Is Prok incapable of telling the truth?

Ok so everyone has had a run in with Prokofy Neva at some point. Recently she waded into the xStreet forums to drag up stuff from last June involving me. The jist is I bought some land and built a store with my friend Moon Cole. There were a few trees and stuff that were “blowing” through our walls so I IM’d the owner of the land and asked if they could be moved a wee bit, I then noticed the owner of th etrees was Governor Linden, there were some on Linden land coming through too so being a concierge customer I had a quick live chat and my friendly Linden helper quickly cleared up the land. Prok and her alt Random Unsung in particular was well pissed off at this and even more annoyed that we had the audacity to open a shop cos it wasn’t a “commercial” area despite all th eshops around us. So she started griefing us and putting up signs that were removed by G-Team.

A while later I had bought more land to make my home, a small village for myself and my friends, they paid me cost price rent just to home us all in little houses. Another plot came up and I thought with all the hassle at slosser I’d just move my store here and make it part of the village. I bought the land in one of the extreme low periods, I got it at 2.8, I wanted my new land now and needed the tier before someone else bought it so I dumped the old place to bots at 3.1. They obviously resold the land because that’s what they do and it was eventually bought by Max Daniels who chopped up all the roadside. So then prok accused me of cutting up the land, and then of “enabling” land cutters by selling land and having no influence over what happens after its changed hands twice.

So she brought all this up on xStreet and then here on her blog.

I don’t have much chance to reply as she is against the truth and certainly won’t let me link to that on her blog. Here are the chat logs, AR’s, live chat, support ticket and photos that show up her lies.

– Instant message logging enabled –
[19:23] Ewan Mureaux: Hi, if i messaged you earlier sorry, maggie linden fixed it when she she was over one of the trees actually belonged to gov linden
[19:23] Ewan Mureaux: keep up the good work!
[19:24] Random Unsung: what was this about?
[19:24] Ewan Mureaux: just a couple of trees were coming through our wall, it was no biggy
[19:24] Random Unsung: which sim is this?
[19:24] Ewan Mureaux: slosser
[19:24] Ewan Mureaux: sorry i jsut saw you flying around
[19:24] Random Unsung: oh are you the people who put up the big ugly Weird Shit sign?
[19:25] Ewan Mureaux: well i’m the other side
[19:25] Ewan Mureaux: i’m more the person who put the big nice glass conservatory and garden
[19:25] Ewan Mureaux: moon cole owns weird shit
[19:25] Random Unsung: ok
[19:25] Random Unsung: I just saw that Weird Shit thing, not a welcome addition, but land is so cheap you can’t stop people from crapping it up
[19:26] Ewan Mureaux: moon is a very old av and so is her store
[19:26] Ewan Mureaux: 2 years in pheosia
[19:26] Random Unsung: and that makes it ok?
[19:26] Ewan Mureaux: well anything that ismt spinning cubes or porn is better
[19:27] Random Unsung: oh you are in the same group, so you ARE related
[19:27] Random Unsung: I don’t see any um glass conservatory
[19:27] Ewan Mureaux: the real trouble is kalyrra, robo and cytherea
[19:27] Ewan Mureaux: but you know that
[19:27] Random Unsung: and I fail to see why I giant sign saying Weird Shit is going to make sales, you make sales from search
[19:27] Ewan Mureaux: its a well known brand
[19:27] Random Unsung: No, the real trouble is people like you feeling you are superior merely because you aren’t at the very bottom of the bottom feeders
[19:27] Random Unsung: If it’s a well-known brand, why I have a big ugly sign?!
[19:28] Ewan Mureaux: the trouble is people with a superiority complex
[19:28] Random Unsung: No, I’m a normal person who lets you know your sign is ugly : )
[19:28] Random Unsung: you need to climb out of entitlement mode
[19:28] Ewan Mureaux: ok its not “my” sign but what i will say is if you have a brand identity and a store you put the two together
[19:28] Random Unsung: I guess I should put up a big sign that says EVEN WEIRDER SHIT
[19:28] Random Unsung: would that help?
[19:28] Ewan Mureaux: that makes sort of general sense
[19:29] Random Unsung: well you don’t *need* a sign in this world
[19:29] Random Unsung: it’s not Rt. 66 in the 1950s
[19:29] Ewan Mureaux: talking to the wrong person
[19:29] Ewan Mureaux: as its not my sign
[19:29] Random Unsung: you’re in the same group der
[19:29] Ewan Mureaux: so?
[19:29] Random Unsung: soy ou are responsible for what is on group land
[19:30] Ewan Mureaux: anyway, yes i do give a toss about mainland, but not to the point that everything should be vetted
[19:30] Random Unsung: and I’m telling you that your hysteria over a few Linden trees is hilarious, given that you’ve put up a giant ugly sign, just to put it in perspective
[19:30] Ewan Mureaux: concentrate on the porn and cutters
[19:30] Random Unsung: well your sign is big and ugly in an area where there is already ugly signs that people have fought for years
[19:30] Ewan Mureaux: its not hysteria its open gl rendering
[19:30] Random Unsung: no, concentrate on the entitlement-happy freaks l ike yourself who make it possible
[19:31] Random Unsung: I think until you look at a sign that says EVEN WEIRDER SHIT for awhile, you will fail to grasp the issue
[19:31] Ewan Mureaux: tree intersecting a build causes a glitch, i was only being nice
[19:31] Random Unsung: you don’t need to call Lindens to have a tree moved
[19:31] Random Unsung: and it is Linden owned because the land is kept exactly as it was originally
[19:32] Random Unsung: whatever, your idea of “very old” is 2005 lol
[19:32] Ewan Mureaux: think that could be trademark infringement given the long term branding but you would have to take that up with the person who actually belongs to it not an third party
[19:32] Random Unsung: are you out of your mind?
[19:32] Ewan Mureaux: so one year older gives one the right to preach
[19:32] Ewan Mureaux: no 6 months
[19:32] Random Unsung: what is trademark infringement?!
[19:32] Random Unsung: putting up a sign that says EVEN WEIRDER SHIT?
[19:32] Random Unsung: good, call my lawyer then dear
[19:33] Ewan Mureaux: please dont call me dear
[19:33] Ewan Mureaux: anyway
[19:33] Ewan Mureaux: point is, if you have an issue
[19:33] Random Unsung: would a megaprim work for you?
[19:33] Ewan Mureaux: please take it up with the person it concerns
[19:33] Random Unsung: or maybe a lot of littler spinning flashing cubes?
[19:33] Ewan Mureaux: think megaprims are AR-able
[19:33] Random Unsung: you are in a group that owns the land, stop ducking responsibility
[19:33] Random Unsung: sadly, no
[19:34] Ewan Mureaux: pretty sure they are ok for private islands

