SL Blogger Network

[Sammy Huntsman]

Just now, Beth Macbain said:

Potential new residents aren't going to be on the MP. You have to be logged in AND have your ratings set to view A rated items. Potential new residents aren't going to even know the MP exists.

Potential means they are not residents. Remove being a resident from this equation. This is not about current residents. 

Potential. NEW. Residents. 

What creators make and sell on the MP has no bearing on this. 

Okay let's remove that from the equation all together. How many events, even if they are not uniquely sexual events have outfits and poses that are sexual in nature?  Like sex is widely promoted on the grid. I don't know how many avatars I have come across, who are scantily clad or men who basically have big bulges, as stores seem to promote it. Even the LGBT community within SL, has this as it's main attraction. Have you seen their clubs and events? I am not shunning sex, just giving you a better picture. Then you have the BDSM lifestyle, which is huge in SL right now. So how is there any lack of diversity when it comes to sex in SL?

[Adam Spark]

2 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

No, of course not. But don't confuse "critique" or "cultural criticism" with criticism of, or attacks upon, LL and/or SL.

What should be permitted content, but undoubtedly won't be, is thoughtful analysis of what makes SL and virtual worlds tick, how this culture works, and what things like identity mean in their context. That kind of analysis isn't "critical" in this sense that it directs criticism at the platform or the company behind it: rather, it represents an attempt to understand it more fully, while demonstrating how very interesting, and different it is from our more mundane RL existence.

But, that kind of thing isn't, as Selene puts it, rainbows, glitter, and unicorns, so it won't likely interest LL much.

Well, obviously a blog will be promoted for advertising purposes. Blogs that showcase the world as it is will naturally take precedence over commentary. Would anyone really expect otherwise out of any company, or even of themselves if they were in the Lab's position?

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, halebore Aeon said:

Let me try to clear this up, if you don't want LL to not use your content as they see fit. Then don't sign up. It's that simple. That is not agreeing or disagreeing, that is just giving you the blunt and honest reality of the situation. It's just like my example on YouTube, if these content creators didn't want YouTube to use your content to promote their platform. Then they needn't apply to the partner program. In essence, this is LL's partner program for bloggers.

I think the program is win-win for LL and those who participate. LL gets free content (created by other’s hard work), and the blogger gets their content elevated. Don’t you see what I’m trying to say? Nothing negative! It’s smart marketing. I have no clue why your responses were so negative (and to be honest, almost hostile). I’m in Seline’s “quite misunderstood” camp!

[Sammy Huntsman]

7 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I think the program is win-win for LL and those who participate. LL gets free content (created by other’s hard work), and the blogger gets their content elevated. Don’t you see what I’m trying to say? Nothing negative! It’s smart marketing. I have no clue why your responses were so negative (and to be honest, almost hostile). I’m in Seline’s “quite misunderstood” camp!

I totally apologize, I thought you were being sarcastic and being negative about the thing. Sometimes it's hard to perceive someones intention in text.

[Love Zhaoying]

11 minutes ago, halebore Aeon said:

I totally apologize, I thought you were being sarcastic and being negative about the thing. Sometimes it's hard to perceive someones intention in text.

It is! Fun fact: Overstated sincerity is easily confused with sarcasm! 

[Luna Bliss]

2 hours ago, halebore Aeon said:

2 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

True, nothing wrong with sex.
But think of it this way, would you want to be considered as ONLY a sex object, as women often have been through the ages.
We want to be seen as people with many other attributes too, brains even.
Likewise with SL, it had the reputation of only being about sex, when it has always been about so much more.

This is actually the first time I will actually agree with you, you have a good solid argument that actually is pretty similar to mine. Not being sarcastic, but literally I am actually agreeing with you on this one.

Oh no what does this mean!  Should we be worried?  ;0

[Sammy Huntsman]

7 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Oh no what does this mean!  Should we be worried?  ;0

Nah. Lol. You should be uber worried But all jokes aside, you did really raise some good points. hi5.

 

[Beth Macbain]

1 hour ago, halebore Aeon said:

Okay let's remove that from the equation all together. How many events, even if they are not uniquely sexual events have outfits and poses that are sexual in nature?  Like sex is widely promoted on the grid. I don't know how many avatars I have come across, who are scantily clad or men who basically have big bulges, as stores seem to promote it. Even the LGBT community within SL, has this as it's main attraction. Have you seen their clubs and events? I am not shunning sex, just giving you a better picture. Then you have the BDSM lifestyle, which is huge in SL right now. So how is there any lack of diversity when it comes to sex in SL?

