Here They Are, The FIC 2.6!

"OMGODZORZ we thought you had forgotten the FIC this year, Prok!"

No, no, we've just been testing and testing and pulling all-nighters drinking Red Bull and eating those really unfulfilling 99 cent Dunkin' Donuts specials and tearing our hair out trying to get this to work and nearly resorted to "crowdsourcing" (shudder).

FIC 2.6 almost didn't happen, because there was some really severe glitches, unbakes, upskirts and even grey people which hasn't happened in a long, long time.

If we look at the successful message delivery rate in 2.6 as the baseline, and assign it the number 1.0, that delivery rate dropped to 0.32 in our current 2.6 release. This is clearly something we should have caught prior to deploying 2.6 and I apologize to our Residents for the substantial inconvenience and frustration that this regression has caused. Along with the reduced rate of favouritism delivery, we see a new kind of error response in the 2.6 release that appears to explain the substantial increase in spurious error messages from the group chat system. But...all this is behind us now.

First, some really good news: Philip Linden, for the first time in years, has moved off the old AOL-type FIC 1.0 list to Noosphere (beyond FIC to world-class Atlas-type-world-holding-up status) through making the map work and creating Snowglobe. Glad to see you back in the game, Spiel Konig!

Next, some grinding and nashing of teeth -- some people got forgotten and moved off all the lists for good. They disappeared. Well, suxxors to be u. Ginsu -- well, you left SL, what do you expect.

And some newsworthies -- Cristiano, who had languished on FIC 1.0 as a total has-been Legend In His Own Mind, and whose nails were bitten to a bloody pulp waiting for this year's news to see if he'd even remain there, suddenly at the 11th hour got on to 2.6 by the strength of this dedicated link to his empire on the Linden's website. See what residents are building right now, indeed!

But the real shocker this year is the overlap between the Noosphere and My Enemies list. Huh?! how can it be that people who are objectively Prokofy's enemies still get into the much-coveted Noosphere list? Well, just because. Because they do something to hold up the world. Sometimes unobtrusively. Sometimes with a little glory -- but not as much glory as FIC 2.6.

And...wow, is the My Enemies list shorter this year?! Well, yes, I vanquished some of them : )  They are no more.

Now, let's come to FIC 2.13. Ugh. Yes, with that unlucky iteration number, you can see where you're headed. I can't recall a nastier, ugly, meaner, more destructive FIC mutation since the days of Plastic Duck crashing the Christmas party -- but he's not even on any lists any more because he disappeared. FIC 2.13 not only has all the people you love to hate and more important, I love to hate, it has people who have been objectively annoying asstards at key points of SL's development -- the nasty demonstrations in Nautilus, the uber-whining over the openspaces price hike, the tenacious ad-farming and extortion to the very bitter end.

Well, wait just a damn minute, you say. Who the hell are you, Prokofy Neva, to make up lists of the cool kids? Well, that's just it. I'm Prokofy Neva, and this is what I do! Well, you say, aren't you one of them cool kids *yourself*? Well, no. I was banned from yet another thing this year (the JIRA) even being put back on the Linden blog access (as Lenin said, two steps forward, one step backwards...).

Hey...but WAIT! Why is, oh, Doubledown Tandino on this list? Well, you know something? Some people get on this list *just by Twittering a lot* (pro-tip). Others, like Sardonyx Linden, get on here *only because they have a cool name*. No other reason. Seriously. Some people do something bad once, and it reverberates for all time. Others do something good 100 times and nobody notices because they are mediocrities. Hamlet nee Linden Au comes to mind, for example -- very nearly FIC 2.6 status due to his critical discussion of the Linden land stats, LL itself, Windlight, etc. -- and yet, he stumped for Kurzweil, child avatars on Zindra, etc. -- and there it went, the claim to glory, and off he was to mutation land.

OH! you say knowingly. Why, this is just a completely arbitrary list of people you like and people you hate.

Well, yeah! : )

You make your OWN list and link to this one if you like. Or add a note in the comments -- I often forget people. The lists grow more and more each year, and it's hard to keep up.

BUT, you say. How come there are no, oh, Japanese or Brazilians? Oh, I dunno. I guess because I don't read Japanese or Brazilian, so help me out here and post your own lists!

