Phil Deakins

I'm going to watch all 3 hours of that video. Probably not in one sitting, but I'll get through it.

Look at it another way... LL started a forum (the RA forum) many years ago. Many years later they decided to buy the XSL shopping system, which didn't even exist in the early years of the RA forum. The shopping system happened to have a forum attached so they let the extra forum run. Some time later, they realised that they'd modified the main forum's software so much that it had become unmanageable and they decided to replace it with the blog system's forum facility, which is what they did. But they didn't want to still have the extra forum to maintain so they closed it down. You only ever used the XSL forum, and then you had to use the blog forum. So, for you, it seems like that's the current forum's history - but it isn't. It's only your forum history.

I never used the word "official". It's interesting to note that you've changed your tune a bit since the post of yours that I corrected. In that post, the history line went from the xstreet forum to the blog forum. Now you say it goes from both the xstreet forum and the RA forum to the blog forum. It's good to see that you are now snuggling up to the old RA forum My thinking is this. The RA forum goes back forever. The xstreet forum had only 1 year of LL ownership, and it only had that because it happened to be attached to a system that LL bought. It was the system they bought, not the forum. The RA forum naturally closed when they updated (in their minds) the forum with the blog forum. I don't know exactly when the xstreet forum closed in relation to the blog forum opening, but I don't think it matters whether or not it closed at the same time or later. The original forum was replaced by the blog forum, and the original forum was the RA one. So, imo, that's the history line and your "first change" was changing from the RA software to the blog software. The "first change" you described was only the first change for you but not for SL users in general. If they could have ported the RA people and post counts into the new software, they would have. But the best they could do, without spending a stupidly long time on it, was archive the RA forum.

You can argue it whichever way you like, Cel, but the predecessor of this forum is the old RA forum. It was the orginal forum and this one replaced it. Of course the RA forum closed when this one opened. The RA forum was on software (much better than any software we've been on since) that had been so heavily modified that it had become too difficult to deal any more and so LL decided to do away with that software and use a rubbish blog system instead. That was the continuation of the RA forum, and this one we have now is the continuation of the blog forum. I'm sorry, but your description of what "the first change" was was wrong. It wasn't changing from the Xstreet forum to the blog forum, as you described. It was changing from the RA forum to the blog forum.

That was a very fascinating video.

Does life exist outside of our solar system? Probably. If so, has that life developed intelligence that rivals and surpasses our own? No idea. Do you believe aliens have visited Earth in the recent past i.e. Roswell etc.? No. One big reason why I don't believe that most of the UFO sightings are extra-terrestrial is that they are bright lights in the sky. If I were an extra-terrestrial visiting another world, I certainly wouldn't turn the headlights on, or any other very bright lights, so that the population below could see me. I'd definitely want to be very stealthy about it. So I don't believe that the lights are anything to do with extra-terrestrial aliens. Those sightings that are not lights are either not backed up with photographic evidence, or the photographic evidence is so unclear that there's no way to see if it's an actual vehicle or not. The 'strange' material (that sprang back to its original shape after being crumpled) that witnesses found at Roswell turned out to be a sort of plastic that was in use at the time but wasn't familiar to the general population so it would be a very 'strange' material to the witnesses, or so a documentary I saw concluded. It probably was a weather balloon or a military project. A couple of years ago, I was looking out of my dining room window when a very strange darkish object moved slowly across the sky. It was taller than it was wide and it was narrower at the top that at the bottom. It didn't have wings, and it was sort of lumpy - not straight-sided - like an object with boxes attached. The overall shape was that of a Dalek except that it was lumpy. It wasn't at a great altitude and my first thought was an autogyro, but as it came over, I could clearly see that it had no tail assembly and no rotor above it - or anywhere on it. So it wasn't an autogyro. I have absolutely no idea what it was - I can't even imagine what it might have been. What I'm sure of (in my belief) is that it wasn't of an extra-terrestrial nature. So I don't put it down to aliens. I really do wish I knew what it was though. Do you believe the Ancient Astronaut theories that suggest that Aliens have shaped all of Human History? Definitely not. One piece of 'evidence' for ancient astronauts is ancient drawings of human-shaped beings with space helmets on; i.e. a sort of circle round the head. They can't be differentiated from pictures of human beings with halos, so the space helmet idea is nonsense. Another so-called piece of evidence was, how could men from so long ago have erected the statues on Easter Island. Nobody knew until someone actually asked the islanders to do it - and they did. Those two pieces of so-called evidence are created by a Dutchman (I forget his name), along with other nonsence pieces that he cites as evidence for ancient astrnauts. Do you think governments are covering up the existence of Alien UFO’s or using the phenomena to mask their own secrets projects? No, but I do think that governments/military don't get involved with the alien UFO idea of a sighting when they know the things was theirs. So, rather than use the alien idea to cover up their secret projects, they don't come out admit it was one of their secret projects - they leave the people and media to speculate that it was of alien origin. Although I suppose that, if one of their secret projects was sighted and reached the media, they may engineer the idea that is could have been an alien UFO without it being known that it was them getting the idea out there. Will we ever be able to communicate with an Alien civilisation if we find one or if they find us? Probably.. What do you think an alien life form might look like? No idea. Is it a good idea for us to be searching for ET’s and broadcasting our position in the galaxy or should we be trying to hide? We don't have a choice about broadcasting our existance. We've been doing it since radio was invented. And the content of some of our TV programmes will give our position, anyway. However, our very first radio signals haven't yet gone very far in terms of the size of the galaxy. Comment: Most of us would like aliens to be visiting us, and we'd like to see them - just like we'd like Nessy, Bigfoot, the abominable snowman, etc. to exist. But, if extra-terrestrials actually did land here, I for one would shout "SH.T!" in my head and wonder what massive dangers we're in for. I really don't want aliens to land here

But you wrote your post as though your experience (xstreet forum followed by this forum) was the forum history when it wasn't. You wrote about "the first change" as though the change from the xstreet forum to this forum was the first change. That's what I was correcting because it was wrong as far as this forum's history is concerned. It was only right as far as your personal SL-related forum history is concerned.. This forum started as what we now call the RA forum. Then the software was changed and the RA forum was archived. And then the software was changed again. Along the way, the forum that started life as the SLX forum joined this forum. So this forum's history is, first the RA forum, then then first software change, and then the second softare change. Somewhere along the way, another forum that LL acquired was closed, and its users came to use this one. That's the forum's history in a nutshell, and it's a bit different to what you described in your post. This forum didn't start as an outside forum (SLX) as you suggested in your post. It started as an LL forum, before the outside one, and it's never changed from being that. What you described as the forum's history was your own personal SL-related forum history but not this forum's history.

The short answers to your questions are:- Yes, you can post your survey here. No, you don't need to ask anyone's permission.

But it is just your own personal forum experience. And I do know that the XStreet people became LL employees when LL bought Xstreet, but that was for the Xtreeet system rather than the forum. Your (Xstreet) forum came to to us. We didn't join you. Your "first change" is not part of this forum's history - not in the way you wrote it, anyway. You said it yourself - "LL has archived the old SLX/ X-Street forum and it was merged into a LL run forum". I.e. you joined us (the LL forum) and not the other way round

Yes I know all the history - I was here But referring to the "old" forum, does not refer to anything other than an LL forum, and there was only one - which wasn't the SLX/Xstreet forum. The old forum was what is now usually referred to as the RA forum which, as we agree, was always owned by LL. I think you used your personal forum history as the history of this forum, but it's not. This forum's history started with what is now referred to as the RA forum, which was always owned by LL. Then they changed the software. That was the "first change". It was nothing to do with the SLX forum. There was no merging of forums. They simply closed the old forum and set up a new forum with different software. They also closed the Xstreet forum. From your point of view, having never used the old forum, the "first change" (for you) was the closing of the other forum and a new one being set up. In other words, you followed a path from the outside that joined the inside. But the inside path is the actual history. You joined us - we didn't join you

