Scootin' Newbs and Starting Over (again)

When I started this.. eons ago.. it was mostly about the gossip and news surrounding Bear Infohub and while I still occasionally stop by there, the old stomping grounds have changed. Mixed amongst the lost newbies are people sitting around looking for an excuse to fight and a gathering of emotionless bots, dumped there by the latest rolling restart.

Knowing that this is the sliver of SL society that new residents will be exposed to first, makes me a little sad.

I have to admit though, I have to laugh when I spot new residents who've been caught, stuck in an animation during a restart, then dumped in the middle of a large gathering:

This guy scooted around on his butt like an infested Chihuahua on shag carpeting for the longest. I hope the human on the other side of that av had a sense of humor about it. I know I was cracking up. But then, I've been known to giggle at funerals too.

I wondered what this little chica had been up to:



Then we had this little exchange:

Chica: "Where are the classes???"

Me: "What classes hon?"

Chica: "The free English classes. What time do they start for my country?"

Me: "I don't thing they have classes here. What country?"

Chica: "Yes, what time for my country?"

That's about the time my eyes glazed over and I started to pretend like I didn't speak English anymore. I know.. that's bad. I try to be helpful, but lately I've got the patience of a pit bull on 3 foot chain guarding a steak dinner.

As I attempt to widen my social circle beyond the familiar, I'll probably miss parking my butt on the old brick wall, but I installed one back at the cafe, just in case. What I won't miss? Oh, I dunno:



The little things.. I suspect.

In other news, my SL partnership ended this week. Out of respect for the parties involved, I won't go into any details. I can say that it absolutely was not because I ceased to care. If anything, it was just the opposite.

So if I'm a little bit grumpy for a bit.. or more likely.. a tiresome whine bag.. well.. deal with it I guess. I'm only human.

That's all for this week's slice. Be sure and stop by the Second Slice Cafe (please people, I need some traffic. Just use it to hide from newbs while you change hair or something. I'm not proud)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Skegemog/72/71/118/?title=Second%20Slice%20Cafe

TTFN!

Blue Haired Old Ladies Need Love Too

Every so often I like to go back to where it all began, back to the Bear Infohub to sit on the wall and see if any old friends wander through. While it's true that most of the traffic consists of freshly baked newbies, you can usually also find an assortment of us long timers catching up on the gossip, seeing who's hooked up with who, what illnesses are being fought and who's missing in action.

A couple of nights ago, I stopped by for a bit and ran in to an eccentric Bear resident, a club and DJ school owner with land near by. She's always great for entertainment, sitting off in the corner, rambling on to anyone who'll listen about how she's been mistreated, how unfair life is, quoting Linden Labs Terms of Service, calling everyone there loiterers and panderers.

You know.. sorta like those old bag ladies you see sitting in their own urine on the side streets downtown, waving their fists and mumbling incoherently about conspiracy theories and alien abductions.

Bless her heart.

I'm only a little ashamed to admit that we had our fun with her, then moved on. I know it's unkind to pick on people like that, but sometimes you just get caught up in the moment...

Don't judge me.. okay?

I went back last night... the SLag was hell by the way... and hung out for a few minutes. Soon shouts started coming from the land next door.

"Walk through the Grief Wall!"

It was her.

What the hell? Grief Wall?

So I'm thinking.. like a war memorial? What the crap?

After a few minutes, I think I figured it out. Bless her heart. She must be a grieving little blue haired old widow in her first life, trying to talk herself back to reasoning. That's what she meant by "walk through the grief."

I felt bad for exchanging banter with her. It must be hard, living there alone with her 36 cats in that tiny apartment. I think ya'll should join me in keeping her in our thoughts and hope she gets back to wellness soon.

Until we talk again, ya'll take care.

Bubye!

P.S. This has been a tongue-in-cheek account of actual incidents at the hub. I'm not mentioning the individuals name because I don't want to give her the self-Googling satisfaction. TTFN!

Changes at Bear Infohub

What are your thoughts?
Comments welcomed!

Certified Female?

I've noticed some changes around Bear Dream Lodge Infohub in the past couple of weeks. The atmosphere seems friendlier, calmer and more welcoming of our newest residents. I'm not sure if anything has actually changed or if I've just been showing up at the right time, either way it's a welcome improvement.

For a brief time there was a new club within sight of the hub, the Dragonfly or the Firefly.. some kind of insect.. I don't remember now and it was gone in a couple of days anyway. The land was bare for about a week, then a new club sprung up in it's place, with "certified female" dancers and escorts. How they planned to "certify" the resident's sex is beyond me, unless they were visiting the resident's RL home and conducting gynecological exams.

*shudder*

Now that club is gone and a new, larger structure stands in it's place, with a new land owner and promises of live performances. I'm still trying to get the details on this venture, when I find out ya'll will be the first to know.

The State of Mahala

I have really struggled with my life on the grid this past week. So much so that I've contemplated selling my land, deleting my blog and downgrading to a free account. Doing these things would make it easier for me to walk away.

I'm sure you're thinking my decision has something to do with lag, Linden Labs or the state of Second Life in general, but it doesn't. My dismay with the state of things is based on a very human condition, the existence of hatred.

I've found myself retreating more and more into myself in world, something I do in my first life all too often. I try to distance myself from conflict, from pain, from hatred. It isn't always the best option for dealing with these things, it's just how I chose to, due to my atomic temper and huge mouth.

Things have been said regarding my unwillingness to be friendly towards some individuals and it's been suggested that my reasoning was incorrect and I'd like to address that here. I don't care if someone has an alt, I don't care if they have 15. It doesn't matter what face you wear or the name above your head, when I witness someone showing no respect for the choices of others, speaking with hateful words, calling others "idiots", displaying bloodied heads on sticks etc., I choose to separate myself from them.

I harbor no ill will.

I am not angry.

I just would rather not spend the limited time that I spend online in the company of individuals who gain pleasure from the pain and hurt feelings of others. There's enough hate and frankly, bullshit, in the real world.

Some of you will say it's just a game and that these displays are all in fun, but hatred and intolerance are dangerous things, in any form. If you freely sprew ignorance in Second Life, then I'm sure you do the same in your first. Your avatar, regardless of how hard you try to hide it, is an extension of who you are inside.

All the expensive skins, hoochie mama clothes and flexi hair on the grid won't mask your charade forever.

Feeding the Beast No More

Over the weekend, Bear Dream Lodge Infohub was once again visited by an angry landowner, this time a shop keeper. As he stood in the center of the gathering, shouting insults and obscenities, I wondered what, exactly, he was trying to accomplish.

I assume that if you open a store, more traffic yields higher sales. Opening your store directly across the road from an infohub would definitely give you more traffic and one would assume, put more money in your pocket.

Why then, would you enter the infohub and call everyone, new and established accounts alike, everything from an *sshole to a wh*re? I can almost guarantee that no one in attendance was making plans to make any purchases from those establishments. Is this a wise business practice?

Within minutes, this shop owner (who sadly seemed to be suffering from some form of typing Turrets, God bless him) was joined by the other landowner, the one who frequents the infohub when she needs a boost to her self esteem.

It's like a day care center, with all the stomping around and demanding of attention.

They complain about all the ad farmers yet outside their businesses they display huge signage:

Notice the lovely flaming finger displayed multiple times. A nice touch I think.

I can understand the frustration of opening a business and not being able to operate it properly because it shares a region with an infohub. Perhaps it's time to learn what we can from these errors in judgement and move on.

Lag can be a huge problem when a sim is full, especially while trying to conduct business. Another resource hogging practice is the addition of camping chairs or dance pads. If you're new and looking for a way to make some spending money, please don't fall prey to this practice. It costs more for the electricity to run your computer while there than you are being paid. By having you parked on their property for ten minutes and paying you the equivalent of one U.S. nickel the owner increases the traffic rating for their land, falsely inflating it, improving the position of their listing in the "places" menu. Instead of idling on a dance pad for an hour, invest your time in a class at NCI, learning to build or script. At least you'll be interacting with other residents and putting another wrinkle in your brain. Second Life has enough zombies already.

Other practices being performed in the area around the infohub include individuals messaging new residents, spamming them with landmarks to other regions and implying that they are acting on behalf of Linden staff, to assist them in setting their "home" elsewhere. It's interesting to note that when this occurs, the profile of the individual redirecting the new residents, is usually less than a week old. Draw your own conclusions.

There have also been instances of individuals standing on the edge of the landing area, using particle emitters to block the vision of people entering the region, causing excessive lag conditions and leading to sim crashes. It is probable that because this practice began at the same time that neighboring business owners started making statements that they were going to have the infohub shut down, that the events are related.

