This is the fourth in a series of interviews that will be conducted with new residents, in order to gauge the effectiveness of the orientation process, and to gauge disparities between the preconceptions and the realities of Second Life. The questions may be tailored slightly for each interview; responses may be edited for purposes of clarity.
I caught up with Rhia at a moment when she had had just enough time to find some nice freebies to wear, while still pretty much in her Second Life infancy. Like many new residents, she was keen to attend classes to enhance her Second Life experience, and was therefore checking out the information board at the Infohub in Isabel.
This is the third in a series of largely demographic interviews that will be conducted with established residents, to find out more about them and their involvement with Second Life, and to contrast the differences between their views and experiences and those of the newer residents. The questions may be tailored slightly for each interview; responses may be edited for purposes of clarity.
I met up with Tony (a resident of Holland in the physical world) as he lounged in front of his store Dublab in Ganesha. He sees the store as his way to break from the norm of Second Life stores; his aim is to provide customers with "highest quality, lowest prices." Certainly, from the quick look I took inside Dublab, his shoes look superb.
Having gotten a ton of messages today asking me what, exactly, a community registration portal is, here's the deal. Various non-Linden groups in Second Life have their own orientation facilities. Many of these are already using the third-party-registration interface to bring in customers/communities.
The signup page now features a choice of places. The first step looks like this (at least for some of you. Not everyone is seeing this): Those sites listed are Azure Islands, Mainland Brasil (in Portuguese), The L Word, Big Pond, NMC Campus, and Anshe Chung's Dreamlands (in Chinese). These are intended to completely replace the orientation island/help island/welcome area experience that new users would otherwise experience.
This is cited as an experimental trial to to study orientation processes and to examine the effect on resident retention rates. Since retention metrics go out to 90 days, I don't expect we'll have the results quickly. With Linden Lab very tight-lipped about retention metrics, it's uncertain as to whether we'll find out the results at all.
"The Show with zefrank" today talks about a list of related things. The Renaissance, Leonardo DaVinci, beaver testicles, unicorns, Second Life, Anshe Chung, virtual real estate and (inevitably) penises, in his own distinctive style.
Zefrank has a unique way of putting all these things together into one deliciously incoherent, yet logical whole. Might not be safe for work.
(The yellow plastic duck logo is ironic, yet entirely coincidental)
As posted previously, Anshe Chung had all videos of her being pelted with prim penises taken off of YouTube, citing DMCA issues. However, apparently some legal experts have spoken with them, as Guntram Graef, Anshe's RL husband, has now retracted the complaint.
"I would like to make it clear that I regret filing DMCA claims in this case, because the real issue at hand wasn't at all about copyright," Graef said. "I didn't realize that some people would misunderstand this as a censorship attempt, which it definitely was not." Interestingly, the video hasn't returned, as YouTube now says it was removed for " ... a Terms of Service violation"
Can anyone pinpoint what, in the TOS, this might violate?
Posted Jan 6th 2007 11:30PM by Tateru Nino Filed under: News
Anshe Chung Studios Limited (known more commonly as ACS) maintains the private continent called "Dreamland". Dreamland consists of at least 150 sims existing as themed communities, positioned northwest of the Second Life mainland continents.
According to a tip, confirmed through one of the ACS support staff, the whole continent is going to be moving -- likely next week -- to make space for further expansion. It's not hard to see why, there's not a lot of wiggle room left up there. In theory, the relocation of sims like that should be a relatively straightforward job, but we're talking about a lot of them. There's plenty of room for error.
Love her or hate her (or scratch your head and try to figure out where you heard the name), Anshe Chung's business seems to show no signs of slowing.
Most people who know me, know that I'm a fairly light-hearted person who doesn't take life, or Second Life, all that seriously. That's not to say I'm not passionate about my friends, family, and work here in Second Life. I have a great deal of love for SL and get a tremendous amount of satisfaction in what I do here. But core to my personality is the need to keep things in perspective. I cringe every time I'm told that I am "famous." Also, I have only a limited amount of energy to commit to forum debates before I get giddy at the absurdity.
