Facebook Suspends Account of "Snow Crash" Author, Accusing Him of Impersonating Himself

 

 While not everyone knows the name Neal Stephenson, probably most who go about virtual worlds know about his novel "Snow Crash," a cyberpunk thriller describing them about a decade before the appearance of Second Life. 

 

Well, it seems Meta, the company behind Facebook which rebranded itself to match the name of his description of life online, the Metaverse, has been less than kind to him. He posted the news on his Twitter/X account. 

 

Today in “you can’t make this stuff up,” Meta has suspended my Facebook account because they suspect me of impersonating someone noteworthy

 

 New World Notes would report that his account was restored the following day, but that it happened to begin with was too ironic to ignore, "it's pretty fun to spend two-three years in research and interviews, writing about how Meta's leaders never really understood the Metaverse, couldn't even explain it to their staff, were never really passionate about virtual worlds and what made them meaningful, and how they sidelined people on their team who were. When all of that could be encapsulated by quoting this single tweet."

 

 Source: New World Notes

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Steam Gaming Service Removes A Number Of Adult Games Following Pressure By Credit Card Companies, Paypal Blocks Steam In Much Of The World

 

If you're a fan of game with mature themes, there's been a development on Steam that will likely leave you worried and/or upset. It seems following pressure from credit card companies, Steam has taken a number of adult-rated games off it's list for sale. 

 

In a PC Gamer article, Value, which owns Steam, was reported as saying, "We were recently notified that certain games on Steam may violate the rules and standards set forth by our payment processors and their related card networks and banks. As a result, we are retiring those games from being sold on the Steam Store."

 

Earlier, Steam had enacted a new, and vague, rule about banning "Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers."

 

An article in The Guardian stated the pressure by the credit card companies was due to pressure on them by "Collective Shout," a group seeking to ban adult content from Australian Internet access, saying the corporations were "facilitating and profiting from rape, incest and child sexual abuse game sales."

 

The result has been a backlash. On change.org, a petition was started protesting the censorship of the games, "not because they're illegal, but because they offend the personal values of executives or activist groups," going on to say, "These same payment processors allowed platforms like OnlyFans to operate with minimal oversight, despite multiple credible reports and lawsuits alleging the presence of real sexual abuse content involving real-life minors. That is a criminal failure of responsibility. Yet, when it comes to entirely fictional depictions, these same companies act swiftly — shutting down creators, restricting access, and acting as global censors." 

 

So far, the petition has gotten over a quarter million signatures. One who left a comment identified himself as a member of the LGBTQ community, "Banning sexual content never stops there, it always include non-sexual things. As such the fight to protect people’s right to sexual expression is vital for protecting my right to exist." 

 

Mastercard eventually responded, but denied making any pressure on Steam, "Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations."

 

To add to Steam's troubles, Paypal became unusable in most of the world as an option to pay for Steam purchases. It was reported in The Gamer only users in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, and countries which use the Euro can still do so. At first, Valve offered no reason as to why, but later would explain, "In this case, one of PayPal’s acquiring banks decided to stop processing any Steam transactions, which cut off PayPal on Steam for a number of currencies"

 

As of now, it is unclear when the delisted games will be restored, or when Paypal will be fully useable again. 

 

Sources: PC Gamer, The Guardian, The Gamer, Rock Paper Shotgun 

 

Bixyl Shutan 

 

Music Video Maker Furrex Banned From Second Life

 

Over the years, the Newser has posted on Saturdays a number of music videos done in Second Life. Some of them were from a resident known on Youtube as Furrex, or Furry Alex in the past. But it looks like there will be no more. A few days ago, he released a video stating he had been banned from the virtual world. It included a picture of the email from Linden Lab stating they had "terminated" his access "due to severe or repeated violations of the Second Life Terms of Service or Community Standards."

Furrex stated in the comments (in Russian) that it was no secret he had been doing photoshoots or videos for payment, "... this has allowed me to improve the content of the channel. ...  As far as I know, the platform rules do not prohibit doing this." He went on to state that he couldn't buy Linden dollars himself "due to restrictions in my country. Therefore, I used what seemed to me a legal method." Two days earlier, he had done a deal for a video for 30,000 Lindens "and within an hour I received an automatic ban."

