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.

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.

Stroker Tweets his farewell to Second Life

Monday evening I was able to interview Jumpman Lane and get his perspective on a situation many believe is an extreme case of cyberstalking and online bullying. In the interview, Mr. Lane made a number of extremely troubling statements - continuing his attacks on Stroker Serpentine and claiming Linden Lab staff encouraged his harassment of Serpentine after Serpentine filed a lawsuit against Linden Lab. But is this credible?

Jumpman Lane is well known for pursuing what I can only hope is a very deep level of roleplay in Second Life and taking his game to extremes - and into mainstream Internet media such as Facebook and Twitter. In the online world, where reputation is the only real currency, this cautionary take of what seems to be a smear artist and serial Google bomber with a grudge should give us all pause.

Is this the sort of game you want to play?

Pixeleen Mistral: this is a nice place, how long have you had it?
Jumpman Lane: this is juro kotharis masterpiece lol
Jumpman Lane: the dawson residence
Jumpman Lane: 6 months
Jumpman Lane: lady dawson charges me 100 usd a month lol

Jumpman Lane's office -  replica of Stroker Serpentine's head on the desk and skateboard leaning on the wall

Pixeleen Mistral: youch! I guess you can afford it though
Jumpman Lane: yup
Jumpman Lane: so u brought along any griefers lmao
Jumpman Lane: this dumps near natoma
Jumpman Lane: phils hill all that
Jumpman Lane: u crsh this theyll has ban ya lol
Jumpman Lane: hehehehe one of the allures of this ol laggy place

Pixeleen Mistral: I don't know why I have this reputation for griefers - I just talk to everybody
Jumpman Lane: hehehe whose kiddin whom pix hehehe
Jumpman Lane: ur a card
Jumpman Lane: i dont mind tho this is my show dump

Pixeleen Mistral: so - let's get started - I've been thinking about interviewing you for the Herald for a while
Jumpman Lane: why? hehehehe
Jumpman Lane: shoot

Pixeleen Mistral: before we get going - you know I have an issue with the potty mouth stuff, right?
Jumpman Lane: i wont cuss none pix i swear

Pixeleen Mistral: so do your best to behave
Jumpman Lane: i hate editing out stuff too
Jumpman Lane:

Pixeleen Mistral: you have had a long running disagreement with Stroker Serpentine
Pixeleen Mistral: but from what I saw on twitter recently you won
Pixeleen Mistral: how did that all play out?
Jumpman Lane: yeah i guess but he's crafty. he'll play up sympathy and come back to a bunch of hugs
Jumpman Lane: i unno

Pixeleen Mistral: I get people asking me what even started the fight
Jumpman Lane: i mean i was yappin with some tards online and saw his suicide note

Pixeleen Mistral: maybe we should start from the beginning
Jumpman Lane: oh thats easy. all his flunky pals used to sic me on theeir enemies
Jumpman Lane: cheergirl sicced me on chelsea

Pixeleen Mistral: chelsea?
Jumpman Lane: alfa winger sicced me on the owner of some dump club called platinum
Jumpman Lane: chelsea malibu

Pixeleen Mistral: and what does alfa winger do?
Jumpman Lane: well cheergirl sicced me on corsi mousehold but corsi well corsi sent me gifts and bought my allegience
Jumpman Lane: crap might have to edit that out lol
Jumpman Lane: alfa owns slcamz

Pixeleen Mistral: so that is an SL porn site?
Jumpman Lane: he had a girlfriend with her hears set on naming a club platinum so he paid me to run the platinum club owners off
Jumpman Lane: he makes a mint doing live cams in sl
Jumpman Lane: its a club
Jumpman Lane: slcamz u interviewed emm years ago lol
Jumpman Lane: they have these ukranina chicks doing live cams out of sl

Pixeleen Mistral: so things started out with you being an enforcer to muscle the competition out?
Jumpman Lane: basically i was a gun for hire at first in this stroker thing but then he pissed me off or something and it just built up lol
Jumpman Lane: yes precicly
Jumpman Lane: really just to smear folks

Pixeleen Mistral: how did stroker piss you off?
Jumpman Lane: i forgot lol it was before he built hump boy lame
Jumpman Lane: something he said somewhere
Jumpman Lane: then he sued linden lab and i had all this crap his buddies had told me so i spilled them

Pixeleen Mistral: so you didn't like it when stroker sued Linden Lab
Jumpman Lane: and after really looking into corsi's story i realized what a phoney stroker was and how easy it would be to attack him

Pixeleen Mistral: that upset a lot of people
Jumpman Lane: coudnt have cared less when they sued Linden Lab
Jumpman Lane: in fact if u dig for it u'll see where i supported him
Jumpman Lane: but like i said i was like a gun for hire

a gun for hire

Pixeleen Mistral: I know - that is what I am trying to understand
Jumpman Lane: then the lindens contacted me
Jumpman Lane: with them it was all hints

Pixeleen Mistral: hints like what
Jumpman Lane: heck they fired im so it dont matter now

Pixeleen Mistral: ?
Jumpman Lane: Blondin was the one who approached me about smearing stroker over the suit
Jumpman Lane: he even lets it slip in one of his office hours

Pixeleen Mistral: ok - and you knew a lot of what was going on because you had been working with Stroker before
Jumpman Lane: noooooo
Jumpman Lane: never met stroker lol im sure we've never had an inworld conversation
Jumpman Lane: i met chelsea malibu first
Jumpman Lane: she told me a bunch of HER secrets to impress me
Jumpman Lane: then i met cheergirl who did the same
Jumpman Lane: then alf then hard rust

Pixeleen Mistral: ok - so you had dirt from chelsea and some others
Jumpman Lane: i know a lot of what they do in sl caws they told and showed me
Jumpman Lane: dirt from chelsea dirt from cheergirl dirt from alfa
Jumpman Lane: no dirt from hard he just follwed me around like a puppy

Pixeleen Mistral: LOL
Jumpman Lane: and dirt from a few lindens
Jumpman Lane: things to find out things to mention

Pixeleen Mistral: and the idea was to make Stroker look bad?
Jumpman Lane: that was their idea but i told them the truth is even better because he made himself look bad
Jumpman Lane: take his stance on ip rights

Pixeleen Mistral: ok
Jumpman Lane: he hates copybot but everybody he hangs withnis wearing stolen skins lmao
Jumpman Lane: its the biggest joke
Jumpman Lane: why is cheergirl using ripper viewers lmao
Jumpman Lane: u figure it out

Pixeleen Mistral: so with this sort inside information you had some leverage
Jumpman Lane: WHERE is cheergirl allen even lol
Jumpman Lane: god i got more info than i can write lol
Jumpman Lane: i just wait for the right moment
Jumpman Lane: they just told me things
Jumpman Lane: to impress me i guess
Jumpman Lane: like the redgrave skins

Pixeleen Mistral: maybe they were bragging?
Jumpman Lane: cheergirl gave the things to pals of mine
Jumpman Lane: rezzed the textures i got the asset uuids lmao
Jumpman Lane: pathetic
Jumpman Lane: im sure they were and boy i was im pressed hehehehe i still dont know how to steal skins in sl

Pixeleen Mistral: so you have all this insider info - how did you use it?
Jumpman Lane: well its just stuff they told me like i know the busness model for slcamz
Jumpman Lane: i write stories in my magazine when it suits me
Jumpman Lane: i reveal it to get back at my enemies
Jumpman Lane: consider this and this is accordin to that eros bunch
Jumpman Lane: 1. i wrecked chelsea malibu's deal wiht the real life jenna jameson club jenna and buried mountainmeister llc
Jumpman Lane: 2. wrecked vegas so stroker couldnt sell it like amsterdamn
Jumpman Lane: 3. cawsed him to have to settle eros vs linden research for a promise and n moies and ll's lawyers bills
Jumpman Lane: 4.stroker is suicidal, quit sl, called me the kang lol musta hurt some
Jumpman Lane: and thats what THEY say so i reckon im effective

