way of Miss Samantha Poindexter, RCAF pilots find themselves in a quandary. And it's a serious one, as serious as the sailing quandary with the OpenSpace/homestead sims last year.
Linden Labs pushes this big get-away-from-it-all, sandy-beaches-and-sunshine, virtual playground world, and yet, when push comes to shove, they don't seem to care at all about recreational activities. Or at least, they don't care if they're not the sort of things they might be interested in doing.
And sure, flying machines are the focus, but aeronautics in general capture Miss Connolly, and many of the RCAF pilots--in fact, according to her Twitter stream, she had--at least at one point, it may be there still--a mock-up of the Apollo II Lunar Lander at the Penzance Aerodome. How cool is that?
But right now, the extreme lag involved in all sim crossings--and I do mean all, even walking over bridges that span two sims results in, on the best days, sinking beneath the sim surface and wandering the murky blue under the .raw file for a bit--is killing air flight. She says they're having a little more success with VTOL aircraft over prop jets, but be serious--how many VTOL craft did Victorian aeronautics have?
If the Lindens don't find a way to debug the system, simple vehicle-based flying is going to become as frustration-filled as sailing when the ocean is chopped into sections--or maxed out on prims in that location!
This may be a problem only the Lindens can solve, honestly. And the true tragedy is, it's a problem the Lindens caused. If this gets worse, that's another checkmark off the list of what keeps people in Second Life, and in Caledon.
Again, the question springs to mind--are they trying to kill their own platform?
16 November, 2009
14 November, 2009
in the fields of love, you're the scarecrow
One world, one avatar certainly doesn't work for me; apparently, it doesn't work for a lot of other people either.
Ann O'Toole explains lag again. It has nothing to do with ARC, it has nothing to do with your shoes or your hair, she says--unless they're scripted to resize. Mostly, it comes down to three factors: scripts each avatar is carrying (in the HUDs, the fishing rods, the AOs, the resizing clothing/shoes/hair/accessories, the gadgets, the multi-tools, Tiny Empires, Bloodlines, the Hunger, and every other resource-clogging HUD it's possible to wear), enabling Windlight, and actually walking around in avatar form ourselves.
Sucks to be us.
Dragon Age apparently is having some bizarre avatar problems. I have to say, based on that, they have SL's fold-in-half-for-proctology move beat.
In other (decidedly NSFW) news, the age of sculpts and ultra-realism have hit...genitalia. And it's not pretty. (Think that's bad? Try this on for size. Now even cheaper-looking!)
I swear, I saw either of these coming at me--anywhere at me--I'd throw salt and run screaming, I'm not kidding. A), they do not look "ultra-realistic". B), they do not look "natural", or even "natural for SL" (which in my estimation is even more important). Basically, if you're going to use photorealistic textures, and it looks artificial and scary, you are fail at photorealism. And C), this is Second Life! We're used to male genitalia--and female genitalia--looking wonky! Trust me, this does not help!
On occasion, Twitter shakes me to my foundations:
"Such silence tonight. The earth might be uninhabited. I told her it was no use going on and she agreed."
And the image below comes from Wordle. One of the earliest entries on the Train Wreck turned into a word cloud. It fits...
Ann O'Toole explains lag again. It has nothing to do with ARC, it has nothing to do with your shoes or your hair, she says--unless they're scripted to resize. Mostly, it comes down to three factors: scripts each avatar is carrying (in the HUDs, the fishing rods, the AOs, the resizing clothing/shoes/hair/accessories, the gadgets, the multi-tools, Tiny Empires, Bloodlines, the Hunger, and every other resource-clogging HUD it's possible to wear), enabling Windlight, and actually walking around in avatar form ourselves.
Sucks to be us.
Dragon Age apparently is having some bizarre avatar problems. I have to say, based on that, they have SL's fold-in-half-for-proctology move beat.
In other (decidedly NSFW) news, the age of sculpts and ultra-realism have hit...genitalia. And it's not pretty. (Think that's bad? Try this on for size. Now even cheaper-looking!)
I swear, I saw either of these coming at me--anywhere at me--I'd throw salt and run screaming, I'm not kidding. A), they do not look "ultra-realistic". B), they do not look "natural", or even "natural for SL" (which in my estimation is even more important). Basically, if you're going to use photorealistic textures, and it looks artificial and scary, you are fail at photorealism. And C), this is Second Life! We're used to male genitalia--and female genitalia--looking wonky! Trust me, this does not help!
On occasion, Twitter shakes me to my foundations:
"Such silence tonight. The earth might be uninhabited. I told her it was no use going on and she agreed."
~John LarroquetteThat's just...damn. That's hard. Beautiful, but hard.
And the image below comes from Wordle. One of the earliest entries on the Train Wreck turned into a word cloud. It fits...
and the weight is crushing down on my lungs, I know I can't breathe
Canada's trying to draft a DMCA-like copyright law to bolster its current looser, freer system. No, Canada! Don't do it! DMCA is bad! It will stunt your grown and grow hair on your palms, NOOOO!
Seriously. Bad idea. Listen to me on this, I live in America. I know how bad the DMCA is.
Now. Other topics. Pink Linden is sending around a survey to SL merchants. (Apparently, omitting me. Nice to know I'm completely ignored by all sides...unless they're paying me...and then I'm a big deal and must be fired.
(...Ahem. Sorry. Anyway...)
Friend of mine had completed the survey, but still had the link he was sent, so he sent it my way. What neither of us can figure out, how'ver, is the survey coding: id est, will the survey credit to him if I take it, or credit to me? Do I need to be sent it with my own special little coding?
Instead, I took pictures of the damned thing, because it's on crack, start to finish.
The first and second questions aren't bad:
(As always, click for the larger version.)
Standard, even: have you ever taken out a classified ad, what sort of things do you sell? Simple questions.
There's one in the next batch that gets very odd, though.
Do they really expect people to answer that honestly? I'm not talking about the ones who do personally create everything they sell. But for the ones who don't? If they don't create what they put out, they aren't going to be honest enough to give a percentage accurately.
It's a specious question to ask.
The next couple are again odd--after all the trouble they went to, to all but ensure that the Linden view is clearly and unambiguously stated (namely, that this is a game, that no profit is guaranteed or intended, that anyone using this game as a means to increase RL income should stop), to ask first, what percentage of the merchant's given RL household income is provided by SL, and next, how much each merchant makes on average...it seems ridiculous and surreal. What do the Lindens care about how much anyone's making...unless the Lindens want a bigger cut down the line?
I suppose owning land, or at least renting it, and the main activities we do in SL would apply to a merchant survey...as much as it sounds like Big Brother Linden...Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out the really odd questions--the ones about Linden-made vendors (for a fee), and listing things automatically on XStreet (for a fee), and the ones about asking if it would be a good idea to charge five or ten US dollars--you know, what they consider a 'nominal sum', I'm sure--per listing, per item on XStreet...
They're on crack. There's no other word for it. They have completely and utterly lost their minds.
Does anyone know a Linden who might be able to confirm why they've suddenly turned into minute-by-minute, charge-by-the-moment types? I mean, this isn't even money on the dresser, thanks, seeya next week--hells, it's not even watch five minutes of porn for free, pay eternally for the rest of the movie.
This is robbery with a smile and a chainsaw strap-on. And not a nice one, either.
What's going on with Pink Linden? And who's telling the insane little bunny to hop out with this survey in the first place?
Seriously. Bad idea. Listen to me on this, I live in America. I know how bad the DMCA is.
Now. Other topics. Pink Linden is sending around a survey to SL merchants. (Apparently, omitting me. Nice to know I'm completely ignored by all sides...unless they're paying me...and then I'm a big deal and must be fired.
(...Ahem. Sorry. Anyway...)
Friend of mine had completed the survey, but still had the link he was sent, so he sent it my way. What neither of us can figure out, how'ver, is the survey coding: id est, will the survey credit to him if I take it, or credit to me? Do I need to be sent it with my own special little coding?
Instead, I took pictures of the damned thing, because it's on crack, start to finish.
The first and second questions aren't bad:
(As always, click for the larger version.)
Standard, even: have you ever taken out a classified ad, what sort of things do you sell? Simple questions.
There's one in the next batch that gets very odd, though.
Do they really expect people to answer that honestly? I'm not talking about the ones who do personally create everything they sell. But for the ones who don't? If they don't create what they put out, they aren't going to be honest enough to give a percentage accurately.
It's a specious question to ask.
The next couple are again odd--after all the trouble they went to, to all but ensure that the Linden view is clearly and unambiguously stated (namely, that this is a game, that no profit is guaranteed or intended, that anyone using this game as a means to increase RL income should stop), to ask first, what percentage of the merchant's given RL household income is provided by SL, and next, how much each merchant makes on average...it seems ridiculous and surreal. What do the Lindens care about how much anyone's making...unless the Lindens want a bigger cut down the line?
I suppose owning land, or at least renting it, and the main activities we do in SL would apply to a merchant survey...as much as it sounds like Big Brother Linden...Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out the really odd questions--the ones about Linden-made vendors (for a fee), and listing things automatically on XStreet (for a fee), and the ones about asking if it would be a good idea to charge five or ten US dollars--you know, what they consider a 'nominal sum', I'm sure--per listing, per item on XStreet...
They're on crack. There's no other word for it. They have completely and utterly lost their minds.
Does anyone know a Linden who might be able to confirm why they've suddenly turned into minute-by-minute, charge-by-the-moment types? I mean, this isn't even money on the dresser, thanks, seeya next week--hells, it's not even watch five minutes of porn for free, pay eternally for the rest of the movie.
This is robbery with a smile and a chainsaw strap-on. And not a nice one, either.
What's going on with Pink Linden? And who's telling the insane little bunny to hop out with this survey in the first place?
13 November, 2009
let me hear you roar
Via--amusingly enough--Duchess Eva, comes this interesting bit from Vernian Process. If you like his synthesized explorations of classical music, steampunked to a high shine, you will adore the new album. But they're having a bit of problem funding it. So, for a limited amount of time, you can download the pre-release version of the album for free (always, of course, knowing the actual album release will be tighter, more polished, and come with a nifty case and nifty art). He's also soliciting donations to help cover the cost of self-pressing the album.
It's a good cause and it's good music; give if you can, and in return, you get to hear what the album sounds like before he's finished tinkering with everything (sort of the middle step between live and fully recorded, if you will), you get the chance to download the artwork from the album as wallpaper, and you know you're giving your money to someone who's going to turn it around into more music--either on his own, or through his record company, Gilded Age.
Ran into an old friend and an amusing new acquaintance over at DV8 Designs--so, just to prove I don't always mock other residents on this blog, I present to you Unlimited Clip. With mask:
And without:
Very, very spiky avatar. Plus, y'know, the arrow through the heart, that's never good. But it was a striking look, and looked good on him.
He says he's not antisocial, though, in spite of the spikes. And he has one of the most wonderful SL bios I've ever read. Pull his profile, you'll see.
(This next bit, unfortunately, crosses a bit of SL and RL. Can't be helped--in that I'm not going back and editing out anything I'm typing on the fly--I'm just going with it. I'm tired and my head hurts so deal.)
