Ghosts in the Machine

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Working with new people...

Over the years I have occasionally come across a few lines on a Google page left by some of the older original members of Secondlife. While we still have a few of the oldbies left, as well as a very few of the charter members, there were hundreds that came in those earliest days. Most of those early members are gone today, leaving only 'The ghost in the machine'.... dim memories if anyone still here remembers at all.

Some months ago I contacted Pituca Fairchang, one of those early members, about continuing her blog. Her blog documented much of those early days with images and text... it was fantastic to see and read first hand what it was like in 2003. Pituca did do a couple more posts after we chatted but it was obvious that her heart just wasn't in it. If you read her profile and see what she had to say about Garth, the real life husband she had met here I think you will understand why. Often it becomes time to just gently let go.

As far as I know the single most definitive history of Secondlife written about some of the people and all of those earliest regions has been compiled by Lalo Telling, it's truly and exhaustive work and always an interesting read. ***********

My opening line to this post was, "Working with new people".

It's usually a complete surprise to new people that first..Secondlife has been around for 8 years... and second, that we have a documented history. If you haven't thought about it... save your images. We have no way of knowing how long this world will be here... and I can tell you from my experience that those images I saved from 2007 are vastly more important to me today than they were at the moment I took them. So many of the people in the few images I did save bring wonderful memories. The rest? Ghosts in the machine

And so it goes

I love you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Community....How may I help?

******************************Where we come from*************************** Sunday, I spoke of the magic I still find in Secondlife. Not long ago AlexHayden Junibalya asked me on Twitter if I was OK...He seemed to feel that a recent post of mine was somewhat despondent {and he may well have been correct!}.

This has been a year of much change for me here in Secondlife...what with the forced demise of the Secondlife Mentors Group last December, the closing of the former Help Island system, soon coupled with the disastrous (in my opinion) viewer I call 2.ought oh.... it has become really difficult to work with those just starting out in Secondlife. While there are those voices that see those of us that enjoy working with nooblets as a way to elevate our perceived low self esteem... I see the help I may have given as simply a way to repay the help, advice, and sense of belonging that was so freely offered to me 1246 days ago.

Some of that continuing magic comes from seeing new people do those things we later do almost without thought... simple things... remember how you felt that first time you heard "boom" and saw a box appear? Things like just automatically detaching that box you forgot to open and opening it on the land? BTW Lindens, thank you for the default "wear" now being the hand instead of the head, although I do miss the occasional nooblet running around with a torch. =^..^=

I have gained a further sense of magic by becoming a part of both the Secondlife community as well as our community at Benares. The Secondlife community I feel a part of from sharing the thoughts and feelings of those whose blogs and Twitter feeds I read... how could one not feel the excitement of Josues life today? My community at Benares... after a few years with some of them... I understand a lot of what goes on in that other life we live... the good times, the pain of jobs lost, homes lost, marriages failed, and marriages saved as well... Grand children born, and parents that pass on, our lives entwine.

I have been able also to take comfort in some of the things those in my community have spoken about when I do voice those despondent feelings I sometimes get about the direction this virtual world may be headed. Rather than try to link...I'de like to just reprint two recent comments:

From soror: Brinda, please don't worry...the people who love building and creating are still in the Metaverse, some of us have just chosen a grid with nicer 'bosses' and lower prices... InWorldz is one of several.... so we are just the diaspora.....blown out across worlds to enrich and colour other grids.... By sororNishi on This is a loss to all of us... on 7/27/10

And from Alex: Cubey's story is one possible outcome of the future...but the great thing about future events Brinda, is that they are not written in stone. When the last day comes..I'll visit as many places on my landmark list as possible. I'll indulge myself in the memories that each place will bring and I'll raise a virtual glass at each one. And once I'm done, I'll head home. To Bliss. And I'll sit on the deck of my little home and set the environment controls to sunset, set a smile on AlexHayden's face as darkness falls.... Because I'll be safe in the knowledge that even though the virtual world I know is gone, the friendships I've made will still be there, behind laptops and computers spread across the globe. And nobody can ever take that from us. The community will live on..... By AlexHaydenJunibalya on Oldbie on 10/21/10

Thank you to those that hold my pixel hand and tell me it will be OK

And so it goes

My love to you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Separate...yet together.