 (click here if the video does not play)

 

He would state at first he thought he broke something, and went to technical support. It was then he was informed of the ban, and asked what was his relationship with the resident who had given him the Linden dollars, "but it seems to me that the support didn’t even read what I wrote about, they simply ignored my words." He filed another appeal, and was told "that I also used some programs. I have no idea what programs can be used for SecondLife. I apologize for using Fraps and Sony Vegas 19." Fraps is a video program, and Vegas 19 is a video editor.

I will probably never be unblocked again. Also, I still have no idea why I got banned. I am not going to somehow bypass the blocking, register new accounts or use my second empty account, because I have always been an honest user and remain one to this day. ... Unfortunately, I can’t somehow influence this situation, I had a lot of new content prepared for you, ideas, avatars, animations, while I’m writing this, my soul is just crying ... It was something.

I just want to say thank you to all of you, you are the best and most positive thing that has happened in my life. It has been my absolute pleasure to create content for you. Each of my videos is a piece of my soul, this is what I felt at that moment, these were my thoughts, my mood, what I wanted to show. ... Thank you for the gift of emotions and the opportunity to express yourself. Over these 9 years, the content has grown very much in terms of quality and my individual experience, it would seem that now there would be something unreal, but, alas, it happens. Life doesn't always happen the way we want.

As Linden Lab doesn't go into why it bans people with others, we have only Furrex's explanation. Beyond that, we can only speculate. Over the years, the Newser has written about a number of people who were banned. Some such as zFire Xue the creator of Redzone clearly deserved it. There were others in which while a ban was understandable there could have been a warning instead such as when one young businesswoman used her mother's credit card to get Linden dollars. And then there were times such as when one hacked resident instead of having her account returned found it was banned and making another to rejoin her friends found that banned as well. A few years ago, the owner of Rainworx was banned for having a claw machine at her place. But after word got around, Linden Lab did a rare reversal and lifted the ban.

In any case, it looks like this is the end for Furrex's videos. He has some more we haven't shown, notably a few new ones, but he will be making no more, at least not in Second Life. 

*Addition* I've heard some speculation that the reason for Furrex's ban was because of the sanctions on his country due to it's dictator's invasion of it's neighbor. It's also been speculated that the person who he did business with had gotten the money through less than legal means and somehow the music maker got caught up in it. What is known is that he crossed out "last video" in the Youtube's title and is continuing to make music videos. So it seems we'll continuing to hear more from Furrex.

 

Bixyl Shuftan  

Patch Linden Says More About Upcoming Gacha Ban

 

When Linden Lab announced they would be banning gacha machines in Second Life, there was quite an avalanche of responses on the forum thread created for the topic. Some were in support of the ban, some had mixed opinions, and many opposed it, sometimes strongly. Eventually Patch Linden saw the need to step up and offer a little further explanation.

I wanted to address a few themes I'm seeing so far.   

 One of the bigger one's is 'why'?   As we mentioned in the post, the regulatory climate around these sorts of selling mechanisms abroad have been under scrutiny for some time, as many have also already mentioned.  This includes the formation of some precedence already in place.  We did not make this decision without a lot of thought on the impact this has and sadly we know how burdensome this can be for many.  Through legal guidance, we are giving as much notice as we possibly can, but we also understand that it may not be enough is all cases.  While we will begin enforcement on September 1, we will not start this out with an aggressive approach.  Your account will not be at risk on a first offense basis.  Please don't take that as an opportunity to break the rules until you get caught, but we are committed to taking a proactive approach to any enforcement.

Next, is some of the comments on the mechanism or the gacha machines themselves.  It is the act of paying for something and in return the item/thing you receive back is based on chance.  The level of chance does not matter, or if you disclose it, including the ratios, percentages, etc, if the output is unknown (chance based in any way), that combination of mechanisms is what will be prohibited moving forward.

I have seen some interesting counter-points to how to handle the sales of the content themselves.  Of course any already purchased gachas will continue to be able to be re-sold by resellers so long as the sales mechanism doesn't use a chance based outcome to give you the item.  Limited quantity items is another that would be perfectly ok to do, so long as the item being represented for purchase is what you receive upon purchase.

Stay tuned for more information as it comes in.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Breaking News: Gachas To Be Banned in Second Life

 
A popular way of selling items in Second Life is coming to an end.

In the official blog today, Linden Lab announced that it will soon be banning sales through gacha machines in Second Life. The reason given was "Due to a changing regulatory climate."

Due to a changing regulatory climate, we’ve had to make the difficult decision to sunset a very popular sales mechanism for content in Second Life.  It’s widely known as "gacha", and is defined by a chance-based outcome as a result of a payment.  

