August 2014 – Page 6 – Ciaran Laval

August 2, 2014

Drax Files World Makers Episode 21 – Editorial Clarity, Love Is In The Air

Episode 21 of The Drax Files : World Makers features an interview with Editorial Clarity, the founder and CEO of Love To Decorate (AKA LTD), a publication about home and garden products in Second Life. This episode is, at its heart a love story. Wait wait wait, wasn’t that a theme from my previous blog post? *Checks Notes* … ah it applies to this one too! Love is in the air. everywhere I look around, Love is in the air, every sight and every sound.

The episode opens with Edi opening a real physical 200 page edition of LTD magazine. The items in this magazine are products made for Second Life. The magazine is funded by advertising and the way it works is that they decorate a home from scratch to show people what can be done.

Edi, who seems to have a rather slight West Midland and London tinge to his accent, explains how he’s not a creator but he does create spaces. I feel that creation in Second Life isn’t just the domain of those who create products, I see land and spaces as being part of the creation process too, so I disagree with Edi about him not being a creator.

Edi talks about how Second Life helped not only his confidence but his love life too. Love is in the air, in the whisper of the trees, Love is in the air, in the thunder of the seas. He met his partner Rico in Second Life back in 2010, at a time when he had not yet, in his own words, come out of the closet to his family. They met in real life a year later and have been going strong ever since.

The episode features some wonderful footage of their inworld marriage, a spectacular looking Alice In Wonderland themed affair that also doubled as a fashion show for Second Life designers.

Continue reading “Drax Files World Makers Episode 21 – Editorial Clarity, Love Is In The Air”

August 2, 2014

On Reflection, Business Insider Article On Second Life Contains Some Fair Criticism

Karyne Levy, Senior West Coast Tech Editor fir Business Insider, has penned an article about Second Life : Second Life Has Devolved Into A Post-Apocalyptic Virtual World, And The Weirdest Thing Is How Many People Still Use It. The article starts badly with the headine and on first reading doesn’t get any better when you read the body.

Now the easy thing to do here would be to don full Second Life fanboi suit and rip the article to shreds, but upon reflection there are positives and fair criticism within the article. However some of the article remains bemusing, for example Karyne says :

When I open the events tab, I see listings ranging from night clubs to pornographic classified ads and little else. Yes, avatars can get naked in the game, with special nude skins available for purchase.

Now unless something has changed, new users need to opt in to be able to see and visit adult content, so I’m a tad bemused why someone would opt in to being able to access adult content and then comment on the fact that they are seeing adult content. Obviously if things have changed and by default those who vouch that they are over 18 are automatically able to see adult content then this would be a fair point to raise.

However this article is at its heart a love story. The person who shows Karyne around Second Life met and married her husband inside and later outside, Second Life. The article is as much about the story of Karyne’s guide as it is about Second Life itself, it’s a personal article in many ways. Karyne’s guide points out that many of her favourite Second Life locations are now closed, which is something many Second Life users can emphasise with, places do come and go.

The article also delves into the issue of the new user experience. Although Karyne isn’t technically a new user, having first tried Second Life many years ago for a couple of days, she does go through the new user experience with all its flaws.

Continue reading “On Reflection, Business Insider Article On Second Life Contains Some Fair Criticism”

August 1, 2014

The Drax Files Radio Hour Show 29 – Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before

Draxtor Despres is on holiday, a very busy holiday by the looks of it. However he’s been involved in a documentary for SPIEGEL TV regarding Second Life that will air later in the year, Madpea Games and Frau Yardley may be in it too.

As well as this, Draxtor has added show 30 of The Drax Files Radio Hour and a new Drax Files World Makers : Editorial Clarity. I’ll hopefully get to both of them during the next week! However I’m going to talk about last week’s Drax Files Radio Hour – Show 29 : terms, terms, terms AGAIN [rerun]. This is a repeat …. ok ok international audience, I’ll call it a bloody rerun, this is a rerun of part of show #13: terms, terms, terms…., it’s a very relevant part, it’s the interview with Richard A Goldberg who has a long history of experience when it comes to TOS for content creators. Richard is also a creator for Madpea games.

This is the show that Ebbe Altberg and the people drawing up Linden Lab’s controversial and still extremely disappointing TOS, should listen to, this way they may get a far better understanding of just why the TOS remains a major disappointment.

Richard starts off in positive fashion : “The old terms of service was a very reasonable document for content creators.” This is very true, the old terms of service gave Linden Lab the rights to run and promote the Second Life service and that was pretty much it. In all reality, that’s all they should really need.

Richard points out that the terms Linden Lab have unveiled are not unique to Linden Lab, he points out that these terms are more and more common and are beneficial to companies like Linden Lab. However they are not good for freelance creators. Richard does not believe that Linden Lab want to sell his content, and this is something I also agree with. I do not believe that Linden Lab want to sell anyone’s content. However, like Richard, I also agree that in the future if Linden Lab is sold, the new company may decide it’s a great opportunity to sell that content. This may be a far fetched scenario, but the new TOS allows for that scenario and that’s why some of us remain unhappy.

I still believe that part of the problem here is that Linden Lab want a one size fits all TOS and that by claiming as many rights as they can, it reduces the prospect of problems for Linden Lab. However this is a somewhat lazy approach and is unfriendly to content creators.

Continue reading “The Drax Files Radio Hour Show 29 – Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before”

August 1, 2014

Linden Lab Tax And Account Requirements Still Proving Taxing

An Image Should Be Here — Update tax Information

Back in November 2013 I blogged that Linden Lab should be asking new Marketplace merchants to fill in a W8-BEN or W9 form as part of the registration process. At that time Linden Lab had announced that new marketplace merchants would require a status of payment info on file.

My thinking behind this was based on the fact that this was a requirement to sell on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Therefore Linden Lab would be killing two birds with one stone, they would be gathering required information that may later be required for tax and account purposes and asking for information to try and discourage people from selling dodgy content on the marketplace.

I have been reminded of these issues this evening because security orb creator Psyke Phaeton has announced : HSOrb now Open Source. Psyke Phaeton acct terminated Aug 28th by LL. Psyke is not American and does not want to fill in the required documentation. The orb will now be open sourced and released with a Creative Commons 4.0 licence. The Orb is available now on the SL Marketplace.

Now of course, were new marketplace merchants required to fill in a W8-BEN, that would make no difference to Psyke’s position. However it may well have meant more people were familiar with the processes and more people were in a position to offer advice and assistance to those who are receiving these requests.

Continue reading “Linden Lab Tax And Account Requirements Still Proving Taxing”