Op/Ed: Feted, Fussing, and Fuming
by Jessica Holyoke on 29/11/07 at 7:48 am
LL shows how not to run a press conference – and co-opt a noisy critic
by Jessica Holyoke, post-Prokofy FIC watch bureau
On Monday, the Lindens held their first in-world press conference and the Herald, being at the forefront of Metaverse media coverage was there to cover it all. Except we weren’t.
The Saga for me started at the Robin Linden Office hours of November 20th. Its been some time since I had a chance to go to one of these meetings. I sat down and Robin asked if anyone was from the Press. I took it as nothing significant because Robin once told Eric Reuters from Reuters at an office hour that these events were *not* a press conference and the hard hitting questions would not be answered. But the office hour is when Robin revealed that there would be in-world press conferences with the SL media invited. I asked if Prokofy was invited and was told yes. I asked if the Herald was invited and was told yes, they were. Too bad the Herald editors – Urizenus Sklar, Walker Spaight, and Pixeleen Mistral – couldn’t find any invitations
The Lindens have decided to restrict in-world press access to either Lewis PR or these upcoming press conferences. I found this out by reading Prokofy Neva’s personal e-mail – posted on his newspaper, the Second Life Record. The post in question is called "Lindens are Circling the Wagons." (Protip: if Prokofy talks to you in any way or form, or if you e-mail him, he’ll keep an SL Record of it, so that he can quote you out of context at a later date.)
Of course, people posted the transcripts from the Office Hours on-line and fanboys started criticizing me because I didn’t understand that you have to be *ask* to be invited. Unfortunately, you had to know the event existed in order to *ask* to be invited. Also, there’s two invites: the initial e-mail invitation with the email of presscontact@lindenlab.com and then the group invite after the newspaper RSVP’s. So to get a to the event, a newspaper has to know about the event in order to ask to be invited, and you learn about the press conference because it was posted on the SL Record. Surprisingly, without much fanfare, this must mean that the SL Record is the *official* media outlet of the Lindens because Prokofy is doing the Linden’s job for them. Is LEWIS PR sure they want this particular virtual spokesmen taking over their function? If you read the Office Hour transcripts, you will find that the Press Conferences were all Prokofy’s idea because he’s been advocating and pushing for them since 2005. Never mind the real reason for the press conference, which will be discussed below.
Being curious as to what the first ever in-world press conference would be like, I asked my editor who was going from the Herald. That’s when Pixeleen said, "what are you talking about? " You see, the three editors, Uri, Walker and Pixeleen were not informed about these press conferences. Pixeleen did ask for an invitation, thanks to the SL Record report and not Linden Lab official channels, and was told on Monday morning that the first conference would be held in three hours. With a prior engagement, and nobody else available on the Monday morning after Thanksgiving, the Herald was unable to attend, along with Reuters, Massively, and presumably other SL media outlets.
So after not receiving an initial invitation after being told they were invited, then learning there was an event invitation that did not include a time or date like normal invitations in the real world, I was finally able to read an abbreviated transcript on SL Reports for the Herald.
Formerly fussing and fuming, now feted fanboi struggles to stay awake at Robin’s office hour
Prokofy Neva and Linden Labs would have you believe that this Press Conference was about making information more available to the Press. Except it was actually about how the Lindens changed Search and how the traditional gaming of Classifieds with punctuation and spacing would no longer happen in this brand new web-based search. (Residents pay for a classified ad with L$s a way to get their store or business more noticed – and now this is not allowed because its somehow bad or ugly? Using the Linden’s tools?) This Press Conference wasn’t about "responding to the community’s needs for information." It was about "we have a new feature and we would like for you to market it for us." It was not held to help the community gain access to information, it was held to help out the Lab. Not surprisingly, due to the way the date- and time-less invitations were distributed, there were many more Lindens than reporters at the Press Conference, so things were able to run smoothly on that most stable of SL features, SL Voice. (Transcript unavailable.)
