Showing posts with label Socially Disgraceful. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Socially Disgraceful. Show all posts
Blue Linden posted the news that vBulletin is out and the garbage crap is in. Well, not in those words of course. The first curiosity is the title of his blog post: "Upgrading the Forums".
I like and respect Blue a lot. He's helped me personally over some frivolous nonsense he and likely many other Lindens would and could have just brushed-off without a thought. And certainly his post is vetted by some public-relations folks and all that. But my and many other Second Life user issues are way beyond what Blue is saying and how he is saying it.
Firstly, it's not only not an upgrade, it's not even a side-grade or a downgrade. It's even a bastardization of destructive undertaking.
Yeah.
That bad.
I understand Linden Lab wanting to forego the maintenance of vBulletin. It is not the forums per se they are wanting to dump, it's software and resources the current system is sucking-up. Old software that costs an unreasonable arm-and-a-leg to update, the hardware it is running on (and maintenance of it), the bandwidth, the man-hours to maintain the software itself and police the content and so on. I am actually surprised they haven't put the kerbosh on it a couple years ago.
So it makes sense: kill the vBulletin software and do-away with all the resources it burns-up. Use a newer, more flexible updated system.
(I will know emulate Linden Lab for you here and now): FACEPALM!
The system they are using now is worse. This "Clearspace" system is most certainly NOT ready for prime-time. It is horribly buggy and a nightmare from a user perspective. It might be perfectly fine and stable as a blogging system, but for anything else it wreaks of "alpha phase" - as in it's not even ready to be called "Beta", yet.
Why the hell Linden Lab didn't go with Joomla (or something else of equal quality) is totally beyond me. Joomla is free, open-source, highly scalable, automated, user-friendly on both the back-end and front, and smoothly extensible. It is a pleasure to use on both the back-side and front.
However, as is always the case in these situations, someone was likely tasked with "evaluating" new systems. That person recommended highly what *they* like, regardless of the readiness of the system for heavy-duty use and there obviously wasn;t enough vetting. The Clearspace sale representatives also no-doubt made everything smell like roses while pulling seriously heavy wool over the Linden Lab buyers eyes.
That person doing the research and evaluating and recommending probably never heard of Joomla - which speaks volumes about that person's qualifications (if this scenario is the case) regarding this kind of thing - because Joomla or any other mature blogging/forum system (a.k.a. CMS or "Content Management System") is better than the crap they have settled on.
The current system is so whacked that practically everyone who uses it from the front-side has complained about it. It can't be called "broken" because it was never "fixed" in the first place. it is just plain bad software.
The edit boxes for giving feedback comments is a nightmare to use with text-edits ending-up all over the place. The edit-box doesn't even load into some browsers (Opera, certain versions of Safari and OmniWeb, perhaps even versions of Internet Explorer - I don't know I won't touch that browser with a 50-foot pole).
Not everyone enjoys FireFox (I personally find it clunky and bloated myself. I'll stay with Opera and Safari, thank you very much.).
Not everyone enjoys FireFox (I personally find it clunky and bloated myself. I'll stay with Opera and Safari, thank you very much.).
So, as my main browser is Opera 10.10, if I want to comment on a Linden blog post, I have to fire-up Safari 4.0.4 - which is okay because Safari is an excellent speedy browser. It's the point that the system Linden Lab is now using is so damned fugged-up that I have to launch a different application just to be able to comment.
So: open comment to Linden Lab (Mark Kingdon, are you paying attention to this?!): Go ahead and fuggup the blog system. Go ahead and use ridiculously substandard, horrible, buggy-assed software. But, whatever you do, keep the people responsible for choosing and buying this system for your blog and forums as far the fug away from the grid and viewer code as you can.
I don't pull punches and I prefer not to beat around the bush. Plain-talking is simply the way I communicate. Often I come-off as abrasive but the fact is sometimes truth hurts. However, overall I see myself as basically considerate and highly empathic of others. It's how I am able to look through the bullshit whining of the hysteria-paranoia crowd and see how a lot of what Linden Lab is trying to do with their roadmaps, ideas and policies is actually a good thing for us all and the grid whether we like it or not.