===================

[16:56] Random Unsung: I’ve never said advertising was bad, asstard; I’m all for capitalism and liberty — but consideration of neighbours and zoning are good restraints on the excesses of capitalism — and socialism for that matter, which you appear to practice. My signboard next to the store BMG, and across from the Bay City Rockers is not in a residential zone, by a lake and a cobblestone road and gardens and woods everywhere. It’s in a business and entertainment district. I’m not an ad farmer and I never put signs up to destroy the view in a nice area. I don’t put up signs that say in giant black and white WEIRD SHIT. To come into an area where people have been fighting ugly signs for years, and plunk down a stupid cement box, built SMACK on the property line, and put up an ugly sign which doesn’t help sales and only mars the view is inconsiderate and entitlement-happy. And that’s what you are. God knows why you would even put a store in a place like that in the first place — you want to look out on the nice view everyone
[16:56] Random Unsung: else created for you, and destroy theirs. Like I said, ass tard.
[16:56] Ewan Mureaux: hahahhahaa
[16:56] Ewan Mureaux: i had quotes
[16:57] Ewan Mureaux: entitlement is my money
[16:57] Ewan Mureaux: my say so
[16:57] Ewan Mureaux: and the 8176 just went commercial also
[16:57] Ewan Mureaux: so is its a predominantly commercial are
[16:57] Ewan Mureaux: area
[16:58] Random Unsung: so? you set a bad example
[16:58] Ewan Mureaux: punt is, you’re a hypocrite, and a fool
[16:58] Random Unsung: it is not a predominantly commercial area in the slightest, just because you imagine so
[16:58] Random Unsung: I’m not a hypocrite, as I follow rules and zones, I am considerate of the view
[16:58] Random Unsung: My sign doesn’t destroy a view in a commercial area
[16:58] Random Unsung: yours does
[16:58] Random Unsung: it’s stupid, too, and infantile
[16:58] Ewan Mureaux: well thers my shop, the shops accross the road, the porno cinema and the new shops behind us
[16:58] Random Unsung: like…wow…aren’t we the kool kids saying “weird shit”
[16:58] Ewan Mureaux: nope
[16:58] Random Unsung: Lame
[16:59] Random Unsung: and stupid
[16:59] Random Unsung: and ugly
[16:59] Random Unsung: and I’m happy to tell you so : )_
[16:59] Ewan Mureaux: you are clearly a fool and have no grasp of language, only philistines condemn language
[16:59] Ewan Mureaux: so
[16:59] Ewan Mureaux: good tay to you
[16:59] Ewan Mureaux: day*
[16:59] Random Unsung: Most people are considerate enough to a) not build smack on the property line b) not put up ugly stupid signs because they aren’t needed for sales
[16:59] Random Unsung: they don’t mar a nice region, and hijack the view
[17:00] Random Unsung: like I said, you expect everyone else to hold the view for you to look o n, and destroy it for them
[17:00] Random Unsung: selfish and piggish
[17:00] Random Unsung: but typical of SL types
[17:00] Ewan Mureaux: the entitlement is – mu money, my tier, so screw you pretty much
[17:00] Random Unsung: my money, my tier too, so screw you totally
[17:00] Random Unsung: welcome to my blog *shrugs*
[17:00] Ewan Mureaux: you know theres no wildlife in sl, no carbon dioxide to worry about
[17:00] Ewan Mureaux: no o-zone layer
[17:01] Ewan Mureaux: briliant can u get a link?
[17:01] Ewan Mureaux: can i get a link?
[17:01] Ewan Mureaux: i’l link from mine
[17:01] Ewan Mureaux: gr4eat to feel the wrath of blog
[17:01] Ewan Mureaux: guy builds on his own propery shocker
[17:01] Ewan Mureaux: i can see the headlines
[17:02] Ewan Mureaux: feel free to use any chat between us
[17:02] Ewan Mureaux: please do keep it full and complete though
[17:02] Ewan Mureaux: have a vote maybe?
[17:04] Ewan Mureaux: oh and you put up a sign in giant black and white letter saying “even weirder shit”
[17:04] Ewan Mureaux: want me to link to pictures of pots and kettles for you?
[17:04] Ewan Mureaux: maybe you could compare them

