copying, copying, copying…

I’ve been rather quiet on the copying/ripping fiascos that happen in what seems like a weekly event around SL. Mostly because it’s a debate I just don’t have time for anymore. I’ve personally never had my stuff ripped (well… that I know of), but I sure have been copied. It’s annoying and frustrating but there isn’t much I can do about it. Ripping on the other hand is an absolute shitty thing that something should be done about.

There are three victims when it comes to content being ripped. 1. The content creator who slaved over that item from conception to creation to marketing. 2. The buyers who unknowingly supported the rippers because there is no sign clearly pointing out fakes. 3. The customers of creators who get ripped and loose all faith in SL and humanity.

In this slew of conversations about copyright issues, we seem to forget about everyone but the person getting ripped off. Which is an actual shame.

The reason why it’s so rampant in SL is because it’s easy to do, people can make money off of it, there are little to no repercussions for it, and it’s generally a fluke that anyone finds out about it. The lab needs to get off their asses and do something to combat it on all fronts instead of these constant broken promises. But I’m bitter enough to believe that’ll never happen.

Those far more in the know about the tech than I am say you can’t actually plug the holes. Granted, opening up the client to things like copybot (LL helped with that if you remember) and alt viewers that have copying capabilities made the situation far worse. Go LL. But there are things we as a community and LL can do.

Back in 2006 when copybot came out, some Lindens sat down with some of us content creators to discuss what can be done. Part of the list of things was metadata tags help with the DMCA process. Where is that? Is anyone actually working on that?

XStreet was where most of the exchange of stolen goods happened. Mostly because no one wanted to file a report because the retards who ran it gave out personal information to the offending party. With the recent purchase of XStreet by LL, why has this not changed?

Or how about that seller directory that has been talked about for a while and still nothing has been done about it?

Today the shit has sort of hit the fan with two rather controversial sides that I’d like to blather on about.

Copybot is good for the economy?!

Get out the tar, feathers and pitchforks kids. If there was anyone in the SL universe that I wanted to punch in the face more than our least favourite LL lapdog Hamlet Au, I’d be rather shocked. If anything to wipe that constant smug look off his face and maybe make him cry like a little bitch.

He’s been annoying us with his trite rhetoric and lack of journalistic integrity for a better part of 6 years. It isn’t reporting, it’s biased spin. I mean who can forget his calling libSL “talented hackers creating cool applications” directly after LL in their infinite wisdom supported the release of copybot? And of course that content creators who were upset about the entire situation and foreseeing what SL is like today with rampant content theft as “having the crazy mob mentality.”

His latest spin on the copyright infringement issue is actually worse. He contends that with the release of the latest PR spin of economic figures by LL being on the rise, that copybot has actually helped the economy.

That is poorest example of false correlation that I’ve ever seen.

1. Figures released as PR from the lab can hardly be counted as proof of anything. Every content creator knows full well what is going on with the economy. I don’t know a single person who isn’t feeling a hit. The lab telling us that it just isn’t the case doesn’t make us feel good; it’s a bloody slap in the face. Just not as demeaning as Hamlet is.

2. If the figures are correct, without side by side comparison of the population increase and what people were spending on, this point is impossible to prove. Therefore even bringing it up is demeaning to the many who have dealt with this issue first hand.

More people = more land rented = more transactions. More people = more purchases. More people = more content creators = more content = more purchases.

I don’t even call myself an economist, let alone an internet economist and I still call duh on that.

3. Copyright infringement does not help the economy, no matter how you’d like to sugar coat the current situation. The more people get copied, the less likely they’ll make anything worthwhile. The less worthwhile things to buy, the faster the economy will go into the toilet. This is happening as we speak since there are many who are creating less or have stopped all together because what’s the bloody point anymore if someone can rip us off with a couple of clicks with little to no repercussions?

4. Did he even think to bother to get actual data from someone willing to give absolute proof of what copyright infringement has done to their business? You know see what happened to the sales of their copied item? It’s not like this is being done on a small scale. Many people are getting hit and sometimes in mass, so it’s not like it’s difficult to find a few people to interview. That’s kind of what being a journalist is all about isn’t it? Getting all sorts of data, lay it out in an unbiased way and let the reader decide for themselves. Or at least that’s what it should be about.

5. At first many people really weren’t using copybot. It wasn’t until the easy to find and easy to use alternative clients that it became as much of an issue as it is today.