So, without further ado, let me announce that the winner of Second Life this year is....Apotheus Silverman! For being GOM'd gracefully almost without drama and creating a revenue engine for LL and even for a few residents.Apotheus Silverman is the creator of SLexchange.com that got co-opted by the Lindens and made into XtsreetSL.com.

My Enemies

Andrew Linden
Soft Linden
Dale Innis
Csven Concord
Ancient Shriner
Hiro Pendragon
Pixeleen Mistral

FIC 1.0

Aimee Weber
Siobhan Taylor
Teeny Leviathan
Jeska Linden
FlipperPA Peregrine
Jennyfur Peregrine
Taco Rubio
Neph Protagonist
Neil Protagonist
Moopf Murray
Siggy Romulus
Cory Ondrejka
Timeless Prototype
Eloise Pasteur
Catherine Omega
Frans Charming
Francis Chung
Hiro Pendragon

FIC 2.0

Johnny Ming
moo Money
Adam Reuter
Gwyneth Llewelyn
Caliandris Pendragon
Lordfly Digeridoo
otakup0pe Neumann
Tao Takashi
Forseti Svarog
Dana Bergman

FIC 2.13

Soft Linden
Lex Neva
Dale Innis
Torley Linden
Gigs Taggart
Tateru Nino
Pathfinder Linden
Intlibber Brautigan
Pixeleen Mistral
Jessica Holyoke
Strife Onizuka
Lillie Yifu
Chrischun Fassbinder
Tizzy Teardrop
Weedy Herbst
ROBO Marx
Kalyrra Heart
Joshua Nightshade
Zero Linden
Hamlet Au
Vryl Valkyrie
Maryanne McCann
Eureka Dejavu
Arahan Claveau
Tenshi Vielle
RightasRain Rimbaud
Vint Falken
Eric Reuters
Travis Lambert
Benjamin Noble
Davidorban Agnon
Cindy Claveau

Rheta Shan

FIC 2.6

Doubledown Tandino
Eshi Otawara
Beyers Sellers
Adonis Bussy
ILLBixby Cerveau
Kim Anubis
Pavig Lok
Dancoyote Antonelli
Glitteractica Cookie
Draxtor Despres
Filthy Fluno
Pooky Amsterdam
Thinkerer Melville
Kriss Lehmann
Peter Stindberg
AM Radio
Paisley Beebe
Robin Harper
Desmond Shang
Dusan Writer
Kaejo DaSilva
sachi Vixen
Wraith Unsung
Bettina Tizzy
M Linden
Jack Linden
Cyn Linden
Barnesworth Anubis
Nylon Pinkey
Flea Bussy
Heiko Decatur
Carl Metropolitan
Phaylen Fairchild
Nexeus Fatale
Dizzy Banjo
Adam Zaius
Toxic Menges
Poid Mahovlich
JenzZa Misfit
Rik Riel
Larry Pixel
Saijanai Kuhn
Light Waves
Qie Niangao
Prad Prathivi
Lyndon Heart
Bryn Oh
Gentle Heron
Keystone Bouchard
Grace McDunnough
Olando7 Decosta
MarkTwain White
Rob Linden
Apotheus Silverman
Blue Linden
Tara5 Oh

Noosphere

T Linden
Howard Linden
Sardonyx Linden
Cylindrian Rutabega
Dirk Talamasca
Angela Talamasca
Boliver Oddfellow
Quirky McArdle
Fiz Baskerville
Scope Cleaver
Frogg Marlow
Jaycatt Nico
Lilith Heart
Crap Mariner
Beth Odets
Philip Linden
Andrew Linden
Zha Ewry
Joel Savard
Simone Stern
Salazar Jack
Osprey Therein
Mo Hax
Fleep Tuque
katykiwi Moonflower
Ordinal Malaprop
Eggy Lippmann
Anshe Chung
Guni Greenstein
Alliez Mysterio
Bub Linden
Foolish Frost
Khamon Fate
Jeff Gomez
Peter Newell
Adri Saarinen
Cocoanut Koala
Guy Linden
Catherine Linden
Tom Bukowski
Ziggy Figaro
Suezanne Baskerville
Malburns Writer
Tara Yeats
Sarah Nerd
Ciaran Laval
Wiz Norberg
Urizenus Sklar
Barney Boomslang
Naughty Mole
Glamor Mole
Misty Mole
Michael Linden
Jonathan Fanton

RacerX Gullwing

Elanthius Flagstaff

Socialist Heaven

Kendra Bancroft

Remember, FIC rhymes with "bike"...because I say so.

Make your own damn lists.

Comments

[Surarin Piek]

You claim to be against undue appropriation and sharing by default, but you borrow unattributed pictures at the head of every column. Am I missing some nuance? Is compromising creators okay once a freeloader wins a legislative battle and passes bad law?

[ichabod Antfarm]

"and nearly resorted to "crowdsourcing" (shudder)."

Rather than telling people to make their "own damn lists" which is very hard, requires originality and maybe even some reading, why don't you announce a new, highly innovative product named... let me think creatively here for a second... yes, call it, OpenFIC. An OpenFIC would be a great boon to the proprietary FIC product as you could eliminate anyone listed in OpenFIC (or contributing to it!) from ever entering the official distribution - a kind of filter allowing non-entities to self-select themselves for non-inclusion.

Hey, IBM does it!

[Prokofy Neva]

It's stupid to lie, Surarin, because anyone can check your lies. Every picture that I use I attribute in a line undearneath the picture, where I link to its source if there is one. Scroll down through my past columns and that's readily visible.

If *this* picture here on this FIC story doesn't have an attribution or source, it's merely because it's some old picture that's been around for awhile and I don't have its attribution. Um, do you? Or are you just being a fucking asshole? If anybody *does* have any missing attribution, they can supply it.

[Prokofy Neva]

ichabod, but then you wouldn't be ale to condemn Dale Innis, which is necessary and vital.

[Darien Caldwell]

"(as Lenin said, two steps forward, one step backwards...)"

Wasn't that Paula Abdul?

I'm confused about your noosphere list. You say it's Atlas-like world-holding-up people, but then it's populated with people who haven't even logged into SL for years. Exactly how are they working to hold the world up?

Ciaran Laval? Many have estates bigger than hers. It seems to me the Noosphere list reads more like a list of people you like/admire rather than people who are actively holding up the world.

The rest I can't really argue with, seems pretty accurate.

[Prokofy Neva]

Who are the people who you think haven't logged in, in years on the Noosphwere list? I don't see any. They all log in as far as I know, or they'd be on FIC 1.0.

Ciaran Laval is actually somebody I don't like -- it's he, not she I think. But he persistently blogs on the bread and potato issues, holding the Lindens' feet to the fire and informing the community. He gets it wrong and is a dickwad a good deal of the time, but he still plays an important role. His blog also had the best headline of the year, but I forget what it is now.

Yes, these lists are people I like or hate. Thanks. Make your own!

[Chris Norse]

Meh, just a list by a bitter hasbeen.

[Glam]

R.I.P. Glamor(ous) Mole

[Eshi]

! I made it , I made it! *big grin*

[Prokofy Neva]

Well, I thought about deleting Glam Mole because he was a "former," but then I recalled that I have left Eric Linden on the 1.0 list for ages because his objects (the trees and roads) persist inworld to this day. So I thought I'd leave Glam on. There may be others like that.

[Prokofy Neva]

@Chris Norse and you are...?

Sorry you didn't make it this year. Try Twittering.

[Prokofy Neva]

Crap raises the issue, with his own FIC/Noosphere partnership, whether another FIC/Noosphere partnership, Zha Ewry (Noosphere) and Chestnut Rau (wannabe FIC) could have gone on.

Well, partnership does not get you on the list. I hovered over including Chest-nut, but...she was a tad underproducing on her own blog. To be sure, she does have sturdy FIC credentials on Hamlet's flog blog putting in the picks of the week. Quite the influential position. I could be persuaded on this one.

[Prokofy Neva]

If partnership got you on the list, why that idiot racist PN partner of Tizzers named something like DarthVederNegroCumminSoon Fuquetard would get on the list.

[ichabod Antfarm]

The person missing from the Nooshpere list is Prok himself and I don't say that to kiss ass. I say it because I believe that much of the intellectual framework many of us have adopted trying to understand Second Life can be attributed to our host (through agreement, disagreement, or both). The FIC theory is a prime example. Love it or hate it, agree with it or not, the FIC theory is one of our primary critical concepts... and, for some people,... it isn't.

I am making my own damn list!

[Gabby Panacek]

Wasn't there an FIC 2.5?