This post will likely appear as an angry rant, but it's not. I assure you I simply speaking plainly with a rather stoic if melancholic demeanor.
Linden Lab does a lot of things for us all. Things almost all of us on the grid will never see or know about or even fathom and I'll give some examples in my next post or two.
One of those things that is better known is the Blake Sea project. There are a lot of people who enjoy sailing throughout the grid and it is one of the reasons why virtual waterfront property is more valuable. Especially if there is access, direct or indirect to the Blake Sea.
Good. Hurray. Drive-on and have have your thrills. I also find it ironic how the USS web site features beautiful art of tall ships, but yet they give the strongest impression they don't like tall ships anywhere near them in-world. It's all I sail and that's the feeling I get.
There are a couple prim signs posted throughout the Blake Sea area (BS area LOL) that say more or less the same thing, though I don't recall any of them including the word please, I could be wrong. They pretty much state the same things and I'll paraphrase here:
"Welcome to the Blake Sea project, a coordinated effort between Linden Lab and the United Sailing Sims. There are often sailing races throughout. Please do not interfere and do not click on any of the participant boats. Enjoy the show!"
Okay, fair enough. Though it's not much of a spectator sport from my own purview, I have no intention of depriving others of their own entertainment. I would hope others feel the same way about my own activities on the grid.
I enjoy sailing the Blake Sea area. And often - in fact at practically every conceivable hour of the day - I see there is a sailboat race being organized. And here is where I am starting to get tired of the bullshit.
Mr. MarkTwain, I ask that you pay particular attention to the following portion of my diatribe because I likely speak for others beyond just myself.
If I get even within a neighboring sim, someone will start shouting, and though I am paraphrasing, it's pretty darned close to actual quoting:
"Sailboat race, keep clear!"
Whatever happened to including the word "please" in there? I ignore the shout. I'm not some idiot looking to grief your never-ending sailboat races. However, I am becoming just this side of outright pissed-off about your race coordinators or referees or whomever the fat-headed, power-drunk, self-important boneheads are.
If I am IM'd, the statement isn't quite as curt, but still curt just the same: "Racing, keep clear." To which I used to reply politely with something like "I see it, appreciated, just passing through." But it has gotten to the point where if I reply at all I'll simply say "I see it" and then just close the window. Often I will raise sails or turn into irons and then just sit idle and flounder until the cute little sailboats try hard to zoom (overstatement) past me before I continue on my way. I am courteous that way whether I am notified on a race or not.
This morning was the last straw: first, I am getting sick and tired of the phrase "keep clear". You know what? Screw you. I even try to restrict my Blake Sea excursions to 4 A.M. in the freaking morning just so I won't "interfere" with your little races with the cute little prissy-sissy-looking sailboats.
This morning - and mind you I am an entire sim distant from the starting line of a race that hasn't started yet, and someone flies right next to my boat, says "Racing, keep clear" then clicks me to freeze me solid and doesn't let me go for almost five minutes. That's it. All "courtesy" is now out the window. Screw you and the toy boat you rode in on.
Mr. MarkTwain White: that was the last straw and I refuse to take it any more.
I highly recommend you pass a notice to your group that they need to start being a bit more considerate and polite in their requests. There is nothing in the ToS, CS or even your own little prim signs that says I must "keep clear". I have every right on Linden sims to be there as you do, coordination between you and they or not. I refuse to have demands to "keep clear" placed on me.
You want to ban me from your surrounding private sims: go for it. But I am tired of the bullshit on the open Linden-owned sims. The next idiot that tells me "race, keep clear" my response hence forth will be "Go around me".
And the next time someone clicks my boat to freeze me will be when I start clicking to freeze your pretty, tinkly, prissy racing sailboats and freezing them. I believe very strongly in the "mirror" method of like-wiseness all around. You will get what you dish.
I will not "interfere" with your races or racers. I will not click on them (except in the above case). However, I will no longer alter my course to ensure I do not block their paths. From now on, screw the "keep clear" crap. Ain't happening. If I am headed from North to South and your race crosses my path I am no longer going to radically alter my course or coast to a stop. I am going to keep on course as I intend.
