The Motherland Must Know Her Heroes!

The Motherland Must Know Her Heroes!

I wish I could call on Tatlin or Malevich or even Gorky to make up the art or poetry that could go with these revolutionary cadres who showed such great prominence in our revolutionary OpenSpaces struggle, but unfortunately they are all dead. And my tenant, Nikolai Sapunov, who has, er, surfaced after that unfortunate incident in 1912, is off on a drunk because after being sent over the moon by the sale of 3 of his paintings to the famous Filthy Fluno, I had to tell him that it was a pity purchase and that he has to move his ass out of my rentals and I'm even going to move in Filthy instead -- because Kolya has not paid his rent in 4 months. My support of deadbeat Russian artists can only go so far...

For some of these heroes and their transcripts, "Commentary is Excessive", as the Russian saying has it, but let me say that these distinguished ladies and gentleman do need a little commentary from this faithful revolutionary chronicler.

First, I give you...

KALYRRA HEART, EXTORTIONIST-TURNED-EXECUTIONER. I don't know whether Kalyrra herself drew the bloody, torn hand on the protest poster, with the ripped out eye hole (that idea was actually stolen from Nikolai Sapunov, as he keeps reminding me about every five minutes, although his hands weren't bloody). I first saw the flag waving from her parcel in Nautilus, and then saw everybody copying it. But it might as well have been her emblem, as it signified the ugly, nasty, hateful, Bolshevik terrorist nature of some aspects of the OpenSpaces Rebellion which she exemplified. In the Concierge group, at raucous inworld protests, in various protest groups, she called for blood -- and set the most extreme tone.

Kalyrra of course did enormous damage to the grid in her years as an ad extortionist. There was always something very puzzling about her work. She had a zillion signs for a tacky porno dance club. When you went there, you found it had gadzillion traffic, no doubt from bots. But there were no people there. The links to her content store always seemed to be broken (she made some sort of tacky ho outfits). The entire thing looked like a front -- like one of those mafia Italian restaurants in NYC with the windows shuttered. Her ads were circular -- taking you to her club...which took you back to her ads. Sometimes the ads would flash and turn to some other Internet site, which always would flash through about 10 URLs, taking you to those grab-and-infest sites that are illegal, with names like "Friends" and "Sexxxxxy Girlzzz" etc. The entire thing was of course an ad extort racket, with the "business" a mere thin overlay. She also sold the hugely high-priced land in Bay City and elsewhere, and has joined the throngs of land barons in Nautilus, with land priced almost as high as the highest gougers, although mercifully, with no ugly content (that's not allowed now as it used to be) and just ugly flat freebie cherry trees and rainbows.

I've been shovelled voluminously long Kalyrra incitement transcripts. If there is some ardent student of the revolution who would like a full copy, email me at dyerbrookME@juno.com, but here's a typical rant:

[2008/10/29 2:59] Kalyrra Heart: we need to speak against jack linden, as i have done, both in publick and in the forums, and in the blogs
[2008/10/29 2:59] shaila Yifu: yes bu they can get into more spots than we can
[2008/10/29 3:00] Kalyrra Heart: jack linden is in charge of these matters, this did not go by him without an OK and he was the one to report it and then take off on vacation. Yes , jack linden is the rat that we need to expose
[2008/10/29 3:00] Susafox Merlin: they just can go to help island. and there you find noobs
[2008/10/29 3:00] Lucinda Bulloch: im sure this has sharholder backing
[2008/10/29 3:00] Femina Matahari: read how he said he would be answering our concerns over the next few days
[2008/10/29 3:00] Kalyrra Heart: yes totally block up the welcome area, like we did yesterday (and like i wll do later today after i sleep)
[2008/10/29 3:01] Femina Matahari: he is also a lying shit
[2008/10/29 3:01] Kalyrra Heart: jack linden is a criminal.
[2008/10/29 3:01] Kalyrra Heart: enought said about that scum bucket
[2008/10/29 3:01] Kalyrra Heart: ive said it 100 times already
[2008/10/29 3:01] Kaio Obviate: why not post this in blogs and websites?
[2008/10/29 3:01] Kalyrra Heart: jack linden is a criminal
[2008/10/29 3:01] Lucinda Bulloch: making the OS easly avaiable did this
[2008/10/29 3:01] Kalyrra Heart: i did
[2008/10/29 3:02] Najmi Rajal: later what time?
[2008/10/29 3:02] Kalyrra Heart: i just did about 10 posts on the appropriate forum
[2008/10/29 3:02] Kalyrra Heart: well im going to sleep in 1 or 2 hours, need 8 to sleep, then i will be up and protesting again

So you can see here that the tactic of Ms. Red-Hands here is to engage in outright criminality and incitement of others to crime, blocking the welcome area by camping on it and preventing its use by newbies. She's also ranting full tilt about Jack, as if he has actually done some criminal act.

Whatever your feelings about people who raise prices on their customers, they are not guilty of "crime". It's a private company, with no service-level agreement, with a TOS that you abide by and have to accept, with a pricing scheme that is not regulated by any government agency not only because it's in a new field, but because you can't, in a country with free enterprise like America, come in and regulate a price of a product like server space. It is a case of a willing buyer meeting a willing seller. If you are not a willing buyer and you don't like the price, don't buy it, full stop.

VRYL VALKYRIE, TROTSKYIST TURNCOAT BORING FROM WITHIN

Vryl, as we know from the Herald's lurid coverage of the story, turned against the revolution. She was instrumental in agitating and organizing people in Cube Rebulic's SOS group, but she then suddenly and inexplicably dumped everybody out of the group and made another one. She did this ostensibly because of the ugliness and violence going on -- of which you can see a taste from these nasties in the transcript above -- but that's never a reason, especially under these virtual conditions where you can't actually stab people or lay a bomb but can only sort of wear a fire prim on your head, to kick people out of groups. If you dislike the violence in a group, you can quietly walk out and start another one without imposing your perceptions and your will on all the other people who joined that group in good faith, and may simply prefer a more radical group, which, despite its ugliness, if it stays within the TOS ultimately, the Lindens are not likely to shut down (they certainly never shut down things far more deserving of shutting down like the soi-disant Woodbury University groups).

