Absolutely hilarious! The first "joke" above isn't a joke. It's a real posting... somewhere. And the funny thing is how vindicated I feel about it. I've been slamming all these so-called 'business' people in SL who scream shrill cries bashing Linden Lab for not 'keeping it's promises' of a stable grid and everything working all fine and hunky-dory - and the SL "economy" becoming stable with land prices and all that garbage.

All so their little SL business will feed and clothe and shelter them in first life.

So many people like the guy above will start what they feel is a successful business in SL and actually quit their real life day job to focus on it. Stupid move unless you have wads of cash sitting in the bank to back you up. Because most, like the guy above, will end-up on the real life employment line all over again. And I've been saying this all along the last couple years.

So I ran across this web site that looks at the hilarity and irony of Second Life and actually makes fun of it. But not via anything Linden Lab says, but rather from the horses mouth: the residents own postings on various blogs, bulletin boards and so on throughout first life's Internet.

I have to say - I'm bookmarking this site and I'll have to visit it every day. Just to get the lighter perspective of things. As for making real money in SL - that's okay. But it should be discretionary cash - something that allows you to buy that new first life toy gadget you want or even maybe to help make ends meet in tough times. But to quit your day job and go whole-hog in SL is immature and reckless.

For your own good.

Second Life Exchange

You may have already heard about the congressional hearings concerning Second Life that were going on last week, but nothing’s really big news until The Daily Show pokes fun at it.

As usual, Jon Stewart brought the funny while reporting on the hearings, which were also broadcast in Second Life at the same time. The clip from the show really is an insightful portrait of the legal proceedings. Plus there’s a dolphin with boobs.

It ain't happening.

So, deal with the Linden Lab mantra and the SL woes of crashing, asset server issues, database wonkyness and whatever other problems creep-in, because they refuse to boil the code. it already is public knowledge that the server and viewer code is such a spaghetti mess that to 'fix' it, they'd have to start over practically from scratch - and that won't happen.

So, among all the frustrations with memory leaks, crashing viewers and sloppy, laggy sims, we have all kept our eyes pointed to the horizon... waiting for that alternate virtual world that will be rich enough in features, powerful enough in design and open enough to allow as much freedom... a replacement.

You can stop holding your breath and scanning the horizon. The writing is on the wall [emphasis is mine]:

In speaking to companies with virtual worlds in the works, no one is looking to replicate the Second Life model.“A year ago, when a lot of big companies came into Second Life, it didn’t work out for them,” said Jerry Paffendorf, the former “resident futurist” of the Electric Sheep Company, now of Wello Horld. “The reaction is to try to get away from that to these tightly controlled, kid-friendly environments.”

At VW08, kids are the focus

Lillie Yifu over at 2nd Sex (yes, cool, but... er... interesting name) has a good little post about how the corporations are all about themselves. My first question is: what this ever a question?

What srikes me most is the very first paragraph:

"One thing I think that frustrates more of the smart people I know than anything else is how many of them are not making very much money, while much less smart people are safely in well paying jobs. I meet many of these people in blogging and in Second Life. The news, I think, is that things aren't going to get any better..."

This brings me to something I've been seeing and thinking about with regard to 'business' in Second Life - and tends to explain the shrill, frantic thrash-backs from residents in the Second Life blog:

Are you in SL to try to make real money?
That is to say, you develop, create, provide a service - whatever it is, you use it to earn Linden Dollars (L$) - but then actually cash some of that out and use it in real life, or (shockingly) rely on some of that?

I make good L$ in SL. But, I'm not crazy enough to even think about cashing any of it out and then rely on any part of it. I have a 'regular day job' and it feeds me, clothes me and keeps a roof over my head. I also have a freelance business that I use (read: not rely on) for some extra cash.

At first, it was my freelance videography and photography business that provided me the discretionary funding for my SL experience. However, I now use SL business to pay for... SL.

