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 

 

More on Mal Burns' Passing

It's been a couple days since word began going around about Mal Burns, who has been writing and doing videos about Second Life and other virtual worlds, suddenly passing away. The cause of death is not yet widely known, though the first few people who found out kept quiet about it for a short time until his family in England were contacted. 

 

It is with a heavy heart that I am sharing the news that our dearest Mal Burns has passed away this week.

 

He has been a cherished friend, trusted colleague, and a vibrant voice in our virtual and real life community for over 20 years.

 

We met through a shared passion for virtual worlds, and that connection blossomed into decades of collaboration, camaraderie, and friendship. 

 

Mal was an avid reporter, an insightful storyteller, and a tireless advocate for truth in all its digital forms. His work helped shape how many experienced and understood online spaces — always with integrity, always with flair.

 

For two decades, we shared laughter, many conversations, and a passion for exploring both the fun and serious sides of life — especially in the evolving landscapes of virtual worlds. He was more than just a show host or fellow journalist; he was a pioneer, a storyteller, and a sharp observer of the digital age.

He had that rare gift — the ability to make you laugh with his wonderful humour even when the subject was complex or challenging. 

 

He brought so many people together, sparked meaningful dialogue, and gave voice to stories that might have otherwise gone unheard. His dedication to journalism and his unrelenting curiosity helped shape the way many of us see and understand virtual communities.

 

His absence leaves a space that words can hardly fill. But the legacy he leaves behind — in friendships, in stories, and in the memories we carry — will continue to inspire.

 

Rest well, my wonderful Grumpy Old Avatar, my Metaverse TV colleague, My Metameets buddy and my dear funny friend. Thank you for the years, the wisdom, the laughter, and the journey.

 

There were numerous comments on Facebook and some in Discord expressing sadness at his passing, some in a new Facebook group "Friends of Mal."

 

"I am broken hearted with the loss of such a wonderful and charming man. He was so much fun to work with, funny and patient. I very much enjoyed working with him and talking with him and joining him on Inworld Review. My condolences to his family and close friends may God grant you peace and comfort in this time of loss and sadness. Blessings and much love to all." 

 

"Incredibly sad to hear you have passed away. I hope you are at peace . We never know what to say truly in times like this but rest well. Condolences to those that knew you so much more." 

 

"I am devastated. I loved and respected Mal, and I will miss his friendship and spending time with him, as we all will. ... I am honored to have photographed him and had the opportunity to know him. It's a lot, and there are many more, as I enjoyed taking photos of him. I couldn't narrow it down any further, so here they are. Rest in Peace, Dear Friend. Until we meet again." 

 

"I just learned of Mal’s passing and it truly feels like the light in SL has gotten a little bit dimmer. He was a constant source of inspiration during the many years I was part of large events. He was a thoughtful and encouraging man who was a shining force all his own. Rest well, Sir, you have earned it."

 

"I am sorry, Mal Burns passed away. A voice unmistakable among all, a considerable and inexhaustible flow of words. A burst of laughter, frank and infectious. An endearing personality, mixing curiosity, humor and sharing. The OpenSim community will miss him so much; he put so much energy and investment into it; it's a great loss for all of us. My condolences to all his loved ones, as well as to the HIE team." 

 

"This breaks my heart, he was such a wonderful and charming personality, intelligent and funny and always interested in what people are doing to make Opensim an enjoyable and educational place to be. He will be greatly missed and forever loved. My sincerest condolences to his family and loved ones."

 

"I will miss his infectious wit and candor. A long standing fixture in the opensim and a few other communities, he was always a gentleman and diplomat. Mal's voice and presence set a good example of how we could engage and inspire each other, to create freely and try our best, to be collaborative, and share openly. Of course he will be fondly remembered and sorely missed. Safe paths, my friend." 