Ciaran Laval wrote: Sky 1 have done The Color Of Magic, The Hogfather and Going Postal, they're currently on Virgin Media on demand too. They are nowhere near as good as the books mind you. I've read those 3 books but I've only seen 'Going Postal' as a film. It was nowhere near as good as the book, and it stopped halfway through. Maybe it was made in 2 parts. I did know 'The Hogfather' had been made into a film but I haven't come across it. I have Virgin TV but I don't think I'll be looking for those films. I haven't read all the Discworld books but so far, my favourite is 'Thief Of Time'.

No.

If I've understood your post correctly, your memory is a bit astray, Cel. The "old" forum was going for years before LL bought SLX - and LL owned it all along. The old forum is usually referred to as the RA (Resident Answers) forum these days because the RA sub-forum was the liveliest and most used part of it. LL didn't exactly "merge" the SLX forum and the SL forum. They simply closed the SLX forum and redid the SL forum with different software. So the SLX forum is not part of the history of this forum. It's only part of the history of your personal SL-related forum experience.

Perrie Juran wrote: Do we sometimes drive new people off when we snipe at what we consider their naive or sometimes dumb points of views or questions? Well a dumb question like that would certainly drive me off! (j/k of course )

Nyll Bergbahn wrote: Sorry Innula, my reply was for Phil rather than your post in the context that you can photograph light emitting sources, they don't need to have light falling on them. I clicked the wrong post. In that case, we aren't in disagreement. Of course we can photograph light sources. Melita had written to the effect that light falls on the screen and so we can photograph it. I corrected the idea that it can be photographed only because light falls on it. I could have added that light falling on something does not allow us to either see it of photograph it. It's light refelecting off something that does that - except light sources, of course Overall, I've posted that, imo, a photographer in SL can be called a photographer. I think you're saying the same thing.

Porky Gorky wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: I find it a lot easier these days to stay out of the forum than it was before they started changing the forum software. Back then, the discussions were often so interesting that it was hard to stay out. Now if find it difficult to come across a really interesting thread. I only pop in to fill a bit of time, and there are periods when I don't pop in for quite a while. So, to answer your question, no I don't get tired of posting here. I don't post much because there isn't much that's of real interest to me. BRING BACK THE BOTS!!! I agree completely. Remember we had that epic discussion about the origions of the universe a while back? I think that was the most interesting thread I have seen all year. SL has been talked to death. We should start more non SL related threads....try and answers some of lifes fundamental questions :smileyvery-happy: Yes! That was an excellent thread. One of the few that I've enjoyed in the forum since they first changed the software.

Porky Gorky wrote: I started on the forums in 2005 and although it was allot more active I think you are seeing it through rose tinted glasses a bit. There was endless amounts of trolling, epic arguments and constant bickering between certain individuals and factions and the whole thing was moderated by res mods, some of whom (we learnt later) were using alts to instigate some of the disorder. I agree that the forums did buzz with excitement allot more back then, but it was also full of nasty and spiteful posts and no one was safe from being harassed simply for posting an opinion. That's what I miss - those epic arguments. BRING BACK THE BOTS!!!

I like sci-fi but I've never read a sci-fi book. The best I can offer is are Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld' books. There are dozens of them. They are not sci-fi but films of them would be shown on sci-fi channels. They are amusing phantasy about witches, wizards, Foul Ol' Ron, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibler, werewolves, trolls, zombies, dwarfs, the Tooth Fairy, Death, and many many more - and humans.

The older LL viewers used to show who your partner is - in your profile. The current LL viewer doesn't show it - not that I can find, anyway. The Phoenix viewer still shows it so you could download that and look in your profile..