We know that creators plan their content releases far in advance and will need to re-tool their products, so to mitigate the impact to those affected, we are giving a 30-day grace period, until midnight SLT on August 31.  After that time, selling content via gacha machines will no longer be permitted in Second Life.  Enforcement won’t start until September 1; after that date an Abuse Report for “Gaming Policy Violation” will be the preferred method of reporting this content to Linden Lab.  

We will continue to allow any sales where a payment is given for a known item, which means that items that had been purchased as “gacha” will be allowed to be re-sold as long as the buyer knows in advance the item and quantity they will receive. We will, of course, still allow fatpacks, and any other currently-allowed distribution mechanisms.

We did not make this decision lightly and we understand that it will impact creators as well as event organizers and certainly the shoppers! We look forward to fun creative ways of engagement that will come instead.  

Probably most familiar with shopping in Second Life knows about gachas. Based on Japanese gashapon games, they've become very popular in Second Life. The way it works is a machine gives one of a number of items listed at random, often with one or more listed as uncommon or rare. Events such as the Arcade and the Gacha Guild have sprung up selling items through only gacha machines. While highly popular, this method of shopping has also been criticized, notably by those calling it a form of gambling.

The ban does not apply to the reselling of gacha items, which has also gotten a following in Second Life, with groups for the selling and trading of them.

This move will no doubt have a big impact on Second Life, as well as be the target of much criticism (and praise from gacha's critics).

The Lab created a thread on the forums about the upcoming ban and invited discussion, and already people are responding, both opposing the ban, supporting it, and asking questions.

Stay tuned for further developments on this big move by the Lab.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Trump Twitter Ban Raises Questions About Roles and Responsibilities of Social Media

 

It's been about a week since US President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter. Trump has been a controversial figure in American politics, and his takedown from the social media platform was greeted with applause by his opponents and criticism by his supporters. But some, including people whom have been critical of Trump in the past, expressed concerns about him being removed. The head of Twitter himself felt while they did the right thing, the move could have repercussions in the future for free speech online.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

SLife And Times: Two Sides of Banned For Being Furry

You go about Second Life in a type of avatar that you're quite proud of and helps define you, at least in the virtual world. One day, you get an invitation to a place you haven't heard about. You have time, as well as some nice clothes to wear, so you figure you might as well give it a try. But once there, you're told to change who you are, or leave. This is the situation one of our readers faced. So how should one respond? While the Newser has written about the subject before, this time we got in touch with someone from the venue in question. As it turned out, the other side did express some sympathy, but naturally the two people had quite different viewpoints.

Read the article in People.

News in Brief

There has been quite a bit going on lately in Second Life and the Internet. Too much to go in-depth for all of them, and some have been around for a few days. So here's some of the stories, in brief.

Facebook Hacked: Last weekend, Facebook announced fifty million accounts had been exposed and vulnerable by a "security issue" due to a "vulnerability" in the social media app's code. Although Facebook's owner Mark Zuckerberg insisted the problem was fixed, others such as Virginia Senator Mark Warner called for increased regulation to protect the public's privacy and security.

BBC, Mashable, Mark Warner Twitter

Net Neutrality Lawsuit: The US Federal Government filed suit against California earlier this week over the state's Net Neutrality law. Despite 200 businesses and trade groups asking them not to do so, last December, the FCC voted to scrap Net Neutrality protections. Several states responded by setting up their own net neutrality protections, California's being among the toughest. In the lawsuit, the Justice Department charges California's actions are a violation of the Constitution. In response, one of the people who wrote California's protections charged that the state's law was written in response to the Federal Government abandoning it's obligation to help protect public access to the Internet.

Petition at Change.org , ars.technica, Washington Post , The Verge, 

Internet Throttling Has Begun:  Adding fuel to the fire behind the efforts of California and others trying to bring back Net Neutrality protections was a report written about last month that confirmed major Internet Service Providers were already throttling Internet traffic through Youtube, Netflix, and other places. Verizon is already in trouble for throttling the communications equipment used by California firefighters while they were working to stop wildfires.

The Humanist Report , Bloomberg , The Guardian

Leaving Behind One's Avatars In Their Will:  Blogger Ryan Schultz, who writes about Sansar and other virtual worlds, recently announced that he might have cancer. In response, he says he will be putting avatars he made in his will so they can still be used after he dies. While people interested can contact him inworld, he doesn't plan on leaving avatars that took a lot of time, sometimes money, to make to just anyone. (first update) (second update) (third update)

Hat Tip: Hamlet Au

Star Trek RP Worries: A virtual recreation of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation was ordered taken down by lawyers from CBS, prompting worries from New World Notes' Hamlet Au that they might go after Star Trek roleplays in Second Life soon as well, despite an agreement several years ago.

Eurogamer, New World Notes, 

Second Life Sims Still Growing: In late August, the Newser noted that five of the past seven weeks then had seen an increase in the number of private sims. According to Tyche Shepard in Sept 23, the increases have been continuing "an additional 45 regions since 31st Dec 2017 , a 0.3% growth and overall the Total Grid has regrown to the the size it was in April last year." But a week later, he stated five sims had closed, bringing the growth back down to 40 sims and 0.2% .

Source: Virtualverse  Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

Gossip/Slam Blog Owners Banned: New World Notes reported a couple weeks ago about the owners of a blog called "SL Secrets." The blog allowed anonymous users to make all kinds of claims about those they didn't like from copybotting to fat-shamming to catfishing to ageplay. From the point of view of content creators, it was a potential cause of lost revenue through charges of ripping off others in which the accuser would be completely unknown. The two co-owners were reported to have been banned by Linden Lab from Second Life citing violations for several sections, including 5.3 which Hamlet Au called "the nuclear option," stating, "We may terminate your Account if we determine in our discretion that such action is necessary or advisable to ... protect the rights or interests of Linden Lab, the Service community or any third party." More recently, the owners have decided to remake their blog to cover territory beyond Second Life, called "Virtual Secrets." The co-owners insist they're doing so to expand their coverage and not because of a lawsuit by Linden Lab to remove the "SL" part of their name.

Source: New World Notes

New Avatar Review Website. Some fans of furry avatars may remember "Second Life Avatar Review Files," or SLARF. It used to have a large database of reviews of furry avatars, but stopped updating in 2015, and is now accessible in the Internet Archive after being taken down from the net. Blau Rascon is now doing a new blog of avatar reviews: The "Second Life Avatar Index." Already, there are several reviews of recent furry and feral avatars.

Reader Submitted: Partial Furry Ban

A few days ago, Lia (Female Winslet) and I met up, her in a steampunkish tiny quardaped robot avatar. She explained she had just been asked to leave a club that didn't want her around because of her appearance. The venue wasn't in a historical RP area, but a regular club where curiously some nonhuman avatars such as furries were okay, but not four-footed avatars. She would later send me an article explaining the situation from her point of view, saying this was for the Newser.

Read Lia's reader submission in Extra.

Update on Banned Artist Kake Broek

By Bixyl Shuftan

Banning Kake Broek hasn't quite made him go away, but it has made him angry.

About a month ago, the Newser reported on satirical artist Kake Broek (known as Adolph Chaplin on Flickr) whom had announced on May 31 he had been banned in Second Life. The Lindens basically stated he had been impersonating a Linden. Kake stated that he wasn't, saying the closest thing he did to that was have a tag "Not a Linden" over his head.

A few weeks ago, Kake was interviewed by Blog Veridical. There, he talked some about his art, "Maybe just cause I’m an intellectual so that’s a part of my own nature to have a critical look on everything. And I like caricatures, cartoons, comics, satirical drawings and so. That’s simply the combination of these two parts." When the conversation went to his banning, he clearly put the blame of his banning on one particular worker of Linden Lab.

Kake would also contact me.. Though he has yet to give me the okay to use any of our conversation for an article, he did point out a few examples of reactions to his acts on his Flickr page. Some were seen as amusing jokes. But other times his actions were seen as trollish, such as when he was banned from the SL10B for wearing a cartoon dialouge balloon with a certain phrase, and once at Social Island when he went about without pants but a long shirt that made a moderator wonder if he was being indecent.

Kake has continued to make posts on his Fickr page (not all pictures safe for work). Time hasn't mellowed him though. His more recent posts showed anger, notably "3rd Life: Their Death, My Imagination." and another aimed at the one he blames for his banning. While Kake is known for his satire, the poke-in-the-ribs humor of other works of his is absent. Just anger.

"Provocation is a way of putting reality back on its feet," Kake quoted a man when commenting on the article I did about his banning. How the Lab will react to these provocations remains to be seen.

Bixyl Shuftan

Satirical Aritst Kake Broek Banned From Second Life

Art can sometimes be strange, weird, even disturbing. But at what point should an artist be punished for his or her work? Late last month, satirical artist Kake Broek announced he had been permanently banned by Linden Lab. This sparked protests, and questions about just why the satirist had been expelled from the virtual world.

Read more in Extra.

Reader Submitted: My Banning From Faery Crossing, And Beyond

When people think of someone being banned from a sim, they usually think of a troublemaker. But what if the person had made numerous attempts to reconcile differences? In a reader submission sent to the Newser, MajikVixen (Bluevioletvixen Lorefield) describes her situation with the Faerie Crossing community, of which despite her efforts to smooth out differences she ended up banned from the area. Here, MajikVixen presents her side of the story. But the most important thing, she feels, is that there can be a life after banning for a resident of Second Life.

Read MajikVixen's story in Extra.

Businesswoman Banned From Second Life Without Clear Explanation

As Furry Fashion gets ready for Halloween, a dark shadow has fallen over their celebratory mood. Not from their themed exhibits, but from one of the team, Luna Pawpad, expelled from Second Life by Linden Lab. No reason was given other than an undefined "violation of the terms of service." Talking to her, she says the cause might have been her Mother giving her money from her credit card in the past, but she thought that matter was cleared up with the Lab months ago. She has appealed to Linden Lab, but they have refused to listen to her. Friends of hers have come forward, saying the ban was not deserved, and the message the Lab is sending is not to behave, but that thousands of hours and dollars invested here can be gone in an instant.

Read more in People.

SLife and Times: Banned For Looking Odd

If you've been in Second Life for a while, you've seen avatars of all kinds. Some make an effort to stand out from the crowd. Others try to fit in. And then, there are those odd-looking avatars that look like the person didn't know how to design a look well. They're often newbies, though some are older. While often, these avatars are simply new, it's also the look favored by some griefers and trolls. When one such avatar found himself banned from a club before he took a few steps inside, he blogged about it. The result was a debate on just how should such avatars be treated.

Read more in People.

News and Commentary: "Adult Content Won't Be Allowed" in Sansar

In a Sansar chat on Reddit, Peter Gray (known in Second Life as Peter Linden) brought up the issue of whether of not adult content will be allowed on Sansar. It won't be, at least not for some time after it opens.

Adult content won't be allowed at the opening of Sansar's creator beta this summer. Ultimately, we want Sansar to be an open platform that enables creators to make all kinds of experiences, but early on we also want to be careful that a single genre of content doesn't come to define the platform and potentially limit its appeal to other creators.

Gray's exact words were "at the opening of Sansar's creator beta this summer." But it's a safe bet that the Lab will keep this policy for at least a few years.

It's an issue that's been brought up by the Newser before, as well as New World Notes. With many longtime Second Life residents expressing skepticism about the upcoming virtual world, Linden Lab is taking the opportunity to correct what it sees as "mistakes" in it's development of Second Life. The lack of rules and restrictions on what could be made allowed for a great deal of creativity. Unfortunately, it also led to griefers harassing people with such adult content, notably the infamous "flying penis attack" when virtual real estate mogul Anshe Chung was being interviewed. While these incidents didn't stop companies and people with big pockets from coming to Second Life at the beginning, there's no real argument that it gave some pause.

As the residents of places that are adult-themed will tell you, the freedom to make adult content can be a very good thing, at least when everyone follows the rules. Besides allowing consenting adults an outlet for their more hormonal sides, it allows real-life couples a chance to express intimacy when separated by long distances or when they want to try something they're nervous of on the other side of the computer. While there have been attempts at virtual worlds aimed purely at adult activity, namely "Red Light Center," they have done poorly. One man who told me who's been to both saying it utterly pales compared to the options available in Second Life. And of course there's the Libertarian concept of "let the individual decide" rather than decisions made from above by higher-ups who may or may not understand the concerns of "little people."

But companies tend to be wary of controversy and "bad press" that might go viral and define their product in ways they fear. And with many young adults in colleges and universities demanding "safe spaces," perhaps Linden Lab is getting the impression the current generation of new computer users isn't as tolerant of adult material as the one that came to Second Life in it's early days. And of course, there are the griefers, the anonymity of the Internet encouraging a few jerks to harass and bully others, sexual-themed harassment being a favorite tool of some of them.

