Anshe to Honor Residents’ Vote: Dishonest PR Flacks to be Banned from Dreamland Continent

by Urizenus Sklar on 11/11/06 at 11:09 pm

Dishonest PR added to previous list of bannable offenses: griefing, theft, violation of intellectual property, sexual harassment, online rape and distribution of child pornography

Anshe
Anshe Chung, owner and developer of virtual real estate on the Dreamland Continent (a region supported by 400-500 simulators that constitutes 10% of the land mass and 10% of the population of Second Life) has issued a press release indicating that she *will* enforce the ballot initiative voted for by the residents of Dreamland — an intitiative that called for the banning of dishonest PR and marketing flacks.

In the press release, issued late yesterday, Ms. Chung argued that while Dreamland would welcome real world organizations, they would not tolerate unethical behavior by these organization, in particular “false first” claims:

“Especially with the engagement of public relations firms in the space, a few corporate players have demonstrated their willingness to take advantage of early Second Life pioneers’ achievements in unethical ways. It appears to have become common practice in certain corporate circles to copy concepts that have long been pioneered by Second Life residents, to then make false claims of inventorship in the real world media. Examples are companies that falsely claimed to launch the ’1st radio station in SL’, ’1st fashion brand in SL’, ’1st tabloid in SL’ or to be the ’1st company launched in SL’. All these concepts have already been pioneered for years in professional, successful and profitable ways by lesser known Second Life residents.”

Perhaps most interesting is the news that alleged violators will face a trial by jury. Details of judicial proceedures were not specified in the press release.

Ms. Chung represents a formidable presence in Second Life and in the metaverse more broadly. She has recently been featured on the cover of Business Week magazine, and mtv.com has called her one of the 10 most influential video game players of all time. The Press Release and a German Language translation are under the fold.

—-Press Release, for distribution —-

SECOND LIFE’S LARGEST RESIDENT COMMUNITY WELCOMES REAL WORLD ORGANISATIONS – BANS BLACK SHEEP

Plush City @ Second Life, 12-Nov-2006

Residents of Dreamland, Second Life’s largest community, have decided in a vote to hold real world PR firms accountable for their actions in relation to Second Life and it’s residents.

“We have seen a rush of organisations that have made the real world what it is today, trying to expand their activities into Second Life. Residents in our communities believe that most of these groups come with positive intentions and a solid set of ethics. They are welcome to Dreamland to interact with or even become part of our highly creative and bleeding edge communities of early Metaverse settlers. ” – says Anshe Chung, founder of Dreamland and co-owner of ACS, the community services provider for Dreamland.

“However, especially with the engagement of public relations firms in the space, a few corporate players have demonstrated their willingness to take advantage of early Second Life pioneers’ achievements in unethical ways .” points out Anshe Chung. “It appears to have become common practise in certain corporate circles to copy concepts that have long been pioneered by Second Life residents, to then make false claims of inventorship in the real world media. Examples are companies that falsely claimed to launch the ’1st radio station in SL’, ’1st fashion brand in SL’, ’1st tabloid in SL’ or to be the ’1st company launched in SL’. All these concepts have already been pioneered for years in professional, successful and profitable ways by lesser known Second Life residents. “

Ms. Chung continues: “As a consequence, the residents of Dreamland decided with overwhelming majority to add false claims of inventorship and fake pioneering to the list of bannable offenses in all 400+ Dreamland simulators .”

Some previously bannable offenses in Dreamland include e.g. griefing, theft, violation of intellectual property, sexual harassment, online rape and distribution of child pornography.

Organisations and their avatars will be warned after a violation has been determined by a jury of residents. A ban will be issued if no adequate retraction and public apology is made by the offending party. In case of repeat offenses or especially severe violations a ban may be issued without prior warning.

Dreamland

comprises more than 400 simulators or about 10% of the Second Life world. It has been founded in January 2005 and has quickly become the largest and fastest growing resident community. It set a standard for zoned and themed neighbourhoods in the Metaverse and has served as inspiration for many other resident run settlements that emerged since.

Anshe Chung Studios

is Second Life’s largest resident business. Started as a research experiment in 2004 it has quickly grown into a major Metaverse development and services company. Today ACS employs more than 30 people full time, most of them in house in its main development studio in Wuhan, China. The company has been profitable since the beginning and is fully privately owned.

SECOND LIFE’S GROESSTE SIEDLERCOMMUNITY HEISST ORGANISATIONEN AUS DER REALEN WELT WILLKOMMEN – VERBANNT SCHWARZE SCHAFE

Plush City @ Second Life, 12-Nov-2006

Einwohner von Dreamland, der groessten Community in Second Life, zu der auch bekannte deutschsprachige Gebiete wie Die Insel oder Freihafen gehoeren, haben in einer Abstimmung entschieden, PR Firmen fuer ihre Handlungen gegenueber Second Life Bewohnern zur Rechenschaft zu ziehen.