My abuse report
============

Harrassment

Random Unsung

Harrassment, name caling, grief, generally trying to upset resis

Last week I bought a parcel of land, I built my shop and my friend built hers. Hers is called “weiird shit” and has been for years.. Sensitive that some people may take offence she keeps to mature areas. Our neighbour Random Unsung who apparently has a habbit of self righteous griefing and bullying.
[19:25] Random Unsung: I just saw that Weird Shit thing, not a welcome addition, but land is so cheap you can’t stop people from crapping it up
[19:31] Random Unsung: I think until you look at a sign that says EVEN WEIRDER SHIT for awhile, you will fail to grasp the issue
[16:56] Random Unsung: I’ve never said advertising was bad, asstard;
[16:56] Random Unsung: else created for you, and destroy theirs. Like I said, ass tard.
[17:00] Random Unsung: welcome to my blog *shrugs*

My followup ticket after she continued harassing – I thought she was a he then
===================================================
Follow up to multiple AR’s

Ticket Type: Land and Region Issues
Preferred Language: English
Details: Hi, this is a follow up to my recent chat with belinda, several AR’s and a question at g-team office hours.

A selection of of quotes from Porjkofy Neva and his alt random unsung. He ackowledges his alts in his blog secondthoughts.typepad.com and the second life herald. It’s public information.

[19:25] Random Unsung: I just saw that Weird Shit thing, not a welcome addition, but land is so cheap you can’t stop people from crapping it up
[19:27] Random Unsung: No, the real trouble is people like you feeling you are superior merely because you aren’t at the very bottom of the bottom feeders
[19:28] Ewan Mureaux: ok its not “my” sign but what i will say is if you have a brand identity and a store you put the two together
[19:28] Random Unsung: I guess I should put up a big sign that says EVEN WEIRDER SHIT
[19:31] Random Unsung: I think until you look at a sign that says EVEN WEIRDER SHIT for awhile, you will fail to grasp the issue
[16:56] Random Unsung: I’ve never said advertising was bad, asstard; I’m all for capitalism and liberty — but consideration of neighbours and zoning are good restraints on the excesses of capitalism — and socialism for that matter, which you appear to practice. My signboard next to the store BMG, and across from the Bay City Rockers is not in a residential zone, by a lake and a cobblestone road and gardens and woods everywhere. It’s in a business and entertainment district. I’m not an ad farmer and I never put signs up to destroy the view in a nice area. I don’t put up signs that say in giant black and white WEIRD SHIT. To come into an area where people have been fighting ugly signs for years, and plunk down a stupid cement box, built SMACK on the property line, and put up an ugly sign which doesn’t help sales and only mars the view is inconsiderate and entitlement-happy. And that’s what you are. God knows why you would even put a store in a place like that in the first place — you want to look out on the nice view everyone
[16:56] Random Unsung: else created for you, and destroy theirs. Like I said, ass tard.
IM me for full conversations
from the PJIRA
me – With some Bay City parcels under 512 that cannot be joined or subdivided and would need to be exempt for this proposal to work. Rules have to be universal and Bay City has made this suggestion obsolete so I am closing it as unworkable it wont finish.
prokofy-The closure made here was done vindictively as an editing war by someone with an inworld dispute.