Jumpsman: "we have attacked our enemies by every means in any venue"

Pixeleen Mistral: so this has been going on for a long time - like the Stroker vs. LL lawsuit is old news
Jumpman Lane: old news to some lmao

Pixeleen Mistral: well - to you and me - but my readers don't know all the backstory
Jumpman Lane: technically u could say im a catspaw in the briggi vs. stroker war because ive defitly joined their cause so even longer

Pixeleen Mistral: but this has been more than some stories in your magazine
Jumpman Lane: hell though in not supposed to sat so im even seting the record straight on some class of 2003 drama that happened long before any of us ever heard of second life
Jumpman Lane: oh this is lush the new edtrix of my magazine
Lusciouslumpchunks McMillan: hello ㋡

Pixeleen Mistral: hi!
Jumpman Lane: more well we have attacked our enemies by every means in any venue lol

Pixeleen Mistral: like?
Jumpman Lane: twitter he prob wanted to committ suicide caws week before last stroker was threatening to caswe me up with a msdemenor charge of cyber stalking
Jumpman Lane: i pointed out to him that his peod antics on that tv show taboo might look bad to the fbi lol
Jumpman Lane: and so would his age play sex toy hump boy lame hehehe

Pixeleen Mistral: oh yeah - I remember the hump boy toy
Jumpman Lane: then he went quiet next i hear he's trying t hang his damn self or something
Jumpman Lane: yup
Jumpman Lane: hump boy waqs a godsend

Pixeleen Mistral: how so?
Jumpman Lane: ll taking it off xtreet helped to
Jumpman Lane: well it was removed for being an age play item
Jumpman Lane: can always say hey he's a pedo
Jumpman Lane: then he goes on taboo and they make him look like a perv
Jumpman Lane: try explaining all that away to some prosecutor never seen second life
Jumpman Lane: to them he's a sex offender and stroker knows it

Pixeleen Mistral: you have also been quite active in the comments on some web sites
Jumpman Lane: sure why not
Jumpman Lane: to the last ill graple wit them saps
Jumpman Lane: from hell's heart ill stab at em
Jumpman Lane: for hates sake spit my last breath at em
Jumpman Lane: they got my pal veronica2vixen devoix banned from second life

Pixeleen Mistral: how did they do that?
Jumpman Lane: former avastar reporter

Pixeleen Mistral: LL never bans people I dislike
Jumpman Lane: i unno cheergirl or her slag bimbo cheerleaders tricked her into repeating a secrect of cheergirls in world lol
Jumpman Lane: theyve banned plenty i dislike hehehe

Pixeleen Mistral: oh - then they ARed her?
Jumpman Lane: like these sappy furries named Poland used to piss me off as a noob
Jumpman Lane: rembeber them lush we bought mysti tools to fight em
Jumpman Lane: the good ol days
Jumpman Lane: yup they ARed her
Jumpman Lane: it was a douzy of a secrect
Lusciouslumpchunks McMillan: lololol..sure do, those were the days for sure
Jumpman Lane: im gonna reveal it in my book douchery thy name is serpentine
Jumpman Lane: hehehehehe

Pixeleen Mistral: but now Stroker is gone as far as I know
Jumpman Lane: Poland got banned

Jumpman: "The thing with Stroker is, he chose to put his rl identity out there, expose his children and whatnot"

Pixeleen Mistral: so what is next?
Jumpman Lane: thats the fall part
Jumpman Lane: it ain t over
Jumpman Lane: cheergirl has to be attended to

Pixeleen Mistral: no?
Jumpman Lane: then chelsea malibu
Jumpman Lane: then alfa winger
Jumpman Lane: then hard rust
Jumpman Lane: i aint never stopping
Jumpman Lane: and theres some class of 2003 saps im gonna bury for lady

Pixeleen Mistral: but isn't Stroker a special case? everyone knows his RL identity
Jumpman Lane: crap for somebody else
Jumpman Lane: then im gonna make me an army of noobs and take over all of second life

Pixeleen Mistral: these others are not known, are they?
Jumpman Lane: naw theres a few enemies my pals have that are as old and famous as stroker
Jumpman Lane: sure we promoted slut mag off his troubles and we're gonna promote pisxel x out of his and others people troubles

Pixeleen Mistral: and even if you don't know their real life names you can still go after their facebook and twitter
Jumpman Lane: pixel x magazine lol we changed the name like yall did
Jumpman Lane: i dont care about their real lives lol
Jumpman Lane: take the olbies like stroker they all disclose who they are anyways
Jumpman Lane: i never attacked stroker rl
Jumpman Lane: he just slipped up rl

Pixeleen Mistral: what do you think Stroker will do next?
Jumpman Lane: he let those taboo producers set him side by side with the biggest wierdos in the world
Jumpman Lane: do some time
Lusciouslumpchunks McMillan: The thing with Stroker is, he chose to put his rl identity out there, expose his children and whatnot
Jumpman Lane: i think he'll lurk back into second life
Jumpman Lane: try to case me up as a cyber stalker
Jumpman Lane: then im marching to the fbi
Lusciouslumpchunks McMillan: i doubt hed leave premanently
Jumpman Lane: exactlyt lush

Pixeleen Mistral: so you think you have evidence that the FBI will accept?
Jumpman Lane: we take that little surrender thing i quit im gona kill myself as looking for pity and virtual hugs
Jumpman Lane: i know the ins and out of the federal legal system
Jumpman Lane: belive it or not ive had a fine education hehehe
Jumpman Lane: federal prosecutors win 90% of their cases
Jumpman Lane: he'd take some kind ogf plea
Jumpman Lane: he's got enough to be charged
Jumpman Lane: and they dont need proof
Jumpman Lane: not beyond a resonable doubt just grand jury evidence for a sealed indictment
Jumpman Lane: or unsealed
Jumpman Lane: then he'd plead to some lesser pedo charge
Jumpman Lane: no more stroker
Jumpman Lane: if i were him i'd stop messing with me all together. quit sl so i can move on down our list of enemies

Pixeleen Mistral: the pedo thing is a very serious charge to make
Jumpman Lane: watch taboo its creepy
Jumpman Lane: in a way i do worry about his daughter
Jumpman Lane: i mean i dont cyber with my close friends in sl
Jumpman Lane: never with lush here for example
Jumpman Lane: i could t with people i refered to as family

Pixeleen Mistral: shouldn't the police have acted on that Taboo show already?
Jumpman Lane: and i cyber all the time
Jumpman Lane: how u know they didnt lmao
Jumpman Lane:
Jumpman Lane: how do you know they arent
Lusciouslumpchunks McMillan: :þ~~~~
Lusciouslumpchunks McMillan: ew, Jump :þ~~~~

Pixeleen Mistral: well - I don't know actually
Jumpman Lane: something sure spooked the man
Lusciouslumpchunks McMillan: be like banging my brother
Jumpman Lane: i know tight
Jumpman Lane: right

Pixeleen Mistral: how can anyone know?
Jumpman Lane: u cant until they unseal the indictment
Jumpman Lane: they do that usually after the plea
Jumpman Lane: the guilty plea

Jumpman: "facebook sucks i just mostly link spam facebook"

Pixeleen Mistral: I remember when you were fighting with Stroker before you said some things about his wife being on crack or something - that seemed to really set Stroker off
Jumpman Lane: put it to ya like this the world will known if his surrender is fake
Jumpman Lane: yeah
Jumpman Lane: they let slip she was in recovery or someth

Pixeleen Mistral: really?
Jumpman Lane: yup stroker said something along those lines in a forum
Jumpman Lane: and recently i called his son gay on twitter lol
Jumpman Lane: well it aint disclosure o nothing i dont think his son is gay
Jumpman Lane: and he disclosed the biut about his wife when he sent me a notecard demanding i retract the statments

Pixeleen Mistral: so it seems like part of how this works is you point out things like this about Stroker and his family and use twitter and facebook
Jumpman Lane: well u told me i couldnt cuss
Jumpman Lane: naw not facebook so muck

