Less Than Seven

Long time aquaintance and award winning videographer and documentarian Draxtor Despres is at it again, this time sharing his chronicling skills at the Second Life Community Convention in San Fransisco, California. Draxtor lays down the whole gig in under six minutes. Really.

I would say it is odd to see so many faces in RL whom I have known for a while in SL but honestly, it is not. People are people as the good song goes. All I can say it it is nice to see a smile without the glowing white prim-teeth. I only wish I was there to join the girls on their treck for the ultimate pumps.

The Walking Party Provider

SL6B is here! Finally!

Okay forgive my enthusiasm. I really am excited as I have many friends and acquaintances who spent countless hours building, organizing, babysitting, and managing the coming of the gig. It is nice to watch them finally be able to breath. Unfortunately many of them are so tired they cannot even enjoy their handy work. We will just have to enjoy it for them.

The rollout of SL6B was a wee bit rocky. I was so far out of the loop I could not even be helpful to managing a solution. (How often does THAT happen?) My Greeter perms did not roll in until two days before open. And by the way? Not to be a complaining pain, but it would be REALLY helpful for Greeters to have access at least the day of an event so that they might be able to explore a little bit and know where things are located. I am not trying to be rude or demanding. But I spent three hours at a post having no idea that a stage for which I was welcoming people was above my head. It took Dusty Linden to come and say, "Did we make that too difficult for you?" before I had to bite my tongue. "Me point to teleporters right under noses." Never mind that they did not work for 60% of us. Where it took us, who cared so long as it worked, which, again, for many of us, it did not.

I understand a rumour (mind you, it is just a rumour) that the value of Greeters was not recognized this year. Allow me to explain just how helpful we can be.

This is a typical day in the trenches. It may seem drama ridden but this is what mentors and greeters face every day. This is our job.

We are standing at a landing point in a sim. Most gathered for Philip Linden's opening remarks as the main stage apparently filled quickly leaving SL6B main staff, exhibitors, volunteers, moderators etc all clambering for a position. Most also missed his remarks despite efforts to share with them the external url. And most were none to happy about it.

Imagine for me, what it is like to have six exhibitors and two moderators IMing you as a brand new Greeter to whom no one gives any information, asking why they cannot get into the main stage. Had someone simply said, "the main stage is limited to 40 people however..." we as greeter/mentors could have managed the crowds with grace leaving a much happier bunch.

It did not help that we had a reporter from CNN standing around asking for comments about how people felt being locked out of the speech. I put on my happy face. We are all cool about it, of course! We are there to be with one another and darnit, if we cannot be where we want to be, at least we are together. And that is what SL is all about. Oh, and here is the SL6B media contact who can help you with your article. (For this she seemed delighted.)

This calmed the natives, or at least put them in a position where they had to be grateful rather than cranky.

Course, I said that just before we all got dumped from SL6B and sent to various telehubs and help islands.

Which put me into another situation with REALLY cranky people. Do you know what it is like to stand among extremely cranky exhibitors who have invested so much time into their builds that their virtual eyes have turned red, who are unable to be WITH their builds at the grand opening? Granted everyone seemingly was locked out but no one told them that.

So I lied. I told them that. It leveled the playing field and put them at ease. "Just hang in there for a bit. Here! Have some cake!" No, I am not kidding. Yesterday, I handed out more cake than you can imagine. It helps to be a walking party provider. Cake chills people out. Trust me on this.

Eventually, because I have several friends on staff, one of them sent me a TP. God bless this woman. I was locked out of course, but she recognized instantly how important we had become and made an effort to get me where I needed to be. Which brought me, after nine tries, to the stage in the air with the TP mushroom that did not TP half of us.

Now comes the part where Greeters AND Mentors are helpful. For SL6B, I am a Greeter. This means I take off my Mentor hat and become focused purely on helping people have a great time at their Birthday Party. This means that I cannot dedicate two hours to helping a noob learn to put on a shirt. There simply is not time.

Enter Paul.

Paul landed at the main stage just after I did. We both arrived having found a noob standing there. Poor noob was friendless, skilless, and girlfriendless (which seemed to be his largest complaint). How a noob landed there before the staff, Greeters, Lindens and all the rest who came through did is beyond me. But he was not the last. There were several newcomers to SL who slipped through that spot. Paul stepped up and we tag teamed.

God bless this man. He instantly realized that I could not greet and mentor too. So he mentored while I shuffled people to where they needed to be, answering questions (okay, guessing at answers since I had not seen the place before and to date have not left that landing point), fielding reporters/bloggers, and directing traffic. The dance with Paul lasted most of the afternoon. From this point forward, I will invite any mentor brother or sister to stand by my side (or in front of me!) during major events to help manage the influx of people.

My SL6B boss shot over a SURL to a goodie bag which I took as my reward for a very long shift. Oooo! More cake!

But here is the best part.

CT stood by my side. He encouraged me. He jumped in when he could. And he smothered me with IM smooches to keep me good humoured. Thus the value of a SL partner over any SL mentor in world.

Down with Adult Content!!!

Today, Linden Labs released their plans to address the issue of "adult content" in world. Three major steps make up this plan and include moving adult content to one area on the grid, creating a mechanism in search to filter out adult content, and the idea of toying with age verification for adult content access which may or may not include particularly bloody (or particularly violent) games.