Vryl has spent her life since turning on the Revo trying to explain away her actions to all and sundry. She has banged on me inworld a number of times, and pushed me also lengthy cards -- against, students of the revo, email me if you are fascinated by this sort of thing. It's a colossal he-said, she-said, but it comes down to an effort to make herself look fabulous.

The last time she harangued me in world, about how evil the Herald was for publishing a transcript of her in voice, I simply let her have it. I said she was a public figure -- get used to it. Can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Like a lot of naive, young, stupid, brainless nits on Second Life, of which we have no shortage, she kept insisting that a, she wasn't a public figure, b, she was only trying to do what was "right," and c, no one should call her to account by publishing her contradictory statements. I simply set her straight, over and over again -- her notions of the "illegality" of reporting on her actions on a public matter, when she is a public figure, were laughable. She began then to call me "Madame," continuing to justify herself. That's when I called her a "cunt," because I push back hard when people call me names and play the transgender harassment card.

Another rather dubious activity she engaged in was the promise of having raised a pro-bono lawyer, who was going to "do something". No real lawyer of course would have ever taken this case on. It is most definitely NOT a case of bait-and-switch, as the product was labelled correctly. It is not selling a Ford, and taking it back and putting a Trabant in its place; it's raising the price of gas because gas is a scarce resource.

Our land is a commodity; but of course, it's also not a commodity, and more like a bundle of services attached to a kind of license. If the price of electricity in California suddenly surged due to a drought, we'd be stuck eating the pass-along cost of that server farm. Of course, what the Lindens do is see-saw on this stuff and plan it badly and just generally mess up, as we know, but their right to raise their price, when as as they wish, is, unfortunately for the socialists, sacrosanct.

Vryl's "lawsuit" seems to have dried up like the water in California leading to fires recently, but she still buzzes around, trying to tell her story and make herself "important".

ANSHE CHUNG, UNION ORGANIZER

This transcript deserves a full reprint : )

[2008/11/06 20:06] Anshe Chung: Hi :-)
[2008/11/06 20:07] Patnad Babii: Hello Anshe :)
[2008/11/06 20:07] Razzi Rockett: hello Anshe
[2008/11/06 20:07] Christos Atlantis: hello
[2008/11/06 20:07] Coal Edge: well lookie who it is
[2008/11/06 20:07] Taurus Harlan: hiya
[2008/11/06 20:07] Coal Edge: hey hey
[2008/11/06 20:07] Anshe Chung: Anshe leaves SL! Anshe is dead! Anshe fly to the moon! ;-) *giggles*
[2008/11/06 20:07] Razzi Rockett: how's it going for you?
[2008/11/06 20:07] Thai Racer: Anshe changes Lindens mind on tier madness ?
[2008/11/06 20:07] Coal Edge: If you are dead, then I am too lol
[2008/11/06 20:07] Kaio Obviate: Hi
[2008/11/06 20:08] Anshe Chung: Mmmm, well, firstly I am alive and kicking, although 6 weeks with pneumonia was not fun
[2008/11/06 20:08] Anshe Chung: And the tier madness hurt us very bad in Dreamland, very.
[2008/11/06 20:08] Coal Edge: hell no its not good for anyone, sickness I mean
[2008/11/06 20:08] Christos Atlantis: opps
[2008/11/06 20:08] Coal Edge: and I knew it hurt you too, it hurt is all bad
[2008/11/06 20:08] Razzi Rockett: LL and pneumonia both suck
[2008/11/06 20:08] Anshe Chung: We just had converted 80 sims to open spaces and started renting them when it happened
[2008/11/06 20:08] Thai Racer: Ugh !
[2008/11/06 20:09] Coal Edge: people WANT open spaces, and LL should have seen that, but they wanted them for the price AND convenience
[2008/11/06 20:09] Kaio Obviate: yea, it hearts us all :/
[2008/11/06 20:09] Vryl Valkyrie: Welcome back to virtuality Anshe.. now are you going to whip some common sense back into Linden Lab? :-)
[2008/11/06 20:09] Anshe Chung: This is why I decided to even sell off some 195$ grandfather tier sims: 20-40, depending on how fast the other sims we have fill up when converted to normal sims again
[2008/11/06 20:09] Coal Edge: honestly, when will those no longer be grandfathered
[2008/11/06 20:09] Coal Edge: we have no safety any more
[2008/11/06 20:10] Anshe Chung: Vryl, I don't whip Lindens. Maybe I can cry rivers, sometimes I do, but I am not sure it helps :-(
[2008/11/06 20:10] Vryl Valkyrie: lol
[2008/11/06 20:10] Coal Edge: you are what every corporation calls the "big account" so when you get upset and make changes, it does affect them
[2008/11/06 20:10] Anshe Chung: Coal, I talked to Lindens and they all told me they have no plans for doing any change to the GF sims. But you know they can suddenly have some new idea and DO change things
[2008/11/06 20:11] Christos Atlantis: Im afrain the Lindens will find out the hard way at 125 per month and scaled items on it they have no product, opensims where a hot product what they are offering now is NOT
[2008/11/06 20:11] Razzi Rockett: So we have learned
[2008/11/06 20:11] Anshe Chung: So my guess is that all is possible from suddenly GF ends to GF goes on forever
[2008/11/06 20:11] Coal Edge: honestly, didnt they say they had no plans to change Open Spaces too at one point?
[2008/11/06 20:11] Kaio Obviate: its very possible
[2008/11/06 20:11] Anshe Chung: Coal, I never asked them about OS because I never thought it possible they would do something like this
[2008/11/06 20:11] DigitalJack Blackhawk: ah our group hit the big time now very nice to meet you Anshe
[2008/11/06 20:12] Coal Edge: I dont think anyone did, they MADE it seem like they wanted us to expand
[2008/11/06 20:12] Coal Edge: and grow from them
[2008/11/06 20:12] Loosey Demonia: i think the only thing LL understands is money, they don't listen to customers, it's just about money for them....reduce what you give to LL and they will have no choice but to start listening
[2008/11/06 20:12] Coal Edge: then we get blamed for ruining their ecosystem
[2008/11/06 20:12] Anshe Chung: Please tell all your friends: 100% no chance at get rid of Anshe ;-)
[2008/11/06 20:12] Griffin Halderman: For Sale: Second Life in its entirety............Serious buyers that care about their customers Only need apply - (see Craig's List for more details under erotic services)
[2008/11/06 20:13] Vryl Valkyrie: hehe Ansche .. nice to have you here Anshe
[2008/11/06 20:13] Anshe Chung: I think part of the problem is that Linden customers are not well organized
[2008/11/06 20:13] Coal Edge: Well, we dont want you gone, atleast I dont lol
[2008/11/06 20:13] Razzi Rockett: I agree with you, Anshe.
[2008/11/06 20:13] Kuwait Miles: guys, after all this shit.. any1 trust LL is nothing but stupid!!
[2008/11/06 20:13] Griffin Halderman: Union Yes!
[2008/11/06 20:14] Coal Edge: We never thought we needed one
[2008/11/06 20:14] Coal Edge: most corporations just do not pull willy nilly stuff like that on their products
[2008/11/06 20:14] Vryl Valkyrie: Anshe, can I please IM you privately? :-)
[2008/11/06 20:15] Anshe Chung: The Internet needs Unions.
[2008/11/06 20:15] Anshe Chung: I am very serious about this
[2008/11/06 20:15] Anshe Chung: Also content creator unions
[2008/11/06 20:16] Christos Atlantis: any one who trusts anyone in business is nothing but stupid in SL or RL, always cover yourself
[2008/11/06 20:16] Coal Edge: Anshe, just tell me where I can sign up
[2008/11/06 20:16] Razzi Rockett: I totally agree but we need someone with some clout rather than people simply spewing their anger at one another.
[2008/11/06 20:16] DigitalJack Blackhawk agrees
[2008/11/06 20:16] Anshe Chung: The big platform companies make people powerless and make them work below minimum wage at home and without insurance
[2008/11/06 20:16] Coal Edge: and that is our problem, I do not like to bash Lindens, as I like SL, but... this cannot go on
[2008/11/06 20:16] Coal Edge: we feel violated
[2008/11/06 20:17] Anshe Chung: There are also some places far worse than SL in this respect :-(
[2008/11/06 20:17] Griffin Halderman: We have a content creators association: Support, information and assistance for creators in protection of original content and other content related issues. We are stronger together. Let's stay positive. We can work together to insure SL remains a haven for creativity.