from his blog

You’re someone who can have a store in Second Life with a giant sign saying WEIRD SHIT in giant glowing white and black (the black and white full bright sign was his under the alias random unsung)

I think putting up a giant sign that says WEIRD SHIT hijacking the view pretty much suppresses everybody else’s rights, because you’ve just ruined their view and hence their property values. It doesn’t matter if the credo of SL is “I get to do what the fuck I want to do on my land and fuck you” — that’s not the way to make a civil society. People can restrain themselves at least somewhat so as not to destroy the common weal in quite the horrendous way it always is destroyed in SL.

YOU are the one who agressively chased me around over a few trees waving, even getting Lindens involved, so stop hiding behind this fake and literalist bullshit. (i messages the three different owners of the particular trees, maggie was over clearing some things so she returned the offending ones)

A sign saying WEIRD SHIT is aggressive.

The IMs were not friendly — and pursuing three different officers, two of them alts, with a repetitive spamming message, and not waiting for the person to respond, and then getting a Linden to return the trees, is assholery, pure and simple, especially with smarmy little messages like “You’re doing a good job here, but” or “I appreciate you have a garden, but”.(shows that the alts were his, i didnt know i was IMing the same poerson behind the keyboard – live by the alth die by the alt)

Ewan I believe is a 25 year old lad from Scotland who is itching for a fight, and stubborn as hell and ignorant of the meaning of his own contradictory literalisms. But, hey, Irish, 52 here, and he’s met his match : ) (i just want people to mind their own business)

No, I don’t use these alts to “go places from which I’m banned,” I use them to hold more land groups with themes as we only get 25. They’re all obviously my alts so if someone were really determined to ban me, they’d ban my other groups too I suppose, but most don’t bother because those alts never go off their sims much, just taking care of buildings and whatnot on those sims.

Yes, I hope my blog will bring shame to your family unto 7 generations — let it be a lesson to you.

So in-world abuse, PJIRA trolling (apparently i have no interest in mainland and ad-cutters – so look at my tickets on both my accounts and my AR’s for the last year)

So His various Identities, Dear Leader? Random Unsung Prokofy Neva, are all one and the same and harassing people because its all some conspiracy by people who try be active in-world and you linden guys too, we’re all “arrogant coder fucks” apparently and have some socio-political agenda

My Live Chat
===============

Belinda: Thank you for contacting us. Your Linden helper is probably talking to multiple people at the same time, so please describe your issue in detail while you wait for them to become available.
Belinda: Hi how may I help you?
Ewan_Mureaux: Hi Belinda I have issues with ahrrassment and ARs arent cutting it. Someone has erected a sign right next to my land, I didnt care what they did cos thats their right but then they publicly claimed it was mine and i was “crapping up” the nieghbourhood followed by various other insults to me and pretty much everyone else who disagrees with them
Belinda: you need to raise AR’s so that the governance team can take action. In addition to that you can file a ticket with the information, but we still need the AR.
Ewan_Mureaux: its just going a bit far when i’m getting shit on the JIRA also is everyone else who ever disagrees with this guy and his various alts including several of you guys also
Ewan_Mureaux: I have AR’d him four times and at office hours was told to keep doing that
Ewan_Mureaux: I launch my store today and it would be nice to get rid of this sign proclaiming “even weirder shit”
Belinda: yes, absolutely.
Ewan_Mureaux: the guys a total douche
Ewan_Mureaux: well you probably know that
Ewan_Mureaux: so can I AR each one his alts he uses to harass?
Ewan_Mureaux: i mean public knowledge alts not wild speculation
Belinda: oh absolutely, in fact that will help us – and put in the comments that you think they are alts
Ewan_Mureaux: i can show the proof
Ewan_Mureaux: can i send a ticket with full conversations?
Belinda: yes, and just refer to that ticket in the ar
Ewan_Mureaux: i mean with stuff that says he’s going to do x,yz thing just to annoy us
Belinda: yes, put that in a ticket and cross reference
Ewan_Mureaux: ok while I go do some more typing and hope its enough to get rid of thus before tonight or there will be 40 people joining us to laught at this guy and hopefully ar too
Ewan_Mureaux: :\
Ewan_Mureaux: well i’l get on that, thanks very much for your time
Belinda: np

Proks "identical" sign is the white one

Moon's "failed" store on SL homepage

Moon's "failed" store in showcase

Random Unsung/ Prok wrote:
[19:29] Random Unsung: well you don’t *need* a sign in this world
[19:29] Random Unsung: it’s not Rt. 66 in the 1950s

No need for advertising - Proks hipocrisy

Admitting when you are wrong

Caution U Turn ahead.