******************************Where we come from******************************

While we come from all over the world....

Joined here in this metaverse, our possibilities are almost boundless.... And so it goes

My love to you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Have they lost the magic...or Just blind?

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Once one knows the magicians secret it's no longer magic, just expertise.

When I first came to Secondlife everything was magic... and really, in a different way, today so much of this place still remains magic. One of the early fortuitous things that happened to me was that I entered the Secondlife mainland at the Ross infohub.... a place that to this day I visit a few times a week. Perhaps a year after my first landing at Ross I saw a sign about a discussion group and a place and time that the group met. I began to attend some of those discussion meetings and the people I met there introduced me to a side of Secondlife that I was previously unaware of. Over these last couple of years I have met charter members of our world, I have met people whose technical expertise just amazes me, as well as some of whose creative skills certainly have made them financially successful. I met people who wrote articles about the inner workings of Secondlife and actually had constructive ideas about how to make changes for the better...( I didn't know at the time that no one from The Benevolent Monarchy ever listened). Now while some this information has diminished my sense of magic about the virtual world our pixels inhabit...that same information has given me given me a much clearer view of just how complex this platform is and how magical our collective journey truly is.

There is evidence that few Lindens today ever do more than a cursory "walk through" our world. I wonder if spending so much time behind the servers has really kept them from seeing the true magic that is Secondlife.... of course, it's impossible to miss something you never had. If one is born blind there is no way to understand colors...and my belief is that in so many ways The Benevolent Monarchy is blind.

I believe we will continue to see...if not here, then in another world/life

And so it goes

My love to you all, Brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Getting *Hit On*....or not =^..^=

******************************Where we come from***************************** Sometimes there are those things that just make you go.... Hmmmm.

Maybe it has to do with me... a quick count of current residents on Benares is around nineteen {yes, I'm not sure just now...and what ever number it is is just fine for the purpose of this post!}. Of that number four are guys and one of them shares a place with a female partner. Now this male/female ratio wasn't planned, it's just happened that way. Where I'm going with this has to do with a question that's been asked of me a couple times this past week, once a few days ago by a new girl that's become a close friend, and again last evening when I went to check out Porter and loegans new music venue at The Mill. The question was, am I ever *hit on* by guys? and the answer is rarely...usually only by a total noob that hasn't learned how to read profiles, or the guy is a total idiot. Those that see me know that I dress in what I like to think are *classy* clothes...clothes that cover me well enough that nothing hangs out that I couldn't go to church showing (if I went to church =^..^=). Maybe it's me...when spoken to I am very direct and unless the guy is a total idiot it's obvious that I'm not here in Secondlife for a *relationship* no matter how short or long. If the situation warrants....well, ask me for a private telling of the story of Jason*** ********, {and no, I no longer have the picture :-) }.

Now both of the people that asked me the question about being hit on are new and that's no surprise to me... one is around 90 days, the other 12. Damn predators taking advantage of both the intensity of Secondlife and sometimes peoples innate curiosity. In my case, I've been rode hard and put away wet often in real life. I have done things to myself that I would never allow another to do to me so there's little I've not done or at least seen. I don't suffer fools easily in any life... and you know what?... It's one of the few benefits of my past that I take pleasure in at my age.

Maybe it's me, here at Benares in Secondlife I guess I'm seen as somewhat of a *den mother*... :-))...that den mother thing is beginning to happen at my part time job as well. It has taken me a very long time to truly find out just who I am...and to be comfortable with that.*******

Business now***********

We do have four parcels currently for sale at Benares... for those that don't know, I "sell" land for tier only... that gives people land owner control and yet allows them to leave if they must without losing and investment cost. Images of the private island parcels below****** Private island parcel 2048 meters/468 prims/5000L$ month tier only***Private island parcel 3120 meters/712 prims/7600L$ month tier only***

OK... Before I close, Check with either Porter Paquot or loegan Magic for in world details on the opening of The Mill live music venue scheduled for 7PM SLT this Sunday October 7th.******

And so it goes

I love you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

I'm Curious... Is There Another Agenda Here?