The War Poets Exhibition is now open in SL. Laird Brideswell, Elric Merlin, tipped it my way, but I wanted to take a look for myself. Unfortunately, I was asked to delay to make this a group thing, and several hours past that, my typist got smacked in the back of the head with her desk chair (gods, don't ask), so by the time I actually got back to wandering the exhibit, things were a little...off.
They recommend specific Windlight settings--my new favorite, Gelatto--but it's not essential. You can walk this exhibition without Windlight.
(Miss Neome chose dark blue for the journey. It looked good on her.)
The bubble system of transport--I've had one for years, I adore it--is really unique. I will say that, while I doubt this will happen to anyone else, putting an avatar in a bubble whose typist has a head injury--and then spinning the bubble wildly--is not destined for good things.
(Around and around and around and...ugh, let me down already.)
I got out of mouselook, and breathed for a while, and things were fine, but that was not fun.
Some of the audio transcripts were--for me at least--very, very faint. Whether that's a result of injury and shock, or sound quality, I'm not sure. I honestly couldn't tell you, save to encourage you to zoom in on the box itself; it amps the broadcast volume.
It was about this point I realized I somehow hadn't fully set Gelatto on my Windlight settings. Ah, well.
Several things could be clicked on--the archive boxes for poetry and description of conditions, a small field of poppies one could click for a wearable remembrance poppy.
(The aid station, with some very talkative rats.)
And the rats in the aid station.
[1:50] Rat Fact: Rats transmit Murine typhus fever, rat bite fever, salmonellosis or bacterial food poisoning, Weils disease or leptospirosis and trichinosis, melioidosid, brucellosis, tuberculosis, pasteurellosis, rickettsial diseases, and viral diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease.
The aid station was stark, terrifying. Bodies laid out as best they could, desperate conditions, too few nurses and too many wounded men, as happens in any war, all wars. There was a port circle at the back leading to the hospital, but we elected to push forward to the front.
[1:53] Rat Fact: Shooting rats was discouraged because ammunition couldn't afford to be wasted so it became a common practice to use bayonets or shovels.
Another rat I clicked gave me an agonizing poem and a sketch of dead rats--the nearest thing the artist had to work on, during his hospitalization.
O Life, Life, let me breathe,---a dug-out rat!
Not worse than ours the lives rats lead---
Nosing along at night down some safe rut,
They find a shell-proof home before they rot.
Dead men may envy living mites in cheese,
Or good germs even. Microbes have their joys,
And subdivide, and never come to death.
Certainly flowers have the easiest time on earth.
'I shall be one with nature, herb, and stone,'
Shelley would tell me. Shelley would be stunned:
The dullest Tommy hugs that fancy now.
'Pushing up daisies' is their creed, you know.
The exhibit grew darker, the deeper we went into it.
[1:54] Rat Fact: 1 pair of rats can produce 900 offspring in a year.
The barbed wire is black against the green-looming sky. Traces of cordite and mustard gas in the air give everything an unsettling haze. The poppies stand out like drops of blood on bright stems.
[1:55] Rat Fact: Rats have poor vision. To compensate for this, a red or pink eyed rat will often weave its head side to side to add "motion" to see better.
There is some lag, and we were very confused at first; yes, it's got some fair amount of scripting, but why would just that lag things out? There's nothing beyond scripting to account for it.
Then--entirely by accident, trying to click one of the reading stations--I discovered the nurse skirt has resize scripts. So does the belt, the cape, and the cap and veil. (They are all no-modify, of course.)
When I related this to Miss Midnight and Miss Fawkes--who had elected to wander garbed as soldiers--they informed me that hat, belt, boots and backpack were resize-scripted. (And also no-modify.)
Well, no wonder--we're our own walking lag machines!
Barbed wire landscape
[1:56] Rat Fact: A group of rats is called a mischief.
Everything ends--as much as it can--with a small tutorial, a mini-theatre where you can see another film, and some credits and acknowledgements. This is one person's machinima on the project. There are others.
All in all, this comes highly recommended. It takes some time, but if you have the time, it's worth it to go. I would suggest possibly scouting about for World War I attire on your own, that is not fitted with resize scripts, but that's your own call--go early enough, the lag is not too bad.
Plus--free Lassitude and Ennui boots, ladies! Come ON now! And they aren't resize-scripted!
It's a good cause and it's good music; give if you can, and in return, you get to hear what the album sounds like before he's finished tinkering with everything (sort of the middle step between live and fully recorded, if you will), you get the chance to download the artwork from the album as wallpaper, and you know you're giving your money to someone who's going to turn it around into more music--either on his own, or through his record company, Gilded Age.
Ran into an old friend and an amusing new acquaintance over at DV8 Designs--so, just to prove I don't always mock other residents on this blog, I present to you Unlimited Clip. With mask:
And without:
Very, very spiky avatar. Plus, y'know, the arrow through the heart, that's never good. But it was a striking look, and looked good on him.
He says he's not antisocial, though, in spite of the spikes. And he has one of the most wonderful SL bios I've ever read. Pull his profile, you'll see.
(This next bit, unfortunately, crosses a bit of SL and RL. Can't be helped--in that I'm not going back and editing out anything I'm typing on the fly--I'm just going with it. I'm tired and my head hurts so deal.)
The War Poets Exhibition is now open in SL. Laird Brideswell, Elric Merlin, tipped it my way, but I wanted to take a look for myself. Unfortunately, I was asked to delay to make this a group thing, and several hours past that, my typist got smacked in the back of the head with her desk chair (gods, don't ask), so by the time I actually got back to wandering the exhibit, things were a little...off.
They recommend specific Windlight settings--my new favorite, Gelatto--but it's not essential. You can walk this exhibition without Windlight.
(Miss Neome chose dark blue for the journey. It looked good on her.)
The bubble system of transport--I've had one for years, I adore it--is really unique. I will say that, while I doubt this will happen to anyone else, putting an avatar in a bubble whose typist has a head injury--and then spinning the bubble wildly--is not destined for good things.
(Around and around and around and...ugh, let me down already.)
I got out of mouselook, and breathed for a while, and things were fine, but that was not fun.
Some of the audio transcripts were--for me at least--very, very faint. Whether that's a result of injury and shock, or sound quality, I'm not sure. I honestly couldn't tell you, save to encourage you to zoom in on the box itself; it amps the broadcast volume.
It was about this point I realized I somehow hadn't fully set Gelatto on my Windlight settings. Ah, well.
Several things could be clicked on--the archive boxes for poetry and description of conditions, a small field of poppies one could click for a wearable remembrance poppy.
(The aid station, with some very talkative rats.)
And the rats in the aid station.
[1:50] Rat Fact: Rats transmit Murine typhus fever, rat bite fever, salmonellosis or bacterial food poisoning, Weils disease or leptospirosis and trichinosis, melioidosid, brucellosis, tuberculosis, pasteurellosis, rickettsial diseases, and viral diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease.
The aid station was stark, terrifying. Bodies laid out as best they could, desperate conditions, too few nurses and too many wounded men, as happens in any war, all wars. There was a port circle at the back leading to the hospital, but we elected to push forward to the front.
[1:53] Rat Fact: Shooting rats was discouraged because ammunition couldn't afford to be wasted so it became a common practice to use bayonets or shovels.
Another rat I clicked gave me an agonizing poem and a sketch of dead rats--the nearest thing the artist had to work on, during his hospitalization.
O Life, Life, let me breathe,---a dug-out rat!
Not worse than ours the lives rats lead---
Nosing along at night down some safe rut,
They find a shell-proof home before they rot.
Dead men may envy living mites in cheese,
Or good germs even. Microbes have their joys,
And subdivide, and never come to death.
Certainly flowers have the easiest time on earth.
'I shall be one with nature, herb, and stone,'
Shelley would tell me. Shelley would be stunned:
The dullest Tommy hugs that fancy now.
'Pushing up daisies' is their creed, you know.
(from A Terre by Wilfred Owen)
The exhibit grew darker, the deeper we went into it.
[1:54] Rat Fact: 1 pair of rats can produce 900 offspring in a year.
The barbed wire is black against the green-looming sky. Traces of cordite and mustard gas in the air give everything an unsettling haze. The poppies stand out like drops of blood on bright stems.
[1:55] Rat Fact: Rats have poor vision. To compensate for this, a red or pink eyed rat will often weave its head side to side to add "motion" to see better.
There is some lag, and we were very confused at first; yes, it's got some fair amount of scripting, but why would just that lag things out? There's nothing beyond scripting to account for it.
Then--entirely by accident, trying to click one of the reading stations--I discovered the nurse skirt has resize scripts. So does the belt, the cape, and the cap and veil. (They are all no-modify, of course.)
When I related this to Miss Midnight and Miss Fawkes--who had elected to wander garbed as soldiers--they informed me that hat, belt, boots and backpack were resize-scripted. (And also no-modify.)
Well, no wonder--we're our own walking lag machines!
Barbed wire landscape
[1:56] Rat Fact: A group of rats is called a mischief.
Everything ends--as much as it can--with a small tutorial, a mini-theatre where you can see another film, and some credits and acknowledgements. This is one person's machinima on the project. There are others.
All in all, this comes highly recommended. It takes some time, but if you have the time, it's worth it to go. I would suggest possibly scouting about for World War I attire on your own, that is not fitted with resize scripts, but that's your own call--go early enough, the lag is not too bad.
Plus--free Lassitude and Ennui boots, ladies! Come ON now! And they aren't resize-scripted!
12 November, 2009
you leave it all on the table, if you lose or you win
Windows Marketplace? Hacked in seven hours. Wau, that was quick.
And Sasy Scarborough weighs in on content theft--curiously on November 5th. Yeah, I hadn't even realized the 'no blog posts' portion of the protests--not that I would have followed that anyway. Not much keeps me from blogging if I want to. Maybe that's good, maybe that's bad; but that's part of who I am.
At least that post helps explain some things; as one of Maitreya's shop contacts, I'd contacted Miss Scarborough in relation to a hunt, some time last year; I got a fractious and seemingly insane reply back, full of highly offended you-have-insulted-me-and-mine statements (which to this day baffles me to no end). If she was under that level of pressure, however, it does make me understand how even a casual question, dropped into such a ferment of doubt and paranoia, would spawn distrust.
We move on.
I'm going to tell wtf is happening with me, the notecard began. I'm part of the group SHE WANTS REVENGE, half because she's incredibly prolific, and half because I like the band that inspired her shop's name.
i'm tired. everybody is asking me what's happening but nobody really cares.. I have hepatic steatosis, erosive esophagitis, my pancreas is working 4 more times than a normal pancreas, my liver is fucked and i need a surgery, but my health insurance is a shit. Okay. I don't want your money, I don't need your help.. Just leave me in peace playing my music. I'm not here for charity or other thing.. I just want to make my art and spread my awesomenesses around the universe.
This is a hard call for anyone, in or out of world.
I'm desperated. I can't die. So, i'm no online on second life, because i'm going to a lot of doctors. My sister will take care the things here. be Kind with her!
I'd also think a gentle encouragement towards buying things she puts out wouldn't be out of line, but note--that's not her request. This is:
I'm making a lot of songs, because i'm afraid to die and people forget that i exist.. So I just want that you listen my work, my pain, my sickness.. I want to share it.. I don't want your money, my music is free.. I just need to share with universe what's happening with me..
