In this  Herald Instant Classic © interview, we talk with Andrew Auernheimer (aka weev) about his white supremacist politics, his work for the Daily Stormer website, the Kek/Trump political agenda, and his involvement in the pepe the frog meme-storming of Hilary Clinton’s campaign.

Pepe and Hillary have words

For readers that have not followed the recent dust-up between the Clinton campaign and the alt-right some background may be in order. Hillary Clinton recently gave a speech about the alt-right, in which she remarked that half of Trump’s supporters belonged in “basket of deplorables.” Shortly thereafter, the Clinton campaign posted an article on its website, in which it made reference to Pepe the frog, insisting that the green frog was not innocent, but antisemitic, and her campaign called out the Trump campaign for using the Pepe meme. This was echoed by Rachel Maddow, but a number of media outlets subsequently mocked the Clinton campaign for this claim, including the New York Post, which ridiculed her on its website, saying “In 2016, a presidential candidate declared war on a cartoon frog.” However, as devoted Herald readers know, in the Hall of Mirrors ™, things are not always as they seem.

In this story, weev gives Uri the inside scoop on all the pepemancy and explains how pepe was converted from a harmless meme into a plague of frogs for the Clinton campaign. According to weev, the operation was largely driven by the crew at the Daily Stormer, and the goal was to troll the Clinton campaign into saying something ridiculous.

We took thousands of kids, trained them in basic graphics, got them bullying journalists with custom Pepes. There was this one girl that would constantly get Pepes raping her dismembered corpse every day. Basically we explicitly targeted journalists and Hillary campaign staffers relentlessly. We drove these people insane, a plague of frogs was upon them for a year, and suddenly they are screaming in public about a cartoon frog, and looking like fucking morons.

In this interview, weev takes us into that op, and expands a bit on the pro-Kek, pro-Trump, alt-right politics driving the operation. As we will see, while Pepe himself may be harmless, the political agenda behind his weaponization is less so.

Urizenus: Hello weev, the last I heard, you were on the lam in former Yugoslavia or maybe Beruit or possibly the Ukraine. Where are you these days if I may ask?

weev:  Kharkov

Urizenus:  What is Kharkov?

weev:  It is the capital of the Kharkov oblast, in east Ukraine

Urizenus:  Ah, do you like it there?

weev:  Yeah.  A steak in the city's best steakhouse, as good as Ruth's Chris or Mortons, is $5

Urizenus:  So how would you describe your current projects/activities… if there is an umbrella description?

weev:  Reestablishing global white supremacy.

Urizenus:  Why did you choose that particular project?

weev:  Because blacks have supremacy in Lagos and Asians in Shanghai and whites are uniquely being deprived of their homelands in a global plot to exterminate them from the Earth.  The former president of France Sarkozy is on video stating that miscegenation is mandatory and that if people don't do it coercive state force would be used to make sure it happens. Then he imported a horde of murderous rapists.

Urizenus:  Let me step back a bit. When did it become your actual project?  How old were you?

weev:  Dunno, young. 14, 15

Urizenus:  Did your recent experience in prison reinforce these beliefs?

weev:  No I was a dedicated public white nationalist far before I went to prison. I didn't need prison to see the obvious truth that whites are uniquely deprived of their lands in a scheme to end European style liberties forever.

Urizenus:  “Deprived of their lands”... It seems like white Europeans have more land than they started with at the moment.

weev:  What are you talking about?

Urizenus:  Well, the western hemisphere comes to mind.

weev:  America has a nigger president and is controlled by Jews. So is all of Western Europe. Your assertion that whites have more is laughable. It's utterly absurd on its face. Whites used to be 25% of the world. Now we're 8% and only 2% of that is fertile white women.

Urizenus:  well, you know, having grown up in the great plains it seemed like we were doing better than the native Americans.

weev:  Native Americans are Asiatic and there are knives of French flint that predate their arrival to the north American continent as well as plenty of legends of the light skinned people those savages murdered when they arrived – moon-eyed people, cloud people, etc. Regardless, "native" Americans have a higher standard of living than they would ever have been capable of without us so they can eat a big pile of shit with the rest of the nonwhite animals, we reclaimed our continent and they better be happy with our generosity.

Urizenus:  “we reclaimed our continent.” ok, so then you admit that white people possess the entire North American continent

weev:   No. Jews do. Whites DID possess it at one point. We have been dispossessed of our lands by sociopathic criminals incapable of maintaining or creating the civilization we built and it's time for those fucking kikes to be taught a lesson and we're just about there; the pogrom is on full schedule and I cannot fucking wait to see the brains of their infants stomped out onto the pavement.  Gonna be so fun to rape their daughters and kill their sons in front of them.

Urizenus:  so... when people say you are just trolling with the racism and anti-semitism you say...what?

weev:  I am just trolling

Urizenus:  What does that mean

weev:  What is trolling?  Trolling goes to the heart of what it is to be European.  There were older words for it… flyting, senna, polemic.  Do you know what flyting and senna are?

Urizenus:  I think a lot of people *used* to think you didn't believe what you were saying.  You were just doing it to get a rise out of people.

weev:  I am doing it to get a rise out of people.  That is the whole point of flyting and senna and polemic

Urizenus:  *just* is the operative word.  Meaning you didn't believe it.  The question is, do you believe what you are saying?

weev: Do I believe that whites are being subject to genocide?