[2008/11/06 20:17] Anshe Chung: Yes, work strong on it
[2008/11/06 20:17] Anshe Chung: It is important
[2008/11/06 20:18] DigitalJack Blackhawk: Anshe are you now the Hoffa of SL? :-)
[2008/11/06 20:18] Griffin Halderman: new members must be sponsored
[2008/11/06 20:19] DigitalJack Blackhawk: sponsored by whom?
[2008/11/06 20:20] Coal Edge: I still dont think, after looking at all the logs of talks with Lindens, that they took the suggestions into consideration when they made the "new plan"
[2008/11/06 20:20] Griffin Halderman: existing members of the group - currently just under 200 members
[2008/11/06 20:20] Coal Edge: the second new one
[2008/11/06 20:20] Anshe Chung: What is "Hoffa"? ;-)
[2008/11/06 20:20] Coal Edge: Mob boss so to speak
[2008/11/06 20:20] DigitalJack Blackhawk: a famous american Unionizer
[2008/11/06 20:20] Razzi Rockett: Jimmy Hoffa, once the leader of the Teamsters
[2008/11/06 20:20] Anshe Chung: *giggles*
[2008/11/06 20:20] Razzi Rockett: he "disappeared" from the face of the earth
[2008/11/06 20:21] Anshe Chung: No, I am just some woman recover from pneumonia now. Don't expect much from me for some time.
[2008/11/06 20:21] Coal Edge: I think they just want your name on it, celebrity endorsement! jk
[2008/11/06 20:21] Razzi Rockett: It is good to hear from you on this, even if at this time you are able to simply share your views with us.
[2008/11/06 20:23] Razzi Rockett: Some of us have ventured over to have a look at OpenLife and even that is not a valid option yet. The grid there has no currency and is much too unstable. We're basically stuck here.
[2008/11/06 20:23] Wheemzel DeCuir: My apologies if this has been talked about already as I just got into the IM, but Anshe, how is this new postion that Lindens have take with Open spaces going to effect your business, and what is your opinion of what they have done?
[2008/11/06 20:24] DigitalJack Blackhawk: openlife is good just the welcome areas are overloaded at the moment
[2008/11/06 20:25] Razzi Rockett: Openlife is not good, Digital. I have a parcel there and cannot even build on it or link things. The entire system is overloaded and skewed and has been for days.
[2008/11/06 20:26] DigitalJack Blackhawk: sounds like SL in 2006
[2008/11/06 20:26] Razzi Rockett: But I am not here to complain about OL. It is a fledgling world yet and just isn't what we are accustomed to and we can't do business there yet.
[2008/11/06 20:26] Anshe Chung: The OS thing hurts us very badly. I can not go into details, but some things came together that made it quite devastating and really bad timing. I think we will need 3+ months to clear up the mess
[2008/11/06 20:28] Razzi Rockett: They did pick a stressful time of year in which to do this. Holidays are never a good time for a huge change.
[2008/11/06 20:28] Wheemzel DeCuir: My husband and I were just building our business but we have now turned back in 28 sims, as we do not feel that we can trust Lindens in the future, nor do we feel that the new offer they have tossed us in any different than what they first stated. It all is about money we feel.
[2008/11/06 20:29] Griffin Halderman: 28 regular sims or Openspace sims?
[2008/11/06 20:30] Wheemzel DeCuir: They do not seem worried that they will feel any deep effects from this.
[2008/11/06 20:30] Wheemzel DeCuir: We turned back 28 OS sims
[2008/11/06 20:30] Griffin Halderman: its a numbers game to them, of course they'll lose some exisitng cutomers, but there are those too locked in here and then ther will be new users that won't know or care about the history
[2008/11/06 20:31] Wheemzel DeCuir: All they have offered is an extension, a bit of fluff, and a name change of the sims.
[2008/11/06 20:33] Coal Edge: Wheemzel, they gave us a box painted a different color, not a solution :\
[2008/11/06 20:33] Wheemzel DeCuir: exactly
[2008/11/06 20:34] Coal Edge: But I wonder if I am somehow a glutton for punishment if I consider trading my 2 OS for one big sim, and then give them more money lol
[2008/11/06 20:34] DigitalJack Blackhawk: I would like to here Anshe's take on this. LL claims it is that the OpenSpaces were being abused causing higher cost to them. Others including myself have put forth theories that Linden Labs needed a sudden flux of cash flow possibily because they cannot IPO until at least 2010 now or because of an increase in server leasing fees. What do you think?
[2008/11/06 20:34] Coal Edge: well, I guess 125 + 125 I am not giving them MUCH more
[2008/11/06 20:34] Selena Lowell: I personally think they will raise the full sim tier next year
[2008/11/06 20:35] Wheemzel DeCuir: There seems to be nothing that can be done to change them, as they are too big, and we either live with their decisions or leave. Most of us love SL and to create, so we adjust, and in the end, we had little effect on the outcome
[2008/11/06 20:35] Anshe Chung: Alrighty, I need to run, people flood me with work again.
[2008/11/06 20:35] Coal Edge: Selena, that is what worries me the most
[2008/11/06 20:35] Coal Edge: and okie see ya Anshe, no fun time for you I am sure lol
[2008/11/06 20:35] Vryl Valkyrie: Take care Anshe and hope you feel better soon.
[2008/11/06 20:35] Razzi Rockett: Get well soon, Anshe
[2008/11/06 20:35] Anshe Chung: If anyone want some of the 195$ tier sims we let go this week and next week just IM me or drop me note
[2008/11/06 20:35] Christos Atlantis: Take Anse I wish you a quick recovery
[2008/11/06 20:36] DigitalJack Blackhawk: Feel better Anshe
[2008/11/06 20:36] Vryl Valkyrie: Is LL going to drop the grandfathered tier?
[2008/11/06 20:36] Anshe Chung: Thanks :-) Talk later *waves*
[2008/11/06 20:36] Wheemzel DeCuir: take care anshe :) and well wishes
[2008/11/06 20:36] Vryl Valkyrie: I think they are
[2008/11/06 20:36] Anshe Chung: Vryl: sofar they did not say anything like that, so I hope they won't, at least not soon