I went to the November 27th Robin Linden Office hours to ask about the lack of Herald invitation where I was told by Robin that it was Walker Spaight that was invited for sure, but that she would check on it. After some more insults from Prokofy Neva, the Feted Official Linden Media Mouthpiece, I asked the big questions relevant to what I write about – why did Linden Labs refund L$30 million to L&L trust bank when other residents are told too bad, so sad when they are victims of a scam and what happened to the typist of Betatester Allen, and would a Linden at these press conferences be able to answer these types of questions. Those questions were left unanswered.
At Robin Linden’s office hour we did learn the times of these press conferences will be different in the future, with morning and afternoon sessions to get help people who are not professional journalists or stay at home moms. When I asked if there were sim limits involved in how many people could attend and how would cuts be made, I was told the Lindens would figure out something. Official Linden Media Mouthpiece Prokofy Neva responded in a later blog post that there would never be more than 40 people interested in coming to these press conferences, as there are fewer than 40 blogs or bloggers that write about Second Life and that would come to these Press Conferences. Now that Prokofy has achieved his long-time dream of becoming an official part of the FIC, we’ll take this as gospel, and await further official announcement from the Lab’s loudest fanboi.
I asked if the press conference invitations would be handled better in the future and was told to contact either Jeska or Catherine Linden. However, the rumor is that Melissa Linden will be the one managing the Press Conferences in the future.
And so it goes. The irony of Mr. Neva’s move from forum-banned Lab critic to official media mouthpiece is probably lost on him. Or perhaps the psychic benefits from getting on the team are worth the loss in credibility as the FIC theorist enjoys the insider access he has long warned against.
The Truth
Nov 29th, 2007
Prokofy has always been a fanboi right from the start. He wanted Linden attention right off the bat when he started sl, alternating between licking their butts and annoying the hell out of them, like an attention starved child having tantrums to get a reaction from his parents. Why the novelty hasn’t worn off for him after 3 plus years of doing this is a complete mystery to most of us. For most of the older residents, the shinyness of the Lindens has worn off, LL is just another company that we pay a monthly service fee to, and the Lindens are just employees, and not the game gods that Prokofy has convinced himself they are. Most new players haven’t seen a Linden, and couldn’t care less.
Urizenus
Nov 29th, 2007
Sad to see Prok sell his soul to the Official Linden Organ like that. I can see the meeting in which he caved now…
Robin: Prok, I am your mother. Come to the dark side and we will rule the SL blogsphere together.
Prok: Never!
Robin: I will make you a *senior* poster.
Prok: Done. What is thy bidding mistress?
But can she write?
Nov 29th, 2007
The question remains whether it is possible for Prok to actually write in a manner that is not vicious and toxic.
Nacon
Nov 29th, 2007
Who cares? …Oh right, this Herald does because they love all the junks and crap about SL itself.
..but seriously, who fucking cares?
Barney Boomslang
Nov 29th, 2007
Kids, this whining about being left out of an invitation round for a “press conference” (itself allready a rather pathetic thing if you take into account what it actually was) is even more – well, pathetic. Really, get a grip back on reality. Complaining that Prok was there and you were not, well, that only points to your rather limited journalistic luck/experience/connectivity/whatever, nothing more. Next time be more observing and make sure you _have_ someone available to attend to events on short notice. It’s what the real journalists do, too …
With posts like this you make the SL banking people look like SLs intelligencia …
Ichabod Antfarm
Nov 29th, 2007
Why must every pic associated with your articles have your generic mug planted smack dab in the centre, Jessica? It is as though the importance of the piece isn’t the ostensible subject but the fact that Jessica Holyoke deigned to cover it. Crippled with that kind of insecurity, it is no wonder you turn Op/Ed into “Prokofy is a big scary meanie and also he is a hypocrite.” To quote the bogeyman himself, “Write when you get work.”
As for anonymous coward, “But can she write”. The trouble is that he writes too damn well and gives the lot of you a bad case of, uggh, pen envy!