Urizenus:  Yes.

weev:  Do I believe that Jews and blacks kidnapped me from my home and tortured me? 

Urizenus:  Yes.

weev:  These aren't beliefs.  These are facts.  If you deny these things, you are a liar.

Urizenus:  “kidnapped you from your home”.  Are you talking about being arrested?

weev:  Yes.  Now, these people are going to fucking pay. Jews and niggers are going to pay.  We are going to systematically kill large volumes of them and we're going to laugh because they have it fucking coming.

Urizenus:  do you ever worry that you might have trolled yourself into being a racist?

weev:  Oh no, racist!!!  Take my livelihood, rob me, make me a slave, JUST DONT CALL ME A RACIST. Fact:  the slur, racisti, was coined by the Jew Leon Trotsky in his "History of the Russian Revolution" in a hateful rant about "Slavophiles" and "Teutonic jackasses".  That's why blacks are never punished for systematic violence against whites. The majority of interracial violence is black on white.  Not just in the past century, but in totality.  Millions of Slavic slaves taken to Africa, All systematically killed over centuries.  No living white descendants.  2 million from south Europe alone.  Anyways…point being…"racist" is an anti-white slur.

Urizenus:  Now that I have some clarity on your current political views I'd like to pivot to a discussion of the alt-right movement and your involvement with it, if any.

weev:  Sure

Urizenus:  Would you identify in any way with the movement?

weev:  Sure. I mean, the alt-right is anything to the right of or more authoritarian than Breitbart. I am certainly somewhat to the left of paleoconservatism, I am quite centrist but I am a believer in racial nationalism, which generally makes me on the alt-right spectrum but I am a white supremacist.

Urizenus:  So which alt-right blog do you identify with most?  Daily Stormer?

weev:  Daily Stormer, yes, I am a regular contributor there and I help them a lot on the logistical end.  It is by far the most impactful site.  It has more traffic than all the others combined.  

Urizenus:  Help them how?

weev:  I scale the website, keep it running, etc., anything technical/logistical I do. It serves 3 million unique people.

Urizenus:  do they pay you?

weev:  I do all my work for the movement pro bono.  Generally the readers compensate me significantly. I am not sure what spectrum of my donations come from Stormer as it is all Bitcoin and has no notes attached.

Urizenus:  Can I ask how much you get in donations in a typical month?

weev:  A few hundred dollars. Enough to live.

Urizenus:  What is your take on the rise of Pepe?

weev:  It was a glorious effort. I mean we did classes…all sorts of stuff.

Urizenus:  Did classes?  What does that mean?

weev: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARYWTq_x9N4

Pepemancy 1 (Adolf Hitler School of Meme Magic)

We took thousands of kids, trained them in basic graphics, got them bullying journalists with custom Pepes.  There was this one girl that would constantly get Pepes raping her dismembered corpse every day.  Basically we explicitly targeted journalists and Hillary campaign staffers relentlessly.  We drove these people insane, a plague of frogs was upon them for a year, and suddenly they are screaming in public about a cartoon frog, and looking like fucking morons.

Urizenus:  Who is 'we'?

weev:  Daily Stormer was doing the classes, the how-tos.  Zeiger and Anglin at Daily Stormer were primarily responsible for just relentlessly bullying journalists and professional political insiders with Pepe. Nonstop Pepe.  The plague of frogs has definitely hit peak, we gotta work on developing the locusts next.

Urizenus:  So there was actually a discussion of the form:  "I know what.  Let's bombard everyone with dark Pepe memes"?

weev:  There didn't even need to be a discussion. It's obvious that journalists need to be bullied and it's also obvious that you need a consistent signature. Back when we used to break people on teleconferences we'd always like, get shittons of stuff delivered to their house and it would always have a two-liter of Coke.  Just fucking days of endless deliveries night and day, always a two liter Coke.  They'd disconnect their doorbells.  Then we'd just have someone outsider of their house, two-liter of coke in hand.  They were afraid of a two-liter bottle of coke by the time we were done.

Urizenus: So it was just random that pepe was chosen? It could have been one of the My Little Ponies?

weev:  No it was not RANDOM that pepe was chosen. It was MEME MAGIC. God you people are dumb.  Whoever heard of a plague of my little ponies?

Urizenus:  The ponies frighten me to the core.

weev:  Yes well, there is no magic in MLP.

Urizenus:  But ok, it could have been Jiminy Cricket

weev:  no

NO

Urizenus:  …cuz, plague of locusts…

weev:  NO THE FROGS CAME FIRST

Also…praise Kek.  We worship Kek.  That is a serious thing

Urizenus:  There has been much liberal blog writing about the origins of Kek.  What do you think of it?

weev:  I think that I can feel the warm glow of the black sun wash over me.  We're going to bring darkness to the earth.

Urizenus:  I don't know what that means.

weev:  you've never heard of the black sun? seriously?

Urizenus:  I've seen the pictures, but I don't know what to expect when it happens.  What will my day be like when the black sun covers my world?

weev:  I don't know.

Urizenus:  So why do we want that to happen?

weev:  You might not ever see it. You might not notice.  I, however, feel the glow.

Urizenus:  What does it feel like?

weev:  Victory.

