I can’t shake the fear that I’ve chosen to exist within a society of passive-aggressive, brilliantly talented children who shirk ethics and responsibility under the presumption that mischievous youth is never held to account for its actions as long as it offers something of value because the so-called adults will be too easily distracted by trying to capitalize, condemn, and lay claim. Yet, it’s hard to deny that these are the individuals that continue to push the platform to higher levels — the ones who raise the bar of the environment that fascinates me with its possibility, even as it disappoints me by its failure to soar. They are the ones making things happen while everyone else seems to be dropping the ball or bogged down in mediocrity. Is it really impossible to push limits and yet maintain ethics and accountability? Or is that an antiquated concept that lives nowhere except in the minds of idealists?

Maybe new frontiers are always this messy. Today’s outlaws; tomorrow’s folk heroes.

At some point we drove right by surreal. But I’m not sure if we’re on the road to Dreamtime or Dystopia, or just a colossal junkyard of creativity and hope without purpose. Or worse, it might just all be smoke and mirrors to feed ravenous and clever ids and egos.

Many thought the title of my first post on this controversy was just an allusion to the phrase rose colored glasses. While that was certainly at play, the main purpose of the title was a little different. For those of you who only saw the film, you might find this excerpt of interest:

“We came here to see the Great Oz,” said Dorothy.

~From L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz

Essay Assignment:
Craft an argument that defends the reason Dorothy, her friends, and all the residents of Oz were made to wear Emerald-Colored Glasses. Your thesis should clearly state whether you feel their purpose was protection, deception, to further the narrative of the Wizard, or any other motive you prescribe to the events. Be specific, remember to use quotes and facts and avoid irrelevant personal conjecture.

Extra Credit:
In a separate opinion paragraph, answer the following:
If you have to wear blinders to exist in a place, do you really want to live there? Why or why not?
(Be sure to include if you feel others would choose to reside there as well and what the reasons may be for their choices).

“There is luxury in self reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us.” ~ Oscar Wilde

For those of you unfamiliar with Sondheim’s Into the Woods, there is a sequence where all the fairy tale characters in their make-believe world begin to blame each other for the tragedy of their current situation, which came about through a series of events and misadventures rooted in desire, foolishness, greed, innocence, innocence lost, guilt, vanity, unresolved issues, and lots of other human failings. It has been foremost in my mind while checking in on the Emerald issue.

If you’re not aware of the Emerald situation, a good-enough summary can be found HERE. For me, this summary is a bit too petting toward the Emerald team, but, well, there’s a lot of that going around. My chain of events goes like this:

A. Linden Lab failed to update their product in a way that met the needs of their user base.
B. A talented, but irresponsible segment of the user base created a third-party project for reasons unknown. This project became known as the Emerald Viewer.
C. Lots of people began to use Emerald, as it provided an improved user experience; few of these people knew anything about the team that created and maintained the project.
D. Questions began to arise regarding the reputation and integrity of the Emerald team and their motivations.
E. Despite there being lots of blogs and “news” about Emerald, no one in the blogosphere bothered to ask some point-blank “on the record” questions to the team (I personally sent two emails attempting to get an interview out of sheer frustration. They were never responded to, but then I don’t pretend to be a reporter or a talk show host so I’m sure I was easily ignored).
F. Despite there being no statement of ethics, obvious untruths in their blog posts, and several other low-grade warning signs, people with credibility spoke in support of Emerald and made it clear it was their viewer of choice.
G. The inevitable happened and a member (or members) of the Emerald team abused the trust of their users in a griefer prank. The prank, while not in itself very interesting or damaging, demonstrates a flagrant disregard for ethics, a lack of basic integrity and employed tactics which engaged an unwitting user base in ridiculously childish (and potentially criminal) behavior.
H. An Emerald team member that few people know from Adam posted an “I’ll fall on my sword even though I really don’t think I did anything wrong” non-apology apology; another Emerald member that few people know from Eve said she was stepping up to the plate to get everything under control. Then didn’t. Feel free to read the Emerald blog for more accurate step by step on this part.
I. Rabble, Rabble, Rabble.
J. Linden Lab issued their mock-outrage “we’ve taken care of this” farce statement while dogs and cats began living together (mass hysteria).
K. People began to issue “aww shucks, they’re just confused kids” type excuses for Emerald’s antics, others posted “we think it’s wrong, but everyone’s being so mean” type excuses, and others went the “they’re all a bunch of Nazis” direction. Because, you know, that’s how the interwebs work.
L. Linden Lab continues to fail to update their product in a way that meets the needs of their user base.

