Second Life

Is virgins recruiting at the Little Red Mosque and slaughtering lambs in the bathtub SL hate speech?

by Ms. Sautereau

the Little Red Mosque

While I haven’t gotten enough time with Muslim SL’ers to write a full article on Islam, I did, in my searches, stumble across what could be construed as proof that Linden Labs doesn’t particularly care about enforcing it’s own rules. I’m pretty sure there’s something in the TOS against blatant hate speech, or suchlike. Yet the first entry that came up when I searched for Mosque disturbed me.

Tucked away beside a store that sells grotesquely deformed celebrity caricature avatars in the CARICAVATARS sim is a place called the Little Red Mosque, and it’s purpose seems solely to attack the Muslim religion. It seems to focus on the fanaticism of a few terrorists and extremists and judge the entire faith based on said few nutjobs. Like most hate speech, it judges a whole group on the merits of a small percentage of it’s members.

calling all metaverse virgins

The Little Red Mosque is beside a wall of anti-Muslim cartoons, apparently displayed to openly mock the Islamic people. The Mosque itself is small, but has an adboard asking for virgins to volunteer to greet Muslim Holy Soldiers in the afterlife.

The man (and I use the term loosely) behind this unpleasant display of ignorance and hate is one Christophe Hugo. He was online when I looked at the Mosque. In fact he was sitting in a blood filled bathtub in a grotesque animation of slaughtering a lamb watching the Mosque. I knew he was there and not afk because I could see his Edit Object trail from his hand moving from object to object, editing the walls around himself. Yet he blatantly ignored my inquiries about the Mosque or anything else.

Christophe Hugo

Freedom of Speech has it’s limits. If you want to put “Christianity sucks” or “Islam sucks” or the like in your profile, that’s your right. If you want to put “All Christian/Muslims should be shot and killed”, well, that isn’t okay. And building an actual fake mosque to openly mock a faith that means everything to almost a third of the world’s population, well, that is DEFINITELY not okay.

But do the Lindens care? Probably not. It took them 4 months to look into complaints about a Wild West rp sim that allowed people to play 8 year old prostitutes, I doubt a small out of the way bigot’s shrine to hate and ignorance would even blip their radar. Such is Second Life. The Lab only cares if the FBI pressures them, like with the universally reviled Gambling Ban.

Oh well, freedom of speech right?

*sighs*

Create Instant Buzz

by Kris Dibou, warrior poet/pirate

Sitting at the counter tapping
Fingers, just this side of napping;
Pondering at trip back in to
Secondlife once more.

Is she sitting somewhere waiting?
As we speak she’s contemplating
The blue button, taking her to
Secondlife once more.

Metaversal mem’ries clinging
To the real human being;
Would it be safe for them back in
Secondlife once more?

“Firstlife first”, the gypsy’s saying,
“Every trip, your life is draining;
But there can not be staying in
Secondlife once more”.

Build your castle in the heavens
Keep your feet in solid havens
Test your grasp on what is real in
Secondlife once more.

copyright (c) 2008 - Kris Dibou - used by the gracious permission of the author.

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NMC to announce content free-for-all wednesday

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Reliable sources report that Larry Pixel’s real life typist - Dr. Larry Johnson, the CEO of the New Media Consortium - announced in Boston this weekend that the NMC will make templates and designs for a number of its builds and clothing available free - a move likely to depress the in-world sales of virtual world academic trappings such as clock towers, lecture halls, and sleep inducing meeting spaces. The NMC has specialized in assisting with recreation of a number of RL campuses and artifacts in Second Life, but with the new year Dr. Johnson has promised his organization will create “no more clock towers” - while at the same time providing the community at large with a number of its designs - presumably including some existing clock towers.

Larry Pixel

According to our sources, the surprise announcement was made during the Boston Digital Media Summit during a panel discussion, with promises of more details Wednesday. It seems likely that while many residents of SL will welcome more free content, there may be significant negative impact on skilled virtual stone masons and clockmakers who will now have tougher competitive landscape to negotiate - unless they repackage the free content and sell it to the unwary.

With the possibility that Larry Pixel will also provide clothing templates, the Herald staff looks forward to babyfurs wearing academic regalia suck as mortarboards with tassels - or at least NMC t-shirts - before the week is out.