In a sense, it brings up an old issue in both real life and virtual life and the Internet. Do you try to protect people from the damage a single deranged or malicious individual can do by installing a great deal of rules and restrictions many will find annoying aggrivating, some finding them smothering to the point they cannot be themselves. Or or do you allow the public a great deal of freedom with only a few rules and allow individuals to better express themselves in works and speech, with the fact a few wicked-minded individuals will take advantage of this freedom for their own ill ends?

In 2009, Linden Lab began an adult continent policy that established an adult-themed continent, Zindra, established an "adult" rating for explicit content outside people's private homes, and residents had to adult-verify themselves with real-life identification such as a drivers license to be allowed access to adult-themed areas. Many residents reacted with worry and fear, seeing this as the beginning of Linden Lab "ghettoizing" adult content to one corner of Second Life or perhaps eliminating it altogether. And the Lab never did add to these policies and the adult verification was eventually relaxed.

One resident, "Zebragrrl," had this to say further on the thread (a few sentences trimmed):

As for the experience, I can only say that experiencing it made it clear to me why it's still not an open public beta yet. There's still a lot of user interaction missing. An example I can give, is of a strange island I visited. The lighting was beautiful, the rendering was beautiful, but all I could do is walk around. I couldn't interact with anything. I could get on a elevator that was constantly moving up and down, but I had to time my exit precisely to avoid getting squished as the elevator took off back upwards again. The UI is pretty. The whole experience really is very pretty.. but all I could do was walk around. And I do mean that. No running, no flying, no driving.... just walking. ...

Was it beautiful? yes. Was it fun? not particularly. Kind of like walking around in GTA V, with all the NPCs turned off. And I think this is where Sansar and SL may be drastically different for a lot of people. This was a VERY curated experience. The whole environment was like a museum, or a singular creation of 3d artwork. I felt like a guest, or a viewer, of someone's creation... not like a participant, not like someone bringing something unique to the experience for others. 
 
In SL, our world has been built up kind of from scratch, first using rudimentary building blocks, and later with more and more detailled builds, but it's the users, the avatars, that are the real attraction in SL. Seeing each other's individual forms of expression, seeing the cool new things people built, or bought.

Sansar seems to be going the other way.. focusing itself as an engine for artistically crafted 3D VR experiences.. rather than as a meeting place for avatars. I'm not saying that the latter won't come in time.. just that for the moment, it's a little more like visiting the Louvre by yourself, rather than meeting your friends at the pub. More Myst than World of Warcraft.

Is there a place and a purpose for a VR engine like this? I'm sure there is. Is it something that artists can monetize to help cover their RL bills? We'll have to see.

Linden Lab's latest move is moving Sansar further away from the early perception that it would be "Second Life 2.0," and towards something quite different from Linden Lab's existing virtual world. While people can build content, it has to be done using software tools rather than through inworld prims. I've been hearing it's areas can't be connected like Second Life sims often are into continents and larger islands, but each is an isolated place onto itself that can only be portaled into. Ideal use will require high end home computers and be hard to use or unavailable to people with laptops and older machines. An article in Koatu magazine is saying, "Users may pay a small subscription fee for access." And now adult content, perhaps adult language, will not be allowed.

Most middle and working class people like going to theme parks and museums on occasion. But eventually they have to return back to their neighborhoods where they actually do things. This is probably how most Second Life residents will see Sansar, a great place to visit, but not necessarily one to make their virtual home in. Sansar may become Linden Lab's Disneyland, but for most Second Life residents, the grid they've known will continue to be their virtual home.

Hat Tip: Hamlet Au 

Bixyl Shuftan

Furry Discrimination

Second Life allows one to appear more or less what they want to look like, either able to make the avatar ourselves or more commonly purchasing it from a builder. One would think as long as one kept their privates under clothing, all would be well. But that's not necessarily the case. There are a few roleplay sims that insist on visitors resembling the people of the period, which don't get many complaints from nonhumans as humans get the boot too if they don't change outfits. But what really gets people irritated are the handful of places that kick out furries and other nonhuman avatars for no good reason. Grease Coakes had the misfortune to run into one recently.

Read Grease's story in Extra.

News and Commentary: Update on JP Laszlo of the Trump Organization

It was a few weeks ago in which JP Laszlo and several other members of the Trump Organization, the most well-known of the groups in Second Life promoting US Presidential candidate Donald Trump, were banned from Second Life by Linden Lab. The Lab also closed the group's sim, "The Wall." The group had a short but controversial history in Second Life. Members of the group erected a "Trump Wall" next to the Sanders HQ, towering over it, and they were blamed for a number of griefing incidents there and other places on the Grid.

