Carole Franizzi

Hey Valerie! I definitely lost my SL habit but I did miss you guys and the banter of the forums. Big hug back. C.

Me again... Just spotted a locked thread (title something like "Generally Entertaining"), authored by Derek (I think) - uhm...wondering if I'm getting the drift...nothing non-SL is permitted? Am I understanding correctly? Even in the off-topic catgory? So basically (if I haven't got hold of the wrong end of the stick, of course), if we supply free publicity for SL by showing how wonderful it is or free customer service through question-answering for fellow SLers, that's okay. If we waste space talking about non-SL stuff, we get shut up? Please tell me I'm wrong. Residents have created just about all of SL content and many of us have paid for the honour of doing so, now we have to choose our words according to LL's market plan? Tell me I'm wrong. If I'm not, spam really is the smallest of the issues to hand and we've already given up much, much more important things.

It's lovely to see you too. It seems that many old faces have disappeared or maybe that's just an impression due to the fact that I've really only had a quick look round and everyone is hidden in little sub-categories of topics. My absence was due to nice things which I knew would totally absorb me and I still don't have much spare time. But that's good. Being happily busy and caught up in lovely new things is delightful. And yes, it does rather put SL and the like into perspective. To answer the points you raised - I was always very vocal about the presentialism which the total anarchy in the forums bred (some were VERY territorial) and was always for firmer moderation. My main perplexity, however, remains the one linked to keeping what was created as an adult space fit for minors too. Link keeping the SL forums squeaky clean to maintaining it as a pretty window display for the platform and you get the result I appear to be seeing now - nothing naughty, nothing polemical, nothing which smacks of discontent, nothing outside party lines... Hardly leaves much room for creativity or freedom of expression though, does it? What's missing, I think, is an adult-only, visible-to-SLers only congregation space where your contributions don't have to fit neatly into a labeled box (art, animations, commerce...bla bla). I rather thought that un-fettered thought processes and creativity were what brought this place into being in the first place. Or maybe such a place already exists but it's tucked away in some dark corner I haven't stumbled upon yet. Lurve, C. PS Thanks - my silks are hawt, aren't they? Tie-dyed 'em myself.

Hiya Mags. I've been absent for several months but over the last few days I've been checking out the forums again (haven't quite made it in-world yet and may not for a while yet...initially didn't have time...now can't really be bothered...funny how you can lose the SL habit so totally...) and, looking around, I'm wondering if the spam problem wasn't the very least of the threats to the "freedom" of the forumites. The SL forums always were (and appear even more so now) a corporate voice-box and serve only one master. The little spammy issue was actually a visible but very minor nuisance. PS Isn't it odd that there seem to be so many more topics, categories and threads and yet not that much you feel the urge to contribute to?

Ah...the gracious and charming Venus. Lovely to see you!

You are too, too kind, Cato. Nice to see a familiar name/"face" in a world which seems to have been turned upside down and given a good shake. What's the verdict? Have things been improved? Who has been lost in the turmoil of renewal?

Wilhiam!!! Tell me you're still a cat!!! I couldn't stand it if you'd become a mouse or a skunk or a ...a....person!!!

Wow! Which community GUIDELINES??? I'm not even sure what COMMUNITY this is.... Jeesh! I turn my back a couple of months and it's major make-over time. This IS Second Life, isn't it? What happened to the old forms I loved to hate to love to hate? Now I'm scared to actually log into SL. It does still exist, doesn't it?