The Lindens Cross the Blood/Brain Barrier: The Sea of FIC

Governor Linden and MarkTwain White -- together at last.

Well, only metaphorically speaking. I don't mean that the Lindens have gotten SL to wake you up and make your toast in the morning yet -- though no doubt they have a nanotechnology neural networks team working on this for 2020 lol.

What I mean by blood/brain is something else -- for the first time in SL history, there is a permanent land management group created that contains both Lindens and residents.

Yes, there have been groups made before with both Lindens and residents in them. Concierge Group is one obvious one.

Yes, there have been temporary groups made with both Lindens and residents in them that manage Linden-owned sims for special events like Relay for Life or Burning Man.

But Blake Sea -- the Sea of FIC -- is the first time that the Lindens have ever made a group that permanently manages land, with residents in it with no particular other status, like LPDW or Mentors, but merely owners of the land next to the FIC arrangement the Lindens have created.

Remember when the Lindens made this announcement it sparked a lot of protest and concern -- but then it died down fast. Like the girl on the forums said, "Be thankful they've done something awful today, because that means we have at least 6 weeks before they do something awful again." lol.

 

This new blend of Linden and resident (I used to call them Lindesidents but this is different) opens up several interesting avenues of thought. What happens the first time MarkTwain White or his cronies ban someone just because they don't like them? Or eject someone just because they are flying around on this ostensibly open public sim, but are in the way of a race? (I nearly got run over twice by very fast and intensely-scripted sailboats while blogging -- I decided to hide down under water).

Of course, philosophically speaking, it's a bad development, like the shopping sims buy-out, which is about the Borg taking over, and the Thereization -- or perhaps the more apt word to use is the IMVUization of SL, whereby special groups of extra-special residents get to make content and control land -- and thus control user experience! -- exclusively in a group with the Lindens.

I was waiting to see how the Lindens would manage this sticky problem, I even asked Jack Linden about it pointedly. Some of the Blake sea is owned by the Linden Department of Public Works. Those people are residents -- the moles who get $10/hr to build stuff. But some of it is owned by this Blake Sea group.

The group shows up on the land of course, but not in search, or on MarkTwain's profile. You can pull it up and see something funny -- Michael Linden gets the title "Admiral" with the other Lindens; MarkTwain gets the title "Cap'n" and his partner Nber only gets the title "Steward" lol.

Many people were eagerly waiting to see if the Lindens would wind up using full-prim sims on this sea, in violation of their religious beliefs about homestead sims, as they are newly revamped, being adequate for that famous "stretch of water".

In fact, they're using the homestead sims. And for some reason, although sailers are supposed to be needing lots of clear stretches of sea, they built up a certain amount of it, like the sim called Blake Sea--Spyglass, which is apparently a "storm refuge".

Well, who cares, right?  BFD? So some residents who get to sell their rentals with a big Linden boost provide content for others to enjoy, and have ban tools? That's only a good thing, right?

Here's the question it opens up: resident-made infohubs. If there can be Blake Sea, why can't there be Infohub Group?

I will have some more thoughts on that soon.

I think the Lindens have officially crossed the Rubicon where the "Your World/Your Imagination" concept is over. That is, they've promoted it while they needed to, and now they've stepped in to take it back. If you are especially imaginative, as we've seen with the shopping sites,  you get eaten. If you jump up and down and tantrum about sim prices and threaten to flee to OpenSim, you get a Linden/resident land control group -- enabling residents to control the bans on Linden land for the first time in forever -- because they didn't have those controls on the Relay For Life sims, or if they did, it didn't matter as those were short-term events sims.

I'm still trying to figure out the principle by which the Lindens organized this. Some Blake Sea sims still belong only to the Linden Department of Public Works with only moles and Lindens. But others, right next to Hollywood, MarkTwain's continent, and a few others, are in the Blake Sea group.

Of coures, any land for sale nearby, whether mainland or private island -- and it's confusing where the line is drawn now! -- is going for a fortune. Nautilus land itself is still going for $50,000-$100,000 for a 1024 m2 -- amazing. It continues to develop and doesn't seem to be terribly crapped up. I plan to take a closer look soon.

The days when the Lindens stayed away, on their side of the servers, "server-side," and only put out Linden trees, shapeable plywood cubes, and some nicely landscaped empty sims for everything else to appear made by the residents -- those days are over. The Lindens are in the world business. And in fact, they had been in it all along. They mix in now and create and add content and buy businesses and compete with residents.

Comments

[Prokofy Neva]

Jean Swashbuckler, chronicler of the Nautilus continent, has told me that he thinks the sailors need control over certain parcels to be able to set buoys and also to keep people from touching the sails during races.

Well, that's just it. It's open to the public -- but not really. It's a resident sailing continent that the Lindens have given some free land to, something like those tier-free 4096s for life that the Lindens gave the oldbies.

If you're not in the United Sailing Federation or whatever MTW's group is, it would be interesting to me to see if you could use these "public" sims. I bet not.

That's why it's a shill to claim that it "enhances the user experience" for SL. What it does is enhance MTW's experience and his group's experience and their rentals. If you buy into this group, you get the fete. If you don't, you don't.

[Clubside Granville]

Where are the rez areas to get into this giant thing? Are there any public (no group required) spots to pull out your giant pirate ship and just sail around? Id like to try it myself just to see how long you can go... and if anyone tells you to go away.

[ichabod Antfarm]

Clubside,

There is a drop zone on Artificial Isle where you can rez your boats. I just did and now I am going for a sail :-)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Artificial%20Isle/127/55/22

[Ciaran Laval]

When Jack kept saying they weren't getting anything for free other than the price of moving sims I pointed out they were getting one hell of a boost for their commercial enterprises. This of course falls on deaf ears, but is a cold hard reality.

