Phil Deakins

Nemia Nuyasaka wrote: Hi All, I am an anthropology student from London. I have recently been reading Tom Boelstorff's book 'Coming of Age In Second Life' that some of you may be familiar with. I am very much interested Second Life and was just wondering if people on the forum are open to researchers like me coming here and asking questions and enegaing in discussion? I'm not talking about a spamming the board with lots of posts, but maybe just using this one to ask a few questions about your experiences. Please let me know if this would be OK. Many Thanks, Nemia YES!

16 wrote: if take the road all the way to Maquapit (109,155,95) then can go south across the grass to WhiteFish. the grass a bit bumpy but is doable then head uphill southeast to top of Molson (242, 150,137) is a temple thingy on there with a glowy white roof. also is heaps of alpha lag on the other parcel at the top. so turn off alpha: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+2 is then a straight downhill run south to Snowbird then east to Pockwock and down to the sea with murder islands to go. just have to watch a parcel on Snowbird at (237,226,63) with a banline after that you on your own (: You got that far? You'd got nowhere near it yesterday so you must have been up all night trying to get ahead of me lol I've been in Whitefish a few times, and across to Hjalmer and to the sea there. I was in the southeast corner - just a spit from the northernmost water sim - but getting into Pockwock from there was blocked. So I went from Whitefish towards Snowbird but my only attempt so far landed my in someone's swimming pool and I couldn't get out. ETA: Damn! I've just discovered that I could have gone from the se corner of Hjalmer. I was misreading the tool, and I thought it was protected so I didn't go. I've just started turning Land Sales shown in yellow - so I can see good places to get to. I've only done it once but it helped me to a new PB - 10,048m. Now I'm off to try again All this travelling on the roads that I've been doing has been an eye-opener for me - regarding the auto-vehicles on them. I come across tanks, school bus, garbage truck, and even a Trojan horse.

Since Coelho is still faulty, I'll ask live chat to restart it - after 8 a.m. SLT, of course, which is a few hours from now.

Melita Magic wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: publically I'm just curious now. You spelled publicly the same way as this guy: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Dissertation-research-on-second-life-brands-short-questionaire/td-p/1822641 Is it a British thing? You made me stop and think there Did I spell it wrong? So I checked and it appears that both are correct, and I guess "publically" is the British spelling.

VRprofessor wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: Just out of interest:- The OP was extremely polite - the most polite introduction to a study that I've ever seen here. He did not merit getting picked to pieces, which the self-called professor did. And you find fault with me getting on his back about it? He deserved much worse than I gave him, but it would have been against the ToS. You are welcome to your opinions, but not your own facts. My criticisms were fairly gentle and intented to point the OP in the direction of conducting proper research. There was nothing in my post that was impolite. I still see no basis for your anger at me. Why is pointing a student in the direction of proper methodology a bad thing? Wouldn't you prefer that whatever project they are working on turn out well rather than as a piece of garbage? How does anyone learn if their errors are not pointed out. You seem to feel I made some errors. Please explain them to me. I am sure that you can do so without violating the ToS. The OP didn't ask anyone's opinion on how he was doing his research. He politely asked if he could ask questions here. You proceeded to publically show him up by telling him that he's doing it all wrong. You even went as far as telling him that he won't get it publsied, for goodness sakes. It turned out you were wrong and he was right. He isn't your student and, whilst as a teacher wishing to help (if that's what you are) you could have privately told him he was doing in wrong, and given him the reasons why, but you chose to show him up publically. That's what you did wrong, and that's what you should be ashamed of if you really are a teacher.

Perrie Juran wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: I only saw one question and I answered it. I told you who I am. If you want me to correct your question, I will. I do not "dictate" anything. Anything else? Just out of interest:- The OP was extremely polite - the most polite introduction to a study that I've ever seen here. He did not merit getting picked to pieces, which the self-called professor did. And you find fault with me getting on his back about it? He deserved much worse than I gave him, but it would have been against the ToS. The Professor stuck his nose in with out knowing all the facts and there is nothing wrong with calling him on the carpet for it. But when we reply to a post on this (or any Forum for that matter) we are sticking our noses into each others business. So telling someone they should get their facts straight before sticking their nose in and telling them to keep their nose out are two different things. For instance, I am not a Merchant. Would you tell me that I shouldn't stick my nose in the Merchants Forum? Again, telling me to get my facts straight or telling me that I should get them straight before I stick my nose in is one thing. Telling me to keep my nose out is another. That's what I did - call him on the carpet for it, but I did it in no uncertain terms, because what he wrote was so denegrating to the OP who had been extrememly polite. He didn't even say that such things are not usually welcomed here, as some people usually do. He publically castigated the guy on the way he was doing his work - and that got right up my nose. In a sense, we are, but it's usually the reason why the post we reply to is posted. It's desired. In this case, the OP politely asked if it would be ok to ask questions for his project. A few people replied according to the way such things are received here, but the self-called professor's reply was very different. No I wouldn't tell you that. But I might say it to you if you did anything equivalent to what the self-called professor did; e.g. tell me that the stuff I made and sell is completely wrong, etc.