Tell your people tough-shit, go around me. If you expect others to "keep clear" then put up prim fences cordoning-off your entire race course.
I know this isn't you or your intentions and that individuals act on their own. But I am sick and tired of the bullshit elitism that wreaks from your group.
And to be clear, I don't mean all the members of your group and I don't even mean your race participants. But rather whomever the hell it is with the fat-headed power-trip who "coordinates" or otherwise referees these races.
Reel them in, Mr. White.
Then it will be sail and let sail as it was before from me.
Avatar Trademarks Copybotted all over the SL grid! Yes! Really! No shit!
It seems that every time Linden Lab burps, sneezes or farts, the hysterical uninformed, misguided, gullible empty-headed hysterically paranoid freaks come out of the woodwork. Okay, granted, the ones I have explicitly described above are only one in three of the overloud shrill knee-jerkers, but you get my point.
Copyright laws are not really all that complicated on the overall face of it. One easily understandable aspect of the law is that it squarely places the onus onto the copyright holder and owner to practice due diligence in defending that copyright and trademark (which are both actually different entities).
So, this creates a bit of a conundrum for the copyright owner: you are required by law to defend your registered copyrights, or risk losing them to the public domain.
And, to that end, if a copyright owner goes to an ISP or other entity displaying such copyrighted material must, by law, remove all access to it if requested by the copyright owner, and the copyright owner is technically and legally required to make that request whether they want to or not.
Some trademarks and copyrights are so prevalent that the holders, though they obviously retain all legal rights, have allowed these "fan" versions to proliferate. Anything Star Wars comes to mind. Disney. Playboy. Frank Herbert estate (Dune).
This also is why Linden Lab has made the public statement that obvious and blatant use of recognized trademarks will not be tolerated unless you are the owner, holder or authorize agent of the legal owner or holder.
But this statement is a simple legal maneuver by Linden lab to protect themselves. yet the shrill provocateurs will lambast Linden Lab for it. All without stopping to think.
Quaintly's quaint post brings this whole idea back to mind. The Na'Vi image may not be a trademarked image. or is it? What about the word, name, title, whatever you want to call it: "Na'Vi"?
Yet here is Quaintly brandishing a stunning replica of what is most certainly someone else's copyrighted design. And no, I am not referring to the shape creator, the skin creator or even the person selling this avatar in-world. In fact, I have a very strong suspicion the "creator" of Quaintly's Na'Vi avatar has zero written or any other form of permission to recreate that look. I also doubt she has any permission to use that word "Na'Vi".
In fact, one could go so far as to proclaim that and all the other "replicas" of that design across the grid as "bootlegged, pirated designs that were outright stolen by theft from the original copyright owners and holders" - that being 20th Century Fox and James Cameron's production company and James Cameron himself.
But you don't see a line of goose-stepping surname Lindens marching across the grid burning vendors and banning creators, do you? Hell, even Linden Lab (along with IMVU and possible some other virtual world systems) are capitalizing on the movie success and the imagery from the same.
Because the image of the "Na'Vi alien is used on the movie poster to market the movie proper, I suspect that image and design is not only copyrighted, but trademarked as well. The same with the word Na'Vi.
But, Second Life being second life, copyright infringement is running rampant. Where the hell are all those hysterical copybot vigilantes proclaiming that copying someone else's work is wrong and outright theft?
Perhaps I should go to each and every one of these and file an abuse report for "copybotting" copyrighted and trademarked works? After all, it's easily provable.
Okay now... allow me to be fair! I am not picking on Oblivion Creations! This is just a good example. The link immediately above lists all the items that infringe on this movie's trademarks listed at XStreet SL under the keyword Na"vi. Which also is not doubt an infringement as it is a trademarked synthetic word being used to located replicas of trademarked designs and using the trademarked term in conjunction with these creations. Any legal egle will say it creates a clear misconception that the items in question are officially licensed or otherwise endorsed by the producers.But we all really know better, don't wee? {nod, nod, wink, wink.}
The point being a lot of what Linden Lab says on their blogs, policy statements, office hours, prtess releases, Terms of Service, Community standards and all the rest is not only to communicate with you, dear resident, it's also to cover their own asses legally, which explains a lot of the vagueness in it all.
So, when Linden Lab coughs, sneezes, farts and even barfs... cut them a little slack, will ya?
The point being a lot of what Linden Lab says on their blogs, policy statements, office hours, prtess releases, Terms of Service, Community standards and all the rest is not only to communicate with you, dear resident, it's also to cover their own asses legally, which explains a lot of the vagueness in it all.
So, when Linden Lab coughs, sneezes, farts and even barfs... cut them a little slack, will ya?
For all you people on the Second Life grid whom have the power to send group notices or wield the power of a Subscribe(Spam)-O-Matic machines to spam people with: a lot of you need help and to get help you need to get a freaking clue.
In order to not flat-out piss people off, try to not send a single "notice" more than once every few days. Once a week would be good. Once a month would be better. Anything more often than a week and you already have half the people you are sending your notice to thinking about bailing. Don't get me wrong - if your notice is so large it requires two or three in a row, that's okay. Just not more often than once a week.
I would rather be spammed only once a week with a blast of three or four or five group notices (from the same group, folks) that complete the same message than have to experience the evil sin of group notices that don't say anything in the notice itself:
"Important notice about the group! Read attached!"In this case, screw you and the horse your notice rode-in on. Talk about frustrating crap. At least make the effort to summarize what's in that attached notecard in the notice itself. Then 1) I can decide if I really need to open that notecard and pollute my inventory any more and 2) when I see the notice come through email (it is essentially an IM) - I'll at least have a basic idea what's going on.
Please also note that as I speak on group notices here, I also am referring to those non-group-required spam-o-matic notice machines, a.k.a. "Subscribe-O-Matic".
The absolute worst are the ones that automatically subscribe you just because you purchased something from a vendor (yes: I hate your guts Andy Enfield for even allowing your Hippo products to allow merchants to do this. You need to allow the buyer to effing OPT-OUT.) Or worse, those that actually scan an area where all you need to do is walk past within 96-meters of the scanner and suddenly you start getting spammed with IM "notices" of some new product you couldn't care any less about from a creator you've never hear of.And the absolute evil incarnate is the one where I tried to find the "unsubscriber" so I could get out of the IM hell I was stuck in where the merchant sent out a new notice every. single. day. about a "new item" and then sometimes ten minutes later a "new special sale" and often they were something to the effect of:
"Brand new! Read the attachment!"
Yes. Really. That's it. All of it. Except for the attachment, of course. Multiple times every day. And what was worse is that it wasn't a group. It was a Spam-O-Matic that I wasn't aware of ever being subscribed to. That also means the "attachment" is actually an inventory offer. So rather than just clicking "ignore" to close the bluebox, I have to click decline again and again.
And I couldn't unsubscribe because the SLURL given is where the sending machine is, not the prim to click for subscribing and unsubscribing. And I have a helluva time even looking for that as the area I teleported into kept causing me to crash (no, not a naughty viewer - it was some corrupt texture on a vendor that kept doing it) - so "frustration" is an understatement here. Solution: IM the person who owns the spam-o-matic, cordially and politely explain that...
"I tried to find the unsubscriber prim, but having difficulty in your sim. I would greatly appreciate if ou could unsubscribe me for now, but I certainly have your landmark for reference!"
No need to be rude. No need to say "and that landmark is in my trash begging to be emptied". No need to explain that "not only will I never, ever visit your location again and buy anything, but I will tell everyone I know about the experience and mention you, your shop and all the rest by name."
Nothing personal, of course. It's not you I hate, it's not even the spam-o-matic. In fact I love those things. It's the dipwad, idiotic uncouth-if-not-outright-unethical way you use it. Zodiac House uses a spam-o-matic. The difference is, rule: it is at the entrance in plain sight of everyone who enters the sim. rule: "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" buttons are clearly marked. Rule: never a message more than once a month at most. Rule: SLURL and how to unsubscribe included in every single message.