Urizenus:  Does it smell like napalm?

weev:  Not yet.

Urizenus:  Are you involved in the presidential campaign?

weev:  Everyone is involved in the presidential campaign.  This campaign is a work of art. It encompasses our whole civilization. None will be spared from Kek's glory.

Urizenus:  What is the nature of your involvement?

weev:  Well, I mostly promote esoteric Kekism and exoteric white supremacism.

Urizenus:  What does esoteric Kekism have to do with Donald vs. Hillary?

weev:  Everything and nothing.

Urizenus:  That is vague.

weev:  Kek is a god ascendant.  Ancient gods are returning to the earth. Kek, Wotan, … they're here among us again.

Urizenus:  I'll get back to Kek. Let's focus on the election for a minute.  Are you supporting Trump now?

weev:  I am supporting Kek. I am supporting Wotan. I am supporting rebirth of the West

Urizenus:  Well, who does Kek want to be president?

weev:  TRUMP

Read the tweet: https://twitter.com/rabite/status/478967913270226945

June, 2014.  See how Kek delivers us prophecy? 365 days before Trump announced.  We had a whole year head start to make memes.

Urizenus:  but in supporting Trump, how much of that is just because you want to watch everything burn?

weev:  No.  We want the west great again.  America included.

Urizenus:  How is Trump going to accomplish this?

weev:  Have you ever seen rodelinda? https://www.youtube.com/embed/Akusa8kG0YQ

Andreas Scholl - Handel - Rodelinda - Aria - Dove sei

This is what we fight for.

Urizenus:  You fight for Rodelinda?

weev:  What about the Women of Eger

You ever seen that?  They held the south wall as the Islamic horde tried to destroy them.  Rocks, hands, kitchen knives… Can you imagine how fucking brave our forefathers and mothers were?  How much they sacrificed for our people to have lands and culture of our own? The Jews have tried to fuck with that.  And they are going to pay.  They are going to dearly pay.  But the white race will not die.  It will rise to a glory and height like never before.

Urizenus:  And you think Trump is going to accomplish this???

weev:  nah.  Not yet.  But he's a step in the right direction

Urizenus:  So... trump is like baby steps for you.

weev:  It's not exactly a baby step in the overton window.  It's basically thrown the thing open.  And if he loses, oh man, quick path to victory--a harder one, but a quicker one.  Revolts everywhere… racial holy war.

Urizenus:  Are you on the hunt for a new Hitler?  or do you think one will arise organically?

weev:  Nobody needs to hunt.  Listen, there are a thousand Hitlers.  "Let's kill Hitler!" -- what a fucking dumb kike fantasy.

Urizenus:  Do you have any sense of the breadth of your movement?  Is it limited to /pol/ or is it broader, in your view?

weev:  Stormer has 3 million unique monthly viewers.  That's like, a major metro daily.  I am barely on pol, only 4pol these days, and only during happenings.

Urizenus:  So let's talk about Kek.  Egyptian deity.  Which means He’s an African deity.

weev:  Listen, He's darkness.  He's the god of darkness.  Darkness is all encompassing and timeless.  We're using the Egyptian deity because Egyptian and Levantine polytheism terrifies the shit out of Jews. 

Urizenus:  Have you read Black Athena by Martin Bernal? All of Western Culture was stolen from Africa by the Greeks. Stolen. Black. Culture.

weev:  If you think niggers are so great, move to Africa.  You can easily live among niggers.

Urizenus:  I'm talking about Greek architecture, Greek philosophy, Greek gods…all taken from Africa.

weev:  This is hilariously untrue.

Urizenus:  No.  Fact.  Where would the Pythagoreans be without the Egyptians?

weev:  Lol, okay go live among niggers if you think they are so intelligent.  Don't know why you're around us whites.

Urizenus:  I don't have to.  When I read Plato I am reading work with its origins in Africa.

weev:  I myself never want to live around niggers.

Urizenus:  St. Augustine.  Straight up black.

weev:  lollllll  God you have been brainwashed.  It's pretty sad to see.

It's ok…I myself am going to live in white society.  I like white people.

Urizenus:  No... *you* have been brainwashed and we know how it happened.

weev: How did it happen, Peter.

Urizenus:  They call me Uri.

weev:  Please explain to me how it happened.

Urizenus:  19th century German historians tried to erase the black source of western culture.

weev:  lollll

Urizenus:  Even Plato knew about the black origin of his philosophy.  Remarked on it.

weev:  I don't care. I want to live among whites. I want white people to have independent nations of their own. I don't mind blacks having that.

Urizenus:  I'm not saying you should care.  I'm just saying your culture is black.

weev:  lol sure.

Urizenus:  I guess white culture would be druid culture or something. But it wouldn't be grounded in Greek and Roman thought and art.

weev:  Blacks will never make something like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX83BSR0mug

Philippe Jaroussky - Vedro con mio diletto - Vivaldi

They have their own culture and that's great.  It's for them.

Urizenus:  No... you are soaking in black culture when you read Keats and Yeats and Plato.

weev:  looool

Urizenus:  Kek is out of deepest Africa.  Well up the Nile.  He's a Nubian god

weev:  He's darkness.  Darkness is eternal.