Pixeleen Mistral: mostly twitter?
Jumpman Lane: facebook sucks i just mostly link spam facebook lol
Jumpman Lane: well mostly slut magazine hehehe well pixel x magazine but twitter is fun
Jumpman Lane: see i learnt their limits when i tried to get some fake accounts they made of me there
Jumpman Lane: so i know how far to go in twitter

Pixeleen Mistral: it took you a long time to break Stroker though - like years
Jumpman Lane: same in sl i befriended lindens
Jumpman Lane: they let me know the boundaries
Jumpman Lane: vs. eros those boundaries widened a bit lol
Jumpman Lane: naw just since eros vs. linden research
Jumpman Lane: aint been that long lol

Pixeleen Mistral: so after the Eros lawsuit LL gave you more room to maneuver?
Jumpman Lane: hehehehehe plenty more room
Jumpman Lane: take the posts i did in the forums

Pixeleen Mistral: so what is next for you
Jumpman Lane: sl forums
Jumpman Lane: i used to get a three day suspension for calling some one a sap lol

Pixeleen Mistral: and now?
Jumpman Lane: now id get suspended for calling some one a sap too lol
Jumpman Lane: but then
Jumpman Lane: then he had their hands tied
Jumpman Lane: they couldnt discipline him or thyd seem vindictive
Jumpman Lane: they couldnt discipline me caws it wouldnt be fair

Pixeleen Mistral: so you could say pretty much anything
Jumpman Lane: so they called it all a personal dispute and all bets were off
Jumpman Lane: could and did
Jumpman Lane: he could make hump boy i could make effigies and we could defame each other
Jumpman Lane: i got a lil note
Jumpman Lane: play times over jumpy lol
Jumpman Lane: but in all fairness he got a pass too
Jumpman Lane: but he made himself look bad
Jumpman Lane: and the redgrave skin thing didnt help
Jumpman Lane: jewels ur standing on my stuffed head of stroker serpentine heheheh

Pixeleen Mistral: hi jewels!
Jewels Cassell: xD
Jumpman Lane: this is jewels a photog of pixel x and stuiff
Jewels Cassell: sorry, lushys limo driver kicked me onto an odd place!
Jewels Cassell: Hello everyone
Lusciouslumpchunks McMillan: :þ~~~~
Lusciouslumpchunks McMillan: I wanted you to ride Stroker's stuffed face :þ~~~~

Pixeleen Mistral: so how do you think this makes you look?
Jumpman Lane: hi his is pix edits the alphaville herald
Jewels Cassell: I figured lol
Jumpman Lane: look what lmao
Jumpman Lane: ive been like this since day one
Jumpman Lane: im pals with my pals and will bury my enemies and their enemies too
Jumpman Lane: everyone else better just stay out of my way
Jumpman Lane: see im rakin muck here
Jumpman Lane: like citizen lane
Jumpman Lane: some will love me soome will hate me i dont care either way
Jumpman Lane: but if ur my pal weell go all or nothing against the world

Pixeleen Mistral: I think you said recently that you are the Kang of SL
Jumpman Lane: stroker said i was too

Pixeleen Mistral: maybe that is the title I should use
Jumpman Lane: its like the criminal rating u recieve in grand theft auto san andreas
Jumpman Lane: look at my sl
Jumpman Lane: darling of linden lab

Pixeleen Mistral: Jumpman Lane - the Kang of SL
Jumpman Lane: juro kothari custom home lol
Jumpman Lane: yup i sppelt em all out on my blog lol

Pixeleen Mistral: ok - well thanks for talking
Jumpman Lane: from noob through fic to lil carducci man of power aqlla way up to king of second life lol
Jumpman Lane: np

Pixeleen Mistral: I'm getting paged in real life
Jumpman Lane: have a good one lol
Lusciouslumpchunks McMillan: nice to have met you
Lusciouslumpchunks McMillan: ㋡

Pixeleen Mistral: thanks again jumpman - its been real

by Robble Rubble

[In Robble Rubble's exclusive interview with Artemis Fate, Ms. Fate - a respected class-of-2003 resident - points out that the Justice League Unlimited and similar anti-griefer vigilante groups are superfluous and attract exactly the sort of behaviors they claim to fight. She goes on to ask Linden Lab for a statement on exactly what is fair game for the vigilante groups and what should be off limits. - the Editrix]

Artemis Fate

Robble Rubble: So you've been on the grid a long time, can I ask what brought you to Second Life?
Artemis Fate: I used to be on Active worlds a little bit, I had came across it in the summer of 2003, but it was pretty rough then and I looked over it. Decided to try it in October of the same year and ended up getting really into it. Been around ever since.

Robble Rubble: Very nice, that's a long history on the grid. Can you give some insight into it? What sort of things do you spend time doing? What projects do you work on? What's your biggest accomplishments or even failures? Do you like long walks on the beach?
Artemis Fate: Insight into the history of the grid? It's changed rapidly while at the same time staying much the same. I used to be a builder, but I haven't done much in a while, due to moving from college into the 9-5 work world. My main project has been Nexus Prime, which has been on hold for a while, but there's some stuff in the works now that mesh is around. And sure, why not.

Robble Rubble: So it's safe to assume you are familiar with the recent controversy about the Justice League Unlimited?
Artemis Fate: And the two before that.

Artemis Fate believes the JLU has violated the spirit of the ToS

Robble Rubble: Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, can you tell me about your first awareness of the JLU? How did you hear about these people?
Artemis Fate: One of them came into Nexus Prime on a call, I'm not sure if someone had a communicator or if they were just patrolling. Nikola Shirakawa, who was a Green Lantern at the time.

Robble Rubble: Was this a positive or negative experience for you?
Artemis Fate: Largely negative, I didn't need an outside group using shields and other scripted tools to handle attacks when I could use sim tools. I ended up having to force her out of the sim since she was surprised that I wouldn't want their help. Afterwards Kalel Venkman IMed me saying much of the same and pointing out rather absurdly that the sim would be unprotected without their help. I asked them to not come around here, and apparently they did add Nexus Prime to their list of sims "not to patrol".

Robble Rubble: What sort of words would you use to describe the Justice League Unlimited and their practices?
Artemis Fate: I'd describe the Justice League itself as unnecessary, and their practices as overzealous.

Robble Rubble: That's a lot less four letter words than I would use.

Robble Rubble: Were there any other interactions with the JLU in Nexis Prime?
Artemis Fate: I'm sure they're generally good people on their own, and that they have good intentions, but together they're going overboard.
Artemis Fate: After that first one I never heard about them in Nexus Prime again, so I'm assuming they kept to their word.

Robble Rubble: What is it that caused you to to get involved in the recent discussions about the Justice League Unlimited on the SLUniverse and Second Citizen MKII boards?
Artemis Fate: The presence of a wiki had been something that was rumored about them the first I heard about them, it was interesting to see proof of it after the first leak, and how it evolved after every leak after that.

Robble Rubble: Have you ever felt you were a target of the JLU? Have you been contacted in world by any of the JLU members since the recent public backlash over the latest round of brainiac wiki leaks?
Artemis Fate: If I ever was, I was never aware of it. They don't have an article for me as far as I know, only a few mentions here and there.

Robble Rubble: What do you think will be accomplished by bringing this issue to the public?
Artemis Fate: I simply would want LL to make an official statement regarding the operation of anti-griefer groups in SL, what they can do, what they can't do.

Robble Rubble: I see that you have Greenlantern Excelsior to task on numerous occasions, what is your opinion on GLE's quality of damage control?
Artemis Fate: Poor.

Robble Rubble: heh

Robble Rubble: Do you think GLE's apologies are credible or are nothing more than that of an apology due to being caught, similar to what happened when Zenmondo was caught in the thread?
Artemis Fate: I don't think I've seen GLE apologize for anything.