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If the Benevolent Monarchy can't make the new user experience manageable, who can? Most of what they have tried has appeared to be a dismal failure so far. A list of decisions that haven't brought results certainly includes viewer 2.ought oh. The stated reason for that viewer was that it would be more intuitive for new people...not so..at least the way it is. {I'm gonna add that country saying about putting lipstick on a pig doesn't change the fact it's a pig.} Now I have heard from some that have been in world longer than I, and that they use 2.ought oh and like it. I'm sorry...it's not that it's different....it's confusing, and the very last thing someone dumped into a world they know nothing about needs is further confusion. Why on earth would a UI have hidden tabs...and how would a new user find that information? When I try to help a nooblet here and I see that they look like they're really interested and perhaps not just surfing the net before *American Idol*, I suggest they return to the Secondlife webpage and download 1.23.5. Guess what...happened last evening.... the common response is almost always, "Wow, this seems a lot easier to figure out!".

Face it Mr Rosedale, it's OK to say the company made a bad decision...a few of us remember the Ford Motor Company and the Edsel.... they admitted it was a mistake... and wasn't it this year they made more money than anyone else? It's OK to admit a mistake...unless...Unless there's stuff we don't know about, a direction you're heading that you know we won't like.

More... we can't cross a sim without a problem, and maybe there's a tech reason there that's just a horrendous cost to fix, but we're gonna get display names. And yes, I read a comment about some poor soul that's been around for awhile and she's still so bummed about her name...give me a break! Is she joking? Early on...pick another name...Brenda wasn't available but brinda lower case and with and "I" was.

We used to have a safe place for nooblets to enter the world...a place where if you accidentally ended up naked {and don't tell me I'm the only one that happened to} it wasn't that big a deal. It's always easier to make mistakes around others that are busy making their own mistakes.

We had free volunteer help...The Secondlife Mentors, and yes they got too big and there were a lot of *tag hunters*. And yet there were dedicated Mentors...Mentors I saw on the Help Islands on a daily basis and they made a difference. Throwing away free volunteer help isn't good business practise....but... Today we have the search function broken... is it *broken* for a reason we won't like?

By definition all that are in world are supposed adults... treat us like adults. Don't pee on me and tell me it's warm rain... be upfront. From what I've read I think there are enough people in Secondlife willing to bite the bullet a bit in order to make this place a continuing financial success if it would be necessary to save this world pretty much as it is now...{ and that's not as a 3D farmville}. My gosh, I stuck around after you took and extra nearly 700USD during the Island pricing fiasco of early 2008. Just tell us where we're heading...unless....unless no one knows.

OK, some of are are fools I guess...but we continue to hope.

That hope will someday dim if you won't be upfront with us

And so it goes

My love to all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Secondlife Direction?

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Where is Secondlife headed...

I've read much of what many in our blogosphere have written about that future direction... it's difficult to believe that a company with a couple or three hundred employees plus the one hundred recently let go could keep the companies future direction a secret. My last employer had over one hundred employees... of that number there were perhaps ten or 15 of us that had a pretty good idea of what direction the company was heading. That direction was never a secret... while it wasn't posted on a company bulletin board or on a company website, we were aware of the direction and whether or not we were profitable.

We can be sure of a few things. The goal of those venture capitolists who's money is involved is to make more money. Speaking for myself...I'm still in love with this virtual world we call Secondlife, I doubt the money people share my emotion. I believe that Phillip Rosedale has a place in his heart for Secondlife as well, but it would appear that the reality is that the growth of Secondlife has reached a plateau and those that have money invested are wanting further growth {read more money}. Soror Nishi recently had a rather blunt post about the direction we seem to be headed... and she may well be correct, if she is, how could that direction stay a secret? What's even more concerning is if there is no stated direction.

Fast Easy Fun? Secondlife in it's current configuration will never be easy. Secondlife as we know it... a place where creativity is King/Queen? It's possible that those days may well be over before we are ready. Perhaps the direction is to simply have a three D, web based, farmville chat kind of place where people come to buy not create. That isn't my dream... maybe my friend soror is correct....what is supposed to happen is that we are destined to be a diaspora spreading out to populate other worlds where creativity is King/Queen.... for awhile.

These are the questions I think of in those dark quiet hours of early morning

And so it goes

I love you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते