Although this doesn’t concern my grid (though it may if Linden do TSL5B), I feel the pain, anger and frustration of those residents who were suddenly surprised they can’t come and party with the rest. Adults on the main grid who have kid-like avatars were awfully offended by this, and I understand why. However, after Linden saw the community is fighting back, they pulled the “Oopsie! You didn’t see what we mean! *Gay-like palm flip forward* *wink & fake smile*” trick and had Everett Linden say the words:

Child avatars are welcome at the celebration. However, we do respectfully decline the submissions we received to create exhibits for the event. Goreans, role-players, and members of the multitude of international communities are all welcome, and I hope you come. The SL Birthday on Linden land is PG.  

Huh? You want kid avatars to come but you don’t want them to participate in creating the event’s builds? How does that make sense more than before? I guess all you want is some fancy castles, houses, and decoration houses without balloons, lollipops, candy, kiddy shows, and all that stuff. But, as the community fights back, some fight wisely with some smart interpretation:

But Linden Lab, it seems, doesn’t want its Residents anymore. It doesn’t want a free, open, creative world. It wants a sanitized, media-friendly world, that universities and big corps won’t think twice about making major investments in. LL’s message for Residents now is: Thanks for making us so popular, but go away now. You’re embarrassing us in front of the cool kids.  

Jacek, you’re one heck of a genius. It’s like that new “Have your face on the new yogurt flavor’s ads!” campaign we had a while ago here in Israel. Tons of people came to audition, one auditioned and made it, yet after the shots they banished her out and payed her nothing. What’s the reason for most of those campaigns? “Hey, we promised you’ll be on the advertisement. We didn’t promise money, fame and glory. Shoo!” Or in other words, free advertising. Don’t you see how we made this world so popular, by just walking into it? Linden had the count of residents on the home page at all times to show the world “how big our customer count is”! Then, when we reached 1 million, the world exploded into the press, and all came in. Now, they don’t handle our abuse reports anymore¹, they neglect the main databases, bring in “new furniture” before they take out the stinky trash (metaphor for bringing in new features before fixing old bugs), and now fail to even do that one yearly thing called a “birthday”. I don’t think SL will be happy when all his friends don’t come. He’ll start shouting at his parents with his tiny little voice “Did you invite them all??? Why didn’t anyone show up??? THIS IS THE WORST BIRTHDAY EVER!!! *cries loudly*”. I can’t wait for that kid to grow up, “get a grip on his life”, and have his parents die. (Or, in other words, I can’t wait for Second Life to get much better and have the bad part of Linden “die”, or in other words, get fired/laid off/be put out of the SL teams)Ok, too many metaphors and extra issues. Back to SL5B.So, basically, Linden want kids to come to the party, bring a present and say hi to the birthday boy but not have a piece of the cake.In conclusion, Linden, if you’re reading this, back down from your decision and allow all to be accepted into “frontstage” and backstage. Second Life is supposed to be about living your life the way you want to live it, without discrimination or abuse by others. So what, they think if they ban others from doing it they can instead? It’s like saying “Don’t swim in the pool!” and then running in a frenzy to it, jumping and diving with a belly flop so strong it splashes water at the rest of the people.Oh, and do vote for Vint’s JIRA issue concerning this, we’re at over 170 votes now! Woot!  :D .Oh, and one more thing: I’m hosting a party in OpenSim soon to celebrate SL5B. Details will be published soon. :D 

1. I had a report once with a pesky neighbor, which added a platform on his side similar to mine to show it as an expansion. On it, he had his own products for sale. I sent a report to the Lindens, no reply in 1 week. Sent another, no reply once more. Teleported a Linden in charge of our grid, and guess what he said? “Figure it out with him on your own. Don’t involve us.”. Hey, aren’t you supposed to HELP me as a Liaison? Aren’t you “the frontline employees responsible for communicating and enabling the Second Life experience”? Aren’t you supposed to “help to maintain and shape Second Life’s unique online community by assisting Residents with problems both technical and social, orienting new arrivals, and channeling community concerns and feedback to Second Life’s Community Managers and developers”?? Because, the way I see it, you’re doing your job all wrong. [↩]

After seeing Linden have just set out a new policy against inworld banks without a license, I began to wonder: Will our grid comply? I wonder this because, lately, some parts have failed to comply with Second Life standards. (E.g.: Spam on Mainlands, breaking the peace multiple times, weapons on Sandbox Islands, etc.) Even temporary mature skyboxes appear once in a while. This should light up one or more warning lights to Linden: What the f*** are you doing? Pay attention to our grid’s status! .

There has been a new bank lately, which I know is trusted — the owner’s a friend of mine. Now, this locks out options for us teens — if we ever “go over the laws of our conscious and reason”, our parents can punish us — since we cannot get a “permit”. We are minors, obviously. Plus, ~90,000 residents don’t make a hell of a difference in Second Life, since we’re a tiny part of the 11,000,000+ database, or at least the 1,200,000+ (says to be 1,227,xxx , I remember it being 1,500,xxx a while ago — what happened?) active residents.

Now, after setting a link to the post I bet i’ll appear on the sites that have started a blog post regarding that page. (I forgot the official word — what was it?) Go ahead Lindens and read this, i’m just stating the facts.

So, in conclusion, Linden Lab should pay attention to what’s happening on our grid, or soon it’s going to bite ‘em back when the teens move to the main grid, or even worse, if the media gets to them first.

(Have you noticed I used no emoticons at all in this post? Weird )

[UPDATE @ 02/01/08 5:05pm UTC+2: Seems the WP-Polls plugin isn't working - says no polls are available. Stupid plugin! :???: .] 

Hello, and welcome to 2008! To your right is the new year celebrations and to your left, real life We suggest going right, and party ’till 2009 before going left . I have no idea for a gift, sorry but still, its the thought that counts, right? right? . What do YOU think was the most awesome feature of Second Life this year?

Answer the poll! Really, I need PEOPLE voting for it, so link to it please .