Urizenus:  It’s all a cosmic joke.  You are a vehicle for the rebirth of Africa

weev:  Great.  I do intend to help Africa.  Africa definitely needs rebirth as well.  Ever since whites abandoned its management it has been shit.

Urizenus:  Yeah, I hear they really miss King Leopold of Belgium.

weev: Oh yeah, the Congo STILL has people that eat each other in it but it's totally Leopold's fault it all went to shit.

Urizenus:  I have a horrifying thought for you. Have you noticed the similarity between "kek" and "cuck"?

weev:  Lol

Urizenus:  What if Kek is a meta-troll looking to turn you all into cucks?

weev:  Man you are really stretching here.

Urizenus:  No, I think the reasoning is solid.

weev:  omg, we are so cucks reclaiming our civilizations and knocking out the political establishments that took them from us.

Urizenus:  Or are you?  Dude, it could be a path to cuckdom.  Kek works in mysterious ways, as you are forced to admit.  The innocent green frog, a mole in the alt-right movement, delivering an army of white cucks to mother Africa

weev:  I would be very happy if all the cucks were sent to Africa.  They would be too; living amongst the niggers they love so much.  It would be win-win.

Urizenus:  The point is that you would be one of them.

weev:  I'm definitely pretty far away from Africa. And my passport has become significantly less useful because some diffusions are on it now.  So I am definitely staying here in a lily-white land of gorgeous Slavic women.  Great ballet.  You wouldn't believe how good the ballet is here.

Longcat was long in Second Life

Well, virtual worlds have not changed, but so-called Real Life has. In fact Real Life has become a virtual world – not The Spectacle, as foretold by Guy Debord, nor a simulacrum, as Baurdrillard imagined – but a straight-up video game.

All the trolls and memes and griefers and the whatthefuckedupedness of Second Life have spilled out into so-called Real Life and turned the 2016 election season into an endless parade of fort longcats. Pepe has replaced Pool’s Closed, and weev has replaced Grimmy Moonflower, but these changes are cosmetic.

Pepe comes to real life

We could have sat this one out, but that would be irresponsible to our loyal readers and jealous haters. They *could* make some popcorn and pull up a lawn chair and watch as the Bowsers of American politics sling poo at each other, but without the Herald’s thoughtful analysis, the popcorn would not be as tasty, the lawn chair not as comfortable, and the poo slinging would appear less artful.

No, you need the Herald to help you through this, and we aim to deliver. We are here for you. Because we care. And remember: The Ban Hammer (tm) now works in Real Life too, so be careful, because it can come down on you “for any reason or no reason.”  Meanwhile, stay tuned.

Why does everyone hate my video?

Strategic blunder is probably the best description of the last week's decision to publish Jessica Tozer's 30 minute interview with General Keith Alexander on YouTube. What were they thinking?

After the strangely-edited video was placed in the free-fire zone of open public YouTube ratings, the General has been subjected to continuous withering enemy fire from viewers. Apparently  Keith "collect-it-all" Alexander's vision of NSA unconstitutional blanket surveillance is not popular. As of this writing, the video has 247 "likes" and 14,889 dislikes. 

Doesn't Alexander have someone in PR to advise against this sort of doomed propaganda social media outreach? With a 98% downvote rating, the NSA will need more than a oddly-staged video with narco-ambient background music to persuade the public.

Or is this part of an effort to throw Alexander under the bus? Cowboy Keith seems to have some enemies in the security establishment based on a recent less-than-complimentary piece in Foreign Policy. A convenient scapegoat might be useful to distract the public from deeper systemic issues.

Alexander poses with his co-star: a yellow extension cord

Even after putting aside the motivation for the video, I was left with questions. It would be interesting to know why someone couldn't find a better chair for the General Alexander to perch on for this video. I understand Alexander enjoys the Star Trek motif at Fort Belvoir's "Information Dominance Center", but his chair in this video is less than impressive.

I'd also like to know why yellow extension cord on the floor is effectively a co-star in the video. The yellow power cord appears frequently as the camera pans back and the editors try to vary the scene without ever showing Ms. Tozer speaking.

YouTube voting irregularities?

Despite an overwhelmingly negative reaction from YouTube viewers, a certain amount of paranoia has been evident in the comments, along with some odd fluctuations in the voting. If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear - unless you are critical of the current regime.

time to rally the Booz Allen contractors for more upvotes?

While it was recently announced that Gen. Alexander is planning to retire from the NSA next year, and despite the undeniable allure of the private security contractor revolving door, we can hope that the General can find time to join forces with Rebecca Black to sing a "Friday" duet.

Just think of the YouTube ratings they could achieve.

Yes, summer is winding down, but it isn't too late to cram in some late late summer reading.  And who better to suggest good solid reading, but the FBI.  Dell Cameron, writing in the Daily Dot, has the goods.  He gives us the 20 online publications concerning Barrett Brown that the prosecution considers "must read."  Or is that "don't read".  Hmm these lists are so confusing...

Here is how Mr. Cameron lays it down.

I attended the gag order hearing on September 4 and listened as the U.S. government spoke candidly about the journalists who've covered Barrett's case. Twenty articles were admitted into evidence from various writers and websites. Much to my surprise, the U.S. government has great taste in journalism. I've collected the online articles it selected as evidence against Barrett Brown for your reading pleasure.