Note how our heroine Vryl is busy offering to IM Ms. Chung "privately" ROFL.

I am utterly dry-eyed about Anshe. The story about pneumonia may or may not be true. And I would urge any landowner to refuse to join any union started or promoted by Anshe Chung. This transcript can be carefully studied by anyone who wants to learn how to actually be a state-sponsored oligarch with insider privileges (reg API, anyone?), yet pose as a union leader for "Teh Ppl". I find it nauseating to watch how manipulative it is, and how stupid people, but such is life.

For smarter people, let me provide some background:

Anshe has a long history of using powerful methods of intimidation and harassment to get her way inworld. Newer people have no historic memory of this. Few will remember the telehub battles of 2005. Few realize that Anshe (who is really Guni Greentstein using that Avatar, as well as other persons who remain in the shadows; the Asian woman introduced as the German Guni's wife is only one such person) in face got her virtual world chops creating realms of power in games like Shadowbane, where she reigned supreme.

At that time of the Telehub Rebellion (which I view as the only successful rebellion in the history of SL simply because it forced the Lindens to do something they didn't want to do, and set a bad precedent for them: compensation) -- Anshe pulled a number of stunts during the struggle against the high-handed Linden policies of that time, which you can read about in detail in Herald issues and my blog of the time, but in sum, what she did:

o tried to make several secret groups off world, playing various people against each other, telling some things to some, other things to others, always trying to find someone's flaw of weakness or vanity to exploit it

o bussed in tenants to protests and votes and formation of groups, so that she could always pack every meeting, group, vote with "her own" people. This communist method was reprehensible, and it was what made me break with Anshe during the telehub battles. I felt it was completely unethical to take all ones' tenants, who were utterly dependent on you for their rentals (especially if you were despotic, like Anshe and her minions), and round them up and make them "vote" in groups. OF COURSE they would vote in a situation like that, where they were vulnerable. Of course, there is no shortage of actual fangirlz and fanboyz in those situations, but I thought that using the rentals groups for notices, etc. was just plain wrong. Nobody should be dragged into a fight with the Lindens merely because they were your customer. They should have an opportunity to be informed of the various sides of the issue and join this or that group, as they saw fit -- obviously there were pros and cons to telehubs, just as there is with the OS issue.

o expelled people from meetings if they criticized -- she orbited several other land barons who disagreed with her tactics

o diverging from joint agreements in meetings with Lindens -- this was of course the most heinous thing to be doing in a struggle of this sort -- everyone would draft and collaborate on a list of points for the Lindens, refining them, rejecting them, etc. -- but in the meeting, she would just say what she felt like saying, and not speak with a sense of accountability to the group

o group shenanigans, a la Vryl -- expelling people who were officers, reserving the right to be the sole inviter, setting up others to bait and ridicule, etc. At one point, because she was the owner, Anshe could even call up the Lindens and tell them to remove me, an officer with powers (under the old group system) from the group, when she couldn't force an "officer recall vote" to work on me. For months, I would log into a group we formed together to find myself in "officer recall" being "voted out of office". When it worked occasionally, another officer would just invite me back in, and the whole silly thing would start all over again.