6. The last quarter of 2006 is when SL blew up. When we all thought we were going to get rich. My sales exploded. As was the same with everyone else I’ve talked to. Copybot couldn’t do animations and yet my sales during the x-mas season that year was 7x more than all the rest of the year combined.

The 5th of November Boycott

First of all, thank you for taking my favourite holiday. My birthday is on the 6th and going to fireworks in the park was one of the best things about living in London and one thing I’ll very much miss. I mean what is more awesome than a celebration over parliament almost being blown up?

Even if you could get enough content creators to join in (you won’t) the fact of the matter is is that LL doesn’t care. They. Don’t. Care.

Does the copybot boycott of 2006 ring a bell? A decent percentage of creators got in on that (including me) and it did fuck all. Or how about the letter to the lab which I believe was the same year with all sorts of signatures and surrounded by bad press?

That kind of thing worked in 2003 and not a single time since. Because they don’t care. They will still get tier. They will still get their precious money. They don’t care about bugs. They don’t care that animations have been broken for years. They don’t care about copying because it’s not like they don’t know what’s going on with it. Getting LL to care is about as useless as repeatedly bashing your head against a brick wall. And about as fun.

Even if they did care, what exactly would a boycott do that the current class action suit won’t? It’s giving them bad press and the potential to hit them where it hurts – their wallet a bit more effective? Honestly I don’t know if this entire thing will do anything, but it’s certainly more potential than a boycott will ever do.

Next up, why punish the people who are already being punished by this issue? Content creators are struggling so let’s punish them. Customers are already being punished by other drastic theft prevention measures and from knowing that what they spent their hard earned money on someone else got for free or cheap, so let’s punish them too while we are at it. The people that need to feel it are the copiers and LL. This will not accomplish that.

One of the suggestions for how to survive 48 hours of no sales is to set out freebies and have a sale afterwards. Uh… what? You do know that one of the reasons for falling sales is the over saturation of the market with freebies right? Just as much as the saturated market of an unthinkable number of items for sale is. And that when everyone is having a sale, it pretty much doesn’t do what it used to because it gets lost in the commotion.

The upload boycott is a bit of a better idea – at least less harmful to those who are already being punished – but it still won’t do anything.

In Closing:

LL is going to do whatever it wants no matter what you do. Call me bitter but after more than 5 years of this sort of thing, you can kind of see a pattern. You could pick up your toys and go play somewhere else, but there are many other people chomping at the bit for your sales. LL won’t notice you are gone. You are a blip to them.

Stop blaming content theft as the sole reason for your sales decline. It’s not, but it’s the only one that gets mentioned. It’s part of a large puzzle of suckage. Other stuff is the RL economy, drastic increase in content creators, over saturation of the market, over production, lower quality and innovation due to over production, glut of the market from freebies, SL is just too big now for the lack of advertising options, and probably a bunch of other things I haven’t thought of.

Yes it fucking sucks to get ripped off. But your sales before came from your customers who I very much doubt are going out looking for ripped copies of your items. The people buying those things either don’t know they are ripped or don’t care and probably wouldn’t have paid full price in the first place. Those who didn’t know were potential customers and sucks to have lost them, but the meat of your biz should always be the returning ones. Return customers buy partly because they want to support your work because they want to be able to buy more down the road.

There are many things you can do to be proactive without causing harm:

1. Educate. Get the word out on what is going on, how you can spot a ripper, and what to do when someone finds copies. Do this in a way that isn’t insulting. Most people who buy copies don’t actually know that they are copies. Textures and notecard givers in stores are a good step in the right direction.
2. Others have said this and I don’t really think it’ll work, but start bugging the fuck out of Lindens during office hours. Pick a Linden and go to every single office hour. They are people and people will do just about anything to get you to stop annoying them, just be careful on taking them at their word. Get proof. Just not Jack cause he’s kind of a douche. Well I think it would be funny if everyone chose him, but he’ll do fuck all.
3. There are loads of ideas of what LL can do to combat this in many different venues. SLU threads are a good place to start. Gather them up, list them in a notecard and start harassing Lindens with them. Email it to them. Again, I doubt LL will listen but it’s better than a boycott.
4. Have some extra time and know the players of an industry? Wander around the grid and XStreet looking for those mischievous rippers. They are pretty easy to spot. Ugly stores, ugly adverts, usually new, and a wide rage of products in different styles. Just please leave the pitchforks in the garage and quietly inform the original content creator.
5. I’m kind of tired at this point so if anyone has more ideas, feel free to post a comment

Cheers
Luth

Bitch Bitch Moan Moan Whine Whine! or… Thank a Linden!

