Second Life

by Kris Dibou, warrior poet/pirate

For a year and a half I lived in the world
Of they who cannot be named
I sang of the joys, I sang of the beauty
In the place that cannot be named

And as I learned, I helped to build
This world that cannot be named
I believed when they said that I was now one
Of they who cannot be named

And how proud we were of this wonderful world
This world that cannot be named
Created by the users, that makes us the owners
Of this place that cannot be named

And just like the parts of the body who claimed
Sovereignty over the whole
When one part locked up the rest found out
The ruler was the asshole.

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

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Bots crush humans in land competition — L$1 mainland gone in under 10 seconds

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

A friend has been holding one of the most inconvenient bits of virtual land imaginable - a 576 m2 diamond-shaped sliver of land on an extremely steep underwater hillside located in the Torch mainland sim. As part of the Second Life Herald’s scientific study of metaverse economies, we decided to run a small experiment to see if automated land arbitrage was as brutally effective as say, snuffing out a candle with a hurricane. Good news - it is!

Less then 10 seconds after setting the land for sale at L$1, the Freak Bot Land group had taken possession. Studying the profiles of the new owners, I felt confident that would put this little slice of paradise to good use - perhaps a commercial ad farming operation would help grow the in-world economy? Clearly, this sort of market discipline is the future of the 3D Internet - never mind the humans residents.

Freak Bot Land group makes sure your L$1 land is gone in under 10 seconds

I wondered how long it would take for the robotic invisible hand of the market to improve the user experience in Torch - and the answer was quick to appear. In a few minutes the land was back on the market for L$9999. Certainly the dueling scripters are enjoying their landbot competition, but this sort of botplay might put off some would-be land owners. Could botplay account for the stagnant growth in premium accounts - the supposed stable middle class of the metaverse?

immediately after the bot buys in…

…and a few minutes later

While it was gratifying to see the bots work so quickly, I still felt some concern that the land game has become uninviting to the weak puny humans that pay the bills for the metaverse. Merciless bots waiting to pounce on any misstep paints a rather dystopian picture of Philip Linden’s dream of the 3D Internet - especially for anyone who accidentally put their land on sale at well below market prices. These concerns are nothing new, and the Freak Bot Land group charter offers this statement:

The Freak Bot’s gush of nearly incoherent gabble suggests they are both defensive about their line of work and a little weak on English grammar. Perhaps after they make a few million L$s they can sit in on the speech therapy courses being arranged for the wurkin’ girls of little paradise.

While imagining the fun the five year old roleplayers and the freak land bots could have together in grammar school, an idea occurred to me - why not see if there were other L$1 plots for sale. Could I beat the bots at their own game?

A quick look at the land search revealed plenty of L$1 plots - which all seemed to be con jobs fine examples of creative financing. Those bots are smarter than they appeared in their profile - they weren’t wasting time on other people’s virtual con games - they have their own scam to run.

After looking through half a dozen L$1 land sales, I was particularly impressed by a “sale” that was a non-refundable extremely short-term lease (10 minutes) during which the sucker buyer is free to pay thousands more - or lose the L$1 deposit.

While some may complain about this style of gameplay, in some ways it is an impressive achievement - there can be real art in gaming the Linden search function, and I’m sure impressive feats of bot technology are in play here. But is this a game many people would want to play for long?

the L$1 land the bots won’t touch

true artistry in gaming the search results

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[Note from Justine-  Every once in a while I find a model who has a number of different looks, each more fantastic than the one before it. Shok’s collection of avatars is impressive and it was very frustrating to have to limit my choices to just three pictures! It was a great pleasure to work with Shok, and I appreciate the effort it must take to not only pose here for us, but to write in an adopted language! I only hope the pictures do Shok justice].

Well I’d like to introduce myself, I am Shok, aka Shoky’pooh to my friends because I am friendly and huggable.

I started SL a while ago, more than a year. I have been doing so many things around, like discovering a lot of new music bands, new friends and also I discovered how to build.

Building and making things are two things I do a lot of the time. I built some stuff for friends like tee-shirts or collars and even houses…I love building and some people think that I am skilled at it.

And then I met Justine into one of my fav’ clubs. She IMed me and said that I am a hottie and the she wanted to shoot me. It wasn’t the first time and I like doing that because I love fashion and changing clothes.  I hope you will enjoy the pictures as I enjoyed making them with Justine.

A lot of kisses and huggies, Shoky’pooh.

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Letters to the Editor

I’m writing about the article entitled “Bots Make Mockery of Traffic Statistics” on March 23, 2008 for the Second Life Herald.