You want to know who made the list, don't you?  Well to see it you just gotta click through! [link]

Spoiler though, some of the names will be familiar to Herald readers!

I decided to join the Waze traffic map game on my new iPhone last week, after reading far too many stories moaning about how Apple should never have dropped Google Maps from the new version of iOS.  The general tone of the Apple Map coverage has been along the lines of ZOMG!!! My iPhone is ruined 4evah! the Apple Maps are wrong in some places! How will life be worth living without Google?!?

This coverage overlooks certain troubling aspects of Google, the wardriving WIFI snooping Internet ad agency that keeps telling itself don't be evil - then quietly overrides web browser privacy protections. I've been limiting my contact with all things Google after that unfortunate Google+ suspension that locked up my e-mail and data until Google eventually decided I was real after all.

GPS-enabled roleplay leads to live traffic and police sighting reports

So I'm fine with leaving Google Maps behind - especially now that I'm experiencing a whole new form of role play. I have spent most of the week playing the part of an autonomous techno-communist node in a network of mobile GPS sensors roaming real life's highways.

It's great! Not only do I get to play an open ended augmented reality MMORPG and contribute to the improvement of the human condition, I'm being rewarded with points and a rising ranking among the other players. In return for being tracked by my phone as I drive, I can level up and marvel at how my commute has been gameified.

Best of all, I am almost past the Waze noobie avatar look - a baby with a pacifier.

a selection of waze avatars - after your drive 100 miles

I've got my eye on some much more fashionable outfits, and hope someday I will be able to earn even better virtual clothes as I drive to work and report accidents and traffic backups - the fundamental form of gameplay in Waze. Why grind in WoW when you have to drive work anyway? If you are daring, you can text chat with other players, although I'm not sure how that could work if you are also supposed to be driving your car.

While the realtime traffic condition reports are quite good, I do think Waze could use a few of Second Life's fashion designers to help with the avatars. Aren't all avatars supposed to wear impossible spike heels and skankolicious outfits?

noobies with pacifiers and fashionistas on the mean streets of Durham, NC

Setting aside the virtual fashion scene and game play, Waze has an interesting business model that is something like a traffic oriented version of Wikipedia -- crowd sourcing both map updates and traffic reports. In contrast, Google throws money at the mapping problem by running dedicated Google cars wherever it can, but there are practical limits to how many cars Google can put on the roads. Waze should be able to compete with Google for at least map and traffic information at lower cost by crowd sourcing reports from people who were driving anyway.

I expect to be joined by quite a few more players, after Apple's Tim Cook mentioned mentioned last Friday that Waze is an alternative to Apple's iOS Map while the Foxconn smartphone and tablet reseller redraws their maps.

Now if we just had a real money trade for Waze points, I might be able to get that crown the cool players have a little sooner.

Early this week, Linden Lab destroyed the Sandvich region of Second Life and banned Sandvich land owner Sarilia Tryce and associates from the game, presumably in response to the Justice League Unlimited gang's favorite tactics: abuse report frenzy. The JLU and their allies were spurred into action as news spread of a terrifying situation at high altitude in Sandvich: a recreation of Fort Longcat - a virtual museum of PN, Soviet Woodbury, 4Chan /b/tard memes. Shock!!! Horrors!!!

outside Fort Longcat high above Sandvik sim

For the JLU, this sort of enemy sighting instantly leads to an unthinking knee jerk reaction - kill it with fire - regardless of the consequences. So while the Sandvich nuke job was initially hailed by JLU partisans, gradually the realization dawned that seizing property without compensation or explanation could lead to unfavorable publicity. Strangely, some believe property rights should extend to all.

Tizzers Foxchase [file photo]

Had the anti-griefers been trolled into damaging their beloved Lab's reputation by the notorious perma-banned Tizzers Foxchase and friends? Did the Woodbury/Wrong Hands/PN faction set up a win-win situation by promoting Second Life with a Steam-themed sim which could attract more players to their community - or embarrass the Lab if the ban hammer fell?

trouble in the sky?

Ms. Foxchase has now experienced 4 rounds of mass bans and sim deletions, so the end game for any visit to Rod Humble's platform for user-generated spooge palaces creativity  is clear - but what are the motivations?

I was able to explore some of these questions shortly after Sandvich fell off the world map in an exclusive interview with Ms. Foxchase as I looked over some pictures I had taken on a visit to the Sandvich sim fort Longcat re-creation a few weeks ago.

do you want to join the discussion?

While there were certainly portions of Fort Longcat that seem designed to offend - the room of flapping penises might not be the best advertisement for Second Life - I wonder if more traditional and well established top 20 SL attractions such as Bukkake Bliss Island will impress Linden Lab's new target market: Stream players. Why isn't the JLU working to improve SL's image where it really counts?

the garage in Fort Longcat: Kalel Venkman's JLU patrol car

As we discussed game governance, Tizzers told me her alt account Hissyfits Resident when deleted had $600 USD worth of mesh clothes - a sobering thought for any fashionista - but comforting to those who enjoy the long running Second Life meta-game: Authoritarian Kleptocracy.