o cheating on the deal -- we all know what happened. Everyone was given a date by the Lindens for when we could claim telehub compensation. That date wasn't to everyone's liking, as some got stung before that date (like me) for some of their buys. But Anshe simply sold herself her land, to flush out the actual date of land purchase, which people with historical memories who had witnessed the purchase new, and then made a claim of a valid date to the Lindens. The Lindens looked the other way, because they had to -- they were REALLY in a bait and switch situation with telehubs, on account of selling them on the auctions even after they knew they'd be removing them (but hadn't told us). So they caved. But they stuck it to Anshe anyway -- they put out 40 special bulk-purchase sims on the far East of the mainland with white sand textures and essentially forced her to use her telehub buyback money to buy those new bulk sims to keep her market leverage

I've seen Anshe start group after group. One of her funnier ones was called "Paladins" -- this was her effort to try to flatter me, Shaun Altman, and Jauani Wu. I left the Paladins soon because I don't play WoW lol. So this group of hers may flop, but if she has cretins like Coal Edge and the other nits you can see in this conversation to fan it and flog it, it may have some life.

Important Fact: Concierge only has 944 people in it now. It used to have 5,000! Or even 8,000! My God, I saw 5,000 join this Concierge Party Group back in the day, last summer or so. But it has completely emptied out due to all the incessant chatter, and the hate. You don't really need to be in it to access the Concierge service, so it is mainly filled with losers trying to sell their sorry-assed sims, and people who literally have all day to chat on SL, without a break, like Abby Calisto, who must never sleep.

Beware of Anshe on a "content union" too. That looks very fraught with problems. Anshe has a rocky reputation in the content biz. She has bought out some avatars, which people find not completely legal (the Lindens must have let it through) and she has resold content that included free poses in furniture, which gets the Freebie Police in a lather. She has also sold all kinds of furniture in sculptie form for very low prices, and lots of prefabs to her captive rentals audience. I support her right to do all of these things. Tough titties, so to speak. Build a better mousetrap. But it means that if you are a content maker, you may be exploited in some way, or hated by other content makers.

Anshe is now doing something that I simply find unethical. She is bundling up all her useless OS sims that no one will want to pay her rent on anymore very soon (and didn't even now, giving her gouging even on $50 sims, charging $85 AND a purchase price WITHOUT estate perms), and putting them in groups of 4 to convert them back to private islands for only $195 tier -- and selling them on that basis. They are going like hotcakes, and Anshe has even brought out more.

Guni has brought out the Anshe avatar for this caper, giggling and chatting and cavorting in the groups after something like a near two-year absence. She has sold the sims without making people fully realize what's at stake. Oh, she appears to drop a recognition or two about that in this chat, but it's not in the label on the can, and it's equally true that she makes it seem like the Lindens might keep GF sims indefinitely.

I see absolutely no reason to assume the Lindens will GF sims like this forever, and if anything, look for them to increase by June 2009. So Anshe is making a quick and dirty buck on them, just as she has already made a very dirty buck on them all this time, as class 4, estate permless $50 sims for which she gouges $85, after a purchase of at least $200 or more (she has partially hidden her tracks on this by not having the prices listed on her website anymore).

Here's the story that everyone can see on the grid, when they see all the yellow, see all the staff firings or departures out of ACS, and see a certain amoung of complaints -- but not like Concierge, because people are expelled for complaining, as I just was last week from Guni's undemocratic "town hall":

ACS is losing money.

This isn't a secret, because all land barons are losing money, due to this really harmful action by Linden Lab that was designed to shake us loose: OS sims. Anshe has taken a huge beating on them, after struggling to convert and keep going. But ACS isn't nimble like Sarah Nerd, who can adapt much faster as she isn't trying to run a mega-empire with a staff of 40 in China. So it means big losses, but remember what the entire Anshe thing is about: it is in part about someone who likes games and gambling, and is addicted to land; but it's more about someone with the wealth to feed this habit and get funding and consumer payments from others who have their own uses for all of this. Those backing Anshe know that to win communities and customers and sell content and currency, which account for 90 percent of the revenue for every OTHER virtual world, you need to have presence and grit and persistence -- and buying that early is not costly -- the amounts are miniscule compared to what RL businesses pay for such opportunities.

QIE NIANGAO, QUISLING, MANDARIN, FIRST SECRETARY OF THE NON-RUSSIAN REPUBLIC OF VTORAYAZHIZNISTAN

Astute Blob and forum watchers may have noticed the role Qie played in all this. I put him into the FIC 2.5 last time because of that smarmy, fanboy, discourse-controlling role he plays on the forums ALL the time, which I find uber-annoying. His "job" is to damp down protest, create false consensus, round out the edges of dissenters, ignore people who need undermining, in his view, etc. etc. -- all the master tactics of the forums queen bee ruling the Hive Mind. Qie is particularly successful because a certain percentage of the time, he sounds intelligent. But it's only a ruse to insert the rest of the time various watered-down proposals, sycophantic, knee-jerk fanboy concepts, etc.

A tipster who preferred to remain anonymous pointed out an interesting fact to me. Qie appeared in the highly-visible eyeball-sucking First Position on a blog by Jack Linden thumbsucking on the OS after the initial announcement, in which, wonder of wonders, the comments were left *on* instead of being driven out-of-sight, out-of-mind into the nethers of the forums, where after about 6,280 answers, Katt shuts them down.

In that prime position, Qie layed out what seemed like a perfectly intelligent and reasonable position, which engendered Jack's immediate and thunderous head-patting (I could hear it here in New York, 3,000 miles away), offering nearly word-for-what what in fact later became Jack's proposal, signed and ratified by M and put in M's Letter to the Masses.

Naturally we wonder how Qie could file a lengthy and detailed proposal and land it in that primo position, a, and b, how busy Jack, with a million people jamming on him, could nearly instantly praise it. Well, these things have help, obviously.

Do they collude? Is Qie an actual Mandarin? An actual first secretary (the Russians always put their own people in as first secretary to the "president" or general secretary of whatever non-Russian republic they wanted to keep at heel)?