Several bloggers have commented on this topic but two SL heavy hitters stand out to me: Nexeus Fatale and Crap Mariner.

Let me make this clear: I object!

I find it frustrating that people "need" someone to censor their behaviors. I have been in SL for a long while (two years in April) and never once have I voluntarily set foot inside a sex palace or any other place of "adult" content. (I must admit however that I was once sim hopping and accidentally landed in a Gorean sim and I also, at one point, stumbled into a rather risque position while shopping by sitting on a shower pose ball.) Despite these occurrences, for nearly two years I have self censored my travels and avoided all things "sex". I also firmly believe that while I may have an opinion about such things, not everyone agrees. Forcing my standards on another is disrespectful of their soul and right to make decisions and in no way inspires "better" behavior (as I see it). In fact, it instills in people resentment which often leads to more anger and more less desirable behaviors. Again, my personal opinion, one I realize in which a lot of people will disagree. They are entitled to their own and I respect their right to have it. (I just hope it is well thought out!)

Nexeus makes two excellent points about this: what exactly is "adult content" and what about privacy? LL has stated that only 2-4% of content on the mainland is classified as "adult". This is the content which we are discussing, not "mature" and not "PG" rated entities. I applaud efforts to reorganize certain content to one grid. And I am delighted that I might be able to soon filter my searches to keep out what I consider to be smut. I am also broken hearted when I think that theoretically, without verification, I would be unable to visit in the future many art galleries, sculpture gardens and other artistic expressions depending on how LL chooses to apply the new regs.

However.

Censoring anything, which the age verification regulation will do, is a slippery slope. Make one change "for the good of all" (or to "protect" all or to "help" all) and the next change towards stricter rules is accomplished with much more ease and much less resistance. History tells us this is how fascism begins - making changes to "protect" us from ourselves and supposedly, others. It is because of this reason that I have VERY mixed feelings about the new verification standard.

Luckily LL is welcoming your two cents. Visit Upcoming Changes for Adult Content to weigh in.

SL Statistics

Apparently, just under 1/3 of SLers Plurk when SL is down. Interestingly, Plurk is not the major cause of drama. Thanks to Haley Salomon for sharing this insightful research project with the RLTS readers.

And by the way - when I don't respond to an IM, I'M WORKING. No, I'm not interested in cake and yes, my graphics card does suck. I'm just saying....

Brought to you by The SL Revolution

Using your head.

My grandfather is a wise man. For years he would tell me to "use my head". Before major events he'd say, "Use your head." When something went wrong he'd say, "Use your head." And when I DID something wrong, he'd say "Why didn't you use your head?"

Linden Labs used their noggin today. Check out the new OpenSpaces policies established in response to you, the users comments, thoughts, criticisms and complaints. Wait, were there compliments? Hmmm

Enjoy!

Land Conservation

I was in a National Park the other day in RL and was delighted to see that developers were in the process of knocking down the trees to build 1500 residences, all with 3 car garages, a landing strip for the airport, three new schools and a very large shopping area to support the new residents with groceries and gas.

*pointing* This would be my sarcasm face.

Linden Labs (LL) recently released a new policy on the use of Openspace land. This has caused a lot of ruckus lately and upset a lot of people. Let me be clear by stating I am happy and sad about this change.

Much like my scenario above, when Openspace owners rented out their land to people to build their homes etc, the technological strain was significant for LL. The land was never intended to be used for rentals or for that matter, significant traffic constantly calling up a new pair of pants as they put an outfit together. Basically, they abused the land they purchased and now LL is working to correct the technological problem they caused with misuse.

I know a lot of people are angry. Some will have to move their businesses, others their residences. I feel for those who were innocent in this - confused in their purchase/rental. The "laws" of LL can indeed be confusing. But for those who knew better and yet opted to set up shop on Openspace saying "everyone does it" well shame on you. Just because everyone does it does not mean it is right. And shame on you again for complaining when someone came about to correct your stealing because that is essentially what it is. You've stolen server and asset draw space.

Harsh? Not really. Most folks knew exactly what they were doing. Some owners did it to be popular with their friends (giving them low cost space to "help them out"). Some did it to be greedy in another way - to make as much cash as possible. Some probably did it because they didn't have the skill to produce pretty space and left it up to others to fill in the gaps. Reality is, open space is meant for conservation and beautification, not a shopping mall, a sex palace, nor residential tracks.

Am I delighted with LL's crack down? No. I'd have liked them to instead have put their foot down with those sim owners who abused the opportunity. Instead of working it through with them one by one (hey, they could have contracted with me to manage this project!), they opted to raise their rates for all.

While many think they are victims, the real victims (aside from all of us who loose our beautiful space due to rate increases) are the non profits and educational use clients. Because of the greed of some, several non profits will suffer. Yes I know, University of North Carolina can probably afford the increase. But can a small non profit? Perhaps not. Disappointing.

So what does this mean? It means that some entrepreneurial folks are already on top of it, creating new developments for the mass exodus of people who need a new home. Ultimately, the LL economy lives on and the only loss is perhaps the sailing space, forests and gardens we all once enjoyed.

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• A very nice counterpoint written by MarkTwain White on openspace sailing.
• Protest vote page to stop the rate increase.
• Jack Linden's response