Wow, I never saw the Lindens make a FIC list before. It's something I've done, of course, based on their actions, but they've always denied it.
M Linden, of course, instantly grasped where he had to go with this, which was to embrace it. Well, I've always said, I'm not opposed to the FIC per se -- all of life has FIC, everywhere, since high school, you get the cool kids. Just make sure they're *good* FIC!
Are they?
Well, judge for yourself. Although he mentioned it near last, I'm glad M included Racer Gullwing's Snail Races. They are the longest running act in SL. Like clockwork on Saturdays, and so creative. I got such an innovative Christmas card from Racer. I've never seen the Lindens acknowledge him before, so that's good. Progress. I'm also glad Crap Mariner was recognized for all his hard work making the i-Tunes thing. Dusan Writer is mentioned as basically "best blogger of the year" -- and that's good, because he's not such a shill and a tool like Hamlet and other paid-for blogs, or the Herald, paid-for in a different direction, and is occasionally critical. Of course, I'm not happy he is recognized for that browser contest, which I thought was both a ridiculous waste of money on his part, and simply producing elitist browsers of little use to the public.
Then I'm glad M recognized the Kristallnacht exhibit, a hard thing to do when all the PC leftoid gang are behaving atrociously and inciting with the *wrong* "holocaust museum" run by the Friends of the Palestinian Suicide Bombers. And a first-class Japanese sim, with my most recent and favourite Japanese find, Giorno Brando, who I put in my International Bazaar list -- he has some of the greatest stuff. I'm glad he has another store, because the store I went to was hard to get to and figure out, up in the sky. I'm glad M also mentioned Coming of Age in Second Life. A serious book.
But, other than these few obviously merited picks, the rest is like the 3-D internactive NPR on steriods that the Lindens have always wanted Second Life to become - and that's boring, and won't attract users.Worse, he tops it off with Torley (blecth) and makes a completely tokenist and insulting "nod" to everyone else, like this, "The many, many great clothing, hair, skin and furniture merchants in Second Life".
Then, it's off to National Palestinian Radio in the round:
o a sim about global warming. Um, you know? It's, well, getting harder and harder to peddle this stuff. Oh, I'm all for conservation, using SL to have meetings instead of carbon-footprinting arount, recylcing, whatever. But, I'm also mindful that scientists are increasingly questioning this. And one of the stupid things about global warming is that it seems to induce so many conferences full of hot air, and not much effective local action -- and global action focusing on the easy targets where advocacy can get paid to harass, as in the US, and never on the hard targets, where you get jailed for independent environmental work, like in Russia or China.
o breast cancer? Well, ok. I'm all for that. I mean, you know what I mean. But, well, I guess if you are going to be out there at the cutting edge, it would be better to do something on rape or domestic violence or something with less RL attention, maybe? I dunno.
o Capitol Hill? Please. This joint has traffic on it on the low double/triple digits, even on the night Obama is elected! Could we please retire this embarassment???
o more cancer -- American Cancer Society Relay for Life -- oh, I guess the point is to stick with those affluent West diseases. Ok, well I don't like cancer either. Still, what I think about RFL is well
documented already. It's a Linden pet, what can you do.
o Global Kids. Sigh. I wish the Lindens would get a bigger non-profit rolladex and stop feting the same 2-3 groups over and over and over and over and over again.
o Netroots Nation? Two lies in two words. Netroots are so fake, they don't represent anything. They are just elite technically-plugged-in Silicon Valley types who think if they blog or Twitter they influence politics. Of course, sometimes they do, which is scary. Because their real plan is to overthrow representative democracy, which they hate.
o Poor M probably doesn't *like* Burning Man. He probably sunburns easily and finds the whole thing sort of louche. But it's sort of a nod to Philip.
o New World Notes? Um...ok, guess that lets us know where the umbilical cord has been cut -- NOT! And the snowball fight? I'm so proud of myself. I've gone through four winters in a row now never having gone to that thing.
o Hmm. There's that 7 Days Magic Bakery thing again -- the thing that Hiro's group did, with the pig, which is everywhere. Did they buy a spot on the blog and the new website? or? Ok. That's it. I'm going there now to see what the fuss is all about...
....eeek Christ on a Crutch, I'm greeted by something called HIRO PENDRAGON'S OBJECT dropping a blue screen on me. Can they learn to get Hiro out of the build???
