147: Project Sansar -- good news, bad news

By now you may have read other articles by Second Life bloggers about Project Sansar, which is Linden Labs' code-name for its project for VR headsets like Oculus Rift. Ciaran Laval's is here -- he seems to have a good grasp of what's being talked about, as usual -- and the original article in, of all places, Variety is here. Both are well worth your time.  There's one point on "instancing" that Ciaran Laval understands a lot better than I do, and I think you should read what he has to say about it.
   It seems clear that the Lindens will be tinkering with the economic structure of the new virtual world: "Land in Second Life is quite expensive," said [Ebbe] Altberg. Trade, on the other hand, is barely regulated. Linden Lab now wants to lower real estate taxes and increase sales taxes, he explained, to make it easier for people to pitch a tent in its virtual world." I'm not sure of all the ramifications of this, but it seems as though the days of the land baron will be coming to an end; creation of things like clothing and hair will possibly be focused in the hands of fewer designers since the economics will make it more difficult to sell one's work.

   But there will definitely be a place for the hobbyist creator, I think. "Linden Lab's goal was to turn Sansar into a WordPress for VR, allowing enthusiasts and big brands alike to build VR experiences without spending tons of money and man hours on custom programming ..."
   They're going into beta now; 1.0 could launch by the end of 2016. I think it's finally time to start looking into buying myself an Oculus Rift headset and getting ready to make a change.
   And the bad news? Buried in the last paragraph. "Altberg said that Linden Lab isn't pre-populating the world with ready-made experiences or things ported over from Second Life. Instead, it's betting on its users to start shaping their world. 'It's gonna start from the beginning," he said."
   So -- I think I just cut my virtual clothing budget in half, if not more, and I'll be putting that money in a mayonnaise jar towards an Oculus Rift headset. Why bother buying virtual items you will only use for a little while? Take it from me, this is the loudest bell you've heard yet that signals the "end" of Second Life (although I suspect they may continue to support it, or even give away its code to anyone who wants to maintain the servers; it's still economically viable).
   I'm excited. A little bit sad at hearing the first ring of the death knell for Second Life as it currently exists, but actually looking forward to what's coming down the pike.

116: Seven dog years (my first anniversary!)

It was one year ago today -- February 27, 2014 -- that I made my very first post to this blog. I've remarked before that a year in SL is rather like what we call "dog years"; every year in SL is like seven years in real life. I'll celebrate this as my first anniversary, but gee, it sure feels like I've been posting a lot longer.
   On anniversaries, it's frequently customary to look back over the previous year and try to sum it up, and I wanted to do a little of that today. I went back 116 posts to see what I had to say a year ago, and what I looked like, and to me it's quite amusing.
   I've changed my looks, of course -- like so many people do in SL. I stopped wearing my l'Uomo mesh body and went back to a shape that's shorter than most male avs, and more of what I'll call the "chunky hunky monkey" look; I just prefer myself that way. I've changed my hair a couple of times (no, you won't be seeing much of my huge Afro in the future, that was for a 60s look for a party). I've changed my eye colour at least twice, and gone through more chest hair than an Italian waxing salon ;-) I was a lot more fascinated with black eyes and bruises a year ago than I am today. I still have my trademark caterpillar eyebrows, though!
   More to the point, I've changed a lot about what I blog about and why. I seem to recall starting out with the intention of doing a lot more fashion blogging than I've actually accomplished; if you follow this blog, you know I'm not much of a fashion blogger. Occasionally I find a piece of clothing I really like, and that seems to suit me, but for the most part I think I do a lot better as an interviewer than a fashionisto, and since there are plenty of fashion-forward bloggers covering that ground, I'm okay with where I've ended up.

My first published photo,
taken at The Grindery a year ago today

   One of the things I talked about a year ago today was my intention to become a better photographer. And holy moly, was that ever a bad shot I published a year ago. I can see that somehow my chest hair got mixed up with my tank top ... I wouldn't even publish this shot today except to give us all a bit of a chuckle. (These days, I have a policy that I won't knowingly publish a shot where someone is having layering problems or alpha issues with their outfit; I've been too embarrassed too often by that myself to want to document it for anyone for the future.)

I went back to The Grindery this afternoon
and took a similar picture, just to illustrate
the differences a year can make ...

   These days, I have a little bit different philosophy about photography. I realized early on that I was never going to be as good a photographer as some of my friends, and nearly all of my fellow bloggers. Instead, I have decided that my philosophy is that, damn it, I take the same kind of snapshots as a lot of other people -- it's just that I take more of them. I'm a huge Andy Warhol fan, and, looking back at the early days of Interview magazine, that's what he did; he took a lot of Polaroids and published interviews verbatim. I don't know if it's the best policy, but it seems to be mine.
   I don't seem to have any instinctive talent for photographic composition, and I don't own a copy of Photoshop or anything like that; what you see is what I see, and the most I do is set the sun to noon so I can see the details of people and objects. Believe it or not, I don't use poses (well, occasionally, when I find them at a location, or they're built into furniture). I just snap away until I get a picture I like. Yes, it's frequently a bit awkward and a bit naive, but that's the kind of photographer I am.
   As far as interviews go, well, I always ask the same questions; I may branch out a little bit in the future, and I'm thinking of different kinds of interviews for the future, but for now, I think it helps my readers to understand people when they read how my subjects answer the same questions that everyone else has answered. I like talking to people who are DOING things in Second Life, because I think they are people that other residents would like to know about; I'll continue to do that. I'll also continue to try to find unusual places to go and take pictures -- think of it as me trying to find things that it will amuse you to check out on your own.
   I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's been supportive and enthusiastic about what I've been trying to do with this blog over the last year. Especially I want to shout out to my fellow bloggers, all of whom you'll see in the blogroll to the right. Some of those folks, like Eddi Haskell / Ryce Skytower and Ziggy Starsmith and Bock McMillan, have been producing intelligent, high-quality Second Life blogging for longer than my av has been in existence, and I owe them a great debt for leading the way. NakedCarl Paneer and I have become colleagues who seem to cover the same ground, and I thank him for keeping my nose to the grindstone to keep posting. Bloggers like Darkyn Dover, Richmond Damiano, Filippo Bergan / Chary Hera, and Carthalis Rossini spend their time and money making beautiful, intricate images, and I thank them for working at a level that constantly delights me. And bloggers like Ciaran Laval, Hamlet Au, Iris Ophelia, and Strawberry Singh have shown me that Second Life blogging can make people think as well as show them beautiful images. Thank you all, and I recommend that my readers check out everyone in my blogroll. Some of them have become friends as well as colleagues. Every single one of these folks has been an inspiration to me at one time or another, and they're all worth following.
   I also want to thank all my friends in Second Life. There are way too many to name, I'm already beyond my tag limit for this post, and (like an Oscar winner) if I name only a few I'll insult the rest, so -- if you're on my list of friends, in SL or on Facebook or both, thank you. It's your support and kind words that keep me blogging. Thanks for putting up with me pestering you for interviews and photographs and "just a few minutes of your time". Thanks for your comments and likes and thumbs-up on Facebook, and for passing around links on Google Plus, and all your interest and support. Thanks for being great DJs and hosts and designers and landlords and neighbours at 3Bears and everything else that you do. Thanks for telling me about cool things that you think I should check out. Thanks for teaching me how to do cool stuff. And thanks for reading my blog!
   Finally, as many of you know, one other important thing has changed in my Second Life in the last year. I first met Alex Thaub out dancing, and he seemed like a nice guy, and I interviewed him, and we went out on a date, and kept hanging out together -- and now we're partners and we're getting married soon. He's become the most important person in my Second Life and I thank him for his constant love, hugs, support, and understanding, and for realizing that when he pops into the house and finds me chatting with a stranger, it's for an interview ;-) You will all be invited to our wedding in the near future, and I'll be blogging about that whole process. Thanks, Alex, for making this a great time in my Second Life, and thanks for saying yes when I proposed!
   Here's to another year!

066: Facebook's apologizing. What will Linden Labs do?

