Hopefully a Positive Contribution...

*****************************Where we come from***************************** **************************************************************************** Some weeks ago I posted about how I intended to try a little harder to work with the newer men just entering Secondlife, and while I've had no negative experiences, only one or two guys ever returned for *lesson* number two. That is about the same success rate as with any group. The bottom line is that helping new people is difficult at best. I have been so blessed with the men residents at Benares. Jake, Alexhayden, Bernard, Dan, Smithy, loegan... all have treated not only myself but everyone else at Benares with the greatest kindness and respect. In the coming days I will attempt to profile a couple of these men and their specific contributions to both our family at Benares as well as to the Secondlife program. In the above list I didn't include a former resident and friend, Andor. He literally dropped in on me last evening for a visit. Andys other life now keeps him a little too busy to spend much time in virtual worlds, so it's always a rare treat for me to have a chance to chat with him. Andor has a small spot near the center of the main island where he enjoys coming to sit for a bit and relax and think. He's promised me to occasionally offer a few thoughts and poems that I will be able to share with all of you. One last comment for today. When I started this blog just a couple posts shy of 300 those many months ago, I said I wanted to do a blog that didn't troll or disparage anyone. For the most part I've succeeded in that, though recently I have been less than kind when referring to a rather famous blogger of virtual worlds. I don't think I've trolled The Benevolent Monarchy...but I suspect if I have, {A} they don't read me and, {B} if they did they don't care what I say. What I have noticed in this past week is a significant increase in page views here. People are interested in good news. I like that. All I've wanted is to be a positive contributor to our world... Hopefully to contribute as much as those I've recently written about. Maybe it's important. And so it goes, Much love always, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

Contributions, Compassion, Professionalism...

******************************Where we come from***************************** **************************************************************************** Everyone in Secondlife makes a contribution. I know some of you understand my feelings about those whose contribution is simply standing at the so called welcome areas and chatting either in voice or in text, but they too do contribute. Their contribution, as I see it, might simply be those of numbers... concurrency. My guess is The Benevolent Monarchy needs numbers in order to keep the venture capitalists placated. The ones really that impress me are those thousands that truly make Secondlife what it is. Those that contribute to the culture of our world. Some contribute content, others contribute community, still others make us a gift of their time and compassion. My friend Porter Paquot does all of those. There is Porter the vocalist. A singer in real life performing with a group in the Northwest USA, she brings a level of professionalism to Secondlife performances not often seen. There is my resident Porter the home body, the wannabe child {look at the water slide}. Never content with boring status quo this is her roller derby rink... the striped tent upper left is a bumper car ride. The heart of her Secondlife has to be here, the Mill. This is where one can find the performer Porter. There are a lot of performers in Secondlife, some quite good. But having a professional stage presence makes all the difference in the world. Never content, next to the Mill is this gallery. My former manager, Poly, found Porter about day one or so, I met her on day two. I watched her decorate her first house... I watched her venture out into the often contentious Secondlife entertainment world. I've watched her help some in our world that were having real problems. I've watched her battle some of her own demons... and she does it with grace. And so it goes Grace and love to you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते P.S For a link to her real life band use this link. http://www.fezfatale.com/home.html hint... click on the "recordings" tab to hear some of their music!

Educator, Content Creator, & most of all Friend...

*****************************Where we come from***************************** **************************************************************************** Flor Nachtigal... A case of where to start. I first met Flor in November 2009 when she entered Secondlife... she was busy editing her appearance at the BSD Archer house on a Help Island and all of 15 minutes old. The basic person we see today was already formed to a great degree even then. When given suggestions on appearance... she listened, and then still made her own choices. Flor is the Chief Editor of The Palais Secondlife Magazine... She is a builder and content creator... The beach house above is just one of the houses she's built at Benares. I didn't realise how much content she had created until I started writing this post... Google her name. I had no idea she had creations on the Secondlife Market Place. If you've never met Flor, send her and IM, ask her a question. Particularly ask her a question about art, education, or the true Secondlife experience. You will find someone both dedicated to Secondlife as well as having a well formed opinion about our world. For a copy of The Palais Magazine, one place you can find one is at the location below. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Benares/115/80/37/?img=The%20Palais%20Kiosk&title=Benares%20Public%20Area&msg=The%20Palais And so it goes I love you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते p.s. Sorry about the smoggy picture of my dear old Orange County California, some stuff just "is".

New talent!

*****************************Where we come from***************************** ***************************************************************************** For all of it's many problems... Secondlife is awesome. I know I've said before that I have more passion today than I did that day in early May four years ago when I first logged into our world, it's true. In this next week or so I want to document what a few of the residents of Benares are doing. I am going to start where I start, and the order I go with has absolutely no hidden meaning. I often say that I have no creative talent in Secondlife save and ability to map textures, mostly that's true. There are some that tell me that perhaps my true talent is having some people skills, maybe. Four and a half months ago kain Canare came to Benares, and like a hundred before her she enjoyed having the use of our guest house. This woman was like a thirsty sponge when it came to learning everything there was to learn about our world. Below find some images of just what this woman has taught herself to do since the beginning of the year.

This desk set's PC has a "screen saver"... that works. A bath for a customer. {Under construction} A sculpty living room set... If memory serves me, 8 prim total. This grandfather clock actually works! Pendulum swings... and I took this screen shot at 5:06 pm SLT She has created a chess set that is playable... yes, it's 33 prim but so very cool! Kain is available for custom work, you give her a photo of what you wish and see what she can do. More tomorrow about the people of Benares And so it goes My love to you all, brinda Namaste

नमस्ते

post script: I see a couple of my friends are in a comments war blog wise. I can't /won't choose sides, all I can think of is that and eye for and eye leaves us all blind.

