Official Statement from Oberwolf Linden

[Ceka Cianci]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

The post by Brad which Scylla links in the OP, gives enough detail on the background of the article being discussed.

Quote: 

"..after we became the subject of a blog post that has the potential to cause harm to our dedicated community members and the virtual world platform that so many people call “home.” 

The post contains a complex mix of accusations regarding Second Life, and it questions our strong dedication to maintaining a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment for all members of the Second Life community."

Thank you 

[Arielle Popstar]

Just now, Henri Beauchamp said:

So, basically, this is a reply about something no one knows anything about... Totally dispensable, IMHO !

Not really. There were allegations about child avatars but also allegations about some of the inner workings of departments within SecondLife that has had alleged ramifications to the residents.

[Henri Beauchamp]

6 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Not really. There were allegations about child avatars but also allegations about some of the inner workings of departments within SecondLife that has had alleged ramifications to the residents.

If I can't see the original allegations, how could I understand Brad's own post and what it is really about ?

IMHO Brad's statement is more confusing to 99% of the SL residents than anything.

Edited March 21 by Henri Beauchamp

[Harper Held]

The original blog was written to inflict maximum damage, using the most inflammatory means possible.

Anything it says that you can't verify for yourself (eg marketplace) probably should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

At the end of the day, I'm a lot more concerned with the allegations of favoritism and residents being treated badly (putting it as vague as possible here) than I am anything else in the article.

I'll bet a dollar that the toxic behavoir towards residents and general institutional dysfunction will remain untouched -regardless of what they do about child avatars.

[Jaylinbridges]

2 minutes ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

If I can't see the original allegations, how could I understand Brad's own post and what is is really about ?

Check your messages.

[Arielle Popstar]

Just now, Henri Beauchamp said:

If I can't see the original allegations, how could I understand Brad's own post and what is is really about ?

IMHO Brad's statement is more confusing to 99% of the SL residents than anything.

I did point to R /Secondlife "Official Statement From Executive Chairman Brad Oberwagerin" on Reddit where there is a posted linked copy of the blog post.

[Arielle Popstar]

9 minutes ago, Harper Held said:

At the end of the day, I'm a lot more concerned with the allegations of favoritism and residents being treated badly (putting it as vague as possible here) than I am anything else in the article.

I'll bet a dollar that the toxic behavoir towards residents and general institutional dysfunction will remain untouched -regardless of what they do about child avatars.

Yes that is my concern too as well as what was mentioned about how some of the SL development progresses between departments. In some ways it was like a confirmation of things i've wondered about in past. And still do.

Edited March 21 by Arielle Popstar
added

[Harper Held]

9 minutes ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

If I can't see the original allegations, how could I understand Brad's own post and what is is really about ?

IMHO Brad's statement is more confusing to 99% of the SL residents than anything.

I, and everyone else badgering poor Henri in-game are missing the point he's making;

It isn't that Henri doesn't know Whiskey Tango Foxtrot what's up; it's that the people who are reading the statement...98% of SL's userbase...will have no idea WTF this statement is in reference to.

 

[Henri Beauchamp]

6 minutes ago, Jaylinbridges said:

Check your messages.

Thanks for the private pointer. Still 98% of SLers who will not get it and will scratch their head when reading Brad's statement...

 

5 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

I did point to R /Secondlife ”Official Statement From Executive Chairman Brad Oberwagerin” on Reddit where there is a posted linked copy of the blog post.

Not a Reddit user... 😛

[Sparkle Bunny]

2 minutes ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

IMHO Brad's statement is more confusing to 99% of the SL residents than anything.

99% of SL residents never read the official blog or these forums, so that's fine.

The remaining 1% who are Very Online i.e. they read SL blogs, have a couple of inworld group chats enabled, used to read Virtual Secrets etc. have known about all this for three weeks now, and been clamoring for some kind of official statement. Now they have one. And anyone who's just stumbling upon it now... well, Google is your friend.

[Harper Held]

1 minute ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Yes that is my concern too as well as what was mentioned about how some of the SL development progresses between departments. In some ways it was like a confirmation of things i've wondered about in past.

Yeah, by choosing the most inflammatory material possible the original writer effectively made sure it would be noticed.

But at the same time, by chosing that material, they also gave The Lab the perfect cover and handwave to avoid making any kind of institutional changes.

Dynamics between Lindens/The Lab and Residents will continue as they have ...unchanged. Because their will be a great show of getting rid of the grossest of of the charges, which will take the heat off of any deeper problems.

 

[Arielle Popstar]

2 minutes ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

Thanks for the private pointer. Still 98% of SLers who will not get it and will scratch their head when reading Brad's statement...

 

Not a Reddit user... 😛

Ok but you got it. Saves me having to login and send you the link.

[Harper Held]

2 minutes ago, Sparkle Bunny said:

 And anyone who's just stumbling upon it now... well, Google is your friend.

Speaking personally, I wasn't able to find it with google ...and I knew what I was looking for!

[Arielle Popstar]

2 minutes ago, Harper Held said:

Yeah, by choosing the most inflammatory material possible the original writer effectively made sure it would be noticed.

But at the same time, by chosing that material, they also gave The Lab the perfect cover and handwave to avoid making any kind of institutional changes.

Dynamics between Lindens/The Lab and Residents will continue as they have ...unchanged. Because their will be a great show of getting rid of the grossest of of the charges, which will take the heat off of any deeper problems.

 

Unfortunately it took the one thing to prompt them to maybe, just maybe, take some notice of the other. 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

21 minutes ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

IMHO Brad's statement is more confusing to 99% of the SL residents than anything.

Definitely.