Thanks for all support. I'm not dead.
As long as you're still breathing, the game's not over. Right?
Sorry for all. Revenge Gears aka Marcy Mars
Marcy Mars on last.fm.
Her latest video, I'm not dead, with links to other content on her channel.
Maybe you don't like her style, and can't support her that way. Maybe you won't like the music, once you hear it. But at least listen. That's all she's asking. Click one of the links and at least tune in for a bit, to her voice, her fears, her pain, her dread.
She just wants to be remembered. Just in case. Who doesn't?
(Update, 14 November 2009: She's recorded what her sister says is her last song, Survive. It's a reaction to the past few days of people sending IMs and emails to her, saying she's just being an attention whore and seeking money. Her sister wants this to stop, because that's not what Marcy Mars/Revenge Gears wants. She just wants to sing. To reach out. To survive.
(It's a little like swallowing broken glass while tribal drummers play you down, but it's worth seeing at least once.)
And Sasy Scarborough weighs in on content theft--curiously on November 5th. Yeah, I hadn't even realized the 'no blog posts' portion of the protests--not that I would have followed that anyway. Not much keeps me from blogging if I want to. Maybe that's good, maybe that's bad; but that's part of who I am.
At least that post helps explain some things; as one of Maitreya's shop contacts, I'd contacted Miss Scarborough in relation to a hunt, some time last year; I got a fractious and seemingly insane reply back, full of highly offended you-have-insulted-me-and-mine statements (which to this day baffles me to no end). If she was under that level of pressure, however, it does make me understand how even a casual question, dropped into such a ferment of doubt and paranoia, would spawn distrust.
We move on.
I'm going to tell wtf is happening with me, the notecard began. I'm part of the group SHE WANTS REVENGE, half because she's incredibly prolific, and half because I like the band that inspired her shop's name.
i'm tired. everybody is asking me what's happening but nobody really cares.. I have hepatic steatosis, erosive esophagitis, my pancreas is working 4 more times than a normal pancreas, my liver is fucked and i need a surgery, but my health insurance is a shit. Okay. I don't want your money, I don't need your help.. Just leave me in peace playing my music. I'm not here for charity or other thing.. I just want to make my art and spread my awesomenesses around the universe.
This is a hard call for anyone, in or out of world.
I'm desperated. I can't die. So, i'm no online on second life, because i'm going to a lot of doctors. My sister will take care the things here. be Kind with her!
I'd also think a gentle encouragement towards buying things she puts out wouldn't be out of line, but note--that's not her request. This is:
I'm making a lot of songs, because i'm afraid to die and people forget that i exist.. So I just want that you listen my work, my pain, my sickness.. I want to share it.. I don't want your money, my music is free.. I just need to share with universe what's happening with me..
Thanks for all support. I'm not dead.
As long as you're still breathing, the game's not over. Right?
Sorry for all. Revenge Gears aka Marcy Mars
Marcy Mars on last.fm.
Her latest video, I'm not dead, with links to other content on her channel.
Maybe you don't like her style, and can't support her that way. Maybe you won't like the music, once you hear it. But at least listen. That's all she's asking. Click one of the links and at least tune in for a bit, to her voice, her fears, her pain, her dread.
She just wants to be remembered. Just in case. Who doesn't?
(Update, 14 November 2009: She's recorded what her sister says is her last song, Survive. It's a reaction to the past few days of people sending IMs and emails to her, saying she's just being an attention whore and seeking money. Her sister wants this to stop, because that's not what Marcy Mars/Revenge Gears wants. She just wants to sing. To reach out. To survive.
(It's a little like swallowing broken glass while tribal drummers play you down, but it's worth seeing at least once.)
tell me what it's like to be the queen of it all
Do you feel sad when returning to an old MMO? It's a good question. And some good answers, there.
Nortel and Mellanium are hosting a me-unfriendly (it's at nine ayem PST, I don't plan to be awake, then!) stress test of their virtual world this Friday. They're wanting to see if their engine really is robust enough to handle five hundred avatars at once. To help them with that, they're throwing registration wide open for their system.
Just download, install, and drop by during the stress test. See if you can break their system.
They dare you.
Eventually, we come around to music on the grid. And this one's going to be tricky.
Dear Lily Allen,
The rules for internet broadcast are labyrinthine and somewhat surreal. On the one hand, the RIAA exists to ensure that proper fees for product are paid by any broadcaster; but unbeknownst to many, they've been maneuvering to have more paid to them than is paid to artists, while starving the artists they're supposedly there to 'protect'.
Remember when you pretended, Lily,
that you were truly independent, Lily?
Faking like you made it all alone
but you were legally with Regal, part of Parlophone
oh yeah
While broadcasters and stations who use AM and FM channels to broadcast music do so legally, for set fees that are generally paid to them, internet broadcasters face an entirely different--and far more horrifying--stricture: the RIAA still wants royalties paid, but wants them paid under specific principles of the DMCA.
So when you lectured me,
I thought I'd fileshare my thoughts on your mp3, Lily.
Under those principles, every time a song is played, in any format (and they want to charge per song, per format change, which gets even more ridiculous), and each time a broadcast/podcast is downloaded, they want a cut of the profits.
Most internet broadcasters survive on donations only; SomaFM, one of the largest net broadcasters, nearly closed in the face of these restrictions, because their fees would have been $7,500 over what they made in donations each month.
Now first I must sing your praises -
I love your singing but I'll just say this:
I saw on your MySpace pages
saying file sharing's a new ice age,
but the industry's a recent innovation--
music's been alive, thriving since cavemen.
They're alive now, and still commercial-free, but it's a struggle each and every month--and it's not because fans of the service aren't paying in; it's because the RIAA-suggested fees for webcasting are so insanely high no one (barring big corps like AOL and Yahoo) can afford to pay them and keep broadcasting.
Folk songs so long have had a place in communities
that you should be amazed at it.
So where did music begin? Live performance. In caves, in stone circles, in forests, in meadows; moving to thatched huts and island beaches and castles and mansions, as the culture evolved. Soon stages were built, some temporary, some permanent, where performers of music and theatre could gather to present their art to the public. Sometimes the public paid for this; sometimes they didn't. Even back then, there was a division between those who could afford to support the arts, and the working poor who struggled to support themselves.
Then one day came intellectual property,
meaning if I think a thought, you can't copy me.
And if honesty's the best policy,
I'd say songs are better off without this monopoly.
And there were always private performers singing professional songs--maybe not always in professional fashion, but schoolchildren, church choruses, family members playing around the feasting table of an evening. Bar singers, private dancers, performers to one, performers to one hundred--on that scale, one doesn't think of paying royalty fees, and in general, one would be absolutely correct.
It'd blatantly be a major fail
if they'd patented the major scale.
And downloads don't equate to sales,
so taking them away won't make me pay up--
just precludes me from sending your tunes to my friends,
so we all lose in the end.
Let's talk about that fan/professional split again, because that's really the issue on the grid, not the absolutes (or even vague threats) of royalties and correct fees. You go out and ask most DJs on the grid, they'll tell you straight up--they were never DJs before Second Life, or if they were, it was just privately, on some chintzy little webpage broadcast service.
You lose potential fans
and we lose respect for the fact that you're desperate for cash.
But in the end, most grid-based radio stations (note: I said most, not all) have no interest in broadcasting on the web at large. But is Second Life the web? If a stream is tossed out, for the most part, it works in SL. Yet, if it doesn't, we're generally instructed to open WinAmp or iTunes (or local equivalent) and pull up the actual numerical or HTML feed.
And that does bring up a stream that is then broadcasting from the web, right? Which means that radio station is a web broadcaster. Isn't it?
But what do you expect from the lass
who's collecting a fat bank cheque from the man,
while her fans are collecting the glasses for minimum wage they'll spend on her tracks?
The problem, inherently, is the RIAA wants a cut, of whatever profits are being made (even if they're nonexistant), or for the "offending" broadcaster to cease operation. Fine, they're empowered to do that, more or less--if the broadcaster is using the existing AM or FM channels to broadcast music or protected media.
Dear Lily, why you being this silly?
Yours sincerely, Dan Bull--
But if they're on the net? Do the rules that apply to physical radio stations apply to web stations? No, and that's the problem--the RIAA aren't going after net stations using broadcast rules. They're going after net stations using portions of the DMCA--which, again, was never intended to be used like this.
Now please don't be offended, Lily;
I think your new CD's splendid, Lily.
Everybody's At It
and it's Not Fair,
I Could Say The Fear was Him but
He Wasn't There so let's
go Back To the Start, before 22--
all music's in the public domain, so Fuck You--
According to the DMCA--via the twisted ways it's been interpreted of late--any use is a use. So play a song once--that's one use. Play a song twice--that's two uses. Okay as far as it goes, but offer that song twice in an hour broadcast, and you're against the terms of service for approval. And gods forbid you should offer the podcast containing that song in any format, because that's another fee for that song. And if you convert it from .mp3 to .ogg or another listening format? It's another fee for that song, per use, per podcast, per format--and you can bet if they had a legal way to charge broadcasters per listener, they'd do that too.
It's never the amateurs
that reckon it's damaging us,
it's the major labels saying it's fatal;
like when Napster had to pack up,
wrecked by Metallica.
Even worse--it seems that, above and beyond web broadcast, most of the RIAA notifications to institutions of higher learning are almost entirely folder-based, not transmission-based. What's the difference? Simple: transmission-based violations purport to track that particular violation and respond to it; folder-based violations track each time that supposedly violating file in that folder is downloaded, or attempted to be downloaded, or accessed in any way.
The table's turned now--
the labels churn out
a new Jezebelinternetelevangelist--
and she's fit--
with a manuscript that was actually written by Mr. Michael Masnick.
With that, they can send out six cease-and-desist notifications to the same university because a student might have uploaded his personal copy of a song to his personal authorized folder--and then accessed that song on his laptop, his Palm, his iPhone, on a study machine at the library, at a coffeeshop box, and over at his friend's house so his friend could hear the song.
Can you get the irony?
And by the by, Lily, I like this beat--
I hope you don't mind me thieving,
'cause even doing a cover song's decried as stealing.
All of this from the same individual, who may well have bought the album in question, and has licensing to support that upload on his desktop in the dorm--but doesn't have the RIAA-specified right to listen to the song he owns on other machines.
But it's all right, still,
for you to plagiarise, and preach it--
Don't you believe it's maybe time to rethink, Lily?
And it's even worse with file-sharing at large--at times, legally available files--downloaded from the artist, or from the recording company--are deemed illegal copies because they were retitled. This is a lovely Catch-22 for the RIAA, because--according to their own internal rules in this matter--web stations have to title songs in a specific way to be compliant with the rules!
Put music back in the hands of the people;
make the majors and amateurs equal.
If anything labels strangle
the freedom you claim they're saving by banning this evil.
So let's take it back to personal issues again. If I have a party in my house, and I play five CDs in rotation at that party, I am not in violation of any broadcast rules. It's my house; they're my discs; it doesn't go over the airways.
That's the actual reason, you see;
and please don't compare sharing to stealing--
I've not took anything off you, I'm just spreading love for what you do.