Heya folks! I originally had this posted over on my more personal blog but thought it just as relevant to be posted here (with minor revisions). So if you are one of the 5 people that already read it, my apologies. There is never a bad time to re-evaluate your reality or virtuality. (Like that word? I just made that shit up, off the top of my head & everything).

Look I get it – SL is not the most stable virtual world on the world wide web. In all honesty there’s not many that I have played that are (Ultima Online, The Sims Online, Rose, Laguna Beach, THERE, World of Warcraft, Auto Assault, Free Realms, Open Life, etc). The point is that these worlds, IMHO were created for entertainment purposes only. They weren’t created to take place of real life jobs, real life interactions or real life *gasp* lives. They were created to give you enjoyment & a nice little reality break.

However people have found ways to turn what they love to do into a way to make money within the virtual worlds that they play. Well hell – that’s awesome. If I had talent other than spewing my thoughts onto a page for my few readers and *I* could make money at it, you better bet I’d be boarding that gravy train in a heartbeat. So I’d like to say Kudos to those that manage to do that on a daily basis. I’m sure it beats my 45 min commute each way & being forced to listen to Kegan sing his little diddys Mon-Fri.

What I have noticed though is a rash of bitchy, moany, whiney comments regarding SecondLife across the blogosphere lately. This is broken, that is broken, I crashed again, LL should get their shit together, yada yada yada blah blah. I know that most people pay for their accounts and you have every right as a paying customer to complain about the service you recieve, but do you ever thank Linden Labs when the service is good? Do you ever say “hey thanks for allowing me to log in to the world you created?” Do you ever think about the life you had before SL? SL has not been around *that* long that you knew nothing before it.

I guess my honest opinion comes from the opposite end of this bitch-fest spectrum. I’m no longer a paid account in SL (I use to be up til 2 years ago) and I feel as a non-membership fee paying resident that I have no right to bitch. The rest of you that are on free accounts should also think about that – LL owes you nothing.

All I’m saying is look, if you don’t like it… leave. No one is holding a gun to your head making you stay and bitch daily about everything that you feel is wrong with SecondLife and/or LL. Here’s a positive spin on things… remember why you’re there in the first place and the things you do actually enjoy there. If you can’t think of anything then mayhaps it’s time to move on.

If by any chance a Linden reads this (which is super slim)… THANK YOU!

Blame it on the zyngo!

I think that at some point in every writers’s life (well with the exception of these guys and gals) there comes a time when you need to take a break: provide a chance to recharge the batteries, save your soul, or even just keep things fun and interesting.   I know that bloggers rank pretty far down the writing hierarchy but when you reach a point in time where you feel like you have already written on most topics, and things are just repeating themselves over and over, then you start to lose interest in writing.   I seem to have reached that point in my life at the moment with Second Life blogging, and to some extent with Second Life in total.   Whether I am writing about relationships, drama, plurk, cool sims to explore, or whatever topic I bring to mind I think I have already touched on it at some point in the past on one of the old blogs.

Combine that feeling, with an increasingly active RL social life and things have gotten a little bit hectic for me.   I think I can probably multi-task with the best of them, but frankly I always prefer to find something and go in deep and strong rather than just lick along the surface of a lot of different things.   Recently Jell has brought me over to Twitter.   Twitter in and of itself is yet another form of social media junkyism, but the benefit it has brought into our lives is an incredibly active group of local tweeters who merge their online and RL identities into one.   It has had a profound impact on both of us, since in the past I am used to hanging out with a group of interesting personalities that look nothing like what they portray, and that I would never recognize on the street or ever meet in person.  Now all of a sudden, I am running into people at every event and all over town that are extremely wired into both lives that they lead, and it is fun to literally have an option for a social function any night of the week.   The only downside is that all of a sudden I hafta shower and stuff before I can go hangout with friends.

I am not saying good bye, because I do expect to still be around in some capacity.   I can see myself logging in to make machinima or to just see what has changed.   I am however going to excuse myself from blogging on the Rev and participating in plurk for a while.   I am hoping that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I will be back after a while.   In the meantime I have high hopes that the Rev will keep plugging along.   Right now we are at 102,000 in traffic which is pretty damn good for the very first year, and only posting every 4 days or so.  I hope it continues to grow by leaps and bounds, due to the quality of the people we have writing on here.   I want to thank everybody who has read and/or commented on my posts in the past, and I wish you all continued success in your own ventures in whatever life you lead.

