Anyway, for those who haven't got a clue what has gone on (which includes both Viale and Rodvik Linden, although the latter is about to receive continuous updates on his Profile feed - isn't social media connectivity a wonderful thing, unless you are Viale, supposed to be championing it, but turning your own feed off so you are not bothered by those nuisances from the Community!) here is an abbreviated and summarised timeline.
Amanda gets canned for opening her mouth and letting her brains fly out
The post of Community Manager gets publicly advertised
Wasted Engineer is the only external candidate who knows anything about Second Life
Lexie gets persuaded to take on the job temporarily
Lexie gets sick of saying "we'll do something about it sometime"
Viale Linden gets told he will be made redundant if he doesn't take the job on
Viale Linden reads in a Marketing Comic that forums should be used for advertising
Ann OToole tells Viale that Vampires are the next big thing (two or three years after the fact)
Ann OToole gears up production of Vampire products
Viale hasn't the time to consult with the community so he gets on with things without telling anyone
The Adult Forum gets opened up and posters are told to keep it PG
But nobody can find it stuck at the bottom of the list beyond the deserted foreign language forums
A bunch of semi-literate vampires are pressganged into contributing repetitive nonsense posted by Linden Lab
Community members question the whole concept of holding a commercial advertising event in the forums
Celestiall, Cato, Storm, Derek and Charly get banned for questioning the concept
Semi-literate vampires spam the forums with multiple posts with the same titles
One post is so nonsensical it gets moved to General Discussions where everybody is allowed to laugh at it
Rodvik notices the petitions in his Profile Feed to reinstate Celestiall
The fictitious "Kate" claiming to be Genn's guardian, admits she has made a huge cockup regarding Celestiall
Celestiall gets reinstated
A semi-literate vampire asks where all the REAL LIFE vampires are, in contravention of forum protocols
Everybody laughs at the REAL LIFE vampires
Pep Resident gets permabanned for posting three times to say he can't remember if he has said something already
This is in the role play forum where he is role playing a senile geriatric ageplayer.
Pserendipity Resident and Pserendipity Daniels are also banned for being alts of a spammer
Someone promises that a "Special" Linden will attend the Community Tools Meeting on 10 November
A "special needs" Linden turns up instead, Viale demonstrating he doesn't have a clue what is going on
For example, he obviously doesn't realise that a Forum Feedback subforum exists already
Admittedly, it IS difficult to find, which is one of the feedback comments made in Forum Feedback
And that brings us up to the present. If Christmas comes early, Rodvik will notice the massive PR cockup his minions are conducting in his name and will order the roll back of all disciplinary measures to the state they were in before the Vampire Forum was started, Viale will be replaced by someone that doesn't sound like an ESLer when he isn't one, a communications process will be initiated so that the Community might be enticed into participating positively in marketing initiatives, and the moderators are given extended sick leave in order to have cosmetic surgery in the form of a sense of humour implant.
Pep (will update this after Rod has done something.)
PS Did I miss anything significant? Post and let me know.
I found your write-up way too kind toward the incompetent, self-serving Viale. Are you feeling well today?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't "special needs" as a description of the mentally defective travel across the Atlantic?
ReplyDeletePep (would try harder but it's Friday)
PS I also have little expectation of Marketing wonks, and so Viale's performance is about par for the course.
Wow.
ReplyDelete"Special needs" travels.
Wow. Really? All of this is happening over at the lame shell of a SL Forum? Or is this all back room stuff that the average viewer cannot see, with the exception of the vampire and adult sections. I can't find anything over there.
YOU must be happy, you old grump. Rabble rousing and intrigue and (unsuspecting) idiots to prod! What is the tally now on avatars and forums from which you've been banned?
L, I was never one for a WoT of opinion, I go more for the punchline; finding a straight man in every/anybody that came across my path. I also find a lot of humor when I am at the brunt of the 'joke' so I put myself in that position, too. Why not, it is all about having fun as adults, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteA forum friend, Celestiall, was permabanned for offering an opinion. We, as a forum, came together with one voice at the direction of the CEO to have this ban overturned. We were partially successful as Celestiall is back, but many of us fell. It was *my* choice to post the way I did and I took a hit. It was not a pleasant experience being suspended. I have weathered constant banging from the LWL; accusations by Prok; alts pointing FC in my face; the ignorance of posters like Mayalily dribbling troll accusations; the drama of Dillion calling me his personal troll in the same breath defending MP as the victim of forum bullying. I have never been suspended. I have never harassed any individual. I was actually sick from the ignorance displayed by Viale in my suspension as it contradicted everything some of us helped to build since the new Lithium format. I think this is what Pep was writing about. I don't think he was looking for another notch in his belt as you gently alluded to. I think we need to get Pep un-permabanned and I will do what ever I can to have my voice heard, even if it means taking another hit. I would do the same for Prok, Mayalily, and/or Dillon.
Why am I writing this to you? It is because there are many beautiful voices in the forum, and yours was one of them. You *chose* to not participate any longer on SLF, and I respect that. Other voices did not choose as you, but they got warned, suspended, or permabanned. As you can read above Pep was permabanned, I was suspended.
L, please indulge me for a moment. There is a new poster to the forum and her name is Ellyn. I love her style and words as they are filled with intelligence, fun, and humor - and they project a tremendous sense of the character. She has not made all that many posts, but I have read them all. I thought she was you; the Leia/SR persona that I once knew and read all the time. I was actually hoping Ellyn was you, but as it turns out she is not. I was hoping it was you because I recognize a sweet and delightful person in Ellyn's voice: I was hoping you were back to that place you once were. Peace.
Oh well Willem, it 'tops' any of your contribution(s).
ReplyDeleteStorm, to be honest, it has taken me a while to sit with your post/letter. The last time we communicated, you and others were busy flambéing me in cheap brandy. I will take these recent words of your at face value as an outreach of peace and will respond accordingly.
ReplyDeleteI’ve made some really stupid decisions over the past few years. Really. Stupid. Killing off Leia & Seicher were not stupid decisions though and I’m glad I did. I miss that little avatar and I miss her expensive inventory even more. I do not miss the constant meme every time I show my face. I have started back in SL, sometime in August I think. A very small handful of people know her “true” identity and at this point I want to emphatically state it is not an avatar named Ellyn.
I literally cringed when I read that there is someone posting on the SLF that you thought was me. If you did then I’m sure others did as well. From what I understand of the SLF the kind of alt-hunting that used to go on would no longer be tolerated. That at least is a plus.
I have not posted to a forum with my new avatar’s name, nor will I, even though I was sorely tempted the last time I visited the SLF. I mentioned that below, in another comment here in Pep’s blog.
I did know, from reading here, of Celestiall’s permabanning. It was yet one more reason for me not to post over at SLF. I keep my toe in the forum dramas by reading Pep’s blog; it is about all I can manage to stomach. Plus he’s a dear friend and I like keeping up with what he does, bans and all. I still enjoy Caity’s blog and was delighted to discover that Carole has one as well.
Anyway, I digress. I’m glad to see you finally accepting my choice to leave the SLF. Many of your heated words came to me over my experiences and opinions regarding the “new” format over there. I understand more than you know about losing a sense of Internet community and how important having a home base for conversation and socialization can be. Because of that I have never once disagreed with the passion with which you support, defend and try to better the SLF. I don’t share that passion and have stated as much but I’ve always understood why you feel strongly about it. (Ok, almost always.)(Usually.)(Most of the time.)(Every so often?) :)
That LL is royally fucking up the SLF even more (which doesn’t seem possible)… I sympathize. That people who care are taking up the battle… I applaud.
Ah, maaaan, this is gonna be a wall of text, isn’t it?
Honestly, Storm, you puzzle me and always have. I’ve had a great time in the past goofing off and bantering with you. Some of your posts and threads used to leave my sides hurting from laughter and I enjoyed trying to play with the ideas in response posts. We exchanged a few, short, friendly IMs. Then, you’d take a side and flame me. Then you’d come back and say nice words about my blog and my writing (like you’ve done here, thank you, that did mean something to me). Then back to the digs and the flames. So…color me confused.
Thank you for the nice letter and post. I wish you peace as well and hope the SLF straightens up and you can continue there the way you like to.
L/Seicher
PS. Killing off Leia and Seicher, though painful, was the right decision (for once). Another good decision was letting Willem’s mediocre English comprehension skills kill off our friendship and me keeping it killed. He has more than adequately demonstrated that I was well out of that relationship! Why he bothers posting in Dutch is beyond me since Google Translate works just fine for his drug induced juvenile ramblings. Then again, why he bothers posting at all is beyond me.
I would like this documented for future reference. It is a response to a post by Dillon who wrote (while I was suspended so I could not offer a response) my voice was silent when Keli K. got permabanned. It was I that got Torley's ear in a thread that Torley OP'd, Pep was right behind me. When Celestiall got permabanned it was Pep that had the brilliancy to take it to SLum, and I was right behind him. Both of these actions respectively were the catalyst for the reversals of the bans for Keli and Celestiall.
ReplyDeleteGo figure Dillon. I defy anybody to tell me otherwise.
...over to you Dillon.