AyelaNewLife

I need to vent. People need to stop with the constant stream of "the government is both omnipotent and capable of literal magic, and yet also making a conscious decision not to use their divine powers out of spite". I'm talking UK here, for context. We're not sitting on a magic pile of protective equipment. We cannot just walk down to the local protective equipment store and buy what we need. What is it about the words "global shortage" that 90% of the population seem incapable of understanding?! We cannot just push a magic button and make this shortage go away. Imports have all but dried up - and both existing and new orders were cancelled about a week before it got bad in Italy - yet we have managed to increase our production capacity by vast amounts, so even when you factor in the lost imports we are still making orders of magnitude more than we did just a month or two ago. That's a magnificent achievement, unprecedented in the modern era. Yet our consumption has also increased by orders of magnitude; and that's across hundreds of health trusts and tens of thousands of healthcare and social care providers. It's inevitable that there will be pockets of shortages as individual organisations horde, and as unnecessary consumption of said equipment skyrockets (eg disposing of equipment multiple times per shift without medical need - by following guidelines, guidelines that have now been tweaked); those are being addressed and the numbers of people who need the equipment and don't have enough are plummeting day by day. Yet still people say it's not enough. There is a global shortage of tests. We prioritise testing those with serious symptoms, as that is objectively more important than daily or weekly testing of millions of healthcare workers. We've ramping up test production with what little capacity we have (as the Germans aren't exporting enough), we have the laboratory capacity to keep up with the testing we want to do, we just lack the physical tests. More precisely, the world lacks the reagents needed to run the tests; because guess what, we're not the only ones in need of testing on a massive scale. Demand has gone up by five or six orders of magnitude in the space of weeks, and the government cannot click its fingers and magic up a tanker of the stuff. Domestic production is ramping up at unprecedented speeds however, and everything else is ready for the volume of testing we want. Yet still people say it's not enough. We delivered arguably the largest bill in decades to give us the legislative framework needed to tackle this crisis, and we did so in ten god damn days. Ten days. The sheer scale of that achievement cannot be understated. Almost all of the secondary legislation (eg Regulations) that keys off said bill has now been laid, two weeks later. It's incredible. This isn't just police powers, it addressed the thousands of bits of legislation that make effective social distancing unlawful and provides innovative ways for the country to keep functioning within the law. And it's only been possible because of the literally thousands of civil servants who have been working vast amounts of overtime and weekends to make that possible. Yet still people say it's not enough. We led the world in providing effective support for the workers who's livelihoods have been impacted by the lockdown. Our furlough wage coverage scheme is effectively the gold standard for this type of program, copied by governments around the world - and we delivered it in five days. It took a little longer to provide similar coverage for the self employed who also avoid using PAYE as a way to avoid or lower their tax, but we still provided that support only a week later. Unprecedented levels of direct support from the government, on a scale that has never been done before, in a matter of days. All while also providing support for businesses while ensuring the Treasury's focus is on people not profit. Sweeping changes to benefits make them easier to claim and more generous than ever came in, rental protections were introduced, and mortgage holidays ensured. Yet still people say it's not enough. We've been transparent and open from the start, with daily press briefings that lay out our current situation and what we think the next steps will be, all depoliticised and based on an objective view of the facts. We've made exceptionally clear that no plans are set in stone and all can and will adapt as circumstances evolve; this led to us ramping up the social distancing provisions much faster than hoped as modelling indicated the disease had spread much further than testing indicated. Plans for the months ahead were never discussed in detail because they were changing daily, as we tried to predict how a lockdown, that had never before been done on so many people with demographics like ours and on a disease with an unusually long asymptomatic infectious period, would affect things. The government cannot see the future; every day we plug in the latest numbers and make decisions based on where we are, and that has been clearly explained on a daily basis to the nation. Yet still people say it's not enough. There are times when I feel like giving up, like the country deserves to have this plague rip it apart. I can't tell if it's raw fear or blind partisanship; but I hate the way most of the country but especially our parasitic journalists have responded to the challenges of the last few weeks. But honestly, there's very little more the government could reasonably be expected to have done, and anyone who bases their opinions on facts rather than vox populi noiseposts and opinion pieces understands that. Which is about five people max, it seems.