But what must one do if they look at Second Life with all the life-and-death seriousness of Russian Roulette? How can you take the experience of sitting at home on your comfy computer chair in your fuzzy bunny slippers while looking at the cartoonish images on your computer screen and express the dire, apocalyptic consequences when virtual events don't go the way you want them to?
For those who aren't familiar with the concept, the Wikipedia is a web-based encylopedia which is compiled from contributions by the amateur users of the encylopedia. fans say that despite this, the quality and accuracy of the information is similar to conventional encylopedias compiled by experts. It is arguable whether wanting to include the good, the bad and the ugly in a biography indicates partiality or simply a wish for the truth to be published, but for clarity's sake it is easier to portray the groups concerned as pro-Anshe and anti-Anshe.
In the case of the Anshe Chung article, there has been a struggle for supremacy between the pro-Anshe and anti-Anshe contributors which has been going on for some time. Anti-Anshe contributors wish to include her background as an SL escort and sex teacher, which is a matter of record, and the allegations of unscrupulous dealings over land; the pro-Anshe camp are just as determined to expunge those things.
A little earlier than reported, Warren Ellis begins his subversion of the otherwise respectable news source Reuters with his first "Second Life Sketches". In this inaugural post, he covers the Anshe Chung media cover-up, with the help of tech writer and Boing Boing blogger Xeni Jardin.
In a wise and prescient move, Reuters precedes Ellis's article with "The following is an independent opinion column, and is not connected with Reuters News. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by Reuters."
Yes, Reuters, yes they are. Let's see how long this lasts.
Hot on the heels of the Kokomo we-don't-really-want-to-ban-photography pseudo-photography ban, comes the news the Anshe Chung has tried to force various websites to take down pictures of her being griefed during an interview. She DOES want to ban photography if it features anything she's made or owns, it seems. Here at Second Life insider we are nothing if not topical.
I am indebted to Spin Martin for the lead on the Reuters article which outlines the story, and then to various gleeful residents who note that Anshe and her husband have been foolish enough to mess with Boing Boing in the realm of IP and copyrights issues.
It seems that Anshe has decided that she owns not only the IP for the things that she produces, but can also control the use of photographs and film which feature those items. If Anshe thinks that she can censor pictures taken in her sims, I think she is about to find out how dirty it can get.
The Second Life Heraldreports that love-her-or-hate-her icon Anshe Chung is poised to announce that she has made a million dollars in SL since her business's inception roughly two and a half years ago.
Perhaps Saturday's announcement will make clear whether or not her current bank balance is actually at a million dollars or (more likely) that it's an aggregated total over the two and a half years. [SNARK ALERT] Wow, this is a huge relief for me; Anshe is finally big enough for me to interview for SLI.
At this point, is it even possible for anyone to unseat her as reigning queen of virtual estate? Has she just gotten too big to take on? Is it even perceived as necessary? Drop your comments!
I wasn't able to make the Town Hall, so now I'm reading the transcript, available on the Official Linden Blog here. So far, one section stands out:
"The idea of pricing differently for 'corporate' users doesn't make sense for several reasons. First, it is discrimination, which we don't think makes sense - everyone should pay the same for things regardless of who they are. Second, it will be impossible to establish a guideline for who is 'corporate'... would Anshe Chung pay the rate, for example? How about Nephilaine Protagonist, the clothing designer? What is the difference between a nightclub on an island run by Jenna Fairplay versus the Hard Rock Cafe? I think that the best solution is they should all pay the same price."
Well, Philip, let me give you a hint. When a company's employees all have the same last name as the organization they work for, they're corporate. Witness Rivers Run Red, as just one example. The main difference here is that a corporation has a budget to use to promote their services, which they do in RL, unlike Anshe or Nephilaine. The big deal is that these corporations come into SL specifically to make money from it, whereas Anshe, Nephilaine, Jenna, etc. began in SL, and learned to make money organically. I see no problem with charging a corporation slightly more for an island, given that any publicity they generate will likely bring more eyes to SL by sheer dint of the fact that they operate in RL as well as SL.
I'll have more comments as I read farther along in the transcript. As always, we welcome your comments!