Ok *tries to wipe off sticky fingers*. That was, uh, special. And unfortunately, that one place like the Sims Online robot factory that seemed so cool didn't work. Oh well...
o Wow, here's one thing I was involved in -- and I bet if M knew that he wouldn't have picked it LOL. And of course, this pick is made more poignant by being the work of architects like Scope Cleaver who are now forced to leave the Princeton openspace sims because of the steep tier hike. Talk about the kiss of death!
o INSILICO? Just another apocalyptic shopping mall. *Yawns*. At least that will cut the saccharine 7 Days sim in a jiffy. The owner Skills Hak (yah, trustworthy name there) gets on the horn to me and flogs his rentals, bragging that they were full even before M discovered him -- 6 month late.
Why the hell did Desmond get no mention?!
Say, is this the ultimate irony or what?
I go to the Nicholas Shoffer Art Gallery recommended by M, and the first thing that rezzes in to view when I land is the Save Our Sims tip jar with information on their campaign to get funds to keep their sims from going under in the price hike!
Good Lord.
Either the Lindens have a rich sense of irony, or they are clueless. I don't know where to start on this...
Just for the record, Skills is female.
Posted by: Jago Constantine | 12/31/2008 at 03:40 AM
what now, you hating on Torley??? geez!
Posted by: AlterEgoTrip Svenska | 12/31/2008 at 03:45 AM
Hehe well, FIC list... so when someone posts what they like in SL, you complain :) Really, everybody has different tastes, you can't argue with M because he left people out — and now you know he doesn't read either your blog or mine ;)
Posted by: Gwyneth Llewelyn | 12/31/2008 at 12:28 PM
Oh, he reads my blog -- or he has his minions read it, just like they read yours. Look at the inner pages of the SL Wiki and see their monthly report on press around SL, in which they cite my blog, and your blog.
Jack Linden may have stopped reading blogs. I think he has. I think he stopped even glancing at planet.worldofsl.com He's been immersed in his job's challenges and the company internal propaganda and debates. This will change.
What M posts about "what he likes" is more a fascinating tale about how political correctness from a group concerned about its "soul" passes on its values to a newcomer than any actual love of M's. M's love comes out only in his random picking of a cyberpunk sim and a Japanese sim (typical of Californians) -- and hardly any other foreign-language sims whatsoever (for a platform with only 40 percent North Americans or whatever, you'd never know it from M's picks. I should have mentioned that).
Posted by: Prokofy | 12/31/2008 at 12:52 PM
Well I guess they'd say it's an example of how unbiased they are that M includes a location that actively protests against price hikes.
Personally I think they just didn't notice, but heck I'm cynical like that.
Posted by: Ciaran Laval | 12/31/2008 at 06:05 PM
Nope, he blew it, somebody didn't notify him in time.
Posted by: Prokofy | 12/31/2008 at 06:14 PM
lol - was certainly a surprise to see the SOS campaign kiosk in your pic... please note that the SOS Campaign is not directly related to the art gallery - that gallery is just one of a number of locations serving donation kiosks... for the SL Shakespeare Company's SOS Campaign.
Posted by: ina | 01/02/2009 at 09:38 PM
So Ina, are you saying your sim, featured by M, is NOT closing and NOT trying to raise money, but has put out a kiosk for ANOTHER sim which is the Shakespeare one?
Even so, everybody TPing from M's post is going to get a faceful of the story.
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 01/02/2009 at 09:46 PM
no, no, no... ugh, let me try to explain it from the bottom up:
1. I don't own the depo sim where you took that pic in.
2. The SOS campaign kiosk is similar to an RFL campaign kiosk* in that anyone can take a copy and rez it anywhere to help gather donations, each of which is tracked publicly on the Campaign website.
3. The depo sim is just one of many locations hosting a donation kiosk.
Modus ponens out of that - surely you see what I mean?...
* The SOS Campaign is not related to RFL or ACS. The SOS Campaign's purpose is to raise funds to save the Primtings, Shakespeare, and sLiterary island sims by raising enough funds to pay for either 6 months or 1 year of tier - so that the SL Shakespeare Company can plan and execute (at least part of) their 2009 season. Also, when we hit the 4-year mark for charitystar to evaluate us, we do anticipate to also maintain the 4-star mark (as opposed to ACS' 1-star mark).
btw is there a way to have these comments ping me or something when you reply?
Posted by: ina | 01/06/2009 at 02:29 AM