Funny, my subscriber list keeps growing rather than shrinking. In fact, often we are asked to send messages more often. In other words, people want to be in our notice list, not clamoring to get out of it. This is what I call qualified potential customers.
So consider this your "freaking clue."
I know, you're probably tired on my rhetoric on tall boats and sailing in SL. This sill likely be my last post on the subject for a while at least. Ironic that on yesterday's post, Anna Tsiolkovsky described literally just what I ran into in my continuing travels. So, her words, my pictures as she describes literally what I experienced myself:
I used to have to cross into the Blake Sea and Nautilus through Kshumay. On one end, the owner erect this giant tree right into the corner and the other side had this hideous grass textured block (as well as having banlines on his parcel).
Oh, ho-ho-ho, you go girl:Note the tiny shack at the near-left. There is a dinky little bit of water that passes to the left and then behind it. Bad news: that hut is on the very corner of a region. Taking that (the only) path means a kitty-corner region-crossing through a four-corner area. The crash potential was high. (And note the picture-screen wall a bit further in the distance.)
However, I made it. It took some serious maneuvering. Moving westward there was another of these blocked areas...Oh joy! A wall-screen. Practically blocking the entire passage. So I figure I'd cam-around before proceeding. More to investigate if there is enough room to make it and partly to see what's behind my blocked view. That's when I realize something odd - then went to the requisite rolling of eys...
It turns out that "screen" wasn't a just a screen. It was a box. As my camera moved nly slightly to the right another screened wall appeared suddenly - almost startlingly. It turns-out the owner is at least trying to be courteous to his neighbors by putting a transparent texture on the outside so the whole area isn't entirely ruined. Also, the owner is wise as these screens are all made phantom so they are easy to pass through.However, as referenced above, one cannot see where they are going if traveling by water means. But I decide to give it a go anyway. Then, I can't figure-out why my ship stops dead-cold just as I get around that screen. I didn't even get a "we've grounded captain!" or a "we've collided, captain!" message.
The ship is rather long (just shy of 25-meters) and the piloting is done from the stern. So - sighing - I stand-up, detach the ship details and sails, delete the boat-proper and hit the fly button to get a closer look to see what's going on...
The good thing is that the current Snowglobe viewer automatically removes all BAN LINES from snapshots! Hurray, Lindens! The bad news is that ban lines exist at all. What you don't see in the picture above is that I am literally bumping against a parcel ban-line on my right side.Sailing excursion: fail.
So I pack-up my gear and decide I will not contribute to the economy of this particular shoreline as the natives are obviously hostile toward visitors and prefer to keep to themselves. I'll make my way back to the Blake Sea, Antiquity and Jabberwock archipelagos and maintain my business closer to home in the friendly and open Neobelow vicinity where we welcome with open arms all visitors, strangers and friends alike.
Who and what the hell is "Kiva"? Who cares? Linden Lab is using their captive audience to push their irrelevant agenda. And I'm not so sure I agree with it. Well, in fact I know I don't agree with it. From what I can tell, Kiva appears to be a match-making service that allows you to subsidize some entrepreneur or something. 3 I'm an entrepreneur, so I beseech all readers to subsidize me. Contact me directly for the address to send your money to.
Audience: by way of having every (legitimate) SL user's email address. Captive: because we must keep a genuine email address on-file as important communications come through there (notices that actually affect your account standing, etcetera.)
However, when Linden Lab (LL) started sending advertisements for XStreet SL - it irked me. But hey, they own it and I can see the point of the effort. However, when they start spamming me with bullshit about some charity they support that I'm not familiar with and don't remember ever having heard-of it's time to draw the line. Kiva is not affiliated in any way whatsoever with Linden Lab or vice-versa. I know this because there was no announcement of such and the SL knowledge-base (wiki) has no mention of Kiva other than to buy stuff to support them.1
No other announcement regarding partnership or anything else "official". At. All.