Well, which one is it? Tier 1+2, or tier 2? The difference between the two is vast. 99%+ of the population is tier 1.

See, this crucial piece of information that you didn't actually state in your original post changes the meaning of your request entirely. The overwhelming majority of residents in SL are tier 1; and are not content creators at all, they are consumers. All of the fee waivers you've requested would impact them too, as well as private and public non-profit sim owners, private renters, casual gacha resellers... there's only ~2000 residents who withdraw more than $10,000 each year, and so would need tier 3 or above. I've got no idea at all why you'd frame such a petition as "please help the creators that rely on this RL income" when proposing fee relief for the masses of the population, that seems counter-productive at best. Exceptionally unhelpful, misleading and confusing. And your answers since have all reinforced this incorrect perception. So to address what you meant to write: do I think that most private region tier (but not mainland or other land fees) should be waived for the next few months? No, that's insane. This kills the Linden Lab. It's also strangely and unjustifiable prescriptive, arbitrarily providing great financial relief to some but not to others.

If you actually cared for artists and small shops, you wouldn't have made a petition calling for sweeping fee relief for only tier 2 residents and above.

You're still refusing to engage with the core problem here. You claimed that the incomes of tier 2 artists and creators who rely on online sales (through SL or other platforms) have been devastated by the Covid-19 outbreak. This is not correct. The virtual creative economy is going through a golden era right now, and anyone who relies on virtual sales for income will likely be making much more money than they could have anticipated just a few weeks ago. The foundation you built your argument on is not coherent with reality. And that undermines your entire case. I'd actually be fine if your request was a blanket request for waiving certain fees. I might not agree with such a request, but it would have been valid. But to single out the thin slice of the SL population who has gained the most from this outbreak and request fee relief? No. Absolutely not.

It's offensive to me because I work for the UK government on their response to this outbreak. My colleagues and I have been working ridiculous hours developing entire public services in the space of days to shield the most vulnerable and to give them the vital support they need to keep themselves safe; while other colleagues have worked just as hard (if not more so) to roll out sweeping measures of support for employees and employers, at a vast cost to the nation. We're literally bankrupting the country at a time when tax income is at it's lowest in decades, because the need is that great... and yet we can't help everyone, and people are suffering with every day it takes us to get this vital work done and with every loophole we miss. And to be clear, our role in this is nothing compared to the (often tragic) sacrifices made across our health service on a daily basis, to keep other people safe and alive. And then you swan in, state a falsehood about how virtual incomes are suffering at a time of unprecedented boom in the online economy, and then demand that the people making a significant wage from SL (now more so than ever before) get handed what amounts to a virtual tax break. Only those people though; everyone else, including those who have actually suffered financial hardship from this outbreak or those who fund sims themselves or run at a break-even, still has to pay their fair share. It's ridiculous. So yes, your request is offensive to me. And your petition is making very little progress because the wider SL population thinks your request is wrong, and potentially offensive.

I know I'm digging really deep for a silver lining here... but that is some refreshing honesty. I'd honestly much rather deal with someone like that than a "I'm not x, but..."

I mean this is just the opposite of reality. Virtual business is booming right now (SL or otherwise), and people are collectively spending more time and Lindens inworld than they have in years. Relief and support schemes across the world are being rolled out at astronomical expense to protect the most vulnerable and the most deserving. Whether that's food packages for those too highly at risk to safely shop for themselves or income support for the vast numbers who lost their job overnight with no scope for alternative employment in the foreseeable future. For these people, this kind of support is a matter of life and death; which is why governments and employers alike are crippling themselves with future debt to keep these people safe during this time of great need. And you come here and demand that those who have benefited financially from this crisis deserve even more financial support? Are you kidding me? I can't tell if it's just ignorance or raw arrogant entitlement that has led to this... but wow. A crisis really does bring out the worst in people.