Cheery Bye!
verbal raep
Nov 29th, 2007
ROFL Jessica just got WTFPWNT on slappin her insecure mug in the center of every pic she submits. BAWWWWWW HAHAHA
246020
Nov 29th, 2007
“the Herald, being at the forefront of Metaverse media coverage was there to cover it all. Except we weren’t.”
Ah, see, therein lies your problem. You have to cover, you know, actual news to be considered a media outlet. Post 6 and the Penny fiasco don’t count.
Tenshi Vielle
Nov 29th, 2007
It’s sad to see Nacon saying the same shit even after I’ve been gone a while.
“Surprisingly, without much fanfare, this must mean that the SL Record is the *official* media outlet of the Lindens because Prokofy is doing the Linden’s job for them. ”
ROTFL, thank you!! Best laugh of the day!
FlipperPA Peregrine
Nov 29th, 2007
Irony, it isn’t just for dinner any more.
DaveOner
Nov 29th, 2007
What’s funny is how these “journalists” don’t seem to understand what press conferences are all about.
When someone calls a press conference they want a mouth-piece to announce something to. Sometimes they answer questions and other times they hand out press kits and whatnot. Either way the very POINT of a press conference is essentially to advertise and/or be heard and noticed for something they find important. It’s a totally different beast than what you see on CNN at the White House…probably because there IS NO GOVERNMENT in SL. Only companies and gangs.
And why is it surprising that LL doesn’t know how to properly inform the SL public?
I will say that it is hilarious that Prock is in the fray on this one. Who will conspire against her now?!
Darien Caldwell
Nov 29th, 2007
Yes, I can only agree, the Herald is at best a parody of a news outlet. The stories they post have no credibility, arent’ checked for facts, and even sometimes border on defamatory and libelous. They are The Onion of the Metaverse.
Morgana Fillion
Nov 29th, 2007
Two comments:
1.) LL was talking about doing away with the punctuation thing in Search months and months ago. The only news here is that they’ve finally got to the point where they can make it stick.
2.) Welcome to your first taste of real life journalism. Press conferences are *never* held out of some idealistic idea that the people have a right to information – they’re only held when the business or politician or lawyer or whatever believes the benefit to self outweighs the risk of being asked an uncomfortable question and there is a fine song and dance that goes on between their attempts to deflect anything ‘off-message’ and reporters attempts to get them to unwittingly reveal something of substance. Real reporters know that and come prepared, but by and large, they come expecting to be fed a message which they will then report on coherently.
Your not getting an invitation is no more relevent than a food critic spending 80% of their review on how difficult traffic was getting to the restaurant.
DaveOner
Nov 29th, 2007
“They are The Onion of the Metaverse.”
That kinda makes me like them more now. I would have gone for Fox News.
Prokofy Neva
Nov 30th, 2007
Um, I think what this article is about is what you might call a “mud-slinging match” because tomorrow, an article is coming out in the Chronicle of Higher Education about Uri’s book and his role as a “muck-raker” *cough* — and the Herald needs some sensational headlines for this “sudden rush of academics” to read. I’m likely quoted in the article tomorrow — at least, I gave an extensive interview to the journalist. Rather than have their best work out on show for the “rush of academics” (Uri even urged *me* to write something about Woodbury tonight to be shown!?!!!), they fell back on their tried-and-true gimmicks like “Let’s bash Prok”.
You would think that a) after hearing from Robin in her office hour that the intent is indeed to invite the major inworld press, and b) after reading my blog that if you somehow didn’t get a heads up about this in this “special email” *rolls eyes” that you c) *had to write to the email to get on the list* — which I provided. I myself did this *to get invited to the press conference* duh. I didn’t get invited to any press conference *until I asked to be invited*. How did I know they were doing this? By a) going to the same Catherine Linden office hours that Tao Takashi goes to even more assiduously and fanny than I do; b) by long ago getting on a press list with my regular email, not an SL IM, back from when we *fought* for such a thing to come into existence (despite Robin’s claim).