Typhoon Relief Event Today!

There’s an all day benefit going on right now at Pemberly

From 9am to 7pm slt there will be an all day music event as well as some deeply discounted and exclusive offerings from some of SL’s generous creators! All sales at this event will be donated to the Red Cross to benefit the victims of Typhoon Ondoy.

Lineup of musicians:

9:00am – Dakila Lacava

9:30am – Kevinthomas Carpool

10:00am – Hazideon Zarco

10:30am – Michelle Ecksol

11:00am – TonewoodFrank UNplugged

11:30am – Obeloinkment Wrigglesworth

12:00pm – Lyndon Heart

12:30pm – Raspbury Rearwin

1:00pm – Keiko Takamura

1:30pm – EricSteffensen Mistwalker

2:00pm – Nonge Shipman

2:30pm – allister westland

3:00pm – Sylar Morrisey

3:30pm – Maximillion Kleene

4:00pm – Jessy Sommer

4:30pm – Phemie Alcott

5:00pm – Skye Galaxy

5:30pm – Harper Messmer

6 -7pm – MicRocka (Kafka Dinzeo)

9:00am – Dakila Lacava

9:30am – Kevinthomas Carpool

10:00am – Hazideon Zarco

10:30am – Michelle Ecksol

11:00am – TonewoodFrank UNplugged

11:30am – Obeloinkment Wrigglesworth

12:00pm – Lyndon Heart

12:30pm – Raspbury Rearwin

1:00pm – Keiko Takamura

1:30pm – EricSteffensen Mistwalker

2:00pm – Nonge Shipman

2:30pm – allister westland

3:00pm – Sylar Morrisey

3:30pm – Maximillion Kleene

4:00pm – Jessy Sommer

4:30pm – Phemie Alcott

5:00pm – Skye Galaxy

5:30pm – Harper Messmer

6 -7pm – MicRocka (Kafka Dinzeo)

Participating stores include:

Addict

Aitui

Aoharu

BOHICA

BOOM

Botanical

Diesel Works

Doux Petit Dahl

Duboo

Kenzie Co.

Lelutka

The Loft

M. Fox

Minettes

Miseria

Modd. G

Mudhoney

!Ohmai

Pididdle

Pixel Mode

RC Cluster

Shade Throne

Silhouette

skream

SMP

Join the event now! Currently in progress!!

Firefly @Pemberly

Coolest Thing Ever!

I’m the first person to scoff at certain roleplay…

Vampires? Really? You are asking me for permission to bite me? In my sick & sometimes twisted Vampire fantasies, the vamps never ask, they just take me all romantically hard & stuff. There’s other RP that I could mention here & also spew my opinions about but then I’d just digress from telling you about the Coolest Thing Ever Ever Ever ever ever ever.

All over plurk I’ve been seeing “doll skins”. At first I was like “o-kay” and then I move on. I’m not a big fan of lined doll skins. In my opinion dolls don’t have lines because they want to, dolls have lines because of function, they have to! (Yes, I know I am talking about dolls like they’re real, shup!) So if I’m going to be a doll in SL, I’m not going to have lines or buy a skin. Instead I’m going to find a cute updo hair style, wear my regular skin, throw on a tutu & get myself a wind up key… And so I did.

And I’m freaking adorable!

The thing about this key is that it was made to work with a sub collar for doll play. So you can’t just buy the Doll Key and expect it to work. You have to either buy a compatible collar or the “container”. Since it’s a proven fact that I do not make a good sub, slave or pet from past experiences, I went with the “container” (it’s located on the left hand side wall next to the Doll Keys). The instructions are a bit intense, and set up is a bit tricky. The good news is that Briggit & Peggy are awesome with customer service. Briggit helped me get my key up & spinning in no time and she explained to me exactly what I needed to do in terms I could understand.

So I haven’t even told you what I find to be the coolest bit about the key. First of all, you cannot wind yourself. Nope, you are at the mercy of others around you, or screwed if you’re alone. That’s my favorite part. When you aren’t wound, you cannot move/walk, you’re slumped, cannot speak in general chat, key is not spinning, and you cannot tp. Your best bet is to IM someone & ask for a wind up. This is great for anyone looking to make new friends, don’t you think? What better ice breaker do you need other than “Hi I know you don’t know me but could you possibly touch the key on my back and wind me up?” Each wind up is good for 30 minutes so it could also help curb your need to shop for long periods of time.

