These are words by - Girl Wonder - Tymmerie Thorne, where she protests the fact that we are being treated as “SLab rats”. According to Miss Thorne, every thesis, survey, … involving Second Life, focusses on SLex, romance, dating, flirting, … more than any of the other possibilities as there are entrepreneurship, education, non-profits, role play & gaming, fashion, … .

I must say, I haven’t filled in much surveys re:Second Life lately - less hype, less surveys? - but certainly, most of the documentaries made do focus on virtual affairs, sex and betrayal. So do most news stories. That much, that you’d - almost - start to believe the only thing we rezzed for was SLex. Or did I miss any good, constructive stories & research papers that were released recently? If so, please hit me up! SLex is not a necessity for procrastination in the virtual world, so what is the purpose of our - virtual - lifes?

Image credit: Tymmerie Thorne

But you all seem to enjoy it a lot, and spend a huge amount of time wrapping your anonymous accusations and declarations of hate in a pretty, photoshopped picture. I figured I could save you some time by supplying a SLsecret Template, for easy & quick venting of frustrations. This is an “example use”, the empty SLsecret Template, you can download from Flickr. I hope you will all see this as what it is, a service to the Second Life community, rather than a non-anonymous attack on a bunch of cowards.

Try some “positive venting” for a chance, and take up Winter Jefferson’s blogger challenge, to say a “Thank you!” to the people you admire in Second Life, those that inspire and support you.

“We haven’t delivered the promised ‘before January’ information on script limitations for OpenSpace and Homesteads yet, but… lookie!!! Snowman!!! Whilst you’re distracted by that much snowy goodness, we’ll look into continuing to keep this promised information from you in different languages*). Happy New Year!“

Snowman ’shot’ by by Nim and build by Cutea Benelli.

* Not that we’re doing a good job at that.

Update: LL just released a time estimate on inserting script limitations, which differs a lot from the initinal “Before January 5th, we’ll tell you what the script limitations will be.” Timing for Script Limits:

1. In Q1, we will be gathering data on script load, and sharing this usage data with the community before deciding what the most appropriate limits are.
2. In Q2, we expect there to be Viewer changes to allow you to monitor your script usage against those limits.
3. In Q3 we will begin enforcing script limits.

My prediction for 2009: The first month of 2009 Lindens will be very busy handling support questions in all possible languages that say something like this… “Why you raise did you me charging?” Localizing our content and experience in key international markets is a great objective, but with such a serious price hike - and weak argumentation for it - this should have been implemented in 2008 already. Knowing why you’ll soon be billed 66% extra is ‘key experience’, right?

(not so much a) PS. Anybody knows where to find the “We expect to have details of the limitations for scripts before January and will make those public as soon as we can“? Except for Babbage Linden Office Hours?

Update: LL just released a time estimate on inserting script limitations, which differs a lot from the initinal “Before January 5th, we’ll tell you what the script limitations will be.” Timing for Script Limits:

1. In Q1, we will be gathering data on script load, and sharing this usage data with the community before deciding what the most appropriate limits are.
2. In Q2, we expect there to be Viewer changes to allow you to monitor your script usage against those limits.
3. In Q3 we will begin enforcing script limits.

So, err, although you get a “delay” or “free pass” off 6 months, you still don’t know what exactly the products “OpenSpace”, “Homestead” or even “Full Sim” are…. . Pretty nice to make your decisions upon when purchasing one, right? :D

So please, could those of you who have met me in real life, have heard me on voice for a few hours, or that have taken the time to look here, here or here, help put Prokofy’s troubled mind at peace by confirming I am a ‘real life’ female? So Miss Prokofy may publish a rectification on her blog, where she also made this statement? It’s about time that-what-shall-not-be-talked-about (and that-what-I-was-ignoring until she pulled this stunt) learns to say ‘OMG, sorry, I was wrong!’

Vint, are you a male originally in real life, either cross-dressing in that rather ambiguous photo you put up here on your website under “about me,” or perhaps in the process of transgendering? Nothing wrong with that, but I find ambivalence about such a status often does often explain the particular obsessiveness and viciousness with which some SL types like yourself begin hysterically hating me, putting up hate pages about me, whiting out my comments like Orwell’s 1984, etc. etc. So, you know, just sayin’. Say, has anybody actually seen the real Vint Falken in RL, and can they comment on his/her real or presented gender? (From the comments at BD vs. Catharine Fitzpatrick. As you can see, I’ve been quiet there for ages, so I don’t see why she all of the sudden feels the need to attack me again. Except for ‘the loose wire’ theory, of course.)

Update: So this is why (s)he’s pissed. And article I wrote in defence of Benjamin Duranske when Prokofy Neva chose to attack Benjamin’s RL persona, that is ranking well on Google and titled Benjamin Duranske vs. Catherine Fitzpatrick. The irony is that it was supposed to help Benjamin’s reply to Prokofy’s accusations rank well. As Benjamin took down his article, I guess mine went up to first place. Well, it’s staying up, regardless which gender/sex that gets me.