Well, such people, in my experience with games and worlds, often occur spontaneously in Nature. There are people who are naturally suck-ups, brown-nosers, diabolical underminers, taking the sting out of revolutions and making them compromised, in ways that the people struggling in them don't even always realize.

But I have to say that I really have doubts myself about this one, not because of the first position, not because of the verbatim nature, but because I think the Lindens really did seed their agents into this revolution in a number of ways, on various sides of the aisle, because it was the largest and angriest in their history, with no Linden alts/residents in fact leading it, which was the case with the Prim Tax Revolution, which already had the consent of some Linden staffers before it raised a single pitchfork or clenched fist -- that's why I've always found Hamlet nee Linden Au's constant hagiography and glorification of that revolt to be so nauseating.

What makes me have doubts is the way that Qie, a master at the post, was a little TOO careful to hide his tracks here. He makes *too much* show of saying that he has "stolen" the ideas "from the forums". In fact...he hasn't. Oh, to be sure, there were people like me saying "the Lindens WILL raise their prices, and they'll announce the creation of a "new product" that is lighter and stays as cheap, but not be able to actually get it finished/ready even in six months. But Qie's proposal is just way too similar, in eerie detail.

We will never know. And it's always nasty to suspect your fellow human being of being a police informer or a narc, or collaborating with the enemy or serving as a double agent.

That's precisely why one of the things that great powers do to foil revolutions is to plant those seeds of doubt and mistrust in everyone's mind.

In reflecting on this situation, some have concluded that the entire thing was a farce, with the Lindens pulling the strings on the puppets, every one, whether on Vryl, Kalyrra, Qie, or Anshe. The know how to pull strings on all of us, because they can capture our chatlogs and every motion 24/7, and form psychological portraits of us. They are devious, and they are committed with cult-like zeal to their company and their cause and will stop at nothing some times to prevail. That's understood.

I think the Lindens did cook up the PainPoint method, as I called it, forcing a rabid and angry reaction to an extreme announcement in order to make the blood-letting as short and painless as possible -- finding out what bothered people the most, then staunching those wounds. Once again, they've prevailed in doing this. An advantage of this BDSM method of abusing and then appearing to bind up wounds in the aftermath is that it binds the victim even closer for the next round of abuse. It is manipulative, and can be planned and executed effectively. This is how cults work.

The whole point about the FIC is that the Lindens don't have to brainwash or drug people to perform these functions of mandarin, oligarch "union organizer," double agent, provocateur, etc. People rush to willingly perform these roles in the game of Strategic Second Life.

Comments

[Ann Otoole]

You are wrong about Vryl. Perhaps you have allowed the herald spin to affect your opinion in some way.

In my opinion anyway.

[Prokofy Neva]

Oh, I don't believe the Herald. The Herald was siding with the rabble, the Bolsheviks, the people she herself was denouncing.

But the point is, she is stupid, and her tactics are despicable *anyway*. I'm sorry, you don't destroy an entire hard-won revolutionary group with thousands of people in SL. That's just the lowest of the low. It doesn't matter if the group has a lousy leader. It doesn't matter if the group has violent people. You form another group, you don't try to ruin the thousands of people in that group -- that's just undermining the right of free association and democracy itself, such as it is, in our constrained SL circumstances.

Cube Republic doesn't impress me, he seems like a landless opportunist, quite frankly, but it doesn't matter. The rule of netiquette has to be that if you don't like a group, start another one and draw people out of the first if you have to, but don't expel everybody or start monkeying with expelling founders, officers, etc.

Vryl continues to be secretative, manipulative, and unpersuasive. I forgot to put the link to her smarmy, disgusting shill on the forums, where, after fomenting revolution and promising to engage pro-bono lawyers in glorious revolutionary impact litigation, she suddenly turned about-face and began counseling everyone to "move on". That sort of smarmy shill is just sickening.

[Qie]

I rather like the Mandarin title, but perhaps not for the reason intended. And the "queen bee" thing is also accidentally apt. But I'm afraid the explanation is rather more mundane. I'll not clutter comments here with all the details, especially inasmuch as I've just gone all smarmy at http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/465476-post81.html in response to a quite similar accusation from Aminom.

Hmmm... I guess that would make Aminom Prok's alt, right? :p Unfortunately, I don't really have time to explore the full implications of that conspiracy: I'm falling behind on my über-annoyingness.

[Ciaran Laval]

In RL I am a union member and there's no way I'd join any so called union in Second Life. People with their own agendas trying to manipulate for their own ends is a recipe for disaster and the lack of accountability would be shocking.

Vryl is an interesting one, she played the outraged card, then turned agent provacateur and tried to attack estate owners, then congratulated Linden Lab on the changes and smugly pronounced how they'd listened to her suggestions and then read the knowlegdge base article and went full circle to playing the outraged card.

Even now Linden Lab can save the day at the top of the ninth innings with two out and needing a home run they can up the Openspace limit to 1875 prims, freeze tier on homesteads at USD$95 and come out smelling of roses. Gigs will still be furious as he has grandfathered openspaces and it will be a kick in the nuts for him but the majority of people would sigh with relief it they made those changes. They could still impose the technical limitations too.

Three openspaces per CPU at USD$95 is almost the same as a full sim pays anyway, the price is probably right if they make that change. At 4 per CPU they'd be making a profit still.

[Prokofy Neva]

No, my alts are known, and I have no relationship to Aminom. But it doesn't take Aminom to make this point; it is obvious for the eye to see and he's not the only one clearly to make it. It's good that people sign their names when making accusations or speculation like this about another's role here; I'm happy to sign my name here because I do think it's a legitimate public concern.

Whether one comes by this role of Mandarin/Quisling (a Mandarin is just an intellectual co-opted as a bureaucrat; a quisling is something more sinister secretly collaborating with the enemy) honestly, or whether as a tool isn't material; the results are the same, somebody trying to gain prominence and manipulate others.

We all recall Qie's assiduous efforts to "revamp" the forums and Robin even having to publicly "thank him" in order in part to get him to stop bounding up so friskily and offering to "play fetch" for the Lindens.