You may wonder why Authoritarian Kleptocracy seems to be Linden Lab's favored form of governance, but it does make a certain amount of sense to those unconcerned with the rule-of-law and moving beyond a feudal society. Fear and intimidation -- do you really want to lose your virtual clothes? -- may well cut the costs of sandbox game governance, but at the cost of increased player cynicism and pointed questions about LL's new ventures.

Where will Rod Humble draw the line? Now that the Lab has released knock-off copies of Crayons Physics Deluxe and Minecraft, should we fear for our 2D-physics enabled iPad finger paintings and triangle-based constructions? With these thoughts in mind, I fired up my new Apple iMojoWire 5 for a chat with Tizzers.

Pixeleen Mistral: Ever since Linden Lab announced two new games - Createoverse and Patterns - I've been wondering about game gods' plan to handle governance across the product line. If you are banned in SL are you also banned in their other games? What if someone makes a naughty looking thing in Createoverse - will there be an adult Createoverse? 

Tizzers Foxchase: And the question beyond that is, if SL uses Steamcloud, will SL bans affect Steam accounts?

Pixeleen Mistral: getting back to the Sandvich situation, should we assume that Soft Linden is taking the virtual law into his own hands here - or was this a ban that went through normal channels?

Tizzers Foxchase: Generally mass wipes and sim nukes aren't done through normal channels.

Greetings,
This email is notification that Linden Lab has terminated your access to the Second Life virtual world due to severe or repeated violations of the Second Life Terms of Service or Community Standards which broadly interfere with or disrupt the Second Life community. Your account has been permanently disabled. Depending on the nature of the recorded violations, additional alternate or household accounts may also have been disabled.

The decision to terminate your Second Life access was reached after investigating your use of the Second Life software and service. If you would like to appeal your termination, you may contact Second Life Support, by creating a support ticket type of "Abuse Appeal" on support.second life.com.

Sincerely,
Linden Lab

defending the world from furry scum

Pixeleen Mistral: I think you guys are clearly the record holders for sim-smackdowns

Tizzers Foxchase: for the record, I have about 600 USD worth of purchases on Hissyfits Resident, just buying *stuff*. Like crap loads of mesh clothes. lol

Pixeleen Mistral: has this setback discouraged you from playing Second Life? or do you plan to return?

Tizzers Foxchase: Being censored by Linden Lab has never discouraged us from returning to the grid. Despite the shortcomings of the company running it, many of us still enjoy the game with the hopes that one day somebody will build a better SL sans Linden Lab.

Pixeleen Mistral: so why do you think Linden Lab continues to use what are apparently ineffective measures to "protect" their game from this sort of meta-gaming and rouge narrative?
This is the 4th time your faction has been banned and had your sims nuked - Linden Lab does not seem to be employing effective counter-measures

Tizzers Foxchase: I think there remains a handful of vocal residents and Linden employees that continue to harbor grudges from the past. Despite the fact that our group stays to itself, the fact that we exist shatters their world. I imagine these people flood Linden Lab with correspondence until something is done.

Pixeleen Mistral: should Second Life players expect your faction to return?

Tizzers Foxchase: You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

Pixeleen Mistral: i c
Was the owner of the land that Linden Lab confiscated today compensated for the loss of his property?

Tizzers Foxchase: There was never any compensation for the purchase of the sim. As in typical Linden Lab fashion, we've received the creepy silent treatment.

an Afroduck picture and boxes of equipment

its dangerous to go alone - take this

Pixeleen Mistral: Would you advise others to play Second Life? You seem to be willing to play for fairly high stakes but what about someone who is just getting started?

Tizzers Foxchase: Professionalism and customer service aren't strong points at Linden Lab. It's a very political company with many different conflicting opinions and visions internally. This is really brought to light by the GlassDoor reviews by former employees. http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Linden-Lab-Reviews-E100549.htm

Pixeleen Mistral: But you continue to play - despite the odds - why?

Tizzers Foxchase: Unfortunately Second Life remains the only "game in town" at least in terms of collaborative virtual world spaces. Being able to contiguously co-exist with thousands of other people simultaneously is a really cool thing. I get a lot of satisfaction from watching people genuinely enjoy the communities that we create.

Pixeleen Mistral: and you have also created an infrastructure outside SL that allows your group to survive these periodic mass bans

Tizzers Foxchase: Skype has been invaluable in that regard. It has essentially become my SL friends list and many of us have been in 24/7 chats dating back several years. Getting banned is just a minor hiccup because we rarely need our in-world friends list or chat ability.

Pool's Closed inside the "dead n****r storage" room

Pixeleen Mistral: So there is really very little Linden Lab can do to discourage your faction - do you think there will ever be some sort of peaceful coexistence?

Tizzers Foxchase: I think by now Linden realizes that these bans are mostly token PR statements showing good faith on their part, rather than effective measures to rid the grid of who they consider persona non grata.

Pixeleen Mistral: that seems like a realistic appraisal of the situation

Tizzers Foxchase: Most of us are in favor of peaceful coexistence. The core group rarely left the Sandvich sim.

trolling crew

Pixeleen Mistral: perhaps some of your critics will attempt to attract and retain Steam players
We can hope that the Justice League Unlimited and Ravenglass Rentals will pick up the slack - or maybe not. Do you think that the JLU and Ravenglass Rentals will attract more paying players than Sandvich would have?

