Linden Lab Reported To Be Investigating Charges Made Against Employees In Article

 

 In at least a few circles of Second Life's residents, there's been some discussion of an article written by a "Robert Bartos" with some serious allegations against a number of Lindens and Moles. Yesterday in New World Notes, Hamlet Au stated that "two highly credible sources" told him that the matter is now being investigated, "both the accusations themselves and whether they have defamatory intent. That's all that can be reported at the moment."

Two readers sent the editor a link to the article. But the more it was read, the more reason there was for skepticism. There wasn't much of any proof to the allegations. The author himself was unknown. 

Activision/Blizzard Sued By California, Charges of Discrimination and Sexual Harassment

 

Activision/Blizzard, the company behind some of the world's most popular games, is the target of a lawsuit filed by California. Filed by the state's Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the company is charged with having a "frat boy" culture in which not only are women paid less than men while working similar jobs and promoted less often, but are "subjected to constant sexual harassment."

The allegations are not limited to simple jokes, but include "unwanted sexual advances," being groped at "cube crawls" in which men drink plenty of alcohol then "crawl" their way around cubicles where women work, and more. Activision/Blizzard is described as not investigating the numerous complaints made by women employees, and those who complained were sometimes retaliated against, including being subject to layoffs. The lawsuit also describes, "In a particularly tragic example, a female employee committed suicide during a business trip with a male" who brought sex toys with him.

Activision/Blizzard has denied the allegations, a spokesman issued a statement saying the filing contains "distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard's past." He would go on to say, "Over the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, we've made significant changes to address company culture and reflect more diversity within our leadership teams." Blizzard's President sent an email to employees saying he would be meeting with a number of them about the "extremely troubling" charges. Activision's President stated "there is zero tolerance for this sort of behavior." But over twenty Blizzard employees have spoken out against this response, including one lead game designer, "The statements made by [Activision Blizzard] do not represent us. We believe women, and we will continue to strive to do better and hold others accountable. Actions speak louder than words."

Players themselves have responded with actions such as in-game protests in support of the women involved. It is not yet known how many are canceling subscriptions in response to news of the lawsuit.

Sources: PC Gamer, Yahoo News, Aboutlaw.com

Bixyl Shuftan
 

 

Linden Lab To Change Fees For Buying Linden Dollars, Price Increases For Some

    

For those whom buy Linden dollars in larger amounts, you will soon be paying more. A few days ago, Linden Lab announced that starting Thursday April 22, it will change the way it charges people for buying it's virtual currency for Second Life. Instead of a flat fee for any amount, they'll be charging a percentage with the old fee as the minimum.

Effective April 22, the current flat buy fee rate of $1.49 will be replaced by a 7.5% buy fee (capped at $9.99) applied to the total amount of Linden Dollars purchased in each transaction. The $1.49 minimum still applies. 

So what does this mean? If you buy Linden dollars in amounts of $20 or less, nothing really changes. But buying more than that, you'll be paying more. For instance, someone buying $30 USD worth of Lindens, assuming an exchange rate of 250 Linden dollars for one US dollar, will be charged 7.5% of $30 extra, or $2.25, and so pay a total of $32.25 instead of $31.49. This is an increase of 76 cents. For $50 USD, the fee is $3.75, and paying $53.75, an increase of $2.26.

Linden Lab would explain it was trying to manage having to deal with expenses, such as "Investing in our infrastructure to further improve speed and cadence of update" and "Developing new marketing initiatives and entertainment partnerships to fuel growth,"and wanted to "manage these costs in a way that minimizes the overall burden on our Residents." While it was going ahead and taking some loss, the Lab stated they needed a way to make up part of the expenses.

The fee for buying Lindens last went up in June 2018, from 99 cents. It was the second increase in less than a year, in Novemeber 2017 going up from 60 cents to 99 cents, and in June 2017 going up from 40 cents to 60 cents. Part of the reasons for these increases were the reductions in sim tier charged to residents.

The fee for selling Linden dollars, which is 3.5%, remains unchanged. 

A thread was created in the Second Life forums about the topic, which as of the writing of this article is sixteen pages long. Checking the first few, a few residents complained, "LL are digging their own grave by raising the fee." But most seemed more open to explanations and reserved in their criticism, "It is all a matter of take it or leave it in the end. If you are not satisfied you take your business elsewhere. That is the normal procedure everywhere."
 
Source: Linden blog

Bixyl Shuftan
   

Town Hall About Tilia Today

At 1PM today, Linden Lab will be holding a Town Hall event to answer questions on the new Tilia Service. For those who can't get into the area, click on video above, or the link on SL4Live's Youtube channel.

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Town%20Hall%20Island1/251/5/26/


While the Lab has tried to calm the confusion about the new service for Second Life residents, such as with the Town Hall meeting and a Q and A thread in the forums, this hasn't been the end of it. Activity in the "Tilia Takes Over" thread picked up following allegations Linden Lab was deleting some posts. While there were posters wondering if the Lab was simply deleting redundant questions, others felt this smelled like censorship. It would appear that whatever happens at today's event, it will not be the end of resident concerns.

Hat Tip to Oldesoul Eldemar for the Youtube link

Net Neutrality Under Threat: Court Ruling Opens Possibility of Paying More or Slower Internet

By Bixyl Shuftan

For years, the prinicple of "Net Neutrality," that Internet Service Providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equaly has governed how people go about online. People can download all information at an equal rate of speed instead of being offered different tiers of speed for different fees. But recently, there was a court decision that means trouble for supporters of this policy.

In 2010, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) enacted a set of rules based on the Net Neutrality idea. But on Tuesday January 14, a US Federal appeals court ruled that the FCC had no legal authority to enforce them (link). The court stated while the government can oversee crucial services like telephones and electric power, the Internet isn't a crucial service. The FCC is expected to appeal the ruling.

The ruling opens the way for Internet Service providers to start charging customers more of they want to continue to download and surf at the speed they've been using. For those who don't pay more, the company could slow down their service. Consumers could also pay more as media sites like Netflix are charged more for using lots of bandwith, and they react by passing their costs down to their customers. Gamers could find themselves tacked with a "bandwith charge."

So why not switch to an Internet Service provider that isn't charging more? For many consumers in the US, that isn't an option. Unlike say Britian where people have a choice between a dozen or so Internet service providers, many places in the United States operate under a monopoly by a single ISP.

Financial talk show host Clark Howard compared the situation to the toll roads in early 19th Century America. People complained loudly over the fees charged, and eventually the tolls were lifted. He felt it would be much the same if Internet fees were to go up as a result of the ruling. Chatting with Valkyre McGill in Second Life, whom in the past wrote for Acceler8or magazine, felt any "nickel and diming to death" from excessive charges by Internet Service Providers would be met with new encryption, and other technologies that would allow users to get around "the current centralized web model" and make the ISPs less relevant than they used to be.

Sources: CNN, CNN Money, BBC, Clark Howard, Forbes,  Acceler8tor,

Bixyl Shuftan