Interview With Wesley Regenbogen

By Deaflegacy

Wesley Regenbogen is one of the four reporters currently writing for the Second Life Newser. I got a chance to ask Wesley to tell me all about his writing career. He and I met at the Cobras Motorcycle Club's area. "I started my virtual journalism career in a virtual world called 'Cybertown'," said Wesley.  "I saw that they were looking for writers, so I applied for a job as a virtual journalist at the CVN ( Cybertown Virtual News ). The editor asked me to send in a sample article and first I thought 'here goes nothing.'  But eventually the editor replied back to me that the article was good enough for publication, so he asked me if I was interested in joining his team of writers for CVN.  I agreed to join them, and then I wrote more and more articles about what was happening in Cybertown. My articles became better and better and the editor promoted me to CVN Deputy and assigned me with other tasks within CVN."

But then the ownership of Cybertown went to new owners and they decided to become a paid membership site only, so Wesley decided to leave the virtual world of Cybertown and also the virtual newspaper Wesley was writing for.  Wesley wandered around the web and found a few other virtual worlds that were somewhat similar, but they didn't have the same "feeling" as Wesley had in Cybertown.com.

Finally, Wesley's luck changed, "In November 2006, I joined Second Life after I saw a video about it on the web. I decided to join in and after looking around for virtual newspapers around Second Life, I came across SL Newspaper and contacted the owner ( James T Juno ). He asked me to come for an interview and he decided that I could write for them and so I did for a while."

But Wesley would soon take a break, "I took a hiatus from Second Life, because I lost interest in Second Life at the time.  A few years later, I returned, but found out that SL Newspaper didn't exist anymore, so I tried to find similar virtual newspapers in Second Life, but I found none at the time."

Wesley would look again later, "In July 2014 I came back to Second Life and found out about SL Newser and I send in a sample article and to my surprise it was accepted and I could join in the team of writers. Ever since, I'm writing for SL Newser and hope I can write for them as long as I can."

And what was Wesley doing in a motorcycle club?  He explained, "Well, let me start at the beginning. I wanted to start a awareness campaign for 'Be The Match' and I was contacted by Mightbe Shelter here in Second Life and we talked about 'Be The Match' and stuff. Then she told me about the Cobras MC and that they have done the campaign for Be The Match in the past. So, she was very helpful in trying to explain it and gave me advice and stuff that they made before." said Wesley. "Then she told me about Cobras MC and that they wanted to help me and support me for Be The Match.  So that's how I got to know about Cobras MC."

Wesley went on to say that he just joined the rides and their events, "Yes, it's a friendly bunch of people and I like the rides and events they are holding here." After a while, he started as a  Prospect with them.  After a month, Wesley was "patched in" on Sunday, June 4, 2017.

I asked him if he would continue his work with Be The Match while being with Cobras.  "Yes, I hope to start the Be The Match campaign soon, just need to figure out how to do it and stuff. I hope to launch the campaign soon. I have been trying to get someone from the organization into Second Life, but it seems not to be easy." said Wesley.

I asked Wesley if he is planning on staying in the club for a long time.  "Yes, I'm planning on staying forever, I guess," said Wesley. He went on to say that people can join them at the rides if they want as well as to participate in the events of Cobras MC.

I asked Wesley if he consider his decision to join Cobras MC to be the best move.  Wesley  said, "Of course, as I mentioned earlier, they are a friendly bunch of people and I haven't regretted joining the Cobras MC."

Indeed, I hope that Wesley Regenbogen would write for the SL Newser as long as he can.  Wesley is a remarkable reporter.