Sometimes you have to put your hands up and admit when you are wrong. Admittedly it doesn’t happen very often but recently I made a poor assessment of a situation. My last blog was made at a time when I was very emotional about a situation in Second Life. You see what needs to be understood is that sometimes residents get too caught up in small issues because we operate in a microcosm, a delicate eco-system for small changes have dramatic effect on our second lives.

There are a couple of parts of my previous post I stand by but that I wish I had framed with altogether subtler words. I lost the reasoning that my education that i gained both in scholarly and business institutions. My main business in second life is land, now it’s a situation where you see daily sometimes hourly shifts and fluctuations because Second Life is life in miniature and sped up.

I was talking to Timo today about the open space fiasco and how in our heart of hearts we knew it was a good thing. I went so far as state the simple truth of the matter “I have been immature”. Maturity in business means not thinking about today and tomorrow or next week, you should be planning for next year, three years and five years in the future. Ok at the moment a lot of today and tomorrow comes into my plans as I build to a level where I can comfortably plan far in advance. The problem is that my concerns are not entirely the same but are shared with some of the larger “barons”. We in turn share some interest with everyone from the person logging on for the first time to the renter, club owner, Linden employee and Linden management. We all are bound to agree and disagree. The one thing we can all agree on though is that we want the grid to continue, grow and flourish. Because so many of us feel so strongly often words become heated, passions and vitriol rise. In a way it is positive that we care so much.

So I have been giving Jack Linden a hard time recently because my world, my business, was unsure. I was always making money, always had tier covered but my business is young it needs to be nurtured, small announcements that were affecting land rates were having a greater impact on me, so like anyone I looked for answers especially on matters that I felt assured about like the release of mainland, and the fact that I just taken my first open space sim. These things are of great importance to me but they are not important to the grid. The last couple of days I have felt better about the future of Second life, I feel that the open space announcement if anything has brought out some spirit and passion from people that they should look to when evaluating their second lives, what matters to them, who matters to them. It is in the face of adversity that they have come together in a spirit of unity, organising campaigns, forming groups and asking difficult questions.

Now, I’m happy that some people feel strongly and they are speaking up for themselves. I disagree with them though. The future of Second Life lies in a strong mainland, if we bring that spirit of community and set up home and business Second Life will have its second wind. Unfortunately there are many blatant lies published by estate owners regarding mainland and these lies are trickled down to the ordinary renter or small land holder. We are constantly told mainland is ugly, abandoned, and laggy. I repudiate those claims. Mainland already has unrivalled infrastructure, beauty, freedom of movement, interesting topography and potential than any private estate can or will ever have. Ok there are some arseholes. But they are everywhere. People need to look at the “save our sims appeal” which is being eulogised to by Kalyrra Heart and IntLibber Brautigan, who between them have set out to destroy mainland with negatively affecting advertising and extortion either by themselves or through their various fronts, channels, alts and pies which they firmly have their fingers plunged in. The tarnishing of mainland has been a deliberate plot to drive people to estates so that those estate owners can profit.

I started this post with an intention to apologise for my last post and point out my mistakes. I end this post with an apology to Jack Linden; however, I will qualify some of my remarks for the last post in a more fitting tone. I believe that bringing people back to mainland to make it the jewel in the crown of Second Life should be a top priority. I am dismayed that the advertising policy took so long to come into effect and that after a couple of weeks of rigorous enforcement there is a more relaxed attitude toward it. I believe that new content and areas should be being built to enhance the beauty and appeal of mainland, however, I believe the priority should be the older regions which are in need of most attention. Let’s fix what we have, restore faith and value in mainland and then work on new areas, hopefully then the great mainland myths propagated by those who are out to take your money can die and residents can start again as a community, sharing space, ideas and consciousness.

How many ways can you shaft an avatar?

Sooooooo I was about to write a blog about Linden lab and the way they have mismanaged real estate on the mainland. Today they posted a new blog about how they intend to fuck over estate owners too. So let’s have a look at what the hell is going on and ponder what is happening in Jack Lindens head. Here’s is my quick synopsis.

“Oh dear the mainland is too expensive its putting people off. Lets release lots more land because that will help balance the market. Hmmm why stop there; let’s drop the prices of estates also. Even better we double the prim allowance on open space sims, cut their cost and allow people to buy one at a time instead of four…………………… Oh shit the mainland is now worth nothing and we can’t release more sims because we need to charge this amount but they are only worth a fraction of that. Shit well lets pay people a pittance to create content for us then make special golden estates that are mainland, we’ll talk these up big style so people pay well over the odds for them. Ah shit they realised our game and mainland is still worth jack shit, let’s jack up the prices of the open spaces that killed prices in the first place.”