Create Instant Buzz

Second Style issue #15 is now available for download in PDF format from our website http://www.secondstyle.com and from any in world kiosk like the one outside our in-world headquarters in Le Zoo (136, 36, 24).

This issue of Second Style features an in-depth photo essay of Second Life’s many talented skin makers for both men and women. As a special reader bonus, the in-world copy of the magazine also includes 7 brand new limited-time exclusive Chai skins by Launa Fauna. You can see four of the seven included skintones (each tone comes with and without freckles) of Vedette in the photo [after the jump], 14 skins in all. But hurry, these skins are only available until our next issue is published!

a sample of the Vedette available until our next issue is published!

Advertisers: The deadline for ad submissions is January 20th for publication in February. Please see our ad submission standards and rate card here.

Create Instant Buzz

[Note from Justine. Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to introduce to you Cicatrice Oh, one of the nicest people I’ve met in Second Life, and, as I hope you’ll agree from reading her bio, one of the truly great spirits of any world. Without further adieu, I give you this week’s Post 6 Grrrl].

Okay, here goes… My name is Cicatrice Oh.

*Cicatrice Oh ducks a rotten tomato*

You wanted a uniquely creative avi; I hope I’m it.  I’m one of a small number of African-American female avatars wandering the divine sims of Second Life.  I’m a 34-year old California girl looking forward to her first Rez Day this coming spring.  For me, Second Life is like playing adult Barbies and I was obsessed with Barbies when I was a little girl!

My name means “scar” in Italian, something I did not know when I chose it.  I got it from a character on the 1st life TV show The Riches.  Needless to say, it has been the source of many fascinating chat conversations with Italian SLer’s.  I wonder if it means something naughty in Italian slang.  *gulp*  Like my avi, the name is unique and I love that; however, it gets butchered by SL DJ’s.  It’s pronounced See-Ka-Treese.  My favorite mispronunciation so far is Sack-o-Tricks.  WTF?

I’m a proud landowner of an island in the Kilauea island group.  If you’ve never visited the sim, stop by, it’s pure paradise; but tip toe around my island or feel the wrath of my Omega security system.  Don’t say I didn’t warn your ejected behind.  ;o)  My cottage is partially underwater and the surrounding sea is full of oceanic wildlife most of which have names.  I have a dolphin named Henry, three sea turtles named Larry, Curly and Moe … I have sharks too but I have not named them.  That would just be silly. 

Second Life has cured me of my 1st life shopoholic affliction.  Now I spend less money and get more to show for it.  Shoes and jewelry are my weaknesses.  I have 49 pairs of shoes and counting.  My favorite store for shoes is Minx and LeeZu Baxter’s jewelry is seriously genius.  But mostly I love happening upon that out-of-the-way boutique with meticulous designs and intricate textures. 

I’m endlessly amazed by the talent and beauty in Second Life.  Photographers like my dear friend Jazz Calhern, builders like Julia Hathor of Creative Fantasy, efx designers like Nulflux Negulesco.  Every day there is something inventive to see and experience in our infinite utopia.  I love the ability to do things in SL that I’m too chicken to do in 1st life like horseback riding, skydiving and deep sea scuba diving.  Maybe someday, my virtual escapades will give me the courage to conquer my 1st life fears.

I hang with my Bitch Posse girls Lotta Bikcin and Jensen Shepherd.  We are music lovers favoring hip-hop and metal at Urban Underground or Sanctuary Rock.  My Chim has the raunchiest dances your prim eyes have ever seen.  I have a fantastic, sexy and sensitive boyfriend of five delicious months who keeps me pretty busy but don’t hesitate to IM me especially if you have buildin’ skillz.  My New Year’s resolution is to learn to build something I did not steal from the SL library.

I know my bio isn’t wildly imaginative, just more shopping, shoes and shout-outs, right?  Hopefully my avi makes up for it?

