Treasure Ballinger

Welcome, Rod. I love your builds, but mostly that you actually came inworld, have an island and an interest in what we do here, and how you too, can learn to do it. I love that, I've been here almost 4 years and still get excited about SL, and still log in every day. Welcome and kudos for actually being engaged, and interested! Nothing is worse than disinterest and apathy.

SHe's a fun girl, I hope she's not banned, but, isn't it pretty common knowledge not to use linden in any way shape or form in one's name? I guess I don't understand why people take those kinds of risks and then are surprised at the consequences..........those little cutesy things like 'it's a capital i, not a L', c'mon.........I hope she gets it sorted, if it's important to her.

/me nods thoughtfully. Virtual Ability will not rush headlong into knee-jerk decisions and actions. How we proceed will be a result of how this all unfolds (more than this past this few days, I mean) and for now, we will continue to do the very best we can for our group. They come first and any decisions we make for the future will reflect that. Biding one's time and being watchful, for us, is the prudent thing to do right now. We will keep abreast of the situation and attend the meetings inworld and keep ourselves apprised without making any abrupt decisions today that may show to have been impulsive, tomorrow. We know we are in good company with all of you and we are most grateful for our peers and colleagues.

Thank you for this humble and beautiful post. I appreciate and accept it in the spirit it was offered. I will save this post, as I continue this journey with Virtual Ability, as we continue to process and make decisions on how to proceed. While I appreciate all of the sentiment, and the kindness with which it was bestowed (yes, a gift is how I see this post, a timely reminder of exactly what the purpose is) I also think of some of our clients that pass our way, or come to stay, when they arrive in SL for the first time, on Virtual Ablility Island. Sometimes, they can walk, or type or move their mouse. Sometimes, they cannot, and depend on us to find a way, to dig into the technology available to us, to help them learn to function. The joy of a young woman, when, after spending time with Gentle Heron and a few others, she is able to finally position her avatar on a dance ball, and dances for the first time, ever, in ANY life, is something to behold. To see her type 'ty, ty', over and over again because she is so happy and thrilled and has never had so much fun (no wonder, as she is bed bound and types with a stick velcroed to her wrist.) To help her prepare her very own 'place', an apartment in SL in a building owned and operated by Virtual Ability, when she has never had anything of her own in the past, ever and here, she can say what goes on the walls, she can be in charge of her own place, because you see, there is NOTHING wrong with this person's mind. It's a perfectly strong mind, trapped in an uncooperative and frozen body. This person has taught me a few things and I am supposedly 'normal' albeit deaf.........I have a huge respect for them and am glad that Virtual Ability was there and able to help make this person's day and allow them to have a SL. If we had not been there, there might have been in initial log in but after finding no one to help, no one who cared about the issues, who maybe didn't even see or understand the issues and just expects you to start clicking and functioning and navigating, I doubt if this person would have been back. This person is important to me, in Second Life; as is every single person in the Virtual Ability group, they all bring a special something, and are precious people. I am not an educator in RL. I am a professional in a different field, not education, and because of my own deafness, I have had to learn some tricks myself, to function and navigate through life because I too, am always teaching people that deaf doesn't equal stupid. And so, I have an affinity for others out there with difficulties. There are all kinds of difficulties, and while Angel has shown one side, from an educator's point of view, I Hope I have given you a glimpse into the world of a bright mind trapped in a body that needs help to do what you and I do without even thinking. This is what SL means to me. There's no gaming, no role playing, just the incredible joy of helping someone to 'get it', even for the short time they're logged in. That's my story and why I keep on keeping on, and why I care. I"m an advocate and in my own way, a teacher, too. Thanks again Angel, for the timely post.

I see. So, that means, nothing else to say. Thanks Marielle. I suppose you're right. Unless there's new information, it would just be an argument.

I have a question: I am not in the blogs very often, usually am in other parts of the forum, such as Discussion. So I am wondering, is this normal with the blog? That a Linden makes a post and then you get 5 bazillion comments from other SL residents and no more Linden interaction or responses, from the person who made the Blog post? Is that how it works? I appreciate the majority of these posts, the support I see for the non-profits and educators; I am just wondering if that's all there is, no more response from Lindens? I've carefully kept up, I thought, reading all of the comments but maybe I missed one, the Linden one? I thought, in the past, I remembered blog writing Lindens responding later in the thread, but then I guess there's always that possiblity as long as it remains open, eh? Unless I missed it, I'll just keep reading.

Virtual Ability is not role playing. I don't really get all the talk of role play sims here. Read our group charter or visit http://virtualability.org to see what we are actually about, which in a nutshell is assisting people who are disabled in RL to enter and function in the virtual world in a way that benefits them and is suited to their disability. This includes having an understanding of assistive technology, inworld support groups and peer support, and venues and ongoing support and encouragement. Virtual Ability Inc is a RL non profit, recognized by the IRS and based in the state of Colorado in the USA. There's no 'servers in the garage' or sims with sex beds in the sky. We have annual meetings with our SL group for financial transparancy, they know exactly what's in our bank account, where it came from and what we spent it on. We have abided by the rules and policies set out by LL for non profits. I understand that everybody is not in SL to support non profits, you are here for your own reasons, whatever those may be and that is fine. We don't expect everyone to be necessarily enamored of our efforts in virtual. Respect would be nice and I think we have that for the most part. I just wanted to clarify that we are not roleplaying and this is not a game for us. Thanks for listening.

You hear from us as individual consumers, and probably don't recognize us as part of a non profit when we are speaking as individuals. You are hearing from me on this issue as part of a non profit, but you have heard plenty from me as an individual land owner on other issues. A consumer, just a person who owns mainland and estate land also and who loves SL. So yes, you hear from us in the other venues too. It's not our fault if you don't know who we are unless we have a non profit tag attached to our heads. When the topic comes up about raising of individual consumer's tiers then you will hear from me as an individual consumer.

We found out today, Nika, like everyone else. Treasure