My name is Doran McCullough and I, along with Organa Ashley, just purchased the land written about from Harold Malpholisto. I want to say, unequivocally, that under no circumstances will we ever use or condone using bots to artificially inflate traffic. We had no idea this was even going on when we purchased this land, and can’t disagree with the use of bots strongly enough.

We are currently in the process of moving our mall and nightclub over to the land, and have always took the stance that bots are to be booted. I encourage all Second Life citizens to come down to the Oxygen Mall and Nightclub, and verify this for yourselves. Organa and I both agree completely that the process of artificially inflating traffic numbers by the use of bots ruins your reputation as a mall owner, disappoints vendors, and ruins Second Life for all citizens.

I would love the opportunity to talk this over with you, perhaps as an interview, or whatever you think best. Great work on the Second Life Herald, I’ve been an admirer for a while now. Keep up the good work, and please send me a notecard or IM letting me know you got this and if you would want to talk about it anymore.

Doran McCullough
Co-Owner Oxygen Mall and Nightclub
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Liberty%20Central%20S/111/65/51/

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by Jessica Holyoke

Starting Friday night, Money Island and the neighboring Money Tree Island and Freebie Island are holding a 48 hour event celebrating live music.

Chelseamarie Noel

While listening to the silky smooth stylings of Chelseamarie Noel, I had a chat with Throughthesewalls Moody, a promoter/manager of live musical acts on Second Life. Throughthesewalls talked about the Music Not Politics Group.

“Music Not Politics is about bringing music and fans together. Live Music is spontaneous, unpredictable, fresh. It wraps its arms around the audience and embraces them as part of whole, giving everyone the experience of belonging, a sense of ownership of the day or night . It lives, it breaths. This is what you will find at every MUSIC NOT POLITICS promoted show.“

Chelseamarie’s set was followed by Shamrod Watanabe, and Throughthesewalls and I continued to talk about how the major labels are not doing enough to get these voices to their fans. But there is hope, as Throughthesewalls points out, “Through the internet, we have the ability to play to more people than any concert hall could ever hold.” If you are a fan of pop, rap, jazz or even opera, check out the live music event this weekend on Money Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Money%20Island/234/18/22

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[Note from Justine: This week I found Calcirya Fall and was thrilled when she said she’d pose. I had never heard of a futanari neko, and was pleased to make the acquaintance of one in Calcirya. I hope my pictures do justice!].

Well that is me so I don’t know what else I can say. What you see is what you get! First of all Second Life is made for people to have a…second life, so that being said it is best that you respect that, and let people do what they want to, without criticism.

Now that I got that out of the way, a little about myself…I am fairly new to SL, about a few months I would say so I am still finding out a lot of things…I mostly just hang out at different places, dance, you know all that good stuff! I have met a few good people in my time on SL and well a lot of assholes too, but hey I expected that and I love me some assholes, it is a turn on :). I mostly started SL so I can express my fantasies and try things, at first…now I actually enjoy it and my sexual activity is really low, hanging out and meeting with people is much more exciting. I am really into metal music and I enjoy the whole post-apoc/cyberpunk look if you couldn’t see that already!

Well that is really all I can think to say about me, I don’t mind meeting people so hey if you want to contact me you can :), all you assholes message me too I love a good laugh, haha
Well thanks I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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Fashionista drama means everyone can take hints from the goons and griefers

by Tenshi Vielle

When one is browsing the web and doing nefarious things, wouldn’t you just hate to leave a trail of IP address footprints that will show up if, say, you were dumb enough to post on a website as both your main and your alt account? Most websites instantly log IP addresses, leaving the next best thing to a unique ID with your comments - your IP footprints! Just changing your screen name isn’t enough to hide yourself.

Thinks about it. Wouldn’t it SUCK to finally have someone be able to identify your alts if you were faking an identity with a screen name? In an effort to reduce the drama in the SL fashion world, here is a protip: if you simply must attack other people with sockpuppets, use an IP Anonymizer. “But Tenshi,” you may ask, “How on earth does that work? I can barely work prims!”

Oh, dear, sweet reader. It’s really quite simple! IP anonymizers are all about bouncing through a proxy to hide your real IP. Downloadable programs are available to assist you in this process. You might say, “Uh, duh, I can do (insert task here), and have a new IP address.” Sure, but not quite - you need to have a really different IP address. If someone was interested in tracking you, the difference between 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2 is only one number. You’re still not invisible. IP addresses are assigned by your internet service provider in easily guessed blocks. Even if you can force a change (i.e, restarting your modem) your address is probably similar enough and will resolve to a close enough location via a trace.

One solution: Tor ( http://www.torproject.org/ ). Available as free software through the 3-clause BSD license, the bundle also includes Vidalia and Privoxy, which are supporting applications distributed under the GNU GPL. I know, lots of acronyms. Get over it and get on with the downloading.

However, be aware that it doesn’t just work by installing it - you will have to tweak some programs. For instance, if you’re using Firefox to search the web, you will want to add the Torbutton ( https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2275/ ) extension. Various browser plugins like Java and Flash can and more than likely will be manipulated to give information on your IP. You will have to disable those. You will also need to clear your cookies frequently - cookies will give over your IP and other information even if Tor is running.

Another solution: Secure Tunnel ( http://www.stayinvisible.com/cgi-bin/out.cgi?a=st ): Pay proxy server, useful for personal use. This is best for people who aren’t doing website development or any sort of mass form submissions. This gives enough privacy protection for most internet users - it will blind you to the sites you surf, including news, email and IRC and ICQ. (If you don’t know what those last two things are : Why are you reading this article?)

One last idea for you is Proxyway Pro ( http://www.stayinvisible.com/cgi-bin/out.cgi?a=pw ), a proxy surfing software which will work with anything from instant messengers to web browsers. It provides an extended proxy management system that enables you to search for proxies, analyze those proxies, and even create proxy chains. You can update your proxy list via an included scheduler. Proxyway Pro will also allow you to clear history, block ads and popups, and block harmful codes.

Thanks to these IP anonymizers, you can both run AND hide! Just watch out for more experienced government agencies - they’ll still get you if they need to. Now get out there and have fun with your sockpuppets - they help make the SL fashion world great!

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by Kris Dibou, warrior poet/pirate

A captainless ship flew past my watch,
A sign of things to be;
Where once the ship sailed straight and true,
Where once she sailed free;

She wanders lost on ragged seas
And seems to lose her way;
And she never sinks beneath the waves
No harbor found, nor quay.

That she floats, is it enough?
Can that be all she needs?
Or is it best that she should sink
and keep her dignity?

And should some captain snag a line
And pull himself within;
Will the ship find port at last
And end her wandering?

Or is it the wandering that defines
Who she truly is?
And if she ceases meandering
Is it death’s sweet kiss?

And as I stared out in the night
and watched her shadow fade,
I felt the fear and loneliness
In the wake she made.

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

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by Jessica Holyoke

I was planning to write an article about the dying art of immersion outside of roleplay when this came across the wire.  Reuters http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2008/03/14/exclusive-rosedale-to-step-down-as-linden-lab-ceo/ has the exclusive report of Phillip Rosedale being replaced as CEO of Linden Lab.  While he plans to stay on as Chairman of the Board, Rosedale will continue to map strategy and develop product.  Mitch Kapor will step down as Chairman and remain on the Board.  No word yet if the board is growing or if someone else will leave the Linden Board.

For me, Phillip represented the immersionists.  Cory and Torley might have been immersionists early on from what I’ve heard, but now, they just look like people who wore funny hats now and again.  Robin is now seeing if residents would like to link their Second Lives with Facebook, on top of such anti-immersion tactics such as ID verification or voice. 

But Phillip was the dreamer.  The one who said that Second Life meant just that.  An opportunity to leave whatever you had in your first life and experience things with a new set of eyes (and skin and body).  That immersive experience is what makes Second Life a rich experience for others like myself who come in not to replicate what is out there, but to experience anew what is in here.

And that is slowly losing ground.  Beyond the Linden Lab initiatives, more and more people want to know about the person on the other side.  That our identities on Second Life are not as important as our identities in real life, and that any concealment of those identities is just a sign of dishonesty and not a sign of desired escape.

So while the next Linden CEO might be able to bring order out of the chaos, as a more management oriented person is being sought out, hopefully, the Lindens will realize that out of chaos comes the most vibrant of dreams.

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Linden game gods violate laws of nature to party

By Prokofy Neva, Kremlindenologist

today 26 groups - tomorrow - 513?

Our game-gods imposed a curious kind of metaversal democracy on us yesterday, in their accidental wisdom, creating a ginormous entity called “Concierge Party Group” inworld with 6,926 members.

Wait. Make that 6,727. Because the chat in this absolutely outsized Second Life Tier Nation drove at least 199 people instantly absolutely batty and they bailed.

MJ Linden put up a dirt-simple group charter: “Do not spam the group.” That never works on socializers in Second Life, however; one resident’s pithy sayings are another resident’s spam.

Blinking in the unaccustomed sunlight of a code-dictated mass movement, Concierge Party Group members immediately came to a very stark realization: the Lindens had violated Nature in two basic ways that they said could Never Be Done.