16 wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: We haven't seen any reports of 16's progress though. Are you still doing it, 16? If you are, what's your personal best so far? road is my game. kill is my name jejejejeje (: horrible! last night i get over the dam at Sunderland. down onto Cub then got murdered crossing out of there. was the farest I get yesterday I tired to follow you yesterday, to see which route you use, but I crashed I go an entirely different way. I was going via both lakes to the southwest of the lake where you crashed, but I now only use the first of them and I come up onto the road north of the second lake. Then it's easy to get to the east coast by using the road. The hard bit is going south down, or near, the east cost to get to the water sims and onto the island. Today I'll try reaching the east coast across a fatter part of that area, further south than I've been doing. In a later post, you said, "... and the usual dead sim is dead sim". I mentioned a water sim on my normal route that went bad yesterday. Often I couldn't get into it and crashed, but sometimes I got into it but couldn't get out. I contacted live chat for a sim restart, which he did, and the sim works fine again - or it did the last time used it yesterday. I haven't tried it again today yet. If your dead sim is Coelho (it was dead a few days ago), you could try live chat. Or, if you don't have access to live chat, let me know and I'll do it.

I only saw one question and I answered it. I told you who I am. If you want me to correct your question, I will. I do not "dictate" anything. Anything else? Just out of interest:- The OP was extremely polite - the most polite introduction to a study that I've ever seen here. He did not merit getting picked to pieces, which the self-called professor did. And you find fault with me getting on his back about it? He deserved much worse than I gave him, but it would have been against the ToS.

Ah, that zoom. I did find that - either from the notecard or from earlier in this thread - probably the latter. I haven't used the zzom yet because I'm still getting used to the using the HUD. I must remember to use the zoom when I'm in the type of area that needs it. I've no idea what the journey that you mentioned is like. I'm enjoying doing 16's game so much because I've never explored SL or travelled around it, so the whole thing is new to me.

I'm a user in this forum, and I have opinions to post. Don't you? The guy I addressed was way out of order, imo, and I am free to say so.

I haven't discovered the zoom but yet but it's helped me to set a new PB - 10,007m - 5 figures! At that poiont I was stuck in some gardens and couldn't get out.

VRprofessor wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: I don't get the need to jump on people who post a research. When you think about it, how else would a person get people's opinions in a reasonably short space of time? They have to ask the questions somewhere, and where is better than a place where users congregate? When they post, they don't know that, to appease some people here, they have to include the magic words, "I've spent the last 2 weeks solid in SL, learning how it works etc." or something like that. When research is properly presented I do ignore it. There have been several posts that link to surveys with proper informed consent indicating that the questionnaires are part of an approved project and I am typically silent on those projects. Quite simply I am a big fan of research. I love research. Research is the most fun you can legally have with your clothes on. But research is a process and many of the students who show up on this message board are trying to by-pass the process and jump to the end of the line. This is especially problematic in an era where there is a growing emphasis on undergraduate research without a corresponding emphasis on how to properly conduct research. Another poster pointed out that SL folks in general, and this message board specifically, are heavily studied populations. Generally overstudied populations have a tendency to become hostile toward unaffiliated researchers. This was true before the internet was invented and continues to be true, and highly visible, in the internet era. If you don't have anything positive to say (as in your first post in this thread), keep your noise out of other people's business.