I've cut out social media entirely. The nature of my job means I have my finger of the pulse of what we're doing as a nation (UK) to deal with this outbreak, certainly more so than the vast majority of people. And Facebook etc is full of people, often well educated people, spouting utter nonsense and media-distorted half-truths. Huge numbers of people that simply refuse to stop yelling "floppy hair man bad" at everything that happens. Even when I resist the urge to realign people's perceptions with reality, it's just so draining... So screw that. They can moan about how the government is sitting on a mountain of tests that it's refusing to run (what in the heck), or endlessly repeating the refuted lie that the original strategy was to push for herd immunity, or how ibuprofen either makes the disease better or worse depending on the day of the week... their delusion won't change reality. And my self care is frankly more important.

As someone who was receiving non-emergency medical followup treatment during the first weeks of the restrictions (last appointment was ~10 days ago), I am exceptionally grateful that they continued to provide this service for as long as it was safe to do so. Non-emergency medical treatment, including dentistry, is not a luxury. It can make a vast difference to the quality of life of so many people, and can catch serious medical problems at an early stage, thus reducing pressure on emergency services and literally saving lives. Continuing to provide medical treatment for as long as it was safe to do so is not deserving of criticism at all. Sorry friend, but you're wrong on this one. Reserve that anger for those that deserve it. Like Mike "Knoblord" Ashley trying to convince the world that his empire of mediocre sportsware for the non-sporty was an essential service.

(Insert joke about how many Lindens it takes to remove a forum post here)

Working from home, week 3:

I'm just going to echo the fact that you are under no obligation to tell anyone anything about any RL details, including your RL sex/gender. You have to balance up immersion (yours and others) with people potentially choosing to feel deceived or acting abusively towards you, and it's ultimately a personal choice that no one else can or should make for you, and there isn't really a 'right' answer to this. When someone says "be whoever you want to be... just be honest", what they're actually saying is "you can dress up however you want, just be sure to warn people in advance so that they can wash their hands first, lest they catch the big gay through the keyboard". Feel free to ignore those people entirely.

Not really; for every one of us that posts vaguely regularly, there's most likely a half dozen people reading the thread without posting. But unlike those inworld, we cannot easily see them or register their existence.

So for context, I'm talking from a UK point of view here. The environmental impact of importing food will of course differ from wherever you might be, for exceptionally obvious reasons. If all else is equalised, meat has a far more significant environmental impact than plant-based foods; for example, growing veg in your garden compared to rearing livestock in your garden. But reality is far more complex than that overly simplistic approach. You simply cannot eat crops grown locally and externally all year round, the climate does not allow for that. In reality, your food usually goes through extra steps which adds to the environmental impact of said food, often significantly. There's three main types of "added carbon": Growing methods. For us in the UK, most of our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and lettuces are grown either in the UK in massive greenhouses - artificially heated and lighted - or in Spain, grown under similar conditions outside a longer 'normal' growing season. Greenhouse-grown veg under these conditions have a similar carbon footprint to chicken and turkey. Transport. Putting any food on a cargo ship and hauling it around the world objectively increases its carbon footprint. Processing. Many meat-replacements require intensive processing stages compared to meat. For Quorn products, the processing stages account for just over half the total emissions for the total process, which includes shipment of raw inputs but not finished products. Now all of these stages can of course apply to meat too; which just makes that meat super-bad for the environment. For example, battery-reared beef account for most of the UK's soy consumption, and much of our off-season beef is imported from Argentina, and lamb from New Zealand. This food obviously has a far, far higher environmental impact than anything vegetarian or vegan. But not all meat is like that. I grew up surrounded by sheep grown on non-arable land, which we bought at a butcher's shop within walking distance of our house. Meat like this that's at the lowest end of the environmental impact scale can easily be on par with the worst non-meat alternatives. My overall point though was this: while on the whole non-meat is significantly better for the environment than meat, that rule is not universally true, and if you're seeking to lower your environmental impact then more care is needed in your choice of diet than simply "meat = bad". It's more complicated than that.