There is not enough facepalm in the world. Seriously.

The problem I have with this situation is that some people I like are on the insanely wrong side of this issue, and some people I find disgustingly vile are on the right side. So it’s frustrating. It’s like when you have to admit that the KKK is entitled to free speech. Yeah, it’s right, bt it makes you feel like you need a bath.

Yet, between all the hate-fueled “I told you so” mocking and the Eeyore “you guys are so mean” pouting, there is very little learning going on. It’s enough to make me climb a bell tower and take a hostage. Why? Because there are lessons here that are getting missed in the exchange and they are THE SAME FUCKING THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN GETTING MISSED ALL ALONG.

So, for next time, can we please review:

1. Linden Lab is not releasing a product that services the needs of their users. The buck stops there. If this isn’t where your bottom line on this issue rests, then you’re getting it wrong. Period.
2. If you think it’s shocking that some of the code monkeys working on Emerald had grief-genes, you’re an idiot. I assure you, every product on your computer right now likely had griefers or ex-griefers working on it. They just weren’t in charge, weren’t given a lot of power, or were good enough not to get caught. Save your outrage for the next episode of Real Housewives of New Jersey or something.
3. Third Party Viewers are a valuable tool, but they need to be investigated and held to task. Their project managers need to be interviewed and asked hard questions in a civil, responsible way — preferably by the people who claim to be delivering news to our community. If the names don’t mean anything to the average consumer, their reputation and integrity (or lack thereof) within the community needs to be made clear by anyone advocating the product.
4. When warning signs appear and then begin flashing in neon, YOU PAY ATTENTION and don’t just hem and haw and hope it all gets better. You certainly DO NOT put your name and/or reputation behind the mess unless you’re damn sure you’re right.
5. An active griefer is not going to behave just because you like them. Just because they haven’t griefed *you* doesn’t mean you can trust them not to behave like an idiot. Are griefers evil? No. Sometimes they’re even useful in a social way. But they’re generally irresponsible, juvenile and reckless on the fly. These are not the people you want in unchecked positions of responsibly in any format or project. You just don’t let an alcoholic tend bar, ffs.
6. You cannot cry about being deceived if you never did anything to educate yourself as a consumer. If you didn’t know about the Emerald team and used their product anyway, then just shut up and switch to Imprudence with the rest of us. Your right to bitch is exactly zero. Oh, and while you’re at it, check into the Imprudence team — don’t just switch to them blindly.

In the meantime, welcome to one of the big reasons the Second Life community continues to be bad-mouthed in technical and professional circles. When “he’s kind of a friend and I don’t think he’ll do anything bad” trumps obvious warning bells, when consumers bitch and moan but don’t educate themselves on their choices or advocate for their needs, when bloggers and journalists self-promote but don’t even try to get answers to hard questions, when “Ha ha ha you got what you deserved and I hope you all die” counts as a valid part of the general discourse — well, how can you take them seriously?

I’d really like it if we didn’t drive this self-hating cycle into the next race on the same tack. Pretty please? With sugar on top?

So stop crying “poor me,” quit making excuses for fuck-ups, back off blaming the branches and learn to identify the roots of a problem, refrain from engaging the hate-mongers, advocate and educate and just LEARN FROM THE FUCKING MISTAKES ALREADY so we don’t end up back in this same place. Ever. Again.

That is all.

“Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.” ~ Janis Joplin

I’ve gotten a few in-world comments from a couple people who tell me that they can’t bridge the disconnect between my “feminist rants” and my “squee! look how pretty!” posts. My virtual fashion lust, they feel, leads others to “take me less seriously” than they think I deserve. The general sentiment is “you should be doing so much more than wasting your time on all that fashion drama.”