Be nice, chumps!  I have prim Uzi’s and I will rework your no-modify body with ‘em.  Seriously though, be nice, I’ll be your beeeeeesssst frieeeeeennnnnd…  I have candy…  My Mom will send you some L’sssssssssssss…

Happy New Year!
Cica

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GOM Part II

by Jessica Holyoke

Substantial Risks to the SL Economy.  That’s the reason Ken D Linden gave when he wrote the blog post banning interest and rate of return investing in SL. But banks and stock exchanges pump money through an economy.  By allowing people to invest in these two services, the economy grows, either through new businesses started or land being purchased.  Perhaps the SL Economy is not what we think it is, but what Linden Lab needs it to be.

A few weeks back, I wrote an article about microeconomics in MMO’s.  Most of the responses showed interest in SL on a macroeconomic scale.   Some commenter’s also pointed out that in the real world, printing up currency is an inflationary move.  More dollars or deutsch marks in circulation means that they are worth less than before.   Supply Linden does not work the same way.  He does not print up Lindens out of whole cloth, he sells them.   By doing so, Supply Linden creates a deflationary pressure on the economy.  By keeping the market flooded with Lindens, the value of the Linden dollar does not rise over a certain point when there are more buyers of Lindens then there are sellers.  If the exchange rate is 269L per dollar, then a scarcity of Lindens could mean an exchange rate of 250L per dollar.  This effectively raises prices for US residents and lowers in-world wages for everyone.  Additionally, Supply Linden generates revenue.  Each purchase of Linden dollars is straight revenue. Higher prices may discourage purchasing on the Grid and users purchasing Lindens.

And that’s the trend I’m seeing.  No third party exchanges, because they may be crooks, means more people will use the LindeX.  The punishment meted by Linden Lab for something that a resident has no control over means that a resident would not dare use a third party exchange, unless they do not have a credit card or PayPal.  Every third party exchange is money out of Linden Lab’s pocket.  And while the third party’s Lindens have to come from somewhere, it does mean that the Lab is losing money.  (Customer buys Lindens off of the Lindex.  Customer gives those Lindens to Vendor in exchange for goods.  Vendor could sell the Lindens on the LindeX and pay money to the Lab as they sell their Lindens and they transfer money to the Vendor’s PayPal account.  Vendor could spend those Lindens on a resident who does the same thing they could have done.  Or the Vendor could horde those Lindens and sell them to a third party, cutting the Lab out of both the selling fee and the transfer fee.   

No capital investing in world, because they may be crooks, means that to raise massive amounts of Lindens you have to buy it through the LindeX.   Again, instead of using Lindens already purchased and being reinvested, a new business owner turns to his own bank account and has to obtain Lindens by using the LindeX.

Now other theories regarding the banking ban are going around, including real world banks are coming in and wanting to provide services and the Lab wants to provide banking and investing type services.  But the important thing to come out of all this is that after months of saying the Linden dollar is a right or a credit, Ken D Linden called it a currency.

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Judaism

by Ms. Sautereau

[Author’s note; I’m having to submit this article as I’ve been unable to get anyone who identifies as Muslim to answer more than one or two questions. Since the theme of this series is intended to be Religion from the point of view of the people I meet who practice it, it’s hard to write an article on Islam without a Muslim interview subject. So until I get more info to write a better article with, Im just going to skip ahead in the list for now.]

The first Article in This series, Christianity, covered that faith from the view of Ms Gynan Sanders, who, at that time, had been the only person who I’d contacted who’d gotten back to me. The comments section of that article however showed me more people willing to talk to me, and that’s how I met Beth Odets. Beth is a loud and proud Jew, who has contributed to the creation of 2Life, a Jewish Magazine in SL, and an entire sim that celebrates Jewish life and culture. I talked to Beth during Hanukkah, in TMA located in Nessus, and asked her what it all means for her.

In-World offices of Jewish SL Mag 2Life

About 2Life

“Its the Jewish magazine in SL. Its about Jewish life in Second Life, the people, the places, etcetera. Its on the web. There are dispenser boxes all over the sim take you to the Mag’s webpage.”

Ms. Beth Odets, my energetic and friendly tourguide

About what expressing her faith means to her

“Well, I never really role played on here. I’ve never played a massive multiplayer rpg before, and in my real life I’m what i call a ‘flaming Jew’. I live in Texas, so it’s not hard to be the only Jewish person around sometimes, and in here, it was natural.”