Other people are now positioning themselves to be the new Linden buyout, plans are afoot to have united this, that and the other.

I know you've said previously that NCI won't be eaten and Carl has pretty much said he would resist such plans but when you go to somewhere like Caledon Oxbridge and see how well that is setup I find it hard to believe the Lindens wouldn't be interested in their own education hub, especially for noobs. A visit to Ahern the other day was a shocking insight into what has been happening in welcome areas.

Directing noobs to the welcoming and warm hands of NCI would surely be an attraction?

[Prokofy Neva]

If you look at the track record of what Lindens have GOM'd, the pattern is like this:

o find a business that is either failing, or having some troubles adjusting to issues that are Lab-induced

o find resident owners that will cave and do what the Lindens want

o find an operation that can make the Lab money quickly

NCI doesn't fit that criteria. From what I've seen, they are very strong and well-organized under Carl's stewardship. They adapt to all the crap the Lindens throw at them and all of us. It's a self-financing ecological system that is pretty balanced. It doesn't LL to do anything except maybe allow them into welcome areas with their kiosks.

The also don't have anything immediate to pay out. They may retain somewhat better, but no operation seems to move the needle on retention by such a large percentage that the Lindens drop everything and listen to them.

The Lindens get NCI to handle thousands of their needy customers for free -- and keep many of them. It's a situation even they may be prudent enough to leave alone.

[Heidi Stiglitz]

"Jean Swashbuckler, chronicler of the Nautilus continent, has told me that he thinks the sailors need control over certain parcels to be able to set buoys and also to keep people from touching the sails during races."

I'm a race director for Starboards Yacht Club. Most of the non-Lindens in the Blake Sea group (myself included) have extremely limited powers. For most of us, the reason we were brought in was to allow us to use the racelines that have been set up in the Blake Sea. The Lindens are looking at giving us the ability to clear out abandoned boats, but with the exception of three of the USS owners, this hasn't happened yet.

"Well, that's just it. It's open to the public -- but not really. It's a resident sailing continent that the Lindens have given some free land to, something like those tier-free 4096s for life that the Lindens gave the oldbies.

If you're not in the United Sailing Federation or whatever MTW's group is, it would be interesting to me to see if you could use these "public" sims. I bet not. "

Anybody can make use any of the sims.

"That's why it's a shill to claim that it "enhances the user experience" for SL. What it does is enhance MTW's experience and his group's experience and their rentals. If you buy into this group, you get the fete. If you don't, you don't."

Since it opened this weekend, Blake Sea has been filled with sailors, aviators, scuba divers, and even beach bums from both the USS and the mainlands that connect to it. There is a new yacht club forming in Nautilus City. Quite honestly, if it doesn't enhance your SL experience, it's because you already aren't interested in what it has to offer.

[Prokofy Neva]

Heidi,

You shouldn't prevaricate, because we will get the answers from the Lindens anyway.

Number one: do you, or do any of the officers of this group, have ban powers, yes or no. Yes or no, Heidi, don't distract from this all-important issue.

Number two: does MTW and other officers have the power to return non-group prims, i.e. boats that aren't part of the USS and its races, or not. Yes or no, Heidi, let's not distract from this.

You can't both claim there are racing tracks and events and the power to keep them clear AND claim these seas are open to the public to sail in. Because that's bullshit. If they interfere with the USS races, it looks to me like they will be unceremoniously cleared away as a non-group prim. Neither you nor the Lindens have been straightforward about this, and you need to be, and stop dancing around this topic.

Please don't tell me the usual creator-fascist crap about "if you don't like it, leave". I am a resident and business in Nautilus. I was there before you were, you bitch. Don't talk to me like that, you are totally fucked for doing that. I'm one of the people who upholds property values so you and your big-ass precious yacht-club would have any value in the first place. So don't talk down to me.

I've flown around and tried to rez boats. While auto return is put on 60 minutes on some of the Blake Sea sims, you can't rez anything if you are not in the group. While there may be a few sims with public launches that are open to anyone to rez -- we're told that -- they aren't so findable. I flew around for more than an hour exploring, and didn't find them.

Let's see if any of the scuba divers or beach bums interfere with your races. That's when the pedal hits the medal. The USS has a schedule chock-full of races. This entire caper was designed to replace the openspace sims they used for their races, and make the Lindens pay for their races -- or, they pouted, they'd quit and leave for OpenSim.

So let's test that entire bullshit, shall we? Either it's always open for the public, or it's not. If it is only open to the public when the precious USS Yacht Club isn't having races, then it's not open to the public -- except on sufferance.

[Internationalist Ghost]

My friend Prokofy and your able assistant ichabod Antfarm, I wish to alert you both to the fact I believe the occult and indeed the ways of Satan and most likely the leftist dogma associated with the proven failed system of centralized control called Communism and practiced in the former USSR and still practiced by Linden Labs, is active and flourishing right here in Second Life.

I submit as proof of this the increasing number of builders who can manage to use the "torus" with apparent "skill". As those of us who refuse to dabble in the "black arts" or sell out to the "ways of evil" know the "torus" is a savage beast. Unpredictable and unable to be understood by normal mortals so what other explanation can there be but an unholy alliance between those who build the ease using the "torus" and the Prince of Darkness.

God Bless and Save America the only beacon of hope in the increasingly socialist global mire that is today's society.

[Prokofy Neva]

Actually, I'm on to all these Bolshevik tricks and I have devised a secret contorted torus counterweapon that is extremely sophisticated and is now handily defeaten the communist baccilae everywhere.

But I dare not say more.

P.S. God Bless America indeed.