As with most collars (which is the premise for the “container”, you get to choose a Master that can control you if you choose via blue drop down menu or command words. If you attempt to remove the key, your Master will be notified just like with any standard collar.

A lil from the notecard:

dollsit (forces the doll to sit)

dolloff (Shuts the doll down manually)

dollwave (make the doll wave)

dollfollow (makes the doll follow you.)

There’s much more but since I’m blogging from work & Hawks isn’t my errand boy, you’ll just have to go check it out for yourself. Below are the SLURLS to the things I used to put this look together & make it functionable…

Doll Key & Container: Brigitt and Peggy’s store
A little shop with Amethyst collar plugins, Clockwork Doll keys, Jewelry, Dungeon Torches, piecing gag, collars, Land Rentals on the waterfront.

AO: ANAMATIONS – Music Dancer AO

TUTU: Sn@tch – Murder Ballet

Shoes: Shiny Things – Ballet flat – black

Hair: Truth – Rose – bubblegum

A big thank you and shout out to the one & only Inclinations Moody who had this look first and was nice enough to let me copy her.

Thank you also to HawksRock for grabbing the SLURLS for me and being my new more lenient Master.

-JellyBean-

Internet: It’s Not You. It’s Me.

Right off the bat, I am going to throw out two statements that I have recently forced myself to acknowledge as true, though I realize that many people may disagree:

What happens online matters, and

Unlike Vegas, what happens online does not stay online. 

Before we delve deeper into those two statements, I want to ask the following questions:

Have you ever logged into Second Life or on Plurk, because you felt like you were “missing something” when you weren’t online? 

When you are online in Second Life, have you ever looked at the clock and said wow, where did the time go?  I was going to log off an hour ago. 

Do you ever feel the need to justify the time you spend online by saying, “Well if I wasn’t doing this, I would just be wasting time watching television.”? 

Do you ever feel guilty about being online or lie about how much time you spend there? 

Are you logging online out of habit versus actually having a specific reason to log on? 

Most of you probably answered no to all of these questions, but I can tell you that I did not.  I answered “Yes” to all of them. 

Most active online users know of or have heard of Problematic Internet Use (PIU), but many people may believe that “if the time they are spending online is time they would normally be spending doing other “useless” type activities”, or “if the time they spend online is controlled to just a few hours in the evening or perhaps on Sunday afternoons”, then it’s not a problem.   But I begin to realize it’s not just the number of hours that I spend actively involved online, it’s also the number of hours I spend thinking about it or reading blog posts or Plurking.  Do I spend more time on my virtual life than I do actively engaged in my real life?  Can you judge problematic internet use just by looking at time spent online? 

I started thinking a lot about PIU in regards to my own online behavior after reading the following study.  I was surprised to realize that “problematic internet users were more likely than nonproblematic users to use the Internet for meeting new people, seeking emotional support and playing socially interactive games.”   I actually would have associated the social aspect of online interactions as a positive outcome of online activity versus problematic. 

According to this study, you are at a higher risk of developing problematic internet use if:

You derive a sense of community from online relationships.

You use voice.   Players that use voice are among the most social players and have the strongest social connections. 

You feel immersed in your online activities.

You spend real world resources, i.e. money, to support your online social activities. 

Ironically, time spent online was the weakest predictor of PIU.  It is the quality of your online interactions versus the quantity of the activity that could present a problem. 

Compulsive, rather than excessive, Internet use is more likely to result in negative outcomes.

So what sort of online behavior could be seen as compulsive?  I begin to look back at my time spent online and think about what sort of behaviors stood out to me as problematic.  I identified three possibilities.  Two types of problems which I have actually suffered with and seen others suffer with, and one I have just observed. 

ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS

You can’t talk about problematic online compulsive behavior without discussing online romantic relationships.  Online romances can be healthy. I know many people that are able to maintain a healthy and loving online relationship, but it is very difficult to define and maintain boundaries online.  Plus, many people online have other issues that may interfere with keeping an online relationship in perspective.  When you start letting your imagination run freely, an online relationship can get out of control in just a few days.  It can become more of an obsession than a relationship. 