Robble Rubble: He does seem adept at wiggling out of that.
Artemis Fate: At most, I've seen him say he regretted the comment regarding sending Nebula a threatening e-mail. [:0]

Robble Rubble: Do you have any questions you have or would have asked the JLU that remain unanswered, and if so would you care to share them with me? Any thoughts on why Kalel has refused to respond to most accusations himself?
Artemis Fate: The most obvious one would be why some of this information is necessary, and why measures haven't been taken to review and verify information put in the wiki for accuracy and necessity.
Artemis Fate: As for Kalel, I don't know. I haven't talked to him much outside of that one contact so many years ago, he seems paranoid and used to being in control now. I imagine it's a bit like Joseph McCarthy, who GLE seems to like so much, who was afraid to bring Charlie Chaplin to stand, knowing he'd lampoon him, so he revoked his right to re-enter the US when he was out of the country.
Artemis Fate: And if there's one thing serious men like that can't stand, it's being made fun of.

Robble Rubble: He does get his tights in a bunch over the smallest things.
Artemis Fate: That does seem to be the case.

Robble Rubble: So do you think the Justice League Unlimited have done anything to violate the Second Life terms of service or the community standards? Because at the end of the day, while people are screaming about ethical dilemnas, legal threats, letters to daytime television hosts and FBI investigations, do you think there is even a chance of making Linden Lab take action?
Artemis Fate: In terms of the letter of the ToS? I'm not sure. In terms of the spirit? Definitely. As per whether Linden Lab would take action, keep in mind that alt-detection and IP grabbing were not necessarily against the ToS until they were made so due to the community outrage.

Robble Rubble: Do you think that JLU members linking to their KryptonRadio blog while simultaniously ARing and getting people removed from search for posting links to blogs critical of them demonstrates any sort of bias that the Lab has in their favor?
Artemis Fate: No, I don't think so. From the evidence I've seen, they once were able to sway more than a few lindens to their cause, but that day seems to have passed, now they talk about in their meetings that none of the Lindens will pay attention to them.

Robble Rubble: In the SLU thread you were talking about an experiment with an alt, Night Sun, could you tell me about that?
Artemis Fate: That was around the same time as the last leak. People were claiming that the JLU was ARing them for being critical of the group. I decided to test out the theory myself using an old alt I had made but never used. I made a sign that was critical of the JLU but not violating any part of the ToS. I actually had a discussion with GLE through the alt and he agreed that it wasn't against the ToS (this didn't stop him from ARing it however). Then I basically sat around and waited to see what would happen.

Robble Rubble: What ended up happening?
Artemis Fate: I got suspended for disclosure. I decided to try again, this time changing the sign from a link to the leaked wiki to a Herald article chosen for no disclosing material. I got suspended again for Disclosure after that. So I removed links to anything in general, and left just the sign. I was suspended for defamation at that point.

Artemis Fate: "Linden Lab has been a mystery in their actions"

Robble Rubble: So what are your thoughts on JLU members linking their KryptonRadio blog in world, a blog that often discloses the RL names of their critics and is full of articles that seem to be written with the intention of grandstanding and defaming their critics?
Artemis Fate: Well, the disclosure suspensions were referenced to linking to the wiki. I think if LL is doing suspensions for material hosted outside of SL, that's a pretty grey area. I don't think people should be suspended for what they say outside of SL, but at the same time I can understand the problems with having a link to a site in world that's full of readily available disclosing information. All in all, I think that the Linden who suspended for it was wrong, not that it was wrong to link that site in world.

Robble Rubble: Do you think that the recent calls of people to contact outside intervention (FBI, Scotland Yard, Ellen lol) will have any effect without Linden Lab taking direct action?
Artemis Fate: I think any outside authority besides Linden Lab would and should disregard it entirely. On the scale of utter travesties of justice that require their attention, this is extremely low ranking (Even for Ellen).

Robble Rubble: Do you have any recomendations on how people can get Linden Lab to take action?
Artemis Fate: I really don't, in all this time Linden Lab has been a mystery in their actions. Sometimes they let things slide, and other times they crack down hard. I do think, however, that they are very aware of this, and have probably already thought out what actions they might or might not take and how it would effect the community and their ToS.

Robble Rubble: What do you think about the fact that a common red herring to many of the criticisms that are posed to the JLU are that they come from people they consider to be "griefers"? And in that light if the fact that many former members of Woodbury, W-hat or members of The Wrong Hands, openly admit to many of the wrongs they have done in the past, do you think that those people's criticisms of the behavior of the Justice League Unlimited should be discarded simply because they were or are admitted griefers?
Artemis Fate: I think no one's point should be disregarded because of their background, if they can make a good point.

Robble Rubble: Some argue that the behavior of the JLU actually creates more griefers on the grid than they prevent due to the collateral damage of innocents being considered guilty by association, getting banned, then returning to the grid as griefers when they previously would not have done so had it not been for the JLU action. What do you think of this theory?
Artemis Fate: I think the JLU make for amusing targets for griefers, which in itself keeps ones around who would otherwise get bored. I know that a lot of the people in Woodbury and otherwise didn't really grief either, but just were involved in a group that was known for it, and they got caught up in a ban for that too. I have no idea if that kind of collateral damage theory is true, but it sounds reasonable.

Robble Rubble: Artemis, I thank you for your time, but before you go. What are your predictions about how this will ultimately end?
Artemis Fate: I honestly couldn't say, during the Emerald fiasco, I was thinking LL would let it slide again, like they had so many times before. Instead they cracked down on the viewer hard and took it apart in a matter of a week or two. For this, I don't know. I'm hoping at the very least they'll make a statement regarding it.

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. 

This evening, Emerald developer Lonely Bluebird – a.k.a. Phox – took time away from what has certainly been a difficult day, for an exclusive interview with the Herald in which he confirmed that a leaked chatlog at the SLUniverse forums is legitimate – but could be misinterpreted since it was taken out of context. Phox went on to tell me that Emerald remains popular despite the recent controversy and claimed to have seen over 114,000 logins over the last day. Can Linden Lab afford to ban Emerald?

Lonely Bluebird – a.k.a. _Phox

Our chat came after a wild day in which Jessica Lyons resigned from the Emerald group after a disagreement about how best to address Linden Lab concerns about the popular Second Life viewer. What maybe more noteworthy – if true – were the revelations on the SLUniverse forums of what are claimed to be chat logs in which Soft Linden encouraged the Emerald gang. According to Fleur Orchid, the chat logs date back to mid march – and are likely to raise eyebrows, while shedding light on the emkdu leaks that contributed to the Emeraldgate scandal.

In the chat, Soft Linden appears to encourage the Emerald developer to use the emkdu library to bake hidden information into avatar textures and jpeg images – despite the fact that including the emkdu libraries violated the GPL license under which the open source Second Life clients are made available. Including the emkdu library with the Emerald viewer is one of the third party viewer violations cited by Linden Lab as being unacceptable, according to Jessica Lyons. The chatlogs leaked by Fleur Orchid are appended to the end of this story.

Pixeleen Mistral: you are online
_Phox: I’m always online.

Pixeleen Mistral: I have a few questions
Pixeleen Mistral: are you guys getting a lot of downloads for the new version of the viewer?
_Phox: http://emeraldviewer.net/downloads.shtml
_Phox: Click on "More" to see all versions
_Phox: For mac just click the button
_Phox: It shows download counts for all versions, 2600 went up about an hour and a half ago?

Pixeleen Mistral: do you expect Linden Lab to attempt to ban Emerald? and will a ban work?
_Phox: I have no idea really.
_Phox: I don’t think they want to ban it, it would inconvenience so many people.

Pixeleen Mistral: well – if the Lab did ban the viewer – would it have much effect?
_Phox: Well yesterday 114k people logged in using emerald
_Phox: So I’d say that would be a pretty big effect.
_Phox: If you’re vaguely referring to the rumor that I made emerald "unblockable" then I can tell you that is false.