She points out the Star of David necklace her Avie is wearing.

“I have had this necklace for a long time, since like my second week. A friend gave it to me. It means i love being jewish. Not that i think anything else is wrong or bad. I love the culture, I love being the person that people know as their Jewish friend. From a young age we did Jewish stuff, songs, dancing. My father is israeli. It’s who I am.”

Fountain in the 2Life Courtyard

About herself

“I do a lot of things in m y life. I play violin, I draw a lot, I have 2 kids. But before all that, even before being Beth, I am Jewish. It’s special to me. That’s what i mean by ‘flaming Jew’. It doesn’t mean I am uber observant. Like for example, I am in a bluegrass band, and we have a joke that we have ‘a doctor and a Jew, and it aint the same person’.”

About the only store in the sim

“This is one of only two places in the whole neighborhood that has a donation box. I’m really strict about that. We sell things to decorate a Jewish home, or things that we use ritually, but, (and this is important) we make sure that everyone knows this is not a substitute for the real thing.”

the only store in the sim

About Judaism and Second Life

“The concept of commandments for us is a little different. We have 613 of them that we need to follow. Now its not possible to do them all, but for example, to remember the sabbath and keep it holy by lighting candles, doing it here does not fulfil the mitzvah (commandment). It’s just ceremonial here. That’s why we have no regular services. While I’m not uber observant, there’s a line of respect i wouldn’t want to cross there.

She points out a scroll on the wall at the store.

“Thats the thing that started it all. I made that one day.Four hours later, I had a synagogue, LOL. A year and some later, we had a neighborhood. I didn’t intend to build a community. When I made the synagogue, it was for me. It was an artistic representation, hopefully portraying all the different feelings I have about my religion, my passion.”

About the Residential area

“This is the Little Houses place. They are all the same house but i sell the house itself to someone for 0L. I don’t rent them. When i know that someone is in the community, and really a part of it, they can live here for free. I’m not as interested in money as I am in making sure we have nice people, hehe. Not everyone is Jewish either.”

The Little Houses Place

She points out on object on the wall in her own house.

“See the thing on the wall here? It’s a Mezuzah. We have them on our doors, and the contents are usually sealed, but here, I have it spit out the prayer in english and hebrew. It’s really important to me that people understand what they are saying, not just see the prayer or say it. If you don’t get it, it loses a lot of it’s meaning, at least in my opinion. The first line, ‘hear oh israel (children of israel) the jord our God the lord is one’. That’s our main thing. It’s the foundation of the Jewish belief.”

We pass through a garden full of odd knick-knacks on our way to the next stop on her tour.

“A random music stand. If you want to know what it means to me, this place, it’s a projection of things that are inside me. Like every other artist. Random things, colorful things, but there is a structure.”

Western Wall replica

She shows me a large wall structure and a small building besides at the store”This is the Kotel, or a replica of the Western Wall, built by Gruvenreuven Greenberg. He moved it here a while ago. He’s ultra ultra orthodox. Beside it is ‘Yeshiva Modim”. Reuven also runs it. It’s called the ‘Accidental 770 building’. I made a brownstone style building one day, and it happened to look like the headquarters of a big ultra orthodox sect, called ‘Chabad’. I had NO IDEA it looked like that. That’s why I call it accidental. The photos inside are the ‘Rebbes’ of this group, but as all over, lots of pepole come and learn. We had a hanukkah event earlier today. I love this building, and I didn’t know when I made it that the Yeshiva would come here. It was just a big room, heh. The only other donation boxes i allow are these in here and at the wall. Reuven donates the money to RL charity. It just means a lot to me.”

She shows me a wall of hand-drawn fractal artwork, done with sharpies.

“The wall here, it’s like a diary,  and its all me. It makes my place feel like me. There are huge ones on top, 9 prim spreads. LOL. Colors are everyhing. My own personal motto is ‘Live Life Out Loud’.”

Beth’s Wall of Sharpie Artwork

About her Synagogue

“There’s a Hebrew school behind here. This is the main sanctuary,. There’s the first scroll i made, the actual first one. Someone asked me if this was a gay synagogue since the menorahs are rainbow, but no, LOL. It’s just a Synagogue for everyone. I like colors.

