The Alphaville Herald

Interview With Green Lantern Excelsior of the JLU

by Pixeleen Mistral on 06/09/11 at 3:09 am

Green Lantern Excelsior in the Bronyville  sim before Bronyville was deleted (file photo)

This evening I chatted with JLU spokesman Green Lantern Excelsior hoping to discover why Kalel Venkman has been unwilling to discuss the JLU's Brainiac wiki leak situation in anything other than heavily moderated forums. While Green Lantern could only speculate on Kalel's motivations, he did tell me that all "private information" has been removed from the Brainiac wiki - although it will apparently be impossible to verify this - and there are those who would take issue with the JLU's definition of "private".

At this point, Green Lantern seems resigned to an ongoing conflict and told me "There's nothing we could do to convince people that the group has changed. Some folks would never believe that, no matter what evidence was presented. They just want us gone."

However, even in the worst case - a permaban for the JLU members - it seems that there could be a home from Mr. Lantern should he decide to return on an alt account and he volunteered that his first choice in land rentals would be Prokofy Neva's Ravensglass properties.

Somehow, I was not surprised.

Pixeleen Mistral: So Green Lantern - it seems like the JLU continues to be a target on SLUniverse
GreenLantern Excelsior: Yeah it's kind of obsessive over there

Pixeleen Mistral: but you guys are not backing down from what I can see
GreenLantern Excelsior: All of the private information was removed from the wiki. I suppose you could call that "backing down."

Pixeleen Mistral: Some of the SL residents might not believe that the private information has been removed though - is there any way to satisfy them?
GreenLantern Excelsior: Not that I know of. Maybe one of the master hackers can find it again and break in.

Pixeleen Mistral: it might work if there was a disinterested third party that was given complete access - but I am not sure who would be a disinterested third party
Pixeleen Mistral: so why did you guys remove the private information? did LL tell you to?
GreenLantern Excelsior: I can't really talk about that.

Pixeleen Mistral: ok
GreenLantern Excelsior: Different members had different ideas about whether it should be stored or not. I know some of us are happy that it's gone.

Pixeleen Mistral: my impression - and this is based on reading some of the leaks and watching the JLU membership fall - is that there has been some spirited discussion about keeping private information in your wiki
Pixeleen Mistral: at the same time I wonder if you can salvage your group's image
GreenLantern Excelsior: Some special interest groups are making a fuss over this. But SL Universe is not everyone on the grid.

Pixeleen Mistral: the factions you guys have been fighting for the last few years have pretty much nothing to lose at this point, so I would not expect them to be easily mollified
GreenLantern Excelsior: There's nothing we could do to convince people that the group has changed. Some folks would never believe that, no matter what evidence was presented. They just want us gone.

Pixeleen Mistral: well - if you get banned you could always come back on alts - I've seen that done before
GreenLantern Excelsior: Yeah! I could go live at Ravenglass maybe.

Pixeleen Mistral: I wouldn't recommend it
Pixeleen Mistral: I hear the landlord there is a real pain
GreenLantern Excelsior: From some of the posts I'm seeing on SLU, I'm thinking the landlord might be friendly
Pixeleen Mistral: good point

Pixeleen Mistral: are you concerned that this SLUniverse controversy might affect your relationship with Linden Lab?
GreenLantern Excelsior: That does worry me a little. They are making a lot of noise on Facebook and Twitter, hoping that LL will notice. Luckily it takes more than noise.
GreenLantern Excelsior: They are looking for any place to input their complaints. Unfortunately the only evidence they have was obtained by illegal methods so they will be in big trouble if they present it.

Pixeleen Mistral: you guys have not done anything illegal though?
GreenLantern Excelsior: I wouldn't say so. We saved the results of Google searches on a private website. I've always thought we should have had links to where we found the information, just to assure everyone that it wasn't obtained by going through people's garbage can or something.

Pixeleen Mistral: ok - so not illegal - but what about moral? I think a lot of the outrage I am seeing at SLUniverse is centered on things that offend people
GreenLantern Excelsior: Many of those people are offended that we patrol sandboxes without having a Linden Lab employee ID card.

Pixeleen Mistral: for instance - the thing about contacting C0d3c's family when he was in the final stages of AIDS - Deadly C0d3c had made arrangements well in advance for his friends to be contacted by his family - I know this because he told me about it
Pixeleen Mistral: I don't think you appreciate the level of outrage that you guys created with that stunt
GreenLantern Excelsior: I didn't know that. I looked at his sister's Facebook page, and contacting her was basically a spur of the moment thought on my part. I didn't do it on behalf of JLU and I didn't tell her my relationship to Deadly other than he was a friend. People who want to make that into an evil JLU revenge stunt are sick puppies IMHO.