VRprofessor wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: I'm especially amazed at the person who calls himself a professor. He may be one but he doesn't behave like one. He should be ashamed of himself as he gives the teaching profession a bad name. Why do you and OP feel that I have misbehaved? What did I do that was inappropriate? A person claiming to be a graduate student appears on the message board claiming to be doing graduate work and wants to ask some questions that appear to be intended to accomplish the work. Such an approach is clearly well below professional standards and fails to meet professional ethics (research participants should be provided with informed consent). I called the individual on those shortcomings. That same person comes back provides additional information to which I responded by providing specific advice on how to go about conducting their research. A very helpful suggestion and I hope OP gets a second opinion on the exchage from one of their professors if they feel it was patronizing. Given the information provided the advice was accurate. Their response is to call me names and question my sanity for assuming that they had not read anything or completed any prior research. Yet the nature of their posts gives no indication that they have done prior research. If I am guilty of anything it is of being unable to read the mind of someone on another continent. The OP now, finally, clarifies that they have basically completed their research and are just hoping to have some sort of personally enriching discussion. Such a discussion is fine with me, but the OP should have been clear that that was what they were seeking. They didn't. So, other than failing to read OP's mind and infer all sorts of information that was not so much as hinted at in any of their posts, what did I do wrong? It's not your business to criticise, in public, the methods used by a student to do his/her research. You didn't do it in a way that a teacher ought to do it. Instead you did in a way that tore the student apart in public, and I consider that to be shameful; i.e. as someone who cliams to be a teacher, you should be ashamed of yourself. It's not the behavoiur of someone who is in the teaching profession. Also, it's not your business to understand what the OP is doing and why s/he is doing it. You should have kept your nose out in public. Your post wasn't intended to be helpful. It was intended to tear the OP down. It was a shameful way for a teacher to act.

I don't get the need to jump on people who post a research. When you think about it, how else would a person get people's opinions in a reasonably short space of time? They have to ask the questions somewhere, and where is better than a place where users congregate? When they post, they don't know that, to appease some people here, they have to include the magic words, "I've spent the last 2 weeks solid in SL, learning how it works etc." or something like that. I do think it's bad the way some people jump on such posters. If a person doesn't want to participate, just ignore it. That's what I do. There's no need to jump down the poster's throat. It's not like the poster interupted something important or wasted anyone's time. I think this is the first one that I've ever participated in, and that's because he asked questions that were right up my street. I normally ignore them, which is what everyone should do if they don't want to participate. There is no reason at all to jump down a stranger's throat for not doing anything wrong.

Dillon Levenque wrote: The great thing about having seen his post is that my original idea of spending a few days looking at the course and then having a go (back when you guys were hovering in the 5000's) is now totally out the window. I can move along and live my slife as usual. I know exactly what you mean My later scores would have wiped the floor with those first and second day scores, but I did them too late so I haven't been on the podium at all. I'm still going to try and get to the end though. The 2nd and 3rd places are still up for grabs and I wonder how it will treat 2 or 3 identical 1st place scores. Thanks to a generous benefactor, I now have the tools that Hugsy had, except his own one, so it will be save a lot of time. I've been enjoying it though. Through trail and errors I've found a safe route that gets me most of the way there (safe except for SL's sim handovers, that is). That's been enjoyable. We haven't seen any reports of 16's progress though. Are you still doing it, 16? If you are, what's your personal best so far? Have you made it onto the island yet? I haven't.

I'm amazed, 16. You wouldn't give anyone any period of grace at all? Imagine what it would be like if everything worked like that. A day late with a payment and your electriciy is instantly cut off, or your gas, or phone, or television service. I wouldn't do that to people in SL, but we're not talking about SL. It's RL debt that we're discussing and I know of no company that cuts people off the instant they are overdue. Some things happen the instant that a payment is overdue. You have to pay interest, for instance, or you get a fine - things like that, but not cutting off. No.

I know that it's common to jump on people who want to do research in the forum but that's because they are seen as not wanting to get inworld and find things out for themselves. I also know that some people participate in them here. But I'm amazed that anyone jumped on the OP in this one because the first thing he did was politely ask if it would be ok to post his questions here. Then he got jumped on for no good reason. That was very bad. I'm especially amazed at the person who calls himself a professor. He may be one but he doesn't behave like one. He should be ashamed of himself as he gives the teaching profession a bad name.

16 wrote: yes lol about lost your vehicle is hea[ps of mine lost in the wilderness and jungles of SL. i have no idea where they ended up after a big crash. i try to find them after relog but sometimes cant find anywhere You should try looking along the roads I drive on in the Dali rally. There are plenty of dead vehicles there - and stacks of live auto-vehicles too. I never knew that SL roads were so busy with auto-vehicles.