Beth’s Synagogue

I asked what initially inspired her to build it.

“My love of Judaism and my need to create something in here that expresses the warmth and comfort i feel when I’n here. To me it looks like every synagogue I have ever been in, thrown in a blender, heh. It has everything familiar; the eternal light, the Torahs, the menorahs, the bimah.”

What she’d like people to know about why she celebrates her faith on SL

“In the end, It all comes down to the fact that, no matter who you are, what you may roleplay, what you may be in here Second Life, the parts of you, of me, that really define us will always come through. I’m just proud and honored that this is what came from me, heh. In here i feel warm and safe and loved, so really, I didn’t plan it. But it chose me, and i answered it.”

Next in this series: Christianity again, from different points of view.

We now return you to whichever life you’re living.

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Scientific Metamorph Sky Shop experiment shows increased traffic without matching sales

by Michelle Morphett

THE QUESTION:

As the proprietor of the successful Metamorph Sky Shop retail store, I’ve always been curious about how Second Life’s search engine affects my business. Does paying for an expensive classified ad increase teleports from it, and does it increase my in-world shop and SL Exchange sales?

THE METHODOLOGY:

In addition to my regular $L76 Metamorph Sky Shop ad ($.28 US), I placed a duplicate ad for $L1002 ($3.71 US) to run at the same time, from Friday 12/28/07 at 9 pm PST to Friday 1/4/07 at 9 pm PST. This timeframe should be a fairly busy period, since people are still on holiday break but generally back home from visiting family, and have Christmas money in their pockets.

The $L1002 figure was chosen because it places the expensive ad a little above halfway up the first page in a search for “skybox” in the old classifieds search under the “Shopping” category, with “include Mature content” unchecked. Search engine studies have shown that “about 90 percent of searchers looking to shop rarely venture past the first page” (http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/03/66893). The same search brings the cheap ad up on the second page, about 2/3 of the way down. The new search in the “Classifieds” category doesn’t show either ad in the first five pages, which is the most results possible currently.

THE DATA:

The cheap Metamorph Sky Shop ad had 7 teleports during that timeframe. The expensive ad had 20 teleports.

No sales came in after 9 pm PST on 12/28/07, so for simplicity’s sake we’ll look at Saturday to Friday as the time period for easier comparison to previous weeks. Those numbers were:

12/29/07 - 1/4/07 (New Years & expensive ad week)
Store Sales 28; Store Freebies 170; SLX Sales 7; SLX Freebies 3

12/22/07 - 12/28/07 (Christmas week)
Store Sales 50; Store Freebies 83; SLX Sales 10; SLX Freebies 2

12/15/07 - 12/21/07
Store Sales 36; Store Freebies 156; SLX Sales 10; SLX Freebies 1

12/8/07 - 12/14/07
Store Sales 12; Store Freebies 65; SLX Sales 10; SLX Freebies 6

12/1/07 - 12/7/07
Store Sales 16; Store Freebies 167; SLX Sales 5; SLX Freebies 3

11/24/07 - 11/30/07
Store Sales 33; Store Freebies 68; SLX Sales 6; SLX Freebies 5

11/17/07 - 11/23/07 (Thanksgiving week)
Store Sales 18; Store Freebies 82; SLX Sales 8; SLX Freebies 4

cost effective advertising is important for business

THE ANALYSIS:

The expensive Metamorph Sky Shop ad had 3x the teleports of the cheap ad.

SLX freebies were about average. Normal ranges are 1 to 6 while that week’s were 3.

SLX sales were about average. Normal ranges are 5 to 10 while that week’s were 7.

Store freebies were on very highest end of normal. Normal ranges are 65 to 167 while that week’s were 170.

Store sales were about average. Normal ranges are 12 to 50 while that week’s were 28.

THE CONCLUSION:

The expensive Metamorph Sky Shop ad got a lot more teleports, and those people did pick up the freebies in the store, but they didn’t actually buy anything. The increased traffic at the store didn’t translate to increased sales on SLX, either.