So the situation we have is that there is no stability. As the platform becomes more stable the one thing that separates it from the other opensim based projects is the economy. Now the economy is taking a shafting. So what does Linden Lab want?

Ok so let’s concentrate for a moment on the mainland situation. To keep this simple Second life has two types of estate, private estates which we will call islands and Linden which is known as the mainland. The mainland is comprised now of nine continents, sort of I shall explain. The first two “Sansara” and “Heterocera” are the cradle of life in SL. This is where it originally all expanded from, typically the lands are more interesting, they have more topographical features and anomalies and more Linden content. So you will find info hubs, Linden builds etc, basically an infrastructure, roads, rivers, railroads, places of interest. Then there are continents three to six which are basically slabs of digital wilderness that were dumped because people were buying them. Then continent seven which under a new program “Linden Department of Public Works” has a road almost running around it. Then continent eight was started but there was such a monumental fuck up in land prices that it just comes to an abrupt halt. Continent nine is a miniature and is called “Nautilus” this according to Jack Linden who manages the linden estate is not really mainland it’s a sort of special area, special in that they promised no new mainland and had to put a spin on this so it could be released.

The mainland has faced and still faces many problems, one in particular was ad-farming, and the practice of fucking up someone’s view so they would pay you to fuck off. LL attempted to sort this out in February 2008 when they made it an offense to extort via harassment (why it was ever cool is beyond me) so then they changed tack and basically fucked everyone off until October when LL finally had the balls to do something when they saw hundreds of pissed off residents. This in turn leads us onto the improvement of mainland and the beautifying of the place. So an elite band of moderately skilled and pitifully paid residents were banded together to start a project of building roads and adding value to mainland. There first act was to build a new city area which had double prim allowances and attracted phenomenal prices at auction for Linden Lab. Mainland residents were not served in the slightest buy this as the lands were mostly gobbled up by virtual real estate magnates some of which made their money in the afore-mentioned extortion rackets. Then they knocked up a half finished road on continent seven and added more content to the already brimming second continent. As I sit in my office in the shadow of the great wall, I can look over my garden across the SLRR (rail road) and see a newly built gas station and road. If the department for works was for the public why the fuck were they not building roads for the thousands of neglected customers who have bought land and been paying tier for months or years?

Ok so threes the quick history of it all, now let’s go back to last week, ok imagine this is Sofia from the golden girls. Picture this, its Second Life, mid October, mainland prices are at the lowest you can remember, whole sims are traded for 2.9L$/m 512m plots are selling at 2.3L$/m. You flick over to the official Second Life blog and read that Jack Linden has just “discovered” a new continent. You know this must be wrong because for months when you have asked about the dismal price of mainland you have been assured that no more will be released until the average hits six to eight linden dollars per meter. So you toddle off and visit this newly discovered continent and yes there it is, in all its glory yet another new project by the LDPW while the rest of mainland lays in waste, unloved (no fucking infrastructure) and unwanted (can’t fucking give it away).

So I went to office hours with Jack Linden and I asked some questions. Some questions the normally vociferous “financial sector” should have been asking instead of whingeing that we were all communists.

[11:01]  Jack Linden: so how are things? who has something they would like to talk about?

[11:01]  Ewan Mureaux: why you said no more mainland then released more

[11:02]  Jack Linden: Ewan: the basic ‘no new mainland’ through the normal route continues, these city regions are unusual and don’t happen regularly

[11:03]  Ewan Mureaux: especially when the week preceding prices dropped further and since you released more mainland, back door or not, prices have plummeted

[11:03]  Jack Linden: If Nautilus follows the way Bay City went, it won’t have a lasting effect, Bay City had an impact but only briefly
[11:03]  Ewan Mureaux: Bay city was dropped when the lowest price was what, 7?
[11:03]  Jack Linden: Timo.. Nautilus is about 8 regions maximum, of resident land
[11:04]  Jack Linden: Within 22 or so, Linden owned regions

[11:04]  Ewan Mureaux: completely different times now as it has been engineered to make the rest of mainland worthless

[11:05]  Ewan Mureaux: What is the point in continued efforts to improve and beautify mainland when it has no value, if you pay buttons for something then you have less time for it than something that is worth its value

[11:05]  Jack Linden: we will continue to work on the entire mainland, and even during building Nautilus we had more Moles working on other stuff than on that **Ewan adds – this is the new stuff at Bay City

[11:10]  Jack Linden: Average Mainland price has dipped slightly, to L$5.8, so we’ll watch it closely

[11:10]  Ewan Mureaux: jack can we get a mean average and not a median

[11:10]  Ewan Mureaux: because 10,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1 doesnt make the average price 5.8

11:11]  Jack Linden: that was a Mean average. I can also get you the median

[11:12]  Ewan Mureaux: so the extortion plots help pull that up and make everything rosey

[11:13]  Jack Linden: no, we discount those at each end of the bell curve

[11:15]  Ewan Mureaux: so you didnt want to release more land until the average was 6-8 and now a direct consequence of more land being released using your figures has dipped the average below 6

[11:16]  Jack Linden: No Ewan. this happened pre-announcement of Nautilus.

[11:17]  Ewan Mureaux: theres a more convincing argument for not releasing more land there then

[11:17]  Jack Linden: As I said, we will watch it closely, if it seems to be having an adverse effect we will back it off again.

[11:18]  Ewan Mureaux: I’m not trying to give you a hard time for the sake of it jack, just when given a straight answer to a direct question for weeks then that answer has caveats and loop holes, it leaves me frustrated

[11:19]  Jack Linden: Ewan, we don’t mean to frustrate, but we are also a business so we have to blance out decisions. And many people really want these areas, they want that choice of experience

[11:20]  Ewan Mureaux: we have the land, why not focus on making it more useful

[11:21]  Ewan Mureaux: there are abandoned continents, all the sanitised new areas do is cause ghettoisation

…………..

[11:23]  Jack Linden: And obviously we have to balance that with supply/demand and the current market

[11:24]  Jack Linden: Nautlius is a drop in the ocean compared to the volume of land traded each month, it just happens to be very visible

I’ll make the full chat log available there are some excellent points from people who own a shit load more land than I do, including Sarah Nerd, Timo Daehlie and Chaos Mohr. So then this weekend parcels for nautilus went for sale at auction and started garnering bid of 40KL$+ or in real terms over $150 USD for a 1024m piece of digital real estate. Some of those sold are already up for sale at L$175k. So this public department that was set up to enrich mainland and the user experience of existing customers is now working for minimum wage creating new sanitised estates that are sold for amounts well beyond the means of normal residents or casual gamers. The other area and info hub that “the moles” are working on is yet more content surrounding the ghost town that is Bay City to try and give that the value to match the hype. Not that it matters when people are attempting to buy up exclusivity when LL is just discovering new places. It’s a simple plea here, dear Linden Lab as a fee paying, tier paying resident I would like to see a decent level of service and the area I have been paying hundreds of dollars for to come in for treatment. All they appear to be doing is causing old mainland to become a ghetto and encourage “white flight” to their extremely expensive new areas.  To summarise, they fucked up the land price, they lied about releasing more land and they laid that there would be a team of residents creating content and building roads for the benefit of the community as a whole.

Now a lot of virtual real estate types got really fucked off with mainland. Prices fell apart, whole continents left to ruin, residents were tired of it. A lot of real estate types focused more heavily on private estates, especially as open space sims were made more accessible. In essence an Open Space is the same size as a normal region but sucks donkey dick for running scripts. They used to be limited to supporting 1875 prims but when they were made more accessible, the prices and conditions dropped but the prim allowance went up. Open Space sims run fine with a few avatars and buildings on them. They suck ass big time if you start trying to do script intensive stuff and it not only affects your sim but your core neighbours on the processor. So if you’re the type of retard that goes an opens a script-heavy club on one you lag yourself and your neighbours and you should be shot.  Admittedly your realtor should be explaining this to you so you know what you’re getting.

The prices dropped and people went crazy for OS sims. They sold like cakes that were hot, seriously. This helped deflate mainland prices even more. Then today Jack in his infinite wisdom decides to move the goalposts again. Yep if you just bought a fuckload of these you can pay more or lose them. This isn’t a couple of dollars more this 67% increase on the price. Now, they aren’t beefing up the hardware any to match the demand put on them. Imagine this situation, I own a petrol station, I raise the price of fuel 67%, it doesn’t make your car drive any faster but you sure as hell might use it less.

I think my biggest concern about this whole land mismanagement fuck up debacle is the absolute inability to responsibly manage the estate. People want a steady ship and unfortunately in Jack Linden we have a one-eyed, hook handed, drunken pirate with vertigo at the helm. He’s fucked and he’s fucking us. Gambling was supposed to be banned in Second Life but you can hop on the roulette wheel of land ownership any time just remember that nothing is certain, prices will never be steady and your land may be at risk if you do not keep up your tier payments.

I think that is all I have to say at the moment.