Though no matter the duration, you will find that your online dalliances will begin to influence you even offline.  You may find that your behavior becomes compulsive, and in turn, your internet use could become problematic unless you begin to set clear defined boundaries and take time to step away from both the relationship and the computer.  If you step away from both for a short period, and your online relationship does not survive the break, then you know you made the right decision and kept yourself from experiencing further heartbreak and wasting a lot of valuable time. 

Unhealthy online romances are one of the prime examples of problematic internet use. 

ADDING VODKA MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER

What happens when you take a person with a possible internet addiction and combine absurd amounts of alcohol?  You could potentially take the possible internet addiction and turn it into massive problem.  

I like to drink.  In fact, I love drinking.  Drinking can break down barriers and encourage bonding.  But in an online environment, a lot of boundaries are already pretty much nonexistent.  People say whatever they want whenever they want.  What good can possibly come out of plurking to your 200 plus friends how drunk you are?  Everyone does it occasionally, but if every weekend, your online friends look forward to being amused by hearing you slur your words on voice, than you may possibly be combining two problems. 

It also leads to other potential problems such as stripping on webcam or saying ridiculous and/or mean things and blaming it on liquor.  Even if this type of behavior doesn’t indicate a problem to you, it can be very annoying to those around you. 

I know that many will say drinking online is better than going out and getting drunk, which could lead to other more serious and possibly even life threatening problems.  Perhaps that’s true.  But for those of you that may even remotely think that your online interactions could possibly be having a negative influence, then adding alcohol is not a good idea. 

It is also interesting to note that alcohol/substance abuse has also been shown to be present in people who exhibit the signs and symptoms of PIU. 

YOU CALL IT E-STALKING, SOME CALL IT LOVE

 

We tease about it.  We laugh about it.  We all admit doing it at one point or another, but checking someone’s online profile, memorizing their interests or favorites movies or even knowing their profile well enough to recognize when they delete a pick can be a big sign of compulsive and problematic internet behavior. 

Little things like this done in a repeated fashion means you are becoming a bit obsessive and could be crossing into online stalker territory. Yes, the term “stalker” may be harsh. But there is a firm difference between casually glancing at your ex’s MySpace and religiously analyzing every aspect of their Facebook page. 

Most people obsessively check profiles, because perhaps they no longer have the same level of friendship with the person that they once had and see it as a way of keeping updated on their activities.  Though checking when they log into Second Life, when they Plurk or when they blog is self-damaging behavior.  It’s like picking at the scab that is trying to heal, all you are doing is making it worse. 

Been there.  Done that.  It is a problem!

SOLVING THE PROBLEM

I wish I had the magic solution to help solve these compulsive or problematic behaviors.  Many experts recommend logging out and off.  Though I don’t think completely avoiding any and all social networks is even a feasible solution.    

The way I am trying to deal with my problematic behavior is by acknowledging I was having a problem and ending the cycle of denial.  I have also decided to remember my two beliefs about online activity.  What happens online matters: which means that my online activities have a real impact on my real life, and I can not try to pretend that they don’t.  I also have to remember that what happens online does not stay online, so at anytime my online behavior could be exposed for my entire real life to view.  I spent way too long trying to pretend that what happens online stays online, because I wanted it to.  Pretending that my online activities didn’t matter and that no one would find out was my way of denying I had a problem.

Admit it is an issue.  Acknowledge that it matters, and it does affect your real life.   Attempt to solve it.

JellyBean vs. SL Hunts

This is an Op/Ed which means that this is my opinion, and yes, it’s open for debatical.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only one who gets annoyed, frustrated, angered, bothered, disturbed, irked, provoked, and troubled by certain SL crap. The latest? SL Hunts!

I am not a huge fan of hunts. I do remember I participated in my first one a few years back & I thought it was fun. However lately it seems there’s 10 hunts going at any given time now in SL. At what point do we say “Enough is enough!” either as designers or hunters?

Hunters will bitch about the hunts stating that the freebie items they receive are craptastic, and/or that they only kept 5 out of 100 items out of the last hunt that they felt were worthy of remaining in their already bloated inventory. They bitch about it being a waste of time comparative to what they actually “got” out of the hunt.

Designers will also bitch that they have spent x amount of time on this hunt, are getting ready for the next hunt, people not appreciating the time put in, or the items.

With both sides bitching, why are there still hunts popping up on a daily basis? Is it because there are more people not bitching that make hunts still worthwhile?

Growing up I was taught, as many others have been, that the less you have the more you are able to appreciate. I feel this may be the same type of deal with hunts. There are just so many now that any sense of appreciation has flown out the window.