 

"Here in Craft-World we are deeply saddened to hear of the unexpected passing of Mal Burns, a cherished figure for all the OpenSimulator community and the voice behind the long-running YouTube talk show Inworld Review.Mal was a passionate advocate for the open metaverse. Through Inworld Review, he brought together voices from across OpenSim - creators, developers, dreamers - giving space to dialogue, inspiration, and that friendship spirit that makes OpenSim a special place. His commitment to documenting and discussing the evolution of virtual worlds made him a cornerstone of our shared digital culture....His presence, insight, and dedication will be sorely missed. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and to all who knew him and collaborated with him. The entire Craft-World team, and the broader OpenSim community, mourn his loss. Farewell, Mal. Thank you for everything you gave us. The metaverse is quieter without you."

 

Mal had been the main host of the Youtube broadcast "Inworld Review." July 13 would be the first show without him, and the people did it in his honor.

 

Rest in Peace

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Breaking News: Mal Burns (Malburns Writer) Has Reportedly Died

Some sad news for those for fans of Mal Burns, known as Malburns Writer in Second Life. Word has been going around today that he has suddenly passed away.

 

Mal was not known to be in ill health, and last posted on his Facebook in June, his last Youtube being on June 22. As of the writing of this article, his Discord icon shows while inactive, his computer remains on and connected to the Internet. 

 

Mal wrote about Second Life much in the early 2010s, since then moving on to virtual worlds in general, but still occasionally touching on SL. 

 

Stay tuned for more information.

 

Hat tip: Oldesoul Fairelander 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Exploring Creativity and Scientific Inquiry Through the Metaverse: Our Journey in the Student Building Challenge

 

Among those at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference was Marcel Mosswood. She came back from her hiatus from the Newser to report on one of the events there, in which she guided three groups of students on three different projects. So what did they accomplish?

 

Read Marcel's article in People.

 

Pookymedia Developing "Mambo Motel: The Metaverse Musical"

 

Some readers will remember Pookymedia for it's work on the "Time Travellers" movie and the "Fluffee on a Meshion" videos made in Second Life, as well as "The 1st Question" game show. They've continued to do some work over the years. Recently, they released the trailer for their latest project: "Manbo Motel."

"Mambo Motel is the story of a Prince who wishes to escape the intense scrutiny of the media and longs to find a place where he can just be... himself. He discovers anonymity in Mambo Motel, a Metaverse where all log in equally.

"But like the Prince, no one behind the screen is who they seem to be. Exchanging physical reality for a virtual one, he wins and fails at both fortune and love, finding himself ultimately by losing himself in this new world. The theme of the story is that while you have a human skin of chance, as an avatar you can express who you really are in your avatar skin of choice.

"Experience the world's first Musical set in the Metaverse and see what happens in our new world where anyone can be anything they want to be! Actors perform in front of digitally produced sets which take us right into the virtual environment of Mambo Motel.

"Those onstage are living their virtual lives unlimited by their physical boundaries, and only we the audience see who the people really are behind the Mambo Motel guests on smaller LED screens to the far right and left of the stage. The Show Experience features an amazingly tuneful 16 original song soundtrack reflecting life online in the 21st Century." 

Addition: Pooky Amsterdam would have more to say on the Pookymedia blog.
 

WSJ Video: "Remember Second Life? It’s Now Taking On Big Tech’s Metaverse"

 

(Click here if the video does not play)

From the Wall Street Journal on Feb 3, "Second Life – yes, the virtual world from the ‘00s – is staging a comeback to challenge tech giants like Meta that are throwing billions into the metaverse. Its creator explains to WSJ how he plans to refresh the platform – no VR headsets required."
 

Reader Submission: Moving About the Metaverse

 

Longtime readers will likely remember DrFran Babcock whom wrote for the Newser several years ago. Since then, she's gone on to other virtual worlds, first High Fidelity, then others. Recently, she sent us an article about the state of three other virtual worlds. These are Sansar, which used to be owned by Linden Lab, Horizons, which is owned by Facebook, and Vircadia. So how are these virtual worlds doing? DrFran had some observations.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.
 

Real-Life News Referencing Second Life in Commenting About Facebook's Metaverse Plans

 
In the Golden Age of Second Life over ten years ago, the virtual world was frequently mentioned in mainstream real-life news. These days, not so much. So it was interesting when in the past few weeks it was mentioned not once but twice.