Fashion drama? Kittens, I grew up on teh interwebs back when Mac vs PC flamewars were still defining troll and forum tropes. 4chan vs Scientology is drama. SL fashion is just bored housewives and college students being bratty. It’s not like they’re rioting in the stands over men in shorts kicking around a ball or anything.

I know, from the bottom of my heart, that these individuals are well-intentioned, and they are paying generous compliment to my writing, but seriously, if this is how you feel, just get the fuck out of the 50s already. I read any number of blogs where a guy will frequently weave in boy-squee rants about sports teams or the latest techno widget without blinking; I doubt anyone takes their other content less seriously or tells them to move on from iPhone drama.

So, once more for those in the cheap seats:
Virtual fashion and bouncing in girlish delight over pretty things does not remove anyone’s ability for critical thinking, their professional experience, or demean their sense of self. I am human; I have vanity; I embrace the deadly sin. But it alone does not define me. Or anyone.

Just in case you missed it — I’m a girl (BTW, spare me the mock-feminist outrage of “you’re not a girl, you’re a woman.” Girls are girls; boys are boys. Deal with it.). I grew up playing dress up and outfitting dolls, baking bad cupcakes in a box with a lightbulb, and applying cheap makeup onto a disembodied over-sized Barbie head. I also grew up enamored with Erector sets, Lincoln logs, and Legos, playing video games, watching my uncle rebuild his Shelby Cobra as if he were reassembling the Ark of the Covenant, listening to my Dad’s folk rock and my other uncle’s hard rock, and learning how to bait a hook properly.

The fact that I can rig ballyhoo or gaff a mahimahi in the right way so that it damages as little of the fillet as possible, doesn’t negate that I drool over vintage Chanel. The fact that that the words “Marino from the shotgun” can still give me shivers when I’m watching old games on the NFL channel doesn’t remove the reality that I also hum “I Love Being a Girl” while I’m shopping in SL. I don’t understand why those dots are so hard for some people to connect. And maybe it’s just a vocal minority giving me a skewed perspective. But given the amount of “oh those silly fashion girls” crap I read by people claiming to be taking virtual platforms seriously, I think this type of mindset really is as permeating as it seems.

Avatar customization and character immersion is a huge business model and is going to be for a long time. We’ve already got research that demonstrates the visual representations that people bond with can affect them physically and mentally. Tapping into human vanity is marketing 101 for men and women. Yes, many of “those silly fashion girls” are annoying. They’re also driving our virtual economy. And, I promise you they’re no more or less annoying than listening to some idiot try and outline why Lebron James or Brett Favre is the real anti-Christ. Squeeing over make-believe fashion gimcrack is no different from some blogger blathering about how his new iPhoneX.x is ZOMG! BEST! THING! EVER!

So, fair warning — I’m going to blog about pretty things that make me squee beside, around, and in-between all the other “serious stuff” you’ll find here. Given the amount of things that annoy me in SL, I need the squees. The squees are why I’m still in the format. So if that means you take me less seriously, or feel compelled to remove me from your twitter/blog feeds, have at thee. It’s a free world; you can opt-out and I will muster on with life.

All I ask is that you opt-out in silence and don’t moan about it in my IMs; it kills my vanity-drenched, girl-squee, drama-hopping shopping buzz.

“When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy intends a truce.” ~ Sun Tzu

So last Thursday at the Slip, I was doing the usual shuffle of trying to be all hostess-y during concerts balanced against the general IM parade when I received what can only be regarded as the most backhanded compliment ever. The gent to blame (nameless here to protect the anything but innocent) left for the night and bade farewell by sending me the following IM:

Nameless Non-Innocent: You really have a sexy avatar — there aren’t many who can pull off a tablecloth and make it look hot.

I fixed spelling errors, punctuation and capitalization, but otherwise that’s word for word.

So, let’s start with the fact that the guy is a sort-of-acquaintance-but-mostly-total-stranger. He knows friends I know, or seems to, but we don’t engage in more than hello and goodbye on occasion. So this comment comes 100% out of the blue. I’m pretty sure it was well-intended — which is kinda the most cringe-y part of the entire thing.

Also, how do you respond to compliments about an avatar being “sexy” or “hot?” I mean, I didn’t work out for this bod or spend hours on my hair and make-up. Do I think my avatar is cute and nummy? Yes — she fits my personal tastes. Do I appreciate other people may or may not feel the same? Of course. Would I take any feedback negative or positive personally? Um. How?

Don’t get me wrong — I appreciate it when someone says they like the sort of style I project, or when they squee over an outfit I put together. To me, that reflects a symbiotic pixel vanity and I do allow a smile here and there when someone compliments my aesthetic choices. But the “sexiness” thing always leaves me wanting to smirk and reply “thanks, your slider settings get me really hot, too.” But, you just know the sarcasm would be lost. To be fair, I don’t handle these sorts of compliments well IRL, either. Basically what someone is saying is they like the lot you drew in the genetic lottery. I suppose, comparing the two, at least I picked my own slider settings.

Most importantly of all, the dress I was wearing was a-fucking-dorable and deserves more than to be labeled a tablecloth!

One Shoulder Lace Dress from *COCO*

Meet the One-Shoulder Lace Dress from COCO. Yes, I know it’s shamelessly frilly and girly, but it’s the end of Summer and this breezy little number begged wearing. Admittedly, it’s not my normal fare (if for no other reason than I don’t generally like one-shoulder anything) but there’s something sweet about it. Fair warning — it was a bitch to fit to my fashion-waif shape; I had to shrink the lace ruffle sculpts quite a bit and I had to prim-by-prim fit the skirt.

As lace flirting with sheer goes, I appreciate efforts like these put out by designers because they cover all the important bits and allow for a delicate, feminine look that flashes a lot of skin, but keeps you on the “good girl” side of the tracks. As there are soon going to be a bunch of kids wandering around the grid next to us, I imagine that will become more important. Saints preserve us all.

The dress also comes in ecru/beige and black in addition to the white I selected. And the ruffles can be used as a stand alone top if you’re into that sort of thing.

Icing - Princess Pearls

I accessorized with the perfect-with-anything Princess Pearls from Icing — which I’m relatively sure every woman in SL must have in their inventory. If they don’t…I cannot imagine why.

As for the shoes, I’m doing a second entry on them. Stay Tuned.

Where Does She Get Those Wonderful Toys:

One-Shoulder Lace Dress - L$300
*COCO*
http://slurl.com/secondlife/COCO%20DESIGNS/86/118/521

Princess Pearls Set - L$195
Icing
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mischief/126/175/25

“So far, we’ve built awareness. Seven years ago we weren’t a very well known brand. Now we are, and now we have to build preference and emotional attachment.” ~ David Steel

A couple days ago I watched the Second Life brand die a particularly ugly death. One I’m not sure they can revive from and one I’m not sure they deserve to be revived from.

The assassin was a young geek with comedic timing coupled with an appearance and shtick based on Nicholas Brendon circa 1998. Chris Pirillo has some deserved geek cred and comes up with watch-able YouTube stuffage. He’s somewhat knowledgeable and entertaining and I imagine he gets the positive and negative attention that comes with that combination in this forward-frenzy age of all things viral.

And every so often, like all of us, he takes the easy route when asked a legitimate question:

Chris Pirillo on “Whatever happened to Second Life” Take One:

This is what Second Life’s brand has become to the current generation of fine young geekibals.

In all fairness to Chris, there was a time when Second Life, socially, was healthy and happy with little more than porn and gambling. And I don’t mean the elite class of Second Life — I mean the casual user. The “addicted” part is a might unfair. Games of luck have existed at least as long as history has been worth recording, and so have depictions of sexuality. Most people have a guilty pleasure be it gambling, porn, techno-gadget lust, virtual paper dolls, good sippin’ whiskey, or bad 80’s music. But our peccadilloes are not what define us and they shouldn’t be the details that define our societies.

We spend a lot of time declaring “RL” and “SL” in our speech — and I appreciate the movement to stop that practice, even if I don’t abide by it. Because SL is, in many ways RL. It’s sort of like the Dagobah Dark Side Cave:
“What’s in there?”
“Only what you take with you.”

Put another way: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars,” is ever true in both virtual and real worlds (Oscar knew everything but a good lawyer).

But, let’s look at it from Pirillo’s point of view. There are a lot of people in Second Life doing wondrous things, but they aren’t the average user and those wondrous things aren’t necessarily what will woo a mainstream audience into the format (or even what will woo the current generation of geek). So if you just have a specific elite class working to impress that same elite class and a bunch of other people running around trying to indulge their peccadilloes — what is someone like Chris supposed to come away with?

What Chris got right was his very valid opinion — that Second Life is a crummy product that has failed to capture the imagination of someone like himself. What he got wrong was why — mostly because he simply took the easy out. (Also, he was uninformed about our gambling having been taken away from us — more’s the pity).

To his credit, however, the kid is a trooper and he didn’t just continue to mock and roll his eyes. When attacked by the community in ways I can’t even begin to imagine and don’t want to read, he engaged a few calm voices and re-evaluated his point of view:

The ungodly second take:

This is what Second Life’s brand is, even for those fine young geekibals willing to take a second chance.

I also tried to listen to the Phaylen Fairchild interview, but I couldn’t get beyond the introduction. If you can and must, the link is here.

I can’t fathom what the poor kid could possibly have to say beyond this point, but the thing that’s clear to me is that he’s done his due diligence. He’s done better by SL than SL has done by him. And that is a harsh, cold reality if you’re trying to evaluate the outreach SL has made toward inviting new users to the table — or even in trying to lure indifferent users back.

Second Life and Linden Lab have murdered a brand that had every chance to be the top of its game for a very long time. It happened through incompetence. It happened through indifference. It happened through arrogance. But, the more I reflect on it, I really think it largely happened because Linden Lab did the same thing Chris did in his initial video — they scorned their user base instead of evaluating the product honestly. For me, this started when they took the coward’s way out instead of defending their user base against the shock-and-awe wave of news stories that revealed *gasp* people were doing naughty things on teh interwebs.

There is a lot of hostility that wafts from Linden Lab toward its users — that sense of eye-rolling that we are all crazy cat ladies and griefer vandals (when we’re not busy being porn addicts that have to be led by the wrist between “Adult” and “Non-Adult” and “Whatever Mature Means” sections of a needlessly over-segregated grid). For the last several years the old Microsoft mantra of “you’ll get what we give you” has been their MO (hint to LL: even Microsoft had to dial that back to keep up, guys). And when pushed up against silly reporting they didn’t take the high road and say “if our users want adult experiences in our platform, that’s their option and we defend their privacy. Second Life is no different from the real world in that adults will spend their time pursuing different social options — be it a night at the opera or a stripper jumping out of a make-believe cake. Now, if I could draw your attention to the money our community has raised for cancer research and the work some of our users are doing to help handicapped individuals explore mobility options…”

Boo-yeah. Dismissed. Moving on.

Instead we got the Robin “deer in headlights” moment which has come to define the “not ready for prime time” reality of the Linden Lab program. LL doesn’t appear to have moved beyond that point. It’s as though they dismissed their user base for embarrassing them instead of bridging the gaps that led them to realize they were out of touch with what was happening on the grid.

Ivory towers kill brands.

What people fail to realize about Facebook games and Twitter social networking is the simplest aspect. Sure, there’s ease of use and the accessibility on the deck, but underneath there is the sense that those tools and entertainments are living languages. Second Life is becoming the Latin of virtual worlds. Sure, you have to study it, but no one really *uses* it anymore except those freaks up in their elite clubhouses.

Can we turn it around? As a user base that has been dismissed from the table? I don’t see how. Not until Linden Lab invites us back. The more frightening question — does Linden Lab want to turn it around? Or is this now the final product that will be stripped down into chatroom / facebook friendliness with point-and-click virtual shopping options to turn profits and no longer push the boundaries of “whatif?”

I’m waiting, hopefully, to see that is not the case. The firing of Qarl and Philip’s inability to talk straight about real goals, however, leave me edgy and disheartened. And yet, still here, unwilling to let go of the possibilities of “whatif.”

To steal an abbreviated moment from James Goldman’s The Lion in Winter:
Eleanor of Aquitaine: “How, from where we started, did we ever reach this…?”
Henry II: “Step by step.”