For all I know it's a shill for LL. No, I am not accusing Linden Lab of any wrong-doing. But, c'mon! I am accusing Linden Lab of the seriously uncouth and tacky. If they had made a plea for something a little more reputable and meaningful like Make-A-Wish foundation (my own personal favorite), Muscular Distrophy, hell, even the March of Dimes foundation I believe a lot more people would have not only been receptive to it, but even applauded LL for doing it! These are large, world-wide, well-known and vetted charities.
But who the hell is Kiva? Perhaps they also are a large world-wide organization also. The name barely rings a bell - and that may be because of the uncouth email Linden lab sent a few weeks ago.
However, Crap Mariner says it best: 2
After reading Crap's crap (snickers) I decided to fire-up the Kirsten's Shadow-caster viewer and head-on over for another look-see since it's been so long...
Yes, a wonderful, quiet place to explore alone or with a friend. And low-lag as well. Go visit and throw some money at it if you can. Every L$100 donation helps keep the place alive.
SLURL
Internet
1. Crap Mariner. Some charities are more equal than others.... December 18, 2009. Blog: What Is This Crap?. December 19, 2009.
2. Mutiple. Wiki Search. Multiple. Second Life Wiki. December 23, 2009.
3. Unknown. How Kiva Works. Undated (2005-2009). Website. December 16, 2009.
Audience: by way of having every (legitimate) SL user's email address. Captive: because we must keep a genuine email address on-file as important communications come through there (notices that actually affect your account standing, etcetera.)
However, when Linden Lab (LL) started sending advertisements for XStreet SL - it irked me. But hey, they own it and I can see the point of the effort. However, when they start spamming me with bullshit about some charity they support that I'm not familiar with and don't remember ever having heard-of it's time to draw the line. Kiva is not affiliated in any way whatsoever with Linden Lab or vice-versa. I know this because there was no announcement of such and the SL knowledge-base (wiki) has no mention of Kiva other than to buy stuff to support them.1
No other announcement regarding partnership or anything else "official". At. All.
For all I know it's a shill for LL. No, I am not accusing Linden Lab of any wrong-doing. But, c'mon! I am accusing Linden Lab of the seriously uncouth and tacky. If they had made a plea for something a little more reputable and meaningful like Make-A-Wish foundation (my own personal favorite), Muscular Distrophy, hell, even the March of Dimes foundation I believe a lot more people would have not only been receptive to it, but even applauded LL for doing it! These are large, world-wide, well-known and vetted charities.
But who the hell is Kiva? Perhaps they also are a large world-wide organization also. The name barely rings a bell - and that may be because of the uncouth email Linden lab sent a few weeks ago.
However, Crap Mariner says it best: 2
"...the Labbies embracing one charity with limited history and investment (a booth in Non Profit Commons), no long-term resident presence, no in-world media impact (Metanomics, etc.) and no extended community in SL whatsoever (Kiva.org) while demanding money from one with a long history and investment (virtual africa [sic]), a beloved active in-world avatar presence, multiple appearances in in-world media, and many volunteers for their kiosks and tier donations." [Source]I've been to Virtual Africa many times, though it's been a very long time (at least a year). In first life I have been fortunate that I've had the opportunity to literally travel and live in other parts of the world through my Army days including throughout Europe, Korea, Japan and so on. Never been to Kuala Lumpur (Quaintly I'm coming for you and we'll both go kidnap London one of these days) and I've never been to Africa, either, so I've really enjoyed Virtual Africa.
After reading Crap's crap (snickers) I decided to fire-up the Kirsten's Shadow-caster viewer and head-on over for another look-see since it's been so long...
Yes, a wonderful, quiet place to explore alone or with a friend. And low-lag as well. Go visit and throw some money at it if you can. Every L$100 donation helps keep the place alive.
SLURL
Internet
1. Crap Mariner. Some charities are more equal than others.... December 18, 2009. Blog: What Is This Crap?. December 19, 2009.
2. Mutiple. Wiki Search. Multiple. Second Life Wiki. December 23, 2009.
3. Unknown. How Kiva Works. Undated (2005-2009). Website. December 16, 2009.
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