In other words, I take all the money I make in SL and I will convert it back to good old United States legal tender. But that's it. It sits there in the pot. Then, whenever the Lindenonians decide to reach into my pocket, they take whatever it is they want from the pot.

You see, that pot is the cash they owe me. So, they must pay me what they owe me before they can actually take any money from me. They simply deduct what I owe them from the credit they owe me. If I keep that credit floating higher than what i might ever owe Linden Lab - Second Life pays for itself.

As for those who earn enough to actually cash-out, (that is, to call Linden Lab on their credit and have a check sent,) well - that's all well and good. I hope it's also a 'freelance' business. What you can file with the Internal Revenue Service (in the United States, anyway) as a "Professional Hobby."

However, if you actually rely on some or (Heaven forbid) all of that money, you're better-off dumping SL and doing something in real life. You see, the dynamic is really very simple, and it shows why this 'business model' can be far more volatile than even the stock markets:

As an employee of someone, you earn a regular wage. you can budget your living and other costs off the security. Even if it's 100% commission - you have complete control in all aspects of it. The same is true if you are running a business in real life.

No middle men to muck things up for you.

Now, if your business model relies on Linden Lab, you'd better be setting some cold hard cash aside for when that falls through. You are relying on an unknown entity. You are relying on Linden Lab for your livlihood and Linden lab doesn't care about you. And neither should they.

You are simply a customer subscribing to a service. Their only requirement in this relationship is to provide you access. Stop. Done.

Hence, if permissions go awry, if someone finds a way to rip (steal) your creations and sell them, if the service goes bad (asset servers and database issues) - if anything happens that kills sales or otherwise loses you money (L$) - it doesn't matter.

LL's sole responsibility is to provide you with access.

I may be wrong, but I am totally unaware of any statement in writing or orally where LL has promised to ensure you are able to make any money at all. And, I have yet to see any promise to ever convert L$ into legal tender of any kind. The only thing they owe you is that credit. Other that, whatever means you use to earn that credit is totally volatile because there is no promise whatsoever that those means will continue the way they work now, or even at all.

So, I'm curious... if you make real money in SL - do you rely on it for anything? Or is it simple discretionary spending cash?

Even more curious: do you feel entitled to earning real cash from within Second Life?
Frankly, if you do, then I must admit I think you need to reevaluate your first life fast and hard.

SLEX DCMA’s: Violation of Linden Lab TOS « Shopping Cart Disco

There's something to be said for everyone getting booted off the grid for twelve-plus hours while LL fights with its internet service provider.

Tenshi Vielle of Shopping Cart Disco fame brought to my attention today a stunning blunder worthy of the fumble of the year award.

In the article she quotes an original piece explaining how SLX's butterfingers handling-style has caused one SL organization to suddenly understand the meaning of the phrase "personal space". I'll let you read the articles for yourself, but the point of this post is -- we need to send a message to SLX and tell them that it is, in general, not a good idea to fork over our personal information to people who were already causing us harm without concern for our emotional or financial well-being. It sounds like what could only be a major oversight -- at least, I hope. No major business I've ever worked with has directly sent a DMCA to an offender because they knew what kind of information was on it.

Let's do something about this before more respectable developers have to give up their peace of mind. And let's ask that they be compensated for this pain in the ass, while we're at it.

I didn't know Eon Ayres, but that doesn't really matter. This resident is a mystery to me. The reason I'm posting this is because there's a certain helpless emptiness that comes when I hear about a recently-deceased resident of SL. We've all experienced it... First there's the doubt -- not simply because people like to fake their own deaths online, but because the first, innate human response to grief is denial.

What I'm getting at is that, as someone who doesn't know a lot of people, with a small family, someone who has only cried over a lost loved one a couple of times in her twenty-five years, I find myself more speechless and more helpless than others might because I simply cannot fathom the kind of words I could say that would help or lessen any burden of pain. And because it would be awful to simply walk away, I am always left gape-mouthed and terrified, filled with guilt, because some subconscious part of me feels like there ought to be a response coming out of me. It's robotic, in a way.