This idea of the "straw man" is completely bogus and simply sounds like Qie scurrying to cover his tracks.

Aminom and others are right to flag the similarities between Qie's facile "strawman" and M's letter. There were others who predicted what the Lindens would do -- Ciaran also made some as did I an others, and we were also right in the broad parameters. Making predictions is a favourite SL sport.

It's the spirit in which you do this that matters. Qie is constantly playing the role of "community leader" and "peace-maker" and "pundit" on the forums in the same kind of faux-gentlemanly way that Desmond adopts. It's an RP game.

Whether Qie enjoys special hook-ups at the Lab, always a distinct possibility in our world where the Lindens indeed have such a built-in FIC system in very robust form now, or whether he twirls around, finger to the wind, instinctively figuring out the Company Line -- the result is the same. It makes Qie look good and look powerful, and it makes the Lindens look like they "consult resident opinion". Gwyn Llewelyn does this sort of act all the time.

Troy Vogel summed up the Lesson Learned by this caper: "Act soon, don't bitch, come up with reasonable alternatives, communicate them in clear English, don't stage LL hating protests and you MAY get your way."

Ugh.

Cocoanut is absolutely right that the Lindens have a policy of permitting people they hire to retain their big businesses and publicly influential roles inworld when they are hired. And therefore it is absolutely legitimate to ask each and every time there is a massive conflict like this "what they are up to" because indeed they are always "up to" something.

In fact, I heard of one recent prospective hire even being told explicitly that this dual role permitted can be at times counterproductive for the Lab, as residents whose major roles they find advantageous inworld can then slack off on those inworld roles when they become busy Lindens.

Lucifer weighs in there with a retarded analogy of McDonald's employees never being able to buy McNuggets, and needing to "keep their friends" and "really, they are residents, not just pretending to be residents." Bullshit. Of course you need a policy of Lindens who become public officials stepping down from their inworld roles and businesses. In real life, the whole reason people spend years banging on Dick Cheney, and rightfully so, was because of his ties to the military contractor Haliburton. The whole reason people banged on the McCain Campaign was because his campaign official had taken money as a consultant from the government of the country of Georgia. And so on. That's what politics is all about, graft and corruption and the need to build in safeguards against it.

There is no Linden, hand on heart, who can come out now and say they didn't manipulate residents during this grave challenge to their authority. Of course they did. And such manipulation is by now second nature to them, ingrained in their nature and routines.

I hate it when people in this debate start sobbing and wiping away their tears about "Linden are people too!" "Leave Linden ALOOONE!". It's utter, unadulterated crap. People who spend their real lives expressing hatred and animosity for the Cheneys of the world engaging in this sort of conflict of interest roll over and stick their asses in their air in Second Life.

It's not about "not being a resident" or "not having alts and privacy". Those are distractions from the issue at hand: *conflict of interest*. They need to remove the appearance of such conflicts, and the conflicts themselves, by giving up their big business or influential blog or leading public role while a Linden. It's just the right thing to do. If you can't let go, then don't become a Linden. And yes, they should publicize the list of Linden inworld resident alts as a matter of course.

What matters isn't that Qie is or isn't a Linden, or was knowingly engaged for the role of Mandarin or Quisling. What matters is that Qie *is doing that anyway*. It's a smarmy shill and he should be smacked for it in the forums. Oh, except you can't do that because you'd be banned, ok.

I don't recollect that at first the Lindens had a policy, and then changed the policy. My recollection is that they wavered and were considering our demand that they have this policy, then backslid and decided not to have it.

Ben Linden in fact published a very self-promoting blog about all this on his own personal blog.

Few people remember the telehub struggles, but a key part of our demand to the Lindens then was to have some publicly-known company ethics put in place. We wanted a policy whereby the Lindens would say they would not manipulate the world in that fashion and would see such people as having a conflict of interest, and demand that they recuse themselves from their inworld business/role while working for the Lab. We had a demand that they stop entering the world in stealth mode as well.

They made some half-hearted and strange gestures in this regard (like Robin forcing Torley Linden and Jade Lily to dissolve their partnership, which is now permitted Torley with another resident on Torley's alt). But they never stepped up to that plate.

The worst thing about the Lindens having a policy of playing a double role like this isn't even that they play this role so much as that they have hordes of fanboyz shilling for their right to do this without any regard to the inherent conflict of interest. That Sluniverse thread is a sickening example.

I remember abuse-reporting Zero Linden's alt for keeping his hugely high-profile business running a notary business and mediation service -- very political in nature as well -- on his Linden alt Zarf Vartangaloo, and the AR went nowhere, and I was told by Robin that it was legitimate for him to do this.

Oh, is Vryl back to playing the outraged card again? Oh, dear, As the Stomach Turns.

[Prokofy Neva]

Here's the demand on Sluniverse.com from Nika Talaj, who is another Linden suck-up and sycophant who plays a corrosive role in Linden office hours:

"I worked with Qie to put together a proposal on improving moderation and other aspects of the LL forums. Qie is not a Linden alt.

We did meet with some Lindens. It was very clear during these meetings that Qie was a resident like me, with no special inside track.

Qie has, however, often attended Linden office hours, and has been active in land issues (particularly the elimination of ad farming), since I've known him. He is a strikingly reasonable person, with excellent business sense and communication skills. It shouldn't surprise anyone, therefore, if Qie can synthesize a good proposal from the billion threads on OpenSpaces. And, if Lindens show respect for his formulation of what many others were suggesting, that too should raise no eyebrows.

Aminom, I truly respect your artistic talent, but I think Qie is owed an apology.

It would not be a sin to be a Linden alt, but you suggest that he is not only an alt, but behaving deceptively. Wrong on both counts."

I think this is all total horsehit. Aminom may be wrong in his claims about Qie appearing to be a Linden alt or colluding consciously with the Lindens, as are others making this claim, but so what? He's absolutely right to ask the question. Of course, through it all, Qie gets to appear as a noble victim, and much-maligned Community Leader which is also bullshit, of course.