I know it’s a hard concept to grasp: you have to sign up to get on a press list to cover an event and give an RSVP to the invitation that comes. Gosh, I do that all the time in RL. And here *gasp* it works the same way: you must ask to be invited after getting some kind of notification, then once invited, you have to RSVP that you’re coming to get in the group or on the access list in SL (thanks to the penising problem started by Plastic Duck at CNET).
So, Jessica Holyerthanthou had 2 notifications: once from Robin, and once from my blog, about where you have to write — an email address given her in the meeting, and on my blog, to write to, to *get the invitation*.
Yet she still, neo-FIC wannabee style, sat on her ass waiting for her email to light up with YOU GOT MAIL inviting her to something that she knew perfectly well she had to sign up for to get on the list.
The way that you find out that the Lindens are holding press events is to get on the press list. Duh, much? This was done when we all fought in past years to get the Lindens to stop steering all the press opportunities to their near and dear, and to open it up. At that time, they made something called I think “SL Press Club” and also told you to write Catherine to get notifications — which have been very sparse, frankly. Which I and others like Draxtor (whom I notice is not blasted here though he could be by the same logic) did. That’s how we got on this “special” wow Post-FIC Prokofy Inside List! wow!
Well, let’s just suppose that the Herald got off its high horse and actually called the Lindens, something they never do (the last interview with Philip was in 2005, before I even had come to work here; I had to rustle up some interviews that weren’t at all exclusive precisely because nobody at the Herald would bother to go after Philip from the top — it would be easier frankly for Uri and Walker as a “real” professor and “real” mainstream journalist, respectively, to get an interview with Philip than me, but it was me dogging him instead, trailing along with the fanboyz at SLCC, even sitting down at the open-seating lunch table with him deliberately to keep asking questions. Oh, well.
Then they’d say, like Nobody Fugazi said, that they wouldn’t *deign* to cover such a shaped and spun event. Ok, um…don’t then? I guess I feel that these windows of opportunity to plug the Lindens open so rarely, that you have to take advantage of them. I don’t *care* if that puts me on some neo-FIC post-FIC Special Prokofy List because my writing and reputation can speak for itself. Could Busybody and Ms. Holierthanthou be insecure? Envious?
Erm, how about just *covering the story*?
FlipperPAY, never about journalism, always about benefiting from the Lindens’ steerage plan (Business Week anyone?), eternally about being a has-been.
Um, Uri, Robin didn’t make me senior *anything*. I think she had about one IM for me during this presser, telling me to turn my mic down as my typing was clattering? I actually dissed her somewhat in my coverage for over-managing lately (she told me to “stop putting words in the mouth” of Smoke Wijaya as if he were a communist but um, well, he *is* a communist and I’ve had many a skirmish with him and it’s a known quantity). Oh well, don’t let the facts get in the way of a good yarn!
Now, to rebut the rest of the nonsense:
>Prokofy Neva and Linden Labs would have you believe that this Press Conference was about making information more available to the Press.
No, I said it was a spin cycle in which they even had pre-asked questions, but despite that, one could glean some moments of sincerity that I think was important to convey. Now that I’ve heard the whole audio presentation for the parts I’ve missed, I can see some more biases on their part (the bit about people using classifieds more than search to buy things) that even if sincerely held, are still biased, so I hope to cover that soon.
>Except it was actually about how the Lindens changed Search and how the traditional gaming of Classifieds with punctuation and spacing would no longer happen in this brand new web-based search.
Well, I’ve been writing about 10 times about how awful first the Sheep Search was, and how awful the Linden Search plans were — and current reality is. Over and over. Is this Herald coming *very* late to the party? Maybe the Herald needs to stop covering fake issues like bukkake and cover real issues?
This press conference didn’t spin me away into becoming a fanboy. I can only note that one of the things I wrote about over and over again, and even posted as a JIRA bug, did finally get dealt with and partly resolved (non-transferable items you couldn’t uncheck off sale to get them out of search; now a patch was put in to make that possible). If you bitch about something and the Lindens finally fix it, what, you don’t report that? Of course you do.
The issue of removing punctuation, or rather, making punctuation like !!!!BEST RENTALS**** less gameable is really minor news here. Such ugly punctuation invasions rarely worked to really gain top sales anyway. Their ability to be less noticed is NOT the news about what’s good and what’s bad about the new Search.