Pixeleen Mistral: Emerald has captured the imagination of the Second Life community – and I can see why – the jiggle boobs thing was pure genius – that really put you guys over the top
_Phox: Well, I think that certainly is what made it go viral, but there’s far more to it than that.

Pixeleen Mistral: I have a good friend who loves Emerald for building
_Phox: Yeah, there are a lot of scripters who rely on the script preprocessor for their products too.

Pixeleen Mistral: so I think your super power has been you actually play SL – and know what people want – unlike the LL staff
_Phox: It’s not just that, the project has a history of doing things that the users want, but LL refuse to do.

Pixeleen Mistral: why doesn’t LL do what user’s want?
_Phox: People have been asking for a client AO since 2006.

Pixeleen Mistral: right – client AO is a big deal – what is LL thinking ?
_Phox: I suspect it would vary on a case to case basis. I know that the breast physics stuff was discussed internally for example, it was "shot down" in favour of a more dynamic system for mesh physics, which while certainly better would take several years of development.
_Phox: Stuff like the build tools and preprocessor well, could be a lack of QA resources, they can’t release something like that without extensive testing.

_Phox: There was a pretty serious bug in the preprocessor that caused us to pull it from a version, and we got a bunch of complaints from people relying on it, so we put it back, albeit as a debug setting only…

Pixeleen Mistral: so looking ahead – what is next for you guys?
_Phox: As far as the emerald team goes?

Pixeleen Mistral: yes
_Phox: There’s nothing left.

Pixeleen Mistral: you can probably sell a special version
_Phox: I suspect various groups will fork and continue, and possibly a few entirely new people will join and make new projects to "replace" it, but it can’t happen.

Pixeleen Mistral: so the 2600 version is the end?
_Phox: Unless something major happens, yes.

Pixeleen Mistral: funny how it worked out to be 2600
_Phox: Emerald really can’t continue.

Pixeleen Mistral: if Emerald is over then what will you do next?
Pixeleen Mistral: please don’t say "spend more time with your family" or "pursue other interrests"
_Phox: Actually it wasn’t 2600, but the last svn revision was 2587, and the switch to hg meant we didn’t really have a revision number for the last one, so we decided to make it 2600.
_Phox: There are two popular references in the technology world for the number that I’m aware of.

Pixeleen Mistral: yes
_Phox: Anyway, what I do next probably won’t involve viewers.

Pixeleen Mistral: 2600 also means something to those interested in old-school phone hacking
_Phox: I have one viewer project I’m working on for a university, and after that I’m out.
_Phox: Well make that three then.

Pixeleen Mistral: so you used to have a lot of support from Linden Lab
Pixeleen Mistral: but they have turned on you
_Phox: We did.

Pixeleen Mistral: there are some chatlogs being circulated where Soft Linden is encouraging you to include info in the baked avatar textures
Pixeleen Mistral: are those real?
_Phox: If you’re referring to the two conversations from March posted on SLU yesterday, then yes, they are genuine, though I wouldn’t say he was encouraging anything, since I was simply informing him of what we were doing.

Pixeleen Mistral: Soft did say he "loved" what you were doing
_Phox: Yes, though it was certainly referring to the overall effort of the Onyx project in reducing the use of viewers with copybot or other malicious functionality.

Pixeleen Mistral: I guess that could be taken two ways
_Phox: Keep in mind, that these are two small parts of very long conversations.

Pixeleen Mistral: right
_Phox: He was in no way encouraging us to collect user data, in fact, he even came back to me to ask that I ensure the path on linux is cut down to only the containing folder because he was concerned about the /home/<username>/ issue

Pixeleen Mistral: you guys had a lot of access to Linden staff – did that give you an advantage over the other viewer developers?
_Phox: I couldn’t really speculate on that, but the support Linden Lab provided us was for our users, not for the development of the viewer itself, to which Linden Lab has always seen themselves as a competitor. The certainly weren’t helping us create new features.

Pixeleen Mistral: I heard that Linden Lab set things up so they would answer questions about Emerald  with their support staff – was that true?
Pixeleen Mistral: that was in some of the leaked documents attributed to Fractured Crystal – but I was never sure of that was real or not
_Phox: No, that’s not the case. There were widespread issues of people being told to uninstall emerald for all sorts of issues, including obvious sim problems. There was a large focus on support because of that issue.
_Phox: In fact, LL support were instructed not to support users of any third party viewers at first.

Pixeleen Mistral: so – if Emerald is pretty at the end – and if you could do it all over again – what would you do differently?
Pixeleen Mistral: would you change anything?
_Phox: Well there were certainly some mistakes made along the way, but I’d say as a whole, Emerald itself, it went quite well.

Pixeleen Mistral: so – no regrets?
_Phox: Discounting of course the issues that happened as a result of developers involved in something else.

Pixeleen Mistral: so – anything else that the Herald readers should know? have I missed anything?
_Phox: I’m sure there are a lot of things Herald readers should know, but I don’t have any announcements to make at the time.

Pixeleen Mistral: thanks for talking
_Phox: No problem.

the leaked chatlogs between Soft Linden and Lonely Bluebird

[2010-03-18 16:43:19] Lonely <3: Ah, well, we needed some way to identify people using our kakadu library, we came up with something really clever: The Emkdu variant encodes the window title into the j2c comment.
[2010-03-18 16:43:32] Soft Linden: Nice!!!
[2010-03-18 16:43:41] Lonely <3: The OnyxKDU variant contains the other end of the cipher, and an exported function to retrieve said comment.
[2010-03-18 16:43:44] Soft Linden: I’d figured that library would be the place to hide things. So it shows up in their baked texture.
[2010-03-18 16:44:07] Lonely <3: Yup, Linux variants encode 128 characters of the path, since window title depends on window manager etc.
[2010-03-18 16:44:27] Lonely <3: I’ve got it nicely tied in to the radar here, it’s fun to see the various names I get when all I see on people is a shiny emerald tag.
[2010-03-18 16:44:45] Soft Linden: I’d look at other places you might store that. We were at least planning to start encoding some info there to help us with DMCA takedowns
[2010-03-18 16:44:56] Lonely <3: We caught the HXO/Sl Black edition creator that way.
[2010-03-18 16:45:11] Soft Linden: Does the jpeg2k format support arbitrary tag/value pairs?
[2010-03-18 16:45:12] Lonely <3: Hmm, well there are various places we could encode that.
[2010-03-18 16:45:21] Lonely <3: Yes
[2010-03-18 16:45:25] Lonely <3: At least I think it does
[2010-03-18 16:45:33] Soft Linden: You could make something misleading like "encode parms" or w/e
[2010-03-18 16:46:38] Lonely <3: Unless someone starts poking at it with a disassembler all they’ll find is a string of mixed printable and unprintable characters in the comment.
[2010-03-18 16:47:18] Lonely <3: We figured it was a good way to keep track of who’s using the proprietary library without a license, not to mention identifying those viewers that want to hide, which is always a goal.
[2010-03-18 16:47:29] Soft Linden: :3
[2010-03-18 16:47:33] Soft Linden: I love that you guys are doing this
[2010-03-18 16:47:55] Lonely <3: Saves you guys some work I guess.
[2010-03-18 16:49:01] Soft Linden: I’d also be inclined to get the end of the path for Windows & Mac builds too. Odds are people are going to rename the viewer filename, even if they don’t change the window title, etc
[2010-03-18 16:49:12] Lonely <3: Yeah that’s what I said >_>
[2010-03-18 16:49:15] Soft Linden: just w/e is in **argv
[2010-03-18 16:49:19] Lonely <3: Zwagoth and Fractured wanted the window title.
[2010-03-18 16:49:19] Soft Linden: I thought you said you just did it on Linux?
[2010-03-18 16:49:27] Soft Linden: Gotcha.
[2010-03-18 16:49:32] Soft Linden: Yeah, I’d shoot for both.
[2010-03-18 16:49:35] Lonely <3: Only because linux doesn’t offer a single function to grab the window title in all window managers.
[2010-03-18 16:49:55] Lonely <3: Yeah I know the path is more useful.