At 13x the price of the cheaper ad, the expensive ad probably isn’t worth the ongoing expense as far as immediate results go. It might be worthwhile to run a few times during the year at especially high-traffic times to bring in new “window shoppers” who might later become customers, however.

The new search makes the expensive classified even less attractive, because it’s impossible for casual browsers to actually find either ad through a general search (the way they were able to with the old search) no matter how expensive the ad. This actually suggests that it would be a better strategy to go with the $L50 minimum ad fee when the old search is eventually disabled, and that being extremely careful about key words is even more important than before since most ads will only ever appear in the results for highly specific multi-word searches.

Michelle Morphett
Metamorph Sky Shop Proprietor
SL: Dogfight Atoll (81, 95, 34)
SLURL: http://tinyurl.com/2csuuk
SLX: http://tinyurl.com/ysbufl

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by Jessica Holyoke

The Upper East Side sets the stage for gossip

Residents with the last name of GossipGirl have been popping up around the Grid.  Perhaps they showed up for a minute and then vanished, not knowing what to do.  Perhaps its an old friend on a new alt.  For the most part, they stay on the sims that recreate New York’s Upper East Side.  That’s the phenomenon of Gossip Girl.

In visiting the SL version of the Manhattan neighborhood, residents are treated to cars that almost run you over, parks, and various shops that look like Macy’s but feature resident creators like Nicky Ree.  Very quickly, residents old and new alike are greeted by members of the Metaversed Mod Squad.  These identical women, dressed in black coats and white boots, moderate the sim, watch out for the new residents and host parties and fashion shows.  Twig Tomorrow, Mod Squad leader, reported that the Upper East Side sims had a 40% retention rating.  Meaning that 40% of the users stayed on the sim.  The reason being that the Sim was staffed 24/7 with either Mod Squaders or other members of the development team who went around and interacted with people, like Moogani Gossipgirl, who gave me PJ’s.

metaverse mod squad

Millions of Us created the sim for Warner Brothers and the CW.  Besides the build with vehicular traffic and easy to use signs, one of the features is the Gossip Girl mobile HUD.  This cell phone device allows you to see who is around you and what the gossip is on them.  You are also able to rank a resident on coolness and style and create your own gossip about the resident.

Gossip Girl orientation

If you go to CWTV.com and head over to the show’s section, there is an application site to visit Gossip Girl in Second Life.  Using the website revealed two things; one is that there is no Teen Grid Gossip Girl as the new users need to be over 18.  The second was that the site didn’t ask for my name or if I was a previous user of SL.

While this may encourage griefers to seek out the website, at the same time, its interesting as to why the alt question is not being asked.  Could there be a special arrangement so that avatars are advertising the corporate property?  Questions regarding this arrangement sent to Metaverse Mod Squad and Millions of Us have been unanswered.

Gossip Girl HUD

Most of the GossipGirls spent time there chatting or going around to the various events.  Future plans include bringing Character Avatars from the show to interact with.  Take that Dwight, Jim and Pam.

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step 3: Close virtual stock exchange for 30 days. step 4: Directors resign. step 5: Profit?

by Jessica Holyoke

LukeConnell Vandeverre has plans for WSE

Upon entering the World Stock Exchange, visitors are greeted with a notice that the ATM’s and assorted systems will be down for up to 30 days.  After two trading days of 3.8 million shares on January 2nd and 2.4 million shares on January 3rd, LukeConnell Vandeverre announced a shut down in order to update the WSE to WSE 4.0.

The new WSE promises better security, increased functionality and more features.  As part of the evolution of the WSE, the directorship has been changed. Three non-executive directors, Simon Sugita, Erik Goff and Jermaine  Sapwood, all resigned from Hope Capital Limited.  Vandeverre stated that one of the new functions of the WSE 4.0 is the ability for shareholders of the WSE to vote on the board of directors based on individuals he nominates.

WSE ATMs go missing

Plans for the WSE 4.0 include opening up trading to non Second Life residents by increasing the use of the fictional World Internet Currency and allowing others to take part in the fictional WSE and enjoying the entertainment and educational value therein.  Additionally, Market Rules, in keeping with the WSE Terms of Service, governing the interactions between game participants, will be released closer to the unveiling of WSE 4.0.

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