Still, the point of my posting is this: If you live both an online life and a real one, whether you're a resident of SL or just do a lot of instant messaging, consider writing up a quick document that contains your passwords and people you would like to notify in case something terrible happens to you. As a person who suffers from a constant fear of the pain she would leave behind in others if she passed on, I can say matter-of-fact-ly that knowing such a document exists will help assuage the kind of fear that could keep you from living your life normally.

On the flip side, I also advise you to always treat every meeting and encounter as if it will be your last -- to an extent. I do this, but it tends to sadden me... still, I fight with the idea that were I not to do this, that I would spend years hating myself if something were to happen to someone the day I chose not to look at them as they passed down the stairs out of sight.

I don't know... perhaps it's more healthy in the long-run to be more frivolous. Perhaps it's easier to get over knowing you didn't say everything you could have said than it is to live the (more likely) day-to-day, lucky life around someone you care about constantly terrified that they'll get into a car accident or have a desperate asthma attack when you aren't around... regardless, don't take anything for granted this year if you can help it. And by that, I mean, be safe, smart, and care about others just as much as you care about yourself.

"...I had heard of colossal time wasting games like “World of Warcraft,” and “Everquest” as well as the virtual worlds “Second Life” and “Sims” where people can create a character in a utopian fantasy world and spend countless hours posted in front of their computers armed with a 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew, a Hot Pocket and a waistline growing as fast as their logged hours played. But hey, to each their own and as several people in “Second Skin” say, we all have our little time wasting addictions and online gaming is theirs."

This is the quote from a movie review, about "Second Skin". Apparently a documentary about people who spend much of their time in MMORPGs and Virtual Worlds. It reminds me of the recent BBC special, where they followed two separate couples (couples in SL) who met in real life.

I thought the BBC did a pretty balanced job of it, showing one couple blissfully happy and the other... well, it was balanced. As for "Second Skin", I really don't know much about it. As for the review of Second Skin, well - it's a review... by a critic.

I have no interest in seeing it. If it shows up on YouTube or something, sure I'll peek. But other than that, I'm really not too interested. So, as for the quote above... agree or disagree?

Full article here:
Current Movie Reviews, Independent Movies - Film Threat

Phil, 48, hasn't had sex with his real-life wife, Sara, in more than a year. Their marriage has deteriorated into daily squabbles over raising their 9-year-old hyperactive son or whether to have Sara's recently widowed mother move in. Instead of trying to work this out with Sara, Phil has escaped to his computer. He spends hours online living his imaginary existence. Phil's avatar, Frank, is everything he's not -- young, muscular and great in bed. Frank never has a problem with his erection, and his lover never turns him down. He's become obsessed with his avatar love, Diane, a cocktail waitress with beautiful red hair and amazing legs. When he's not 'in the world,' he's thinking about it. . . . He's worried that this 'game' has gotten out of hand."

Phil has a problem. A real one.
Yes, I saw that BBC special where they follow two real life couples who are together in SL and meet-up in real life. One is a happy story, the other a lot more likely (in terms of the interaction on meet-up - but not necessarily with her real life situation.)

This is a pretty good article that basically shows-off the same concepts. However, I also believe stories like these are really the exception, rather than the rule.

It's like the myth that 'most people' in Second Life are all out looking for virtual sex. Though there is real research and demographic to show this isn't true (about 18% of SL residents relax with porn of any kind, compared to 20% of web users - actually less than the established 'norm') - I don't have any statistics for my own claim. Let's just call it a gut-feeling.

Still, and interesting read, whether you take it as gospel or a huge pinch of salt:

The Pitfalls Of Online Role-Playing Games -- Courant.com: "As graphic technology advances, virtual social interactions are blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. More people are so transfixed by the imaginary, they prefer it to their mundane existences.

Just don't even get me started on this nonsense.

I fear we're quickly on the path to getting the shit taxed out of us.