>(Residents pay for a classified ad with L$s a way to get their store or business more noticed – and now this is not allowed because its somehow bad or ugly? Using the Linden’s tools?)
Um, false? Of course it’s allowed. Classifieds still show up in SEARCH ALL on the right in a sidebar, with the most expensive showing on the top. They still show up best under a tab called — guess what! — CLASSIFIEDS.
But what’s wrong with this issue now is that all classifieds are mixed *also* into *all* search returns, therefore making the $50 customers, if they’ve gamed their Picks or Traffic, (still relevant elements in the new search), show up above the $5000 customers — which just seems like bad social engineering and a lousy search. James seemed partially willing to take that on board by saying that if it seemed the clickthroughs were lost and their own income was lost from classifieds because people stopped buying (hey, that’s what it takes around here to get their attention!), then they will change it. So, stop buying expensive classifieds if they don’t show up in search. I know I did. The Lindens need to understand the power of the purse on this one.
The audio posted to Tao’s site doesn’t include my persistent questions; the SL Reports doesn’t either, for some reason. Oh well, go and read my blog, it’s all there.
>This Press Conference wasn’t about “responding to the community’s needs for information.” It was about “we have a new feature and we would like for you to market it for us.”
So? That’s how companies are, and you have to try to cut through the bullshit and come prepared with questions. In fact, I came to several office hours with my grave concerns about the search; I wrote long lists of questions detailing concerns; I filed JIRAs, and I wrote a half dozen blogs. Oh, well, that doesn’t count, I’m a “post-FIC fanboy” lol.
>It was not held to help the community gain access to information, it was held to help out the Lab. Not surprisingly, due to the way the date- and time-less invitations were distributed, there were many more Lindens than reporters at the Press Conference, so things were able to run smoothly on that most stable of SL features, SL Voice. (Transcript unavailable.)
1. Lindens are insecure, even though they hold all the cards, and they also move in packs and have group-think and collectivization as their ideology — so they bring not only their principles but various handlers, experts, minders — it’s no different than, say, some of these newer stans when they do something at the UN — way overpopulated on the official front with like 2 1/2 journos. No matter. They learn that it looks stupid, they learn to invite more press *shrugs*.
2. Transcripts can’t be available instantly for voice, unless somebody tapes and transcribes it. I already do stuff like that in real life and get paid way more than anything in SL — could you find some other volunteers?
I’d like to thank all the people here, some of whom I don’t even know, that not only spoke up in defense of me, but in defense of basic principles here. There’s such a lack of that at the Herald, as they are so unprincipled.
Jessica, did you pass the bar?
James Kazan
Nov 30th, 2007
Le truth is:
- Prok was the founder and the CEO of the FIC.
- FIC is dead. Wounded seriously on 06/06/06 and buried few months later.
- Prok tries hard to establish the metaFIC.
- Jessica is beating a dead FIC. And she is so obviously incompetent that she can’t even jump on that new weakened insignificant metaFIC.
urizenus
Nov 30th, 2007
“Uri even urged *me* to write something about Woodbury tonight to be shown!?!!!”
Prok Prok Prok, what do you mean “even urged [you]“? You are and forever will be our A reporter on all matters of state security. The problem is that you have gone to the dark side and we have to find a way to wean you from what you *take* to be the fluffernutter goodness of the Linden teat of FIC importance. But in reality what you are getting has been stripped of nourishment by the Linden diet of fatties and granola. Don’t go to the dark side. Flee the teat of weed and herbal tea infused Linden juice. It’s not too late!
Benny
Nov 30th, 2007
*applauds Prok*
Jessica Holyoke
Nov 30th, 2007
I hope this clears some of the issues.