Yes, We were recalcitrant

*****************************Where we come from***************************** **************************************************************************** I think this will likely be my last post about Spewer 2.ought oh... and unless something else absolutely ridiculous comes from the keyboard of Wagner James Au, my last comment here about Mr. Au. In case you don't keep up with the latest drama in our blogosphere {is there such a word?} Mr. Au of New World Notes infamy recently blamed the downturn of Secondlife on those oldbies/midbies et al who refused to march blindly to the drumbeats of The Benevolent Monarchy. Yes and no. I believe without a doubt the single worst decision by the Monarchy was the creation of viewer 2 as it was configured. While most of us fully supported many of the new features, we balked at the complicated poorly thought out UI. Almost without exception the populace rejected the new viewer... not because it was new, but because it was poorly thought out, had so much hidden, was difficult to use for building, had weird panels that hid much of our screens, broken search functions, on and on ad infinitum. My best guess is that because the Monarchy had spent so much capital on that viewer, and would have their investors wrath to deal with if they withdrew it, they had little choice about retaining it. I can almost hear someone in a meeting saying, "We're stuck with the viewer, the users will come around if they're forced to use it". Well, a lot of people wouldn't be forced to use it... they left Secondlife for other grids. Others just left. Perhaps the saddest part of the decision to force the use of Spewer 2 has to do with those just entering Secondlife. The viewer that was supposed to make The New User Experience easier... didn't. Secondlife may never see the kinds of numbers that Failbook has, and as Mr. Au has said, without growth Secondlife will never see it's full potential, or perhaps survive. But Secondlife would be well served if we just retained more of the reported 86% of new users that never log back in after that first confusing venture. They will never get to see the true magic that is the Secondlife myself and so many tens of thousands have found. That's darned sad. I spent my last working years in the business world. Contract or no contract, it's imperative to keep the customer happy. While the Terms of Service make it abundantly clear that Secondlife is a take it or leave it deal... we are customers first, we pay the bills. If we have been recalcitrant, maybe we were right. And so it goes My love to you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

Wonder If Mr. Humble reads the blog I commented on?

*****************************Where we come from***************************** **************************************************************************** OK Soapbox time... again. Below is a comment I posted today on a blog that is still shilling for both FailBook {gosh I love that and can't remember who to credit it to} and for The Benevolent Monarchy. I can accept that the company that runs Secondlife may not be growing at the rate that that same amount of money would increase at if it were invested elsewhere. And believe me, I do understand that "the bottom line" is truly the bottom line. While Secondlife is a wonderful, creative, multinational experience for us the users, for the investors/owners it's all about money. Here... Just maybe my one tiny voice will be heard, I have to believe.

"Oh Please!. I pay my share... 6K USD a year. No, I'm not golden... but I'm far from a freeloader. Try to force me/us to use a UI that's so bad that literally thousands of daily users don't like it? It's also darned sure nothing to do with point/clic... the Third Party Viewers have that, I use that function... it's handy. As was stated above we tug on the rope and no one listens for weeks/months/years? It's not that people don't come... it's the 86% that never re log after time one. Here, let me tug on the rope one more time. This *New User Experience* isn't working, and a large part of that is the complicated viewer that we that are strangling Secondlife refuse to embrace. Default all new users to and island of their own with adequate mentoring. Instead of sitting in and office emotionally, actually come spend time in world talking with that new user standing way off to one side of a so called welcome area where he/she has just been ignored... or even worse jeered at because they are so *lost*. Mr. Humble... if you read this and would like to hear from several of those that used to work with new users (and a few that still do... IM me or send me and Email, you have the address). " And so it goes My love to you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

Our Secondlife Still Has A Culture...

*****************************Where we come from****************************** ***************************************************************************** I originally intended this post to be about how people in Secondlife learn about the latest news, or new thing, or current drama. The leading subject was to be concerning the near constant hysteria surrounding "RedZone"... and then I decided to listen to what a friend counseled a few days ago and just ignore that latest drama. Instead I want to focus on something most of us likely don't often think about... community and the culture of Secondlife. Whether there is a culture of Secondlife as opposed to there being culture in Secondlife was one of last years news stories. Tom Hale, formerly of Adobe Systems and Macromedia Executive was hired in 2008 as Chief Product Officer for Linden Lab. Here in a post from last year by Dusan Writer Mr. Hale says that he doesn't believe that a Secondlife culture, as such exists... perhaps that kind of thinking is one of the reasons Tom is no longer with The Benevolent Monarchy. I'm one of those that does understand that we as a group in Secondlife do have a culture all our own. Does our culture have as many facets as a brilliant cut diamond? Maybe more. Last evening I saw an off-line IM from one of my friends, Porter Paquot. She wanted to know if there was a parcel she could purchase, she has a friend that has had some severe medical issues and because of those issues Porter decided that it was important to all of us to bring our friend close to us. We found a suitable place and Porter rezzed a house...{see image below}. Darn you Mr. Hale, that is a culture at work. A culture of community. I recently reread some of what Mark Stephen Meadows wrote in his book, "I Avatar- The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life". One of the things that caught my attention was how the size and mobility of a group of people can determine its culture. He used the example of early Los Angeles where when the automobile came, communities lost their cohesiveness. Take a look at what has happened to much of Secondlife... how new people can come to a world where there are 50,000 people on line and still feel lonely. Compare that to what Pituca Fairchang has written as late as last year. Part of me wishes I had been a part of those earliest days. The rest of me is happy that I have been privileged to be a part of this at all. And so it goes My love to you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते