Starlorn

What you say about tipuna rings so true for everyone, I find myself asking my partner about their opinion on how I should do something or how I look even - it comes natural to us all. That is why ROF and other Memorials are important to me - I actually go there to talk to my lost one - it provides a focus for me - just like being in the wharenui does for you. Unfortunately we do not have as well developed a sense of our Ancestors as the Maori or other tribal traditions do and we are the worse off for this and I have nothing but the greatest respect for your traditions and feel we all have a lot to learn from you . We use places like ROF (or even RL memorials) as a substitute for somewhere to meet and talk to our lost relatives or friends and they are just as important to us as your wharenui. This is why, when I heard that these places in SL get charged just as much as someone running a business Sim that I felt the need to voice my opinions here. We need these places to talk to our tipuna, listen to what they have to say and share what is happening to us in our daily lives - it keeps them alive for us and in our thoughts always. I want to thank you for sharing some of your wonderful traditions with us all - it really helps put what I was thinking into words - you have a very well developed sense of community - something very lacking in the world in general these days - you have my utmost respect and good wishes to you and your wharenui - . love Suzi Starlorn

I forgot to add that there are people out there who have no other way of remembering their loved ones and to them the service that the likes of ROF provides is essential to their needs. People have many things to say about SL - 'its only a game..' , 'Its for geeks...' ,etc - but please stop to think - some people out there have no other means of communication with new and interesting people and this is through no fault of their own - SL can be a wonderful and interesting place but it can also be hell for some at times - the people at places like ROF make life bearable for a lot of people and they actively help those who grieve, be it with kind words or just by providing somewhere for people to reflect. I am not a very religious person in any significant way but I just know there are places in RL and SL which we need to preserve that allow us peace, time to think and remember - nothing religious about them but they are sacred and need our support in whatever form. I hope that I have at least given LL and everyone reading this post food for thought - love Suzi Starlorn

I guess because of my loss, I may be looking at this issue through rose coloured glasses. I have to agree that yes - LL is a business and it would be hard for them to differentiate between a good cause and a business sim - the administration of SL must be hard enough for them to keep track of. It really saddens me to think there are idiots out there who would be so low as to resort to desecrating such a Memorial - I guess they do not realise or even care that they are messing with real people and real feelings behind the keyboard - I guess there are still those who prefer to act like spoilt children. As to anyone setting up a Memorial Sim just to defraud and make money out of the grief of others, then that is just sick and I would like to think that they would be actively prosecuted for that kind of activity - after all they would need to set up a method of collecting any monies gained and they could be traced by that method in RL. It would be a nice gesture if a well known and loved sim like ROF could be rewarded from time to time - but unfortunately even in SL the real world has to creep in somewhere and how does one differentiate between all the well known and loved sims out there? All I can say is that if anyone out there has ever had cause to grieve and has used ROF or any other Memorial Sim then they should at least - in my view -take pause to think about the people running these sims and possibly make what contributions to them they can from time to time. - Starlorn

There is a Sim called Remembering Our Friends - whose sole purpose is to provide any resident a space to put up a plaque or memorial stone to lost friends and/or relatives. I believe there are other similar sims which offer this service too. My question - open to all but directed to Linden Labs is this - since these sims are non-profit and the owners go out of their way to help others in their time of grief and beyond and largely pay for the sims out of their own pocket along with the monies paid by contributions - is it not a moral obligation of Linden Labs to let the owners rent at a reduced rate than normal? - these Memorials are open to any resident of SL to use and it does help grieving relatives and/or friends come to terms with their loss - they provide a public service to all residents of SL regardless of who they are. Suzi Starlorn