Now, if I have a party in my house, and friends of mine have a party in their house, but, because we're in different cities, we can't attend each others' parties--but we have this keen idea to stream all the music played under WinAmp for both events and run speakers and microphones to talk to each other--well, it all gets sort of jumbled, for hearing people and music, but it's still private broadcasting.
Or is it?
Downloaded your songs for free,
then I bought my mom your CD.
She likes it too, she keeps telling me,
all because I pirated an mp3.
What if I take that further? What if I set up--under WinAmp (free), under SAM (paid), or other accessible net streaming program--a list of songs that I'm streaming to my parcel? It can be done, it has been done (both by me, when MediaMaster.com was alive, and by others who have better understanding of net broadcasting programs), but I'm not seeing wider net broadcast status, so what's the problem?
Now I've got Matt Bellamy belling me,
telling me I'm not a fan, I'm the enemy.
That's amusing, I've paid enough to see Muse in my time
I could buy them a museum.
The problem is the RIAA. And their narrow interpretation of the laws of broadcasting in the first place. And the fact that they want net broadcasters to be charged equal fees along with official major stations, when even small hobbyist radio stations are going under, because of the sheer cost of operation if you aren't one of the major players.
Did you see them on that programme miming?
Yeah, the "pirates" are "killing" live gigs.
Maybe we should have a ban CDs appeal -
then people would pay to see bands for real.
Okay, but seriously, most of the broadcasters on SL are not on the net; they're in Club X playing for, what, twenty people tops? For chump change, literally--a penny for every dollar that's spent, a dime if they're lucky, two thousand these days still works out to under ten bucks, most places (granted, the LindeX rates have gotten steeper, it used to be L$2500 for $5.00 flat, now it's L$2000 for $7.70, as of today). And yes, ten bucks won't even buy two drinks in a real-life bar, now, but it pays rent, buys outfits, supports art, architecture, performance and music on the grid--in world, L$2000 still means something.
Dear Lily, why you being this silly?
Yours sincerely, Dan Bull--
Why does the RIAA want a cut of the non-profits being made?
Because "on the grid" translates to "on the net"...and on the net, the rules are different.
Lily Allen went on record to say that file sharing was equivalent to killing music. Mark Bellamy went on record to say anyone who downloads anything from the net should be taxed for it. The RIAA says there are no hobbyist broadcasters, only professionals who will pay what's right, and thieves who'll be fined out of existence.
And the ones who are stuck in the middle just want to play music for their friends. When did that become a crime?
Fan versus business. It's going to become a very large deal, very soon.
P.S. - And I don't mean any offence or anything, Lily.
I just don't think the issue's
as clear cut as you're making out.
And I know you're going to carry on making music really.
But when you're between the devil and the deep blue sea,
you need to stop worrying about pirates,
and adjust
your
sails...
(Which, if you hadn't caught on by now, was precisely the reason I quoted the full lyrics of Dan Bull's excellent diatribe against Lily Allen. Who has apparently learnt nothing at all from her brush with file sharing and profit protection, and instead is flouncing off to act.
(Which, personally, I'm fine with her doing--go where your heart calls you, fight for your dreams, always--were it not for the fact that I strongly believe her stance against recording another record wasn't to foster artistic future expressions, but as a fit of pique against people saying she, also, was guilty of the piracy she claimed was killing music today.
(I guess, if one grows up as a child of privilege, and never struggled for anything in her life in the first place, it makes sense she wouldn't see the justice in the same laws she's propounding be emplaced to prevent other people from sharing files, being applied to her.)
(And if you haven't heard the song, you can do so here, with a link to download the freely shared protest song in .mp3 format itself. Or you can grab a version of Dan Bull's first album, Safe, on a variety of sources, from freely shared .mp3 versions to better-quality digital downloads on iTunes and Amazon. There are also links on that site to buy the album in full with case and cover art for £5, or $7.99 from CDBaby, if you're in the US.)
Nortel and Mellanium are hosting a me-unfriendly (it's at nine ayem PST, I don't plan to be awake, then!) stress test of their virtual world this Friday. They're wanting to see if their engine really is robust enough to handle five hundred avatars at once. To help them with that, they're throwing registration wide open for their system.
Just download, install, and drop by during the stress test. See if you can break their system.
They dare you.
Eventually, we come around to music on the grid. And this one's going to be tricky.
Dear Lily Allen,
The rules for internet broadcast are labyrinthine and somewhat surreal. On the one hand, the RIAA exists to ensure that proper fees for product are paid by any broadcaster; but unbeknownst to many, they've been maneuvering to have more paid to them than is paid to artists, while starving the artists they're supposedly there to 'protect'.
Remember when you pretended, Lily,
that you were truly independent, Lily?
Faking like you made it all alone
but you were legally with Regal, part of Parlophone
oh yeah
While broadcasters and stations who use AM and FM channels to broadcast music do so legally, for set fees that are generally paid to them, internet broadcasters face an entirely different--and far more horrifying--stricture: the RIAA still wants royalties paid, but wants them paid under specific principles of the DMCA.
So when you lectured me,
I thought I'd fileshare my thoughts on your mp3, Lily.
Under those principles, every time a song is played, in any format (and they want to charge per song, per format change, which gets even more ridiculous), and each time a broadcast/podcast is downloaded, they want a cut of the profits.
Most internet broadcasters survive on donations only; SomaFM, one of the largest net broadcasters, nearly closed in the face of these restrictions, because their fees would have been $7,500 over what they made in donations each month.
Now first I must sing your praises -
I love your singing but I'll just say this:
I saw on your MySpace pages
saying file sharing's a new ice age,
but the industry's a recent innovation--
music's been alive, thriving since cavemen.
They're alive now, and still commercial-free, but it's a struggle each and every month--and it's not because fans of the service aren't paying in; it's because the RIAA-suggested fees for webcasting are so insanely high no one (barring big corps like AOL and Yahoo) can afford to pay them and keep broadcasting.
Folk songs so long have had a place in communities
that you should be amazed at it.
So where did music begin? Live performance. In caves, in stone circles, in forests, in meadows; moving to thatched huts and island beaches and castles and mansions, as the culture evolved. Soon stages were built, some temporary, some permanent, where performers of music and theatre could gather to present their art to the public. Sometimes the public paid for this; sometimes they didn't. Even back then, there was a division between those who could afford to support the arts, and the working poor who struggled to support themselves.
Then one day came intellectual property,
meaning if I think a thought, you can't copy me.
And if honesty's the best policy,
I'd say songs are better off without this monopoly.
And there were always private performers singing professional songs--maybe not always in professional fashion, but schoolchildren, church choruses, family members playing around the feasting table of an evening. Bar singers, private dancers, performers to one, performers to one hundred--on that scale, one doesn't think of paying royalty fees, and in general, one would be absolutely correct.
It'd blatantly be a major fail
if they'd patented the major scale.
And downloads don't equate to sales,
so taking them away won't make me pay up--
just precludes me from sending your tunes to my friends,
so we all lose in the end.
Let's talk about that fan/professional split again, because that's really the issue on the grid, not the absolutes (or even vague threats) of royalties and correct fees. You go out and ask most DJs on the grid, they'll tell you straight up--they were never DJs before Second Life, or if they were, it was just privately, on some chintzy little webpage broadcast service.
You lose potential fans
and we lose respect for the fact that you're desperate for cash.
But in the end, most grid-based radio stations (note: I said most, not all) have no interest in broadcasting on the web at large. But is Second Life the web? If a stream is tossed out, for the most part, it works in SL. Yet, if it doesn't, we're generally instructed to open WinAmp or iTunes (or local equivalent) and pull up the actual numerical or HTML feed.
And that does bring up a stream that is then broadcasting from the web, right? Which means that radio station is a web broadcaster. Isn't it?
But what do you expect from the lass
who's collecting a fat bank cheque from the man,
while her fans are collecting the glasses for minimum wage they'll spend on her tracks?
The problem, inherently, is the RIAA wants a cut, of whatever profits are being made (even if they're nonexistant), or for the "offending" broadcaster to cease operation. Fine, they're empowered to do that, more or less--if the broadcaster is using the existing AM or FM channels to broadcast music or protected media.
Dear Lily, why you being this silly?
Yours sincerely, Dan Bull--
But if they're on the net? Do the rules that apply to physical radio stations apply to web stations? No, and that's the problem--the RIAA aren't going after net stations using broadcast rules. They're going after net stations using portions of the DMCA--which, again, was never intended to be used like this.
Now please don't be offended, Lily;
I think your new CD's splendid, Lily.
Everybody's At It
and it's Not Fair,
I Could Say The Fear was Him but
He Wasn't There so let's
go Back To the Start, before 22--
all music's in the public domain, so Fuck You--
According to the DMCA--via the twisted ways it's been interpreted of late--any use is a use. So play a song once--that's one use. Play a song twice--that's two uses. Okay as far as it goes, but offer that song twice in an hour broadcast, and you're against the terms of service for approval. And gods forbid you should offer the podcast containing that song in any format, because that's another fee for that song. And if you convert it from .mp3 to .ogg or another listening format? It's another fee for that song, per use, per podcast, per format--and you can bet if they had a legal way to charge broadcasters per listener, they'd do that too.
It's never the amateurs
that reckon it's damaging us,
it's the major labels saying it's fatal;
like when Napster had to pack up,
wrecked by Metallica.
Even worse--it seems that, above and beyond web broadcast, most of the RIAA notifications to institutions of higher learning are almost entirely folder-based, not transmission-based. What's the difference? Simple: transmission-based violations purport to track that particular violation and respond to it; folder-based violations track each time that supposedly violating file in that folder is downloaded, or attempted to be downloaded, or accessed in any way.
The table's turned now--
the labels churn out
a new Jezebelinternetelevangelist--
and she's fit--
with a manuscript that was actually written by Mr. Michael Masnick.
With that, they can send out six cease-and-desist notifications to the same university because a student might have uploaded his personal copy of a song to his personal authorized folder--and then accessed that song on his laptop, his Palm, his iPhone, on a study machine at the library, at a coffeeshop box, and over at his friend's house so his friend could hear the song.
Can you get the irony?
And by the by, Lily, I like this beat--
I hope you don't mind me thieving,
'cause even doing a cover song's decried as stealing.
All of this from the same individual, who may well have bought the album in question, and has licensing to support that upload on his desktop in the dorm--but doesn't have the RIAA-specified right to listen to the song he owns on other machines.
But it's all right, still,
for you to plagiarise, and preach it--
Don't you believe it's maybe time to rethink, Lily?
And it's even worse with file-sharing at large--at times, legally available files--downloaded from the artist, or from the recording company--are deemed illegal copies because they were retitled. This is a lovely Catch-22 for the RIAA, because--according to their own internal rules in this matter--web stations have to title songs in a specific way to be compliant with the rules!
Put music back in the hands of the people;
make the majors and amateurs equal.
If anything labels strangle
the freedom you claim they're saving by banning this evil.
So let's take it back to personal issues again. If I have a party in my house, and I play five CDs in rotation at that party, I am not in violation of any broadcast rules. It's my house; they're my discs; it doesn't go over the airways.
That's the actual reason, you see;
and please don't compare sharing to stealing--
I've not took anything off you, I'm just spreading love for what you do.