“In letzter Zeit gab es einen enormen Ansturm auf Second Life, durch Organisationen die die reale Welt zu dem gemacht haben was sie heute ist. Die Einwohner unserer Siedlungen sind davon ueberzeugt, dass die meisten dieser Gruppen mit guten Absichten und einem einwandfreien Moralverstaendnis zu uns kommen. Sie sind in Dreamland willkommen und herzlich dazu eingeladen mit unserer Gemeinschaft von hochkreativen Pionieren des Metaversums zu interagieren oder dieser Gemeinschaft sogar beizutreten.” – sagt Anshe Chung, Gruenderin von Dreamland und Mitbesitzerin von ACS, dem Community Service Provider fuer Dreamland.

“Allerdings haben einige Unternehmen, besonders seit dem verstaerkten Engagement von PR-Firmen in dem Bereich, demonstriert, dass sie bereit sind, auf unmoralische Weise aus den Errungenschaften frueher Second Life Pioniere Kapital zu schlagen .” – erklaert Anshe Chung. “Es scheint so, als ob es in bestimmten unternehmerischen Kreisen normal geworden waere, Konzepte die bereits lange Zeit von Second Life Benutzern entwickelt und umgesetzt wurden, zu kopieren und dann in den Medien bewusst falsch als eigene Erfindung oder Pionierleistung darzustellen. Beispiele sind Firmen die durch ihre Medienkontakte verbreitet haben, sie haetten “den ersten Radiosender in SL”, “die erste Modekollektion in SL”, “die erste Boulevardzeitung in SL” oder gar die “erste Firma in Second Life” gegruendet. All diese Konzepte wurden bereits seit Jahren erfolgreich, professionell und profitabel von weniger bekannten Second Life Benutzern praktiziert und umgesetzt .”

Frau Chung weiter: “Als eine Konsequenz haben nun die Einwohner von Dreamland mit ueberwaeltigender Mehrheit entschieden, es unter Strafe zu stellen wenn sich Unternehmen oder Personen unrechtmaessig mit den Leistungen schwaecherer oder weniger bekannter Second Life Benutzer schmuecken. ‘false claims of inventorship’ und ‘fake pioneering’ werden ab jetzt mit Verbannung aus allen mehr als 400 Dreamland Simulatoren geahndet .”

Bisher werden in Dreamland Vergehen wie zum Beispiel Einbruch, Diebstahl, Urheberrechtsverletzungen, sexuelle Belaestigung, Vergewaltigung und Verbreitung von Kinderpornographie mit Verbannung bestraft.

Organisationen und ihre Avatare erhalten eine Warnung, sobald eine Jury aus Dreamland Einwohnern ein Vergehen feststellt. Ein Bann wird erlassen wenn kein adaequater Widerruf mit oeffentlicher Entschuldigung erfolgt. Bei wiederholten oder besonders schweren Vergehen kann ein Bann ohne vorherige Warnung erfolgen.

Dreamland

besteht aus mehr als 400 Simulatoren und umfasst etwa 10% der Second Life Welt. Es wurde im Januar 2005 gegruendet und wurde die groesste und am schnellsten wachsende Siedlung in dieser virtuellen Welt. Dreamland hat einen Standard fuer Siedlungsplanung und themenbasierte Wohngebiete im Metaversum etabliert der wiederum zahlreichen anderen Projekten als Vorbild dient.

Anshe Chung Studios

ist Second Life’s groesstes Unternehmen. Was im Jahr 2004 als ein reines Forschungsexperiment begann, wurde rasch zu einem ernsthaften Dienstleistungs- und Entwicklungsunternehmen fuer Metaversumsplatformen wie Second Life, There und IMVU. Heute beschaeftigt ACS mehr als 30 Mitarbeiter vollzeit, die meisten davon in seinem Entwicklungszentrum in Wuhan, China. Die Firma war von Anfang an profitabel und befindet sich vollstaendig in deutschem Privatbesitz.

10 Responses to “Anshe to Honor Residents’ Vote: Dishonest PR Flacks to be Banned from Dreamland Continent”

  1. eva

    Nov 11th, 2006

    One word for you AC: baller.

    Keep on keepin it real.
    -Eva-

  2. Strumpette

    Nov 12th, 2006

    NEWS FLASH: PR Flacks Banned in Second Life

    This just in… what is being billed as one of the most significant developments in the history of virtual worlds, residents of the Second Life gated community Dreamland have voted to ban PR practitioners from their region. By conservative estimates

  3. Artemis Fate

    Nov 12th, 2006

    So essentially, Anshe is making sure that she’s the only “Dishonest PR Flack” in town. I can understand why she wouldn’t want competition, especially from those who do it much better than her.