One can argue that these hunts give exposure to new upcoming designers, and I’m all for supporting new designers. I think a lot of newer content creators get discouraged & give up before tapping into their full potential… but I’m not sure hunts are the best way for such exposure. Especially when the hunts get “cherry picked.” Every hunt I’ve participated in lately has in one form or another had a “cheat” list attached to it letting you know exactly where to find each item via a notecard or a blog post complete with SLURLs. Cheat lists & word of mouth are perfect for anyone willing to cherry pick a hunt to acquire those worthy items without sifting thru tons of crap. So just as hunts have become as common as lag, so have the cherry pickers. This seems counter productive to the New Designer Exposure argument unless the “new” designer is busting out some kick ass stuff.

Also, what happened to the “exclusive” hunt items? That was one of my motivators, and probably remains one of the biggest motivators out there for reasons to participate as hunters. If I’m not able to just stroll into the store & buy this “must have” item and it is only offered up in a hunt – I will cherry pick that like nobody’s business. I guess this question is for the designers. I wonder if there are just so many hunts now that it’s just become too hard to keep up with an exclusive item for each hunt, keeping up with regular store releases & still finding time to not go crazy from it all?

I have no solution to all this madness but I do think that too much is really too much. You can’t honestly think that anyone will appreciate cotton candy if they’re on a cotton candy diet and you can’t honestly expect the cotton candy makers to step it up if they’re not appreciated. From where I stand I don’t see much of a win-win sitch here. I do feel it’s a great topic to debate though.

What do you think? Hunter perspective vs. Designer perspective.

Have you had enough of the SL Hunts?

-JellyBean Madison-

The Social Media Integrity Challenge

Many of us create and reply to posts on a variety of Social Media networks and blogs, including Facebook, Twitter, etc. every day. Many of these posts contain content and links to content that express opinions designed to sway reader’s toward a particular position.

I read one such post today, on the subject of Net Neutrality. This is a subject I myself, with more than 25+ years of Internet experience; do NOT consider myself an expert in. I couldn’t help but wonder; how many posts like this are authored or shared by people who have little or no subject matter expertise in their content? How many posts contain content that has undergone little or no or critical analysis or fact checking by the poster?

The seemingly endless flow of non-expert, un-fact-checked 3rd-party content, begs yet another question. What is the source of the “trust,” imparted to various sources, be they people or an institution, which emboldens people to repost this content as fact?

Journalism’s “Code of Ethics”

Are there ethical issues or matters of “journalistic integrity” to be considered by average bloggers and posters, before submitting a post? To try and find answers to these questions, I turned to the very web that spawned them.

Even in the arena of “Professional Journalism,” there is no universal oath of integrity or ethical standard. A recent post by Beth Harte revealed that:

The Society of Professional Journalists “requires” its members to:

• Seek Truth and Report It
• Minimize Harm
• Act Independently
• Be Accountable

And the American Society of Newspaper Editors (founded in 1922) Canons of Journalism holds that journalists should display:

• Sincerity, Truthfulness, Accuracy (good faith with reader)
• Impartiality (news reports free from opinion or bias)
• Fair Play, Decency (recognition of private rights, prompt correction of errors)

Despite being encouraged by their peers and trade associations, many “professional journalists” have a tough time abiding by these “codes of ethics.” The “mainstream media” and professional blogosphere is filled with stories that contain questionable facts, disingenuous “truths,” and even outright lies. Bloggers and Social Network posters who spread these falsehoods, regardless of their motivation, not only join in perjuring the truth, but are often lying to the people closest to them, their coworkers, friends and families.

Blogging With Integrity

In July of 2009 a new organization called “Blog With Integrity” was created. The goal of the organization is simple; encourage bloggers to blog with the highest levels of integrity by:

• Providing clear disclosure of their interests so readers can evaluate their words.
• Treating others with respect.
• Taking responsibility for their words and actions.

I have signed the Blog With Integrity pledge and would like to see all of the bloggers I follow do so as well.

The Social Media Integrity Challenge

In the same spirit of integrity, I propose the following ethical standards for those who post content from blogs and the web:

I will:

• Post only from blogs with a published integrity policy
• Never post content designed solely to inflame or incite
• Never represent unsubstantiated theories as fact
• Think critically, write clearly and post with integrity

“I am for integrity, if only because life is very short and truth is hard to come by.” Author Unknown

Viva la SL Revolution

Twelve months ago, a group of smart and switched on people combined two of Second Life’s most popular multi-authored blogs and formed The SL Revolution – a blog with the aim to not hold back from what needs to be said. A group of people who didn’t take themselves too seriously – guys and girls who simply enjoyed Second Life, and didn’t think of themselves as journalists or fashionistas. They were simply normal people who were too busy laughing at the dumb things going on within the SL community (in particular the SL blogging, or SLogging, community) with the same out blogs churning out the same old dramas.