In today's episode of "50 reasons why Ayela hates fatpacks"; If you're putting a product forward for a sale event which comes with price expectations (eg 50L Fridays), make sure the advert you distribute for the sale can actually be bought in that sale. If you're going to hide the good variations in the fatpack, fine; just do not advertise that pattern as if it was in the sale.

This but regardless of the context. It's one of those things that really sets me off. Let's call a spade a spade; it's gaslighting. It's trying to spin some worthless piece of garbage's dissatisfaction with your response times into something that you are to blame for. Not only is that appalling, but this is how abuse starts. It's petty and controlling over something that doesn't matter, and things only ever get worse from there. It's not okay, and this behaviour needs to be shut down as a matter of urgency. If you're reading this and are one of those people that say this stuff; you're a piece of filth and I hope you get hit by a car, it would make the world a better (and safer) place. Like god damn this makes me unreasonably angry.

No you're not. You're making the "game experience" messy and complicated (or rather, more so than normal) for no real gain. Blocked and derendered people do not disappear. They will still be there in world, standing or sitting or walking around, talking in nearby or group chat. All you're doing is removing your ability to properly perceive your surroundings and act accordingly. Do this for long enough and you'll start bumping into people, sitting on occupied furniture, talking over conversations, and generally being a pain for everyone around you purely because you chose to close your eyes to half the world. In a limited number of cases, usually harassment-related, these negatives are worth the benefit of shutting out an aggressive abuser. But you gain none of the benefits of blocking, and all of the downsides. The viewer logs your IM history and displays it automatically. Between that and the Notes tab on profiles, you have ample tools to make an "avoidlist" if you so desire. If you truly don't to IM people who sent a one-word response to your one-line opener, then go ahead, that's your prerogative. But there's no need to block people to do so. To answer the title; mass blocking is not a strategy, in the same way that cutting off your hand because you had an itchy finger is not a strategy. It's just raw petulance. Grow up.

It's always worth remembering. Because the 15th of Feb is "half price chocolates day".

The best part of all this is that it's almost always the drained victims of said phishing link that go on to spam said link. All these armchair paper pushers are doing is making life uncomfortable for the majority to give themselves an excuse to punish the victims of fraud. It's kinda sick.

Fixed your quote for you. Tipping culture is far from universal in this multicultural mashup that is SL. Hosts and DJs that don't get that can go forth and multiply. Also my standard tip is 69L; I don't have the disposable income to regularly and consistently tip more, and the immature joke is a nice way to shield myself from entitlement.

Some LL-sponsored method of converting appliers into personal system layers is on my "unicorn wishlist", of ideas that would be great if they could work out, but realistically will never happen for a variety of reasons. So yeah, while I'd love to have some way of using my existing content in the new (and more resource-friendly) way, I do appreciate the long list of issues that likely will never be resolved.

On a purely technical note, is there any reason why Maitreya cannot add butt physics to the body without breaking existing clothes? Changes to the shape of the body can be done, just not without invalidating existing content. The question came up in another discussion, and I don't know enough about the specifics of body making to answer this one.

As someone who intentionally takes "near-unedited" photos, I fully agree with you. I've even got a few lines in my flickr bio on this point. Sadly I've experienced the reverse; people who think that your work is worthless unless you've edited a shot until the original is unrecognisable, or who think that "green-screen" edits are the only worthwhile photos. A painter is not inherently better or worse than a sculptor on the basis of the tools they choose to use alone. It's what you do with those tools that counts. Edit: but if you're too lazy to even rename your upload-from-viewer snapshot, I retain the right to judge you