Pixeleen Mistral: well - all I can tell you is that C0d3c made prior arrangements so that those he considered his friends would be notified
GreenLantern Excelsior: Okay. His sister did let me know via Facebook when he passed away. I expressed my regret and that's the last time I spoke to her.

Pixeleen Mistral: One thing I don't understand is why Kalel is not speaking up about all this
Pixeleen Mistral: I mean the JLU is taking a beating in at least some forums and Kalel is not speaking out. What is Kalel afraid of?
GreenLantern Excelsior: I don't know the exact motivation there. I suppose one idea is that people will lose interest sooner or later. I tried reasoning with the SLU folks and you saw where it got me. Nothing any of us could say will convince them that we aren't an evil menace to Second Life.
GreenLantern Excelsior: Maybe convincing them isn't high on some people's priority list.

Pixeleen Mistral: that could be a big part of the JLU's PR problem - Kalel is giving the impression that he is better than the rank and file SL players
Pixeleen Mistral: so he doesn't really care what they think - because he feels he is one of the best and brightest or something - that is not going to go over well
GreenLantern Excelsior: I wouldn't put it that way

Pixeleen Mistral: I'm just telling you how it appears
GreenLantern Excelsior: Maybe he doesn't feel like saying "Here I am, a giant easy to hit target, and I'm here so all the SLU members can throw knives at me." I felt like that for a while. That's another reason I'm not going back there, because it's impossible to reason with unreasonable people, and those are some of the most unreasonable I've met.
GreenLantern Excelsior: For example, I was suspended for showing real life details for someone who doesn't have a real life any more. Now we have Fred Rookstown revealing RL information but that's just fine. Also, someone linked to a blog where one of the pro-JLU folks says he may soon be homeless in RL.

Pixeleen Mistral: Maybe the problem is that when someone like Cheergirl Allen finds Kalel's spy prims hidden undergound on a sim where they were not authorized to be - and Kalel doesn't respond - it comes off like arrogance
Pixeleen Mistral: I never though I would see the day when a cheerleader would take on the super heroes - and the leader of the super heroes would not be brave enough to step up and explain himself
GreenLantern Excelsior: Cheergirl found a remote probe for a Thomas Conover sim radar that we were using to monitor that sim for problems as authorized by the Antiquity leadership. The probe hides itself underground by design. Obviously at the time it was rezzed, Kalel had build permissions there. They're trying as hard as they can to make that into something underhanded but they are failing at it.

Pixeleen Mistral: this just makes the JLU look weak and sneaky - you guys ought to rethink your approach - and Kalel ought to stop hiding behind you
Pixeleen Mistral: from what I am told Kalel was not authorized to put that probe in that sim
GreenLantern Excelsior: I heard different

Pixeleen Mistral: maybe Kalel should step up and explain why it was actually OK
Pixeleen Mistral: seriously GLE - this Kalel in the shadows thing makes you guys look even more creepy
GreenLantern Excelsior: He did talk about it, just not on SLU or the Herald: http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts///spy-vs-spy-kalel-venkman-replies-to-query-about-cheergirls-allegations.html

Pixeleen Mistral: perhaps he should talk about it somewhere that does not moderate the comments so heavily so there could be a dialog - or is Kalel afraid of dialog?
GreenLantern Excelsior: Some people enjoy Arguing On The Internet. Others think their time is better spent elsewhere. There's no fear involved.

Pixeleen Mistral: great - then when can I have an interview with Kalel?
GreenLantern Excelsior: I don't know his schedule. Drop him a notecard and maybe he will respond.

Pixeleen Mistral: oh good - I must be off his mute list then
GreenLantern Excelsior: I didn't know he had you muted

Pixeleen Mistral: my advice - you guys need to get your leader out in public answering questions - and not on heavily moderated forums like Krypton Radio and Second Thoughts
Pixeleen Mistral: you also need to get a third party that is above reproach looking over your wiki to verify that the private information is completely gone - and does not come back. that might be the only way you can turn this mess around
GreenLantern Excelsior: That's one thing that's nice about the Herald, that comments are unmoderated. I think it's pretty clear that it's also a hostile venue, so maybe that's part of the reason you haven't been offered an interview. You could always ask questions on the Krypton Radio topic and get your answers that way. I don't know how that third party thing would ever work although maybe some of the Mentor folks would be good choices.

Pixeleen Mistral: you guys need to stop doing secret things - because there is a large group that does not trust you at all now and that groups seems unlikely to give up anytime soon
GreenLantern Excelsior: They will never give up as long as JLU exists.