I've reviewed Linden Labs "Terms of Service" and "Community Standards" as well as their definition of infohubs and the intended purpose of these areas. I can say with utmost certainty that nowhere within these documents is the use of profanity, insults, threats or the misrepresentation of intent condoned in any way. Having made that statement, I can also assume that, based on past experience, little or no "official" action will be taken against these practices in the Bear Dream Lodge Infohub situation.

My advice to residents? Don't feed the beast.

At the moment that it becomes evident that an individual who lacks basic social skills is going to become verbally abusive, mute them. It's easy to do, right click on either their avatar or their name, chose mute and magically, the grid becomes a happy place again. Arguing just feeds their infantile need for attention.. and that's really what this is all about.

Oh and to that Bear business owner who continues to insist that she's having the infohub shut down?

Shit or get off the pot.

The Grizzly Visits Bear

I had planned to begin this story with the line: "The debate was heating up at the Bear Infohub late Friday evening.." but one person standing in the middle of the area insulting, belittling and arguing with the rest of the attending crowd, hardly constitutes a debate.

I suppose that the notorious landowner hasn't been getting enough attention lately and decided to pay the infohub a visit. I was reminded of a comment I once heard from that very landowner when she stated that newbies want any attention they can get, even if it's negative attention. One could make the same statement about long time residents who enter a public area and attempt to reprimand everyone who is gathered there, simply because it doesn't suit her.

I was appalled by the behavior of this landowner, one of Second Life's beloved mentors as she answered the inquiry of one brand new resident. The newbie's profile indicated that she'd been inworld for less than 48 hours and she was obviously struggling to make sense of the situation. After all, she'd been told this was her "home," yet this person was implying that only those that paid tier on the infohub land had a right to be there.

When the newest resident, Delila Milos, asked a question of the landowner, this mentor, she was instructed to "stick your thumb up your ass."

Is this how Linden Labs wishes for it's mentors to greet new residents, to welcome them to the grid?

During her visit, this individual made comments offending people who did not embrace English as their native language, women who were post menopausal and publicly exposed personal information about one of the residents, all while screaming about Linden Lab policy. One could suggest that this person review the Terms Of Service regarding intolerance and the divulging of the private information of others.

As always, all comments are welcomed. I'll see ya'll inworld!

Godiva Rides Again

In celebration of the one year anniversary of my very first day in Second Life, last night I removed all clothing, put on my best floor length, Lady Godiva hair then rode my horse from one end of the Bear region to the other.

There are pictures, but you'll have to find me in world to see them. I didn't take them and I haven't sorted out how to save them to my computer yet.

Sorry if you missed it, I'll do it again next year :)

Discussions of the Very Sleepy

What was the intriguing topic on everyone's minds around the infohub last night?

*World politics?

*Feeding the poor?

*The economic health of third world countries?

No.

It was whether a fairy, when experiencing flatulence, would be propelled skyward, considering their body mass versus the force of the gaseous release. Several factors were taken into account, their distance from a solid object (ie: the ground), the effects of diet and individual health concerns (ie: lactose intolerance.)

Much Googling was done and it was determined that fairies did not partake of salt, which lead to a discussion of slugs. When milk was mentioned as a diet staple, whether or not it was cow's milk was brought into question along with yet another reference to the possibility of lactose intolerance.

Do slugs give milk? Do they have teats? Is this the source of the milk that fairies ingest as the main component of their diets?

So many unanswered questions...

Bear Dream Lodge

I spend most of my time in world at the Bear Dream Lodge infohub. Lately the normally carefree atmosphere there has been disrupted by controversy. There is a business owner in the Bear region who objects to the fact that people "loiter" there, contributing to the lag problem and making it difficult for her to operate her business. For more detailed background information on the subject, you can visit one of the forum threads here.

I can understand this individual being frustrated, I also own a business in world and have had to face lag problems, particle emitters (the great Zombie infestation) and various other traffic interruptions as is to be expected anytime you run an business. Regardless of whether or not this individual has a valid point, nothing gives her the right to enter the infohub and insult, threaten and attempt to intimidate Second Life citizens, choosing to perform her display just meters from the landing area of our newest members as they enter the infohub for the first time.

What's your opinion? Leave a comment below.