“Residents pay for a classified ad with L$s a way to get their store or business more noticed – and now this is not allowed because its somehow bad or ugly? Using the Linden’s tools?” Somehow that got chopped up from what I wanted to write. I wanted to say how I’m in favor of spacing and punctuation to gain attention to your classified as opposed to losing that feature. There’s not much you can do to call more attention to an ad placed now. I can see the other side about why should a store pay L$10,000 if its going to be beaten out by an ad with spaces and punctuation that paid L$5000, but at the same time, why limit competition on who has the most Lindens to spend.
Invites: Some of you might have missed this point, so I’ll say it again. I was told by Robin Linden that the Herald received an invitational e-mail, which also included the only points of press contact in the future, Lewis PR and these conferences. The Herald did not receive such an e-mail. The Lindens did not post the information publicly. The only way to know about it is because someone often posts their communications as stories. The Herald did ask for the group invite from the source listed. After RSVP’ing, the Lindens wrote back that the conference was going to be held shortly, as in now. Go back to what I wrote. It wasn’t just us. Reuters was included in the list of SL media outlets that didn’t go due to how the Lindens handled things.
Corporate release v. government press conference: Its nice to see people, when confronted by it, realize that this was a corporate press conference and not a government press conference. However, if this is the way the press will be informed in the future, either through these press conferences, which the Herald asked to go to, or through Lewis PR, who may not have the relevant information but were asked anyway, then the important information that needs to be asked is being missed. I mentioned it above but I’ll sum it up here with a nice catch phrase.
WHAT HAPPENED TO BETATESTER ALLEN?
If you read my bank heist article, he was the one who used fraudulent/counterfeit lindens in a deposit/banking scheme. Now some people would say that that’s an idiocy based on the ATM script. But first, he was able to convince something in SL that he was paying it more than what he was able to. Second, I asked Robin once about what happened to some eBay sellers who were apparently selling fraudulent Lindens and she said nothing happened to them. They were not turned over to any authority because there would not be any proof of who they are. Ihe only consequence known to Betatester Allen is that he’s banned from SL, and that might not even be his typist, just Betatester Allen. Is that the only deterrent there should be for theft? The Lindens need to answer this.
Photos of me in my stories: There are many reasons why I’ve used pictures of me in my financial stories; disappeared or unavailable bank owners, boring ATM’s, desire to be the Herald’s official Money Honey, ala CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo. And there are generic reasons, such as marketing the Jessica Holyoke name and being able to trademark it later without wearing an odd green dress, for using me/my avatar in my stories. As this is an editorial, the author’s picture being featured is common practice for editorialists.
As for the Herald, it is the “New Blue Lady” of SL. Its not Reuters, a blog, or generic press clippings, its unique amongst SL media. It has news and information alongside the drama, Post 6 and other features. Obviously, everyone who posted above must care to some extent because they came here and commented.
Sincerely, thank you for coming.
Morgana Fillion
Nov 30th, 2007
The punctuation method is a highly annoying form of ‘competition’ – annoying enough that I, and many others I’ve spoken to, automatically scroll past that section when searching. I don’t go to sites via search that use that method.
So they may choke a bit at first, but they’ll get over it and discover the joys of of wording their title in search in such a way that interested parties can actually read it clearly without being irritated before they even check them out.
And life will go on.
Zigurat
Nov 30th, 2007
“I don’t *care* if that puts me on some neo-FIC post-FIC Special Prokofy List because my writing and reputation can speak for itself. Could Busybody and Ms. Holierthanthou be insecure? Envious?” – Prokofy
Funny that’s exactly the response we gave you when you were accusing us of being feted. What’s it like being on our side now Prok?
Rebecca Juro
Nov 30th, 2007
Maybe they only invited credible news organizations, the same way RL press conferences invite reporters from the New York Times and the Washington Post, but not the National Inquirer.
Your reputation certainly precedes you and my own experience here certainly bears it out as valid.
Prokofy Neva
Nov 30th, 2007
Har, har Uri, but the real problem here is that both you and Walker are MIA, so that when the Dark Side’s emails come to you, they get ignored.