Now, if I have a party in my house, and friends of mine have a party in their house, but, because we're in different cities, we can't attend each others' parties--but we have this keen idea to stream all the music played under WinAmp for both events and run speakers and microphones to talk to each other--well, it all gets sort of jumbled, for hearing people and music, but it's still private broadcasting.
Or is it?
Downloaded your songs for free,
then I bought my mom your CD.
She likes it too, she keeps telling me,
all because I pirated an mp3.
What if I take that further? What if I set up--under WinAmp (free), under SAM (paid), or other accessible net streaming program--a list of songs that I'm streaming to my parcel? It can be done, it has been done (both by me, when MediaMaster.com was alive, and by others who have better understanding of net broadcasting programs), but I'm not seeing wider net broadcast status, so what's the problem?
Now I've got Matt Bellamy belling me,
telling me I'm not a fan, I'm the enemy.
That's amusing, I've paid enough to see Muse in my time
I could buy them a museum.
The problem is the RIAA. And their narrow interpretation of the laws of broadcasting in the first place. And the fact that they want net broadcasters to be charged equal fees along with official major stations, when even small hobbyist radio stations are going under, because of the sheer cost of operation if you aren't one of the major players.
Did you see them on that programme miming?
Yeah, the "pirates" are "killing" live gigs.
Maybe we should have a ban CDs appeal -
then people would pay to see bands for real.
Okay, but seriously, most of the broadcasters on SL are not on the net; they're in Club X playing for, what, twenty people tops? For chump change, literally--a penny for every dollar that's spent, a dime if they're lucky, two thousand these days still works out to under ten bucks, most places (granted, the LindeX rates have gotten steeper, it used to be L$2500 for $5.00 flat, now it's L$2000 for $7.70, as of today). And yes, ten bucks won't even buy two drinks in a real-life bar, now, but it pays rent, buys outfits, supports art, architecture, performance and music on the grid--in world, L$2000 still means something.
Dear Lily, why you being this silly?
Yours sincerely, Dan Bull--
Why does the RIAA want a cut of the non-profits being made?
Because "on the grid" translates to "on the net"...and on the net, the rules are different.
Lily Allen went on record to say that file sharing was equivalent to killing music. Mark Bellamy went on record to say anyone who downloads anything from the net should be taxed for it. The RIAA says there are no hobbyist broadcasters, only professionals who will pay what's right, and thieves who'll be fined out of existence.
And the ones who are stuck in the middle just want to play music for their friends. When did that become a crime?
Fan versus business. It's going to become a very large deal, very soon.
P.S. - And I don't mean any offence or anything, Lily.
I just don't think the issue's
as clear cut as you're making out.
And I know you're going to carry on making music really.
But when you're between the devil and the deep blue sea,
you need to stop worrying about pirates,
and adjust
your
sails...
(Which, if you hadn't caught on by now, was precisely the reason I quoted the full lyrics of Dan Bull's excellent diatribe against Lily Allen. Who has apparently learnt nothing at all from her brush with file sharing and profit protection, and instead is flouncing off to act.
(Which, personally, I'm fine with her doing--go where your heart calls you, fight for your dreams, always--were it not for the fact that I strongly believe her stance against recording another record wasn't to foster artistic future expressions, but as a fit of pique against people saying she, also, was guilty of the piracy she claimed was killing music today.
(I guess, if one grows up as a child of privilege, and never struggled for anything in her life in the first place, it makes sense she wouldn't see the justice in the same laws she's propounding be emplaced to prevent other people from sharing files, being applied to her.)
(And if you haven't heard the song, you can do so here, with a link to download the freely shared protest song in .mp3 format itself. Or you can grab a version of Dan Bull's first album, Safe, on a variety of sources, from freely shared .mp3 versions to better-quality digital downloads on iTunes and Amazon. There are also links on that site to buy the album in full with case and cover art for £5, or $7.99 from CDBaby, if you're in the US.)
how strong must I become so that no one will be hurt?
"An unperson can’t tell about beatings, rape, torture and murder, if she does, she will not be believed."
Why do I bring this up? Some years back--so long back I won't even bother digging up any extant links that may still exist--there was some debate on virtual rape. Is it rape, the respondents asked, if it's not physical and in the flesh?
The rational answer to this, of course, is no. If one can log off the net, if one can port out of the setting, then one cannot be raped--or, by extension, tortured, beaten or murdered. In a sense, it's all consensual violent acts on the grid; one can always get away. Even if it's only by virtue of pulling the computer's cord to disconnect everything.
And that's all well and good--and that's actually a truthful position--but I spoke (from personal experience) on those occasions when the lines blur. Sure, I said, we may be able to leave any particular roleplay, but by the same extension if we are living in that moment, if we are caught up in the emotions of the rp--we may forget we have these options. We may forget we can just type out You know what? This is stupid. No. I'm gone.
And go.
With that in mind, Lillie Yifu has a thought-provoking entry on her journal, about the Lindens' subsidization of rape clubs. At first glance, this seems beyond outlandish. Especially with the arrival of Zindra, and the Labs' insistence on "cleaning up" the grid for business, educational and commercial ventures--why would they ever protect a virtual 'rape room'?
But LL is doing more than that, in that [its] policy enforcement is clearly intended to mainstream rape. LL does not enforce its rules against rape parcels almost at all. Despite personal knowledge of them by LL employees, despite repeated reports, despite flagrant violation of its own rules.
How is this possible? It's not the first time Miss Yifu's mentioned it.
But--as has been pointed out innumerable times before--business clients (the market the Labs desperately want to get into) don't care about furs, vampires, ageplay, BDSM, or forced sex. They really, really don't. What business clients do care about is platform stability. Platform security. Knowing that the company one does business with isn't open to hacking for passwords or credit cards (and the Labs have been hacked, notably, twice).
Compared to what life's like on the grid now (severe lag, crashing, inventory issues, widespread sim issues, scripting burdens, server strain, and gridwide breakdown), what's a little bump and tickle between victim and oppressor?
(Btw: the "BnB Forced Sex RP" sim doesn't appear to be there, because they have cleverly changed their name to BnB Forced Sex Roleplay ( still on Mature land). Cheeky devils. I suspect people who weren't able to follow that stunning renaming on their part will have to content themselves going to Stolen Innocence, Brigadom Market, Pirate Cove's Orgy in Forest, or SlutLand. Unless they want to not violate LL's stated rules--not that the Labs seem to care--and actually do Adult things on Adult land. Good thing the Lindens are cracking down on 'rape rooms', I feel so much safer...)
The Living in the Metaverse blog takes on content theft, protests against the Lindens, and November 5th. I pretty much agree with their perspective--it didn't do a hell of a lot of good, and the Lindens didn't notice. As expected. As noted in the comments, at least one respondent planned a major sale that day, never knowing!
So much for 'getting the word out'.
Also from over a year back on the same blog, how to avoid drama:
Stay firm. If that means to be rude or impolite… well life is rough sometimes. If you have to stop answering IM's, avoiding some places, muting people… do it. There is no "just one more time" excuse. Make a clean cut. Now. Go live happily.
That's something I still find extraordinarily hard to do, but you know what? Maybe it's time to toughen up. Mute those I need to. I already shrug off sim bans--honestly, they only get in my way if there's something I want in there, and that so rarely happens. And in the case of that one chain of sims I just keep my virtual rear clear of--hey, it makes everyone happier. And I finally realized "everyone" now includes me.
Maybe muting isn't so bad, all things considered. After all, it could be worse. And it has been.
Why do I bring this up? Some years back--so long back I won't even bother digging up any extant links that may still exist--there was some debate on virtual rape. Is it rape, the respondents asked, if it's not physical and in the flesh?
The rational answer to this, of course, is no. If one can log off the net, if one can port out of the setting, then one cannot be raped--or, by extension, tortured, beaten or murdered. In a sense, it's all consensual violent acts on the grid; one can always get away. Even if it's only by virtue of pulling the computer's cord to disconnect everything.
And that's all well and good--and that's actually a truthful position--but I spoke (from personal experience) on those occasions when the lines blur. Sure, I said, we may be able to leave any particular roleplay, but by the same extension if we are living in that moment, if we are caught up in the emotions of the rp--we may forget we have these options. We may forget we can just type out You know what? This is stupid. No. I'm gone.
And go.
With that in mind, Lillie Yifu has a thought-provoking entry on her journal, about the Lindens' subsidization of rape clubs. At first glance, this seems beyond outlandish. Especially with the arrival of Zindra, and the Labs' insistence on "cleaning up" the grid for business, educational and commercial ventures--why would they ever protect a virtual 'rape room'?
But LL is doing more than that, in that [its] policy enforcement is clearly intended to mainstream rape. LL does not enforce its rules against rape parcels almost at all. Despite personal knowledge of them by LL employees, despite repeated reports, despite flagrant violation of its own rules.
How is this possible? It's not the first time Miss Yifu's mentioned it.
But--as has been pointed out innumerable times before--business clients (the market the Labs desperately want to get into) don't care about furs, vampires, ageplay, BDSM, or forced sex. They really, really don't. What business clients do care about is platform stability. Platform security. Knowing that the company one does business with isn't open to hacking for passwords or credit cards (and the Labs have been hacked, notably, twice).
Compared to what life's like on the grid now (severe lag, crashing, inventory issues, widespread sim issues, scripting burdens, server strain, and gridwide breakdown), what's a little bump and tickle between victim and oppressor?
(Btw: the "BnB Forced Sex RP" sim doesn't appear to be there, because they have cleverly changed their name to BnB Forced Sex Roleplay ( still on Mature land). Cheeky devils. I suspect people who weren't able to follow that stunning renaming on their part will have to content themselves going to Stolen Innocence, Brigadom Market, Pirate Cove's Orgy in Forest, or SlutLand. Unless they want to not violate LL's stated rules--not that the Labs seem to care--and actually do Adult things on Adult land. Good thing the Lindens are cracking down on 'rape rooms', I feel so much safer...)
The Living in the Metaverse blog takes on content theft, protests against the Lindens, and November 5th. I pretty much agree with their perspective--it didn't do a hell of a lot of good, and the Lindens didn't notice. As expected. As noted in the comments, at least one respondent planned a major sale that day, never knowing!
So much for 'getting the word out'.
Also from over a year back on the same blog, how to avoid drama:
Stay firm. If that means to be rude or impolite… well life is rough sometimes. If you have to stop answering IM's, avoiding some places, muting people… do it. There is no "just one more time" excuse. Make a clean cut. Now. Go live happily.
That's something I still find extraordinarily hard to do, but you know what? Maybe it's time to toughen up. Mute those I need to. I already shrug off sim bans--honestly, they only get in my way if there's something I want in there, and that so rarely happens. And in the case of that one chain of sims I just keep my virtual rear clear of--hey, it makes everyone happier. And I finally realized "everyone" now includes me.
Maybe muting isn't so bad, all things considered. After all, it could be worse. And it has been.
11 November, 2009
I am covered in skin, no one gets to come in
This blog post by Jack Linden is an idea a long time coming; does it have a downside? Sure; likely there will be price hikes to cover the continual upgrades to newer better server technologies. And Reacher Rau states the policy as read is "Disappointedly ambiguous"; and so it is.
Some of the better questions tossed Jack's way:
* Will there be way to tell what class a [region] is currently on?
* Will there be info on what hardware belongs to what class?
* Will private sim owners be able to request a temp higher class to handle an event?
(all from TechWolf Lupindo)
* What is the timeframe for this change?
* How will we know when our class 4s have moved to class 5?
* Will the sim numbers still be an indicator?
(all from Amethyst Rosencrans)
These aren't bad questions. Though to be fair, Jack did step back in with a few answers:
There are no changes to fees, even for grandfathered class 4 owners who will be moving to class 5s. They will simply end up with grandfathered class 5s instead. So if you own an island and are paying x per month, you will remain paying x.
Some of the better questions tossed Jack's way:
* Will there be way to tell what class a [region] is currently on?
* Will there be info on what hardware belongs to what class?
* Will private sim owners be able to request a temp higher class to handle an event?
(all from TechWolf Lupindo)
* What is the timeframe for this change?
* How will we know when our class 4s have moved to class 5?
* Will the sim numbers still be an indicator?
(all from Amethyst Rosencrans)
These aren't bad questions. Though to be fair, Jack did step back in with a few answers:
There are no changes to fees, even for grandfathered class 4 owners who will be moving to class 5s. They will simply end up with grandfathered class 5s instead. So if you own an island and are paying x per month, you will remain paying x.
Although we don't generally display the Class designation, it is visible in a couple of places (such as the Landstore for example). As we move to a classless model then it will no longer be shown. We will, however, make clear what the base server is so that everyone understands the minimum they can expect (essentially Class 5 as it is now).
And the rest is the usual tempest in the teapot of folks who really haven't been thinking about pricing issues at all, before now, suddenly standing up and insisting that they get a discount, too--when it's never been about certain 'discounted' fees; owners of class 4 sims (and, as stated, some class 5 sims) pay two hundred, over three hundred, because of when they bought those sims, not what class those sims are. What the Lindens are saying--and for once, I agree with them--is that it's a better idea in the long run to slowly equalize everyone to a base standard because it creates more grid stability.
And isn't that part of what we want on the grid, anyway?
In other news, I downloaded the "mid-range" Snowglobe version to try out--not the raw and bleeding data-in-the-wilderness version, and not the this-is-stable-enough version of October past, but the we-just-updated-this "RC" version of November 10th.
Up side (and for me, it's a BIG upside): LL has scarfed off with Emerald's "Worn Items" tab. Yay!
Down side (and same deal, which is why I'll be gutting the RC and reinstalling October's version later): The November 10th build is CRASHTASTIC. I'm not kidding. Crashed twice inexplicably in an hour; stopped responding once in the middle and had to hard-close the program. Me not like closing programs using the Task Manager; me not run under Snowglobe November 10th build.
Which is tragic; I really wanted to keep that "Worn Items" tab whether I'm using Snowglobe or Emerald. Bah.
10 November, 2009
I believe in this love without a question, and live, embracing the wound that will never heal
This blog post garnered a new response...just when I think the comments have finally died down, someone else chimes in.
This time, it was arabella Cinquetti, who said:
That hits the nail on the head. We pay 295 dollars a month for the right to own a sim, while I do not use campers for my sim, I myself do work 20 hours a day in second life, creating clothes and other ventures, and usually end up walking to get a drink go right to bed. But because i was too tired to come back to the computer I could be warned for a violation of boosting traffic when in fact its just a simple I was tired i didnt want to go back to the computer and since i pay 295 dollars a month i should be able to stand on my own land without reprisal. Its very concerning that we are once again limited by what we can and cannot do for something we pay so much for. Now I agree bots do take up lots of resources since their induction, I myself do not go on sims that have lots of bots because of the massive amount of lag, i think it has a lot to do with the purpose of the bot which should be brought into question and how much a particular type of bot sucks up but a lot of us creators if we are honest never log out unless we actually leave the computer at a decent time. Model bots are the worst for lag and sim problems. My friend owns a sim where her 1/2 sim owner has 3 model bots, she logs in and the sim is lagging because of the massive amounts of scripts. attachments, pose stands and anything else the bot needs to stand there 24 hours a day. She has expressed her displeasure at the sim lagging but to no relief from the other owner. At this time model bots are not affected when in fact they should have been one of the first to be affected. When a model bot sucks up so much resources and we are worried about idling in the game its a problem.
The passages in bold are my chosen emphasis, but it paints an unsettling picture even without them. It's rather an expensive game on the sim-owners' level, isn't it? Push aside recouping that three hundred per month, rentals and renting out shop spaces; whether they get a dime of it back or not, that's three hundred a month, each month, every month--and people who own sims are being reported for standing on their own land?
When did that start?
I don't own a sim. Likely I won't, ever, even should I get the funds to buy one. I've been playing what-if for a while now--if I got the thousand buy-in, if I thought I could keep up with that three hundred, if I found folks to share the cost so I didn't shoulder it all...would it be worth it?
If Miss Cinquetti's complaints are any indication, then no--it's not.
I don't own a sim. But I can't count the number of times I've been fixed in one place, either building frocks, or sitting somewhere while I built something in front of me--to the naked eye, never really moving. I also can't count the number of times I've logged in, then gotten distracted, which resulted in me pretty much standing in place for an equivalent number of minutes, or hours, while I dealt with whatever RL had thrown at me.
And if I owned a sim, would I be accused of being a bot for doing this? The hell?
Now, I grant, I do not have the tools, nor do I want to dig them up, to see how many avs on a sim are walking around, and how many are bots. I do not personally care, all things considered, but I do respond to lag--if there is too much lag, unless what I want can only be had in that location (both Bare Rose and Octoberville spring to mind), I generally won't go. Big hunts, yeah, the FallnAngel sims get crushing. And yeah, sometimes I think a sim I've gone to is rather overbuilt on prims and scripting, and they could cut down and save some lag time.
But I thought the whole point behind the discussions on camping, and the use of bots, was to dig out the big violators, the ones who are obviously abusing the system, and to make traffic numbers apply in more reasonable ways.
Instead, we end up with people being afraid to put out lucky chairs, unlucky chairs, camping pads--yet, conversely, we have even more sim owners turning around and offering "modeling" gigs--most of which include free clothing or avatars, sure, but also include the ability for group members to camp while modeling--yet, that's not seen as an encouragement of lag?
And we have endless rounds of "buy this for this on this day" schemes, now, because so few makers of things are selling anything these days. There is a strong and turbulent cord of desperation through the heart of the world.
And can you blame them, really? People don't buy product X. That leads to the maker of product X unable to pay sim owner Y for their parcel. That leads to sim owner Y unable to make tier, which means they either scramble and beg from RL friends and family, or they go under.
Businesses close. Parcels get wiped. Islands go down. The grid is suffering. And I do blame much of this on the Lindens' ineffective and unevenly applied, vague and unsteady "policies".
Chili Yiyuan:
Why do you start with the smallest users? If you want to show us the effect of this new Linden legislation, start with the major misusers. I still wonder why places like "Money Island" has not been stopped yet?
Why hasn't that happened? As much as I hate to admit it--because two of my friends own a Zyngo palace--why haven't games like Zyngo gone the way of gambling? What separates out bingo from slots? What separates out Zyngo games from full-on casinos?
And, for that matter, we've had a gambling ban since 2006, why are there still casinos?
Clyde Lindman:
You were warned. Camping still exist. Bots still exist. Traffic is still being 'gamed'. The economy is in the toilet. What was gained by this exercise?
What was gained by it? That's an excellent question. Zindra arises, everyone gets booted to the Adult continent: six months later there are STILL massive problems in search with PG-only searches finding tons of Adult content; there are STILL massive issues on the mainland, both with merchants who never left (because the Lindens didn't think they were Adult enough, apparently) and with merchants who came back.
The Lindens advance the "new camping policy", and there are still bots in skyboxes, there are still bots on the ground, there is still traffic gaming for points.
What was the point? Honestly, if you're not going to make an active effort to make things better, then why change the policy at all? Is it all just Linden lip service?
And Sara Steinbeck:
SL was soooo much more fun when I first joined.
That about sums it up, yeah.
Dusan Writer took on the issue of third-party viewers and for the first time in this entire debate, I hit a serious snag. Based entirely around this comment from Marty Linden:
So, what we said in the past is, you can't export things that you aren't the creator of and use functionality in one of those viewers or elsewhere to do an end run around the permissions system. So, you can bet that will be in the guidelines.
The hell you say.
All right, forget the concept of people ripping prims and sculpts; forget the issue of people ripping system-layer clothing that's already been made. I routinely--and by that, I mean, nearly every time I boot up a graphics program to design--take out textures from SL to modify into attire. At times, I have significantly changed the original base texture, and I end up importing a new panel to texture on the skirt prims.
At times, I have needed textures in a smaller size, so I have taken entire texture collections out of my inventory, resized them, and imported them back into world.
Now, I grant you, there will be people who won't do this, because they are clueless, because they are lazy, or because they genuinely don't care--but when I do this, I use the description line to detail who originally made the textures.
To this day, there is at least one whole texture pack from Nighty Goodspeed that I have imported in at 512x512, that has my name as creator, and her name on the description line. But then, again, reference "ethical" up there--I also have her originals at 1024x1024, which I bought, in a separate box in the same folder.
And let's be honest, here, people--think about that "lazy/stupid/clueless" comment--when big texture rips are found on the grid, as I and others have proven out, the rippers do not change the names. Or the texture owners.
Now the Lindens are telling me that taking textures I didn't create, which I have every right to change and modify, out of world, work on them, and import them back in--which likely, every single maker on the grid has done--is against Linden rules?
Oh HELL no.
So let's look at the world we have, now. No camping bots (but bots are everywhere). No camping because it 'games' the system (but camping is everywhere; it's just now down to L$1 per 15 minutes--and that's if you're lucky). No unlucky chairs on non-Adult land (save they're still everywhere too). Inferences that lucky boards/chairs/mob-vend systems are against the system and artificially spike traffic (but they're still everywhere).
No Adult content on non-Adult land (but just travel the mainland, anywhere, you'll find something that doesn't belong there within the first half hour, depending on where you go). No Mature content on PG land (but you see that everywhere too).
Now, no modifying anything we don't own? Then what's the point of having modify permissions? And no using someone else's texture, freely sold for this purpose, as the base for our own designs?
"Your world, your imagination"? Yeah, only if you're a Linden. And even then, it doesn't seem like they get it, because they don't seem to know what they want.
Am I the only one who's close to tearing their virtual hair out in frustration over the doubletalk and the vagueing everything up? Is there ever a distinct, hard, CLEAR answer when a Linden is involved?
This time, it was arabella Cinquetti, who said:
That hits the nail on the head. We pay 295 dollars a month for the right to own a sim, while I do not use campers for my sim, I myself do work 20 hours a day in second life, creating clothes and other ventures, and usually end up walking to get a drink go right to bed. But because i was too tired to come back to the computer I could be warned for a violation of boosting traffic when in fact its just a simple I was tired i didnt want to go back to the computer and since i pay 295 dollars a month i should be able to stand on my own land without reprisal. Its very concerning that we are once again limited by what we can and cannot do for something we pay so much for. Now I agree bots do take up lots of resources since their induction, I myself do not go on sims that have lots of bots because of the massive amount of lag, i think it has a lot to do with the purpose of the bot which should be brought into question and how much a particular type of bot sucks up but a lot of us creators if we are honest never log out unless we actually leave the computer at a decent time. Model bots are the worst for lag and sim problems. My friend owns a sim where her 1/2 sim owner has 3 model bots, she logs in and the sim is lagging because of the massive amounts of scripts. attachments, pose stands and anything else the bot needs to stand there 24 hours a day. She has expressed her displeasure at the sim lagging but to no relief from the other owner. At this time model bots are not affected when in fact they should have been one of the first to be affected. When a model bot sucks up so much resources and we are worried about idling in the game its a problem.
