PostHeaderIcon Bloggers Are Dangerous; Beware

The Second Life blog has gone all but completely dead. Why? Because blogs are dangerous. Wrong messages are put out there all the time. Bloggers, who are usually only "wanna-be" journalists of the fourth estate are always looking for some kind of scoop, and sometimes overshoot the target. Many times the wrong or incorrect content is posted. And, though there is control of what is posted in the main article, there is limited control over the talk-backs.

Linden lab, owners and operator of Second Life is a San Francisco company. For many who read this, it's a trivial matter, right? Well, San Francisco is the most liberal, tree-hugging, bleeding heart spot in the entire United States, if not the world.

I am not saying Linden lab or its employees are this way. But it must be understood that the San Francisco area is a culture, more radical and liberal than many places on the planet. This can be a good thing; this can be a bad thing.

Where is our watermelonie, fun-loving, I-want-what-he's-smoking Torley? His personification, lovable as it is, has a definite San Franciscan flair. I like it.

The things about that culture is, more or less, "anything goes". Uncle Phil started Linden Land, or whatever he originally called Second Life with a very liberal mindset: let the users build it. Let them do whatever the hell they want and Linden Lab will stay hands-off.

So the culture gave us a good thing: Second Life as we knew it. However, with the success and popularity of SL, more and more "main-stream" folks started appearing and whining to LL to clean things up. So, LL tried to clean things up: banking and gambling bans (for different reasons each); becoming directly involved in an escrow fashion with private estate transfers; all the way up to now zoning virtual land and directly licensing and managing 'network advertising'. Things in SL are as we now know it, not the same. and it will continue to change into a more restrictive environment. Slowly, but surely, albeit still with far more freedom than any competing virtual world (open-sim is really just a hybrid spin-off from second Life, so I lump it into the "Second Life" moniker.)

The problem is Linden Lab is growing too fast.

Time for uncle Phil to step down, along with his free-wheeling, anything goes attitude, and to bring-in someone who will clean things-up and straighten things out. The company needs a more mature, professional image. This has been done and the metamorphasis is in progress. Like a frog in the boiling pot, the change is slow enough that we notice it, but not painful enough that we retaliate.

The changes are a good thing for Second Life, but the residents will not like it. Well, those residents who know better. Those residents deeply involved in SL from earlier-on; 2006 and onward. The world is changing because uncle "M" is going to put his foot down and wag his finger. First at the Lindens, then at the residents.

It has been going on for some time. The first visible effort that really imapacts those residents who look past Second Life itself and watch Linden Lab: the Second Life blog. It is simply a media outlet now, more or less. Resident-directed posts in that blog have created more controversy and heated arguments than any compnany could ever want. Linden Lab was far more open than any other company of its type, if not more than any other company, period. So a lot of communication went through there.

The problem is that many LL employees would post to the blog with information regarding their specific areas of expertise, and public relations wasn't part of their repertoire. Most articles were helpful and informative. Unfortunately, there always were the boneheads and knuckleheads who had nothing better to do than to post vitriolic, shrill, whiny-assed complaints. Some of the complaints were legitimate, but presented in a plainly amateurish way and completely off-topic.

Other arguments were childish and immateur no-matter how you look at it.

Yet others made demands that Linden Lab take control of aspects of SL. Such as throttling 'basic' accounts at login. Suggesting 'zoning' on the mainland and so many other things. People were complaining about the SL banks (and who likely never participated in any of it) - and complained about the gambling (again, likely never participating in it.) The whole "I know better than you, Linden Lab, so listen to me, fuck everyone else" routine.

Be careful what you ask for. Idiots.

So many posts on the SL blog have caused heartache with all those who've paricipated. Especially the SL blog, because many (not all) posts were made rather quickly, without careful thought to how the article should be phrased in order to clearly communicate what must be communicated. So now LL moves back to the forums where they can have better (read: total) control.

Bloggers throw information and opinion out all over the place. I make it no secret that this blog is intended as opinion news. Though I try to remain unbiased according to common sense, I also don't like to beat around the bush and I despise political correctness. But a company like Linden Lab, in order to be taken seriously in business, must be politically correct and that's hard to do as you simply cannot please all the people all the time. So you placate the vocal minority.

Better to start slinking into the shadows, take more control of communication and lessen the communication entirely. The forums become far more active than the blog ever could. Though most of that activity id from the users, Linden lab can actually lessen their contribution,yet activity goes-up, it appears thay are being even more 'transparent' and commincating more. When they really can communicate less.

There are a lot of blogs that have grown-up around and about Second Life (this blog, more or less, included.) These blogs run the full gambit from genuine unbiased news, such as Reuters all the way to the Second Life Herald, a seriously "Enquirer-esque" tabloid (think headline "I Had Elvis's Alien Baby!") all the way to the bottom-feeding, drama-based rumor-mill sensationalist blogs like Shopping Cart Disco, whose only apparent purpose is to rile-up the throngs in sensationalist drama, ruibning people's reputations in the process. Some of it legitimate, the rest pure vitriolic witch-hunt bullshit. Okay, not as much the whole blog as certain posts by one or two contributors.

The point is this: Pixeleen and the other editors of a blog such as the SL Herald aren't taken so seriously in their postings. They are expected to be sensationalist and tongue-in-cheek. But then there are those like Tenshi Vielle over at SCD who try hard to be taken seriously (and often is) but have their own agendas to push. So that if you end-up on her bad side (like I am) she'll look for whatever dirt she can dig-up on you and then start tossing it into the wind - even if it's false.

The mighty web log, a.k.a. 'blog' is a seriously powerful tool. And those who contribute to them really need to take their role seriously, and apply the rules of good journalism to their effort. Such as doing a little research during and before your article is completed. Simple make sure you have the facts before you state anything as a fact. anything else is libelous. Right, Tenshi?

Though some proclaim to make their actual living in SL, nothing could be said or done in any blog to create massive havoc for the resident masses. Rather the ruining comes one or two or a few more residents at a time. But, a blog is mightier than the pen that is mightier than the sword.

For example, United Airlines - and all their shareholders suffered massive injuries all because a blogger failed to check their facts. And instead of creating massive damage to only one person who was falsely accused (and actually making waves and stoking the flames to cause the controversy to expand - all for one's own popularity and limelight fame,) - in this case, and entire industry could be severely damaged. This happened yeterday [ouch]:
Financial Times sez: "A six-year-old Chicago Tribune story on United's 2002 bankruptcy filing, spotted on a Google search yesterday morning by an investment newsletter, triggered a massive sell-off of the carrier's shares until trading was halted. The stock reached a low of $3, then rebounded once trading resumed to close at $10.92. Shares had ended the day at $12.30 on Friday.Investors clearly took the article as news that the Chicago-based airline had once again sought protection from creditors, a scenario that had grown less remote in the past year as jet fuel prices skyrocketed."
FT Source
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