Just after my previous post Dame Ordinal Malaprop folded her tent and left Second Life.
Your sharp insight and sharper wit will be deeply missed, Ma'am. It has been an honor, a pleasure, and an education. Fair winds.
January 30, 2010
Avatars United
In yet another epic fail, TLWCBN has solved a problem that did not exist and created several new ones.
After rushing off to register my online identities in SL (R,TM,PIA) and Blue Mars, I have discovered that evidently anyone else can also register my avatars there as well. Making the site completely useless if you wish to ensure that the person you are dealing with is the same one you know from whichever world/s you visit.
See Dame Ordinal's blog for the quite amusing analysis.
So my answer was to search for the privacy settings (none I could find), decline to provide any information outside of my DOB and email address, disable the MANY email notifications they wish to spam me with, and finally post a status message, to wit:
I will not be using this site, and will get no notices from it via email. Please contact me inworld or via Steamlander.
I have now been made aware that anyone can register my name, and there is no limit on the number of times it can be done. I will NOT be using this site, and any communication claiming to come from me via this site is false.
Some may well find that this site performs a useful function, but as for myself I intend to ignore it. If TLWCBN is suddenly overcome by reason and turns it into something useful, good on them. I shall not hold my breath.
After rushing off to register my online identities in SL (R,TM,PIA) and Blue Mars, I have discovered that evidently anyone else can also register my avatars there as well. Making the site completely useless if you wish to ensure that the person you are dealing with is the same one you know from whichever world/s you visit.
See Dame Ordinal's blog for the quite amusing analysis.
So my answer was to search for the privacy settings (none I could find), decline to provide any information outside of my DOB and email address, disable the MANY email notifications they wish to spam me with, and finally post a status message, to wit:
I will not be using this site, and will get no notices from it via email. Please contact me inworld or via Steamlander.
I have now been made aware that anyone can register my name, and there is no limit on the number of times it can be done. I will NOT be using this site, and any communication claiming to come from me via this site is false.
Some may well find that this site performs a useful function, but as for myself I intend to ignore it. If TLWCBN is suddenly overcome by reason and turns it into something useful, good on them. I shall not hold my breath.
January 20, 2010
The Caledon Newcomer's Association
This week I closed the YWCA group and created the Caledon Newcomer's Association.The new group will have the same basic mission, but with a more welcoming name to all, and more coordination with Caledon Oxbridge's Community Gateway.
Experienced Caledon residents provide mentoring to any newcomers who wish some personal assistance with day to day questions about our virtual world or about Caledon.
We will be cross posting the weekly schedule for classes at Oxbridge, hosting Newcomer's Teas and Dances, tours of Caledon, shopping trips, and whatever else folks think would be helpful to newcomers to our shores!
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who has already volunteered to become Mentors, and I look forward to having a lot of fun and meeting new friends and neighbors.
This will also be a great opportunity for all us oldbies to get out and see what goes on in all the many and varied Sims of Caledon.
I have repurposed a beautiful Four Winds house as a sort of "Clubhouse" for the Newcomer's Association. It sits on Aether Isle below Steam SkyCity. I am in process of furnishing it now. As it is on the site of Denver Hax's former laboratory I am being very careful not to dig too far down...
Upcoming events in planning stages for the coming months are lots of activity in Steam SkyCity, including our 3rd Anniversary - which will doubtless involve another Mad Scientist's Convention. And of course the Spring Egg Hunt...
January 1, 2010
Welcome to 2010!
Standing at the beginning of a brand new year, and seeing the calendar stretch out ahead is an exciting time for me. So much potential rests in each little square, 24 hours of possibility!
Our year is slated to be busy and productive, and I anticipate change and growth as well as a good portion of chaos!
I have a few things rumbling in my head right now.
We are planning for the rollout of a shiny new Steam SkyCity build in the next couple of months, with some fun planned to set that in place.
I have a wonderful new plot in Steelhead St. Helens that will be changing and morphing into something interesting as time passes. Currently, there is a plant being refined to collect the steam power needed for the build from deep within the mountain. Whatever could need that much power?
Caledonia is being developed on Blue Mars, and I am proud to be a tiny part of that team. This should prove to be an amazing platform for some things that are difficult to do well other places.
Dio made a great post that was along similar lines to some stuff I have been thinking about lately, regarding the artificial Real Life vs Second Life dichotomy. Hers addressed the chromosomally challenged psuedojournalist protobloggers (she may have phrased it differently) who visit The Grid Which Cannot Be Named seemingly for the sole purpose of "exposing" the great secret that it was overhyped.
I also am weary of the Real Life vs Second Life dichotomy. I live in an amazing and wondrous time! In this time, I am able to have friends and neighbors whose offline time is spent in Norway, in the UK, in Australia, in South America, even in the wilds of California! My chosen community with whom I spend my time is among these people, and technology allows it. I can communicate via Twitter and Facebook, and I can interact in a rich environment via virtual worlds. The people I interact with in TGWCBN or Blue Mars are no less real than Neil Gaiman or Kevin Smith who I can follow on Twitter.
Here's to an equally amazing and wondrous 2010!
Our year is slated to be busy and productive, and I anticipate change and growth as well as a good portion of chaos!
I have a few things rumbling in my head right now.
We are planning for the rollout of a shiny new Steam SkyCity build in the next couple of months, with some fun planned to set that in place.
I have a wonderful new plot in Steelhead St. Helens that will be changing and morphing into something interesting as time passes. Currently, there is a plant being refined to collect the steam power needed for the build from deep within the mountain. Whatever could need that much power?
Caledonia is being developed on Blue Mars, and I am proud to be a tiny part of that team. This should prove to be an amazing platform for some things that are difficult to do well other places.
Dio made a great post that was along similar lines to some stuff I have been thinking about lately, regarding the artificial Real Life vs Second Life dichotomy. Hers addressed the chromosomally challenged psuedojournalist protobloggers (she may have phrased it differently) who visit The Grid Which Cannot Be Named seemingly for the sole purpose of "exposing" the great secret that it was overhyped.
I also am weary of the Real Life vs Second Life dichotomy. I live in an amazing and wondrous time! In this time, I am able to have friends and neighbors whose offline time is spent in Norway, in the UK, in Australia, in South America, even in the wilds of California! My chosen community with whom I spend my time is among these people, and technology allows it. I can communicate via Twitter and Facebook, and I can interact in a rich environment via virtual worlds. The people I interact with in TGWCBN or Blue Mars are no less real than Neil Gaiman or Kevin Smith who I can follow on Twitter.
Here's to an equally amazing and wondrous 2010!
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