So the Rev was created to give a wide angle lens – to inject some humour back into the SL blogging community, and remind everyone that actually your petty little dramas are meaningless and you should really try being constructive to the Second Life efforts, instead of just trying to bring each other down all the time.

We mocked Plurks with extreme sexual content and made fun of the PostSecrets. We laughed at the girl who liked to make lists of names, and we’ve reminded you all what an opinion is really worth.

But then we’ve also offered advice on how to create eye catching promotional images and thought about the Freebie issues and how it affects the SL economy. We’ve looked at the impact of blogging on ourselves and in world, and

And we’ve talked about Drama. Again, and again. And then again.

You see, the SL Rev makes fun of these things, but then we’ve also caused drama too. And on an opinion blog, that’s pretty easy to do. But there’s a smart way of calling people out – it involves not saying anything, but saying everything, and that’s an artform which most the writers here at the Rev employ in their writing. We’re fortunate that we’re not a trash blog which creates witch hunts. Or is fortunate the right word? After all, blogging is about who has the most page views, right?

Wrong.

Blogging is about intelligent discussion where people are happy to give thought out opinions on matters and discuss/debate in a civilised manner which doesn’t involve trashing someone without reason.

A year ago, I wrote that the growing popularity of blogs which are kicking off witch hunts will cause nothing but paranoia and ill-feeling within the SL community – I said the situation would hit a point where people would start basing their opinions simply on what a blog has published, rather than seeking out the truth themselves.

And why? Because by giving into this witch-hunt mentality, we create group-think. The type which involves someone who is quite happy to go after someone they don’t know (probably due to a lack of self-confidence or immense jealousies). They exploit a part of human nature in which people love drama (as long as it doesn’t involve them) and this creates an atmosphere where it becomes normal for ideas and opinions to be suppressed, rather than openly discussed in a sensible manner.

The number of bloggers who have risen up by trying to crush others is on the rise, and I can only see it creating an SL where people will be too afraid to say what they think. But blogs like the Rev continue pushing back the boundaries and will carry on fighting the good fight – because no matter what the fucktards say, we refuse to be silenced, and we refuse to be told what to write. We won’t put up with self-referential little spiteful groups who feed drama and insanity – we’ll carry on mocking those types, and we’ll carry on speaking our minds as individuals. Without fear or favour.

So Viva la SL Revolution – here’s to the past year, and may the diversity of writers here long continue to bring some of the best discussion to the SL community.

Introducing the Plurk Drinking Game: Plink!

As anyone who has me on their plurk knows, I’m very opposed to today’s International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Especially on Plurk, oh gawd I hate it so much! However to help me get through it and maintain my karma, Rosie Shark  & I have devised a new game called “Plink”, a Plurk drinking game.

Here’s what you’ll need if you decide to play along at home…

The drink of choice will be Lemon Drop Shots (if you use anything else, we’ll silently judge you, so don’t tell us! *wink*).

Vodka of your choice
1 lemon cut into slices
Sugar

Place sugar on your hand (like you do with a Tequila shot with salt), place lemon slice in same hand, lick off sugar and take shot, then bite down on the lemon.

It’s as easy as that.

Now for the Rules:

(Our names will be in place here but feel free to mod your game to fit you or leave your plurk name in comments & we’ll include you in our game)

• If anyone plurks about food. (example: Daila I have fruity pebbles…) [JellyBean drinks]
• If anyone plurks about feeling emo. (example: Rosie says I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize for being so self-absorbed…) [Rosie drinks]
• If anyone plurks a complaint about SecondLife. (example: alarm Isa cock is furious with her own inability to stay on sl.) [JellyBean drinks]
• If anyone plurks “Talks Like a Pirate” lingo. (example: Dancien says Ahoy ye Scrogs! Myself and me mates be playin some Champions today then we be going on the account to some pubs,flirtin with the wenches) [everybody drinks]

Please post any other suggestions in the comments. Happy whatever day you wanna make it. I call it KU Football Day! :p

-Jell-