In BBC News, Joe Tindy wrote an article "Lessons From Second Life," in which he described himself as a user of the virtual world a decade ago, then forgot about it. He was surprised to find out not only was it still around, but had a dedicated userbase. So he checked it out once more. He ran across someone, who didn't like the idea of Facebook getting into virtual worlds, "The entry of a slightly oversized and outsized player into the space seems to signal to people that they are not the owners of it, that someone else is going to be setting the rules and kind of running the show and they will just be the consumers."

In a Time Magazine article by Andrew Chow, that appeared in Yahoo news, "6 Lessons on the Future of the Metaverse From the Creator of Second Life," he compared Facebook's move to the predictions around 2006-2007 that Second Life would be the future of the Internet, which didn't turn out that way. He also felt there were lessons to be learned. (1) "People will stay in virtual worlds, even without an explicit mission." Or as Philip Rosedale was quoted, "the reason why tens of millions of people tried it out was the promise of the ability to be creative and expressive in a realistic, lifelike domain."(2) "People will spend money on digital goods—but very few creators will actually make a living." Tom Boellstorff, an anthropologist whom wrote a book after spending two years in Second Life, compared it to Youtube in which most who used it just browsed, and many of those who do create content, "sort of informally make stuff that they don’t sell to make money."

(3) "Ease of use and technological challenges remain a huge roadblock for mass adoption." Rosedale was quoted, "people don’t want to be a cartoon avatar while wearing a VR headset ... It’s really stressful for people to do that, and most of them won’t.” (4) "Virtual worlds might always struggle to appeal to certain demographics." Rosdale commented that those whom were young, healthy, and had active social lives in free urban environments were going to find virtual worlds less appealing than those with little social contact, disabled, and lived in places they felt they couldn't speak their minds. (5) "Identity is tricky, and so is rule-making." Second Life has had a largely hands-off approach to one's identity in the virtual world, compared to Facebook which encourages people to use their real-life identities. (6) "The metaverse doesn’t need to be ubiquitous. In fact, it shouldn’t be." Boellstorff commented that the hype going on in Second Life's golden age was part of Silicon Valley's business model of attracting big money by presenting oneself as so big, they would change the world as we know it. Still, that Second Life is not just existing but has a healthy community shows there's still a good demand for virtual worlds, “Allowing somebody to be really expressive and creative in an environment that’s lifelike is an incredibly powerful offering. I think that’s why we all tried Second Life,” Rosedale was quoted, “And I think that we will eventually get there—but it’s still a long road because the difficulty of it is considerable.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/6-lessons-future-metaverse-creator-102405073.html

Sources: BBC News, Yahoo

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Of Facebook The Corporation Changing It's Name

 
On October 28, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook the corporation, announced it was changing it's name to "Meta."

"We're now looking at and reporting on our business as two different segments, one for our family of apps, and one for our work on future platforms. And as part of this, it is time for us to adopt a new company brand to encompass everything that we do, to reflect who we are and what we hope to build."

Besides having several social medias under it, including What'sApp, Instagram, and Facebook, Zuckerberg has plans to build the "Metaverse." This would be a huge virtual world, “We believe the metaverse will be the successor of the mobile internet. We’ll be able to feel present – like we’re right there with people no matter how far apart we actually are.”

The move comes after the company has faced a string of bad publicity from it's platforms going down for hours twice in one week to accusations it ignored findings that it's products were not good for the mental health of teenagers and that it wasn't doing enough to stop the spread of disinformation. So naturally there are criticisms that the move is to distract people from the incidents. There were also charges that the company planed to expand to the point of hiring tens of thousands of workers while ignoring it's problems "just goes to show how out of touch Facebook is with real people.” And of course came concerns that Facebook had it's sights on new territory to monopolize and become even more powerful.

