Second Thoughts

A Game-God Makes a Draft Bill of Avatar Rights

Raph Koster tipped us off to a game-god dude by the name of Erik Bethke who makes GoPets who is actually trying to get people to help him write a more enlightened EULA or something of a Bill of Avatar Rights.

I've made my usual critique of Raph's old Bill of Avatar Rights, which is too collectivist and concerned about the "common weal" (as defined by...game gods? their pets?) and doesn't house rights in the individual, and make them inalieable -- as they should be (like the U.S. Constitution, God bless it).

And then I've made a line-by-line critique of this fellow's effort, which I'm forced to conclude is not a Bill of Rights at all, really, at the end of the day, as it stands now, although I think it's an important start. I won't take the nihilist and sneering attitude of Matt Mihaly, that avatars don't exist, and don't have rights, because they are data in game-gods' code, in software on servers. But anything that adds the phrase "and duties" or "and obligations" can't call itself a "Bill of Rights" -- as I explain. It's a set of rules for relations -- a social contract that isn't so much about real avatar rights as it is merely being public about company intentions and expectations. That's good -- more notification and due process is always better than none -- but that's not confuse good customer relations and that PR effort with "making a bill of rights" -- which it definitely is not.

Linden Roads

You know, I find it just about impossible to deal with Chadrick Linden. Perhaps they're mandated to be secretive and distractive, but he makes it a fine art. Each time I raise Ban-Link, and the Lindens essentially GOM-ing the Ban-Link, he flies into hurt, pouting, petulant mode and tells me I'm telling lies about the Lab. He can get away with this crap by being literalist and tekkie about what's happening -- no, technically, the Lindens aren't physically purchasing/co-opting Ban-Link coded by Travis Lambert and Myra Pixel. But...they are taking the *functionality* of Ban-Link and planning it for the client.

I don't know the mechanism for how they do it. Currently, Ban-Link runs on a script with an outside server. I can't imagine the Lindens will do that..but who the hell knows? Chadrick stated very explicitly: Governor Linden will have a ban list. And people can add it to theirs if they wish. Now, how do they do that? Right-click on the ground and press a button that says "add to my ban list"? I have no idea. Getting parcel data in a command and then laying it into another parcel isn't that much of a walk at the beach, or we wouldn't have the gangster barons clamouring for SVC#244 and trying to get the Lindens to throw the platform once again.

If Linden Lab is planning a shareable ban list function -- then, I'm sorry, that's Ban-Link. It's ilke saying, oh gosh, the Konica copier isn't a copier like the Xerox copier, it's only a duplicator. I'm seriously, do they honestly think we are retarded?! What's exasperating about this shit is that we can't get them to see the huge gaping flaw in this system that will make the world more miserable than it is -- that everyone will grab every list, and there will be no appeal or recourse.

"I Am Destroyer of Worlds"

What are world-destroyers? In the case of our virtual world, ironically, they come from real life into what many on the outside view as a fiction or a game, and they come in the name of augmentationalism, the Platform Party, Realifism, to dispel the role-play, the mists of Lindenor, the fantasy. Yet, those who are immersionists, advocates of the World Party, and Virtualism, will be the first to tell you that what the world-destroyers destroy is actually the seedlings of something very *real* -- a Better World that isn't a utopia, but is a living, breathing reality for many people. Something very real that evidently must threaten the world-destroyers, and impel their world-destruction. They lash out and try to crush it, so much do they fear the possibility of a free economy and a culture they cannot control. They will invoke every Law, every Custom and spare no effort in the name of eradicating what is supposed to be ephemeral virtuality -- they shouldn't have to exert such energy over. Funny, that.

Mark Bragg, Stroker Serpentine, Benjamin Duranske and all the others who have tried to sic real-life law and order on Second Life are all world-destroyers. No doubt some of them think they are Doing Good and in fact securing the reality of virtuality by making it an extension of our tired old meat-world. No doubt Bragg believes his interests will replicate into all our interests if he can prove that Philip was a fraud when he beckoned to us to believe he was selling "land" in a "country" that was "not a game". (While many want Bragg v. Linden to establish that SL land is real and has value, that's actually not likely, and not in Bragg's interest; what is most workable and likely for him is to establish that Philip had a con, and then he can say he was defrauded and beg for damages. That will be a severe blow for LL and SL).

Gone...Over to the WSE

Jim Schack, Intlibber's security goon, arrives to uh...see what's going on. Ginko rents 2 sims from BNT, Intlibber's rentals agency; Ginko Island is owned separately by GingoTec

I'm here at the Ginko's main terminal on Ginko Island, as Forepawz Golem and Hiroserm Rebus are reporting that all deposits and withdrawals have ceased, balances are no longer showing, and all deposits are being converted to GPBs, or "Ginko Perpetual Bonds".

I have a very practical suggestion: start praying now to Our Lady of Perpetual Help to see your perpetual bonds again hehe. Nothing much else could speed things up.

The furry guards -- who say they are doing this "for fun" and are not on any payroll and don't get "one blunt penny" -- think it would only take them about an hour to prepare the database of customers for transfer, but that the WSE might screw up and take hours...days...a while...to show all the balances back again.

One can begin to buy that there indeed might be a separation between these two gents and Nicholas Portecarrero because of the way they talk with open skepticism and even criticism, and the doubts expressed about the WSE set-up.

There are about a dozen avatars here trying to get out their savings. One says "everything she ever made in SL" is tied up in her Ginko's account, which is now something I imagine to be akin to my dad's old Titanium Alloy stock. The furries are making assurances, Nicholas is online, and the scene is orderly, but with a lot of questions. Most people seem to understand perfectly well what they got themselves into, and seem phlegmatic about it. They come, get the notecard, ask a question -- leave.

Ginko's Going...Going?

Furries Golem and Rebus guarding the Ginko terminal on the island Ginko

I'm talking to Nicholas Portacarrero right now. And also Forepawz Golem and Hiroserm Rebus. Last night, I noted that the Ginko terminals had ceased to accept deposits -- though apparently they still were giving withdrawals. They gave a message that they were "offline". Now, as of 8:30 pm SLT, they still are not accepting deposits, and giving a message that they are "offline". I got this statement from the guards from Nicholas' own announcement on his forum, ""We have stopped deposits to keep people unaware of the situation from depositing money into the system."

To be sure, I saw some brand-new people roll up to the terminal at Pharos Island without any knowledge of the affair, and one avatar begin to instruct another in the wonders of high-interest risky deposits -- accurately, in fact. Rumours are floated by that busybody Nobody Fugazi and others (he's actually blocked me from reading his site -- chuckles -- as if you can block the Internet!) -- that Ginko will force-convert everybody's deposits to bonds at the much-discredited World Stock Exchange.

Nicholas says he has "no comment" about anything to do with the bonds -- and rumours that he will convert all deposits to bonds in the World Stock Exchange. He also says he hopes to bring the terminals online again, but had no specifics. UPDATE: by 8:45 pm the notecards at the terminals were giving the announcement that all deposits have been turned into "perpetual bonds" at the World Stock Exchange.

I asked Nicholas what he thought had brought on the run on the bank. "Gambling ban, without a doubt," he said. There are stories out now about his investments in casinos; he had no comment. He never comments on where his investments are....were....

Welcome Area Windfall

Just one for the annals of the "why-are-we-not-surprised" department. Remember the Welcome Areas arranged by the Lindens to get the newbie stream, a piece of the action of sign-ups?

Not surprisingly, some of the corporate select didn't want to just stick to boring, unprofitable newbie orientation, and trying to figure out how to retain avatars with everything from dancing to scuba-diving; they wanted a piece of the pie.

Big Pond made sure to get theirs. The Australian welcome area first sent out prospectuses to some of us to see if we'd be interested in renting land, then made the announcement public. They are being sold outside of SL at an auction site in Australia. I don't believe the press releases we got mentioned prices, so I'll have to dig, but they seemed to be luxury condos.

What's wrong with this? Absolutely nothing! It's a *good* thing! Helping newbies is hard, thankless work; the ONLY way you can justify it is if it leads to sales of rentals, clothing, vehicles -- something! -- such as to pay for your tier at least, if you not your time. So...why am I complaining? Because the Lindens should have open bids for businesses to bid for the newbie stream if they can provide services, and shouldn't just select a short list of buddies under the guise they'll be altruistic. I wonder how Adam Zaius is making out with all his flood of newbies; or for that matter, any of them. Looking at the ones I covered more than a month ago, I see very low traffic.

Virtual Law is to Law as Martial Law is to Martial Music...

Pro Bono Second Life, an office locked to group-only, that bars the ordinary avatar from the public at large.

Like the old saw "figures lie and liars figure," there ought to be a saw about virtual lawyers -- "two lies in two words"? Or, something like..."virtual law is to law...as...martial law is to law, as martial music is to music"? Something like that? That is, they aren't real lawyers, because they are virtual, and often uncheckable -- and unchecked! -- and operating in a grey area called the "metaverse" that may just acquire its own reality over their heads, and over the jurisdictions where they are admitted to the bar. And they aren't really virtual, because they're approaching Second Life as just an extention of real life bound by RL laws wherever the servers are located. Like a lot of other pioneers showing up early in the pixelated frontier, they are big egos.

In RL, the common man often loathes lawyers, because they charge a lot, and are often hired, or work for, large companies or governments and are part of what oppresses the little guy. So often, just to obtain a right to housing or labour or health care, you need to pay lawyers, and it's so expensive, many don't attempt it. Some people come to rely on crusading civil rights attorneys, but they can be difficult on their own terms because they often have to be terribly arrogant and egotistical to accomplish what they do. Like journalists, who only care about getting stories and getting their bylines (and then forget about the people they interview generally when that's done), lawyers work for clients -- and if there isn't a client paying them, they don't persist in defending/caring about that client. It tends to make for a cynical and exploitative profession that attracts personalities turning many people off to law in general.

The twittersphere was agog about a recent headline claiming that lawyers are making money in Second Life. Like the claim that RL companies can get ROI in SL for their public relations campaign, or the claim that you can make a million US in real estate, this claim, like all SL-claims, bears scrutiny -- and is basically hype.

Taking Stock: "The Fastest Growing Economy in the World"

Shaun Altman, young SL fox and stock exchange coder, hopes to fill the shoes of Warren Buffet some day.

I hope you're taking stock of the SL financial scene this weekend without having had your stock taken. Did you know that Second Life has the fastest growing economy in the world? Real world, that is? Take a look at the job description for Customer Service Relations on the lindenlab.com website, and note this claim:

"The L$ economy is by far the fastest growing economy on the (real world) planet."

Wow! No wonder we have some, er, growing pains, shall we call it? You thought it was just about age-old scams like the one named for Ponzi, or clumsy stupidity reacting to new American Puritanical casino laws? But it's merely because Second Life is the fast growing economy on the REAL WORLD PLANET, people! I simply don't know enough history or economics to understand if this is true; but I suppose China or Brazil or Germany or something simply don't grow as fast.

Of course, maybe it's easy to grow fast when your economy consists of a lot of fuzzy math or monkey numbers, like "8 million citizens" (really more like 250,000), or "$1,141,593 spent in the last 24 hours" (what will it be minus casino payments?). I always thought that was an amazing trick, given that the same website says that only $198,133 in LindEx activity was noted, and only 40,000 or so are logged on at any one time, and less than 500,000 spend more than $1 L per *month*. How do they do it?! So...I imagine that there may be challenges to this astounding statement, but let's think about it!

My Enemies List

As social media grows and matures, Enemy Lists will come to be seen as important -- nay, even MORE important than Friend Lists! Many social media force you to make friends list with people you don't particularly like, just so they can see your content and send you stuff. I think we need good, robust enemies list so that while reading and consuming social media, we can see what motivates people to make the kind of comments they do. Indeed, I'm suggesting three tiers of enemies so that we can locate and analyze people's speech about others in a context where they may be indulging in vengeance or campaigns of harassment.

When you see people's very short enemies' list -- you suddenly begin to put into context what seems like a chorus of haters and vilifiers -- you realize it only takes a few to poison a well, and feign that their numbers are legion.

1st Tier Enemies -- Not only do they post the most vituperative commentary about you, they viciously stalk you around the Internet, posting everywhere you post to try to smear your reputation, finding you where you live -- even in real life! They ferret out RL data and use it to vilify you; they post outright falsehoods. These types of enemies loathe your very being and want you gone from the Internet -- they aren't just kvetching about one beef. Beware!

2nd Tier Enemies -- They have a private grudge, a vengeance over some imagined or even real slight, and they post on your blog or on their own blogs against you, or ban you from their blogs, but they don't really cross the street to harass you. They won't be calling you in RL, thank God! And they are unlikely to keep researching you to try to come up with "dirt".

3rd Tier Enemies -- These types privately slam you and condemn you and keep you off the lists of the best parties, but they may even feign friendship or even fail to ban you from land or blogs. They may dis you -- then pretend to apologize. They can often have the most deadly influence, but until you catch them in the act, don't put them in 1st Tier -- they may be able to be converted to friends!

12 Ways to Stop Sign-Griefers and Land Extortionists

Monti, one of the worst sign-griefed snow sims in Second Life.

Nobody Fugazi, who I've always found to be something of a busybody and a crank, has a post up on Your2ndPlace titled "How Linden Lab Does Not Protect Land Value". I think his advice is dead wrong -- it's akin to telling people to buy out extortionists, which of course neither he nor anyone else would ever do -- it's the one thing that all of us in the land business and living on the mainland and doing business there tend to agree on -- you never give in to blackmailers trying to get you to buy back your view.

In this case, however, Linden Lab is the ultimate blackmailer and extortionist. Because by refusing to do a thing about 16 m extortion and griefing, refusing to mitigate the disaster of widespread mainland devaluation, and forcing you to buy new sims they roll out in the hope that *this time* you might get a better view, they are merely engaging in a more sophisticated form of land-griefing and extortion.

Yes, LL itself is the ultimate view-blackmailer, telling you that if you ever want to see something besides a spinning ad sign on 16 m2, you had better stampede up to their newly-minted pristine sims and pay even more money than what you paid for the land you left behind, money you probably didn't recoup from you hasty sales, to try all over again. It's a racket; and if Linden Lab didn't invent sign-griefing as a way to drive people to their more lucrative island sales and higher tier, and didn't invent 16 m2 extortion to drive people to new sims as they are printed, then they benefit from it more than any inworld extortionist. Don't let them get away with this! There are 12 things you can do about land extortion.