[2010-03-25 16:35:40] You sense a disturbance in the force… (Soft Linden is typing)
[2010-03-25 16:35:51] Soft Linden: Are the marked textures in the current release version?
[2010-03-25 16:36:01] Lonely <3: Yes
[2010-03-25 16:36:06] Soft Linden thumbsup
[2010-03-25 16:36:27] Lonely <3: After we spoke I decided to make a bit of a change to kdu
[2010-03-25 16:37:40] Lonely <3: I made it check the top corner of the image for transparent pixels, if it finds any it encodes the folder name like the linux lib originally did.
[2010-03-25 16:37:50] Lonely <3: If not it encodes the window title.
[2010-03-25 16:38:28] Soft Linden: ah cool hack :3
[2010-03-25 16:38:56] Lonely <3: That hasn’t been released yet, but it can go out at any time since the pack is seperate from the binary.
[2010-03-25 16:39:00] Soft Linden: the transparent pixels specifically – last I knew you were only doing the meta tag
[2010-03-25 16:39:04] Lonely <3: We are
[2010-03-25 16:39:08] Lonely <3: Just the image comment
[2010-03-25 16:39:14] Soft Linden: right

A series of shocking interviews with Alphaville Herald founder Urizenus Sklar’s real life typist (Peter Ludlow) surfaced on YouTube today. Uninformed sources speculate that the sordid videos may have been filmed at the Herald’s offices in Durham, North Carolina.  Yet despite the uncertain provenance of the candid interviews, it is clear that Urizenus was lucky to survive a horrific case of griefing by a furry. When will the outrageous abuse end?

Peter Ludlow (Urizenus Sklar) is interviewed by Mark McCahill on the topic of the migration of virtual paramilitary organizations.

Barbieworld and eye gaze – Peter Ludlow on the topic of data mining in virtual worlds.

Peter Ludlow (Urizenus Sklar) is interviewed by Mark McCahill. Which virtual worlds are interesting? A paradox is observed: as worlds become one-off experiences like books (used to be), books are giving rise to ever expanding fictional landscapes.

I wandered into the familiar stone hallway of a dear friend’s club. I was again struck by the tall ceilings and strong architectural features of the club. Unlike many of the clubs I’ve visited, there is no eye blinding laser show, dim lighting nor the typical barrage of gestures. Instead, a provocative red head stands waiting our scheduled interview.

In an attempt to get a better feel for the vastly different ways people spent their time in Second Life, I’ve begun a series of articles interviewing people about their jobs. Some people I’ve sought out are well known in their field, others are friendly people I’ve met in my travels through our digital landscape. Not every person in the same career has the same job, and not every person approaches their career in the same way. Think of this series of articles as vignettes, designed to open your eyes to the world of one of the many people who also wander in our shared pixelated world. Our first vignette begins a I clear my throat and puts on my official reporting hat.

 hanging out with LadyDeath Rockswood

Mel: "LadyDeath, what drew you to club managing?"
LadyDeath: I have managed RL restaurants before, so when the opportunity presented itself to apply my experience into SL I jumped on it.

Mel: How does managing in SL compare to managing in RL?
LadyDeath: So far, the main difference is scheduling, in that I don’t make schedules on SL, so many of our employees have jobs and other RL obligations and can’t commit to a set schedule in SL.

Mel: What skills have you learned in RL managing that you’ve been able to apply to SL managing?
LadyDeath: Conflict resolution, advertising, working hard to give customers what they want so they return and thinking outside the box.

Mel: Speaking of advertisement, sell me on Surrender to Tranquility, what makes your club worth a visit?
LadyDeath: Surrender to Tranquility has a one of a kind concept. We are a BDSM (Male Dom) club that permits no sex, no nudity and no pressure to present yourself in the stereotypical BDSM way. We welcome everyone from those that are merely curious about BDSM to those that are fully immersed in the culture.

Mel: Can you explain to my readers what one might expect from non sexual submission either receiving it or giving it?
LadyDeath: As far as receiving it, they can expect to be respected, and treated the way men should be treated. As far as giving it, there is the pleasure of making the Dom happy, knowing that in kneeling, massaging, dancing with him, or just having a quiet conversation, you have given him the gift of pleasure and happiness. I know for me personally, the act of nonsexual submission to a Dom is a wonderful feeling; hoping that he leaves here feeling better than when he joined us, and that his wishes were fulfilled to the best of my ability.

Mel: This is a bit off the topic of club managing, but since we’ve wandered in controversial waters, I’ve heard it suggested that in giving their submission a person degrades his or herself and that typically people with low self-esteem are drawn to this behavior, what are your thoughts on this topic?
LadyDeath: I would think that a person who holds this belief hasn’t taken the time to get to know submissive women. It takes a strong person to give herself over to the control of one person. Without strength, honesty and complete trust, a submissive would not be able to be happy in her chosen lifestyle. A weak person with no self esteem, would be someone open to abusive relationships regardless of the lifestyle, BDSM or a more traditional relationship. A submissive needs the strength of will to complete the tasks her Dom puts before her, the choices he makes for her, or accept the punishments for inaction. A weak submissive would also rob a Dom of his ability to be a good Dom, in that, she would not have the strength of mind or personality to provide the much needed feedback to her Dom about her feelings, insecurity, or ideas about the various topics that emerge in their relationship.

Mel: Thank you for those eloquent thoughts on what is often a hotly debated topic. Okay to get us back on to the topic of the profession of club managing, what are your responsibilities as a club manager?
LadyDeath: My responsibilities include things like advertising, setting up events, keeping employees happy and safe, including feeling their work environment is safe. I’m also responsible for payroll and hiring new quality subs, and finding new and interesting things to help draw and keep people in the club

Mel: I think many of my readers have been interviewed, but I’m fewer of them have been on the interviewing side, can you enlighten my about what it is you are looking for when you interview a potential employee.
LadyDeath: Usually, I want to make sure that the girl I am interviewing is truly interested in being submissive, or has been for some time. I want to make sure that being a submissive makes her happy and find out why it makes her happy to be so.

Mel: What advice would you have for someone who is looking to be a club manager?
LadyDeath: Work in the club for a while before attempting to become the manager. In that time make sure the club is a place that you would enjoy working in and that the responsibilities in this place are ones you would like to have. Also, look at ways to improve on what the owner has started. Be sure get to know the people you work with and be open to their ideas.

Mel: What qualities do you think a good club manager needs to have?
LadyDeath: A club manager, or manager of any type of business for that matter, needs to be a strong person, that can make hard decisions even if others don’t agree with them. They need to remember that their decisions will affect the people around them and the success of their decisions will be impacted in a large part by the people that work under them. Finally they also need the ability to think out of the box and be able to solve problems creatively.

Mel: What’s the most challenging problem you’ve encountered thus far as a club manager?
LadyDeath: Figuring out how do revamp the pay system, and keep girls working even when its a bit dull. Also, getting new Doms here and figuring out what they want to pay/tip for, since without income, there is no way a club can survive.

Mel: What do you think is the most creative solution you’ve been able to implement?
LadyDeath: The new wage system. as far as I know we are the only club in SL that will have one like it

Mel: Care to share some details or is it a proprietary system?
LadyDeath: I think for now I should keep that to myself.

Mel: Do you have a tip that is sharable?
LadyDeath: A big thing I am doing now is researching clubs that have lasted for years, finding what has worked for them, and what hasn’t. From there I try to adapt those solutions to fit the uniqueness of Surrender to Tranquility.

Mel: That seems smart. Are other clubs mostly helpful in this endeavor?
LadyDeath: That depends on the club for the most part, a lot of who I talk to are staff of those clubs.

Mel: Having been both an entry level employee and now a club manager, what advice do you have for a disgruntled club employee about speaking to their club manager?
LadyDeath: Well, before talking to anyone, she should take a step back and look at the situation calmly, making sure that how she reacted was appropriate. Though understandably, it is difficult to emotionally remove yourself from a situation at times. When you come to the manager, explain things calmly, and in a matter of fact manner. It’s very difficult to understand another if too many emotions cloud up the mind, and can cause regrets and misunderstandings

Mel: LadyDeath, thank you very much for sharing your time and thoughts with me. I wish you and Surrender to Tranquility much success.

Finally, the lazy kitty Slurl to Surrender to Tranquilty: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Junos%20Rest/174/248/404
 

by Alessandra Narayan

Some call him controversial, others say he’s just nuts, hated, loved, worshiped, Jumpman Lane, owner of the pornographic/erotic Slut Magazine, calls himself King of Second Life, the coolest man on SL, does what he wants, respects no rules, insults everyone when he wants to and points women and sex as the best thing SL has to offer. After being banned by LL, Jumpman Lane, the ‘enfant terrible’ is back, willing to bring back to life his magazine preferably keeping himself away from problems with the Lab.

Alessandra Narayan (AN) – What have you been up to recently?
Jumpman Lane (JL) – Recently I’ve sobered up RL since the holidays and once again have set about to resurrect Slut Magazine.

AN – Do you think it’s possible to be suspended from SL again?
JL – Sure but now that I have Zara Linden on my friends list (I’m a social climber) it’s harder for the average SL tard user to get me in trouble because they don’t know how to write ars for one and my points have gone down. Each year the Gteam lets you start with a clean slate, they don’t care what you did the previous year.

AN – The Gteam?
JL – Governance team. Your readers know them (lol).

AN – Would you enjoy being suspended again?
JL – Oh hell no! See, I’m doing business with a RL porn photographer and I really need to be online in order to help develop his sims.

AN – But you seem to have quite fun to be suspended… bugging LL… Love to piss them off?
JL – Noooo! I put my foot in Torley Linden’s crack because he started it all with me. I got in a little trouble with Amber Linden because I went to be a mentor when she ran that and somebody got a little snotty. Everybody knows Torley vandalized my SL wiki page.

AN – And then you said Torley Linden was a man playing an SL female AV?
JL – Apparently everybody knew that but no one knew why (lol). It’s because he wanted to be like the LADY who owns this house. They were pals way back in the beginning of SL and she booted him off her list, because he was creepy. And if you google him you can find an old interview on some long dead blog here he gushed about her. But I ain’t messing’ with Torley anymore. He likes to abuse his power for revenge.

AN – What do you enjoy the most on SL?
JL – Sex of course. And stirring up trouble. And getting a rise out of retards and turd buckets, land manager flunkies, retards that got tricked into working as mall cop on some turd turdy club who bans you just to use the ban eject. They are the worst. I personally don’t go to clubs unless I’m friends with the owner.

AN – You seem to have been born to be suspended, booted, etc. It happens to you lots?
JL – I get banned a lot from dumps because I do what I want to do. I got booted once for t’pin to gorean dump and just asking "hey why are you sliding all across the floor?’ to some chick. Nobody said nothing, just sent me flying.

AN – So, what things do you respect?
JL – Respect? Ya lost me… see, I’m Jumpman Lane. I do what I want to do.

AN – For example: you land in a place of RP, where there are rules, you just do what you want anywhere?
JL – Oh geeze! I discard that crap without even reading the stuff. Screw rules! Rules are for the weak. I got balls like bowling balls.

AN – And when you get kicked you think it’s unfair?
JL – Well, no. One time I told this sim owner’s wife the last time I saw her she had a dick in her mouth, a dick in her ass, a dick in her pussy and a dick in each hand. I got booted and banned that time. I figure I deserved it.

AN – So, the majority of SL players suck?
JL – Noooooooooo! Take for example the average girl player over say a year old. She’s shopped till she dropped and made her AV super hot.

AN – So basically, besides hot chicks… you’re one of the few cool characters in SL, right?
JL – I’m king of Second life. That’s in my profile.

AN – Why?
JL – I’m one of the coolest guys if not the coolest.

AN – Why?
JL – Because the average SL male player is some nerdy white guy or somebody’s grandpappy. They don’t get enough flavor. It’s why they don’t understand the things I say at times like in the SL forums. They didn’t get half the crap said there.

By Kris Dibou

Cross in St. Devros Church

Jacada Ansar had a vision.  Like some who have visions, Jacada started a church; a church that can could previously be found at Woodbury Longcat sim.  While puzzling over many churches built in the name of love, yet inciting hatred over those who do not believe as they do, Jacada decided to create a church based on hate in order to make a statement.  And who better, in Jacada’s opinion, to direct that hatred towards than the furry community.

During my visit to Jacada’s church, I witnessed two attacks and one redemption.  The whole thing ran like preplanned role play and certain comments made by Jacada reinforced this supposition. 

Jacada Ansar: This is my church
Jacada Ansar: As you can see it’s a beacon of love.
Jacada Ansar:
You: lovely
Jacada Ansar: Its delightfully horrid
You: nice work on the furry cross
Jacada Ansar: Oh there’s two big ones at the front.
Jacada Ansar: We get furfags that try to "raid" us
You: ahhh…
Jacada Ansar: It’s a message to them to stay away
You: the Dracula method of striking fear into the enemy
Jacada Ansar: Indeed!
Jacada Ansar: We also have blooded furryheads on pikes
Jacada Ansar: They give a good friendly message across too
You: tell me about your church here…it looks fascinating
Jacada Ansar: Basically yesterday
Jacada Ansar: I was on the internet reading about the Westboro Baptist church
Jacada Ansar: Then i thought, wouldn’t it be a great idea to build a church that is devoted to hate. Because whether people like it or not, religion incites hatred and thus i built this i think its a good example.
Jacada Ansar: A few people think that due to the anti-fur stuff here that we are linked with the patriotic nigra’s who torment furries themselves.
Jacada Ansar: Which is quite simply bullshit
Jacada Ansar: A pn member came here earlier and attempted to "raid" the sim but teleported once people opened fire on him
Jacada Ansar: There’s a difference between us regular /b/tards and patriotic nigra’s
Jacada Ansar: The nigra’s aren’t even funny, that’s why i don’t understand why they grief.
Jacada Ansar: It used to be funny and people used to get angry
Jacada Ansar: But people don’t laugh and no one really gets angry anymore. It’s pointless
You: yes

(Jacada puts up a large black wall over the church entrance, blocking us in)

Jacada Ansar: I’ve put that door there
Jacada Ansar: because i was sitting behind the wooden screen
Jacada Ansar: and someone started firing glowing orbs in here
You: I’ve noticed that, in general, things have mellowed on the big grid
Jacada Ansar: yes slightly
Jacada Ansar: There’s not as many griefers as there used to be
Jacada Ansar: Something funny
You: did you see the article of the fellow who’s only goal was to get banned?
Jacada Ansar: I did
Jacada Ansar: Quite recent
Jacada Ansar: I think he’s an idiot, and compared to some of the other major griefers he hasn’t been banned that much so the idea of him being someone with the most bans is ridiculous
Jacada Ansar: Furries disgust me
Jacada Ansar: Theres something seriously wrong about finding animals a turn on
Jacada Ansar: DO you have any other questions?
You: blame is all on Walt Disney
You: lol
You: sure, I assume since you were born a few days ago, that you are an alt of a Woodbury regular?
Jacada Ansar: Actually this is a brand new account and i got rid of my old one
Jacada Ansar: and i was a lot more regular in visiting what
Jacada Ansar: With the w-hat group
Jacada Ansar: Then i started coming here as well and spend the majority of my time here
You: how did you come to pick your current avatar? Does he represent someone?
Jacada Ansar: well
Jacada Ansar: I built this one because
Jacada Ansar: Noone suspects an old disabled man in a wheelchair is ever going to cause any hassle
You: ….like Dr. X…
Jacada Ansar: Basically yes
Jacada Ansar: plus this av kind of looks like someone who belongs in a church
Jacada Ansar: It seems original to me
Jacada Ansar: I’m planning on erecting a graveyard around it
Jacada Ansar: and yes i think it would
Nodame Offcourse: that would be great
You: yes…
Jacada Ansar: and i do invite all furfags to come here and confess there sins
Jacada Ansar: i might try and build some form of gallows
Jacada Ansar: with a furry hanging from it
You: what name did you give the church?
Jacada Ansar: I have yet to think of a name
Jacada Ansar: so far its just "the church"
You: have you collected any followers?
Jacada Ansar: I think i might open it to the public
Jacada Ansar: Oh everyone here is a follower, otherwise i shoot them
Jacada Ansar: I have guns at the back of the church
Jacada Ansar: To the church!
Jacada Ansar: Now i was thinking of reshuffling the church into an entirely new religion
Jacada Ansar: Mainly protesting Furfaggotry
You: religious reform?
Jacada Ansar: Yes
Jacada Ansar: The role of God would have a very small part to do with the goings on of the church
You: like in rl
You: lol
Jacada Ansar: Yes
Jacada Ansar: Then the church would have a collection plate
Jacada Ansar: As i just placed
Jacada Ansar: Basically it should spread the message of how very evil furries are