Recently I wrote about the issues that were driving people like me to consider using Ello, a new social media platform, because of Facebook's policies about the name you have to use on your account. I have a Facebook account in my own name, but I can't have a Facebook account as Rusty Redfield.  Well, okay, I actually DO, mostly because I wanted to make sure I had that name nailed down if things changed. But I'm afraid to actually use the account for anything because I know that it violates their TOS and I'm afraid they'll just shut me down.
It's that TOS that has been all over social media lately; a bunch of drag queens and other LGBT folks were (rightfully) upset because even though they're known to one and all as, for instance, Sharon Needles, that's not on their birth certificate and Facebook wouldn't let them use their chosen names. A bunch of SL bloggers have been talking about this issue because we can't have accounts as our avatars either. Ciaran Laval, aka Governor Marley (someone wise and experienced will have to tell me why that aka is someday; I just like reading his blog) has a hilarious story here about how Salman Rushdie got hooped by Facebook because Salman is actually his middle name on his passport. There's also issues about people with stalkers, people who want to be protected from abusive ex-spouses and the like, whistleblowers, people who live in countries that have repressive regimes, etc., etc. And then it didn't help that that big doofus Mark Zuckerberg mouthed off and said that people who wanted to have an account that wasn't under their legal name were "an example of a lack of integrity". Thanks, Mark. Hope YOU never have a violent ex-husband. I've seen The Social Network and you are in NO position to talk about my lack of integrity, sport.
Long story short: Facebook has kind of backed down, according to this report in HuffPost. You should definitely read the exact words of Chris Cox from Facebook in his apology reprinted in HuffPost; I've been trying to parse it carefully to see if I can figure out precisely what he's saying Facebook will do in the future. It seems as though Lil Miss Hot Mess will be able to have her account under that name, etc. But I'll be damned if I can figure out if I can keep my Rusty Redfield account and actually use it. My reading is: no, I can't. Facebook only wants "real people". I could be wrong; this may shake out in the next while differently than my reading. But I'm betting if someone busts me for having a Rusty Redfield FB account -- it's toast.
Okay, fine. Honestly, I don't care too much about linking this blog and my Second Life account with any other social media platform, including Flickr (my photos are way too amateurish!), Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, or a bunch of stuff I'm too dim to be aware of. Folks, my reading of this is, if I'm spending time making sure that my blog is linked to my Flickr account, then that's time I haven't got to spend on writing blog posts. Hell, I don't even have time to sign into my Rusty Redfield Facebook account. Yes, I am aware that this makes me "old-fashioned" and behind the times, and vieux jeux and passé and anything else you want to call me. But I have a limited amount of time to work on this stuff and this is just about as good as it gets. Sorry. I know that makes me a specialized taste, and you kind of have to want to find my blog to read it. Fine. I don't write this for everyone, just people who like this sort of thing.
But it occurred to me in the middle of all this brouhaha about Residents switching to Ello -- which STILL hasn't managed to get me a goddamn invitation, although they've apologized twice by e-mail so far -- that Linden Labs is missing a bet here. Why doesn't the company ditch the minimal amount of effort it puts into the forums and start a Facebook-like platform for us? (Do NOT get me started on the forums. Not that I've ever used them, but I've certainly read enough of them to know that they seem to be a complete waste of time and something whose functions were taken over by Facebook about 20 minutes after Facebook took off. Right now it's like one of the heritage functions of SL, like those trust network functions they ditched about 2004, and calling cards, and TP points.)
Yeah, I suppose that is kind of a futile idea. They can't even manage to upgrade the system to give us in-world working mirrors, FCOL. And the handwriting is on the wall for this iteration of Second Life, I'm pretty sure. But, Linden Labs, if you're reading this -- whatever you're planning for the next version of what I'm calling Second Second Life, could you please add in a social media platform for SSL avatars? Something that's integrated into the MMO from the very outset, and maybe even integrated into whatever Marketplace will become? Then we wouldn't have to be cobbling together an integrated avatar presence with Facebook or Ello or whatever.
Meanwhile -- I'm still waiting for my invitation to Ello, and then I'll put together a small presence as Rusty Redfield, and see if I can manage to find the time to integrate it with this blog and anything else I do as Rusty Redfield. But honestly, I'd really prefer it if Linden Labs was trying to give people the ability to interact with each other the way that they want to, without having to use six different websites. What that would look like, I have no real idea. The reason I mention tying it into Marketplace is -- well, sometimes people like to recommend articles of clothing and furniture to each other, and that would help LL sell you more stuff, and that might make it financially worthwhile for them to give us a useful tool. I'm not holding my breath.
Does anyone have an idea of what a "Facebook for SL avs" would look like, or what it could do?

059: Walking around Innsmouth

In my time in RL I've read a bunch of the work of H. P. Lovecraft and enjoyed it; Lovecraft had a way with pulpy horror that lifted it above his fellows, and the Cthulhu mythos will survive for a long time, I bet.
Cthulhu and the Elder Gods from beyond time and space have their own little corner in Second Life, an abandoned and eerie town called Innsmouth,

somewhere in Cape Cod, where aeons ago it is rumoured that the Elder Gods were exiled. I can tell you it's certainly a frightening place and so far in Second Life the place that's most effectively given me the creeps. That's why I have that scared look on my face in all these pictures; the build is effective and really good at giving you the creeps in a very Lovecraftian way. There's not much you

can point to, but a very effective air like all the people in the vicinity left quickly -- or were snatched up by gigantic tentacles.  I had a lot of fun taking pictures there and I bet you would enjoy visiting it.
I wanted to get this up quickly because there are two things happening with Innsmouth. One is that its creator, Darmin Darkes, just can't keep it going

and has offered it to the community that RPs there, and to Second Life at large. I just went and dropped some Lindens in the box; I think this is a good idea and Innsmouth is worth keeping.
The second reason is that tonight -- right now -- Thursday, September 18, 2014, at 7:30 PM SLT, they are having a public meeting at Innsmouth Opera House to

discuss plans and fundraising.  If you want input, this is a good place and time (and there will be plenty of people around so you will be relatively safe if tentacles appear from the ceiling and start taking people into other dimensions). If you
want input but you have read this after the meeting -- a nice gentleman named

Arik Metzger [arikthered Resident] was on hand at the landing point, complete with rustic fisherman persona and sandwich board, to answer my questions and indicated that he would answer yours.  His photo is here so you will recognize him. And here is the SLURL to Innsmouth, where he'll be located or some other greeter, I'm fairly sure -- he should be able to give you a TP to the

Opera House.  Innsmouth itself is easy to search in-world and I think it's even in the SL Destination Guide.
Go have a look at the place and get yourself in the mood for Hallowe'en! And if you're at all an aficionado of Lovecraft, you will enjoy the hell out of this place, the atmosphere is just right and it's always like something is making a tiny rustling noise just around the corner ... Please give them some financial support if you can spare it.
P.S.: I should have mentioned that I was alerted to this situation today by a fellow member of the SL blogosphere, Ciaran Laval, whose blog is here. He said it first and best.