The passages in bold are my chosen emphasis, but it paints an unsettling picture even without them. It's rather an expensive game on the sim-owners' level, isn't it? Push aside recouping that three hundred per month, rentals and renting out shop spaces; whether they get a dime of it back or not, that's three hundred a month, each month, every month--and people who own sims are being reported for standing on their own land?
When did that start?
I don't own a sim. Likely I won't, ever, even should I get the funds to buy one. I've been playing what-if for a while now--if I got the thousand buy-in, if I thought I could keep up with that three hundred, if I found folks to share the cost so I didn't shoulder it all...would it be worth it?
If Miss Cinquetti's complaints are any indication, then no--it's not.
I don't own a sim. But I can't count the number of times I've been fixed in one place, either building frocks, or sitting somewhere while I built something in front of me--to the naked eye, never really moving. I also can't count the number of times I've logged in, then gotten distracted, which resulted in me pretty much standing in place for an equivalent number of minutes, or hours, while I dealt with whatever RL had thrown at me.
And if I owned a sim, would I be accused of being a bot for doing this? The hell?
Now, I grant, I do not have the tools, nor do I want to dig them up, to see how many avs on a sim are walking around, and how many are bots. I do not personally care, all things considered, but I do respond to lag--if there is too much lag, unless what I want can only be had in that location (both Bare Rose and Octoberville spring to mind), I generally won't go. Big hunts, yeah, the FallnAngel sims get crushing. And yeah, sometimes I think a sim I've gone to is rather overbuilt on prims and scripting, and they could cut down and save some lag time.
But I thought the whole point behind the discussions on camping, and the use of bots, was to dig out the big violators, the ones who are obviously abusing the system, and to make traffic numbers apply in more reasonable ways.
Instead, we end up with people being afraid to put out lucky chairs, unlucky chairs, camping pads--yet, conversely, we have even more sim owners turning around and offering "modeling" gigs--most of which include free clothing or avatars, sure, but also include the ability for group members to camp while modeling--yet, that's not seen as an encouragement of lag?
And we have endless rounds of "buy this for this on this day" schemes, now, because so few makers of things are selling anything these days. There is a strong and turbulent cord of desperation through the heart of the world.
And can you blame them, really? People don't buy product X. That leads to the maker of product X unable to pay sim owner Y for their parcel. That leads to sim owner Y unable to make tier, which means they either scramble and beg from RL friends and family, or they go under.
Businesses close. Parcels get wiped. Islands go down. The grid is suffering. And I do blame much of this on the Lindens' ineffective and unevenly applied, vague and unsteady "policies".
Chili Yiyuan:
Why do you start with the smallest users? If you want to show us the effect of this new Linden legislation, start with the major misusers. I still wonder why places like "Money Island" has not been stopped yet?
Why hasn't that happened? As much as I hate to admit it--because two of my friends own a Zyngo palace--why haven't games like Zyngo gone the way of gambling? What separates out bingo from slots? What separates out Zyngo games from full-on casinos?
And, for that matter, we've had a gambling ban since 2006, why are there still casinos?
Clyde Lindman:
You were warned. Camping still exist. Bots still exist. Traffic is still being 'gamed'. The economy is in the toilet. What was gained by this exercise?
What was gained by it? That's an excellent question. Zindra arises, everyone gets booted to the Adult continent: six months later there are STILL massive problems in search with PG-only searches finding tons of Adult content; there are STILL massive issues on the mainland, both with merchants who never left (because the Lindens didn't think they were Adult enough, apparently) and with merchants who came back.
The Lindens advance the "new camping policy", and there are still bots in skyboxes, there are still bots on the ground, there is still traffic gaming for points.
What was the point? Honestly, if you're not going to make an active effort to make things better, then why change the policy at all? Is it all just Linden lip service?
And Sara Steinbeck:
SL was soooo much more fun when I first joined.
That about sums it up, yeah.
Dusan Writer took on the issue of third-party viewers and for the first time in this entire debate, I hit a serious snag. Based entirely around this comment from Marty Linden:
So, what we said in the past is, you can't export things that you aren't the creator of and use functionality in one of those viewers or elsewhere to do an end run around the permissions system. So, you can bet that will be in the guidelines.
The hell you say.
All right, forget the concept of people ripping prims and sculpts; forget the issue of people ripping system-layer clothing that's already been made. I routinely--and by that, I mean, nearly every time I boot up a graphics program to design--take out textures from SL to modify into attire. At times, I have significantly changed the original base texture, and I end up importing a new panel to texture on the skirt prims.
At times, I have needed textures in a smaller size, so I have taken entire texture collections out of my inventory, resized them, and imported them back into world.
Now, I grant you, there will be people who won't do this, because they are clueless, because they are lazy, or because they genuinely don't care--but when I do this, I use the description line to detail who originally made the textures.
To this day, there is at least one whole texture pack from Nighty Goodspeed that I have imported in at 512x512, that has my name as creator, and her name on the description line. But then, again, reference "ethical" up there--I also have her originals at 1024x1024, which I bought, in a separate box in the same folder.
And let's be honest, here, people--think about that "lazy/stupid/clueless" comment--when big texture rips are found on the grid, as I and others have proven out, the rippers do not change the names. Or the texture owners.
Now the Lindens are telling me that taking textures I didn't create, which I have every right to change and modify, out of world, work on them, and import them back in--which likely, every single maker on the grid has done--is against Linden rules?
Oh HELL no.
So let's look at the world we have, now. No camping bots (but bots are everywhere). No camping because it 'games' the system (but camping is everywhere; it's just now down to L$1 per 15 minutes--and that's if you're lucky). No unlucky chairs on non-Adult land (save they're still everywhere too). Inferences that lucky boards/chairs/mob-vend systems are against the system and artificially spike traffic (but they're still everywhere).
No Adult content on non-Adult land (but just travel the mainland, anywhere, you'll find something that doesn't belong there within the first half hour, depending on where you go). No Mature content on PG land (but you see that everywhere too).
Now, no modifying anything we don't own? Then what's the point of having modify permissions? And no using someone else's texture, freely sold for this purpose, as the base for our own designs?
"Your world, your imagination"? Yeah, only if you're a Linden. And even then, it doesn't seem like they get it, because they don't seem to know what they want.
Am I the only one who's close to tearing their virtual hair out in frustration over the doubletalk and the vagueing everything up? Is there ever a distinct, hard, CLEAR answer when a Linden is involved?
it feels like I'm stuck in between a rock and a hard place, we've been through the heartaches
Now, I grant you, the Alphaville Herald isn't noted for particularly hard-hitting journalistic integrity (but to be fair, neither am I)--but this made me ponder for a bit:
The controlled content creation issue raises concerns for significant parts of the Second Life population. Goreans, BDSM communities, ageplayers, virtual escort service workers, furries, and others created much of the novelty that attracted both press and players to the Second Life platform as an escape from a humdrum real life. Unfortunately for these groups, the ad-driven worlds appear to be moving in lockstep toward a real-life in virtual-life vision, while being cheered on by the Technology Review. Recent comments by Linden Lab's own Mitch Kapor also suggest that the freewheeling era may be passing.
From the Mitch Kapor link in that quote:
[...] mighty Mitch Kapor went out of his way to insult current metaverse residents by implying they are socially inept outsiders soon to be swept away in a flood of “pragmatic” business, education, and non-profit players -- though impartial observers wonder how this will happen, given the dismal peak concurrent user growth rate, unstable platform, and general lack of professionalism on the part of Linden Lab.
Now, those were both from July of last year; but in the year and a half plus of life on the grid since then, things haven't gotten better. Zindra popped and there was the chaos of Lindens confirming in no uncertain terms they don't care to listen when their residents speak; the complete and utter boiled hash of the camping/lucky chair anti-policy; the word that is slowly filtering out (though I have still not found a shred of Linden-based utterance for this) that Unlucky Chairs, by their nature, are Adult in rating and tolerance and need to be removed from any non-Adult-rated lands...It's been a progression of time where nearly every decision presented results in a fumbling, butchered attempt at some kind of vague intercession that never goes anywhere. Worse still, the Lindens, one must assume deliberately, seem to be encouraging the criminal element at the expense of their average citizenry.
What, I ask you, is the point of that?
I sit here drinking carbonated grapefruit soda from a 2012 glass and the irony of that movie's tagline--We Were Warned--is not lost on me. But would it be lost on the Lindens, and in specific, M Linden?
What is the end goal? The "bad element" walking away from the grid? So...all Goreans, gone? All furs, gone. All BDSM/kinky types gone. All ageplayers--illicit and defiantly licit--gone. Would that include all child avatars? All doll avatars? All shorter-than-average avatars?
Might as well eliminate the monsters, then, the shapeshifters, the elves, the orcs, the constructs, the aliens...vampires? Would pale skin and a mislike of daylight be enough to drop your avatar into "bad" areas?
And obviously any and all sex workers--from therapists to escorts, voice, text and cam, makers of adult products, likely all latex designers, probably all rubber and leather fashion houses...what about gays? Or the intersexed on the grid? Or those who identify as transgendered, regardless of their appearance?
Isn't that..at one point or another...everyone on the grid? What do the Lindens want, at the end of the day?
I will be quite honest, here: a world with no user content allowed; a world with no self-expression beyond narrow perimeters allowed; a world that cannot be accessed with anything but the official browser; this is not a world I have any interest in.
And it's not even a stretch to say--to know that I wouldn't be the only one leaving at that point.
Is that what M Linden really wants? A mass exodus of all 'undesirable' elements from the world? A grid safe and sanitized for business and corporate use alone?
He won't get it. I'm dead serious, he won't get it. He will never get that, if that is truly what he wants. Why? Because even with all the 'undesirables' logging off, never to return--even with all of us banned from the grid, our avatars slain, our inventories wiped from their systems--well, there are still the people in-world, aren't there?
Can anyone honestly tell me no one at IBM is into latex or has amusing kinks? Can anyone honestly tell me there's no one at Google or Yahoo that doesn't own a fursuit, or hasn't had a same-sex relationship, or hasn't been tied to something for a sexual thrill?
Because, when we break it down, at the end of the day, what do we find? Congressmen who get caught having public sex in public bathrooms. Church leaders who get out the whips and chains of an evening. Powerful people who go to work not wearing underwear, or wearing female underwear if they're male, or who have piercings in interesting places that might be covered by clothes.
And that's listing the tame end of things.
It may be private--no one around them may know--but they are there. They are there because we are there. And kicking all of us out won't do anything to eliminate that urge in the corporate types.
What price, then, your fully sanitized grid, M? What price, then, making things 'safe' and 'predictable' for the business world? Given time and creativity, they'll just do it all over again, because people want what they want. And they will go a very long way towards getting what they want...and keeping it once they have it.
