Rosie Gray

If you are looking for a community where you can put down some virtual roots, get to know people, and contribute in various ways, then the CDS is a truly great place to be. There are plenty of beautiful communities in Second Life, but one that is governed by the people that choose to live there is rare indeed.

I think that most educational groups use their own methods of communicating within their groups and targeted audiences.

Well, I'm glad, personally. I just want to buy the particular item I want, and so many times there are things in gacha machines that I like but I don't want to waste a lot of time and money trying for them. I understand that a lot of people enjoy them, but that's my take anyway.

We've been doing a bit of experimentation on the Confederation of Democratic Simulator sims with the new settings. Having a puzzle trying to figure out how to get rid of an unwanted rainbow at sunup and sundown. The weather is meant to be overcast. There is no Moon or Sun image in the settings and the color of both these components is the same as the gloomy sky. Still, we end up with a rainbow. Any ideas on how to be rid of it?

What an interesting discussion. Took me a while to read it, and no time to respond to anything at the moment, but I'm here now.

I love Neufreistadt and the CDS! When I found the community 7 years ago it was just what I was searching for - a real community, and with a mechanism for becoming a part of everything. The CDS is run by its citizens, and you become a citizen when you purchase a parcel and live there. Also, it's very inexpensive!

I agree that SL as a whole is not now and cannot be a democracy. It is an asset to a profit oriented corporation who over the years have arbitrarily changed the Terms of Service, not to the benefit of its users. But, as Han Held points out, we in the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS) have existed as a democracy within the bounds available to us of SL, for 12 years now. It has many challenges and it doesn't appeal to people who aren't interested in group dynamics or politics all that much, but to those who enjoy being a part of how things are run, like to work within a group to create something bigger than themselves, or who simply want to find a place where they can be useful to a community, it has proven to be sustainable. There is something compelling about working out how to make democracy work in a virtual environment where many real world cultures and expectations come together. Around the real world, democracy has manifested itself in various ways, and this experiment of the CDS has become its own version as well. When it was begun, nobody thought it would last longer than 6 months.... but here we are still!