Yes, I said it could be done. You described a different way but it's messy, like the way that I described. Maybe not quite as messy but still messier than the clean way of paying in arrears. And there's no need to change it anyway, because it's not paying tier in arrears that causes most of the debts. It's users not managing their finances in time that causes all of the debts. And LL does allow plenty of time to get straight - several months, I believe. If a person runs through those several months without paying tier, they know they are doing it so there is nobody to blame than themselves - and, apart from exceptional circumstances, they really are to blame.

To the best of my knowledge, it's a very long time before a delinquent account is actually deleted - long enough to sort the debt out. Someone mentioned 6 months earlier in the thread and I've seen that before. There needs to be a limit that LL will save an account and 6 months is very generous for the debt to be outstanding and the account be recoverable, and I see no reason not to delete the account after all that time. You say that the problem is that basic accounts don't get deleted. Presumably you think it's unfair that premium get deleted when basic accounts don't. So delete basic accounts that haven't been used for 6 months. There's no reason to keep them if nobody is going to use them. But there's no reason not to keep them either because they aren't in debt to LL. But definitely don't hold accounts that are in the red forever. Draw the line somewhere and, if 6 months is what they hold it for, it's plenty long enough to hold an account. The difference between a basic account that's not being used for a long time and a delinquent premium account is that the premium account did wrong by using things that they should have paid for but didn't, such as land and premium support. Basic accounts did no wrong but premium accounts did.

Bree Giffen wrote: Phil, It is just "Linden Lab". Weird huh? It is just Linden Lab, Bree - and it's odd, yes.

Coby Foden wrote: But, but... can we accept Hugsy's championship? He used aiding device to help him to avoid the pitfalls. :smileysurprised: Good for him It saved him crashing too many times. Today, I started using the map - full screen on a seperate monitor (a static alt) as well as the map on my own screen. It helps a little but nowhere near as much as Hugsy's stuff if they indicate yellow peril and other such things. If it's a freebie, I want it. I've also considered using the alt to walk ahead of me in the latter part Btw, ty for the tip on acquiring another magic carpet. I'll see about getting one when I'm finally finished with this little game. I've stopped for now because there's a particular sim that's usually fine but I've been dumped on entering it 3 consecutive times. According to the mesage I got each time, the handover doesn't occur "in a timely fashion" so the sim is having problems.

1a. I don't have a personal relationsgip with Linden Lab. 1b. I see L:inden Lab as being totally uninterested in their paying customers. From a customer's point of view, Linden lab is an incredibly bad company. 2. Linden Lab doesn't have any relationship with the SL community as whole, and vice versa, of course. 3. You asked about Lindens (individual people) and not Linden Lab the company. I believe that the dominant attitude towards individual Lindens is good. I also believe that the dominant attitude towards Linden lab, the company, is neutral, but that's because most users don't become aware of how bad the company actually is. Those are my views and opinions. Incidentally, it's Linden Lab, not Linden Labs.

16 wrote: almost all the delinquent Premium account problems are caused by Tier being paid for in arrears if linden made it so that we had to buy Tier in advance (same like buying islands) then most of the problems would go away It's unusual, but I have to disagree with you, 16. It's the user allowing a debt to accrue that's the cause of all such cases - not just most of them. Paying tier in advance instead of in arrears sounds good but it could be problematic. It's paid in arrears so that LL can charge according to the amount of land that was held in the month, even if some of it was held only for a second or two. It's a clean way of doing it. If it was charged in advance, then a person would pay according to the land held at the start of the month, then during the month s/he gets more, tier-increasing, land, which must be paid for in arrears because it wasn't known about at the start of the month. It would mean that, at the start of the following month, the new land total, plus the extra for the previous month, would have to be paid. And the month after that it would be down to the new total land, and so on. It can be done bit it's much messier both for the customer and for LL.

I don't understand why people find this a bad thing. A customer has allowed the debt to occur, so LL cannot be expected to allow the customer to continue at any level (basic) unless the debt is paid. They can't accept people freely using their system who owe them money. I don't think anyone would disagree with that part. So it's the placing on hold, or deleting, the account that people think is bad. But what else can LL do? They can't downgrade it to basic, reclaim any land, and let the person continue to freely use their system while they still owe money. Well, they can, but they'd be idiots to do it. So what can they do? Note: It's quite well-known that I am very anti-Linden Lab, so I'm not defending them in this just because it's LL. I'd be much more inclined to do the opposite. It's just that I don't see it as wrong in any way, and I don't see a suitable alternative for them.