The first thing they did was make this the 26th group. 26th! How can you have 26 groups!!! In every office hour, on every JIRA comment, at every real-life meet up in the back of the bar, the Lindens have told us that we can never never never ever never ever ever ever never have more than 25 groups. Because. It would be too many calls to the data base. Yet…here they made one at the drop of a party hat.

The next thing they did was mass-invite people into this group — no, mass join them into the group so that upon log-on, they showed as as already members, without having to fumble with the wonky interface. Wow! Some land barons were saying, “Hey, I want that. How did they do that?” One button — instant mass audience or customer mailing list.

Something tells me the Lindens didn’t have to pay $100 to make this group, either.

But there was more…

It didn’t take the first member of Concierge Party Nation long to figure out that the voting tools worked! MJ Linden, unlike many controlling and fussy rape role-players and land barons who make groups, hadn’t figured out how to turn off the voting tool for the “everyone category” and just leave it for the officers.

And with good reason. As anyone with an inworld group of more than 1 person, let along 750, can tell you, what inevitably happens is that even with screening, some nit will post a vote, rather than a message (it used to be that was the only way to leave messages in the group), or they will put up a retarded referendum like “Did I fart?” which will have that exact effect even in a non-olfactorious world, because it forces numerous hapless group members, upon log-in, to have to bat away a drop-down blue-menu voting screen.

Proposition 1 of this new democracy, however wasn’t a spam, but a very urgent civic issue:

“I propose that we don’t get auto-invited”

A good deal of discussion went up about the sense of invasion people felt, being frog-marched into a group by Linden-run switches — and of course you couldn’t leave this roach motel because you had to have the group tag on to gain entrance to the party island on Saturday. That meant 4-5 long days of chat in a group with…well, it was down to 6,724 now, but let’s say there’s a LOT of chat in this group!

Proposition 2 wasn’t long in coming:

“Shut the fuck up.”

Proposition 1, having been found wanting by some expert JIRAhdists, soon morphed into Proposition 3:

“I propose that auto acception never be implemented.”

This bright new democrat had figured out REAL fast the sheer horrorifying implications of mass groupedness, and had thought of not only staying the Lindens’ hands this once, with a censorious sense of congress about their action. No, global action had to be contemplated. The prospect of any prim diva being able to put all her shoppers or club-goers into a force-group…any mall-going mangina able to bind every single avatar within her 96 m2 radar range into a group…or what if the Librarians on Info Island decided to group everybody who ever clicked on a kiosk…it made ad-farms seem like a mere stroll on the beach in a drug haze of draw distance at 64…

Contemplating the possibilities of talking with 6,926 people that first night, before 199 fled in knock-kneed horror, willing to ditch the prospect of partying hearty with the Lindens, I put up Propositions 3 and 4:

“Should Linden Lab open-source its server code?” and

“Should tier-paying residents have a collective seat on the board of Linden Lab”?

Well, democracy means a lot of spade-work. It’s the sort of thing of thing that Clay Shirkey, with his Here Comes Everybody sort of mobbing and wise-crowding, isn’t thinking about too much because he figure it will all be Our Gang.

“What does ‘open source’ mean?” asked one Concierge Party-goer, unaware of how his $125 “investment” could be going down the toilet someday. “What is server code?” asked another.

“Yes, paying tier is like paying tax, so yeah, no taxation without representation,” somebody concluded.

“No, it’s not.” “Yes, it is.” “No, it’s not.”

Then…20 minutes of RodneyKing Voom pleading for us to all go along. A group of 6,926 people is always a good place to join hands and sing “We Are the World,” somebody suggested.

Feeling a little bit like Scoble going from Facebook to Plaxo, I was wondering by this time if I could pass any inventory to 6,926 of my new friends. Turns out –nope.

In fact, a group this outrageously huge, well, it just doesn’t load. It took 10 minutes for my props to clear the Submitting….hang. Just trying to see who was on line (I was hoping to get a nice gander into the real log-on statistics with a sample this big!) was impossible, it would only show blanks, or 100 at a time.

One of the interesting statistics you could see in this group were numbers nobody ever thinks much about:

43 Linden Partiers
6,926 Concierge Partiers

And you wonder why they never seem to pass any h’ordeuvres in this joint, let alone get your sim up and running!

In case you thought some or many of these now 6,744 people might use this group to organize, oh, around texture theft or the woefully-inadequate new ad-farm policy or even to turn out votes for Obama, think again.

Tier Nation is busy deciding where they’ll find a toga to wear to the Lindens’ imposed-theme party. I have a feeling the Gor silk stalks are going to be doing a land-office business this week and even the Caliphate-imposing Al-Andalus sim might get their tier payed if they play their cards right.

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