New "Community Pages" for Second Life

[StarlanderGoods]

2 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Seems a lot of people anticipate problems.

I see the idea of new 'community' pages as a PR effort laden with virtue signalling by people that have absorbed way too much of the current CRT propaganda on diversity and it appears they understood it to mean racial diversity is honored by segregation.

It looks like the movement going on in progressive schools and colleges where they are moving toward segregation (ref) is being adopted by the Lindens. I think it is a retrogressive move by woke staff hoping to look enlightened.

I hope history has taught someone that certain types of divisions lead to violence. The worst ones are those that focus on measures that ignore a person's morality and merit, to focus on meaningless superficial traits like skin color, nationality, or religion. It is sad that the Lindens are so caught up in today's politicized culture and political battles they didn't recognize the racial component they injected into their effort.

A game where any ethnicity can play as any other ethnicity and experience some of how that race is treated... WHY would we want to divide up by race!?!

Builders, fashionistas, sailors, aviators, Get The Freight Out (GTFO) drivers, railroad enthusiasts, combat gamers, and so many more non-ethnic designations and non-nationalistic grouping could have been proposed. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory

Literally no one in this thread has even aproached the subject until you brought it up.

It would seem that you absorbed way too much of the "other" current propaganda.

[Mollymews]

5 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Not featuring a group doesn't mean that LL is avoiding people much less telling people what to do. It's just not featuring.

^^ this

[Mollymews]

4 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

 I'd also assume there were highly successful black people in SL just as there are in RL

yes

this latest effort by Linden is to feature highly successful black people in SL. When go thru the stories related on the page then is all about the success that the named black people are having on the platform

that they have been featured in this way, I think is good and should their stories inspire anyone anywhere to signup then I think that is a good thing as well

[Coffee Pancake]

4 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Seems a lot of people anticipate problems.

I see the idea of new 'community' pages as a PR effort laden with virtue signalling by people that have absorbed way too much of the current CRT propaganda on diversity and it appears they understood it to mean racial diversity is honored by segregation.

You have no idea what CRT is or what it's for, but 10/10 for echoing the far right talking points.

Racism isn't addressed by ignoring race and pretending everything's naturally equitable when it plainly isn't.

And maybe .. digital blackface is still blackface, and it's really not ok to "roleplay" a minority race or ethnicity.

[Orwar]

   I haven't got a clue how far-reaching the community pages are to begin with. I know they're there, but I seldom look except for when someone shares a post on Discord or here on the forums because it's something interesting, important, or just laughable. Most of the SL userbase don't use the forums, I'm not sure how many of them keep up with the community pages - or how many non-users end up checking in on what's up in SL.

   So, if it's a PR stunt .. Who is it aimed at? 

   As for the choice of their first feature .. Well, that's complicated - but most of all divisive. Which seems counterintuitive, both in regards to wanting to maintain a civil community, and to letting people find out that there are communities that they can join, as long as they're the right skin colour.

[Coffee Pancake]

Just now, Orwar said:

As for the choice of their first feature .. Well, that's complicated - but most of all divisive. 

Good. PoC exist. They use SL. Here's a cheesy page about them. Could it be better, sure .. it can always be better.

Can't wait for the upset over the gays.

Remember, it's not about equality, it's about equity as a prerequisite for justice.

This is why there wont be a page celebrating the "White people of SL"

[Chris Corvinus]

Its a great idea if they implement it properly. Right now, its not easily visible to new users or those who dont have account. Its buried along with the knowledge base and any tutorials. The link to the forums on the main page before logging in doesnt even work.

[Aiyumei]

I look forward to see community page about Balkan/slavic culture although I don't think that will happen.

[CaithLynnSayes]

1 hour ago, Coffee Pancake said:

You have no idea what CRT is or what it's for, but 10/10 for echoing the far right talking points.

This right here is what is a massive problem in today's world. It honestly baffles me. As i said before. Some people so desperately want to put people in boxes based upon what skin color they have. I personally don't give a rats a** if you are purple. I care about you as a person.

I'm sorry @Coffee Pancake but i can't just ignore the fact that you said that if someone disagrees with the current CRT propaganda, they are automatically "far right". "Agree with me or you are literally hitler" - How is that helping anyone? Seriously, i really want to know.

 

If you read through this complete thread, and are honest with yourself, you'll quickly see that most of us don't want to be put in a box and just want to be appreciated for who they are as a person. This really should not be ignored.

Edited March 3, 2022 by CaithLynnSayes

[Coffee Pancake]

43 minutes ago, CaithLynnSayes said:

I'm sorry @Coffee Pancake but i can't just ignore the fact that you said that if someone disagrees with the current CRT propaganda, they are automatically "far right". "Agree with me or you are literally hitler" - How is that helping anyone? Seriously, i really want to know.

That's not what I said.

CRT is a very specific academic subject with a specific purpose. It is not what people have been lead to believe it is by US media wishing to create a moral panic around education and diversity training, which is itself nothing short of racism.

Not understanding that doesn't make anyone Hitler, but it does make them an imbeciel, especially when everyone can google "What is CRT". It's not new. It's not changed. It's not even hard.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Coffee Pancake
run on sentence

[Coffee Pancake]

 

53 minutes ago, CaithLynnSayes said:

If you read through this complete thread, and are honest with yourself, you'll quickly see that most of us don't want to be put in a box and just want to be appreciated for who they are as a person. This really should not be ignored.

As I said, in the 3rd post of this thread.

On 3/1/2022 at 4:23 PM, Coffee Pancake said:

.... and risks highlighted groups appearing monolithic.

[Mollymews]

4 hours ago, Orwar said:

 As for the choice of their first feature .. Well, that's complicated - but most of all divisive. Which seems counterintuitive, both in regards to wanting to maintain a civil community, and to letting people find out that there are communities that they can join, as long as they're the right skin colour.

i don't think that the choice is complicated

given the publishing timing I think that this page started as a project for Black History month.  Then either or both of two things happened. The editorial team didn't get the copy finalised before end of month, or the page presentation code didn't get finalised before end of month

i don't get how showcasing a few creatives who are also black people can ever be divisive, except maybe to those into railing against the advantages and privileges that somehow come from being Black on Earth

 

[StarlanderGoods]

3 hours ago, CaithLynnSayes said:

This right here is what is a massive problem in today's world. It honestly baffles me. As i said before. Some people so desperately want to put people in boxes based upon what skin color they have. I personally don't give a rats a** if you are purple. I care about you as a person.

I'm sorry @Coffee Pancake but i can't just ignore the fact that you said that if someone disagrees with the current CRT propaganda, they are automatically "far right". "Agree with me or you are literally hitler" - How is that helping anyone? Seriously, i really want to know.

 

If you read through this complete thread, and are honest with yourself, you'll quickly see that most of us don't want to be put in a box and just want to be appreciated for who they are as a person. This really should not be ignored.

What do you think Critical Race Theory is ?

 

[Qie Niangao]

Suppose the next Community Page isn't about racial nor cultural communities at all, but a very different external interest/affinity group unrelated to "diversity." Suppose it's, say, "Green" in keeping with our color-coded motif. Not the political party, per se, but rather the whole group of people engaged in addressing environment and climate change. Or if we can't skirt the politics, call it the Anthropocene Community instead, but whatever, the point would be to connect a vibrant real world community with a corresponding, existing Second Life expression of that community.

Why do such a thing? Because "communities" that already function in Second Life can differentiate it from other platforms with shinier graphics and users who like to wear boxes on their real life heads.

The choice to start with a Black Cultural Community Page might call to mind the market power of "Black Twitter." Second Life should be so lucky.

Again, though, if this is to attract and retain new SL users, the in-world communities must come with destinations always populated with engaging residents.

[StarlanderGoods]

1 minute ago, Qie Niangao said:

Suppose the next Community Page isn't about racial nor cultural communities at all, but a very different external interest/affinity group unrelated to "diversity." Suppose it's, say, "Green" in keeping with our color-coded motif. Not the political party, per se, but rather the whole group of people engaged in addressing environment and climate change. Or if we can't skirt the politics, call it the Anthropocene Community instead, but whatever, the point would be to connect a vibrant real world community with a corresponding, existing Second Life expression of that community.

Why do such a thing? Because "communities" that already function in Second Life can differentiate it from other platforms with shinier graphics and users who like to wear boxes on their real life heads.

The choice to start with a Black Cultural Community Page might call to mind the market power of "Black Twitter." Second Life should be so lucky.

Again, though, if this is to attract and retain new SL users, the in-world communities must come with destinations always populated with engaging residents.

Absolutely, and I sort of trust LL on the bolded, their destinations post are usually very good and they are constantly updated. I always watch the youtube clips the put out of featured locations and then visit them inworld, and Ive never been disapointed by them.

[Drayke Newall]

I'm not going to get into the whole why a community focused on a race was first as it will just add more fuel to this dumpster fire of a thread.

As far as I can see from their announcement, there is literally no purpose to these community pages other than to give themselves a pat on the back for making Second Life *HIDDEN* communities.

Before everyone jumps up and down or throws stones etc., and says its because of PR or retention or whatever and has a purpose, think about this.

They have announced a new initiative in advertising different communities in Second Life be it RL or SL yet, no person (user or non user) can actually access that community page from their website. In their announcement they have stated that these community pages "live directly on their website"... um... where exactly?

No link on the home page, no link in any sub-page. Hell, there isn't even a link if you login to the website and go to the community tab.

Literally what is the point of such a thing if it isn't highlighted outside of a featured news article (no one reads and lost in a day or so due to other news articles) or an obscure and specific search engine search (no one will do)? Before people say "its new and they will probably make a link". I'm sorry that ship has sailed. No person or company is that inept (apart from LL it seems) to make an orphan webpage hidden on a website and make a huge fuss about it as a new feature.

I think @Paul Hexem was incorrect in his post ("even when it's not LL- who is almost certain to screw it up.") implying that LL will screw it up. They already have by making it not accessible anywhere on their website.

Come on Linden Lab. If you are going to make a new webpage at least send your web designers to a school to learn that your new webpage 'community initiative' actually needs to be accessible SOMEWHERE on the main site upon release. 🙄

Edited March 3, 2022 by Drayke Newall

[Silent Mistwalker]

9 hours ago, Orwar said:

letting people find out that there are communities that they can join, as long as they're the right skin colour.

[Bree Giffen]

I think everyone needs to adjust their focus from their thumb in front of the lens to the scenery that the camera is pointed to.

[Silent Mistwalker]

At the moment, I'm watching the whole forest burn, not just the trees.

[Rowan Amore]

4 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

Again, though, if this is to attract and retain new SL users, the in-world communities must come with destinations always populated with engaging residents.

This^^^^

As the blog post stands now, all it's telling anyone is that there are black people in SL.  There are small groups (communities) of black people but usually within another segment such as family RP.   Black residents are into a broad range of communities within SL.  It's like saying, there are women over 40 in SL.  That's not a community, it's just a fact.  

[Ayashe Ninetails]

22 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

This^^^^

As the blog post stands now, all it's telling anyone is that there are black people in SL.  There are small groups (communities) of black people but usually within another segment such as family RP.   Black residents are into a broad range of communities within SL.  It's like saying, there are women over 40 in SL.  That's not a community, it's just a fact.  

Yup. And to me, it's an odd thing to single out. My natural assumption is - of course there are. Why wouldn't there be?

Now, if the function is solely to list out places to go to find others like me, that's...nice, I suppose, but now the blog post is making assumptions about what I'd be interested in based solely on that information. And, in my case at least, it's far from accurate.

I appreciate that they tried, honestly I do, but it's so flawed. No industrial clubs? Really?! 😄

[Luna Bliss]

I'm just happy LL and the majority of people within SL are progressive. Putting Black people first in a list is a great idea for a change!  After all, we've been putting them last in so many ways for centuries.

 

[Nalates Urriah]

13 hours ago, StarlanderGoods said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory

Literally no one in this thread has even aproached the subject until you brought it up.

It would seem that you absorbed way too much of the "other" current propaganda.

We have good definitions of what is propaganda. A lot of what we see daily fits propaganda defintion. My parents raised in the 60's lived through the civil rights movements of the Right. The ideals conveyed and expressed to me were simple: people are not to be segregated or evaluated by skin color. What we do and say is the measure of our character.

The principals on which Left and Right ideals are based leave us with little doubt as to where we should stand. If an individual moves beyond the ideas of bias and bigotry based on race, they can't support CRT, segregation, and most of the WOKE Left's PC agenda. Recognizing anti-freedom divide-all tactics to divide the Western democracies is not hard.

I am saddened that so few here recognized the Linden move as coming from people that have bought into the propaganda and failed to respond based on principals that promote freedom and unity for all.

10 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

You have no idea what CRT is or what it's for, but 10/10 for echoing the far right talking points.

Racism isn't addressed by ignoring race and pretending everything's naturally equitable when it plainly isn't.

And maybe .. digital blackface is still blackface, and it's really not ok to "roleplay" a minority race or ethnicity.

I suspect you have defined CRT by what you are hearing/seeing in the media. To make sure you clearly understand try explaining why bi-racial couples are at school board meetings asking why their child is coming come asking if their white parent is really evil?

Racism isn't addressed by teaching segregation is a good thing or that white people are innately evil.

You seem to have bought into the idea of equity over equality. Everyone having the same STUFF (equity) is a doctrine of the far Left. Making sure everyone has the same opportunities is about equality and freedom.

8 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

That's not what I said.

CRT is a very specific academic subject with a specific purpose. It is not what people have been lead to believe it is by US media wishing to create a moral panic around education and diversity training, which is itself nothing short of racism.

Not understanding that doesn't make anyone Hitler, but it does make them an imbeciel, especially when everyone can google "What is CRT". It's not new. It's not changed. It's not even hard.

CRT as is being taught in K-12 is NOT just an academic subject. It is indoctrination.

5 hours ago, StarlanderGoods said:

What do you think Critical Race Theory is ?

A good question is what do you think it is?

5 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

Suppose the next Community Page isn't about racial nor cultural communities at all, but a very different external interest/affinity group unrelated to "diversity." Suppose it's, say, "Green" in keeping with our color-coded motif. Not the political party, per se, but rather the whole group of people engaged in addressing environment and climate change. Or if we can't skirt the politics, call it the Anthropocene Community instead, but whatever, the point would be to connect a vibrant real world community with a corresponding, existing Second Life expression of that community.

Why do such a thing? Because "communities" that already function in Second Life can differentiate it from other platforms with shinier graphics and users who like to wear boxes on their real life heads.

The choice to start with a Black Cultural Community Page might call to mind the market power of "Black Twitter." Second Life should be so lucky.

Again, though, if this is to attract and retain new SL users, the in-world communities must come with destinations always populated with engaging residents.

I find it interesting that you stuck with highly politicized possible future choices...

The Lindens Choice...

The Lindens are obviously trying to create a marketing move to bring more people into SL. That is an understandable effort for a business. And mostly a good thing.

The Lindens in marketing obviously are steeped in Woke-ism and the PC wording and likely through they were doing something progressive and Woke that people would like. I suspect the move will appeal to the less politically aware, they less historically knowledgeable, those in the Twitter, Instagram, Facebook/Meta circles.

I think if that were not the case they would have targeted the types of THINGS people like doing in SL; builders, 3D modelers, hobby businesses, fashion, modeling, sailors, aviators, drivers, truck and railroad enthusiasts, gamers, philosophy, travel, exploration, puzzle solving (think Madpea)  .... none of which would have a reference to race.

Instead they hit a nerve in the growing group of people fighting the loss of their freedoms to governments exercising emergency powers and people sensitive to racism disguised as anti-raceism.

[Vance Fellini]

I have to ask: what purpose do these community pages serve?

Communities are a fundamental component of Second Life, yes. But that begs the question: what is a community? I would argue that for something to be understood to be a 'community', there needs to be more than just a trait that anyone can spot. Its members need to self-identify as part of the group, and intentionally come together because of shared experiences.

Taking the "Black Culture in Second Life" page as an example: that is a demographic, not a community, and a poorly defined one at that. Reading the page, it becomes abundantly clear that it is not so much a celebration of 'Black Culture' but of the experiences of the African Diaspora in particular as seen through a very American lens, lumping in foreign demographics who may or may not identify with it and who were probably never asked in the first place. Yikes.

As others have noted, the question of which communities is very prominent. Second Life thrives on selfmade, self-regulating communities. That is what needs highlighting more than anything. But SL's community tools are archaic, and while trying to move beyond highlighting 'destinations' is a good idea in principle, highlighting communities is and will remain a problem up until the point that community tools such as groups get a complete overhaul to act as "community profile pages". Do that, Linden Lab, and you will have an endless amount of communities to promote.

 

[Coffee Pancake]

47 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

I suspect you have defined CRT by what you are hearing/seeing in the media. To make sure you clearly understand try explaining why bi-racial couples are at school board meetings asking why their child is coming come asking if their white parent is really evil?

White people did a slavery, tried to keep it by fighting a war, and even when it was lost spent every year since trying to keep their spot. Systemic racism is built into the foundations of all our modern institutions. White people did all of this.

Should we sugar coat actual history ? Who do we get to make the sugar ... 

Seeing as no one can actually be bothered to look up what CRT is.

Which is literally the exact opposite of what faux news have been screaming for the last year.

It is not some weirdo lefty thing.

Look at who these citations are from.

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-rights-reimagining-policing/a-lesson-on-critical-race-theory/

https://www.naacpldf.org/critical-race-theory-faq/

47 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

You seem to have bought into the idea of equity over equality. Everyone having the same STUFF (equity) is a doctrine of the far Left. Making sure everyone has the same opportunities is about equality and freedom.

Equity isn't about everyone having the same "stuff", it's about everyone having the same access and opportunities and recognizes that some groups of people need more assistance than others.

Sometimes the need for increased assistance falls along racial lines .. If only there was some kind of academic system to study why that might be the case.