I don’t blog enough

It’s 9am I have been awake sixteen hours and I thought it was about time I blogged. I was cosidering moving the blog to my new website but why bother when it’s here already? Any, I’ve been troubled recently in my Second Life® It appears that Linden Research are doing everything in their power to end the land market or at least cut them self more pie. I think my problems with them deserve their very own post and I’ll do that after I have some sleep.

The only other things concerning me are the US elections. I watched most of the debates, I only missed the first one, so I saw the other two and the VP one. Obviously because I’m some lefty communist euro-type if I could vote it would be for Obama. It’s pretty much a no-brainer. I should do another post on that. I was always good at politics at school but my reluctance to use flowery language might piss off intelectuals or pseudo-intelectual republicans who can’t see the irony in McCain buying out the banks. So yes, the US election, the clocks changing, it’s getting colder from what I can see from the window. I think after I sleep I’ll either write about about the lab or the election both have probably been done to death by people who have better vocabularies though.

So my pre-new year resolution is to blog more. Coming soon, I promise.

Unorganised, probably

I haven’t written anything here for ages. A lot of reasons for that. I think mostly I am a person who is not organised and never will be, I’m missing that gene.  I’ve not been in the best of health recently either, ranging from actual sickness to killer toothaches and my old favourite the whole mental ilness thing which has gotten a lot worse. Its now been one whole year that I’ve been in my house, one year of not going out at all.

Second life has been hectic too, I haven’t had much chance to write about it or make new videos. I’ve been worked like a mule by a new scripting client, I’m not complaining it helps me pay tier and I really enjoy the challenge of scripting new things. Been dabbling a bit in land also, I seem to have bought in at exactly the right time maybe possibly if they see through on their promise to clean up mainland. We can but hope.

On Monday I decided to take a few days off. I was going to watch movies but ended up deciding to experiment with windows vista. I didnt want to go whole hog into 64 bit computing without beefing up my hardware so i went for windows vista ultimate 32 bit edition. I’m hardly a power user or anything I just like trying and everything out, I figure if I went to 32 bit vista now that when I *have* to change to 64 bit it will be less of a shock, this is a smooth transitional period. It has some way cool features, starts up faster and looks amazing. I’m sold on it. I really like vista. Although I would suggest you help yourself out a load by using something like driver genius to help get all your vital systems up to date. I did the laptop on Tuesday and played with it then on Wednesday I  added a small old hard drive (only 6gb – how cute?) and some extra fans to my main  computer so it had some of me in it and installed vista on that too.

Other ideas this week have been to possibly write a book or a film called “Getting away with it” like the song by Electronic The plot would sort of be about a blagger. Well lots of things really, also he would sort of walk in and out of peoples lives like Michael Landon in highway to heaven only but when he left he’d be going back to his own living hell. I really wish I could just write it and stop just thinking I was a total dick every time I try to do anything. I don’t let myself be creative often enough. I’ve been referred to a psychiatrist so maybe that’s something we can discuss. Maybe.

So to sum up I am incredibly busy for someone who essentially does nothing.

How to avoid snow blindness in SL

I did a video tutorial on how to install skins for the RC 1.20 secondlife viewer.

Links used are here………

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Viewer_Skins

and JB Krafts site here

http://kwerkslabs.com/skins/

The problem with America is Europe

I live in the global community of Second Life. I see and hear and meet and read about so many different people, so many different backgrounds and lifestyles. A reccuring theme has been the anti-American sentiment in some quarters and its counterpart the flag waving defence of their country.

I’ve been thinking a lot about perceptions and how we sound exotic to each other, as mentioned in an earlier post. I mentioned of course that we’ve grown up on a diet of American TV and Film so much so that it is ingrained in our psyche that our heroes are American. And this has developed my thoughts on the matter of country bashing that I read. I think that the rest of the world perhaps expects too much of of the USA. That we have built up an unachievable ideal that it must match. That the country like its Hollywood heroes should be shiney toothed, determined hunks, standing for justice and good.

I developed this analogy further in that the USA is our child, in many ways Europe gave birth to her. We expected her to achieve so much. She grew up just like us, and deep down we were saddened. So perhaps we should look at ourselves in the mirror, examine our own ideals and expectations, perhaps then we can point the finger – I very much doubt we would.

It reminds me of poem by Philip Larkin, “This Be The Verse”

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

So I may disagree with some things the government carries out in the name of citizens of the USA. I may disagree with people who happen to be American. Do I hate the USA? Why should I? It’s just the same as my country or your country, except we probably had an empire and wiped out scores of indigenous people.

Linden Highway code?

What is it? Do we drive on the left or the right? What is this speed, 75 what? Bananas per month?

This is some weird shit

I took the time to interview my friend and star Second Life creator, Moon Cole at her store Weird Shit. This is a two parter.

Part1

Part2

Second Life land hippocrisy