I think you're completely missing my point. You're talking about adult things inside SL. I'm talking about promoting SL to potential new residents. 

And if, as you say, sex is everywhere in SL in all its diverse forms, doesn't that prove that it is a huge draw for a lot of people? So wouldn't it make sense to advertise or promote SL to people who seem inclined towards those things? 

Again, I'm not talking about people who are already residents, who already know all about SL, who know what it's like once logged in, or who have the slightest notion that there are hundreds of thousands of pics of naughty avatars on Flickr. 

I'm talking about people who will see an ad on a website, think "Huh... wonder what that's all about", and click the ad. 

And again, I'm not proposing that SL not promote itself to general audiences. I'm saying that SL should include adult content when making a marketing plan, and I believe this blogger network is part of a marketing plan. It's focusing on all aspects of SL with the blatant exception of adult content, and I think that is a slap in the face to the adult content creators, region owners, club owners, and residents. 

As far as inworld goes, I also think things could be handled better there as well when it comes to the adult content. There is no shortage of places like Nadine's, but there are also some very beautiful and lovely, classy adult places, and often unless you know someone who knows someone, those types of hidden gems are often hard to find. Having the few adult content bloggers that can promote those types of adult establishments over places like Nadine's would be incredibly useful to a lot of people, as well as to promote the well-made, original clothing and furniture creators.

I just want LL to recognize, publicly, the value and importance of the adult community, and for it to be included in marketing plans, including this blogger network thingie. 

[Sammy Huntsman]

2 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

I think you're completely missing my point. You're talking about adult things inside SL. I'm talking about promoting SL to potential new residents. 

And if, as you say, sex is everywhere in SL in all its diverse forms, doesn't that prove that it is a huge draw for a lot of people? So wouldn't it make sense to advertise or promote SL to people who seem inclined towards those things? 

Again, I'm not talking about people who are already residents, who already know all about SL, who know what it's like once logged in, or who have the slightest notion that there are hundreds of thousands of pics of naughty avatars on Flickr. 

I'm talking about people who will see an ad on a website, think "Huh... wonder what that's all about", and click the ad. 

And again, I'm not proposing that SL not promote itself to general audiences. I'm saying that SL should include adult content when making a marketing plan, and I believe this blogger network is part of a marketing plan. It's focusing on all aspects of SL with the blatant exception of adult content, and I think that is a slap in the face to the adult content creators, region owners, club owners, and residents. 

As far as inworld goes, I also think things could be handled better there as well when it comes to the adult content. There is no shortage of places like Nadine's, but there are also some very beautiful and lovely, classy adult places, and often unless you know someone who knows someone, those types of hidden gems are often hard to find. Having the few adult content bloggers that can promote those types of adult establishments over places like Nadine's would be incredibly useful to a lot of people, as well as to promote the well-made, original clothing and furniture creators.

I just want LL to recognize, publicly, the value and importance of the adult community, and for it to be included in marketing plans, including this blogger network thingie. 

But it's pretty easy to value a community, without going full Monty with it. Leave some room for the imagination. Like to me if you want diversity and representation in the adult community. Which is a very broad community as it is. It's like representing the LGBT community with just that. But if you want diversity and representation, why does there have to be pixels boinking?  Can't there just be certain aspects, but not the full shebang? 

[Sammy Huntsman]

I think another big thing that you gotta consider, is that this is promotion for general audiences. Not a specified audience, but general audiences. So kids are gonna see this too. I don't we want to expose our kids to nudity, whether it be actual or virtual. This is trying to market to a massive amount of people, not a niche market.

[Beth Macbain]

1 hour ago, halebore Aeon said:

But it's pretty easy to value a community, without going full Monty with it. Leave some room for the imagination. Like to me if you want diversity and representation in the adult community. Which is a very broad community as it is. It's like representing the LGBT community with just that. But if you want diversity and representation, why does there have to be pixels boinking?  Can't there just be certain aspects, but not the full shebang? 

54 minutes ago, halebore Aeon said:

I think another big thing that you gotta consider, is that this is promotion for general audiences. Not a specified audience, but general audiences. So kids are gonna see this too. I don't we want to expose our kids to nudity, whether it be actual or virtual. This is trying to market to a massive amount of people, not a niche market.

I give. You win. Congratulations.

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

3 hours ago, halebore Aeon said:

I think another big thing that you gotta consider, is that this is promotion for general audiences. Not a specified audience, but general audiences. So kids are gonna see this too. I don't we want to expose our kids to nudity, whether it be actual or virtual. This is trying to market to a massive amount of people, not a niche market.

[LittleMe Jewell]

LL has posted an update on this topic - and it answers a couple of questions / concerns that have been mentioned in this thread.

 

[Hunny Bunny]

5 hours ago, halebore Aeon said:

I think another big thing that you gotta consider, is that this is promotion for general audiences. Not a specified audience, but general audiences. So kids are gonna see this too. I don't we want to expose our kids to nudity, whether it be actual or virtual. This is trying to market to a massive amount of people, not a niche market.

If you bother to tick that little box the next time you do a search for some place to IDK - dance, I think you will see precisely where the masses are.

[Sammy Huntsman]

16 minutes ago, MichaMoz said:

If you bother to tick that little box the next time you do a search for some place to IDK - dance, I think you will see precisely where the masses are.

I do have it ticked, but I am not out hunting for adult stuff. But you gotta look at it from this side, is sex really that marketable in this day and age? When everyone is triggered, and if little Billy sees it on his computer, than there is a whole huge fiasco that then LL has to deal with like YouTube had to and is still dealing with as we currently speak. Yes I get where you and everyone is coming from, but this program is more for curated content. So they will take a blog of yours, they like the best and put it on their website. But you have to follow the community guidelines, which there is a very detailed wiki. One of the rules, no explict adult content.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Second_Life_Blogger_Network_Content_Guidelines

 

Basically there are guidelines for a reason, just like any place that people upload content. It's content that is curated, and promoted. So if you get a bit of recognition, I would be happy and grateful that you got that. It's quite simple really. But if you don't agree with what that has to say, there is another solution. Don't sign up. They are not expecting you to change how you do things, just that if they do promote something. That they are finding content that is deemed appropriate for a general audience.

Edited September 28, 2019 by halebore Aeon

[Scylla Rhiadra]

48 minutes ago, halebore Aeon said:

if little Billy sees it on his computer, than there is a whole huge fiasco that then LL has to deal with

I wonder if perhaps your concerns here aren't somewhat built upon a misapprehension regarding the primary target audience and function of this new "network."

The public visibility of these featured blogs might benefit a little from the extra exposure that they'll be given, but where extra visibility will really be evident is for existing users of Second Life. These featured posts and blogs aren't going to be popping up on Facebook or YouTube: they will be almost entirely directed towards those already accessing LL's web sites because they are already residents. Yes, new potential users will see them as well, but, frankly, a lot of those will be looking for sex.

The odds of little Billy seeing anything untoward are pretty remote, unless he's already searching out SL for some reason.

This initiative isn't really about recruitment. It's about better servicing the existing user base.

[Selene Gregoire]

32 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

It's about better servicing the existing user base.

That is something I can get behind. And it does bring things back to the LL website(s) rather than scattered across the webverse. I see that as a good thing. I'm just not going to bother reading glittering rainbow unicorn blogs that are never critical of SL, LL and/or its residents. I can be bored staring at the idiot box (tv).

[Prokofy Neva]

11 hours ago, halebore Aeon said:

Yes, but again should we let people who are absolutely gonna crap on SL into the fold? They are trying to positively promote SL, not have mixed reviews where we have say someone Like Wagner James Au who mainly does fear mongering and craps on SL, it's users and creators and then insert some nice thing into the mix. People would just get ideas. He already compares SL to AAA games and says that SL should downgrade to allow for a small minority of users to use it too. Like I get your point, and you do raise a very valid point. But to what point do we allow critics into this? Do we just let them go ham and rip SL a new one, or do we allow for people to constructively criticize SL?

But that's why I'm not joining it. And Hamlet won't likely join it either. BTW the way I stopped reading Hamlet years ago. He used to be an official blogger for the Lab and in that capacity posted misleading things. Then  he left LL and often focuses on the obscurely negative. 

It's not what "we" allow. LL will do what it wants. And there should exist a world outside this which also promotes SL in its own way and on its own terms.

My point is to say people like me shouldn't join it; people considering joining it should pause and ask themselves why they are doing the Happy People Eating Noodle Salads just for the corporate boost instead of building their readership with interesting and even critical content.

So it's not about "letting negative nabobs" into "the fold" but simply emphasizing that the official blog network will be the Happy People Eating Noodle Salads, whereas the Trash Can Cuisine which is more tasty will be elsewhere, thank you very much.

[Prokofy Neva]

4 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

LL has posted an update on this topic - and it answers a couple of questions / concerns that have been mentioned in this thread.

 

First, I'm glad I don't dress up like that when I blog -- looks a little painful -- and that I don't keep cat grass by my computer -- my cat might come up and eat it.

Second, please. This "we're just hoping to give you more exposure" is the double-talk, and it's clearly about trying to get free PR copy to push SL. And that's fine, but it's sort of sad for the blogger.

I'm glad that LL is making it clear that they are choosing POSTS not BLOGs . They claim they are "not asking you to change anything". But if you "opt in"  you have to "agree to the TOS" for the blogging network. And I personally would never do that. They're saying you don't have to have every post fit it; but the ones they pick must do it. And obviously if you want to be picked, you will PLAY to it.

This is like the Photo of the Day (which I would also never enter) -- only on steroids, because it's easier to write and post a picture than take an arty photo for the Photo of the Day "contest".

As it stands now, LL looks at a bunch of blogs all over, looks at social media like Twitter, and picks some stuff out now and then likely just for internal use or to guide them in picking the Destinations, especially those on the blog now. 

So with the "opt-in" of 100 plus people, LL will feel they have to focus just on those who WANT to be seen, and they will likely stop "looking all over". So that makes them more insular and less informed, as they look to their coopted fans to tell them how to see SL and what to see *in* SL. So that's too bad, but then, perhaps there will still be some Linden or 10% of an intern who is tasked to keep an eye on "everything out there" about SL, i.e. blogs, media stories, social media posts. But what they're doing now is ordering their lives -- making people line up to come to them, and *themselves* siphoning the energy, creativity and yes, traffic of their users to boost *their own* traffic. Perhaps they hope with these user-generated, clean posts, more people will read the forums now or their blogs, which likely don't get a ton of readership except from the diehard core. 

Basically, it makes the job of determining the FIC easier, at a time when the FIC is both larger and more shallow. It is a self-selected stream they can cream off, and remember, it's not even so much the actual blogger themselves LL necessarily wants to fete -- say, at the level of Draxtor -- but *the content or events or people they blog about*. 

In a way, it's kind of ingenious. Instead of looking all over and randomly hitting on this or that or waiting for a submission to Destinations or what a friend of a friend says, the Lindens now have 100+ people who will line up for the runway walk all on their own.

 

[Prokofy Neva]

17 hours ago, Erwin Solo said:

There is an inworld FIC group that is free to join: secondlife:///app/group/2a5d64d0-65a4-34d1-1462-c62242c1494b/about 

You don't decide to join the FIC; you are invited. 

[Mollymews]

26 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

You don't decide to join the FIC; you are invited. 

annnd when people don't get listed by the list keeper of the FIC then they aren't FIC. And more, if any one thinks they should be on the FIC list and have to ask the FIC list keeper to be on the list then they aren't FIC enough yet either 😺

[ThorinII]

First rule among the FIC is: Don't talk about the FIC.

 

 

scnr

[Conifer Dada]

I have to say I was a bit disappointed when I read the article because I misunderstood what the Blogger Network meant.  I thought LL was going to set up a user-friendly blogging system for all residents, where we could write blogs and post pictures.  That would be nice.  But this looks like its just a directory of approved blogs.  Nothing wrong with that, I'm not criticising LL. But an actual blogging site for SL would also be nice - although second thoughts it would probably end up with lots of people writing about their RL and RL politics and posting pictures of their RL  cars / motorbikes / pets / meals / clothes / injuries / body parts.  

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Conifer Dada

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

It seems like content guidelines for the Blogger Network are similar enough to content guidelines for the Forums here. How is that a problem?

Maybe those who want to promote a healthy SL eroticism angle can make their own blogs and network? I gather some of that exists on Flickr already.

Edited September 28, 2019 by Bitsy Buccaneer
correct the typo Beth kindly highlighted :)

[Whirly Fizzle]

I wonder if "The Whisperer" & "Virtual Secrets" applied 💣