Since the banning, little has been heard from JP Laszlo that the Newser is aware of. On the group's Facebook page, they mentioned there's been no response to their ban appeal. On his Twitter, JP changed his name there to "JPizzers" and posted a picture showing a girl in a Russian uniform with the words "Make Woodbury Great Again," a reference to an area in Second Life that had a reputation for harboring griefers which was eventually erased by Linden Lab and many of it's group banned.

 As part of the Trump Organization, JP insisted they were not griefers, but called what they truly did pranks which they felt the Sanders group overreacted to, saying the incidents of outright griefing were not his doing. But JP's adoption of the Woodbury name compromises his claim and provides ammunition to those who blamed Trump-themed griefing attacks on him. JP's critics included Hamlet Au of New World Notes, whom felt their sim was taken down due to the huge black eagle design visible on the map resembled a Nazi symbol.

Hamlet Au would go on to call the Trump Organization an example of Second Life imitating real life, comparing them to the Presidential campaign they claimed they supported, "in this case, they're actually less troll-ish than their real life counterparts -- who are literally drawing on images and memes from trolls in the online realm in order to troll the entire world." But unlike trolls in Second Life, which are close to universally disliked by the residents, Donald Trump enjoys the support of much of the US electorate, seen by many working-class Americans as their champion. This week at the Republican Party's convention in Cleveland, he officially became their nominee for the office of President of the United States,giving a long acceptance speech. While this may be the last we hear of JP Laszlo, Trump will dominate the headlines of real life news for the next few months, possibly for the next four to eight years.

 Sources: chronicle.com, New World Notes, BBC News  

Bixyl Shuftan

Hillary Clinton Group Claims Trump Organization Leader Banned

It's not yet confirmed, but it may be the beginning of the end for Second Life's most well known group of supporters of Donald Trump.

On the evening of June 30, a member of the Hillary Clinton 2016 group, who requested to remain anonymous, stated that there was a group notice that JP Laszlo, the leader of the Trump Organization and a few other Trump groups in Second Life had been banned by Linden Lab and their sim, "The Wall," had been confiscated.

J.P. (jp.laszlo), leader of the biggest Trump group in Second Life got banned by the Lab and their main sim was seized.  J.P. and other associates no longer appear in people search or in any affiliated Trump groups.

J.P.'s group has been well known to troll SL residents (including us) with their political propaganda and harassment tactics.  I guess Linden Labs had enough of it. :-D

The notice was given by Priscilla Cox (Prissycox), the head of Hillary Clinton 2016.

A search for JP Laszlo both using inworld Search and on secondlife.com proved fruitless. The sim was still online when I checked. While it was blocked to visitors, it had been closed to them under JP as well.

Of exactly why JP and others of the Trump Organization were banned, the informer doubted it was for anything done with the Clinton group, "they had done some minor griefing to the Hillary HQ nothing major really.  So not sure what precipitated LLs big move last night." She had heard of a griefing incident at Bay City not far from where they had a building. But when I later talked to Marianne McCann, she had strong doubts that the Trump Organization was involved or that even if this were it would get a permanent ban in response as the incident in question was minor. However in the past, JP and his Trump Organization were accused of taking part in the outright griefing of Bernie Sanders supporters, in addition to the pranks they admitted pulling, such as the Trump Wall. Hamlet Au of New World Notes basically called for Linden Lab to ban members of the group for violations of Second Life's community standards. JP denied his group was griefing, "We are not trolls, just political activists with a sense of humor and fun." But others begged to differ,

More information may come in over the next few days, but with JP's account removed, it's doubtful he will be coming back to Second Life. While no doubt there will continue to be trolls harassing people in Trump's name, it seems the largest group of Trump supporters has just been swatted down.

* * * * *

A visit to Lionheart Ahadi revealed that the Clinton HQ was no longer at the block it and the old Trump HQ had been on. It's owner Candace Larganta had earlier hinted it would be up until after the July 4rth weekend. But there was another Clinton building at
Lionheart Pumbaa (205, 210, 28). The Trump building by the old Trump Organization that had been across the street from it was gone to, though one biker bar did put up a Trump sign.

In real life, the primaries are over, and both Clinton and Trump are trying to unify their parties behind them. But a number of Republicans are reluctant to support Trump, and many "Berners" say they will not vote for Clinton reguardless of whether or not she gets Sansers' endorsement. In both Second Life and real life, it's been an interesting election.