Inara Pey wrote: At the risk of sounding like I'm engaged in self-promotion () I've an overview of pathfinding here which covers the basics. It also has links to more recent articles (given it is now a couple of months old, and things are evolving), some of which include links to LL's growing resources on the subject. The URL in your link has a spurious http:// on the end, so it only gets to a "Page not found". If anyone wants to reach the correct page, here's the link:- http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/08/pathfinding-overview/

I find it a lot easier these days to stay out of the forum than it was before they started changing the forum software. Back then, the discussions were often so interesting that it was hard to stay out. Now if find it difficult to come across a really interesting thread. I only pop in to fill a bit of time, and there are periods when I don't pop in for quite a while. So, to answer your question, no I don't get tired of posting here. I don't post much because there isn't much that's of real interest to me. BRING BACK THE BOTS!!!

Charolotte Caxton wrote: Light does not fall on a medium? What do you think produces the images you see on your screen? Light doesn't fall on of the screen to enable us to see the images. Light is emitted by the screen. The screen is the light source. That's what produces the images on the screen so that we can see them. Even if you took an RL photo of the screen, your camera wouldn't get the image because light fell on the it. It would get it because the light for the image is generated and emitted by the screen.

"Photographer". It's an interesting sub-topic. Both you and Charolotte are right - and you are both wrong. You are wrong because Charolotte's view of it says you are wrong, and she is genuinely right. Charolotte is wrong because your view of it says she is wrong, and you are genuinely right. Both viewpoints are valid and right. I disagree with your term, "digital art" for it. Imo, digital art is akin to painting but the medium is digital. That's very different from taking a snapshot in SL. Whether or not taking snapshots in SL is taking a photograph is certainly debatable, and imo it is. Whether or not those who take snapshots in SL could be described as 'photographers' is another matter. In the same way that everyone can slap paint on paper and even create a recognisable likeness of something but cannot be seen as a genuine 'artist', perhaps there's a difference between taking normal snapshots in SL and setting up a shot to take a snap of. Taking simple SL snaps is akin to taking simple snaps on holiday (on vacation if you're the US). People who do it can't be descibed as 'photographers' even though they are taking photographs. Setting up a shot in SL and taking a snap of it is akin to an RL photographer. They do just that, even if they don't physically arrange what's in the shot. So, imo, whether or not someone who takes snapshots in SL is a 'photographer' depends entirely on what s/he puts into the snapshots. If they are the normal snaps, then the person isn't a photographer. But if they are arranged shots, often artistically, then the person is a 'photographer'. Whether they are a good photographer or not depends on the quality of their work. It may be that some people in SL call themselves photographers because they take pictures of things like weddings. Anyone can take those pictures but not everybody can take them with some genuine composition in mind. RL people do the same thing. Neither are particularly artistic, although they both put proper thought into the compositions. Both take pictures and, imo, both are photographers. ETA: It ocurred to me that you may be rejecting the word 'photographer' because SL pics are not pics of anything real. In that case, I would say that within the SL world, those pics are of real things within the SL world and, because of that, the word 'photographer' in the SL world is valid.

Mayalily wrote: I just noticed now that the picture also says right next to it in paraenthesis -- no modify, no transfer. How was this person able to do that...put a real life picture in my computer that is no modify/no transfer? Anyone have any idea how they made that picture no modify/no transfer? You meant into your inventory, not into your computer, right? If I remember correctly, the sender was the creator of those things. He sets the perms for the next owner, not for himself. You're the next owner.

Your post reminded a lot of something from many years ago... Back when Roger Moore was playing Simon Templar (The Saint) on TV, he took up with a cloth manufacturer near where I live. It was a financial arrangement where he got paid for promoting the cloth. The story he told went like this. "In my role of The Saint, I wear out many suits but one brand of suit seemed to last much longer than the rest. I checked on the material and found that it was made by <the manufacturer>". That was for the press. It was an incredibly childish piece of lying - childish because it was so blantantly obvious. That's why your post reminded me of it