The language and country based sims have one big advantage over “regular” sims: timezone.

As an Australian many so called “popular” places are deserted when I visit them and hold events at times that are impossible for me to attend. So in desperation I started looking up Australian places just to find places with people in them who weren’t camping.

If the language/country sims are half decent then they have a large advantage when it comes to attrcting people from their own timezone!

then your issue is with people behaving like assholes. Not all those people in the oft mentioned but never seen FIC. I have no issue with that – SL does seem to have more than its fair share of twits and punks in it. But whoever this Taco is, what about him makes him part of this uber-techy FIC? The ability to upload a picture? His being an ass to you? Or does he have a company which has access to hidden parts of the SL servers’ databases?

Not everyone with tech skill is a jackass and not every jackass is someone with tech skill. I’ll admit there is a sort of heirarchy in tech circles, yes. It goes:

knows nothing
beginner
amateur
journeyman/pro-am
master/professional
expert

In general, folks limit their tech talk to those one above or one below their own level. This isn’t because of an elitest attitude so much as it is difficult to communicate well if the skill level is too far apart. For example: Amateurs can demonstrate getting started ideas to beginners and help them learn enough to grow and progress, whereas an expert has moved so far beyond such times that he’s hard pressed to remember basics which are now second nature to him.

You don’t find 20 year tenured professors of English teaching 1st grade reading – it’s the exact same thing. You can have people who know nothing come up and ask for help, sure. But about the only thing the experts can do to help the virgin programmer is point them to primers and examples and tell them to learn the basics. This isn’t egalitarianism though I can see how one who is outside the tech world could misconstrue it as such. It’s merely a huge difference in skill level.

And quite a few of us teach scripting and building to newcomers. Taught a physics lesson yesterday after installing the elevator in RCFM, in fact.

Well that’s too late now, don’t you think? Cause you already posted. (idiot)

Prok said “I don’t play Slingo or Tringo; never have, never will.”
Yeah, I know, thanks for proving my point. (double sucka?)

Prok said “I participate in all kinds of communities of all sorts.”
Care to list them out before you truly say what you believe about your “community”?

Prok said “Um, ever heard the term “windmilling”?”
Yup. Kinda a pity in your case, actually. All that ill manner to have attention-desire in forum and posting crap.

Keep posting, Porky, it’s funny.

I don’t play Slingo or Tringo; never have, never will.

I participate in all kinds of communities of all sorts. It’s not for me to persuade a non-entity on a forums who imagines he has delivered “suckah punches” *stifles horse laugh*.

>But, my god, 3700 words? At some point that’s abusing your readers and it detracts heavily from what you are saying. You are better than that

Don’t be silly. Nobody is required to read my long texts. They can skim anything longer than their hand if they have attention issues.

And I simply disagree. I’m not here to play Joe Pulitzer Prize Winning journalist for winning news stories in the mass media vein. I’m here to keep the public record. At the opening of a controversial Linden project, I’ve travelled to many of the sites, talked to their developers, and recorded what is happening.

I’ve also recorded the reaction on the forums, and outlined all the policy issues. I think it’s great. I like to think I could follow in the fine traditions of I.F. Stone, whom I knew and used to talk to occasionally. He would have those densely-packed newsletters in columns with voluminous documents he’d dig up from testimony on the Hill and such — I’d like to be the I.F. Stone of Second Life, but of course, I’m a mere pale imitation. If only Izzy were alive today. He’d love to pour over chatlogs and mine them, I have no doubt.

I think it’s an important service. It’s not for everybody, and that’s why they can stop reading after the first page with the nut graphs. And if they keep reading, they can skim headlines in bold.

If it weren’t for the descriptions of the trips around the portals, and the policy recommendations, it could be half as long. Or it could be a 3-part series. But who would want a three-part series?

Normally I put long pieces on my own blog precisely to avoid having people like you bitch. But I feel some issues are just so hugely important for the public to know about and weigh in on that I post them here.

But, my god, 3700 words? At some point that’s abusing your readers and it detracts heavily from what you are saying. You are better than that.

That a kid can come out of nowhere and start building with the same tools everyone else has, and make something marketable, shows a very level playing field to me. And a pretty sharp newbie, too. The system may not be perfect, but it’s far closer to it than RL. You would not believe the cost of the tools needed to be an electronic hobbiest or professional these days.

I think it’s important for the free media to keep a watch on big business, yes. In RL as in SL.

>Here’s a thing, Prok, when you want to take a stand about how it shouldn’t be called “community”… keep in mind, you don’t have any “community”, not even yourself counts.

Actually, I do, but it’s not for me to persuade you. There are many communities in SL. You’re not the judge.

>And of course, they owns their own sims and servers, you’re just feeling upset because you’re too poor to make a difference or even having a “community”. You’re just not worth to have a “community” with you, so speak for yourself.

Again, this is merely your tendentious and bilious judgement, not “reality”.

>Of course you’re just writing this because you’re “Herald” reporter, duty to speak for the readers.. but still not a real one either. Too many people still hate your ill gut because you don’t know when to shut up.

Yes, I realize it’s a geeky Internetoid concept now, that we see in this case of Jason Calacanis, the blogger, that reporters from RL media asking for telephone interviews, for example, are challenged that they “don’t represent the public” and have no authority. Like…bloggers do lol?

Of course the free media has already represented the public’s right to know. The failure of a new generation of tekkies schooled on the Internet and fatuous social media junk thinking to get this is really a grave liability for this generation that will have a huge impact that will ultimately bite them in the ass.

>(btw, are you just now ditching your “Herald” friend, Tenshi? Hahaha, what a world.)

Tenshi has never been my friend, anywhere. I don’t know what she means by her “friend” in her ranting on SC, it must be someone else.

Being in the “community” called the “Herald pool of reporters” confers no tribal bonhomie and espirt de corps that you might imagine. Uri barely tolerates me, for example, and has never bought me a RL drink, not even a Diet Coke. Pixeleen recently bought rats and let them loose in the Herald office and they nibble at my Lime Tostata chips, which has been really icky.

shockwave, you must read Second Citizen too much or not read my long posts. The FIC isn’t “allt hose who are technocrati and self-created developers”. The FIC is those who are those things *and behave like arrogant dicks lording it over others, and actively trying to discriminate against them and seek rites and rituals of favouritism for their class vis-a-vis Linden Lab*.

The FIC or people I criticize (not “hate”) aren’t “all technically proficient people” or “all talented people” but some of the people in those classes of residents who also advocate that others should be activtely discouraged from a level playing field.