LL, to be fair, is between a rock and a hard place on this one. They clearly have decided it's best to go "public" with this in a way that they hadn't before. (Previously, word of an internal investigation, and some later details about that, had been "leaked" to a few individuals and spread indirectly on social media.) I think that some pretty intense pressure from within the creator community has compelled this.

But they can't go full-on public without actually publishing allegations that, if false, could be libelous and that, at the very least, are damaging to personal and professional reputations.

So, I sympathize with their position. 

That said, this is a pretty remarkable post: I don't recall ever having seen anything quite like it in my nearly 16 years in SL. It goes far beyond anything I was expecting from them in terms of transparency. Despite the problems that you've noted, it actually gives me some confidence in this organization. This is not how they've handled previous crises.

[Chic Aeon]

If it takes almost a month to reply (and possibly longer after an early heads up),  why weren't there some specifics WHEN finally replying rather than the vague PR stuff?  

Have there been any changes? Has anyone said "I did not DO this"?  Have the places in SL been visited during investigation?   

There have been plenty of public mentions of bad workplace environment over the years so I am taking that as a "fact".  

Some LL employees have been "gone" for close to a month now.  No names. Anyone can sleuth. All public.   

 

I am glad they said SOMETHING; it didn't appease me however.

 

 

 

Edited March 21 by Chic Aeon
grammar

[Harper Held]

1 minute ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Unfortunately it took the one thing to prompt them to maybe, just maybe, take some notice of the other. 

Naw, 'notice' implies noone knew about that dysfunction. People were aware.

But the sensational issues will serve as a distraction from any nepotism, intimidation, etc rot in the institution.

[Harper Held]

1 minute ago, Chic Aeon said:

If it takes almost a month to reply (and possibly longer after an early heads up),  why weren't there some specifics WHEN finally replying rather than the vague PR stuff?  

Have there been any changes? Has anyone said "I did not DO this"?  Have the places in SL been visited during investigation?   

There have been plenty of public mentions of bad workplace environment's over the years so I am taking that as a "fact".  

Some LL employees have been "gone" for close to a month now.  No names. Anyone can sleuth. All public.   

 

I am glad they said SOMETHING; it didn't appease me however.

 

 

 

I'm sure the inworld places are gone, or not long for this world.

But the institutional workplace dynamics ...? the favoritism...?

yeah; as I'm saying -they've been handed the perfect cover to distract from changing any of that, haven't they?

 

[Harper Held]

6 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Definitely.

LL, to be fair, is between a rock and a hard place on this one. They clearly have decided it's best to go "public" with this in a way that they hadn't before. (Previously, word of an internal investigation, and some later details about that, had been "leaked" to a few individuals and spread indirectly on social media.) I think that some pretty intense pressure from within the creator community has compelled this.

But they can't go full-on public without actually publishing allegations that, if false, could be libelous and that, at the very least, are damaging to personal and professional reputations.

So, I sympathize with their position. 

That said, this is a pretty remarkable post: I don't recall ever having seen anything quite like it in my nearly 16 years in SL. It goes far beyond anything I was expecting from them in terms of transparency. Despite the problems that you've noted, it actually gives me some confidence in this organization. This is not how they've handled previous crises.

There are things they could specifically address:

how the marketplace is handled

Dynamics between Lindens and Residents

Resident-facing LL workplace policies

and much, much more!

...all without making a single libelous charge or referring to a single allegation.

"We are now aware that we can perform better in the following fields and will make the following specific changes to our policies and their enforcement"

 

But that's not what they're doing -is it?

Edited March 21 by Harper Held

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Harper Held said:

There are things they could specifically address:

how the marketplace is handled

Dynamics between Lindens and Residents

Resident-facing LL workplace policies

...without making a single libelous charge.

"We are now aware that we can perform better in the following fields and will make the following specific changes to our policies and their enforcement"

 

Agreed. I'm obviously in no position to explain why they didn't directly address these issues; if I had to guess, it's because they are still grappling with how to address them. (I'm trying to be positive about this, damn it!)

The acid test, of course, will be what changes long term.

[Arielle Popstar]

6 minutes ago, Harper Held said:

Naw, 'notice' implies noone knew about that dysfunction. People were aware.

But the sensational issues will serve as a distraction from any nepotism, intimidation, etc rot in the institution.

Not necessarily as both issues seemed to hinge on one fulcrum. If they deal with that, it would theoretically pull away the support of most of the institutional dysfunction being experienced.

[Harper Held]

Just now, Arielle Popstar said:

Not necessarily as both issues seemed to hinge on one fulcrum. If they deal with that, it would theoretically pull away the support of most of the institutional dysfunction being experienced.

Not really, it was the institutional dysfunction which enabled the excesses. Even if heads were to roll (they won't), all that would mean is that it would be someone else taking advantage of their privileges to enact their whims and viewpoints.

Getting rid of [redacted] in SL by itself would do nothing to curb the abuse of power -that requires deeper institutional change.

The hystrionics give The Lab the opportunity to avoid addressing the deeper issues by giving them something else to talk about.

[Love Zhaoying]

25 minutes ago, Harper Held said:

the people who are reading the statement...98% of SL's userbase

Will that many people actually see the post with Brad's statement? Is it like, on the front Second Life login screen or something?

If it's only here in the "official blog" then, I doubt that many will see it.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

(I'm trying to be positive about this, damn it!)

Well, stop it!!!

[Sparkle Bunny]

1 minute ago, Harper Held said:

Not really, it was the institutional dysfunction which enabled the excesses.

People in positions of power are historically not great at introducing checks and balances which would inhibit the exercise of that power. Did anyone in SL's first twenty years of existence stop to ask who would govern the governors?