1. It’s f*cking _flat_. You’re trying to sell a 3D!!!! world. Right. Black background. Sweet, and so web 2.0…. *rolls eyes* If you add at least a gradient (to create a sense of depth) or reflections. Same for your ‘photographs’. I can from head advise 20 people who’d produce more appealing content with no post-processing.
2. Where did the content go? When I visit your homepage, I want to know what’s the latest news, how many people are there online, how are we doing, … . I don’t mind if you game those numbers & stories, but at least show them. If I need click thrice to find those, just nvm. Like euhm… what if I’m not interested in Second Life for play, flirt, shop or dance?
3. I hate scrolling. More and more people are using mobile devices or ’smaller’ portable laptops to browse the webs. Your client might not be suited for those devices, but you do want to leave a good impression, no? Give every ’screen’ it’s function or move it out. If it’s just for showing of graphics quality - yeah right - move it to the showcase will you. Will save me my scrolling trauma. And if I am forced to scroll after all, vertical direction, please!

Cuddo’s though on not selling land on your front page anymore! That’s one hoax less. :D Oh, if you want to see it ‘full screen’, just take off the ‘?w=300&h=193″ hspace=”10″‘ and you get this. Yikes! Big Spaceship design disaster.

NSSFW version here - original by Miss Share Rile here

For example, IMVU has a ‘black market’ for ‘pixel boom boom’ equipment: “Don’t expect to be taking part in stuff like this often, it’s against the rules and the black market is very secretive about handing the furniture.” When asked if this ‘IMVU Orgy’ is not illegal, against IMVU’s ToS, Miss Shara Rile answers: “There is, they just hide it reeeaaally well to avoid being banned. Can’t stop people having their fun I figure.” Now, errr, I have a few questions:

1. What price does the ‘needed furniture’ switch owner for? (an average, converted to USD)
2. Are IMVU avatars born with genitals, or do these bits need to be purchased? Or even better, do they come attached to the furniture?
3. What’s the punishment if you get busted?

Hoping to get an answer from Miss Rile soon. In the mean while, do you know of any other virtual worlds or mmorpgs where avatars can have an - maybe illegal but healthy and more or less visually appealing - CGI sex life? ;)

This did not happen to me for virtual ages (read: a few months), so I was very surprised, and even a bit nostalgic when suddenly, I was wearing my UI again. I decided to just leave it that way, and wear it proudly! ;) In the back you see the lovely Mister ArminasX and we were talking about the SL Bloggers Mix’n Match Aftermath and our survey (results soonish!).

As far as I know, wearing your UI is a ‘local client’ bug and others don’t see it, so not possible to really ‘violate’ chat privacy rules. Posted because of bug-nostalgia. :D In RL fashion everything seems to go in ‘circles’, bootleg, tight jeans, wide disco pants, they all seem to be ‘fashionable’ then terribly outdated only to return about 10 years later. Will the same happen to our clothing issues? In 10 years from now, will we revive ‘prim stuck in ass’ as being worn only by the fashionable avatars? ;) And who will be the first SL designer to officially incorporate our User Interface into a design?

Before you look at the pictures - kindly supplied by the Daily Mail - I wish to note that this is not the average Second Life ‘gamer’ and that most of us even have a degree (and no leggings). Ktyvmbye. ;)

Oh, and for those worrying about the lady, she’s now happily living together with what’s rumoured to be a World of Warcraft Orc. Benefit of the Virtual World? If one platform fails at getting you what you want, you can always try another one? :D

What’s that? I’m making just as much fun of them as those RL err… quality papers? You bet! We do our best to show the world there are good uses for Second Life, that it has possibilities to connect people (not in that way), get them to cooperate (not in that way) and that it’s not all about cybering and pixel boom boom. And people like this really feel the need to - no pun intended - fuck that up. Will someone please take their computers away from them?

Hat tip for pointing me to the pwetty picturez: Mr. Rob Danton.

More and more people are leaving ‘orders’ for their real life memorial service / funeral, be it with friends or in a will. I remember that when we were 16, my friends and I had a list of songs that just had to be played at the funeral, and person that should certainly - or absolutely not - receive an invitation to the service. There have been some ‘memorable‘ gatherings in Second Life as to honour persons - their human as well as their avatar - who passed away. I was wondering, if something should happen to my human self, would someone organise an in-world memorial service for her & Vint, and what should it be like? Some thoughts:

1. Free red prim hair for everyone!
2. Speeches by Veyron & Tiessa, please.
3. ‘Best & worst of Vint’ photographs on display. Certainly include this, this and this one.
4. No voice, so all friends & acquaintances can attend comfortably.
5. Readings Typings from vintfalken.com. ;)
6. Stream compiled from my ‘Top Charts’ / ‘Loved Songs’ at last.fm.
7. Dresscode: greyscale.
8. Cute pink prim coffin, carried by Greenies, with a particle ‘vapour’ hoovering over it to represent the avatar soul.
9. ..

And you? Any special wishes? And how would you like to be remembered? A cute neko with big mouth and some useful tutorials would do fine for me! ;)