No matter how much Jessica fusses and fumes about her alleged de-feting here, she can’t overwrite the facts: that those who wanted to go to this press conference, about which there was plenty of advance notification, did get there, or followed up by going to hear the tapes or podcasts or whatever. Those that preferred not to focus on the issue itself and posture and strut about their alleged street cred, did that instead.
The punctuation thing is something stupid brainless twits use to get their cheap stuff to the top. It’s annoying, but it doesn’t work on Google, and it seems reasonable that it not work on the Linden search, either.
>And there are generic reasons, such as marketing the Jessica Holyoke name and being able to trademark it later without wearing an odd green dress, for using me/my avatar in my stories. As this is an editorial, the author’s picture being featured is common practice for editorialists.
I’m glad we’ve confirmed that the Herald has fallen prey to special interests using it as a temporary perch to engage in marketing a persona. *Retch*. But I suppose Holierthanthou learned at Uri’s knee on this one, he’s the original marketeer.
One of Robin Linden’s favourite things to do in these office hours is to say to me, “See Prok, yer FIC”. Um, if I’m FIC, then…why I am banned from the Linden forums, blog, lists, etc.? Duh.
Meanwhile, Uri, Walker, Pixeleen, Jessica and all the other little friends enjoy perfect access to all these outlets which they never use, out of laziness and indifference.
Basically, I think it’s easy to show these days that the Herald just isn’t doing its job. It’s not accepting its public mission that history has challenged it with. It is shirking its civic duty, divided into a million special interests and self-indulgent marketing ploys, whether Uri for Coke or Jessica for her future image. All we need to complete the pathetic picture here is Mr. Lee’s Hong Kong.
Prokofy Neva
Nov 30th, 2007
>Funny that’s exactly the response we gave you when you were accusing us of being feted. What’s it like being on our side now Prok?
Um, I’m not on your side? But, uh, what’s it like being anonymous and irresponsible and hiding behind a nick?
Nina A
Nov 30th, 2007
I’ll be cautious now when I read Prokofy’s blogs. He is obviously more than he seems. As for using the banning from the official forums to prove he is still an independent critic of the Lab? Those forums don’t have any credibility, they are about texturing and hair advice. It was obviously a ‘naughty, naughty Prokofy *slap hand*’ type of gesture from the company.
DaveOner
Nov 30th, 2007
HAHAHAHAHA Your material never gets old, Prock! Classic!!
What’s especially funny is that even though everyone asserts and Prock thinks (s)he’s a FICtard and in the “in” crowd for LL (but won’t admit it publicly because (s)he would lose the “persecution/conspiracy” angle), (s)he’s really just a marketing puppet for them now! Talk about desperate anti-groupie!!
(S)he lies prone while LL has their way with her so (s)he’ll bare their fruit to the world via a series of tubes. They smoked a cigarette, told her they’d call but never gave her their phone number. (S)he may get bitter(er) and shed a tear but as soon as they need her to be a vessel for their message (s)he’ll be there spread eagle!
You may pretend to be a legitimate journalist and have any sort of “solid body of work and accomplishments” but in reality you’ve just been stroking your own ego and setting yourself up for someone to play you by pretending to acknowledge you as a legitimate anything so you can do thier bidding without getting anything in return.
You’re getting played by LL, Prock…used like a tool…or “volunteer”.
RobinLinden
Nov 30th, 2007
Press conferences seem like sort of an odd way to talk to your customers, in some respect. But when the community has grown as large as Second Life has, and when there are a substantial number of people acting in a journalistic capacity, doesn’t it make sense to try to make sure they have useful information that they can pass on to their readers?
That was the thinking behind the initiation of the press conference idea. We know the blog, the office hours, even a town hall meeting, don’t have substantial reach into the Second Life community. There are frequent rumors and misunderstandings, and people are looking for ways to get better information.
Our solution is to meet regularly with in-world press, to answer questions or explain changes to Second Life which might be of interest or need clarification. To that end, we made a list of press and bloggers that we are aware of and invited them to join us for the first conference, focused on search. James Linden, technical lead on the search project, was available to answer questions.