    I also find it funny that this decision has been made off of the “firsts” of SL article, which no longer exists due to them changing the name after realizing their error.

  4. While I certainly won’t defend those fake firster, it is one thing to critisize them and another to ban those involved in false claims. If ACS really plans to ban avatars based on what the humans behind them say in press releases, that would be a “interesting” political attitude, to phrase it politely.

    On the other hand, I don’t believe that Anshe or Guni will actually ban anyone. This press release looks more like an clever PR ploy itself. Present yourself as defender of The People – and remind those RL companies that you have something interesting to offer. ;) I wonder if we will see some RL sourced advertising in the Plush sims soon – and if those fake “firsters” will be among the advertisers ;)

  5. Szentasha Salome

    Nov 12th, 2006

    I was wondering .. and hope someone can enlighten me on this. Could it be possible that this is just a misunderstanding? Was American Apparel the first RL fashion band to move into SL? Is that what they mean when they say first? I’m not defending them. I hate the way SL is quickly becoming a marketing platform for RL businesses and developer-residences aren’t getting the credit or respect they deserve. I’m just trying to understand this on its merits. I think the implication from many of these ‘first’ claims is that it is a RL institution entering SL, and doesn’t take away from businesses like mine that started in SL and are likely to stay there.

  6. Urizenus

    Nov 12th, 2006

    Some of the offenders back-peddaled and claimed just that when they got called out the first time, but (i) if that is what they meant then that is what they should have said, and (ii)some of the first claims didn’t have to do with so-called r/l corporations but corps that didn’t exist yet but and were allegedly the first to “launch” in SL or some such thing, and (iii) lots of the early virtual corporations came from outside SL, including the Herald don’t forget, (iv) the real/virtual distinction really bleeds here, so trying to state a “first” in those terms show that you are just plain missing the point. Case in point, do you really want to say that Anshe Chung Studios is not a real world corporation? Even after she has been on the cover of Business Week? Even if she has offices and a full time staff? As do many SL corps? Well, she started a radio station — Dreamland Radio — why was that less real that whatever channel 4 thinks they are going to do?

    I think that pushing bullshit claims at us works in broadcast media because what are people going to do to check it out? Call all their friends on the phone and ask if its true? In social spaces like SL the group groks out these fabrications and makes the fabricators pay. That’s just how it is. I only marvel that the PR people can’t wrap their minds around this simple fact. They are so stuck in old media — even the new media guys only seem to understand the technology. They don’t seem to have a clue about the social and epistemic power unlocked by the technology.

  7. Artemis Fate

    Nov 12th, 2006

    The story is, the way I see it: these people took a cursory glance at SL, picked out all the oldest popular PR reports of various aspects of SL, and decided that these must be the first large scale developments of this in SL, without realizing that SL has been around for a long time before it became a media darling, and such things have developed before hand. They just wanted a quick story, not months of research, so they went with that and figured no one would care all that much.

    They were wrong, people complained, they went “oops” and changed the title to better reflect what they were getting at, a list of various large scale PR firsts that they found over cursory research into SL.

    This isn’t some large conspiracy to supercede SL history with their oncomming, and it’s not them purposefully lying, it’s just basic laziness, you all complained, they corrected it, that should be the end of the story there.

  8. Urizenus

    Nov 12th, 2006

    Well for the most part they have been horrible about correcting it. As you point out, that Gallery of Firsts has been changed, but it was originally published in August or thereabouts, and Spin Martin on his blog and Zero Grace on Clickable Culture went off on it to little effect. It was only when we started screaming “fucktard” and Amanda Chapel picked up the story in Wonkette that things started to change and even then only after lots of back and forths in blog space did the changes happen.

    And to date, so far as I know, no one has retracted the fake firsts mentioned in Anshe’s letter: first radio station, first tabloid, etc.

  9. Marcus

    Nov 22nd, 2006

    Frau Chung sollte mal von ihren Admins ihr Forum kontrollieren lassen.
    Im deutschen Forum ihrer Seite wird man von Pornografie fast erschlagen.

    Beispiellink? http://www.anshechung.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3107

    Bitte sehr.

    Gruß
    Marcus Budke

    (In SecondLife Eugene Kirshner)

  10. In the name of fairness

    Dec 20th, 2006

    Mafia Tactics: intimidation, extortion, robbery. As Dreamland has decided to police it’s remote continent in SL so to must Linden Lab. Recent encounters with the fine “angels” of Dreamland have left residents a little beat up and confused with a pang in their gut which anyone who has been mugged can relate to. As Dreamland makes it’s assult on PR within SL remember an old saying popular here in the South; “a bit dog hollars”.

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