*Addition*  Contacting JP Lazslo through his Facebook group "Donald Trump Still Thinks Your Waifu is S***," he confirmed that Linden Lab had indeed banned him and others in his group. He also made a short but to the point post on his Twitter account.

Bixyl Shuftan

Responding to Readers: Why Is Second Life Banned on Twitch

One of our readers, followed by a few others, posed a question on Facebook recently: "Why is Second Life Banned From Twitch?" For those who don't know, Twitch is a streaming service aimed at gamers. But not everything can be streamed on there, as one New World Notes reader commented in a letter she shared in which Twitch temporarily banned her for streaming Second Life. Taking a look at the Kotaku article cited by our reader, and the list given by Twitch itself, Second Life finds itself among some rather odd company with games such as "Battle Raper" and "The Guy Game," which involve lots of sex, violence, or both.

So why is Second Life on this list? Sadly, it has to do with the griefers and trolls.

Most every experienced Second Life user is familiar with griefers harassing people and trying to shock people with adult content, such as the obscene particle attacks that yours truly has witnessed at a few sandboxes. Unfortunately, not content just to troll people, sometimes the griefers post their dirty deeds on youtube. Plus there have been a few instances of live recording being interrupted by such griefings, the most known example being the "flying penis barrage" that happened when CNET tried to interview Anshe Chung, the noted Second Life Land baroness. So despite everything else that had, and has, been going on here from charities, to Dungeons and Dragons style roleplaying, to education classes, what Second Life is best known for to many who have yet to set foot inside and know about the virtual world only through what they've heard now and then through social media is that people use the place for "strange and weird porn."

Twitch would not respond when New World Notes tried to contact them, though Hamlet Au commented that they had a former employee of Linden Lab among their staff shot down arguments that Twitch was operating solely through bias, saying despite places being designated as G-rated, violent and pornographic content can potentially appear anytime and anywhere, "no matter what the region rating." But critics of the ban who are familiar with MMO survival gaming can always point to Rust, in which players start out nude, male characters with their genitalia exposed, and the game is not banned from Twitch.

Fortunately there are other options for streaming. Ciaran Laval pointed out one named "Hitbox," which did respond to questions about allowing content from Second Life, "We are more than happy to allow broadcasters to stream Second Life on hitbox granted they are responsible about the content being presented to the viewers. We don’t tolerate our broadcasters to present mature, sexual content that isn’t the intention of the game. ... we are okay with broadcasters streaming Second Life as long as it’s done responsibly."

But for the use of the more popular Twitch, the issue seems not up for discussion, which is a shame. Just as there's more to Amsterdam than it's red light district, there's a lot more to Second Life than just the shenanigans of a handful of trolls and griefers.

Sources: Twitch, Kotaku, New World Notes, Warcry, Ciaran Laval,  

Bixyl Shuftan

Insilico Offline, Owner Skills Hak Banned

Some sad news for science-fiction roleplayers in Second Life. The popular Insilico region, mentioned in media such as the Drax Files and written about by the Newser last year, has been taken offline. The reason, it's owner and primary builder, Skills Hak, has been banned from the Grid by Linden Lab.

Skills, whom has been involved in controversies such as being among those Linden Lab asked to resign from the Emerald Viewer team just before it collapsed in 2010, has stated she feels this will probably be the end of her activities in Second Life, at least under her current identity.

I had a good run. 8 years on this account and the timing of my ban couldn’t have been better. In fact my boyfriend was really happy to hear about my final ban since i am spending too much time at the computer and i am going to be a mommy soon. It was a wild ride, thanks for everything.

Some good news for Skills, Linden Lab is compensating her for the ban.

... i’ve been emailing back and forth with Linden Lab for a bit and i just agreed to accept a one time payment that will recoup my losses (although, technically i didn’t lose any money). It was more than i expected, they showed good faith and i will leave them alone now, promise.

In New World Notes, where the story was also reported on, several readers reminded about another community that had been offlined, Steelhead, due to it's owner being suspended for completely unknown reasons despite not being involved in any controversy, and paying more in tier than Insilico.

As for Insilico, their blog stated negotiations were in progress for a transfer of ownership to keep the region of several years alive. But the last post made suggests they might not proceed and the area could be allowed to pass away. Regardless whether one considers Skills Hak a hero or villain, the Grid is facing the loss of another prized region and community.

Bixyl Shuftan