Besides criticism, the move was also mocked on social media. "I meta girl in high school," joked one man. In Israel there were snickers as the term "meta" means "dead" in Hebrew.  One Reuters writer reminded that a few years ago Google's corporation changed it's name to Alphabet, but people still call both the search engine and it's company Google.

Finally there was one detail pointed out by Daniel Voyager. The term "Second Life" was trending on Twitter searches "Probably for the first time." He reasoned that Zuckerberg's move was drawing comparisons to the virtual world that was already around, and expressed hope that the extra attention would result in a few more people becoming residents.

It's hard to say how successful Facebook's effort into virtual reality will be. Two years ago, they announced their upcoming virtual world "Horizons," and the platform has yet to fully open. It was also joked about as the avatars were legless, people going about as floating in the air with nothing showing below the waist.

Sources, BBC, CNN, Reuters, ZDnet, The Guardian, Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Mooogle As A Search Engine For The Metaverse

It's been a busy time in real life for Marcel Mosswood. But she's back this week with an article. When it comes to looking up things on the Internet about virtual worlds, it can be tricky. While one can always add "Second Life" to the search, suppose what you're looking for is in another virtual world? Marcel recently found out about a way to search called "Mooogle," a search engine for websites related to content in Second Life, Opensim, and other virtual worlds.

Read the story in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

SL Video: "Second Life, Living The Virtual World Dream | The 2020 Comeback"

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By Luca on April 2, "Second Life never went away, and now people, and the world are primed and ready to see how it truly is. Live the dream of the metaverse."

Press Release: "The Future of the Metaverse: Blueprints for the Evolution of Virtual Worlds"

CRL-VWIG Meeting for Sunday, September 18, 2016

Noon - 2pm SLT - joint session with ALA Virtual Communities in Libraries MIG:
CVL Auditorium: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bradley%20University/26/140/24

Speaker:  William Gerard Burns III, Vice-Chair IEEE Virtual World Standards Group

Program:  The Future of the Metaverse: Blueprints for the Evolution of Virtual Worlds

This presentation will provide an overview of the history of virtual worlds and phases of development. Defining the "Metaverse" and a glimpse into the future of virtual worlds will include interoperability and other key elements of design.

Join librarians, educators, and anyone interested in virtual worlds and the future of immersive learning.  The session is jointly sponsored with the ALA Virtual Communities in Libraries

Member Initiative Group.

Interview With Tuna Oddfellow and Shava Suntzu

Bixyl Shuftan traveled to Inworldz this week to interview Tuna Oddfellow and Shava Suntzu about their move there following the closing of their show the "Odd Ball" in Second Life. They talked about why they made the decision to move their performance, and why other residents should take heed about the content creator property rights in Second Life issue.

Read the article in People.

Press Release: Intergrid Metaverse Art Biennial

Intergrid Metaverse Art Biennial (IMAB)
Grand Opening September 6, 2012 at 1.30pm PDT/SLT
Simultaneously in France, Hungary and Second Life

The Intergrid Metaverse Art Biennial (IMAB) is a six-month long
metaverse art festival. It is a historic first, celebrating the new
art of the evolving Metaverse.

In the 21st century virtual reality is home to new forms of artistic
collaboration in which national and art form boundaries disappear. New
art forms, as yet unnamed, emerge, as well as new expressions of the
visual arts, music, dance, poetry and drama.

The festival spans different grids - InWorldz, OSGrid, Craft,
Metropolis and other Open Sim grids, and Second Life.

It opens on 6th September in honour of the 100th anniversary of the
birth of architect Nicolas Schöffer, the father of Cybernetic Art. The
CHANGE will launch on that day in Benvolio, Second Life, in his
honour.

For more information contact: in Second Life Josina Burgess or
Velazques Bonetto; in InWorldz Alizarin Goldflake; in OSGrid Thirza
Ember, in Metropolis Zak Spot, in Craft Tao Quan.

A Musical Sunday

Almost overlooked by the events with Linden Labs a few days before and after, there were two music events on Sunday February 26th. One was an ABBA tribute concert. The other was a music expo at Areo Pines Park. Both events made for a musical Sunday that day.

Read more in Extra.