[UPDATE: Changed 'Millions of Us' to 'Rivers Run Red' -- I've been told that the members of Millions of Us were all residents before they formed the company, making my using them as an example a poor choice. Mea culpa, and thanks, Adri!]
Kermitt Quirk is the by-now famous inventor of Tringo, the heralded game-within-a-game now ported to the Nintendo DS. Australian news source The Age recently interviewed Kermitt and grabbed a little video of both his land and a short introduction to Tringo itself.
Now, I've not played Tringo, because frankly I don't need another method of frittering away my time; I'm the addictive type, and I know it. Kermitt, however, is another example of 'residents gone good', to be lumped in with the likes of Anshe Chung and Our Aimee -- that is to say, residents with an impact so great that they've become the RL's touchstone to SL. While the videos are short, Kermitt comes across as a fairly sober-minded individual, which is probably a good thing, considering all the overblown hype the mainstream media usually generates around SL. Go check it out; links to the videos are at the bottom of the article.
As luck would have it, I met and welcomed Anshe on her first day in SL, as shown in the picture, when I had a castle in Darkwood/Dore, and she came over with the Brits in SL group. Is she a Brit? Nooooo, and I think it is interesting that my first contact with her involved a little vagueness about nationality. She had once lived in the UK, and that was her reason for joining the Brits in SL group, although she was living in Germany of Chinese origin.
There is a little vagueness in everything to do with Anshe, a difficulty in pinning down even the most basic of the facts. How old is she? Well...she says she was born in 1973, but her passport makes her a year older. Which she says was a mistake in China. See what I mean?
I was astonished that having taken her first steps in SL Anshe was within a couple of weeks offering sex lessons as classes on the events list - classes that she was charging for. At that time I didn't realise that she already had extensive experience of online worlds, and had indulged in similar activities elsewhere -- I was just astonished at the speed with which she had progressed. In almost every story about Anshe a little vagueness about the detail. It was said that she obtained land in one of the sims for her activities, and later it was claimed in the forums that having been given the land for free when she had nothing, she refused to sell it back to the donor at market price when she had made enough money to move on.
As the grid is down for an update, I thought I would return to my list of "things that have been bugging me and I wish to blog about". It's a long list. I love SL and I love being in SL, but not even its most fervent fan would assert that there is nothing wrong with it.
It is obvious that if a company like SL has people who are spending considerably amounts of money on their product, they might be a bit nicer to them. This has always seemed to be the explanation when one business girl Anshe Chung.Com is involved. But it seems that it doesn't apply to all landowners equally. Some of them are just as frustrated and seemingly powerless as the rest of us basic accounters.
When private islands were first introduced, people were told that there was no way to split the islands up: they always had to be owned by one person, the landowner. People like my friend Hiro Queso bought islands, parcelled them up, and started lively rental businesses, where they mostly charged people little more than the equivalent or the tier fee they would be paying for the same size of land. He was exhorted by Linden Lab not to charge an upfront fee for the land, and didn't. He had fair rental rules, applied to all, and is widely respected as a great landlord.
This is the fourth in a series of interviews that will be conducted with new residents, in order to gauge the effectiveness of the orientation process, and to gauge disparities between the preconceptions and the realities of Second Life. The questions may be tailored slightly for each interview; responses may be edited for purposes of clarity.
This is the third in 
Zefrank has a unique way of putting all these things together into one deliciously incoherent, yet logical whole. Might not be safe for work.
Anshe Chung Studios Limited (known more commonly as ACS) maintains the private continent called "Dreamland". Dreamland consists of at least 150 sims existing as themed communities, positioned northwest of the Second Life mainland continents.
As luck would have it, I met and welcomed Anshe on her first day in SL, as shown in the picture, when I had a castle in Darkwood/Dore, and she came over with the Brits in SL group. Is she a Brit? Nooooo, and I think it is interesting that my first contact with her involved a little vagueness about nationality. She had once lived in the UK, and that was her reason for joining the Brits in SL group, although she was living in Germany of Chinese origin. 
As the grid is down for an update, I thought I would return to my list of "things that have been bugging me and I wish to blog about". It's a long list. I love SL and I love being in SL, but not even its most fervent fan would assert that there is nothing wrong with it.