The first email went out on 11/13 to our list, including Pixeleen and Walker Spaight of this publication. We didn’t have a date yet, but we asked people to let us know if they were interested. We also asked all the recipients to pass on the invitation to others we might have missed and Prokofy posted the invitation on his site (others may have as well).
On the 25th we sent out a second email to those who had responded to the first one with details of time and place. Neither Pixeleen nor Walker had RSVPd, so didn’t get this second mail. However, we did hear back from Pixeleen later that day, and sent her details of the press meeting early on the morning of the 26th. I’m guessing she got the response too late to plan to attend.
The meeting itself went well. Of those who received the second email about half showed up. We think that might be due in part to some problems we had with the location and group we set up. So for next time we’re making the following changes…
- more advance notice – at least 3 days
- group membership in the Second Life Media Consortium
- a permanent location
- at least 2 times (one AM and one PM) to make sure people from all time zones have a reasonable chance to participate
- videotaping or podcasting (or both) the event for those unable to attend.
I hope that helps clarify the process and the plan. As always, I’m happy to answer questions to the best of my ability. You can find me in-world on Tuesdays, at 11AM PST, in Linden Village in Ambleside.
Prokofy Neva
Dec 1st, 2007
Wow, Robin coming on the Herald. That has to be an Instant Herald Classic (TM). I don’t think she’s ever *in her life* posted on the Herald. *Boggles*.
Shows you who the real FIC are around here, that get to summon the Lindens out of their Magic Circle: Jessica, Pixeleen, and Uri, who whine and mewl and finally get Mom’s attention.
I think one of the major problems with the Herald these days is that they are just not conversant with the issues. They are riding this tired theme of furryGorbukkakediaperageplay crap into the ground, and not paying attention to the newer and larger issues coming up.
I wonder if DaveOner is still jacking off in his mom’s basement or has he got any similitude of a life? The idea that if you harass and taunt and try to humiliate another person on a forums, that it would give you some satisfaction worth continuing for, is a particularly sick notion. Ultimately, it is not going to be satisfying in life.
The only way you could make the case for me having gone over to the dark side and begun spouting Lindenisms and drinking Kool-Aid is if you could actually analyze and quote something I write. Oh, wait, you don’t want to do that because that might *gasp* involve linking to my site. I don’t see that I’ve written any material that is supine, laudatory, grovelling, etc. as charged.
I think if you hammer on the Lindens and they do something right (i.e. fixing that non-transfer show-up-in-sale stuff, and thinking up a kind of compromise to the loss of privacy from their first bad call, etc.) that you have to say, well, thanks for doing that, good one. That doesn’t mean you have somehow “lost your edge”; it means you aren’t an infantile bukkake baby fur diaper ageplayer, that’s all.
Patroklus Murakami
Dec 1st, 2007
Hilarious, so the problem *was* that Walker and Pixeleen were asleep on the job and the Herald’s intrepid hotshot reporters too lazy/unconnected/slack to sniff out the lead and get an invite. Then we we get the ridiculously juvenile response of “Why wasn’t I/my good friend sent a handwritten invitation on gold-fringed vellum?” I hope the irony of the title of this piece isn’t lost on anyone; fussing and fuming indeed!
Um... who says proks more respectable?
Dec 2nd, 2007
Rebecca Juro,
Problem with your comment about SLH being like a tabloid, is that Prok was fired from SLH for bringing the Herald’s standards DOWN, not up. So for LL to invite prok but not SLH would be like a White House press conference filled with only hollywood tattler-type papparazzi.
Archie Lukas
Dec 7th, 2007
BUT
what was the meeting actually about?
you forgot to tell us………………
DaveOner
Dec 7th, 2007
“I wonder if DaveOner is still jacking off in his mom’s basement or has he got any similitude of a life?”
It’s always entertaining when this is the only thing someone can come up with to counter a point made about them. Top notch writing from an accomplished writer as always!
@ Archie: The “press conference” was just an advertisement for the new search features available. LL thought they’d throw the SL “Press” a bone and give them a free article or two. SLH was sad that they missed out but it sounds like it’s because they don’t have their shit together.