SL urban legends and conspiracies

[ErikaKotov]

Here is the iceberg so far.

 

[Fauve Aeon]

2 hours ago, ErikaKotov said:

Here is the iceberg so far.

 

It’s coming along really nicely! My only suggestion would be to add a stroke or outline filter/layer to the text for readability. 

[Prokofy Neva]

On 10/25/2020 at 10:31 PM, Fauve Aeon said:

FIC - https://secondlife.fandom.com/wiki/Oldbie_Conspiracy

Since I'm the one who devised the concept of the FIC - the Feted Inner Core - I will have to point out that it isn't a "conspiracy theory". It's a critique of an actual system that prevails in Silicon Valley generally and in SL specifically, which is about privileging the highest-paying customers or "influencers" by inside deals, special rates, etc. This is a normal business practice, and not only for Silicon Valley. There's even a term -- prosumers versus consumers -- to indicate those who are professional users of a product, in the industry, purchasing a lot of the items, using them in a business, helping to sell the product etc. Usually this system operates by certain rules, sometimes unseen. It's ok to pay journalists with free cameras and other gadgets for reviews -- but they have to remain positive. It's ok to give away products to some insiders -- but they are expected to be loyal.

It's hard for newbies today or even those who have only been here 5 or 10 years to believe that at one time, Lindens endorsed certain residents openly. A Linden appeared regularly on the billboard of a resident's shopping site -- which was itself eventually purchased by Linden Lab. Lindens MC'd for musicians. They touted certain products during meetings and office hours. 

Today, if you see that a Mole has used a coffee dispenser or a chair made by a resident in their build, this is either random or they've picked the best in the line. Those makers don't get any special privileges or deals for having been chosen.

But in the old days, the Lindens created a special group called the Solutions Providers (the predecessor to a more bland version of what exists today) and told this group of insiders that they were retiring a certain kind of island sim server and these islands would be going up in price soon -- thus enabling many of these "providers," some of who ran rentals and sales businesses as well, to get a deal while everyone else woke up to the bad news of a price hike, which a faster server didn't ameliorate. I had a source on this story and published the news in the SL Herald, a so-called tabloid of the early era. This forced LL to have to offer the sims -- known now as "grandfathered" to everyone. 

When the Lindens decided to move to p2p teleporting (we used to have telehubs and had to fly sometimes a thousand meters to a destination), they didn't announce it right away, but kept selling highly-valued telehub sims on the auction. They were given higher opening bids because they bid up high -- landlords and merchants purchased them for stores which would be in the view as people landed at the telehub. One top land dealer either was told confidentially or found out about this development and kept buying up telehub land but then she sold it rather than renting it for a high price as she had before. This caused many unsuspecting people to buy land at a high price that was soon to be worthless. A group of angry landlords confronted LL and told them they might face a "bait-and-switch" lawsuit. The Lindens then did the right thing and offered a buyback for $6/m (half or less of the value) of telehub land.

The landowners demanded a series of meetings with Philip Linden, where they urged LL to establish a code of ethics for staff, to stop endorsing some residents products, to stop invisibly visiting sims but be identifiable when they came inworld as Lindens. These issues were a real problem back when LL drew a lot of their staff from the resident base, and they were all part of a kind of old boys' network of programmers and graphics artists. There were the same people who would win contests that involved getting tier-free sims and so on. The Lindens took all this on board and reformed.

The history of SL is about at least some residents not sitting docilely like sheep and waiting for handouts and reciting mantras like "it's a company, you can't do anything" and "if you don't like it, leave", but instead, demanding justice. Yes, they were the product -- like all of social media -- but unlike Facebook or Twitter, they were a product paying a lot of the company's revenue. In every other sector, consumer rights and better business practices are expected, and they could be expected for Silicon Valley too. This seemed outrageous to the geeks and camp followers of 15 years ago, but today we rightfully see Facebook and Google being questioned by congress people. They are not special. If they do harm, they have to answer for it.

There are many, many other stories I can tell --for example, about staff who fraternized with griefers and harassed residents and then got let go, for example -- that people disbelieve or disregard but which LL -- to its credit -- took seriously and acted upon. 

Edited November 2, 2020 by Prokofy Neva

[Solar Legion]

Ah yes, it was only a matter of time before the author of that particular Conspiracy Theory showed up to try and rationalize it/pretend it actually has some weight ....

 

[Sassy Kenin]

Add Settlement

[Sassy Kenin]

Some early Mesh Body beloved by many was removed...After a long legal struggle and community funding to try and save it!

[Prokofy Neva]

11 minutes ago, Sassy Kenin said:

Add Settlement

That was an interesting case and like all cases against LL that weren't dropped, was settled, so we don't get the usefulness of a verdict. (There was one case where the judge helpfully termed the TOS "a contract of adhesion," i.e. you are forced to sign it and keep signing its updates to use it.  One could argue that all games and social media are such, but still.

I don't view this case or another case about auctions and islands which frankly involved website manipulation to be about "the FIC," however. These individuals involved were not those who got any kind of privileges or inside information or influence. They just had their own beefs.

[Simo Vodopan]

Ah man, what an amazing concept I can get behind. I've been fascinated by these 'icebergs' ever since myths like the ones about Mario 64 have been around since the get-go.

There's quite a few things I'd gladly touch on such as the 'void under the overworld'; I have a pic from a few years ago where I had this vehicle that was scripted in a way to fly under it I deemed it as the 'Blue Hell' of Second Life (you know the underworld in Grand Theft Auto) and there's also what I call the 'bot phenomenon' where I've encountered many bots in SL and have been studying them for months now (it's a bigger issue than people realize).

Turns out alot of these myths were true years later such as 'L is real'. Luigi's textures were confirmed to be found in the files of Mario 64. Neat stuff truly.

Edited November 2, 2020 by Simo Vodopan

[ErikaKotov]

Someone made an iceberg video on this topic.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

On 10/31/2020 at 6:09 AM, ErikaKotov said:

Here is the iceberg so far.

 

Dark RP FTW!

[Drake1 Nightfire]

Somewhere, out in the grid, wanders a Legend, a dark hero, an engineer.. One who... Wasted his time. The legend has it.... He still smells to coffee.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

3 hours ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

Somewhere, out in the grid, wanders a Legend, a dark hero, an engineer.. One who... Wasted his time. The legend has it.... He still smells to coffee.

Ah. We haven't even touched on Forum conspiracies. There were a ton of those, of which the most nefarious was undoubtedly the Ladies Who Lunch. @Maryanne Solo? Would you care to comment for the record?

Also, Forum Confidential, a scurrilous little POS blograg that ran for a while to retail some of the nastier gossip coming out of the SL forums. I'd link to it, but it's too gross, and I don't want to have to clean my screen again.

[Madelaine McMasters]

On 10/25/2020 at 9:31 PM, Fauve Aeon said:

FIC - https://secondlife.fandom.com/wiki/Oldbie_Conspiracy

Madelaine McMasters -- is she FIC royalty?

Prok (that's her blog, and she coined FIC in the SL context) got close, I'm actually clergy, not royalty.

I am the High Priestess of the Forum Cult™. Here's a pic of me at work...

 

Edited November 3, 2020 by Madelaine McMasters

[Garnet Psaltery]

On 11/1/2020 at 8:21 PM, Prokofy Neva said:

There are many, many other stories I can tell --for example, about staff who fraternized with griefers and harassed residents and then got let go, for example -- that people disbelieve or disregard but which LL -- to its credit -- took seriously and acted upon. 

Names and stories, please. *fetches popcorn*

[Drake1 Nightfire]

43 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

Madelaine McMasters -- is she FIC royalty?

Prok (that's her blog, and she coined FIC in the SL context) got close, I'm actually clergy, not royalty.

I am the High Priestess of the Forum Cult™. Here's a pic of me at work...

 

Can i be the Fallen Angel of that cult?

Edited November 3, 2020 by Drake1 Nightfire

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

Can i be the Fallen Angel of that cult?

We're all fallen.

You can be the Most Fallen™.

[Love Zhaoying]

9 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

We're all fallen.

You can be the Most Fallen™.

How about..replace all their animations in AO with "Falling"?

[Madelaine McMasters]

4 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

How about..replace all their animations in AO with "Falling"?

I like that. Falling is what we do.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

37 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

We're all fallen.

You can be the Most Fallen™.

Mother will be so proud.

[Arielle Popstar]

Fallin', yes, I am fallin'
And she keeps callin'
Me back again

 

 

 

[Ceka Cianci]

Speakin of fallin..

I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinkin, Maybe six feet aint so far down.

I used to love this song so much.. Not that i still don't, but I really did then. hehehe

[Maryanne Solo]

13 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Ah. We haven't even touched on Forum conspiracies. There were a ton of those, of which the most nefarious was undoubtedly the Ladies Who Lunch. @Maryanne Solo? Would you care to comment for the record?

Also, Forum Confidential, a scurrilous little POS blograg that ran for a while to retail some of the nastier gossip coming out of the SL forums. I'd link to it, but it's too gross, and I don't want to have to clean my screen again.

Ah yes the LWL. 😍🥰 or Ladies Who Lunch.
A group of very nice people who became the focus of intense hatred and ongoing diatribe of a minority with endless time on their hands and a distinct lack of creative ability or willingness to contribute anything positive to SL.

Remember this was the old iteration of the forums and the LWL/members didn't actually do anything to harm anyone, but due to mindless ranting, (from the haters of everyone and everything), got tangled up along with Proks ever so ghastly 😲 FIC in the minds of those who sought to "rule" the forums by bullying and demeaning others.   

Long story short, da big bad boss 😂 of da old forums "Poop", (or something 🙄), apparently was outed in public and all his personal details strewn across the WWW for all to giggle about and have their way with.
Many would like to claim this holy grail of "ask & ye shall receive" as their own work, but to this day I honestly don't know who did it.
What caused this action was three of the haters disrespecting an SL single mums RL son who suffered minor disabilities.
Reasonably easily dealt with in RL by time, patience and the love of family, friends and caring education specialists. (now my day job). 
Absolutely inexcusable behaviour which if I ever see happen again will prompt me to do a similar thing to whomever needs to learn some basic human respect. (I learnt how to do that stuffs since then).

The LWL stands proudly to this day as the unknowing trigger that ultimately led to the banning of, (and eventual silencing of), the most hideous bullies & characters/alts ever witnessed in Le Fora. 🤮 
And don't even start me on that ludicrous cesspool of irrelevance the "Forum Confidential" SL news site. Rumour has it that home page is kept open, repeatedly printed out and turned into emergency Covid-19 toilet paper. 😝
 
*Disclaimer: It was survival of the fittest back then. A knock down - drag out slugfest of embarrassing proportions and some of us *(cough cough), were no angels either. *hugs - lol

Edited November 4, 2020 by Maryanne Solo
1 Typo, dang!