The Herald is One Year Old!

by Alphaville Herald on 22/10/04 at 2:58 pm

Tomorrow, Oct. 23, will mark the 1st Birthday of the Alphaville/Second Life Herald. A lot has happened in the past year, ranging from bannings, spammings, account hacks, clonings, and international media stardom (for 15 minutes). But what were the top stories over the past year? I’ve made two top 10 lists ? one for TSO stories and one for Second Life stories. Are there any that we are overlooking here? What is your vote for the top story on each list?

Top 10 TSO stories (in no particular order)

Deep Max: Will’s Faustian Bargain with EA — how Maxis was saved at the cost of its soul

History of the SSG, part 2: Interview with Mia Wallace on the formation of SSG

Interview with SSG’s Snow White

Interview with Celestie, the Abusive Granny

Evangeline: Interview with a Child cyber-Prostitute in TSO

Interview with Anonymous, on Alphaville’s Bondage, Discipline & Sadomasochism Community

Interview with Gorean Mistress Maria LaVeaux and her Slave, Toy

The ESRB Rating System is Broken

The Simmafia’s JC Soprano: Now the City is Mine!

Interview with Don Hopkins

Election Shocker! Mr-President Enlisted Mafia to “oversee” election

Top 10 SL stories (in no particular order)

Interview with Second Life CEO, Phil Rosedale

Introducing SL’s First Mafia: The Valentino Family

A History of the Second Jessie War

E-L-I-T-E spells drama! As dancers defect to The Deck, Big John vows: “I will burn u down!”

Special: Granny Celestie Meets Grimmy Moonflower

Interview: Cory Linden on IP issues in Second Life

Interview with Opfor founder Jack Orlowski (aka bicycle maker William Bukowski)

Cyber-escort as power gamer: Interview with Daphne Molinari

Interview with Cyanide Leviathan

Interview with virtual erotica publisher, Marilyn Murphy

15 Responses to “The Herald is One Year Old!”

  1. ajdown@jp

    Oct 22nd, 2004

    Just a great pity that the ‘real big story’, Uri’s banning from TSO, that bumped him into international fame….. stopped when he got banned “and the rest is history”. You would have thought that with all the concern over the poor little girl that touched you so much that you felt you had to tell the press about it, you would have followed the story through, and given us all a happy ending?

    Oh yeah I forgot. The girl was irrelevant. Maybe she never even existed. But it’s all good publicity, right?

    aj

  2. ian

    Oct 22nd, 2004

    I would have to go with the Election Shocker… however, I question why some other important stories were not in the top 10…such as the hackings (which you mentioned in the beginning) and the clones. Also the JC Soprano story was good because it was the first of it’s kind. I would also have liked to see some Stratics fiasco’s too.

  3. Dyerbrook

    Oct 22nd, 2004

    Um…the girl was a boy lol. Hey, why did you leave “Interview with Selene Witch” out of the top 10, Uri? That would have been my vote! It was the perfect sting operation, no? LOL. To be honest, none of the ones you picked strike me as really THE BEST stories somehow, but I’d have to go back and read them…certainly BDSM doesn’t deserve to be the best.

  4. urizenus

    Oct 22nd, 2004

    Interview with Selene *Moon*, not witch. Forgotten already, poor girl. But yeah I agonized over that one, but when I moved in the ESRB essay and the essay by Deep Max poor Selene got bumped. She’s still in my top 15 if its any consolatoin. I also notice that there are actually 11 entries given for Alphaville. See, I have an extra finger…

  5. Anonymous

    Oct 22nd, 2004

    What’s your emailaddress, uri?

  6. Father Callahan

    Oct 22nd, 2004

    And none of Father Callahan’s stories made it in the top ten? Geez, I guess being beat by some Anonymous character on sexual deviance is more important than me :-(

  7. urizenus

    Oct 23rd, 2004

    I count Father Callahan as a contributor to the story about the 2nd Jessie War.

    e-mail = ludlow@umich.edu

  8. humdog

    Oct 23rd, 2004

    (scuse me for interrupting the party)
    luddie i need link so i can post. machine got sick, lost the data. thanks. h

  9. Slag

    Oct 23rd, 2004

    I like the SSG stories. People have forgotten too soon the best and biggest TSO organisation of all time. Ive chatted with the ultimate leaders of a few current sim mafias who arnt even dimly aware of what the SSG stood for and accomplished. Long gone are the days when many busy hands would defend Alpha from the mafia “OWNZ” mentality and neighborhoods that soil the game. Also gone are the times when people had a place to turn when they were scammed or stalked or harassed. Not to mention the rocking party that was … now has been replaced by a clucking gaggle of pizza hags cloistered in dragons cove.
    OUT

  10. TBT

    Oct 23rd, 2004

    Congrats Uri, Happy 1st keep it up :-D

  11. ShawnG Bauer (aka ShawnRyanII)

    Oct 23rd, 2004

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE HERALD, YO ITS BEEN A KICK ASS YEAR!! AND HEY, TODAY ON OCT 23 ITS MY BIRTHDAY TOO…SHWEEEET!! IGHT LATER ALL PEACE OUT!!!! AND HOPEFULLY THE 2nd YEAR WILL BE AS GOOD AS THE FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEE LATER DUDES!!

  12. miravoir

    Oct 23rd, 2004

    hoppy birfday!

  13. urizenus

    Oct 23rd, 2004

    thanks Mir!

    This reminds me that I should have had a best series award — definitely goes to Mirovoir’s series on SL skins.

    it also occurred to me that I should have a separate category for the top articles on stratics… There are the essays by Kiss, and of course Humdog’s epic “Anatomy of the Board Ho” and the great reporting from the Father and RB. Lemme thing about this.

  14. Maria LaVeaux

    Oct 23rd, 2004

    toy and I in the top ten?
    We are flattered chere.

    My vote however, for the top (And i think somewhat Underrated) story of the year was the review of the ESRB rating system. Anything that had Dyer and i Agreeing Had to be a story with True relavance. As i stated in my comments there, this sham of a system placed Dyerbrook, and i in a situation where our lifestyles clashed.(At least as far as he was concerned) The ratings are a Fraud, and they needed to be exposed, And repaired (Or scrapped all together).
    To me, this is far more noteworthy than any of the petty histrionics surrounding the Professional griefers, the Sim Mafia’s or the Election. This issue had (And has) REAL LIFE Ramafacations.
    All other considerations aside Dyerbrook, Do you Agree?

    Maria.

  15. Debra Messing

    Oct 24th, 2004

    …You comment on the new surge of blogs and call them unoriginals and you are only a year old?

    pathetic

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