I didn't elect Qie is leader; I find him odious and whatever his intelligence and sincerity, which I question, he doesn't represent me or many other residents on the grid. He's someone who likes power and influence on the forums, full stop.

It absolutely SHOULD raise eyebrows when two syncophants and suck-ups, without ANY mandate from the public, neither elected nor appointed nor even acclaimed in any manner, go on their own suck-up initiative to the Lindens to create a more-restricted forums than we had in 2005 prior to their closing of General. ABSOLUTELY should. Who the fuck *are* these people? They need to most resolute form of pushback, and their getting a meeting like this with the Lindens, without any social backing, without any public legitimacy, is INDEED suspect and will always go on being so.

[Qie]

:D

There really should be a sign posted, warning that this is an Irony-Free Zone.

Of course Prok and Aminom aren't alts. That was to tweak the paranoia in the post. But after Prok's comments, that's a case I feel little need to press further.

In fact, it would be cruel.

[Prokofy Neva]

There isn't any "paranoia" in the post, dumbass. There is an expose of your behaviour, and quite proper questions about it.

Be as cruel as you like, asshole, I push back.

Your number has been called, and deal with it. You're the one who needs to be asked about their alts, dearie pie, since you're the one heavily attempting to influence public opinion and make inroads to the Lindens -- without any social mandate that I can see, except, of course for your forums lapdogs.

[Prokofy Neva]

BTW, perhaps for comprehension-challenged readers, one needs to post quite the opposite sign: "Satire-Rich Zone". If someone is name-called a Mandarin, a Quisling, and a First Secret of a Soviet stan all in one sentence, I daresay you can take it with a grain of humour, although of course such "intellects" always imagine they are in charge of the Irony Dept., and never anyone else.

[Sean Williams]

ah yes, here we see the usual hypocrisy from Prokofy.

No one 'elected' you to be a spokesperson either Prok: It's about time you stopped with this charade of speaking out, 'pushing back' and being an overall asshole.

See, you don't get to call others out for the same shit you do Prokofy: It simply does not fly at all.

Perhaps someone needs to start 'pushing back' against you for getting the notion in your head that you are some sort of spokesperson for the USERS (not RESIDENTS) of Second Life.

Perhaps someone needs to start 'pushing back' against your inane notion that Second Life is some sort of 'country' or 'world' when it is only a program.

Hate to break it to you, but it doesn't matter if even the Lindens refer to it differently: That does not change what is.

[Prokofy Neva]

BTW, for laugh value, see the modest updates Qiesling is posting:

"Oh, and no, I'm not a Linden. Are you kidding? First, in RL, they couldn't afford me, and second, I've had quite enough experience trying to turn around horrifically dysfunctional organizations, thank you very much."

[Jahar Aabye]

I treat any suggestion of a Linden conspiracy here the same way I treat stories of government conspiracies in RL:

It's not that I don't doubt that LL would have wanted to manipulate things to their advantage in this whole kerfluffle. It's that I doubt that they have the ability or competence to do so.

I mean c'mon, we've all seen the level of PR communication skills and customer service from LL. If they really had the understanding of human psychology and sociology to pull off this kind of manipulation....well, they wouldn't set off a near revolt with their botched method of announcing price changes in the first place.

No, they're a bunch of techies and computer geeks who are very very good at programming and maintaining a virtual world, and very bad at people skills.

[Cube Republic]

Prokofy I wasn't trying to impress anyone, I simply started a group because I don't want to pay an extra $50 a month to enjoy a hobby.I build stuff because I enjoy it. I would truly hate to be exalted to the heights of ironic obscurity, as others are on here, I mean WTF LOL.

[Prokofy Neva]

Oh! you're not landless then. Just an opportunist! Got I got that straight!

No, Jahar, the Lindens didn't botch a thing. They do this deliberately. It's a practiced, refined method. I even laughingly called it PainPoint in a post awhile ago. They have used this method very consciously and deliberately over and over:

1. Announce something outrageous
2. Let the shit hit the fan
3. Pretend to take feedback
4. Come out with something slightly moderated, but still basically the original concept
5. Look like they relented under pressure and consulted with the community.

[Cube Republic]

"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."

[Prokofy Neva]

Um, Cube, to post that you are an opportunist isn't "vituperative" -- it's a report. The reason Vryl could do what she did is that she could justify it by pointing to the way you behaved, and how you ran the group. You were not the sterling hero of the people you imagine. Get over yourself.

No one is "smearing your reputation" -- they are pointing out that you behaved badly, too, far less so than Vryl herself, in this cause. You didn't curb the nastiness and hate in the group, and you stood idly by why Kalyrra put around this ugly, bloody flag as the symbol of the cause. So you had your part to play, which was not a pretty one. Your protestations that you just wanted a cheaper sim don't quite hold up.

Nobody has posted RL data about you; nobody is ferreting out anything, you ass, they are reporting on the way you acted. What you fail to see is that why Vryl looks awful throughout this, and you and others are her victim, you don't look so hot, either.

Finally, no "enemies" have "loathed your very being". You aren't important enough to be "loathed". And no one has called for you to be "gone from the Internet". I never call for such things; I never call for people being banned from SL either unless you have really gross records of behaviour like sim crashing.

So, put yourself into perspective and stop playing the victim.

[Ann Otoole]

The Gunpowder Revolution of 2008 has been put down. The Lab reps have flatly stated there will be no further changes. It is done and over. Continued aggressive behavior by so-called "protesters" is now being met with suspensions and no doubt bans.

It is over. Leave or stay. The time for discussion is over and ended.

[Cube Republic]

For the sake of accuracy I must point out that ''You didn't curb the nastiness and hate in the group''.........I was in bed. And I never tried to be a hero, as earlier posted 'I simply started the group'. If you really believe that I was any kind of leader then great, your entitled to your opinion, but good grief me 'da leader' WTF LOL

[Prokofy Neva]

You were in bed for 7 days, Cube?

If you aren't the leader, why all the fussing and fuming? If you are modest, why all the protest about how horribly you are misunderstood?

[Cube Republic]

You've got me there! I was actually part of a FIC communist conspiracy