Tizzers Foxchase: When Sarilia and I discovered that Second Life was going to be listed on Valve's Steam platform, we knew that was a demographic of gamers that would fit in well with ours. Sandvich was created to be a familiar place for these people. This idea was reinforced when photos of the sim reached the front page of Reddit's r/gaming with over 1800 upvotes. I'm not sure I could say the same about Ravenglass Rentals.

Pixeleen Mistral: we can only hope the game gods know best. Is there anything else you would like to tell the Herald readers? what have I missed?

Tizzers Foxchase: Second Life is a stepping stone in the history of virtual worlds. The best thing we could do is learn what not to do, and apply that in future competing products. In the meantime, rock fresh.

There is no question Linden Lab CEO and Aston Villa fan Rod Humble knows his soccer. But Rod Humble seems to be taking a classic end-game page from the American football playbook - the Hail Mary pass - as he moves to market Second Life through a 3rd party -- Valve's Steam game portal/social network.

On the surface, this appears to be a clever move - in January Steam was reported to have 5 million concurrent players and 40 million accounts. The risk?

"Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.”
- David Ogilvy

Current Second Life players have greeted the Steam announcement with some skepticism, wondering  how SL's  wonky user interface, exorbitant land tier fees, dated graphics, questionable customer service, and lack of structure will win over Steam players accustomed to a more polished experience -- and gameplay similar to Valve's own HalfLife.

If the SL experience disappoints the Steam hordes, look for a wave of bad word-of-mouth reviews and an upsurge in "griefing" and meta-gaming as some Steam players are bored and give up - or try to impose a PvP narrative on Second Life. Could this be why Linden Lab is only now turning to Steam as a marketing tool?

But at this point Humble may have little choice other than to chuck the ball toward the endzone and hope for the best.

Second Life player concurrency has been in steady decline since February according to Tateru Nino's Second Life statistical charts (see charts below). Falling concurrency continues a trend the Herald pointed out in April 2011. With ongoing pricing pressure from other virtual worlds, and high profile group defections such as the SL Elf Clan who happily abandoned SL for Inworldz, the long term viability of Second Life is a very real question.

median player concurrency has been dropping since February

Can Steam turn up the daily sign ups - and will they stay?

In light of dropping interest in the game, a move to broaden the product line and presumably make use of the SL server farm for other products would be understandable. But the "shared creative spaces"/"shared creativity tool" products outside Second Life Humble promised over a year ago at the Second Life Community Conference 2011 are nowhere to be seen, so the Lab remains dependent on it's Second Life cash cow to fund new product development.

Could the new product delay have played a part in the departure of Bob Komin, Linden Lab's CFO and COO? The remainder of this year will be telling, as the Lab grapples with management changes in the wake of Komin's departure, un-met promises of new non-SL products, and a do-or-die encounter with Steam.

When I was last a Second Lifer I learned quickly that it's important not to get too excited about the "Events" listed in the SL search, as most will be a huge disappointment. Empty sims trying to sell or rent lots, struggling clubs, and sex bed sales made up the majority of results and sifting the "actual" things to do from the lame attempts at generating traffic was more trouble than finding one's own favorite things to do.

So the other day when some girlfriends and I were looking for something to do, I was trepidatious about trying the Search Events function, but what the heck, maybe it's better than 2007.

Turns out it's not (but, to be fair, the Lindens seem to be doing a good job of keeping the "Featured Events" in the "Destination Guide" up to date). Still, I discovered a "Bowling Event" that looked like fun, so we went.

As an event, it was a total fail because it was one of those "We're not really having an event, but we're here and we're open" type of events and predictably, the place was empty, but it was a complete win because we discovered Second Life Bowling.

The place we went to was called Bowl-a-Rama Bowling Center, here's a Slurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Topaz%20Square/31/95/26

The bowling action is predictably cheesey, but it's not easy to get perfect scores, so it makes for some good fun if you're the competitive type and bring some friends over. If nothing else, both of my girlfriends loved it and have been back since, so you might meet some hot avatars.

bowl - and maybe meet hot avatars too!

I was curious if this bowling script/animation/scoring that we were experiencing at Bowl-a-Rama would be found at other places, so we jumped to a couple other bowling places. I liked (and my girlfriends agreed) the Bowl-a-Rama version best.

there is no place like an SL Welcome Area - and some things never change

After bowling, I futzed about a while, then wondered what my Home Location is after all this time away. I teleported home and learned it's the Plum Welcome Area. (I'm guessing my old home landmark no longer exists on the grid?) I didn't have much time to think about it, however, as I was almost immediately attacked by Zenfreckels's Prim and a gazillion gross pictures. I had to TP away and then relog to end the assault.

So, those of you who might have wandered away from the Grid and wondered how life in the metaverse is progressing - it feels a lot like 2007 still, but at least there's good bowling now.

"Turn off your TVs for a start"

Featuring a healthy dose of pepper spray - which sources on the UC Davis campus recently learned is basically a food product - the latest Rap News release from TheJuiceNews continues Robert Foster's grand tradition of "turning bollocks-news into socio-poetic/comedic analyses which everyone can relate to and understand".

TheJuiceNews regulars Terrence Moonseed and General Baxter are interviewed early in the coverage followed by an unforgettable Anonymous human megaphone mic check. But the highlight of the coverage is likely to provide a near religious experience for linguistic students as we learn that Noam Chomsky is capable of a doing a very good Chomsky impression. Who could have guessed?