"Grid sanitizing" makes no sense. And it's profoundly unworkable. The sooner the Lindens figure that out, the better it's going to be for all of us.
Oh, but I forget...the Lindens don't make mistakes.
That they admit to making, anyway.
The controlled content creation issue raises concerns for significant parts of the Second Life population. Goreans, BDSM communities, ageplayers, virtual escort service workers, furries, and others created much of the novelty that attracted both press and players to the Second Life platform as an escape from a humdrum real life. Unfortunately for these groups, the ad-driven worlds appear to be moving in lockstep toward a real-life in virtual-life vision, while being cheered on by the Technology Review. Recent comments by Linden Lab's own Mitch Kapor also suggest that the freewheeling era may be passing.
From the Mitch Kapor link in that quote:
[...] mighty Mitch Kapor went out of his way to insult current metaverse residents by implying they are socially inept outsiders soon to be swept away in a flood of “pragmatic” business, education, and non-profit players -- though impartial observers wonder how this will happen, given the dismal peak concurrent user growth rate, unstable platform, and general lack of professionalism on the part of Linden Lab.
Now, those were both from July of last year; but in the year and a half plus of life on the grid since then, things haven't gotten better. Zindra popped and there was the chaos of Lindens confirming in no uncertain terms they don't care to listen when their residents speak; the complete and utter boiled hash of the camping/lucky chair anti-policy; the word that is slowly filtering out (though I have still not found a shred of Linden-based utterance for this) that Unlucky Chairs, by their nature, are Adult in rating and tolerance and need to be removed from any non-Adult-rated lands...It's been a progression of time where nearly every decision presented results in a fumbling, butchered attempt at some kind of vague intercession that never goes anywhere. Worse still, the Lindens, one must assume deliberately, seem to be encouraging the criminal element at the expense of their average citizenry.
What, I ask you, is the point of that?
I sit here drinking carbonated grapefruit soda from a 2012 glass and the irony of that movie's tagline--We Were Warned--is not lost on me. But would it be lost on the Lindens, and in specific, M Linden?
What is the end goal? The "bad element" walking away from the grid? So...all Goreans, gone? All furs, gone. All BDSM/kinky types gone. All ageplayers--illicit and defiantly licit--gone. Would that include all child avatars? All doll avatars? All shorter-than-average avatars?
Might as well eliminate the monsters, then, the shapeshifters, the elves, the orcs, the constructs, the aliens...vampires? Would pale skin and a mislike of daylight be enough to drop your avatar into "bad" areas?
And obviously any and all sex workers--from therapists to escorts, voice, text and cam, makers of adult products, likely all latex designers, probably all rubber and leather fashion houses...what about gays? Or the intersexed on the grid? Or those who identify as transgendered, regardless of their appearance?
Isn't that..at one point or another...everyone on the grid? What do the Lindens want, at the end of the day?
I will be quite honest, here: a world with no user content allowed; a world with no self-expression beyond narrow perimeters allowed; a world that cannot be accessed with anything but the official browser; this is not a world I have any interest in.
And it's not even a stretch to say--to know that I wouldn't be the only one leaving at that point.
Is that what M Linden really wants? A mass exodus of all 'undesirable' elements from the world? A grid safe and sanitized for business and corporate use alone?
He won't get it. I'm dead serious, he won't get it. He will never get that, if that is truly what he wants. Why? Because even with all the 'undesirables' logging off, never to return--even with all of us banned from the grid, our avatars slain, our inventories wiped from their systems--well, there are still the people in-world, aren't there?
Can anyone honestly tell me no one at IBM is into latex or has amusing kinks? Can anyone honestly tell me there's no one at Google or Yahoo that doesn't own a fursuit, or hasn't had a same-sex relationship, or hasn't been tied to something for a sexual thrill?
Because, when we break it down, at the end of the day, what do we find? Congressmen who get caught having public sex in public bathrooms. Church leaders who get out the whips and chains of an evening. Powerful people who go to work not wearing underwear, or wearing female underwear if they're male, or who have piercings in interesting places that might be covered by clothes.
And that's listing the tame end of things.
It may be private--no one around them may know--but they are there. They are there because we are there. And kicking all of us out won't do anything to eliminate that urge in the corporate types.
What price, then, your fully sanitized grid, M? What price, then, making things 'safe' and 'predictable' for the business world? Given time and creativity, they'll just do it all over again, because people want what they want. And they will go a very long way towards getting what they want...and keeping it once they have it.
"Grid sanitizing" makes no sense. And it's profoundly unworkable. The sooner the Lindens figure that out, the better it's going to be for all of us.
Oh, but I forget...the Lindens don't make mistakes.
That they admit to making, anyway.
09 November, 2009
funny, how it seems that all I've tried to do, seemed to make no difference to you at all
Yesterday's post garnered a mention on the Zindra Times; I'm always happy to be mentioned, but now I'm wondering--because the extreme drop in profits? Has been going on for months in Zindra.
This is old news. Even the mention of adult content makers returning to the mainland is old news.
But then, maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Likely anyone who's noticed a drop in sales either thinks it's them (which is usually not the case), or talks to Support about it--and anything from the Labs about Zindra is probably "Oh, you'll be fine, it's a momentary spike, everyone's picking up on sales. You will too."
Bah.
Jason Calacanis figures out how to kill Google. I don't personally think it would kill them, outright, but injure them? Likely. Would major media companies go for it, now that Google has become a verb? Who knows?
From the same fellow: "You don't make a revolutionary product by trying to beat a competitor who's an incumbent. You make a revolutionary product by looking three steps ahead, and saying, let's get to that place, and get to that place before that person even knows that that place exists." It's a very good point.
Some very random images from some very random places.
(The view of the Motherfunkin' Haunted Maze as a whole, set within a megaprim Hellraiser cube. Damn, I wish I'd known that beforehand.)
(An odd view of my avatar at DV8; the face, no matter where I turned, was this odd blackened tone. Something about their lights, that evening, or Snowglobe's responsiveness, or my own computer's oddity? Who knows? Has this happened to anyone else?)
(During a hunt at Dare Designs, in one of the farther chambers, I found a float tube with an animation ball. It took a bit to cam in there, but once I had, I found myself floating and spinning in a frosted glass tube. Neat.)
(Now that Octoberville is over for the year, I can start filtering through the images I captured there. This was a stroke of odd luck--the black box wherein the three colored keys were found disappeared as I was taking the picture, I paused to refresh when the box--invisible, but with the keys glowing--moved elsewhere on the sim, and snapped it then. It made a very ethereal image.)
(There were seven ghosts in Octoberville this year, named after the seven deadly sins. This was Wrath's room, a room of blood and red rage, weeping and screaming. Daunting effect.)
(This is Serenity Semple, post-Uchi avatar head mod. She used to be your fairly standard purple-haired bright-eyed white fluffy winged kitten (*snerks*), but Uchi Desmoulins (Desmoulins? The same av behind the Felis av of song and story) put out a cat avatar, and she extensively modded the head, then adapted bits and pieces of both avatars into a slimmer, more realistically anime-style fur.
(The bigger picture leads you to one of the cutest Serenity moments EVER. Even surpassing some of the images seen on her blog. )
(Sometimes, sims are very cool before things rez in. This is Le Petit Prince at sunset.)
(At one point during the festivities the Octoberville sim drowned. It was very, very odd to wander the expected halls and tunnels, past the burning cabins, into the haunted house....all drifting and blue, murky and underwater. It was very surreal.)
(Another shot, higher in Octoberville--the only place, in fact, that remained mostly dry: the Pumpkin patch, the carnival tents, and most of the Pumpkin House.)
(And have I mentioned we got on the wall on Octoberville, again, this year? I think the count stopped--due to lag and other issues, several days past October 31st--at #200.)
"When islands in Second Life sink, they don't even leave stones." (Crap Mariner)
Repo in Second Life is gone, temporarily or permanently--the sim that Falln designer Azriel Demain designed, the labor of love for all involved, has sunk with barely a whisper beneath the virtual waves.
I have pictures. I'm just not ready to deal with all of that, just yet. I'm still saddened from the loss.
This is old news. Even the mention of adult content makers returning to the mainland is old news.
But then, maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Likely anyone who's noticed a drop in sales either thinks it's them (which is usually not the case), or talks to Support about it--and anything from the Labs about Zindra is probably "Oh, you'll be fine, it's a momentary spike, everyone's picking up on sales. You will too."
Bah.
Jason Calacanis figures out how to kill Google. I don't personally think it would kill them, outright, but injure them? Likely. Would major media companies go for it, now that Google has become a verb? Who knows?
From the same fellow: "You don't make a revolutionary product by trying to beat a competitor who's an incumbent. You make a revolutionary product by looking three steps ahead, and saying, let's get to that place, and get to that place before that person even knows that that place exists." It's a very good point.
Some very random images from some very random places.
(The view of the Motherfunkin' Haunted Maze as a whole, set within a megaprim Hellraiser cube. Damn, I wish I'd known that beforehand.)
(An odd view of my avatar at DV8; the face, no matter where I turned, was this odd blackened tone. Something about their lights, that evening, or Snowglobe's responsiveness, or my own computer's oddity? Who knows? Has this happened to anyone else?)
(During a hunt at Dare Designs, in one of the farther chambers, I found a float tube with an animation ball. It took a bit to cam in there, but once I had, I found myself floating and spinning in a frosted glass tube. Neat.)
(Now that Octoberville is over for the year, I can start filtering through the images I captured there. This was a stroke of odd luck--the black box wherein the three colored keys were found disappeared as I was taking the picture, I paused to refresh when the box--invisible, but with the keys glowing--moved elsewhere on the sim, and snapped it then. It made a very ethereal image.)
(There were seven ghosts in Octoberville this year, named after the seven deadly sins. This was Wrath's room, a room of blood and red rage, weeping and screaming. Daunting effect.)
(This is Serenity Semple, post-Uchi avatar head mod. She used to be your fairly standard purple-haired bright-eyed white fluffy winged kitten (*snerks*), but Uchi Desmoulins (Desmoulins? The same av behind the Felis av of song and story) put out a cat avatar, and she extensively modded the head, then adapted bits and pieces of both avatars into a slimmer, more realistically anime-style fur.
(The bigger picture leads you to one of the cutest Serenity moments EVER. Even surpassing some of the images seen on her blog. )
(Sometimes, sims are very cool before things rez in. This is Le Petit Prince at sunset.)
(At one point during the festivities the Octoberville sim drowned. It was very, very odd to wander the expected halls and tunnels, past the burning cabins, into the haunted house....all drifting and blue, murky and underwater. It was very surreal.)
(Another shot, higher in Octoberville--the only place, in fact, that remained mostly dry: the Pumpkin patch, the carnival tents, and most of the Pumpkin House.)
(And have I mentioned we got on the wall on Octoberville, again, this year? I think the count stopped--due to lag and other issues, several days past October 31st--at #200.)
"When islands in Second Life sink, they don't even leave stones." (Crap Mariner)
Repo in Second Life is gone, temporarily or permanently--the sim that Falln designer Azriel Demain designed, the labor of love for all involved, has sunk with barely a whisper beneath the virtual waves.
I have pictures. I'm just not ready to deal with all of that, just yet. I'm still saddened from the loss.
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