              Peach Robonaught inside the cockbox

(Suddenly we are attacked by what appears to be Christmas ornament cages, sent in by Peach Robonaught)

Sangria Singh: peach you furfaggot
Jacada Ansar: THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS
Peach Robonaught: :[
Jacada Ansar shouts: PEACH FIX THIS, THIS IS A CHURCH NOT A PLAY AREA YOU FUR FAG
Sangria Singh: a cockbox upon your house!

(Sangria places a box-cage around Peach, filled with penises)

Jacada Ansar: GOD HATES YOU
Jacada Ansar: FURFAG
Peach Robonaught: fine, no 2L$ for you! >:[
Sangria Singh: she lies
Sangria Singh: she only pays in favors of the flesh
Jacada Ansar: disgusting
Jacada Ansar: We should feed her to furfags
Sangria Singh: harlot
Jacada Ansar: Are you writing all this down Kris Dibou
Jacada Ansar: This is why the Church must get bigger and more popular
You: collecting it along with pics
Jacada Ansar: I might even hire pole dancers
Jacada Ansar: But in religous attire
You: or even czech dancers
Jacada Ansar: Yes

(Peach puts money in the collection plate, thereby absolving her sins against the church)

Hi-Techno Tipjar Blue Giftedition 1.0: Thank you for your donation.
Jacada Ansar: Thank you Peach
Jacada Ansar: God forgives your sins
Jacada Ansar: Yes that’s a good idea
Jacada Ansar: If someone sins they are encouraged to donate to the church’s charity
Jacada Ansar: Which will go towards helping infants who are in need
You: to escape the confines of hell
Jacada Ansar: but not of a furry nature
Jacada Ansar: that way the money can be transferred via the interweb to charities such as christian aid
Sangria Singh: be careful, bebe, you might catch the aids
Jordge Schmergel: cant give me anythin i havent already had

(Enter Il Thor, with a flat ‘Luigi’ avatar)

Jacada Ansar: I hereby announce this Church as the St Davros’s due to the holy nature of Daleks
Il Thor: so these orthodox icons have subliminal hidden ‘when you see it you’ll shit bricks’ mindfucks in them right?
Jacada Ansar: Because they give a good example across
Sangria Singh: ill mix the chloroform
Jacada Ansar: Yes they do
Jacada Ansar: I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THE AMOUNT OF VIOLENCE IN THIS CHURCH

             Furry in a cage covered in anti-yiff spray

(…and enter Idair Vhargon, a furry)

Jacada Ansar: FURFAG
Jacada Ansar: FURFAGGG
Alazar Kuhn: Oh Jaysus
Idair Vhargon: WOT?
Idair Vhargon: Wot Jacada?
Idair Vhargon: BISCH >=O
Jacada Ansar: You have to fight to the death with SAngria
Idair Vhargon: kk
Jacada Ansar: You disgust me furfag
Jacada Ansar: How dare you enter this church
Idair Vhargon: WHO TOOK A PIC
Kiddoh Korobase: D:
You: I did
Idair Vhargon: >.<
You: for the paper
Jacada Ansar: Then the menace of your furfags will be known to the world

               Daleks as Holy Beings

Jacada Ansar: Raiding churches with your AIDs
Idair Vhargon: But I shall spread my AIDS to you nigglets
Jacada Ansar: No you won’t
Jacada Ansar: This is the reason this church exists
Jacada Ansar: To rid the world of you unholy cretins
Peach Robonaught: ANTI YIFF SPRAY GO!
Idair Vhargon: Hey
Jacada Ansar: Burn out the sins
Idair Vhargon: DAAAAMMMMMNNN
Idair Vhargon: Nuuuuu!
Jacada Ansar: BURN THE FURFAGGOTRY
Idair Vhargon: Nuuuuu!
Sangria Singh: ive had my gypsy tears
Idair Vhargon: YOU SMELL LIKE AN ASSHOLE!
Idair Vhargon: They smell like a pound of BULLSHIT!!
Idair Vhargon: Stop!
Idair Vhargon: It burns!
Jacada Ansar: Take a picture Kris
Jacada Ansar: Oh the burning has stopped
Peach Robonaught: THAT MEANS IT’S WORKING
Idair Vhargon: PENDEJOS
Idair Vhargon: MUERAN
Idair Vhargon: PARALE PUTA!
Idair Vhargon: NO MAMES!
Idair Vhargon: CHINGAO
Idair Vhargon: YA
Idair Vhargon: >.<
Alazar Kuhn: AQUI ESTA!
Kiddoh Korobase: D:
Jacada Ansar: Where did it go
You: I smell burning fur
Idair Vhargon: English muthafucker, do you speak it!?
You: ooo…daleks for the inquisition
Jacada Ansar: They are holy beings in this church
You: yessss
Idair Vhargon: Yes I am holy
Jacada Ansar: You are no Dalek
Idair Vhargon: I must get out
Jacada Ansar: The true sentient beings are Daleks
Jacada Ansar: With furries being at the bottom of the "triangle"

(I sent an IM to the furry, to get his take on all this)

Kris Dibou: would you like to tell me all about your battle with the church?
Idair Vhargon: What church?
Idair Vhargon: Who are you?
Idair Vhargon: Who am I ?
Idair Vhargon: >.>
Idair Vhargon: <.<
Idair Vhargon: Are you guys like gay?
Idair Vhargon: Its cool cuz Im gay too
Kris Dibou: I am a reporter
Idair Vhargon: A reporter?
Kris Dibou: writing on a story on this place
Idair Vhargon: Say what>
Idair Vhargon: Oh
Idair Vhargon: This place rox
Idair Vhargon: I love making this people mad
Kris Dibou: hehe
Kris Dibou: I think they love you making them mad
Idair Vhargon: Yep
Idair Vhargon: Their lives are so boring
Idair Vhargon: I come here to make them interesting

Sangria Singh: They are immoral, disgusting subhuman faggots who prey on the normal in order to feed their horrifying array of fetishes. They spread AIDS like wildfire and breed like rabbits. Furfaggotry is an enabler for the sickest fetishes imagionable, from vore to infantilism to pedophelia to male pregnancy, and most important of all, irl zoophilia. When was the last time you saw an infantilist that wasn’t a babyfur?

I went back to look again a few days ago, and the church was gone.  I could not find Jacada nor would anyone tell me what happened to the church.  Did Jacada take it back down?  Did the Lindens ask him to?  Did he just get bored and move on to the next project?  I don’t know, but I, for one, have not forgotten the images.

Now let us suppose for a moment that we are a branch of a southern Baptist church who are actively opposing homosexuals.  Inside we whip the congregation into a fury about the evil being done by these peace loving people.  Then our congregation goes out and makes their stand known to the world, protesting and being protested in return.  I ask you, readers- what is the difference?