The assets of Teleplace are being liquidated after the business-oriented 3D virtual meeting place hit a financial singularity which prevents the venture's continued operation, according to a mailing sent to potential creditors - including the Alphaville Herald's own part time typist/technical advisor Mark McCahill. 

Mr. McCahill provided the Herald with copies of the liquidation notification but pointed out that the Teleplace software was recently open sourced as Open QWAQ, so the software will live on indefinitely -- despite the apparent demise of Teleplace, Inc.

seeking a more fluid situation

While opponents of open source may be dismayed at this development, software immortality is good news for the members of the Turing Church Online. The group had been holding their transhumanist services at a virtual venue hosted by Teleplace, but have now moved to another hosting service running the Open QWAQ software. Is it any wonder Second Life conspiracy theorists fear a  transhumanist tropism for open source systems?

Unfortunately, the Teleplace and transhumanist news cut short the Herald staffs' well-earned break from the virtual world news beat. After dusting the cobwebs off our virtual printing press and consulting the staff directory,  I was able to arrange a meeting with Mr. McCahill at the fashionable Martinis and Power - an after work club favored by Herald reporters despite having almost nothing in common with Philip Rosedale's new Coffee and Power work club.

Pixeleen Mistral: Hi Mark! Sorry to interrupt your vacation but what's this about Teleplace being shut down?  
Mark McCahill: Way back in the day - back when QWAQ was just getting started - I spent a couple days talking with them and they put me in their rolodex. Eventually QWAQ turned into Teleplace, and the rolodex must have made it through the transition. Now it looks like they are notifying everyone who might possibly be a creditor, and so a couple weeks ago, I got this notice. It sure looks like they are selling everything off. Here are the papers - what does it look like to you?

calling all creditors

Pixeleen Mistral: Hmmm. Looks like game over. That's a shame. Were you surprised to see Teleplace go into liquidation?
Mark McCahill: Not exactly. I knew something was up when Teleplace open sourced their code after a long run as a proprietary branch of the Open Croquet project.

It breaks down like this. David Smith and Andreas Raab worked on the Open Croquet project. They are some of the best software engineers I have ever seen - so they have really great tech - but its not just about the tech. David and Andreas went on to form QWAQ after funding for Open Cobalt got tight, which happened once Carly Fiorina left HP and Mark Hurd took over and started cost-cutting. At that point Alan Kay's research group was wound down, so David and Andreas needed to find a new home for their work. In the end, the people at the universities kept working on Croquet and David and Andreas formed a startup based on the Croquet code. That was the genesis of QWAQ, and eventually QWAQ changed its name to Teleplace.

But the business-oriented virtual meeting place market is really crowded, so a shakeout was inevitable. Look at what happened to Linden Lab - they took a huge hit and laid off 30% of their staff after Mark Kingdon pursued the business meeting place biz. So when the Teleplace code was open sourced, it seemed to be a sign that a change in direction was coming. It was ironic that the code was released under the GPL, but I imagine it was the best they could do.

Pixeleen Mistral: How was releasing the code under the GPL license ironic?
Mark McCahill: Teleplace is based on Open Croquet, and Open Croquet was released under the MIT license. This means that you could do pretty much anything with derivative works, including take them closed source and proprietary. GPL is different - and viral. GPL says that all derivative works have to remain open source. That is a big turn-off for companies that want to sell proprietary systems. Now, if I'm at a university working on a research project like Croquet, I want the widest possible impact for that research, so I prefer the MIT license. On the other hand, I imagine the only way the Teleplace guys could convince their board to release the code was under GPL, because the board was probably worried someone else might take the code and compete with them - so they wanted to see any changes made to the code. Unfortunately, this fragments the open source development community.

Pixeleen Mistral: How so?
Mark McCahill: We can't add any of the Teleplace code to MIT-licensed projects like Open Croquet or Open Cobalt without those projects getting infected with a GPL license, and we don't want a GPL license. So we have to be very careful to keep Teleplace code out of Open Cobalt. There is a way around this mess, which would be for the rights holders of the Teleplace code to dual-license it.

Pixeleen Mistral: what do you mean by dual license?
Mark McCahill: Make it available under both the MIT and GPL license and allow people to choose the license that suits their needs. I imagine that they will be selling the rights to the Teleplace code as part of the liquidation of assets. I wonder who will end up with the rights? Maybe they will also release it under an MIT license. 

Pixeleen Mistral: Where do you see the virtual meeting space for business software going next?
Mark McCahill: Onto mobile devices like the iPad and Android tablets. WebEx works really well on an iPad and I see a ton of tablets going out to corporate salespeople. To get anywhere in the corporate market, a 3D meeting space will need to be better than WebEx or Google+ video hangouts and work on tablets - and also do something WebEx and Google+ doesn't do.

Looking at the way the virtual meeting place market has played out you can see why Linden Lab bailed on marketing Second Life for business meetings. But as you keep reminding me, there is money in the babyfur and My LIttle Pony/Brony markets - and not much competition, so Second Life for fancy dress party socializing still makes sense.

Pixeleen Mistral: Never underestimate the power of cute, at least outside a business context.
Mark McCahill: If anyone would know, it's you Pix.