I'm confused by its omission.

[Prokofy Neva]

2.5 was so last year.

[Surarin Piek]

So I've got half a dozen MP3s I can't identify. It's alright to post those to the net too? Ignorance of the license is an excuse?

I'm so happy to help with this one case though: http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2009/05/kicking-the-football.html

The attribution you couldn't find was Charles Schultz. That's from a cartoon called Peanuts. The image is owned by King Features Syndicate. Their reprint policy is: Don't.

We were talking about this on IRC. It took just a few seconds to find half a dozen glaring omissions. Crowdsourcing. We went exploring and your tenant homes are intellectual property graveyards too.

We notice copied textures on donuts and vents also.

But I guess your rules are for other people. Not you.

[Surarin Piek]

In on this thread before Prokofy finds some single exception to one point and pretends she's refuted a whole post.

[Robert Bloomfield]

People always have the right to determine the pronunciation of their own names (it's SotomayOR because she says so). But I am not sure the courtesy extends to coined acronyms, especially when your proposed pronunciation (FIC rhymes with 'bike'?) conflicts with the spelling of the acronym itself (Bic, sic, tic) and with the pronunciation of the words being abbreviated--Feted Inner Core, not the Feted Eye-ner Core.

That said, I heartily approve of your placing Wiz Nordberg in the noosphere, where he rightly belongs. He and his colleagues at Treet (Texas Timtam, Starr Sonic) are some of the best of Second Life.

[Lum Lumley]

Today I learned that Vladimir Lenin and Paula Abdul are the same person.

It was a good day.

[Vivianne Draper]

*sob*

I've insulted you. I've hung out with damned near everyone on every iteration of every FIC list. I've talked about you not only behind your back but in front of your back and to your face. I have even, *gasp*, posted about you.

But still I remain unlisted.

Where is the love Prokofy!?? Where is the love I ask you? I need to be included on these lists. FFS I'm on Encore's list -- I should be on yours. In color.

That is all.

[Prokofy Neva]

Surarin,

Are you a fucking *retard*?

Your dear friend (or main) Vryl Valkerie's Vents are allowed to be copied and sold. It says so on the library license. Read it. And fuck off.

Um, the donut texture is....drumroll...made out of...sand in the Library. ROFL. The library textures are open to be used and copied and sold.

I have not stolen or used anyone's content without their permission.

If you think this is the case, please present the facts, as you have not done that yet.

This picture of some flappers, like many other similar unattributed, old and public domain drawings you can find of this nature on Google (go look) isn't something that, to my knowledge, has been stolen. If you have facts, please present them and cease being an asshole.

I haven't heard from the Charles Schultz estate on the matter of this very widely copied picture, but when I do, I'm happy to take down anything that infringes.

I don't see any half dozen examples of copy violations. Are you always such obsessed fucktards on the IRC channel? But you goons on the IRC channel are copyleftists, and you care nothing about copyright. I do. I give credit where it is due.

If my tenant homes are intellectual property "graveyards," you can take that matter up with...them. Not me. As they are not my objects. But I'm not aware of any.

Sounds like you are simply trying to find something to harass me with, but so far, it hasn't worked. When it works, I guess you'll know. Sorry I can't give satisfaction until them. If there is some picture that isn't attributed, it's not some deliberate intention to steal or fail to credit, and any credits that come in or requests to take down some item are cheerfully fulfilled.

Trolling and harassment efforts by fucktards like yourself, however, are viciously repelled : )

[Prokofy Neva]

Vivianne Draper. Um...Vivianne Draper. Let me think. Could you remind me again what you insulted me about?

If I can't recall who you are, I can't put you on the list, obviously.

[Prokofy Neva]

Oh! I see the problem with Surarin Piek who I'd never heard of before.

Could be mangina material. They often are.
http://slasty.wordpress.com/

A fashionista, yet one that plies the IRC channel. Hmmm.

What a retarded little loser. I guess it's sour grapes at not being even on 2.13 list lol

[Prokofy Neva]

Lum,

Let me help you with this.

Lenin actually said "odin shag vperyod, dva shaga nazad," -- one steps forward, two steps back.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1904/onestep/index.htm

I messed that up in my post but you get the idea. Moving in place.

Paul Abdul, however, said "Two steps foward, two steps back".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbknGnZXHUk

Different